degree of correspondence may be traced with the object signified.

Illus. 1. The terms significant of moral and intellectual ideas, are derived from the names of sensible objects to which they are conceived to be analogous.

2. The most distinguishing qualities of sensible objects, pertaining merely to sight, have, in a great variety of languages, certain radical sounds appropriated to the expression of those qualities. The organs of voice assume but an obscure resemblance to such external qualities as stability and fluidity, hollowness and smoothness, gentleness and violence, yet are these words painted by the sound of certain letters or syllables, which have some relation to those different states of visible objects.

3. Words formed upon st, usually denote firmness and strength, analogous to the Latin sto; as, stand, stay, staff, stop, stout, steady, stake, stamp, stallion, stately, &c.

4. Str, in the beginning of words, intimates violent force and energy, analogous to the Greek cowrrvu; as, strive, strength, struggle, stride, stress, stretch, strike, stripe, &c.

5. Thr, implies forcible motion; as, throw, thrust, throb, through, threaten, thraldom, &c.

6. Wr, denotes obliquity or distortion; as, wry, wrest, wrestle, wreath, wring, wrong, wrangle, wrath, wrack, &c.

7. Sw, indicates silent agitation, or lateral motion; as, sway, swing, swerve, sweep, swim, &c.

8. Sl, implies a gentle fall, or less observable motion; as, slide, slip, sly, slit, slow, slack, sling, &c.

9. Sp, intimates dissipation or expansion; as, spread, sprout, sprin kle, split, spill, spring, &c.

10. Terminations in ash, indicate something acting nimbly and sharply; as, crash, gash, rash, flash, lash, slash, &c.

11. Ush, in the ending of words, implies something acting more obtusely or dully; as, crush, brush, hush, gush, blush, &c.*

Observation. These significant roots have been considered as a peculiar beauty or excellency of our native tongue, which, beyond all others, expresses the nature or qualities of the objects that it names, by employing sounds sharper, softer, weaker, stronger, more obscure, or more stridulous, according as the idea requires which is to be suggested.

8. The immense field of language, in every nation, is, however, filled up by numerous fanciful and irregular methods of derivation and composition.

Corol. Words, therefore, come to deviate widely from the primitive character of their roots, and frequently lose all analogy or resemblance in sound to the thing signified. Taken generally, as we now employ them, words may be considered as symbols, not as imitations; as arbitrary, or instituted, not natural signs of ideas.

The President Des Brosses has very ably examined this subject in his work, entitled "Traite de la Formation Mechanique des Languos."

CHAPTER II.

OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE IN THE MANNER

OF UTTERING OR PRONOUNCING WORDS.

9. A SECOND character of language, in its early state, is drawn from the manner in which mankind at first pronounced or uttered words.

Illus. 1. Interjections or passionate language being the first elements of speech, (Corol. Art. 4.) men would labour to communicate their feelings to one another, by those expressive cries and gestures, which they were taught by nature. (Art. 4. Illus.)

2. Language in its infancy, picturesque but barren, would be intermixed with many exclamations and earnest gestures. Its scanty vocabulary rendered these helps necessary for explaining the concep tions of uncultivated men.

3. Tones, rough and unmusical at first, and significant gesticulations, would supply the temporary absence of the few words which men knew; and by these supplemental methods they would endeavour to make intelligible to others what they themselves understood. (Art. 46. Corol.)

Corol. It may hence be assumed as a principle, that pronunciation, in the earliest languages, though learnt from the uninterrupted use of guttural sounds, was accompanied with more gesticulations than are used when men become refined by civilization, arts, and sciences.

10. What had risen from necessity continued to be used for ornament, after language became more extensive and copious. Wherever there was much fire and vivacity in the genius of nations, the imagination was gratified with a great deal of action; and, as their ear acquired delicacy and sensibility, their language would gradually attain softness and melody of tones in conversation, or public dis

course.

Illus. Upon this principle men spoke by action. Jeremiah, in sight of the people of Israel, breaks a potter's vessel-throws a book into the Euphrates-puts on bonds and yokes, and carries out his household stuff. The Indians of North America, also, declare their meaning, and explain themselves by belts and strings of wampum, as much as by their discourse, with all its significant but flowery modes of expres sion. (Illus. Art. 18.)

11. Some nations have found it easier to express differ ent ideas, by varying the tone with which they pronounced the same word, than to contrive words for all their ideas. Illus. Thus, the number of original words in the Chinese language is not great, but, in speech, the sound of each word is varied on no fewer than five different tones. The same word may therefore signify five different things; and be expressed by five different characters,

Hence arises their unwieldy alphabet, or lexicon. This melody, or varying the sound of each word so often, is a proof of nothing, however but of the fine ear of that people. (Corol. Art. 13.)

12. When the harsh and dissonant cries of speech have become gradually polished, they pass into more smooth and harmonious sounds (Art. 10.); and hence is formed wha grammarians call the prosody of a language.

Obs. Without attending to this, we shall be at a loss to understand several parts of the Greek and Roman classics, which relate to public speaking, and the theatrical entertainments of the ancients. (Illus. Art. 13.)

13. When the Greek and Roman languages became flowing and harmonious, the pronunciation of both became melodious in a very high degree. It does not, however, appear that the languages of any cultivated nations have ever been regulated by any musical principles. As the copiousness and accuracy of speech keep pace with civilization and improvement, its melody corresponds to the refinement of the public ear. (Ilius. Art. 11.)

Illus. 1. The declamation of the Greek and Roman orators, and the pronunciation of their actors upon the stage, were not indeed subjected to a geometrical scale of proportion, as the notes of music are; but the melody of their periods was artfully regulated by the superior refinement of their ear.

2. The sounds of speech and music are regulated by different scales, both in point of length and elevation. In point of length, the sounds of speech are only two, the one double the other; for all words consist of syllables either long or short, and the long syllable is invariably double the length of the short one. The sounds of music being measured by a geometrical scale of proportion, may be extended as far as the composer pleases. In respect of elevation and depression the sounds of speech are subject to no rule: their distances are neither equal nor great. The speaker may divide them according to his inclination, and the utmost compass of ordinary speech seldom extends beyond the distance of a few notes in music. It is not so with the tones of music: their distances are all determined by rule, and the elevations and depressions, though sometimes very considerable, are adjusted with the greatest nicety of geometrical science.

3. Aristotle considers the music of tragedy as one of its chief and essential parts; but he does not assuredly mean that the Greeks spoko in recitative, or that part of the word, or part of the sentence, was uttered in the ordinary tones of conversation, while the remaining part was pronounced in tones of music. The whole of an oration, or tragedy, might be accompanied with musical instruments; but the language of passion is inconsistent with recitative. The tones of music are not the language of passion, and the language of nature is the same in all ages and countries. (Art. 10. Illus. and also Art. 11.).

4. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his book on composition, that treats professedly on the melody of language, is at great pains to illustrate his sentiments from the compositions of Demosthenes, and to point

out how artfully that great orator had consulted the melody of his perods, by inserting in his cadences many dactyles, spondees, iambics, and other agreeable metrical feet. The introduction of these feet he calls" writing rhythmical," or "melodious prose."

5. It is plain also from the oratory of Cicero, that the Romans did not speak in tones of music, or recitative. He informs us that numerus or rhythm was not employed except in the most splendid parts of an oration; and that it ought not to be long continued, lest the artifice of the orator should be detected, and his aim to impress his hearers defeated.

6. Dionysius, however, proceeds further than Cicero, and contrasts the harmonious examples extracted from Demosthenes, with specimens adduced from the writings of Polybius, "the harshness of whose periods," he asserts, "is owing to the neglect of rhythm."

Corol. 1. Therefore, the melody of a language is a proof of nothing but of the fine ear of the people who use it, (Illus. Art. 11.); other evidence is necessary to shew that it was spoken in what the Italians call recitator.

2. The er Subs, then, of the Greeks, and the numerus of the Romans, expressed nothing that is now either unintelligible or unknown, and afford no evidence that the ancients either spoke commonly in recitative, or intermixed notes of music with the tones of speech.

3. And, hence, the modern languages of Europe, abounding with long and short syllables, are susceptible of rhythm, as well as the Greek and Latin; and assemblages of these long and short syllables, in what the ancients called feet, are not confined to the poetry of our native Isles, but are actually introduced by our best prose writers. Yet no one expects to hear the plays of Shakspeare sung, and we did not hear Pitt and Sheridan speak in recitative.

14. Strong tones, and animated gestures, go always together; hence, action is treated by all the ancient critics, as the chief quality in every public speaker.

Illus. 1. We learn from Cicero, that it was a contest between him and Roscius, whether he could express a sentiment in a greater variety of phrases, or Roscius in a greater variety of intelligible and significant gestures.

2. When gesture came to engross the Roman stage wholly, the favorite entertainment of the public was pantomime, which was carried on, as it still is, entirely by mute gesticulation. Under the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, the people were moved and wept at it, as much as at tragedies.

Corol. All speculations concerning the fixing of a living language are, therefore, vain and nugatory, and when the good taste of a nation has prevailed universally, writers of established reputation become its authorities.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE. IN THE STYLE AND CHARACTER OF SPEECH.

15. FROM what has been said in the preceding chapters, it appears that men at first uttered their words, and maintained conversation, in a strong and impressive manner, en forcing their imperfectly conceived ideas by cries and gestures; and there is abundant evidence to shew that the language which the "sed was little else than a torrent of figures and metaphors, not correct indeed, but forcible and picturesque. (Art. 19. Illus.)

Corol. Figures of speech are, therefore, not the invention of orators and rhetoricians, but the language of mankind, when they had hardly any words for expressing their meaning.

16. The want of a distinct name for every individual object, obliged the first speakers to use one name for many objects. (Art 5. Illus. and Corol.)

Corol. They would, thence, express themselves by comparisons, metaphors, allusions, and all those substituted forms of speech, which render language figurative and picturesque.

17. As the names with which they were most conversant, were those of the sensible, material objects around them, names would be given to those objects long before words were invented for signifying the dispositions of the mind, or any sort of moral or intellectual ideas. (Art. 48.)

Corol. Hence, the early language of man being entirely made up of words descriptive of sensibie objects, it became, of necessity, extremely metaphorical. Every desire or passion, every act or feeling of mind, to which no precise expression had been appropriated, would be painted by allusion to those sensible objects which had most relation to it, and which, in some manner, could render it visible to others. (Art. 10.)

18. In the infancy of society, men are much under the dominion of imagination and passion; and these are the parents of a figurative style, of exaggeration and hyperbole. (Art. 19. Illus. 1. and 3.)

Illus. In this period of society, men live scattered and dispersed. They are unacquainted with the course of things; they are daily meeting with new and strange objects. Fear and surprise, wonder and astonishment, are their most frequent passions. Their language partakes of this character of their agitated and expanding minds. They will be prone to exaggeration and hyperbole. Where all is marvellous, the imagination will riot in the luxuriance of an unbounded picturesque. (Art. 10. Illus.)