288 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



production of a diversity of tongues, let us now attend to 

 the influence of situation. 



If we suppose a family or tribe dwelling in a district of 

 small dimensions, we can easily imagine, that the same 

 signs would be employed by all. Every one would be fa- 

 miliar with the same natural objects, and be engaged in the 

 performance of the same actions. A sign therefore once 

 adopted and understood, would continue to be employed ; 

 and as new objects would seldom present themselves of suf- 

 ficient importance to call for a new sign, those few which cir- 

 cumstances might render necessary, would speedily be made 

 known to all. But if we suppose a separation to take place, 

 and a branch of this tribe induced to emigrate to a new 

 district, What effect would this change of place produce 

 upon their language ? New objects would present them- 

 selves, requiring new signs by which to express them ; 

 new movements would be exhibited by these objects, and 

 new operations performed upon them, all giving rise to new 

 sounds or signs. In the mean time, the old objects, no 

 longer recurring, would be forgotten, and the signs by 

 which they were expressed, either neglected or annexed to 

 new objects, with which they might be but obscurely con- 

 nected. In this manner, in the course of a few years, the 

 emigrants would have added many words to their language, 

 expressive of objects, qualities, and actions, unknown to the 

 tribe from which they had separated, and a generation 

 would scarcely have elapsed, before the two tribes spoke 

 different languages, and the sound of the one had become 

 strange to the other. If we conceive a tribe living in a 

 mountainous district, and familiar with glens and preci- 

 pices, and cataracts, to descend into the plains, how many 

 of their signs would cease to be employed, and how many 

 new ones would be requisite to express the character of the 

 rivers and their inundations, the meadows and pools ? II' 



