PROF. BLACKIE ON THE PRINCIPLE OF ONOMATOP(EIA IN LANGUAGE. 3 



about them soundly ; for one instance of false portraiture in common conversation, 

 you shall have a hundred exhibitions of bad logic. From the earliest words and 

 actions of the child to the ripest productions of dramatic genius, you have the 

 principle of imitation constantly and intensely at work. Many a literary repu- 

 tation, exercising a powerful sway over thousands and tens of thousands of 

 delighted readers, rests in a great measure on mimicry, on what may be called 

 a sort of parrot work, in the service of reason, no doubt, but not at all dependent 

 upon any high function of reason for its potency or its popularity. It has 

 seldom been heard that the most effective mimics are the most profound reasoners ; 

 and, on the other hand, a profound reasoner is often found deficient in that vivid 

 power of imitating the striking points of detail which is the strength of the 

 popular novelist, and the best spice of convivial conversation. There is therefore 

 no presumption against the action of this so universal principle in the formation 

 of language, but rather the contrary. And if the element by which sounds in the 

 external world are signified in human speech is itself sound, how should we 

 more naturally expect the one to express the other, than by some sort of imita- 

 tion, more or less complete, according to the character of the vocal organ? I go, 

 then, to nature, prepared to expect imitative phenomena in human speech ; and I 

 find them, not one here and one there, but everywhere in the richest abundance. 

 Can any one hear the English words smash, dash, thump, dumb, squeak, creep, 

 clatter, chatter, click-clack, ding-dong, sigh, sob, moan, groan, hurry -skurry, skimble- 

 skamble, wiggle-waggle, and not believe that these words were framed by the 

 human voice, with the express intention, more or less successfully realised, of 

 giving a dramatic representation of the thing signified ? This is so obvious, that, 

 as already stated, Professor Muller has been forced to admit it, to a certain 

 extent; but, at the same time, watches with the sternest jealousy that the action 

 of such a principle shall not be allowed to travel beyond the narrow precincts of 

 the poultry-yard and the pig-sty. But, however he may wish to circumscribe 

 the operation of the principle, it is quite certain that it acts not only most 

 powerfully in the low region here indicated, but that this pictorial power of words 

 is one of the most powerful instruments by which human speech is made to affect 

 the human imagination, and becomes an instrument in the skilful wielding of 

 which one of the great merits of a great poet has always been felt to consist. 

 When, for instance, Homer says : — 



Aovirriffev rs ffiauv agaCSjtrs b% rsu^icc sir avrSJ. 

 " With a hollow sound he smote the ground, and his armour rattled o'er him ;" 



or Go'the — 



" Aus dem hohlen dunklen Thor 

 Drdngt sich cin buntes Gewimmel hervor^ 



every one feels that the poet, under the influence of the rhythmical instinct 

 which is an expression of reason, is only using the materials of language for 



