114 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO in. 



And hence the enthusiast orator affords 

 Force to the feebler eloquence of words. 



"Thus the first LANGUAGE, when wefrown'd or smiled, 

 Rose from the cradle, Imitation's child; 

 Next to each thought associate sound accords, 

 And forms the dulcet symphony of words ; 

 The tongue, the lips articulate; the throat 

 With soft vibration modulates the note; 

 Love, pity, war, the shout, the song, the prayer 

 Form quick concussions of elastic air. 370 



" Hence the first accents bear in airy rings 

 The vocal symbols of ideal things, 



Hence the first accents, 1. 371. Words were originally the signs or 

 names of individual ideas; but in all known languages many of them 

 by changing their terminations express more than one idea, as in 

 the cases of nouns, and the moods and tenses of verbs. Thus a whip 

 suggests a single idea of that instrument; but "to whip," suggests 

 an idea of action, joined with that of the instrument, and is then 

 called a verb; and " to be whipped," suggests an idea of being acted 

 upon or suffering. Thus in most languages two ideas are suggested 





