262 



UN NATURAL OR INARTICULATE, AND 



extraordinary phenomenon that occurs in the art of ventriloquism,* that I 

 mean of speaking without appearing to speak, or discovering any motion of 

 the lips : the larynx alone, by long and dexterous practice, and, perhaps, by 

 a peculiar modification in some of its muscles or cartilages, being capable of 

 answering the purpose and supplying the place of the associate organs of the 

 mouth. 



It is this curious power in the art of ventriloquism that most astonishes us, 

 and puts us off our guard ; for the two other powers connected with it, of 

 imitating various cries or voices, and of appearing to throw the voice from 

 remote objects, are far more common and comprehensible. The power of 

 vocal imitation where the tongue is allowed to be employed is possessed, by 

 most persons, to a certain extent ; and, by many, to a degree of accuracy, 

 that would certainly deceive us in the dark ; or if, by any other means, the 

 performer were concealed from us. While the only point necessary to give 

 the voice the semblance of issuing from a distant or unusual object, is to take 

 a nice measure of the distance itself, and of the nature of the object from 

 which it is to be presumed to issue, and so to modulate or inflect it as to pro- 

 duce the natural tone it may be supposed to possess, if thrown from such a 

 distance or from such a form. It must be obvious, however, that the surprise 

 resulting from the mystery of thus imitating voices and distances must be 

 powerfully aided in ventriloquism by the additional mystery of the artist's 

 motionless mouth ; in consequence of which we are totally incapable of refer- 

 ring it to himself. In hearing, as in seeing, habit is our only guide : in 

 both we only judge by accustomed comparisons ; and we are exactly in the 

 same manner deceived by the painter, and even allow ourselves to be de- 

 ceived in regard to objects of vision, as we are by the ventriloquist, and with- 

 out such allowance, in regard to objects of sound. In respect to both senses, 

 indeed, we often deceive ourselves in judging of the most common phe- 

 nomena : and hence it is not at all to be wondered at that we should be com- 

 pletely imposed upon by the nice delusions of art. Thus the evening sky, 

 begirt with gold-green clouds at the extremity of the horizon, is often mis- 

 taken for the ocean, studded with islands ; and the rumbling of a cart over 

 pavement, or hard ground, is not unfrequently believed to be a thunder-clap 

 in the heavens ; and, under the influence of this last deception, we imme- 

 diately .transfer all the awfulness and magnificence of the celestial meteor to 

 this clumsy piece of machinery, and are as alarmed as if the fiery bolt were 

 about to descend upon us. 



LECTURE IX. 



ON NATURAL OR INARTICULATE, AND ARTIFICIAL OR ARTICULATE LANGUAGE. 



Having, in our last lecture, examined into the seat and properties of the 

 natural voice, let us now proceed to notice the mode in which it is applied 

 to the formation, first, of natural language, and next, of speech, or artificial 

 language. 



Natural language is the instinctive appropriation of certain tones of the 

 natural voice, to indicate certain feelings of the sensory : ai^d with the few- 

 exceptions pointed out in our preceding lecture, every animal belonging to the 

 three classes of mammals, birds, and amphibials, every animal possessed of 

 lungs, is in some degree or other possessed of this kind of language. Its 



* According to M. Magendie, whose work first appeared in our own country seven years after the de- 

 livery of the above lecture, in 1811, the larynx is supposed to be the organ chiefly or altogether operated 

 upon in France ; and ventriloquism to consist in adjusting the measure of its articulations according to the 

 effects which the ventriloquist has observed that distance, or other circumstances, produce upon tbe iiattural 

 voice. See Edin. Med. and Surg. Journ. Ixi. 577. 



