124 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



country upon the fide of Hudfon's bay, without wood or water^ 

 and, confequently, without the ufe of fire, upon game which the 

 Indians he had with him killed for him, and which he ate raw*. 

 There is, therefore, no rcafon to doubt what Diodorus has told 

 us, of thefe wild men not having the ufe of fpeech : And in a 

 patfage in the beginning of his hiftory, which I have quoted elk- 

 where, he fays of all men in general, that, while they were in the 

 ftate of nature, before arts and civility were introduced among 

 them, they had not the ufe of fpeech f. 



I will conclude what I have faid, at fo great length, of language, 

 with fome general obfervations upon the fubjed:. In \.\\q frft place, 

 I think 1 have faid enough, and the reader may perhaps think more 

 than enough, to convince every man, that language is not from na- 

 ture, but a work of art, and of very great art. The ufe of our 

 hands, that great inftrument of the neceffary arts of life, I have 

 fhown not to be from nature %, but one of the firft fteps that man 

 made in his progrefs lovpards the arts of civil life. And if fo, hovsr 

 can we fuppofe that the ufe of organs, hidden as thofe of articula- 

 tion are, and of more various and artificial ufe than any other of 

 rur or-^ans, (hould be from nature and not from art. 



if there were any doubt in the matter, we mufi be convinced by 

 the progrefs we fee made in this art, as well as in others, by the 

 barbarous nations ; — from the Troglodytes mentioned by Herodotus, 

 who, when they fpoke, made a noife like bats ; — from the favages 

 whom M. de la Condaminc faw upon the banks of the river Ama- 

 zons, who make a muttering noife when they fpeak ; — from the 

 Hottentots, and the people lately difcovered to the weft of Nev/ 



Mexico, 



• Vol. III. of this work, p. 32. in the note. 



f Vol. I. of Origin of Language, p. 37U. 2d edition, where I have given the words, 

 of Diodorus. 



t Page 35. and 35. of this vol. 



