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ON THE LANGUAGE 



The whole, in truth, is founded on hypothesis : here it begins, and here 

 it ends ; hypothesis, too, unsettled and disputed, in many of its points, 

 among themselves. And yet, planting their feet upon this tottering and 

 unsteady ground, they are perpetually uttering the proud and lofty words 

 science^ proofs and demonstration ; than which a more palpable or grosser 

 abuse of terms can never be employed or conceived. 



In few words, how grossly imperfect must be the range and condition 

 of that science, which, upon their own showing, is capable of deciphering 

 to us, that this man is a good musician ; that a good painter ; a third, a 

 good linguist ; a fourth, a good dramatist ; a fifth, a good theologian ; a 

 sixth, a good murderer ; and a seventh, a good thief ; and that any or all 

 these may at the same time be ambitious, or courageous, or conceited, or 

 cunning ; while, if you ask them whether they are good liars, good back- 

 biters, or good swearers ; whether they are inclined to gluttony or sensu- 

 ahty, to wisdom or folly, to sympathy or hypocrisy, to timidity or confi- 

 dence, to mirth or to melancholy ; characters, the one or the other of which 

 apply to every one you meet with, whether abroad or at home, they are 

 compelled to acknowledge that their physiognomy or craniognomy does 

 not extend to any one of these qualities, and that nature has either forgot- 

 ten to put them into the catalogue with which the head is covered, or has 

 marked them bimgUn^ly and obscurely that they cannot read the 

 writingf. 



LECTURE XIV. 



ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE PASSIONS. 



In an early lecture in the present series I observed that the passions? 

 when called forth and operating, discover themselves by a double influence 

 upon the organs of the body, the expression of the features, and the 

 CHARACTER OF THE LANGUAGE. The first WO havo already noticed ; let 

 the second serve as a subject for the lecture before us. 



That the presence and operation of the passions give a pecuhar style and 

 animation to the language must have been observed by every one who has 

 paid the slightest attention either to his own feelings, or to those of the 

 world around him. The man who is in a state of calm and tranquillity 

 will always have his ideas flow in a calm and tranquil current, and express 

 them in an easy and uniform tenour. But let him be roused by some sud- 

 den and violent insult, or by some unexpected stroke of overwhelming joy 

 or sorrow, and the tempest of his soul will give a corresponding tempest 

 to his utterance. His speech, instead of being mild and uniform, will be 

 vehement, energetic, exclamatory, and abrupt ; his judgment will be 

 borne down, his imagination ascendant ; the face of nature will, in conse- 

 quence, assume a new aspect, presenting a distorted, an unduly bright, 

 or an unduly saddened picture, according to the nature of the pre- 

 dominant emotion ; and the phraseology will partake of the colouring, and 

 become proportionally figurative and fanciful. 



This is not a sketch of any particular age or country, but of all ages and 

 all countries ; it is a sketch of rpankind at large ; and we draw from it 

 these two conclusions : first, that the natural language of the passions ir 



