CHAP. XXII.] TO HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. 413 



hence the need of adjectives and verbs. The verb has 

 the power of assigning to the thing at a particular time 

 the condition of being, doing, or undergoing something. 

 . . . When two or more names come together, it is 

 frequently necessary to express the mutual relation in 

 which they stand ; a thing may be to, from, by, in, near, 

 above, below another, and prepositions are inserted to 

 determine this. Here then are the four principal parts 

 of speech, substantives, or names to express substantives, 

 adjectives to stand for attributes, prepositions to denote 

 relations, and a single verb to assign attributes or rela- 

 tions to substantives at a determinate time." 



" The various parts of speech took their origin from the 

 noun and verb, or possibly from the noun alone. Many 

 instances can be found of adverbs and prepositions which 

 are distinctly substantives, and of conjunctions which are 

 but parts of verbs. Then the close connexion between 

 the verb and noun is indicated by the number of words 

 which, in our own language, are both verb and noun, and 

 only distinguished by mode of pronunciation." 



" It is impossible to trace the growth of language with 

 certainty ; but it is most probable that many of the roots 

 of the primitive language were originally imitations of the 

 various sounds emitted by things in the natural world. 

 A bird or animal, perhaps, received a name derived from, 

 and resembling, its own peculiar utterance. The cry or 

 exclamation that man emitted instinctively under the 

 pressure of some strong feeling, would be consciously 

 reproduced to represent or recall the feeling on another 

 occasion : and it then becomes a word or vicarious sign. 

 Where natural sounds failed, analogy would take the 

 place of imitation ; words harsh and difficult to pronounce 

 would be preferred to stand for unpleasing objects, over 

 those of a more bland and facile character, which would 



