^^6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



he makes the Greek, Latin, Gothic, and Sclavonic, to be all deriv- 

 ed from the Celtic *. How far this is agreeable with the reft of his 

 fyftem, I leave the reader to judge. 



But there is no need to fhow contradidions in his fyftem, or to 

 confute it by arguments; for there is a fad very well known, which 

 at once puts an end to it. The fact I mean is, that deaf men are 

 likewife dumb, and cannot articulate not only words of feveral fylla- 

 bles, but not even monofyllabical words, of which, M. Gebelin fays, 

 that the primitive language confifted. They cannot, therefore, pro- 

 nounce the firft elements of fpeech ; yet they have the organs of pro- 

 nunciation, fuch as we have that ^re not deaf. And, accordingly, 

 they may be taught to fpeak, though with great labour and much 

 difficulty, and even to fpeak well ; for I heard a female fcholar, of 

 the Abbe de TEpe, in Paris, fpeak fo well, and fo fluently, (not 

 with that hefitation and frequent ftops with which I have heard Mr 

 Braidwood's fcholars fpeak), that I could hardly diftinguifh her 

 fpeaking from that of any other perfon. And the reafon why there 

 is fo much difficulty in teaching them, is, that they have not the fenfe 

 of hearing, fo as to learn to fpeak by imitation, as our children do. 

 Now, what muft be learned either by teaching or imitation, is cer- 

 tainly a thing of art and not of nature. 



But I have fpent too much time (the reader, I am perfuaded, will 

 think) in explaining this very extraordinary fyftem, which I believe 

 no author before M. Gebelin maintained. And I will conclude my 

 account of his work, with obl"er\ ing, how very difficult the inven- 

 tion of language muft have been, not only of a language of art, 

 fuch as the Shanfcrit, Greek, or Latin, but of the moft barbarous 

 languages, expreffing only the ideas of the fpeaker, and conneding 

 thofe ideas together forae way or other, however imperfed, but 



without 

 • Vol. 9. p. 206. 



