Chap. XVII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 225 



invented ftatuary and archite£lure, (of which lafl: mentioned art thers 

 are forric wonderful monuments ftiil remaining,) and one of the finefl 

 of the fine arts, I mean mufic, which to form into an art I hold to be 

 a matter of much difficulty : But the firft pradice of it without art, was 

 not difficult; and therefore I am perfuaded that it was pradifed in that 

 way before language was invented, being much more natural to man 

 than articulation. For Nature has furniflied to us the materials of 

 which mufic is compofcd ; that is, founds, differing as to acutenefs 

 and gravity in our animal cries : Whereas the materials of language, 

 that is, art'tciilate founds, are of our own creation, being formed by 

 the pofition and aclion of our organs of fpeech, of which the prin- 

 cipal are hidden in our mouths ; by which pofitions and ac- 

 tions our voice, that naturally goes on in a continued flow like 

 the voices of other animals, is broken and divided into articu- 

 late founds. This was an art fo great, that, as I have faid elfe- 

 wTiere, I think it could not have been invented without fuperna- 

 tural affiftance. We are, therefore, not to wonder that mufic was 

 praftifcd by men before they had the ufe of language : For not only 

 they had, as I have faid, from Nature the materials of which they 

 formed mufic, but they learned the pradice of it by imitation of 

 the birds ; which was the firft mufic among men. This Lucretius 

 has told us, where he fays, 



At liquidas avium voces imltarier ore, 

 Ante fuit multo, quam levia carmina cantu 

 Concelebrare homines poffint, aurelfque juvare: 



And I was told by the wild girl that I faw in France, whom I have 

 mentioned more than once in this work *, that the mufic of her 

 country was altogether of that kind ; and that flie could, at the time 

 when I converfed with her, imitate the fong of any bird. And as 

 man is a moft imitative animal, and particularly, as Ariftotle has ob- 

 ferved, by his voice, it was moft natural that the firft art he pradifed 

 Vol. VI. F f fliould 



* Sec, concerning her, Appendix to Vol. IV. 



