O84 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 
the same purpose; and are encouraged in the attempt, 
by the facility with which we can thus express to others 
the ideas which external objects have excited in our own 
minds. By attending to the words themselves by which 
objects are distinguished, we perceive manifest differences 
in the nature of the sounds, and in the manner of produ- 
cing them. We annex to these differences particular names, 
and employ particular symbols addressed to the eye to dis- 
tinguish them, and thus form what is termed an Alphabet. 
The letters are divided, by grammarians, into vowels and 
consonants. This arrangement is likewise suited to the 
physiologist. 
In uttering the vowel sounds, the mouth is open, and the 
differences are produced by the position of the tongue, and’ 
the form which we give to the opening by the lps. The 
consonants, on the other hand, are formed by the almost 
total interruption of the expelled air, for a time, by the 
tongue, lips, palate, or teeth. The labial consonants, (of 
the English language.) are formed by the contact of the 
lips, as in M, B, P. The sound of W is intermediate be- 
tween that of a vowel and consonant, as the lips are never 
so completely closed as in the latter, nor so distant as in 
the former. The dentolabial are produced by the union 
or separation of the upper front teeth with the under lip, 
as F, V. The palatine consonants are formed by the 
application of the tongue to the palate, as H, L, N, R, S, 
X, or as C, D, G, I, 'T, Z, together with K and Q. 
By means of these various sounds, either separately or 
variously combined, man is able to form symbols by which 
to designate the objects of nature and their conditions, and 
to reveal the secret workings of his soul. But in this power 
of communicating his thoughts, he is limited to the family 
or tribe in which he has been reared, and whose arbitrary 
sounds he has learned to imitate and comprehend. Beyond 
