164 THE IMPROVEMENT OP THE MIND. suaded to waste anygreat number of his better hours in such dry studies, and in labours of so little profit ? XXXI. The Chaldean language indeed is much nearer to the Hebrew, and it is proper for a divine to have some acquaint- ancewith it, because there are several verses or chapters of Ezra and Daniel which are written in that language ; and the oldJew- ish targums or commentaries, which are written in the Chaldean tongue, may sometimes happen to cast a little light upon a doubt- ful scripture of the Old Testament. But it must be still owned, that the knowledge of theEastern tongues does not deserve to be magnified to such a degree, as some of the proficients in them have indulged ; wherein they have carried matters beyond all reason and justice, since scarcely any of the most important sub- jects of the gospel of Christ and the way of salvation, can gain any advantage from them. XXXII. The art of grammar comes now to be mention- ed. It is'a distinct thing from the mere knowledge of the lan- guages ; for all mankind are taught from their infancy to speak their mother tongue, by a natural imitation of their mothers and nurses, and those who are round about them, without any know- ledge of the art of grammar, and the various observations and rules that relate to it. Grammar indeed,is nothing else but rules and observations drawn from the common speech of mankind in their several languages ; and it teaches us to speak and pro- nounce, to spell and write with propriety and exactness, according to the custom of those in every nation who are, or were supposed to speak and write their own language best. Now it is a shame for a man to pretend to science and study in any of the three learned professions, who is not in some measure acquainted with the propriety of those languages with which he ought to be con- versant in his daily studies, and more especially in such as he may sometimes be called upon to write as well as read. XXXIII. Next togrammar, we proceed to consider rhetoric. Now rhetoric in general is the art of persuading, which may be distinguished into these three parts ; viz. (1.) Conveying the sense of the speaker to the understanding of the hearers in the clearest and mostintelligent manner, by the plainest expressions and the most lively and striking representations of it, so that the mind may be thoroughly convinced of the thing proposed. (2.) Persuading thewill effectually to chuse or refuse the thing sug- gestedand represented. (3.) Raising the passions inthe most vivid and forcible man- ner, so as to set all the soul and every power of nature at work, to pursue or avoid the thing in debate. To attain this end, there is not only a great deal of art ne- cessary in the representation of matters to the auditory, but,also in the disposition or method of introducing these particular repre-
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