As to the formation and derivation of adverbs, it depends fo much on the idiom of particular languages, that one cannot enter upon it, without going beyond the bounds of Univerfal Gram

mar.

SECT.

С НА Р. III.

Of INTERJECTION S.

T

HE Interjection is a part of fpeech in all the languages known to Europeans. Whether it be in all others, is not certain, For, though it have its ufe, and may often promote pathos or energy, we cannot fay, that it is fo neceffary, as the noun, the pronoun, or the attributive. Its place might indeed be fupplied, in moft cafes, by other words, if the customs of fociety would permit. I am forry, or, I feel pain, conveys the fame meaning with alas! though perhaps not fo emphatically: but the defect of emphafis may be owing to nothing more than this, that the one expreffion is lefs common than the other, on certain occafions. In like manner, without being misunderstood, we might fay, inftead of fy! I diflike it, or, I abhor it; and, instead of strange! (papa!), I am surprised, or, I am aftonished, might be ufed with no bad effect.

The name Interjection expreffes very well the nature of this part of fpeech. It is a word thrown M 2

into

into difcourfe (interjectum) in order to intimate or express fome emotion of the mind: as, I am, alas! a miferable finner: fy, fy! let it not be heard of: well done! (euge!) thou haft proved thyfelf a man. It is, indeed, as Ruddiman obferves, a compendious way of conveying a fentence in a word, that the shortnefs of the phrase may fuit the fuddennefs of the emotion or paffion expreffed by it.

For Interjections are not fo much the signs of thought, as of feeling. And that a creature, fo inured to articulate found as man is, fhould acquire the habit of uttering, without reflection, certain vocal founds, when he is affaulted by any ftrong paffion, or becomes confcious of any intenfe feeling, is natural enough. Indeed, by continual practice, this habit becomes fo powerful, that in certain cafes we fhould find it difficult to refift it, even if we wifhed to do fo. When attacked by acute pain, it is hardly poffible for us not to fay ah! or alas !-and, when we are aftonished at any narrative or event, the words, frange! prodigious! indeed! break from us, without any effort of the will.

In the Greek Grammar, Interjections are referred to the clafs of adverbs; but, I think, improperly. They are not adverbs in any fense of the word. They exprefs not the attributes of attributes; nor are they joined to verbs, to participles, or to adjectives, as adverbs are; nor do they limit or modify the fignification of attributives in any respect whatever. The Latin grammarians have, therefore, done better, in feparating the interjection from other parts of fpeech,

and

And in this

and giving it a particular name. they are followed by all who have written gram. mars of the modern tongues.

It has been faid, that interjections are the remains of those barbarous cries, by which (according to the Epicurean fyftem) the first men expreffed their feelings, before the invention of the art of speech. But I deny, that Speech is an art, in this sense of the word. I cannot conceive, how a fet of mute, favage, and beaftly creatures fhould on a fudden commence philofophers, and form themselves into an academy, or meet together in a large cave, in order to contrive a fyftem of words, which, without being able to speak themselves, they afterwards taught their dumb and barbarous brethren to articulate. Orpheus, performing at a publick concert, for the entertainment of lions, tigers, and other wild beafts of quality; or Amphion, making the ftones and trees dance to the found of his harp, till, after many awkward bounces and caperings, they at laft took their feats, in the form of towns and caf tles, are in my judgment as reasonable fuppofitions. It admits of proof, from the nature of the thing, as well as from hiftory, that men in all ages must have been fpeaking animals; that the young learned the art by imitating their elders; and that our first parents must have spoken by immediate inspiration."

Some grammarians maintain, jection is no part of speech at all,

that the interbut a mode of

utterance common to all nations, and univerfally

M

See Part i. chap. 6.

understood:

understood in other words, that fy, alas, buzza, euge, apage, eh bien, ahilaffo, &c. are as common, and as intelligible, over the whole earth, as a displeased, a forrowful, a joyful, or an angry countenance. It is ftrange, thofe authors did not recollect, that, if we except O! Ah! and one or two more, the interjections of different languages are as different as their nouns or verbs: ai in Greek being expreffed by eheu in Latin, and in English by alas! and woes me! being in Latin hei mihi, and in Greek oimoi. Some interjections indeed may be borrowed by one nation from the language of another: thus apage and euge are the fame in Latin and in Greek. But fome nouns and verbs are, in like manner, borrowed by one nation from another; yet we do not fuppofe, that fuch words, because current in Greece, Italy, and England, are univerfally intelligible, or form any part of that language, which, in contradiftinction to artificial, I have formerly defcribed under the name of natural.*

Interjections, though frequent in difcourfe, occur not often in elegant compofition. Unpractifed writers, however, are apt to exceed in the use of them, in order, as they imagine, to give pathos to their style: which is just as if, in order to render converfation witty or humourous, one were to interrupt it with frequent peals of laughter. The appearance of violent emotion in others does not always raife violent emotion in us: our hearts, for the moft part, are more effectually fubdued by a fedate and fimple utterance, than by interjections and theatrical gefture. At any rate, compofure is more graceful than extravagance;

* Part i. chap. 11.