LANGUAGE. 



369 



as they are in speech ; and even some abstract ideas 

 might be represented as they are with us by our 

 algebraic characters. But this mode of communica- 

 tion was necessarily very limited, and its sense, as 

 well as its method, could only be explained by means 

 of spoken words. This led to an easier process, and 

 the hieroglyphics were turned into alphabetical letters. 

 A number of them continued to be employed in the 

 former mode ; as, in our almanacs, we have charac- 

 ters representing the sun, the moon and her phases, 

 various stare, and the signs of the zodiac. These are 

 hieroglyphics, to all intents and purposes, and every 

 written language (if we may use the term) has more 

 or less of them. The Egyptians have employed them 

 in greater abundance than any other nation. Still 

 those signs awakened ideas in no other forms than 

 those in which they presented themselves to the 

 mind, when clothed in words; hence we are informed 

 by Champollion, that there were hieroglyphs signifi- 

 cative of the articles which, in the Coptic language, 

 are prefixed to substantives. But the article is a 

 part of speech not at all necessary in language, since 

 there are idioms (the Latin, for instance, and, amongst 

 modern languages, the Russian) that are entirely 

 without it ; so that it is evident that even hierogly- 

 phic signs were invented to represent words in the 

 first instance, and ideas through them. Of what is 

 called the Mexican picture-writing, we know too 

 little to speak very positively. Unfortunately, the 

 key to those hieroglyphs, which was preserved for a 

 long time after the conquest of Mexico, is now lost. 

 Therefore we cannot say how they were connected 

 with the spoken language. But that such a con- 

 nexion must have existed, it is impossible to doubt ; 

 otherwise, the Mexicans could not, as it is known 

 they did, have communicated, by mere pictures of 

 visible objects, the history of their empire, from gener- 

 ation to generation. The few hieroglyphic signs 

 which our northern Indians cut or paint on the bark 

 of trees, to inform each other of the number of their 

 enemies, of the course they are pursuing, and of the 

 number of scalps they have taken in battle, are so 

 limited in their objects, that they only serve to show 

 the difficulty of establishing a similar mode of com- 

 munication on a more extensive scale. It would soon 

 produce confusion, unless a method were connected 

 with it, based on the structure and on the grammati- 

 cal forms of the spoken language. This alone could 

 class the signs in the memory, and furnish a clew to 

 their different significations, as applied to various 

 objects, cases and circumstances. It must be other- 

 wise, however, when men, in consequence of some 

 natural defect, as the deaf and dumb, for instance, 

 have no idea of sounds, and therefore are without a 

 spoken language. Here their ideas are formed from 

 the recollection of the perceptions which they have 

 received through other senses than that of hearing. 

 They, however, invent signs to communicate with 

 each other, either through the organs of sight or by 

 means of touch. It has been observed, that many of 

 those signs seem to have been taught by nature, and 

 nre the same in countries far distant from each other. 

 These are to sight and feeling what onomatppeias are 

 to sound, and are much more numerous, because 

 more abounding in analogies. Others of those signs 

 are arbitrary, and that is where analogies either en- 

 tirely fail, or are more obscure and less perceptible. 

 All of them, however, are very limited, and, if the 

 deaf and dumb were left to themselves, would not 

 enable them to enlarge the circle of their ideas. 

 But the admirable art by which they liave been 

 taught to understand our languages, through the ap- 

 plication of the sense of sight, and to comprehend 

 the mysteries of their structure and their forms, has 

 opened to them a world of ideas, to which they were 



before entirely strangers, and has enabled them to 

 combine them with method, compare them with pre- 

 cision, and draw from them correct inferences. To 

 them words are not sounds, but groups of little 

 figures, which class themselves in their minds, and 

 become a medium by which not only to increase the 

 number of the visible signs by touch or gestures, 

 through which they before communicated together, 

 but to improve and methodize them to a degree 

 which, without the knowledge of language, they 

 never would have attained. This language of signs 

 in our deaf and dumb asylums, has received a degree 

 of perfection, which, in some respects, particularly 

 in the rapidity with which ideas are communicated, 

 places it above speech, although, in others, its in- 

 feriority cannot be denied. Those advantages it has 

 derived from the knowledge of the forms and method 

 of spoken language, obtained through its written 

 image. It follows, from what has been said, that 

 speech alone is properly entitled to the name of 

 language, because it alone can class and methodize 

 ideas, and clothe them in forms which help to dis- 

 criminate their various shades, and which memory 

 easily retains ; that written signs or characters, in- 

 vented by men who can speak, will naturally awaken 

 ideas, in the forms in which their language has 

 clothed them, so as to convey them to the mind 

 through those well known forms, and consequently 

 through the words or sounds to which they have been 

 given. Those who are deprived, by nature, of the 

 sense of hearing, will make the best use they can of 

 the senses which they possess. We have even known 

 a young woman, born deaf and blind, who, to a cer- 

 tain degree, could understand and make herself 

 understood, by means of touch ; but otherwise, speech 

 is the basis of all other modes of communication be- 

 tween men, and all of them, whatever be their forms, 

 reach the mind only through the recollection of ideas, 

 as clothed in the words of a spoken language. 



Origin and Formation of Language. The origin 

 of language is involved in deep obscurity. The 

 greatest philosophers, among whom may be mentioned 

 Leibnitz, J. J. Rousseau, Adam Smith, Dugald 

 Stewart, and many others, have in vain exerted their 

 powers to discover what it is most probable will ever 

 remain to us a profound mystery, at least on this side 

 of the grave. Theories have been accumulated upon 

 theories, systems have been formed, and volumes 

 have been written for and against them ; but it does 

 not appear that we are much better informed, at pre- 

 sent, than we were in the beginning. Human know- 

 ledge has its bounds, prescribed by the almighty 

 Creator of the universe ; these bounds we may ap- 

 proach to a certain degree, but never pass. However, 

 we may be assured of this undeniable truth, it is not 

 the less certain that the same Being who has set 

 limits to our knowledge has implanted in our souls an 

 ardent desire to extend it as far as possible ; and, as 

 those precise limits have not been revealed to us, 

 and there remains a vast space of debatable ground, 

 we are not prohibited from exerting our best facul- 

 ties in order to extend our view of that ground as far 

 as our imperfect judgment, aided by our imperfect 

 senses, will permit ; and therefore inquiries of this 

 kind will always be curious and interesting, how 

 often soever they may have been tried in vain. Nor 

 is it less curious to take a retrospective view of the 

 aberrations of the human mind to which these in- 

 quiries have given rise. It is unfortunately too true, 

 that, in pursuing them, men have much oftener 

 reasoned a priori, than they have sought to come at 

 the truth by means of fair induction from well ascer- 

 tained facts. It is but lately that philologists have 

 employed themselves in collecting facts, till then un- 

 observed, by means of which some extension of our 

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