58 TOE IMPROVEMENT Of TAE MIND. and solid knowledge, and whose chief design is to lead us into an acquaintance with thigs, or to enable us the more easily to convey those ideas, or that knowledge to others. An acquaint ante with the various tongues is nothing else, but a relief against the mischief which the building of Babel introduced : and were I master of as many languages as were spoken at Babel, I should make but a poor pretence to true learning or knowledge, if I had not clear and distinct ideas, and useful notions in my head under the words which my tongue could pronounce. Yet so un- happy a thing is human nature, that this sort of knowledge of sounds and syllables is ready to puff up the mind with vanity, snore than the most valuable and solid improvementsof it. The pride of a grammarian or a critic, generally exceeds that of a philosopher. CHAP. VIII. Of enquiring into the Sense and Meaning any Writer or Speaker, and especially the Sense of the Sacred Writings. It is a great unhappiness that there is such an ambiguity in words and forms of speech, that the same sentence may be drawn into different signflcations ; whereby it comes to pass, that it is difficult sometimes for the reader exactly to hit upon the ideas which the writer or speaker had in his mind. Some of the best rules to direct us herein are such as these : 1. Be well acquainted with the tongue itself, or language wherein the author's mind is expressed. Learn not only the true meaning of each word, but the sense which those words obtain when placed in such a particular situation and order. Acquaint yourself with the peculiar power and emphasis of the several modes of speech, and the various idioms of the tongue. The secondary ideas which custom bath superadded to many words, should also be known, as well as the particular and primary meaning of them, if we would understand any writer. See Logic, Part I. Chap. 4, Sec. 3. II. Consider the signification of those words and phrases, more especially in the same nation, or near the same age in which that writer lived, and its what sense they are used by authors of the same nation, opinion, sect, party, &c. Upon this account, we may learn to interpret several phrases of the New Testament out of that version of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which is called the Septuagint; for though that version be very imperfect and defective in many things, yet it seems to me evident, that the holy writers of the New Testament made use of that version many times in their citation of texts out of the Bible. HI. Compare the words and phrases in one place of an
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