CONTENTS. Origin of Language.-Reason and Instinct.-Varieties of the Human Race.-The Missionaries, &c. PHYSIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON MENTAL SUSCEPTIBILITY, &c. CHAPTER I. Origin of Languages.-Reason and Instinct.- Varieties of the Human Race. The Missionaries, &c.-The Negro. THE limited faculties of the human race will not enable us to investigate successfully those secrets or mysteries of nature which lie buried beneath the revolutions of incalculable ages; yet, although the origin of things must for ever remain inscrutable to our restricted powers of perception, it requires no great stretch of credulity to suppose that centuries had elapsed ere mankind discovered the mode of mental communication by language which is practised at the present moment by every variety of our fellow-creatures, from the polished European to the Indian of America, the jetty inhabitant of the African continent, and the savage of the South Sea Islands. However, that man is not the only creature physiologically formed for speaking is incontestably proved by the parrot, the magpie, the raven, and several other birds; and it appears not a little surprising, that while the feathered tribes are enabled to imitate the oral expression of human nature, this faculty is denied to quadrupeds, many of whom, and the dog in particular, evince a degree of sagacity infinitely superior to that which has ever been manifested by the fluttering B tenants of the air: still more remarkable is the circumstance of the ape, though an animal immeasurably superior to birds in sagacity, and so nearly approximating the form of man, but nevertheless utterly incapable of imitating those sounds of the human voice which are employed in the oral communication of ideas or workings of the mind. It is not owing, as some have asserted, to any defect in the organs that the ape is incapable of speech, since the tongue of a monkey will be found as perfect as that of a man. Language is the offspring of concentrated thought: hence the lower orders of animated nature, insusceptible of the requisite mental arrangement, are consequently incapacitated for that oral expression which constitutes language; for, though their external senses are in general found superior to those of man, and many of them manifest an extraordinary degree of cunning or sagacity, they are unable to form that mental combination which may be said to constitute the essence of thought, and which so pre-eminently distinguishes the lord of the creation. The possession of speech corresponds to the more exalted intellectual endowments of man, is indispensable to their development and varied application. Man exhibits his mental operations by external signs; he communicates his sentiments by words; the savage and the civilized being have similar powers of utterance, and are equally understood. Admitting, therefore, that language was adscititious, it must be regarded as a most important improvement upon the natural expression of inarticulate sounds, gestures, and actions; an intelligent medium whereby men make known their thoughts to each other, without which the uncultivated savage would have continued on a par with the beasts of the forest, while the beautiful fabric of civilized society could never have attained its supe rior and pleasing elevation. Yet, that this exalted characteristic of man is not born with him, like the voices of animals, is incontestably proved by the different languages of the various classes of mankind distributed upon the surface of the globe, and consequently its attainment must have resulted from education. How far the influence of climate may have operated in the formation of language, or at least upon its innumerable varieties, is a subject not altogether unworthy of notice in this place. The extremes of heat and cold are unfavourable to the beauty of the human form, and also to cerebral organic development; while, in milder latitudes, these qualities acquire their greatest perfection: if, therefore, the atmosphere thus diversifies the body and the mind, may it not equally influence the powers of speech, and produce those oral modifications so evidently perceptible in the various classes of mankind? Beneath the burning sun of the equator or the tropics, utterance or enunciation becomes soft; in northern regions it is remarkable for its gutteral harshness; while, in the temperate climates, it attains its greatest force and harmony of expression. Therefore, if the mind of man may be said to have elicited his powers of speech, it must be regarded as his most distinguishing characteristic, exalting him above the brute creation infinitely more than that physiological superiority by which he is also distinguished. What is the most sagacious animal compared to man? The effeminate native of the East governs the stupendous and "half-reasoning" elephant, the Arab directs the speed and powers of his elegant and fiery steed, while the diminutive Laplander applies the reindeer to the labour and purposes of his existence; in fact, the most inferior class or lowest order of the human race are able to manage the most sagacious and the most powerful |