344 HIliKOiJLVI'lllC AND 



Thou;;?i language, as it is generally considered by grammarians, 

 is a work of art ; yet it is evident li.ni vocal M> .m 1 are founded in 

 nature; nnd man would vary' those sounds, as impelled by his ; 

 sions. or urged by his necessiti.-*. This t vrrise of the organs of 

 uld produce articulate voices, which are peculiar to 'In- 

 human species ; vocal sounds, expressive of . oti :;-, being nataTfcl 

 to brut- ^ as well as to men. These articulate voices are the first 

 advances towards the formation of a language. The human 01 

 are not, like those of most brutes, confined to particular sounds ; 

 but, as men are capable of learning to imitate the several sounds of 

 the brute creation, by that means they acquire a greater variety of 

 sounds than other animals. It is evident that children learn to 

 speak by imitation ; they acquire articulate sounds before they 

 comprehend the ideas of which those sounds are significa 



It would be digressing from the subject immediately before us, 

 to say more at present concerning the nature of speech, or audible 

 language ; our inquiry being into the origin of visible or written 

 language. 



It is obvious that men would soon discover the difficulty of con. 

 veying new ideas by sounds alone ; for, as Mr. Harris observes*, 

 <{ the senses never exceed their natural limits ; the eye perceives 

 ' no sounds, the ear perceives no figures nor colours;" therefore 

 it became necessary to call in the assistance of the eye where the 

 ear alone was insufficient. 



It will presently be demonstrated that men, even in their most 

 uncivilized state, display a faculty of imitation +, which enables 

 them to delineate objects and communicate information by rude 

 pictures or representations. For example, a man who had seen a 

 strange animal, plant, or any other new object, for which he wanted 

 a name, would have been almost mechanically led to illustrate his 

 description by signs; and, if they were not readily comprehended, 

 by a rude delineation in the sand, on the bark of a tree, on a slate, 

 on a bone, or on such materials as first presented themselves : these 

 being hanued about, naturally suggested the hint of using this me- 

 thod of ronvejint; intelligence to a distant friend. The exercise of 

 this uculty of imitation, so eminently conspicuous in the human 

 species, will be found, on an accurate investigation, to have been 



* Hermes, p. 33J. 



t ArL-to.lc ^:i>s, man is the most imitative of all animals. 



