ARTIFICIAL OR ARTICULATE LANGUAGE. 



263 



scope is, indeed, often very limited ; but always sufficient to answer the pur- 

 poses of nature. The female of every species understands the call of the 

 male, and replies to it as intelligibly : the young understand the mandates of 

 the .nother, and the mother the petitions of the young. This amusing de- 

 partment of natural history was well known to the philosophers of Greece 

 and Rome, and attentively cultivated by them : and Lucretius, in his Nature 

 of Things, has pursued the subject not only so correctly but so copiously, 

 that it is almost impossible, even in the present day, to add any thing of real 

 importance to what he has already observed. 



I have termed this language of nature instinctive : and that it is entitled to 

 this character is clear ; because, even among birds, which possess the widest 

 and most complicated range of natural language of all animals whatever, 

 where two individuals of different species are bred up in the same bush, or 

 , in the same cage, or hatched and fostered by a female of a third species, each 

 evinces and retains the note that specifically distinguishes the species to which 

 it belongs. In the case of a goldfinch and a chaffinch this has been put 

 directly to the proof. And it is by this native tongue, as Mr. Montague has 

 justly observed, and not by the form or colour, that the process of pairing is 

 achieved, and the female induced to select her paramour.* 



Almost every animal of the three classes just adverted to exhibits a dif- 

 ferent tone of voice according to the governing passion of the moment ; but 

 more especially when under the influence oi grief, fear, or joy ; to which, 

 in some instances, we may add anger ; but a distinct tone for anger is not so 

 generally traced among animals as it is for the three preceding passions. 



Among quadrupeds, the elephant, horse, and dog appear to possess the 

 p^reatest portion of a natural tongue. They are all gregarious, particularly 

 the two former. In Asia, the wild elephant, and in the Ukraine, between 

 the Don and the Dnieper, the wild horse, pursue one common plan of political 

 society, in numerous and collected troops ; and are regulated by the elders of 

 the tribe among the elephants, and by leaders chosen for this purpose among 

 the horses : and it is by a difference of voice, combined with a difference of 

 gesture, that these superiors give orders, in the course of their travels from 

 place to place, in pursuit of pasture, for the necessary dispositions and arrange- 

 ments. Both kinds are extremely vigilant and active, and maintain their 

 ranks and brigades with as much regularity and precision as if they were 

 conducted by a human leader. Among the wild horses of the Ukraine, the 

 captain-general seems to be commonly appointed to his station for about four 

 or five 5^ears ; at the expiration of which time a kind of new election takes 

 place: everyone appears to have a right to propose himself for the office, 

 the ex-magistrate not excepted : if no new candidate offer, the latter is re- 

 elected for the same terni of time, and if he be opposed a combat succeeds, 

 and the victor is appointed commander-in-chief. 



The conduct pursued by the peaceful and amiable elephant varies in some 

 degree from this of the wild horse ; for, in the travels of these animals from 

 place to place, the troops are led on by the eldest of the tribe, thus evincing 

 a kind of patriarchal government : the young and feeble marching in the mid 

 die, and the rear being composed of the vigorous and adult. f 



The natural language of the monkey kind, notwithstanding the general 

 resemblance of their structure to that of the human race, appears to be more 

 confined than that of most quadrupeds ; and it is well known that they never 

 attempt to articulate sounds. Linnaeus, indeed, seems to have entertained a 

 contrary opinion with respect to the ourang-outang, and asserts that he speaks 

 with a kind of hissing noise. Buffori, however, and Daubenton, and almost 

 every other naturalist who has attentively watched his habits, deny that he 

 ever employs even a hissing speech. And every comparative anatomist, who 

 has accurately examined his vocal organs, has declared him to be physically 

 incapable of articulation, from the peculiarity of a sac or bag, in some spe- 

 cies of the animals single, in others double, immediately connected with the 



* Ornithological Diet. Introd. p. xxix. 



\ See note lo the Author's Translation of Lucretius, vol. ii. p, 37(i 



