110 On the Origin of 
guage into the various articulate sounds of 
which they were composed, and that to a 
' certain extent he should be successful in this 
analysis, is to my mind no more surprising 
than that a chemist or natural philosopher 
should think of examining the different bo- 
dies which were submitted to his notice, in 
order to discover the elementary ingredients 
which entered into their composition. No 
more surprising, did I say? On a comparison 
of the two I might rather have said, that the 
latter was the surprising and visionary at- 
tempt, and that the former, if not easy and 
obvious, was at least natural and reasonable. 
Would a naturally ingenious and inquisitive, 
though unlettered, Englishman, if any cir- 
cumstances led him to attend to the nature of 
the sounds he uttered in speech, have any 
difficulty in perceiving that the words man, 
mane, mate, &c, began with the same confor- 
mation of the organs? Why then is it thought 
a thing incredible that a man should attend 
to the nature of the sounds used by him as 
audible signs in the expression of _ his ideas? 
Why should it appear so strange and unac- 
countable, that he should endeavour to ana- 
lyse the elementary articulate sounds of which 
are composed the different words he has occa- 
sion to employ? Is there any thing peculiar 
