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himself; and is by the chiefs of the Greeks forbidden burial. These things agree and hang together not as they were done, but as seeming to be done, which made the action whole, entire, and absolute.

CLXXI.

The conclusion concerning the whole, and the parts. -Which are episodes.-Ajax and Hector.-Homer. For the whole, as it consisteth of parts; so without all the parts it is not the whole; and to make it absolute, is required not only the parts, but such parts as are true. For a part of the whole was true; which if you take away, you either change the whole, or it is not the whole. For if it be such a part, as being present or absent, nothing concerns the whole, it cannot be called a part of the whole: and such are the episodes, of which hereafter. For the present here is one example; the single combat of Ajax with Hector, as it is at large described in Homer, nothing belongs to this Ajax of Sophocles.

You admire no poems, but such as run like a brewer's cart upon the stones, hobbling :

Et, quæ per salebras, altaque saxa cadunt.
Accius et quidquid Pacuviusque vomunt,
Attonitusque legis terraaï, frugiferaï.

℗ Martial, lib. xi. epig. 91.

THE ENGLISH GRAMMAR,

MADE BY BEN JONSON,

FOR THE BENEFIT OF

ALL STRANGERS,

OUT OF HIS OBSERVATION OF THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE, NOW SPOKEN

AND IN USE.

Consuetudo, certissima loquendi magistra, utendumque planè sermone, ut nummo, cui publica forma est. Quinctil.

Non obstant he disciplinæ per illas euntibus sed circa illas hærentibus. Quinctil.

Major adhuc restat labor, sed sanè sit cum veniâ, si gratiâ carebit: boni enim artificis partes sunt, quam paucissima possit omittere. Scalig. lib. i. c. 25.

Neque enim optimi artificis est, omnia persequi.
Expedire grammatico, etiam, si quædam nesciat.

Gallenus.

Quinctil.

THE ENGLISH GRAMMAR.] The Grammar which Jonson had prepared for the press was destroyed in the conflagration of his study. What we have here therefore, are rather the materials for a grammar than a perfect work.

Jonson had formed an extensive collection of Grammars, which appears to have been both curious and valuable. Howell writes to him in 1629 that, "according to his desire, he had, with some difficulty, procured Dr. Davies's Welsh Grammar, to add to those many which he already had." Letters, Sec. v. 26; and sir Francis Kynaston, in speaking of the old infinitives tellen, &c., says "Such words ought rather to be esteemed as elegancies, since it appears by a most ancient Grammar written in the Saxon tongue and character, which I once saw in the hands of my most learned and celebrated friend, master Ben Jonson, that the English tongue in Chaucer's time," &c. Much more might be produced to the same effect; but enough is given to shew (what indeed, was already sufficiently apparent) that our author never trifled with the public, nor attempted to handle any subject, of which he had not made himself a complete and absolute master.

The Grammar was first printed in the fol. 1640, three years after the author's death. The title was drawn up by the editors of that volume.

THE PREFACE.

HE profit of Grammar is great to strangers, who are to live in communion and commerce with us, and it is honourable to

ourselves for by it we communicate all our labours, studies, profits, without an interpreter. We free our language from the opinion of rudeness and barbarism, wherewith it is mistaken to be diseased: we shew the copy of it, and matchableness with other tongues; we ripen the wits of our own children and youth sooner by it, and advance their knowledge.

Confusion of language, a curse. Experience breedeth art: lack of experience, chance.

Experience, observation, sense, induction, are the four triers of arts. It is ridiculous to teach any thing for undoubted truth, that sense and experience can confute. So Zeno disputing of Quies, was confuted by Diogenes, rising up and walking.

In grammar, not so much the invention, as the disposition is to be commended: yet we must remember, that the most excellent creatures are not ever born perfect; to leave bears, and whelps, and other failings of nature.

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Jul. Cæsar Scaliger. de caus. Ling. Lat. Grammatici unus finis est rectè loqui. Neque necesse habet scribere. Accidit enim scriptura voci, neque aliter scribere debemus, quàm loquamur.

Ramus in definit. pag. 30. Grammatica est ars benè loquendi.

b Veteres, ut Varro, Cicero, Quinctilianus, Etymologiam in notatione vocum statuêre.

Dictionis natura prior est, posterior orationis. Ex usu veterum Latinorum, Vox, pro dictione scriptâ accipitur: quoniam vox esse possit. Est articulata, quæ scripto excipi, atque exprimi valeat: inarticulata, quæ non. Articulata vox dicitur, quâ genus humanum utitur distinctìm, à cæteris animalibus, quæ muta vocantur: non, quòd sonum non edant; sed quia soni eorum nullis exprimantur propriè literarum notis.

d

Smithus de rectâ, et emend. L. Latin. script.

a Syllaba est elementum sub accentu. Scalig. lib. 2. • Litera est pars dictionis indivisibilis. Nam quamquam sunt literæ quædam duplices, una tamen tantùm litera est, sibi quæque sonum unum certum servans. Scalig.

Et Smithus, ibid. Litera pars minima vocis articulatæ.

" Natura literæ tribus modis intelligitur; nomine, quo pronunciatur; potestate, quâ valet; figurâ, quâ scribitur. At potestas est sonus ille, quo pronunciari, quem etiam figura debet imitari; ut his Prosodiam Orthographia sequatur. Asper.

& Prosodia autem, et Orthographia partes non sunt; sed, ut sanguis, et spiritus per corpus universum fusæ. Scal. ut suprà. Ramus, pag. 31.

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