Excerpt from A Tractate on Language: With Observations on the French Tongue, Eastern Tongues and Times, and Chapters on Literal Symbols, Philology and Letters, Figures of Speech, Rhyme, Time, and Longevity

Although the writer of this Tractate should consider the preface already prefixed to the first edition of the work sufficient, yet on the appearance of a second edition, some reason might be expected why material changes have been made.

The author admits with regret that the first edition was not so aptly or uniformly adjusted in all its parts as consists with such a subject, and he felt he was capable of imparting to it that lucidus or do, which a too hasty publication had prevented, although the manuscripts had lain by him for many years.

He has deemed it expedient to recast entirely the grammatical sections, and having so done, he commits them to the press in the hopeful assurance they may prove acceptable to the reader of a composition which includes a congeries of philosophical and grammatical observations.

The general principles, which are nearly the same as in the former edition, have been further illustrated by the help of some authority from comparatively recent publications, but which had been only cursorily perused by the author of the Tractate, viz. Welsford and Prichard.

Opinions advanced have been fortified, or addenda supplied, which might well find a niche in a treatise on grammatical phenomena.

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