Ciap. I. A N T I E N T ]M E T A P H Y S T C S. 115 



In tliis" invention there muft have been a progrefs, as in the in- 

 vention of ether arts j an J I think men muR have begun with arti- 

 culating one found, and of that making one word, before they join- 

 ed together feveral articulate founds to compofe but one word. In 

 fliort, I believe, that the firft languages were all monofyllabical, as 

 the Chinefe is at this day. But even this firft ftep in the art of 

 language the Chinefe did not make, but got it from Egypt, as' I 

 have faid elfewhere *, and, I hope, rhall prove to the readers fatif- 

 fadion. But it did not remain, I am perfuaded, fo long there in 

 that infantine ftate as it has done in China *; but the monofyllables 

 were lengthend into words of feveral fyllabies. The monofyllables, 

 however, were not for that laid afide, but mixed with words of fe- 

 veral fyllabies, which made a beautiful variety in the found of the 

 language ; for without variety there can be no beauty in any art. 

 And befides this variety in a perfedl language, there is the variety, 

 above-mentioned, of diphthongs, or vowels run together in the pro- 

 nunciation, and of vowels afpirated and not afpirated, and of confo- 

 nants likewife afpirated and not afpirated, and fuch as are in the 

 •middle betwixt thefe two "j". 



It may be thought, that what I have faid here, of the firft lan- 

 guages confifting of monofyllabical words, is contradided by what 

 I have obferved of the great length of words in the barbarous lan- 

 guages. But thefe languages are without art ; and even, artlefs as 

 they are, they could not have been invented by a barbarous people. 

 What, therefore, they have of articulation, the barbarians muft have 



. P 2 o-ot 



t>^ 



• See what I have faid further of the Chinefe Language, vol. VI. Origin of Lan- 

 guage, p. 139. and following. 



f See what I have faid of ;he different kinds of letters, vol. IL of Origin of Lan- 

 guage, bock II. chap. IT, 



