**Antisthenes being asked, what learning was most necessary for man's life, re-
plied, To unlearn that which is naught "
Bacon's Apothems.

"Authority keeps in ignorance and error more people than all other causes.
No opinion is too absurd to be received on this ground."

Locke

NEW-HAVEN :

PUBLISHED BY HOWE & SPALDING.

PRINTED BY S. CONVERSE.

DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, 85.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the seventh day of October, in the forty seventh year of the Independence of the United States of America, Noah WebWebster, of the said District, hath deposited in this Office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author in the words following-to wit:

"A Philosophical and Practical Grammar of the English Language. By Noah Webster, Esq. The Second Edition.

"Antisthenes being asked, what learning was most necessary for man's life, replied, To unlearn that which is naught.' Bacon's Apothems." Authority keeps in ignorance and error, more people, than all other causes. No opinion is too absurd, to be received on this ground.."

Locke."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned."

CHAS. A. INGERSOLL,

Clerk of the District of Connecticut.

A true copy of Record, examined and sealed by me,

CHAS. A. INGERSOLL,

Clerk of the District of Connecticut.

A

PHILOSOPHICAL AND PRACTICAL

GRAMMAR.

Of Language.

LANGUAGE, in its most extensive sense, is the instrument or means of communicating ideas and affections of the mind and body, from one animal to another, In this sense, brutes possess the powers of language; for by various inarticulate sounds, they make known their wants, desires, and sufferings. Thus the neighing of the horse, the lowing of the ox, the cackling and chirping of birds, constitute the language of those animals; and each respective species understand instinctively their own peculiar language. The signs made by deaf and dumb people form also a kind of imperfect language; and even the looks when made to express ideas and affections, speak an intelligible language.

As brutes have few affections or ideas, and little necessity for communicating them, their language consists in a few inarticulate sounds. But man, being a rational animal, capable of acquiring, and of learning to communicate numberless ideas, is furnished with suitable organs for uttering an indefinite variety of sounds to express his ideas; and the modulations of his voice, in the distinct utterance of sounds, constitute what are denominated articulate sounds.