ON HIEROGLYPHIC AND PICTURE-WRITING. 343 



not one tenth of an inch, through which the breath, transmitted 

 from ihe lungs, pas^s with considerable velocity : in its passage it 

 is said to give a brisk vibratory motion to the membranous lips of 

 the ilotti'j, which produces the sound callcil voice, by an operation 

 similar to that which produces sound from tne two lips of a haut- 

 bo) . Galen and others affirm, that both the larynx and the wind- 

 pipe co-operate in rendering th< j breaih vocal ; but later authors do 

 not a_r>-e in this opnion. It seems however necessary for the pro- 

 duction of voice, that a degree of tenseness should be communicated 

 to the larynx, or at least to the two membranes above mentioned. 

 The voice thus formed is strengthened and mellowed by a reverbe- 

 ration from the palate, and other hollow places of the inside of the 

 mouth and nostrils ; and as these are better or worse shaped for 

 this reverberation, the voice is said to be more or less agreeable ; 

 and thus the vocal organs of man appear to be, as it were, a species 

 of iiiut or hautboy, whereof the membranous lips of the glottis are 

 the mouth or reed, and the inside of the throat, palate and nostrils 

 the body ; the windpipe being nothing more than the tube or canal 

 which conveys (he wind from the lungs to the aperture of this musi- 

 cal instrument *. 



The learned and ingenious author of Horniest, with great 

 strength of argument, shews, that language is founded in compact, 

 and not in nature. His friend, lord Monboddo, with great learn, 

 ing and ingenuity, supports the same opinion, and insists that Ian. 

 guage is not natural to man ; but that it is acquired : and, in the 

 course of his reflections, he adduces the opinions not only of 

 heathen philosophers, poets, and historians, but of Christian di- 

 vines both ancient and modern ^. 



* See Dr. Beanie on the Theory of Language, p. 246, Loud. 1783, 4to. 



t See Hermes, by James Harris, Esq. book iii. p. 314, 327. 



J This author is of opinion that mankind took the hints of the most useful arts 

 from the brule creation, " for," Eaith he, " it may be that men first learned to 

 " build from the swallow ; from the spider, to weave ; and from the birds, to 

 " sing." See Monboddo on the Origin aud Progress of Language, books i. and 

 ii. p. 237 and 375. 



" The first words of men, like their first ideas," saith Mr. Harris, " had an 

 " immediate reference to sensible objects ; and, in aftertimeg, when men began 

 " to discover with their intellects, they took those words which they found al- 

 " ready made, and transferred them, by metaphor,, to intellectual conceptions." 

 Hermes, p. 269. 



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