116 On transmitting Sounds of Words by Cries of Animals. [Sept. 1, 
suggestion of Mr, H. one must outdo 
Varro by deducing a set of clements 
from the sounds of the inferior animals, 
I have attempted to supply this desider- 
atum by annexing a specimen of a coimn- 
plete alphabet, trusting that in case it 
should not be altogether unexceptionable, 
your numerous readers will not attribute 
the failure to the want of due diligence 
in me, but to the impracticability of the 
plan. 
A. AaQe quasi Airanme liber pater, 
Zigyptice apis, isthe open sound of a bull 
or litera taurina. 
B. according to Abbé de la Pluche, re- 
presents the cloven foot of a bull; but, 
since our intention is to derive an alpha- 
bet from sounds, we must follow Mr. 
Baxter, who calls it the baa lamb letter, 
litera ovina. 
R, (vide Juvenal), is the snarling or dog 
letter, litera canina. 
S; is the hissing or serpent letter, litera 
serpentina. 
K. is the monkey letter, or litera simialis. 
W. or Waw of the orientalists, is the cat 
letter, litera felina. Vide Baxter’s Reli- 
quiz; Vossius ; and Dom De Vaines. 
With an alphabet like the preceding 
specimen, assisted with the researches of 
modein philologers, and in an age when 
brutes are become fashionable compa- 
nions in the parlour, and in the bed- 
chamber, it would not be unreasonable 
_ were you, Mr. Editor, to summon a 
meeting of the birds and beasts, to con- 
stitute them into an academy of belles 
lettres, and to nominate our venerable 
' friend Esop to be president, and one of 
your inquisitive Correspondents to be 
secretary to the institution. But though 
literature would thus fondly hope for a 
standard pronouncing-dictionary from 
the united labours of the baas, the moos, 
the cuckows, the waws, the chicks, and 
the bow-wows, I fear that such expecta- 
tion wouid be in vain; for unluckily the 
animal voice has been divided by gram- 
marians into two species, the articulate 
or continued conversation ; and the inar- 
ticulate.or confused, such as croar, cra, 
&c. which do not proceed from any 
affection of mind. See Priscian, Dio- 
medes, and Alcuinus. 
_ Your young correspondent, for I must 
presume he is young in philological in- 
quiries, is not aware of the unreasonable- 
ness of his suggestion, nor of the difficul- 
ties to which he has presented himself. 
T shall instance a few. It is a certain 
and credible fact, that all animals vary 
their tone and compass of voice with the 
season; this circumstance had been no- 
ticed in the song of the cuckow as early 
as the tune of Pliny. Hist. lib. x. c. 9. 
The sounds of inferior animals are 
different according to their species; 
hence, in saying such a word was barked, 
it would be impossible to know whether 
the dog was supposed to utter loof loof, 
bow wow, or yap yap. 
Different nations, in giving names to 
animals on account of their peculiar 
sounds, have widely differed :, thus, a sow 
in -snoaring makes a whizzing and gut- 
tural sound in the same breathing; the 
Greeks from the whizzing sound, called 
the sow vs, and the Britons from the 
guttural sound, called it Awch: in di 
recting any word to be pronounced swi- 
nish-like, posterity would be at a loss 
which to utter vs, hwch, or grunt. 
The human voice is not perfectly imi- 
table, for the space or small compass 
from one note to another is capable of 
producing an infinity of intervallent 
sounds; to copy a mode of uttérance, 
thus complex is above the reach of art: 
and it is equally impossible to select an 
assortment of animals capable of trans- 
mitting to posterity the language of man, 
who is a being of such peculiar dignity 
and amazement, 
As the Rev. Mr. Evans is solicitous of 
acquiring information respecting Dr. 
Goldsmith, I have to state that Dr. G. 
during his literary career, used to pass 
his summer at a farm-house at the Hythe, 
about one hundred yards on the IJeft 
from, and facing to, the Edgware road, 
The room in which he studied was, until 
lately, papered with his waste manu- 
scripts, his landlord resides there still, is 
very civil,and communicative ; and Gold- 
smith copied him in his ‘ Good-Natured 
Man.” Dr. G.. was but a very short 
time at Dr. Milner’s, at Peckham, and he 
entertained but a humble opinion of the 
Plagiarist of Holmes: his recollection of 
that distressing period is described with 
abhorrence in his “ Essays,” in a paper 
entitled, the Character of Shoolmasters, 
and their Treatment of Ushers. 
Hampstead, Your’s, &c. 
June 13, 1808. Joun Jones, L.L.D. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE Number of your Magazine for 
April, published on the first of | 
May, did not fall into my hands till this 
week, but I think the subject of inquiry 
A from 
