15-2 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IIF. 



as animal cries go on in what I call a conftant flow, with thofe 

 ilifFerences which I have mentioned, is broken and divided into 

 founds, fo different from one another that they cannot be called the 

 fame founds. Now, this difference is produced in the moft natural 

 way, by the various organs of pronounciation, which are employed 

 to produce them. Thefe organs are, ly?, the wind-pipe or larynx, by 

 which the breath from the lungs is conveyed into the mouth : idly, 

 The feveral organs of the mouth, fuch as the tongue, the palate, the 

 lips, and the teeth; all which form, of that breath, articulate founds, 

 fo various and fo different from one another, and yet united in 

 a moft wonderful manner fo as to produce fpeech. Some of thefe 

 articulate founds are produced by the pofition only of the organs^ 

 of fpeech ; and this is the cafe of thofe founds we call vowels, which 

 are produced by certain pofuions of the organs of the mouth while 

 the breath is palFmg throw it: While others, called couforiants^ are 

 produced by certain actions of thefe organs, particularly of the pa- 

 late, the tongue, the lips, and the teeth. Of this wonderful com- 

 pofition we may judge, by the difficulty there muft have been in re- 

 folving all that variety of founds, fo mixed together, into the ele- 

 mental founds of which they are compofed, that is the alphabet. 

 This analyfis was firft made in Egypt, the parent country of all arts*; 

 and, though it be the firft thing our children are taught, yet I think 

 it was a very great work of art, without which there could have 

 been no fcience of language, nor of another moft wonderful art; I 

 mean the writing art, which, Plato tells us, was likewife invented in 

 Egypt. And, indeed, it very naturally followed the difcovery of the 

 elemental founds of which language is compofed ; for the writing 

 art is nothing elfe but putting together, upon paper or any other 

 fubftance fit for that purpofe, certain marks or figns for thofe ele- 

 mental founds, which, being fo put together in different ways, make 

 fyllables and of them words. This too is a very wonderful art; as 



it 

 • Vol. IV. p. 267. 



