176 OF INSTINCT. Stcr.XVI.8. 



fome people of delicate fibres, at the prefence of a 

 fpectacle of mifery, have felt pain in the fame parts 

 of their own bodies, that were difeafed or mangled 

 in the other. Among ft the writers of antiquity 

 Ariftotle thought this aptitude to imitation an eflen- 

 tial property of the human fpecies, and calls man an 

 imitative animal. T &<* ^^u^cv. 



Thefe then are the natural ligns by which we un- 

 derftand 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 under- 

 ftood, as is very ingenioufly obferved by Dr. Reid. 

 (Inquiry into the Human Mind.) 



Vill. The origin of this univerfal language is a 

 fubject of the higheft curioiity, the knowledge of 

 which has always been thought utterly macceflible. 

 A part of which we (hall 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 he 

 arrives into day, he begins to experience many vivid 

 pains and pleafures ; thefe are at the fame time at- 

 tended with certain mufcular motions, and from 

 this their early, and individual aflbciation, they ac- 

 quire habits of occurring together, that are after- 

 wards indiflbluble. 



i. Of Fear. 







As foon as the young animal is born, the lirft 

 important fenfations, that occur to him, are occafi- 

 oned by the oppreflion about his precordia for want 

 of refpiration, and by his, fudden traniition from 

 ninety-eight degrees of heat into fo cold a climate. 

 He trembles, that is, he exerts alternately ail the 

 mufcles of his body, to enfranchife himfeif from 



the 



