112 jiNJLOCr of GREEK LETTERS; 



But although man is plainly pofTeffed of this faculty of ar- 

 ticulation, or pronouncing diftindl fyllables ; yet the analyjGs 

 of thofe fyllables into their conftituent parts, or fimple ele- 

 ments, or into what the Greek writers call ^oiyaa,, muft origi- 

 nally have been a work of immenfe ingenuity. Perhaps it 

 would even have been impradli cable ever to have made a com- 

 plete analyfis of this kind, without the invention of vifible 

 figns for denoting each of thofe elements. Nor hath any fort 

 of figns, fymbols or characters been found fo proper for that 

 purpofe, as thofe which we call Letters. Indeed, it feems im- 

 poffible to comprehend any other vifible mode of analyzing 

 words into fyllables, and fyllables into fimple elements, than 

 that which is furniflied by letters. For though we can con- 

 ceive language to be, in fome degree, conveyed by marks of 

 imitation ; as when, in expreffing an elephant^ we fhould fet 

 down the figure of that animal : yet we could never analyze 

 fuch a reprefentation, fo as to convey any idea of the different 

 fyllables in the word elephant, or of the elemental fo\inds of 

 any of thofe fyllables *. 



Indeed, the fignificant founds of a language, even confider- 

 ed each in the aggregate, and without any refolution into its 



conftituent 



nuntiatione. But of this derivation', Damm, in his Lexicon, juftly fays, " Id pie magis 

 " quam vcre." Eustathius has farther obferved, " That certain birds arc called 

 " /ii'joirf? ;" thofe, no doubt, he means of the parrot kind. But th^ manner in which 

 thefe poflefs the faculty of articulation, forms but a very flight exception to this cha- 

 raflerilf ic of human nature. Human articulation was defined by the Stoics as follows : 

 <bu'>^ fvagS^a? jtai «5ro Jiaefoiaf ex7E/A?r0^ErD, Sound articulate ^ and proceeding from Sentiment* 

 See Harris's Hermes, p. 3^2. 



• Even Dr Wilrins's Real Chara&er, which he has, with fuch aftonilhing labour, 

 invented, is nnt calculated to give any idea of fyllables or elemental founds ; and there- 

 fore, in order to complete his fcheme of an univerial philofophical language, he has 

 likewife invented two alphabets, one of which he calls a Natural CharaSer j this being 

 neceflary for the expreffing of proper names, according to his projeft. See yin Effay 

 towards a real CharaBer and a philofophical Language, ^ji John Wilkins, D. D. Z)fa» 

 ef Ripon, and F. R. S. {^afterwards Bijhop of CheJIer.) Lond. 1668. fol. 



