392 INDUCTION. 



until they are capable of instruction, and of using their facul- 

 ties in a more perfect manner than savages do. 



" The Abbe Raynal's observation is sufficiently confirmed, 

 both from fact, and from the structure of all languages. 



" Kude nations do really believe sun, moon, and stars, 

 earth, sea, and air, fountains, and lakes, to have understanding 

 and active power. To pay homage to them, and implore their 

 favour, is a kind of idolatry natural to savages. 



"All languages carry in their structure the marks of their 

 being formed when this belief prevailed. The distinction of 

 verbs and participles into active and passive, which is found in 

 all languages, must have been originally intended to distin- 

 guish what is really active from what is merely passive ; and 

 in all languages, we find active verbs applied to those objects, 

 in which, according to the Abbe Kaynal's observation, savages 

 suppose a soul. 



" Thus we say the sun rises and sets, and comes to the 

 meridian, the moon changes, the sea ebbs and flows, the winds 

 blow. Languages were formed by men who believed these 

 objects to have life and active power in themselves. It was 

 therefore proper and natural to express their motions and 

 changes by active verbs. 



" There is no surer way of tracing the sentiments of nations 

 before they have records, than by the structure of their lan- 

 guage, which, notwithstanding the changes produced in it by 

 time, will always retain some signatures of the thoughts of 

 those by whom it was invented. When we find the same 

 sentiments indicated in the structure of all languages, those 

 sentiments must have been common to the human species 

 when languages were invented. 



" When a few, of superior intellectual abilities, find leisure 

 for speculation, they begin to philosophize, and soon discover, 

 that many of those objects which at first they believed to be 

 intelligent and active are really lifeless and passive. This is 

 a very important discovery. It elevates the mind, emancipates 

 from many vulgar superstitions, and invites to further disco- 

 veries of the same kind. 



" As philosophy advances, life and activity in natural 



