Tney uttered indeed the inarticulate cries which ceivable, that art or education could banith the are instinctively expressive of pleasure and pain, use of them, merely because by the organs of the of joy and sorrow, more diftinctly and forcibly mouth they are broken into parts, and resolvable than men civilized; but with respect to the very into fyllables, rudiments of language, they were what Horace represents all mankind to have been originally, Sect. III. Of the ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. mutum et turpe pecus. Indeed it is obvious, that As it is thus evident, that there is no instindire | were there any instinctive language, the first words articulated language, it bas become an inquiry of uttered by all children would be the same; and some importance, how mankind were first induced that every child, whether born in the desert or in to fabricate articulate founds, and to employ them fociety, would understand the language of every for the purpose of communicating their thoughts . other child, however educated, or however ne- Children learn to speak by infenfible imitation; glected. Nay, we may even venture to affirm, and when advanced some years in life, they study that such a language, though its general use might, foreign languages under proper instructors: but in fociety, be superseded by the prevailing dialect the first men had no speakers to imitate, and do of art, could never be wholly lost; and that no formed language to study ; by what means thee man of one country would find it difficult, far did they learn to speak? On this question only less impoflible, to communicate the knowledge two opinions can be formed. Language muft ei. of his natural, and most pressing wants to the men ther have been originally revealed from heaven, of any other country, whether bar barous or civi- or the fruit of human invention. The greater lized. The exercise of cultivated reason, and the part of Jews and Chriftians, and even some of the arts of civil life, have indeed eradicated many of wiseft pagans, have embraced the former opiniour original inttincts, but they have not eradica, on ; 'which seems to be supported by the autho. ted them all: (see INSTINCT, Ø 5, 9.) There are rity of Mofes, who represents the Supreme Being external indications of the internal feelings and de- as tcaching our firft parents the names of animals . fires, which appear in the most polished society, The latter opinion is beld by Diodorus Siculus, and which are confefledly instinctive. The pai. Lucretius, Horace, and many other Greek and fions, emoțions, fensations, and appetites, are Roman writers, who conlider language as one of naturally expressed in the countenance, by charac- the arts invented by man. The first men, fay ters whico the favage and the courtier can read they, lived for some time in woods and cares after with equalreadiness. The look serene, the smoothed the manner of beasts, uttering only confused and brow, the dimpled smile, and the glistening eye, indistinct noises; till, associating for mutual alitdenote equanimity and good will in terms which ance, they came by degrees to use articulate no man mistakes. The contracted brow, the gla: rounds mutually agreed upon for the arbitrary ring eye, the fullen gloom, and the threatening air, figns or marks of those ideas in the mind of the denote rage, indignation, and defiance, as plainly speaker, which he wanted to communicate to the and forcibiy as revilings, or imprecations. To hearer: This opinion (prung from the atomic teach men to disguise these inftin&tiye indications cosmogony framed by Mochus the Phænician, and of their temper, and 1, afterwards improved by Democritus and Epicu. “ To carry smiles and sunshine in their face, rus; and though it is part of a system, in which the “ When discontent fits heavy at their heart," first men are represented as having grown out of confitutes a great part of modern and refined the earth, like trees and other vegetables, it has education. Yet in spite of every effort of the ut. been adopted by several modern writers of high mofi skill, and every motive resulting from inte rank in the republic of letters ; particularly Farell, the most consummate hypocrite, or the ther SIMON, VOLTAIRE, the abbé Cosdilliac, inost lackneyed politician, is not always able to Dr ADAM SMITH, and the late Lord MON BODDO ; prevent his real disposition from becoming appa, and is therefore worthy of examination. rent in his countenance. He may indeets, by long, Among these, the most learned, and on every acpradice, have acquired a very great command count the most respectable author, who supports both over his temper, and over the instinctive signs this opinion, candidly acknowledges, that if lanof it ; but at times nature will predominate over guage was invented, it was of very difficult invenart, and a sudden and violent passion will falh in tion, and far beyond the reach of the grofseft fa. his face, so as to be visible to the cye of every be vages. Accordingly he holds, that though men lolder. were originally folitary animals, and had no naIf these observations be just, and we think no- tural propensity to the social life; yet before lanbody will call them in question, it follows, that, guage could be invented they must have been alloit' mankind were prompted by instinct to use ar- ciated for ages, and have carried on in concert ticulate founds, as indications of their paflions, fome common work. Nay, he is decidedly of affections, fentations, and ideas, the language of opinion, that before the invention of an art so dit. ijature could never be wholly forgotten, and that ficult as language, men must not only have berd: it would sometimes predominate over the language ed together, but have also formed some kind of of art. Groans, fighs, and some inarticulate civil polity, have existed in that political late a lively sounds, are naturally expressive of pain and very long time, and have acquired such powers of pleasure, and equally intelligible to all mankind, abftraction as to be able to form general ideas. The occasional life of these no art can wholly ba- (See Logic and METAPHYSICs.) But it is obnish; and if there were articulate founds natural- vious, that men could not have instituted civií poly expreslive of the same feelings, it is not con- lity, or have carried on in concert any commos work, 1 work, without communicating their defigns to each other; and there are four ways by which the author thinks that this could have been done, before the invention of speech; viz. 1ft, by inarticulate" cries, expreffive of fentiments and paffions; ad, geftures, and the expreffion of countenance; 3d, imitative founds expreffive of audible things; and 4th, painting, by which vifible objects may be reprefented. Of these 4 methods of communication it is plain, that only two have any connection with language, viz. inarticulate cries and imitative founds; and of these the author abandons the latter as having contributed nothing to the invention of articulation, though he thinks it may have helped to advance its progrefs. "I am difpofed (fays he) to believe, that the framing of words with an analogy to the found of the things expreffed by them, belongs rather to languages of art, than to the firft languages spoken by rude and barbarous nations." It is therefore inarticulate cries only that muft have given rife to the formation of language. Such cries are used by all animals who have any ufe of voice to express their wants; and the fact is, that all barbarous nations have cries expreffing joy, grief, terror, surprise, and the like. Thefe, together with geftures and expreffion of the countenance, were undoubtedly the methods of communication firft ufed by men; and we have but to fuppofe (adds he) a great number of our fpecies carrying on fome common bufinefs, and converfing together by figns and cries; and we have men juft in a ftate proper for the invention of language, For if we fuppofe their numbers to increafe, their wants would increase alfo; and then these two methods of communication would become too confined for that larger fphere of life which their wants would make neceffary. The only thing then that remained to be done was to give a greater variety to the inftinctive cries; and as the natural progrefs is from what is eafy to what is more difficult, the first variation would be merely by tones from low to high, and from grave to acute. But this variety could not answer all the purpoles of fpeech in fociety; and being advanced fo far, it was natural that an animal fo fagacious as a man should go on farther, and come at last to the only other variation remaining, namely articulation. The first articulation would be very fimple, the voice being broken and diftinguished only by a few vowels and confonants. And as all natural cries are from the throat and larynx, with little or no operation of the organs of the mouth, it is natural to fuppofe, that the firft languages were for the greater part spoken from the throat; that what confonants were used to vary the cries, were mostly guttural; and that the organs of the mouth would at first be very little employed. From this account of the origin of language it appears, that the firft founds articulated were the natural cries by which men fignified their wants and defires to one another, such as calling one another for certain purposes, and for fuch things as were neceffary for carrying on any joint work: then in procefs of time other cries would be articulated, to fignify, that fuch and fuch actions had been performed or were performing, or that fuch and fuch events had happened relative to the com mon bufinefs. Then names would be invented of fuch objects as they were converfant with: but as we cannot fuppofe favages to be deep in abftraction, or skilful in the art of arranging things according to their genera and /pecies, all things, however fimilar, except perhaps the individuals of the loweft fpecies, would be exprefled by different words. not related to each other, either by derivation or compofition. Thus would language grow by degrees; and as it grew, it would be more and more broken and articulated by confonants; but ftill the words would retain a great deal of their original nature of animal cries. And thus things would go on; words unrelated ftill multiplying, till at laft the language would become too cumberfome for ufe; and then art would be obliged to interpofe, and form a language upon a few radi cal words, according to the rules and method of etymology. Drs WARBURTON, DELANEY, JOHNSON, BEATTIE, BLAIR, and STANHOPE SMITH of New Jersey, who think that language was originally revealed from heaven, confider this account of its human invention as a series of mere juppofitions, hanging loosely together, and the whole fufpended from no fixed principle. The opinions of Diodorus, Vitruvius, Horace, Lucretius, and Cicero, which are frequently quoted in its fupport, are in their estimation of no greater authority than the opinions of other men; for as language was formed. and brought to a great degree of perfection long before the era of any hiftorian with whom we are acquainted, the antiquity of the Greek and Roman writers, who are comparatively of yesterday, gives them no advantage in this inquiry over the philofophers of France and England. Ariftotle has defined man to be two μintikov: and the definition is certainly fo far juft, that man is much more remarkable for imitation than invention; and therefore, fay the reafoners on this fide of the question, had the human race been originally mutum et turpe pecus, they would have continued fo to the end of time, unless they had been taught to speak by fome fuperior intelligence. That the firft men fprung from the earth like vegetables, no modern philosopher has ventured to assert; nor does there any where appear fufficint evidence, that men were originally in the tțate of favages. The oldest book extant contains the only rational cofmogony known to the ancient nations; and that book represents the first human inhabitants of this earth, not only as reafoning and fpeaking animals, but also as in a ftate of high perfection and happiness, of which they were deprived for difobedience to their Creator. MOSES, fetting afide his claim to inspiration, deferves, from the confiftence of his narrative, at least as much credit as MOCHUS, or DEMOCRITUS, or EPICU. RUS; and from his prior antiquity, if antiquity could on this-fubject have any weight, he would deferve more, as having lived nearer to the period of which they all write. But the queftion respecting the origin of language may be decided without refting on authority of any kind, merely by confidering the nature of fpeech, and the mental and corporeal powers of man. Those who maintain it to be of human invention, fuppofe men at first to have been folitary animals; afterwards to have herded together without government or fubordination; then to have formed political focieties, and by their own exertions to have advanced from the groffeft ignorance to the refinements of fcience. But, fay the reafoners, whose cause we are now pleading, this is a fuppofition contrary to all history and all experience. There is not upon record a fingle inftance, well authenticated, of a people emerging by their own efforts from barbarifm to civilization. There have indeed been many nations raised from the ftate of favages; but it is known that they were polifhed, not by their own repeated exertions, but by the influence of individuals, or colonies from nations more enlightened than themselves. The original favages of Greece were tamed by the Pelafgi, a foreign tribe; and were afterwards further polished by Orpheus, Cecrops, Cadmus, &c. who derived their knowledge from Egypt and the Eaft. The ancient Romans, a ferocious and motley crew, received the bleffings of law and religion from a fucceffion of foreign kings; and the conquests of Rome, at a later period, contributed to civilize the rest of Europe. In America, the only two nations which, at the invafion of the Spaniards, could be faid to have advanced a fingle ftep from barbarism, were indebted for their fuperiority over the other tribes, not to the gradual and unaffifted progrefs of the human mind, but to the wife inftitutions of foreign legiflators. It is not neceffary here to trace the progrefs of man from the favage ftate to that of political fociety (fee SAVAGISM); but experience teaches us, that in every art it is much easier to improve than to invent. The human mind, when put into the proper track, is indeed capable of making great advances in arts and fciences; but it has not, in a people funk in ignorance and bar. barity, fufficient vigour to difcover that track, or to conceive a ftate different from the prefent. If the rudeft inhabitants of America and other countries have continued (as there is every reafon to believe they have), for ages in the fame unvaried ftate of barbarifm; how is it imaginable that people fo much ruder than they, as to be ignorant of all language, fhould think of inventing an art fo difficult as that of speech, or even to form a conception of it? In building, fishing, hunting, navigating, &c. they might imitate the inftinctive arts of other animals; but there is no other animal that expreffes its fenfations and affections by arbitrary articulate founds. It is faid, that before language could be invented, mankind must have exifted for ages in large political focieties, and have carried on in concert fome common work; but if inarticulate cries, and the natural vifible figns of the paffions and affections, were modes of communication fufficiently accurate to keep a large fociety together for ages, and to direct its members in the execution of fome common work, what could be their inducement to the invention of an art fo ufelefs and difficult as that of language? Let us however fuppose, that different nations of favages fet about inventing an art of communicating their thoughts, which experience had taught them was not abfolutely neceflary; how came they all, without exception, to think of the one art of articulating the voice for this purpofe? In articulate cries, out of which language is fabri cated, have indeed an inftinctive connection with our paffions and affections; but there are geftures and expreffions of countenance with which our paffions and affections are in the fame manner connected. If the natural cries of paffion could be fo modified and enlarged, as to be capable of communicating to the hearer every idea in the mind of the fpeaker, it is certain that the natural gef tures could be fo modified as to answer the very fame purpose (fee PANTOMIME); and it is ftrange, that among the feveral nations who invented languages, not one fhould have ftumbled upon fa. bricating vifible figns of their ideas, but that all fhould have agreed to denote them by articulated founds. Every nation whofe language is narrow and rude, fupplies its defects by violent gefticulations; and therefore, as much less genius is exert ed in the improvement of any art, than was requi fite for its firft invention, it is natural to fuppofe, that, had men been left to devife for themselves a method of communicating their thoughts, they would not have attempted any other than that by which they now improve the language tranfmitted by their fathers. It is vain to urge that articulate founds are fit. ter for the purpote of communicating thought than vifible gefticulation': for though this may be true, it is a truth which could hardly occur to favages, who had never experienced the fitness of either; and if, to counterbalance the fuperior fitnefs of articulation, its extreme difficulty be taken into view, it must appear little lefs than miraculous, that every savage tribe should think of it, rather than the eafier method of artificial gefticulation. Savages, it is well known, are remarkable for their indolence, and for always preferring ease to uti lity; but their modes of life give fuch a pliancy to their bodies, that they could, with very little trouble, bend their limbs and members into any pofitions agreed upon as the figns of ideas. This is fo far from being the cafe with respect to the organs of articulation, that it is with extreme diffi culty, if at all, that a man advanced in life can be taught to articulate any found which he has not been accustomed to. No foreigner, who comes to England after the age of 30, ever pronounces the language tolerably well; an Englithman of that age can hardly be taught to utter the guttural found which a Scotchman gives to the Greek X or even the French found of the vowel u: and of the folitary favages who have been caught in different forefts, we know not an inftance of one, who, after the age of manhood, learned to arti culate any language, fo as to make himself readily understood. The prefent age has indeed furnished many inftances of deaf perfons being taught to fpeak intelligibly, by skilful mafters moulding the organs of the mouth into the pofitions proper for articulating the voice: but who was to perform this task among the inventors of language, when all mankind were equally ignorant of the means by which articulation is effected? In a word, daily experience informs us, that men who have not learned to articulate in their childhood, never afterwards acquire the faculty of fpeech, but by fuch helps as favages cannot obtain; and therefore, if fpeech was invented at all, it muft have been either by children who were incapable of invention, or by men who were incapable of fpeech. A thousand, nay a million, of children could not think of inventing a language. While the organs are pliable, there is not understanding enough to frame the conception of a language; and by the time that there is understanding, the organs are become too stiff for the task. And, therefore, fay the advocates for the divine origin of language, reafon, as well as history intimates, that mankind in all ages must have been speaking animals; the young having conftantly acquired this art by imitating those who were elder; and we may warrantably conclude, that our first parents received it by immediate inspiration. ९ fouth, a vaft number of words would in one country be fabricated to denote complex conceptions, which must necessarily be unintelligible to the body of the people inhabiting countries where thofe conceptions had never been formed. Thus would various dialects be unavoidably introduced into the original language, even whilst all mankind remained in one fociety and under one government. But after feparate and independent focieties were formed, these variations would become more numerous, and the feveral dialects would deviate farther and farther from each other, as well as from the idiom and genius of the parent tongue, in proportion to the dif tance of the tribes by whom they were spoken. If we suppose a few people either to have been banifhed together from the fociety of their brethren, or to have voluntarily wandered to a diftance, from which, through tracklefs forefts, they could To this account of the origin of language an objection readily occurs: If the first language was communicated by inspiration, it must have been perfect, and held in reverence by thofe who fpake it, i. e. by all mankind. But a vaft variety of lan-not return (and fuch emigrations have often taken guages have prevailed in the world; and some of thofe which remain are known to be very imperfect, whilft there is reafon to believe that many others are loft. If different languages were originally invented by different nations, all this would naturally follow from the mixture of these nations; but what could induce men poffeffed of one perfect language of divine original, to forfake it for barbarous jargons of their own invention, and in every refpect inferior to that with which their forefathers or themselves had been inspired? To this objection, it is replied, that nothing was given by inspiration but the faculty of speech and the elements of language; for when once men had language, it is eafy to conceive how they might have modified it by their natural powers, as thoufands could improve what they could not invent. The first language, if given by infpiration, muft, in its principles, have had all the perfection of which language is fufceptible; but, from the nature of things, it could not be very copious. The words of language are either proper names or the figns of ideas and relations; but it cannot be fuppofed that the All-wife Instructor would load the memories of men with words to denote things then unknown, or with the figns of ideas which they had not then acquired. It was fufficient that a foundation was laid, of fuch a nature as would fupport the largest fuperftructure which they might ever after have occafion to raise upon it, and that they were taught the method of building by compofition and derivation. This would long preferve the language radically the fame, though it could not prevent the introduction of different dialects in the different countries over which men fpread themfelves. In whatever region we fuppofe the human race to have been originally placed, the increase of their numbers would, in procefs of time, either disperse them into different nations, or extend the one nation to a vaft diftance on all fides, from what we may call the feat of government. In either cafe they would everywhere meet with new objects, which would occafion the invention of new names; and as the difference of climate and other natural caufes would compel those who removed eastward or northward, to adopt modes of life in many respects different from the modes of those who travelled towards the weft or the place), it is easy to see how the moft copious language muft in their mouths have foon become narrow, and how the offspring of infpiration must in time have become fo deformed, as hardly to retain a feature of the ancestor whence it originally fprung. Men do not long retain a practical skill in thofe arts which they never exercife; and there are abundance of facts to prove, that a fingle man caft upon a defert island, and having to provide the neceffaries of life by his own ingenuity, would foon lose the art of speaking with fluency his mother tongue. A fmall number of men caft away together, would indeed retain that art somewhat longer; but in a space of time not very long, it would in a great meafure be loft by them or their poterity. In this ftate of banifhment, as their time would be almoft wholly occupied in hunting, fishing, and other means within their reach to fupport a wretched exiftence, they would have very little leifure, and perhaps lefs defire, to preferve by converfation the remembrance of that eafe, and thofe comforts, of which they now found themselves for ever deprived; and they would of course foon forget all the words which, in their native language, had been used to denote the accommodations and elegancies of polished life. This at leaft is certain, that they would not attempt to teach their children a part of language, which in their circumftances could be of no use to them, and of which it would be impoffible to make them comprehend the meaning; for where there are no ideas, the figns of ideas cannot be made intelligible. From fuch colonies as this, dispersed over the earth, it is probable that all thofe nations of favages have arifen, which have induced fo many philofophers to imagine, that the ftate of the favage was the original ftate of man; and if so, we fee, that from the language of inspiration must have unavoidably sprung a number of different dialects, all extremely rude and narrow, and retaining nothing of the parent tongue, except perhaps the names of the most confpicuous objects of nature, and of those wants and enjoyments which are infeparable from humanity. The favage ftate has no artificial wants, and furnishes few ideas that require terms to exprefs them. The habits of foli tude and filence incline a favage rarely to speak; and and when he speaks, he uses the same terms to de- ury and effeminacy prevail , are flowing and harnote different ideas. Speech, therefore, in this rude monious, but devoid of force and energy. condition of men, must be extremely narrow and But although it may be considered as a general extremely various. Every new region, and every 'rule, that the language of any people is a very new climate, suggests different ideas, and creates exact index of the Atate of their minds; yet it ad· different wants, which must be expreffed either by mits of some particular exceptions. For as man * terms entirely new, or by old terms used with a is naturally an imitative animal, and in matters of new fignification. Hence mutt originate great di- this kind 'never has recourse to invention but versity, even in the first elements of speech, among through neceflity, colonies, planted by any nation, all favage nations, the words retained of the ori- at whatever distance from the mother country, ginal language being used in various senses, and always retain the same general sounds and idiom pronounced, as we may believe, with various ac. of language, with those from whom they are sepacents. When any of those savage tribes emerged rated, in process of time, however, the colonists from their barbarism, whether by their own efforts, and the people of the mother country, by living or by the aid of people more enlightened than under different climates, by being engaged in difthemselves, it is obvious, that the improvement and ferent occupations, and by adopting, of course, copiousness of their language would keep pace different modes of life, may lose all knowledge of with their own progress in knowledge and in the one another, assume different national characters, arts of civil life; but in the infinite multitude of and form each a distinct language to themselves words which civilization and refinement added totally different in genius and style, though agreeto language, it would be little less than miracu. ing in the fundamental sounds and general idiom. lous, were any two nations to agree upon the same if, therefore, this particular idiom, formed before sounds to represent the same ideas. Superior re- their separation, happen to be more peculiarly finement, indeed, may induce imitation; conquests adapted to the genius of the mother country than may impose a language, and extension of empires of the colonies, these will labour under an inconmay melt down different nations and different di- venience on this account, which they may never alećts into one mass; but independent tribes na- be wholly able to overcome; and this inconveni. turally give rise to diversity of tongues, nor does ence mult prevent their language from ever attaid. it seem poflible, that they should retain more of ing to that degree of perfection, to which, by the the original language, than the words expressive of genius of the people, it might otherwise have been those objects with which all men are at all times carried. Thus various languages may have been equally concerned. formed out of one parent tongue; and thus that The variety of languages, therefore, the copi. bappy concurrence of circumstances, which has ousness of some, and the narrowness of others, raised fome languages to a high degree of perfecfurnish no good objection to the divine origin of tion, may be easily accounted for; while many inlanguage in general; for whether language was effectual efforts have been made to raise other lanat firft revealed from heaven, or in a course of guages to the same degree of excellence. ages invented by men, a multitude of dialects Sect. IV. Of the Idiom and Genius of a Lax. would inevitably arise, as soon as the human race was separated into a number of disting and in. GUAGE. dependent nations. We pretend not to decide As the knowledge of languages constitutes a in a question of this nature: we have given the great part of erudition, as their beauty and defor. best arguments on both fides, which we could mities furnish employment to taste, and as these either devise, or find in the writings of others : and depend much upon the idioms of the different if our own judgment leans to the side of revela- tongues, we fall offer a few remarks upon the tion, let it not be haftily condemned by those advantages and defects of some of those idioms of whose knowledge of languages extend no farther language with which we are best acquainted. than to Greece and Rome, and France and Eng. As the words idiom and GENIUS of a language land; for if they will carry their philological inqui- are often confounded, it is necessary to define ries to the east, they may perhaps be able to trace them. By idiom we mean that general mode of the remains of one original language through a great arranging words into fentences which prevails in any part of the globe at this day. Numberless proofs particular language ; and by Genius we mean to of this might be given, if our limits would permit. express the particular set of ideas which the words See Halbed's preface to the Code of Gentoo Laws. of any language, either from their formation or Language, whatever was its origin, must be sub- multiplicity, are most naturally apt to excite in the ject to perpetual changes from its very nature, as `mind of any one who hears it properly uttered. Thus, well as from that variety of incidents which affect although the English, French, Italian, and Spanish all sublunary things; and those changes must al. languages nearly agree in the fame general IDION, ways correspond with the change of circumstances yet the particular GENIUS of each is remarkably among the people by whom the language is spo. different ; the English is naturally bold, nervous, ken. When any particular set of ideas becomes and strongly articulated; the French is weaker, prevalent among any society of men, words must and more flowing ; the Italian more soothing and be adopted to express them; and from these the harmonious; and the Spanish more grave, fonolanguage must atsume its character. Hence the rous, and stately. language of a brave and martial people is bold and When we examine the several languages which nervous, although perhaps rude and uncultivated; bave been moft esteemed in Europe, we fiod that while the languages of those nations in which lux. there are only two IDIOMs among them which are efTentially |