Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 43 



Paris, teach the dumb to fpeak ; and, when he has obferved all the 

 different adions of the organs, which thofe profeflbrs are obliged 

 to mark diftindly to their pupils with a great deal of pains and la- 

 bour, fo far from thinking articulation natural to Man, he will ra- 

 ther wonder how, by any teaching or imitation, he fhould attain to 

 the ready performance of fuch various and complicated operations. 

 For even the pronunciation of many of the fnigle letters, particularly 

 of the confonantSjis very difficult. And, when it is further confidered 

 that, in order to fpeak, it is necelTary to join fuch a number of thefe 

 artificial founds together in an infinite variety of combinations, and 

 to utter them readily and diflindly, it mufl appear that fpeech is not 

 only an Art, but a moft difficult Art, not to be learned without both 

 teaching and imitation and very affiduous pradice. For I hold it to 

 be impoffible to learn to fpeak, as we learn dancing or mufic, by prac- 

 tifing an hour or two in the day : But we muft pradice conflantly, 

 and upon every occafion ; and, unlefs we begin in our early youth, 

 while the organs are yet foft and pliable, it is not to be learned 

 without the greateft difficulty. I therefore do not at all wonder, 

 that the dumb Savages have not learned to fpeak ; for even the 

 dumb and deaf among us cannot learn it, unlefs they give the greateft 

 application, which cannot be expeded from a Savage, who is not 

 fo docile by nature, as a man born of civilized parents and brought 

 up among civilized men, and who, befides, cannot be fo much con- 

 vinced of the ufefulnefs of the Art. 



What I publifhed in the Firft Volume of the Origin and Progrefs 

 of Language concerning the Oran Outan, excited very much, at 

 firft, the curiofity of the people of England, particularly of the 

 members of the Royal Society. And I was informed by a letter 

 from the late Sir John Pringle, Prefident of that Society, that they 

 intended to fend out a man on purpofe, whom he called Woodvil, 



F 2 to 



