THE 



MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 



OF 



GEOLOGY 



AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 



Vol. I. Philadelphia, November, 1831. No. 5. 



AN EPITOME OF THE PROGRESS OP NATURAL SCIENCE. 



(^Continued from page 158.) 



We have seen how barren history is of every thing relating to 

 natural science, during the long period under consideration in 

 our last number, when the causes were in operation which ne- 

 cessarily retarded every branch of physical science. The revival 

 of these pursuits, not only required the indispensable guarantees 

 of social security, but that they should be preceded by some ad- 

 vances in literature. Towards the end of the dark ages, all the 

 languages of Europe were in a state of change. Languages may 

 be compared to plants, many of which, if not segregated and cul- 

 tivated by themselves, will mingle and give birth to varieties;!^ 

 cultivation again, any of those varieties may be made perma- 

 nent, and brought, as flowers and fruits frequently are, to a state 

 of high perfection. All languages, in the eye of philosophy, are 

 generically the same, since the sounds proceeding from the machi- 

 nery of the human voice, and all their combinations, are results 

 mechanically produced by a common cause ; and the differences 

 observable in uncultivated languages, spoken by people at great 

 geographical distances from each other, may, to a great extent, 

 be considered as modifications, effected by the difference of cli- 

 mate, and often suggested by the uses to which the various ob- 

 jects, found in different parts, are put by human beings. Every 

 physical act differing from another, will necessarily be expressed 

 in a peculiar manner, and it is only under great extensions of 

 society, that any one language at length becomes generally intel- 

 ligible. Under this view, it cannot be proved that languages are 



Vol. L— 25 193 



