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The power of speech is a faculty peculiar to man, and was bestowed
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on him by his beneficent Creator for the greatest and most excellent
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uses; but alas! how often do we pervert it to the worst of purposes?
In the foregoing sentence the Words _the_, _a_, are Articles; _power_,
_speech_, _faculty_, _man_, _creator_, _uses_, _purposes_, are
Substantives; _him_, _his_, _we_, _it_, are Pronouns; _peculiar_,
_beneficent_, _greatest_, _excellent_, _worst_, are Adjectives; _is_,
_was_, _bestowed_, _do_, _pervert_, are Verbs; _most_, _how_, _often_,
are Adverbs; _of_, _to_, _on_, _by_, _for_, are Prepositions; _and_,
_but_, are Conjunctions; and _alas_ is an Interjection.
The Substantives _power_, _speech_, _faculty_, and the rest, are General,
or Common, Names of things; whereof there are many sorts belonging to
the same kind, or many individuals belonging to the same sort: as there
are many sorts of power, many sorts of speech, many sorts of faculty,
many individuals of that sort of animal called man; and so on. These
general or common names are here applied in a more or less extensive
signification, according as they are used without either, or with the
one, or with the other, of the two Articles _a_ and _the_. The words
_speech_, _man_, being accompanied with no article, are taken in their
largest extent, and signify all of the kind or sort, all sorts of speech,
and all men. The word _faculty_, with the article _a_ before it, is
used in a more confined signification, for some one out of many of that
kind; for it is here implied, that there are other faculties peculiar
to man beside speech. The words _power_, _creator_, _uses_, _purposes_,
with the article _the_ before them, (for _his_ Creator is the same as
_the_ Creator _of him_) are used in the most confined signification for
the things here mentioned and ascertained: _the power_ is not any one
indeterminate power out of many sorts, but that particular sort of power
here specified, namely, the power of speech; _the creator_ is the One
great Creator of man and of all things; _the uses_, and _the purposes_,
are particular uses and purposes; the former are explained to be those
in particular, that are the greatest and most excellent; such for
instance, as the glory of God, and the common benefit of mankind; the
latter, to be the worst, as lying, slandering, blaspheming, and the like.
The Pronouns _him_, _his_, _we_, _it_, stand instead of some of the
nouns, or substantives, going before them; as _him_ supplies the place
of _man_; _his_ of _man’s_; _we_ of _men_ (implied in the general name
_man_, including all men, of which number is the speaker;) _it_ of _the
power_, before mentioned. If instead of these pronouns the nouns for
which they stand had been used, the sense would have been the same, but
the frequent repetition of the same words would have been disagreeable
and tedious: as, The power of speech peculiar to _man_, bestowed on
_man_, by _man’s_ Creator, &c.
The Adjectives _peculiar_, _beneficent_, _greatest_, _excellent_,
_worst_, are added to their several substantives to denote the character
and quality of each.
The Verbs _is_, _was bestowed_, _do pervert_, signify severally, being,
suffering, and doing. By the first it is implied, that there is such a
thing as the power of speech, and it is affirmed to be of such a kind;
namely, a faculty peculiar to man: by the second it is said to have been
acted upon, or to have suffered, or to have had something done to it;
namely, to have been bestowed on man: by the last, we are said to act
upon it, or to do something to it; namely, to pervert it.
The Adverbs _most_, _often_, are added to the adjective _excellent_,
and to the verb _pervert_, to shew the circumstance belonging to them;
namely, that of the highest degree to the former, and that of frequency
to the latter: concerning the degree of which frequency also a question
is made by the adverb _how_, added to the adverb _often_.
The Prepositions _of_, _to_, _on_, _by_, _for_, placed before the
substantives and pronouns _speech_, _man_, _him_, &_c._ connect them with
other words, substantives, adjectives, and verbs, as _power_, _peculiar_,
_bestowed_, &_c._ and shew the relation which they have to those words;
as the relation of subject, object, agent, end; _for_ denoting the end,
_by_ the agent, _on_, the object; _to_ and _of_ denote possession, or the
belonging of one thing to another.
The Conjunctions _and_, and _but_, connect the three parts of the
sentence together; the first more closely both with regard to the
sentence and the sense; the second connecting the parts of the sentence,
tho’ less strictly, and at the same time expressing an opposition in the
sense.
The Interjection _alas!_ expresses the concern and regret of the speaker;
and though thrown in with propriety, yet might have been omitted without
injuring the construction of the sentence, or destroying the sense.