curfory view of the several ideas which may be the object of ⚫ our reflection.

The mind is fo limited that we cannot revive a great ⚫ number of ideas to render them all at the fame time the fub❝ject of our reflexion. And yet it is oftentimes necessary that we should consider several of them together. This we do ⚫ with affiftance of figns, which, by being combined, makes us confider them as if they were only one idea.

Hence it appears how fimple and how admirable are the fprings of human knowledge. The foul has felt various fenfations and operations: how then fhall it difpose of these materials? By geftures, by figns, by founds, by cyphers, by letters; by instruments so foreign as these from our ideas, ❝ we set them to work, in order to raise ourselves even to the ❝ fublimest knowledge. The materials are the fame in all men; but the art of making use of figns varies; and from thence the inequality which is to be observed among man• kind.

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Take away from a fuperior genius the use of characters; and you debar him of a deal of knowledge to which a perfon of middling abilities may easily attain. Take away from him likewife the use of fpeech; and the fate of mutes will fhew you to what narrow limits you confine him. fine, deprive him of the use of all forts of figns, so as he fhall not be able to make the least gesture with propriety, in order to exprefs the moft ordinary thought; and he will be no more to you than a driveler.

It were to be wifhed that those who are entrusted with the education of children, were not ignorant of the first fprings of the human mind. If a preceptor prefectly ac quainted with the origin and progress of our ideas, entertained his pupil, only upon matters which have the nearest relation to his wants and to his age; if he managed fo as to place him in fuch circumstances as are beft adapted for learning him to form to himself precife ideas, and to fix them by constant signs; if even in playing he never made use of words, whose fenfe was not exactly determined; would not this be the way to open and enlarge the mind of his pupil? But how few parents are able to procure fuch tutors

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for their children? and how fewer are those tutors whơ may be judged really capable of answering thefe expecta• tions? And yet it is of service to know every thing that can 'contribute towards a good education. If it cannot be al'ways put in practice, perhaps we may avoid at least whatever is directly contrary to it. We ought never, for inftance, to confound children with paralogifms, sophisms, and other falfe argumentations. By giving ourselves such • liberties of trifling, we run the risk of confounding and even < vitiating their understandings. We should never use any • captious arguments with them, by way of fharpening their wits, till their minds had attained to great perfpicuity and ⚫ precifion.

There is after all, our philofopher juftly remarks, one difficulty remaining; viz. that if the mind fixes its ideas only by figns, there is great odds but our argumentations will be oftentimes merely about words; which must be the fource of many errors.

But the certainty of the mathematics removes this difficulty. Provided we determine the fimple ideas annexed to each fign fo exactly, as to be able to analyze them' whenever there is occafion, we fhall be in no more danger of being deceived, than the mathematicians when they make ufe of their figns. Indeed this objection fhews' that we must act with great precaution, to avoid engaging, like a great many philofophers, in verbal difputes, and vain' and puerile queftions.

This naturally leads the learned author to the fecond part of his work, which treats of language and method, where our readers will find that the Abbé has joined to his' fkill in metaphyfics an elegant tafte for the politer arts, and a complete knowledge of the Belles Lettres.

The fuppofition which our author makes ufe of to illuftrate' the origin and progrefs of language, has fomething in it both ingenious and explanatory.

Let us fuppofe (fays he) that fome time after the deluge two children, one male, and the other female, wandered about in the deferts, before they understood the use of any fign. Let me then be permitted to make the fuppofition,

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and the queftion will be to know, in what manner this nation firft invented language.

'So long as the abovementioned children lived asunder, the operations of their minds were confined to perception and consciousness, which never cease to act whilft we are awake; to attention, which must have taken place whenever any perceptions affected them in a particular manner; to reminiscence, which was when they recollected fome circumstances that had ftruck them, before they had loft the • connexions formed by thofe circumstances; and to a very limited exercife of the imagination. For example, the 6 perception of a particular want, was connected with that of the object which had contributed to relieve it. But as this 'fort of connexions were formed by chance, without derivving any ftrength from reflexion, their duration was but 'fhort. One day the sensation of hunger put these children in mind of a tree loaded with fruit, which they had feen 'the day before: foon after this tree was forgot, and the fame • fenfation revived the idea of another object. Thus the habit of the imagination was not in their power; it was no more than the effect of the circumftances in which they "were placed.

When they came to live together, they had occafion to enlarge and improve thofe firft operations; because their mu'tual converse made them connect with the cries of each paffion, the perceptions which they naturally signified. They generally accompanied them with fome motion, gefture or action, whose expreffion was yet of a more fenfible nature. For example, he who fuffered, by being deprived of an object which his wants had rendered neceffary to him, did not confine himself to cries or founds only; he used fome endeavours to obtain it, he moved his head, his arms, and every part of his body. The other, ftruck with this fight, fixed his eye on the fame object, and perceiving fome inward emotions which he was not yet able to account for, he fuffered in feeing his companion fuffer. From that very

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¶ instant he felt himself inclined to relieve him, ed this impreffion to the utmost of his power. ftinct alone they asked and gave each other affistance. I

• fay

fay by instinct alone; for as yet there was no room for re<flexion. One of them did not fay to himself, I must make

fuch particular motions to render him fenfible of my want, and to induce him to relieve me: nor the other, I fee by his motions that he wants fuch a thing, and I will let him have it: but they both acted in confequence of the want which preffed them ✓ moft.

And yet the fame circumftances could not be frequently <repeated, but they must have accustomed themselves at length to connect with the cries of the paffions and with the different motions of the body, thofe perceptions which were ◄ expressed in so fenfible a manner. The more they grew familiar with thofe figns, the more they were in a capacity of reviving them at pleasure. Their memory began to ac<quire fome fort of habit, they were able to command their imagination as they pleased, and infenfibly they learned to ◄ do by reflexion what they had hitherto done merely by in<stinct. At first both of them acquired the habit of difern$ ing by thofe figns the fenfations which each other felt at that moment, and afterwards they made ufe of them in order to let each other know their paft fenfations. For example, he who saw a place in which he had been frightened, mi<micked those cries and movements which were the figns < of fear, in order to warn the other not to expofe himself to the fame danger.

The use of those figns infenfibly enlarged and improved the operations of the mind, and on the other hand these having acquired fome improvement, perfected the figns, and • rendered the ufe of them more familiar. Experience fhews < that these two things affift each other. Before the discovery of algebraical figns, the human mind had acquired a fufficient habit and improvement of its operations to invent thofe arbitrary marks; but it is only fince this invention, that they have been cultivated and improved to a degree fufficient, to bring mathematical learning to its present state of perfection.

By these particulars we fee in what manner the cries of the paffions contributed to enlarge the operations of the mind,

by giving occafion naturally to the mode of fpeaking by ac• tion g

*tion; a language which in its infancy, probably consisted * only in contorsions and violent agitations, being thus proportioned to the flender capacity of this young couple.

And yet when once they had acquired the habit of con*necting fome ideas with arbitrary figns, the natural cries • ferved them for a pattern, to frame a new language. They • articulated new founds, and by repeating them several times, ⚫ and accompanying them with fome gefture which pointed. out fuch objects as they wanted to be taken notice of, they accustomed themselves to give names to things. The • first progress of this language was nevertheless very flow. •The organ of fpeech was so inflexible, that it could not easily

articulate any other than a few simple founds. The obsta⚫cles which hindered them from pronouncing others, prevent⚫ed them even from suspecting that the voice was fufceptible of any further variation, beyond the small number of words which they had already devised.

Let us fuppofe this young couple to have had a child, ⚫ who being preffed by wants which he could not without some • difficulty make known, put every part of his body into motion. His tongue, being extremely pliant, made an extraordinary *motion, and pronounced a new expreffion. As those wants continued to prefs the child, this occafioned a repetition of the fame efforts; again he moved his tongue in the fame < manner as at first, and articulated the fame found. The parents furprized, having at length gueffed his meaning, gave him what he wanted, but tried as they gave it him, to repeat the fame word. The difficulty they had to pronounce it, fhewed that they were not of themselves capable of in* venting it.

For the fame reafon this new language was not much improved. The child's organ for want of exercife quickly loft all its flexibility. His parents taught him to communicate his thoughts by action; the fenfible images of this ' mode of speaking, being much easier to him than articulate founds. Chance alone could give rife to fome new words; and doubtless it must have been a long time, before their ❝ number could be confiderably increased by so flow a method. The mode of fpeaking by action, at that time so natural,

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