[HARRIS, James].

Hermes: or, a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Language and Universal Grammar ... By J. H.

London, H. Woodfall for J. Nourse and P. Vaillant, 1751. 8vo, pp. xix, [1] blank, 426, [1] blank, [26] index, [1] errata and advertisement, [1] blank; light foxing to the first gathering; a very good copy in contemporary speckled calf, spine decorated gilt in compartments, morocco lettering-piece; offset from the turn-ins to endpapers, joints cracked but firm, small chip at foot of spine, corners worn; with the engraved armorial bookplate of Joseph Warner-Henley (1793–1884, MP for Oxfordshire 1841–78, president of the Board of Trade 1852–5) and booklabel of the publisher and literary scholar R. W. Chapman to the front pastedown. First edition of one of the most important and influential eighteenth-century works on language. It enjoyed four further editions before the end of the century (and earned its author the nickname ‘Hermes’ Harris); translations into French and German ensured acclaim on the Continent. When, in 1795, Schiller asked Humboldt for advice on what to read for the study of Greek, Humboldt strongly recommended Harris’s Hermes (see Aarsleff, From Locke to Saussure, p. 350n).Harris was an anti-Lockian, and distinguished sharply between the faculties of sensation and reflection. Language, for him, is associated primarily with reflection, and although it can be used to express thoughts about the objects of sensation, this is inessential to it. His idea of a universal grammar has naturally led to comparisons with Saussure and Chomsky.Alston III, 810; Kennedy 2362; Stojan 234; not in Attig, Christophersen, or Yolton.

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