LANGUAGE. 



i.his is done; but human thought would 

 never have acquired any high degree of 

 accuracy and extent, it" there had been no 

 other language. The most perfect lan- 

 guage of signs is merely a representative 

 of the language of speech. What are 

 called the natural signs of feeling are 

 very simitar to the language of brutes, 

 u:.d not more extensive. To give speech 

 all the energy of thought, the language 

 of tone and gesture must be joined to it; 

 but it will generally be found that those 

 who have words for all their ideas, sel- 

 dom have recourse to gesticulation, ex- 

 cept when the warmth of feeling calls it 

 forth. Where speech is defective in 

 energy, it is usually enforced by looks, 

 gestures, and tones : these powerfully ap- 

 peal to the feelings, because they are 

 considered as an indication that certain 

 feelings exist in the mind of the speaker, 

 and feeling is contagious; but our limits 

 will not allow us to enter into the consi- 

 deration of this species of language, and 

 we shall confine ourselves to that of 

 speech, at the same time begging our 

 readers to refer to the article VOICE for 

 an account of the mechanism by which 

 speech is effected, and to WRITING, 

 origin of, alphabetical, for the methods 

 which men have adopted for a permanent 

 visible denotement of speech, which lat- 

 ter we wish to be considered as forming 

 one with the present article. 



3. Whatever be our opinion respecting 

 the progressive melioration of brutes, if 

 the capacity of language were communi- 

 cated to them, there can be no hesitation 

 in admitting that there would be a pro- 

 gressive deterioration of the human spe- 

 cies, if they were deprived of it. Had 

 not man possessed this, or some other 

 extensive power of communication, that 

 astonishing system which we call the 

 human mind, would have remained in in- 

 activity, its faculties torpid, its energies 

 unexcited, and that capacity of progres- 

 sive improvement which forms so im- 

 portant a part in the mental constitution, 

 would have been unknown and given in 

 vain. But in every part of the creation 

 we discern an unity of design, which 

 equally proves the wisdom and benevo- 

 lence of the great First Cause. The 

 means of bringing his powers into activity 

 are bestowed upon man, as well as the 

 powers themselves ; and it is a position 

 which will bear a rigorous examination, 

 that the accuracy of human thought, and 

 the extent of human intellect, generally 

 proceed in equal steps with the accuracy 

 and extent of language. When we consi- 



der the influence of language upon intel- 

 lect, it will not appear too much to affirm, 

 that if those, whose genius has dazzled 

 the world with its splendour and extent, 

 had been from the first destitute of the 

 power of communication, they would not 

 have risen above the level of the least 

 cultivated of their fellow mortals. "Con- 

 ceive such a one (to use the ideas of 

 Condillac) bereft of the use of visible 

 signs, how much knowledge would be 

 concealed from him, attainable even by 

 an ordinary capacity. Take away from 

 him the use of speech, the lot of the 

 dumb teaches you fn what narrow bounds 

 you enclose him. Finally, deprive him 

 of the use of all kinds of signs, let him 

 not know how to make with propriety 

 any gesture, you would have in him a 

 mere idiot." 



4. We are far, however, from believ- 

 ing, with Lord Monboddo, that the hu- 

 man race have actually risen from the 

 very lowest stage that of mere brutality. 

 His lordship supposes, on the authority 

 of several travellers whom he quotes, 

 (and of whose passion for the marvellous 

 his quotations leave no room to doubt), 

 that there have been nations without laws 

 or any of the arts of civilized fife, without 

 even language; and that some of them 

 (to complete their resemblance to the 

 monkey tribe) had actually tails. This, 

 with other opinions which display rather 

 the credulity of the man of system, than 

 the sober and cc*>l judgment of the philo- 

 sopher, has exposed his lordship to the 

 lively ridicule of Mr. Home Tooke ; and 

 though ricJicule is no test of truth, we 

 must ad-nit that this is one of those dog- 

 mata which it is below the dignity of rea- 

 son to refute. 



5. We see in language a complicated 

 whole, which we are usually accustomed 

 to consider as it is, without attempting to 

 ascertain what it has been. We see all 

 regularity and beauty, and we do not 

 often ask ourselves ihe question, lias 

 language always been thus regular and 

 beautiful t When we look back into the 

 earlier periods of human nature, we find 

 that this, which now wears so much the 

 appearance of art, was originally the in- 

 vention of necessity, gradually perfected 

 and brought into a systematic form by 

 causes which have operated generally, 

 but have received modification from the 

 influence of local or temporary circum- 

 stances. A complete history of the origin' 

 and progress of language, would be a 

 history of the human mind. Our direct 

 evidence is not very extensive, and indeed 



