LANGUAGE. 



organs of sense, and thus cease to have any perception of the- 

 qualities peculiar to that organ, save those which his memory 

 may supply. But so long as he exists and thinks, nothing- 

 can deprive him of the immediate perception of the ideas of 

 reflection. 



Of this class of ideas there is not the slightest trace in the- 

 inferior animals, and herein lies the line of demarcation which 

 separates the human race from them, and places it immeasurably 

 above them. Animal intelligence never contemplates itself, never 

 sees itself, never knows itself. It is utterly incapable of that 

 high faculty by which the mind of man, as Locke observes, 

 " turns its view inward upon itself." That thought which con- 

 templates itself ; that intelligence which sees itself, and studies 

 itself ; that knowledge which knows itself, constitutes a distinct 

 order of mental phenomena to which no inferior animal can attain. 

 These constitute, so to speak, the purely intellectual world ; and 

 to man alone, here below, that world belongs. In a word, the- 

 animals feel, know, and think ; but to man alone of all created 

 beings it is given to feel that he feels, to know that he knows, and 

 to think that he thinks. 



118. Of all the instruments by which the range of intelligence 

 is enlarged, and the power of reason augmented, language is- 

 assuredly the most important. It is the means by which feelings 

 are expressed and knowledge imparted. It is the instrument by 

 which the observation and experience of individuals is rendered 

 common property. 



Language, in the only sense in which it is an instrument of 

 intelligence, is not the mere mechanical production of distinct 

 sounds by the vocal organs, for in this sense parrots may be said 

 to be endowed with it. It is a divine gift and not a faculty. Its- 

 origin has been sought for by the learned, but sought in vain. 

 Like the instinct of self-preservation and reproduction, it has been 

 an immediate emanation of divine power. God made it as he- 

 made light. He said, " Let man speak," and man spoke ! 



Most animals have voice, but man alone has language. It is 

 by language, more than any other external character, that man is- 

 distinguished. The animals which come nearest to him in their 

 physical organisation, such as the ourang-outang and other apes, 

 are as completely deprived of language as those which are most 

 removed from him. Man is thus separated from the lower animals 

 by a bottomless abyss. 



So important is language, as a means of extending the intelli- 

 gence, that in a moral sense it may be said, that to speak or not- 

 to speak, is to be or not to be ! 



There can be no doubt in the mind of any careful observer, that 



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