288 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY: 
production of a diversity of tongues, let us now attend to 
the influence of situation. 
If we suppose a family or tribe dwelling in a district of 
small dimensions, we can easily imagine, that the same 
signs would be employed by all. Every one would be fa- 
miliar with the same natural objects, and be engaged in the 
performance of the same actions. A sign therefore once 
adopted and understood, would continue to be employed ; 
and as new objects would seldom present themselves of suf- 
ficient importance to call for a new sign, those few which cir- 
cumstances might render necessary, would speedily be made 
known to all. But if we suppose a separation to take place, 
and a branch of this tribe induced to emigrate to a new 
district, What effect would this change of place produce 
upon their language ? New objects would present them- 
selves, requiring new signs by which to express them ; 
new movements would be exhibited by these objects, and 
new operations performed upon them, all giving rise to new 
sounds or signs. In the mean time, the old objects, no 
longer recurring, would be forgotten, and the signs by 
which they were expressed, either neglected or annexed to 
new objects, with which they might be but obscurely con- 
nected. In this manner, in the course of a few years, the 
emigrants would have added many words to their language, 
expressive of objects, qualities, and actions, unknown to the 
tribe from which they had separated, and a generation 
would scarcely have elapsed, before the two tribes spoke 
different languages, and the sound of the one had become 
strange to the other. If we conceive a tribe living ina 
mountainous district, and familiar with glens and _preci- 
pices, and cataracts, to descend into the plains, how many 
of their signs would cease to be employed, and how many 
new ones would be requisite to express the character of the 
rivers and their mundations, the meadows and pools? If 
