FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 291 
conclusion, that their language, though originally derived 
from the same stock, will lose the resemblance, as those 
who use it recede from barbarism; and after the arts of life 
have been introduced and science cultivated, we shall find 
scarcely the remnants of a common origin. 
If these remarks are founded in truth, we may expect to 
find the language of a country exhibiting peculiar features, 
marking the different stages of the civilization of its inhabi- 
tants. In the ruder periods of society, the sounds which are 
employed will be scanty, like the ideas they are intended to 
represent. Those objects only will receive names which are 
immediately subservent to the purposes of existence; the 
words expressive of action will indicate only sudden transi- 
tions; and, in addition to their literal import, the various 
terms will be employed in a figurative sense, to mark the 
conditions of an event which the language is yet unable to 
describe. Again, in the more advanced periods of society, 
we may expect to find the signs by which natural objects 
are designated, extended in consequence of enlarged know- 
ledge of their number and qualities. ‘The words expres- 
sive of action will not only be more numerous, but capable 
of marking all its conditions with a greater degree of pre- 
cision. ‘The increase of the signs indicative of the arts of 
life, government, and social pleasure, will denote the march 
of the tribe to the attainment of knowledge, wealth, and 
power. Deficiency of expression, therefore, will mark the 
infant state of society, and copiousness, the advances of civi- 
lization. ‘That the progress of language actually exhibits 
such a gradation of character, does not appear in this place 
to require demonstration. 
In a civilized country, language is exposed to the influ- 
ence of many subordinate causes of change. It has already 
been stated, that the number of individuals engaging in the 
improvement of the same arts, m the enlargement of the 
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