MO OF INSTINCT. SECT. XVI. 8. i 



fight when others are under the influence ofthefe affeftions. 

 So when two cocks are preparing to fight, each feels the feath- 

 ers rife round his own neck, and knows from the fame fjgn the 

 diipofition of his adverfary : and children Jong- before they cart 

 fpcak, or underfland the language of their parents, may be 

 frightened by an angry countenance, or foothed by fmiles and 

 blandifhments. 



Secondly, when we put ourfelves into the attitude that any 

 paffion naturally occafions, we foon in fome degree acquire that 

 paflion ; hence when thofe that fcold indulge themfelves in loud 

 oaths, and violent actions of the arms, they increafe their anger 

 by the mode of exprefiing themfelves : and on the contrary the 

 counterfeited fmile of pleafure in difagreeable company foon 

 brings along with it a portion of the reality, as is well illuflrated 

 by Mr. Burke, (Eflay on the Sublime and Beautiful.) 



This latter method of entering into the paffions of others is 

 rendered of every extenfive ufeby the pleafure we take in imita- 

 tion, which is every day prefented before our eyes, in the actions 

 of children, and indeed in all the cuftoms and fafliions of the 

 world. From vhis our aptitude to imitation, arifes what is gen- 

 erally underllood by the word fympathy, fo well explained by Dr. 

 Smith of Glafgow Thus the appearance of a cheerful coun- 

 tenance gives us pleafure, and of a melancholy one makes us 

 forrowful Yawning and fometimes vomiting are thus propa- 

 gated by fympathy, and fome people of delicate fibres, at the 

 prefence of a fpe^lacie of mifery, have felt pain in the fame 

 farts of their own bodies, that were difeafed or mangled in the 

 other. Amongil the writers of antiquity Ariftotle thought this 

 aptitude to imitation an eflential property of the human fpecies, 

 and calls man an imitative animal. To gaov pipamvov. 



Thefe then are the natural figns by which we underftand each 

 other, and on this ilender bafis is built all human language. For 

 without fome natural figns, no artificial ones could have been 

 invented or underllood, as is very ingenioufly obferved by Dr. 

 Reid, (Inquiry into the Human Mind.) 



VIII. The origin of this univerfal language is a fubjecl: of the 

 highetf curiofity, the knowledge of which has always been 

 thought utterly inacceffible. A part of which we fliall however 

 here attempt. 



Light, found, and odours, are unknown to the foetus in the 

 womb, which, except the few fenfations and motions already 

 mentioned, fleeps away its time infenfible of the bufy world. 

 But the moment it arrives into day, it begins to experience 

 many vivic ains and pleafures ; thefe are at the fame time at- 

 .tended with certain mufcular motions, and from this their 



early, 



