■ClUp. II. 
MENTAL POWERS. 
55 
As Horne Tooke, one of the founders of the noble 
science of philology, observes, language is an art, like 
brewing or baking; but writing would have been a 
winch, more appropriate simile. It certainly is not a 
h'Ue instinct, as every language has to be "learnt. It 
differs, however, widely from, all ordinary arts, for man 
* las an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the 
babble of our young children ; whilst no child has an 
lu stinctivc tendency to brew, bake, or write. Moreover, 
j 10 philologist now supposes that any language has 
1;,e en deliberately invented ; each has been slowly and 
^consciously developed by many steps. The sounds 
uttered by birds offer in several respects the nearest 
Analogy to language, for all the members of the same 
species utter the same instinctive cries expressive of 
their emotions; and all the kinds that have the power 
°f singing exert this power instinctively ; but the actual 
Son g> and even the call-notes, are learnt from their 
Parents or foster-parents. These sounds, as Dailies 
Barrington 33 has proved, “ are no more innate than 
language is in man.” The first attempts to sing 
lu; iy be compared to the imperfect endeavour in a 
“.child to babble.” The young males continue prac- 
tising, or, as the bird-catchers say, recording, for ten 
<J1 ' eleven months. Their first essays show hardly a 
Bidiment of the future song; but as they grow older 
"| e can perceive what they are aiming at ; and at last 
they are said “to sing their song round.” Nestlings 
"hieli have learnt the song of a distinct species, as 
' y ith the canary-birds educated in the Tyrol, teach and 
h'ansmit their new song to then - offspring. The slight 
Natural differences of song in the same species inha- 
9 3 Bon. Dailies Barrington in 1 Pliilosopli. Transactions,’ 1773, p. 
1 ® ee also Dureau de la Malle, in ‘ Ann. des Sc. Nat.’ 3rd series, 
' 4 °olog. tom. X. p. 119. 
