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CHAPTER XVI. 



PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE. 



UNDER this head it is intended to present a 

 brief and general view of those inquiries into the 

 Origin and Progress of Language, and of Universal 

 "Grammar, which have been pursued with so much 

 success in modern times. These, it is believed, 

 are in a great measure peculiar to the period under 

 consideration; or, at least, have been conducted 

 more extensively and more successfully than ever 

 before. 



The Origin of language is a question concern- 

 ing which disputes have been long and warmly 

 maintained; some contending that it is an inven- 

 tion of man, gradually growing from rude inarti- 

 culate cries, into a regular, polished, and syste- 

 matic form, in the progress of civilization; and 

 others asserting that it must have been revealed 

 from heaven. This controversy arose many cen- 

 turies before that which is now under review; but 

 in no preceding age was it ever considered in a 

 manner so extensive, learned, and satisfactory. 

 The former opinion was defended with great zeal, 

 erudition, and ingenuity, by Lord Mokboddo/ of 

 North-Britain; by Father Simon:, M. Voltaire, 

 and the Abbe Condillac, of France; and by M. 



d Lord Monboddo supposes that language is not natural to man ; that 

 men sang before they spake; that before they arrived at the point at which 

 language began to be used, they conversed together by signs and inarticu- 

 late cries ; that from these latter language was gradually formed ; that all 

 languages are derived from Egypt, the great source of science and cultiva- 

 tion ; that the Egyptian language is the same with the Sanscrit, or sacred 

 language of India, of which the Greek is a dialect. See his Origin and 

 Progress of Language, 



