Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	natural_a	nature_n	4,625	5	5.6875	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57633	A philosophicall essay for the reunion of the langvages, or, The art of knowing all by the mastery of one	Rose, Henry, fl. 1656-1675.	1675 (1675)	Wing R1934; ESTC R229455	21,032	86

and cognisances There being therefore nothing in the world of which they could have fram'd a more distinct Idea then of the motion of bodies which is obvious to all the senses we must nor wonder if considering Locall motion as the first and principall object of their knowledge they afterwards gave no names to the Operations of each being but such as seem'd to express some relation either to motion in generall or to its different species or to some one of its dependances such as are place figure situation extention Union and seperation in a word to all the resemblances and agreements that in any way or kind relye upon motion For if Modern Philosophy that Studies Nature by a closer application then formerly pretend to a clear and evident explication of Naturall effects in the referring them all to the Sole movement of matter as their true cause there is much more reason that in order to the giveing an account of all that is to this day past among the Languages we should have recours to such terms as are expressive of motion since it is not to be doubted but that all others that are reducible may be referr'd hither as to the first principle of their signification Besides motion is allow'd a far greater Scope and extent among the Languages then in Nature for 't is to that we referr our most refin'd and spirituall conceptions I mean such as we frame of the operations of our souls and the propensions of our wills So when we say that the mind or understanding applyes it self to think to conceive to discours to explaine to disimbroile to disingage a businesse to discover a truth when we talke of troubles aversions of hurries and consternations of the soul to expresse such actions as are most remote from sense we make use of such Images as are corporeall in their first originall although for the most part they have lost their proper significance to assume another that is purely figurative 'T is by these Principles Ireduce to naturall reason all imaginable ways by which words alter their primitive signification to imbrace another either more inlarg'd or reserv'd or never so little diversifi'd either in Proportion or Alliance for t is no easie matter for words to travell from one Country to another without meeting with the same casualties that use to befall forreign Plants which are seldome remov'd into a new soile but degenerate and either lose some of their Native virtue or acquire some new But most people having met with this generall proposall to expresse at first appearance what they think with as little trouble as is possible it thence falls out that to ingrosse a great deal of sense in few words they scarce allow enough precisely to marke out the simple ideas of their minds fitted out to all their severall resemblances they that are most simple in themselves are commonly compounds in their significations neither is there any one of the least considerable but what is diversify'd in each Language by a thousand different modifications From thence proceed all the methods of inflexion derivation and composition that give being to the most subtle kind of Sophistry all the species and forms of Nouns Verbs and particles that make up the aeconomy of a Language together withall diversity of Numbers Genders Cases tenses Modes and Persons which have more of Art than at first sight is imagin'd for the Custome of Nations hath not only authoriz'd these inventions to vary the Cadence of words but with an admirable facility to expresse all the deflexions by which an Idea of the same object may be represented to our conceptions according as it admitts of a mixture of resemblances which it may have either to its effects or Causes or as it is related to the severall estates wherein it subsists to the differences of time or place and to all the circumstances that may accompany it either within or without us As the more sensible differences of the Languages principally consist in all these modifications so one of the greatest secrets of this Art is to know how choisly to select and distinguish both in our ideas and in the words that expresse them that which is principall and essentiall from what is purely accessory subtly to difference the first ideas from the second the second from the third the simple from the Compound the primitive and Originall signification from its dependances and references its modifications and divers restrictions in one word if I may so expresse it not to confound the habit with the person For in a manner these modifications are the same words that the habit is to the body this new dresse that is given to forreign words to fitt them up alamode to the Country for the most part time so disfigures them and renders them so obscure that they impose as well upon our eyes as ears and passe for originalls and Natives of the Country although in reality they are borrow'd from our Neighbourhood and sometime from beyond the seas To make a secure judgement therefore of the originall there remains nothing but to consider them all naked and intirely dis-spoil'd of all that trompery that disguis'd them and that this may be done with more safety we must follow them step by step in their travels and espie out the different ranges they have taken and the habits they have shifted to come thus vizarded and masqued to us These are the most inlarg'd principles and infallible ways by which I discover this secret and misterious accord of the Languages which without doubt will appear so much the more admirable as haveing been never to this hour been believ'd that they had any such close tie or relation But these principles may be apply'd severall ways and therefore least they should continue undermin'd I make it appear by the sequel what in particular must be done in each Language in conformity to its genius and proper Character This is that which obligeth me to make an exact inquirie into the nature of those Languages I pretend to reduce I do not content my selfe infallibly to take my draught either in the generall consent of nations which are as often cheated in their Ideas they have of the Language of each Nation as they are commonly in its manners or from the particular sentiments of the more knowing or Learned who without any preoccupation of mind have studied their own Native Language with more then ordinary care But to make all yet more certain I principally form my examinations from the very history of the Languages which is the most aequall rule we can take our measures from in relation to the present designe In order to this t is necessary that we make reflexions upon the first beginnings of each Nation and that from other memoires then such with which we are for the most part furnish't by the Criticks and seriously to examine the continuall comerce it hath had with the most considerable of its neighbours the wars

proper to make new discoveries in the sciences I endeavour'd to make what use I could of it so farr as my subject permitted And since amidst the severall resemblances of the Languages there are some so evident as necessarily grance upon the most unobserving eye I have so order'd my reflections that by a reference to these as models I might by degrees arrive at the knowledge of the others which although reserv'd and sometimes more distanc't yet are neither less certain nor reall not unlike the subalternate conclusions in speculation which are not a jot the lesse true for being farther remov'd from their first principle Thus t is that a Language with which we are already acquainted either by the assistance of Art or Conversation leads us to anintimacy with those that were altogether unknown to us before and that their relation redresseth the treachery of the memory in the close and juncture of one with the other But that I may compasse this my designe with lesse trouble my greatest care is to make choise of one Language as a rule to measure by and a principle to reduce all the rest too for to pretend to compare them immediately one with another as some would have it is to cherish confusion among those things that demand the most of order The veneration that I have alwayes had for antiquity made me think at first of ingaging for the Hebrew as being for ought we know the earliest the most noble and most naturall Language of the world and that from which all others in a manner derive themselves But it was not long before I began to consider that this would directly crosse the first principles of my intended method and appear a kind of indeavour to teach an unknown Language by another of which we have the most imperfect and slender information of all The kindnesse and inclination I ought to have for my own Country had almost perswaded me to rest my self there and to make my native tongue the basis of this universall reduction but then the rest of the Europaean world which I have no reason to slur or contemne would have as ill resented the project as we did it in the Germans who would long agoe have challenged this honour to themselves I had in the end no other course to take but to throw my selfe upon the Latine in which I luckily met with all the necessary conditions that did easily and plausibly conduce to my design'd attempt To say the truth Aristotle himselfe a man of a judgement in such things the most exact that ever was to take a measure from demanded but three qualifications viz. Universality Certainty and Proportion that it should be generally known to all those that are to make use of it in the quality of a measure that it should be sixt and determin'd in its selfe and then that it should be proportion'd to all those things to which it prescribes their bounds all which characters do with advantage combine in the Latine and that vvith such propriety that they cannot be attributed to any other vvithout some sort of injustice for the greatest part of the other Languages they are determind to the extent of a particular Kingdom or Country the Latine hath no such disadvantage upon it It is to speak properly the Language of Europe Religion and the Sciences have more enlarg'd its dominions then all the conquests of the Romans t is almost the common Idiom of the North and universally knovvne to persons of birth and education vvho alone are presum'd to stand in need of the assistance of forraigne Languages It disownes the common imperfection of others which by nature being subject to change cannot by consequence serve for a certain determinate rule in all ages and if it now survive through the large extent of its entertainment it hath much the advantage of others that are in a manner deceas'd to this that is fixt and retaind by a well assur'd custome and if its being universally known allows all persons to share its uses so its being steddy and unalterable secures it from all the uneven changes of time As to its proportion it in a manner keeps a mean between the Ancient and Modern Languages it is neither altogether so pure as the one nor so corrupt as the other and so with the same ease is applicable to both and in earnest is infinitely the most compendious it being farre less trouble to passe from the mean to an extream or from the extream to the mean then to trace it from one extream to another However this would seem incommodious beyond all redresse to attempt to reduce all the Languages either to the most ancient or else to any one of the most modern because in reality the former have no more relation to the later then these have with others of the same age which have been as so many channels to derive Antiquity to us Besides the Latin makes a friendly meeting between the Eastern and Western Languages as to the first alone it owes its birth and rise so the others do to it It seems then no more difficult to attain the one by streaming it up to the fountain then to gain all the rest by making a like descent by way of resemblance to what we observe in nature when we discern as well the effect by the cause as the cause by the effect In one word to make up all the differences that may arise about the supremacie of the Languages I consider the Latin under three different regards as the daughter of the Languages of the East as the Mother of those in the West and as the Sister of the more Northerne As it is abundantly copious and rich having been refind and improv'd for more then 3000. years by an infinite variety of nations with whose spoyls it is now invested so it may have a very great number of resemblances under which with little difficultie it will admit of a reference to all the rest For in conclusion to reduce all to the most refin'd and polite Language is not what I pretend to the Barbarous stile of the ancient Romans will do me as much service as the quaintnesse and elegance of Cicero the Latin of the declining Empire since the irruptions of the Northern Nations may be admitted into this designe to as good purpose as the language of Augustus his time any sense is the same of that of the Sciences which makes one almost altogether distinct from what is common and vulgar the proper names of Philosophy naturall History and Divinity those of Physick and the Mathematicks of Arts Law and Commerce the names of illustrious persons people and places of which History furnisheth us with a plausible account will afford me no lesse assistance on this occasion then the names of things that are most common After having made choice of a Language in order to the design I am in the next place to determine my self to a certain number of them the reunion