LANGUAGE. 
attributed to the similarity of those cir- 
cumstances. We see the philosopher invent- 
ing a new term, agreeably to prevailing 
analogies, to express some power of the 
mind, or some emotion which had not re- 
ceived any denomination ; but those who 
originally gave names to mental feelings 
derived them simply from some analogy, 
fancied or real, between the internal and 
an external object : and those names which 
now suggest to ns ideas the most subtle 
and refined, were originally only the names 
of objects obvious to the senses. The 
reasoner when he uses a word whose mean- 
ing has not been accurately ascertained, 
defines the ideas which he intends to attach 
to it, and uses it accordingly ; in the early, 
and even in the more refined periods of 
language, the ideas connected with words 
have been the result of casual associations, 
produced by local circumstances, by the 
customs of the age, or the appearances of 
nature in particular situations. 
11. In languages in which the coales- 
cence between the verb and its adjuncts 
has taken place, and also the coalescence 
between nouns and its connective words, 
(Grammar, § 19), much greater liberty of 
inversion is practicable than in those in 
which such coalescence has not at all oc- 
curred, or but incompletely. In other 
words, where the noun, adnoun, and verb, 
admit of flexion, there the arrangement 
depends in many instances more upon the 
sound than upon the sense ; and nearly in 
all cases may be made subservient to the 
former. This gives such languages con- 
siderable advantage over those which admit 
of but few changes, so far as respects their 
modulation; and further the coalescence 
•renders them much more forcible where 
emphasis on any of the fractional parts is 
not required. Whenever flexion increases 
perspicuity, the advantage is decisive and 
obvious: with respect to modulation, though 
an object of some consequence, (since we 
may sometimes find the way to the head 
and heart by pleasing the ear) yet all cul- 
tivated languages will be found to possess 
sufficient power of pleasing the native ear ■ 
and among those who made sound so much 
an object, sense was often sacrificed to it : 
with respect to force, it may fairly be 
doubted whether the advantage of greater 
precision by means of more accurate em- 
phasis, does not counterbalance it. We 
are willing to admit on the whole, that the 
advantage is somewhat in Javour of those 
languages in which flexion is extensively 
adopted ; but we can by no means admit 
the opinion of those who think it necessary 
to a perfect language. That language is 
not the most perfect, which enables us to 
express one thought in a great variety of 
ways, but that which gables us to express 
any thought with precision and perspicuity : 
and contemptible as our own uninflected 
language may appear to those who can 
think notlung good but what accords with 
the objects of their early taste, we are dis- 
posed to believe that in its real powers it 
rises beyond all tlie aneient languages, and 
beyond most of the moderns. 
12. Before we leave the subject of oral 
language, we shall pay some attention to 
the three following inquiries ; whether 
words were originally imitative; whether 
they were long; and of what kind of arti- 
culations they were composed. The latter 
of these are of importance in tracing the 
gradation from hieroghyphical to alphabeti- 
cal writing. Words, in their present state, 
are simply arbitrary marks. The sound of 
some appears to be “ an echo of the sense ;” 
but in tbe greater number of instances in 
which there is supposed to be this resem- 
blance, very much may be attributed to 
the fancy of the observer. It is obvious, 
however, that some words are truly imita- 
tive, such e. g. as denote the various sounds 
of animals. When we carry our inquiries 
farther back, we are led to suppose that 
the original words would be formed upon 
some resemblance, real or supposed, be- 
tween their sound and the thing signified. 
What else, at first, could induce men to 
fix upon one sound rather than another? 
Sensible objects were the first which ob- 
tained names; and of these the number 
is considerable which either emit some 
imitable sound, or perform such motions as 
are generally accompanied with sound. 
These would probably be denoted by words 
imitative of the sound, in the same manner 
as the Otaheitans gave to the gun the ap- 
pellation of tick-tick-bno, evidently imitating 
the cocking and report of the gun, and as 
we give tbe cuckow its name from its note. 
Witli respect to qualities totally unconnect- 
ed with sound, particularly mental qualities, 
this principle of imitation is not directly 
applicable : we immediately see the in- 
congruity of sound and colour, for instance, 
when we call to mind the idea of the blind 
man, that a scarlet colour was very much 
like the sound of a trumpet. Yet there 
can scarcely be a doubt that fancied resem- 
blances would as much as real ones, direct 
