a 



108 ANT I ENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



language of much greater art than the Chinefe, or than any other 

 barbarous language, fliould have been invented, before any confide- 

 rable progrefs could have been made in the invention of arts and 

 fciences, which could not be without a more perfed communication 

 by fpeech. 



That a language of art is the greateft as well as moft ufeful art 

 praaifed by men, and likewife of moft difficult invention, 1 have 

 Ihown in feveral paiTages of the Origin and Progrefs of Language *: 

 In one of which t, I have obferved a very great difference betwixt 

 language and the other arts pradifed by man : That in thefe other 

 tts, fuch as, architedure, fculpture, and painting, nature has furnifhcd 

 us the materials ; whereas of language we have ourfelves furnifil- 

 ed the materials, that is, articulate founds, which we may be faid to 

 have created; and this alone makes it the moft wonderful of the arts 

 of men. But as the difficulty of the invention of this art is a mat- 

 ter I think, of great curiofuy, and not of common obfervation ; — and 

 as it will tend much to fupport the argument, which I am to main- 

 tain, that Egypt is the parevt country of this as v/ell as of the other 

 arts and of fciences, I will here fay a good deal more upon the fubjed. 



As 



Origin of Lsngunge. And it woi.ltl be intirely unfit even for the ordinary commerce 

 of life, if they did not fupply the defeifl of their articulation, not by tones onIy,but by 

 figns and geftures, and fomething.like writing on the paVms of their hands, (p. 33-). 

 1 once thought that the different fignificatlons, which they giv€ to the fame monofyl- 

 lable, had fome affinity, fo as to refemble in feme fort our derivative, compounded or 

 infleifted words. But this author has convinced me of the contrary by the example he 

 has given of the monofy liable /i(7, which has eleven different fignifications, according 

 as it is differently accented. In one way accented, it denotes glafs ; in another way, it 

 fionifies io toil ; in a third way, to ivinnoiv corn or rice ; in a fourth way, /age or prudent 

 or liberal ; in a fifth way, to prepare ; and in a fixth way, an old -woman, &c. (p. 28.) So 

 that the wonder is, not that fuch a language fliouId need the aid of geftures, but that, 

 in any way, it fliould be made intelligible, (fee what I have further faid of this ftrange 

 language, vol. VI. of Origin of Language, p. 139. and following.). 



• Vol. I. book III. and vol. II. book II. 



+ Vol. IV. p. 177. and following ; and Vol. VI. p. (35. and following. 



