Chap. I. ANTIENTMETAPHYSICS. 107 



Man has not from Nature the faculty of articulation like thefe birds 

 that 1 have mentioned, yet flie has given him the power of varying 

 his natural cries by tones of the mufical kind. By this I would not: 

 be underftood to mean that man by nature fmgs as fome birds do ; 

 but that he has from nature fuch tones of voice, of which mufic 

 may be formed, and of which, according to Lucretius and the Wild 

 Girl I faw in France, he made fongs in imitation of the birds. I 

 am, therefore, pcrfuaded, that the firft languages were all more or 

 lefs mufical, as the Greek, Latin, and Sanfcrit were; and as the Chi- 

 nefe and the languages of North America are at this day *. 



But a language with fome articulation and even variety of tones, 

 though it might be fufEcient to communicate men's appetites and 

 defires to one another, and to carry on fome of the ncceflarv arts of 

 life, never could ferve the purpofe of expreffing ideas and forming 

 arts and fciences. Even the Chinefe language, though it have a 

 good deal of articulation, and a wonderful variety of tones, by 

 which it is fufEcient for carrying on the common bufinefs of life, 

 yet is altogether unfit for communicating matters of art and 

 fcience ; and therefore that is done among the Chinefe, by their 

 hieroglyphical writing, exprefling not the words of their language, 

 but their ideas. The language they fpeak is in this refpcd fo defici- 

 ent, that it is not fit for carrying on their law fults; fo that they have 

 no pleadings, but all their judicial proceedings are in iheir hiero- 

 glyphical writing "j". It was, therefore, of abfolute neceffity that a 



O 2 language 



* Origin of Language, vol. V. p. 443. and vol. VI. p. 132. 



f This faft 1 have taken from a book, in two volumes }2mo, entitled, ' Mifcellane. 

 < ous Pieces relating to the Chinefe,' vol. I. p. i 2. This is a book in which many- 

 curious particulars are related concerning both the written and the oral language of the 

 Chinefe ; and which, I think, well vouched by the authorities the author quotes. Accord- 

 ing to the account he gives of the language they fpeak, it is the moll defective, and the 

 moft incoherent language, that is now to be found in the world, more defective than 

 any of the barbarous languages, which I have mentioned in the firft volume of the 



Origin 



