But though the materials of language, as well as the power of employ tug them, are thus provided by nature, it has been made a question, how mankind were at first in duced or impelled to have recourse to this mode of com municating thought by the fabrication and use of articulate sounds. Children, it has been observed, learn to speak by imitation ; and it would appear by the examples of one or two solitary savages, found at different times remote from human society, that where the opportunities of such imi tation are wanting, the nse of articulate speech is nearly unknown. In what way then was the use of speech, or conventional language, first introduced and adopted ? Ac cording to one class of writers, it was originally revealed, and taught to man by the Author of his Being ; according to others, it was entirely the fruit of human invention. The former opinion, its advocates contend, is supported by the authority of Moses, who expressly tells us, that the Crea tor, after he had formed the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, brought them to the first man that lie might give them names, and that the names so given, were those by which they were afterwards called; the latter opi nion, however, has been held, not only by many of the an cient philosophers, but by a number of the moderns also, who admit fully the authority of Scripture, though they contend, that the Mosaic narrative does not imply any spe cial revelation to direct our first progenitor to the use of articulate sounds. Those who consider a special revela tion as necessary for the invention, allow, at the same time, that all the faculties and powers requisite for forming speech, are given as constituent parts of the human consti tution, requiring only a specific impulse to bring them into action ; and those who most eagerly contend for attributing the whole to human ingenuity, admit, that the invention must have been one of extreme difficulty, which could only have originated with some superior minds, who might first be led to it by the imitation of certain natural sounds with their own voice, and then gradually commu nicate to the other members of their tribe, the mode of forming and applying similar sounds for the expression of thought.
Much ingenuity and erudition have been expended upon this question. One side has been maintained by Simon, Condillac, Dr. Adam Smith, and above all, by the learned author of the " Origin and Progress of Language ;" the other by Delaney, Warburton, Dr. Stanhope Smith, and others ; but after all their labours, so much obscurity and uncertainty remain, that we must be content to leave the point undecided, nor in all probability will it ever receive a complete solution. Two material facts, however, we may regard as established by experience; that wherever, from defects in the organs of hearing, or from seclusion in infancy from human society, no opportunity has been given of learning by imitation to form articulate sounds, the fa culty of speaking has always been found wanting, except so far as subsequently acquired, with labour and persever ance, by instruction from those who previously practised it ; and that in all cases, the actual power of speech is found to be so much limited to the formation of those articulate sounds only which have been learnt in infancy, that it is with the utmost difficulty the pronunciation of any new sounds can be attained at a more advanced age. These two facts appear rather to lead to the conclusion, that be sides the mere possession of the organs and faculties of speech, some impulse must have been necessary to call these into action, su as to lead to the formation of language; but to what extent, or in what manner, that impulse may have first been given, it is to no purpose to inquire. On
this point, the Sacred Scriptures are silent ; history does not go so far back into the earliest periods of society as to furnish any information in regard to it ; and neither from reasoning nor experience can we derive satisfactory means of gratifying our curiosity.
In whatever manner articulate speech originated, we may safely conclude, that this primeval language could not be copious. It would undoubtedly extend no farther than the occasions of employing it, and as these, in the infancy of society, could not be numerous, the language in use must have been equally scanty. It was sufficient, if the imme diate means of communication were provided, and a foun dation laid, upon which the entire superstructure could in the progress of be reared.
The rudiments of articulate language being once form ed, new occasions for communication would quickly occur; these would, of course, require the adoptten of new at lieu late sounds for making the communications required. At all times, men are more disposed to improve, enlarge, and alter, than to invent. The new signs required would, therefore, in general, be formed from the first t udiments of speech by modification and composition ; retaining still the original meaning, but with such variations superinduced as might point out the new relations to which it was to be applied, or the new associations into which it was to be brought.
Such may be stated to be the general outline of the for mation and progress of language ; but It is a curious sub ject of inquiry, by what particular steps, and in what parti cular lines the progress was accomplished ; what class of won ds may most properly be regarded as the ground-work of speech ; and what was the march of the human mind, so to speak, in this gradual advance from the first elements to all the varieties and forms of words. In such an investi gation, we must, it is true, in a great measure rest upon conjecture, but still circumstances may be observed, which will serve to a certain degree to guide our inqui ries.
Language, then, it is to be observed, is the application of articulate sounds to denote and to communicate the emotions, feelings, and actions of the mind ; now, the only motive for making such communications by the use of lan guage, must at first have been to obtain the gratification of some desire or wish, for which the concurrence of others was deemed in some way necessary. When the first arti culate sounds, therefore, were made use of, it is most pro bable, that the mental emotion or desire, the wish for the concurrence of the person addressed, and the object to which these pointed, would all be included in one signifi cant sound ; and of sounds containing this complex power, we may conceive the primeval movements of language to have been formed. Still, however, in these complex sounds, the wish or desire of concurrence, which was the chief impelling motive to the employment of it, would be always viewed as the predominant part, to which the other parts of the complex signification would be regarded as subservient. In the constant intercourse of men, even in the earliest period of society, the necessity of new commie nications, and of new modes of making them, must soon occur. Similar mental feelings or emotions might often be excited by totally different objects ; and, on the other hand, the same object, under different circumstances, might give rise to very dissimilar feelings. For the expression of these variations, appropriate articulate sounds would be required, that the precise point, or the precise object to which it was wished to call attention, might be denoted.