Creator
James Harris
Title
Hermes: Or, A Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Universal Grammar.
Coverage
London
Publisher
John Nourse & Paul Vaillant
Date
1765
Subject
2d ed.
Description
One can understand Samuel Johnson’s evaluation of Harris (1709–1780) as “a prig and a bad prig.” His self-praise was undisguised: he thought that with this book, he had done “a service to mankind.” If the book sold well, Harris would find it “no unpleasing event.” And his chauvinism was worse than priggish: “The Supreme Being . . . is in all languages masculine, in as much as the masculine sex is the superior and more excellent.”