1825.] 
sable for good and perfect aspiration, 
whenever the H comes in immediate 
succession and combination with a hard 
consonant—as in adhere, at home, &c.* 
Where no immediate combination with 
such previous consonart is required, all 
that is necessary for perfect aspiration 
is, to open the mouthand let the breath 
just begin to flow before the vowel im- 
pulse is given; and, of course, all that 
is requisite for avoidance of such aspi- 
ration, is to let the vocal impulse, or 
tune from the larynx, commence con- 
stantaneously with, or immediately be- 
fore the opening of the mouth to the 
vowel form of enunciation. But of this 
more:in another place. 
V. THE LIPS, constitute another, 
‘and very essential portion of the enun- 
ciative apparatus; and so important, in- 
deed, are the functions of this pair of 
organs, (not only to the beauty and ex- 
pression of the human countenance) 
but to the perfect enunciation of lan- 
guage, that the delicate structure. of 
these in the human subject, may be re- 
garded as the principal anatomical dis- 
tinction to which man is indebted for 
the power of communicating orally the 
thoughts and operations of his mind, 
But for the fine organization of this part 
of the human mouth and countenance 
(which seems to admit of no substitute 
—as will be obvious from the imperfect 
imitation of loquacious birds—in which 
‘the Jabial sounds are rather imagined 
by the hearer than in reality produced), 
the mechanism of verbal utterance must 
have remained imperfect; and indis- 
tinctness and confusion must for ever 
have superseded that exquisite precision 
which marks thé pronunciation of the 
finished elocutionist; and which should 
be the object of emulous attention in 
every speaker, 
Other animals, indeed, have lips; or 
rather, masses of integument and mus- 
cle, which, on account of their anatomi- 
cal»position, rather than their organic 
structure, we dignify with the same 
appellation. But let any one compare 
the playful sensibility, the exquisite 
neatness, the delicate variety of minute 
_ * It is a want of attention to this process 
of gutturalization, that occasions to many 
persons the difficulty they have in sur- 
mounting the cockneyism (as it is some- 
what unfairly called, for the parts of the 
country are numerous in which it is much 
Jess strictly confined to the vulgar than in 
London,) of omitting the aspirate in such” 
‘Combinations as, he is a-tome, he is gone to 
tha-touse}' é' vides a ba-dorse; for he is at 
home, that house, a bad horse, &e. 
The Anatomy of Speech. 
203 
and expressive motion, in the finely ar- 
ganized lip of intelligent beauty, speaking 
at once to the eye, the heart, the ear,— 
or in that of the fluent, graceful and ac- 
complished orator, whom art and nature 
have alike inspired to inform, to cap- 
tivate, and to convince:—let him com- 
pare this human organ, in such subjects 
especially, with the rude deformity, the 
heavy insensibility of that dull mass of 
half-organized matter, which encumbers 
rather than beautifies the portals of the 
brutal mouth, and then decide whether 
it be not an abuse, or rather a misfor- 
tune of language, that they should be con- 
founded by one common denemination. 
~ In the human subject, indeed, these 
organs differ exceedingly in neatness of 
structure, and facility of expressive mo- 
tion. They are liable, also, to certain origi- 
nal deformities and imperfections, which 
will be spoken of in the proper place. 
But I shall endeavour to shew hereafter 
that the principal differences, in what 
relates to enunciative capability, are 
ascribable to certain moral and intellec- 
tual habits, which it is the province of 
a well regulated education to rectify or 
to preclude. 
With respect to the offices of these 
organs—there is scarcely an enuncia- 
tive sound or element that does not 
ultimately depend for some portion of 
its precise character, orisonant:beauty, 
or intelligible contra-distinctness, either 
upon the position, or the minute but 
decisive motions of the upper or the 
under lip, or of both: and so decisively 
expressive are these positions and mo- 
tions, when properly regulated, that 
even the very deaf may be enabled to 
comprehend the language of the precise 
and accurate speaker, by a minute at- 
tention to the verbal action. 
THE VOWELS, in particular, de- 
pend almost entirely on the aper- 
ture and position of the lips — with 
which the flexile portions of the inte- 
rior mouth, that modify the form of 
the cavity, will scarcely ever fail te sym- 
pathize: the vocal impulse, of course, 
being understood to be first given. by 
the vibrations of the larynx and egress 
of the breath. Thus, for example, the 
four different sounds assigned to the 
first letter of our alphabet, a, 4, 4,=iaw 
(differences which written words cannot 
describe, which parallels can scarcely 
illustrate, and which oral and _ visible 
experiment can alone demonstrate) are 
formed by four different degrees of 
opening of cavity and aperture. So, 
also, the three sounds of the second 
2D2 vowel 
