CHAPTER II.

OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE IN THE MANNE 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 conceptions 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 gutteral 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 expression. (Illus. Art. 18.)

11. Some nations have found it easier to express different 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 unwieldly 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 what 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. (Illus 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 spoke 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 periods, 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 recitativo.

2. The guds 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 the 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.

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CHAPTER III.

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

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15. FROM what has been said in the preceding chapters, that men at first uttered their words, and mainappears tained conversation, in a strong and impressive manner, enforcing their imperfectly conceived ideas by cries and gestures; and there is abundant evidence to shew that the language which they used 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 sensible 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.)

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Corol. Wherever strong exclamations, tones and gestures, enter much into conversation, the imagination is always more exercised; a greater effort of fancy and passion is excited. Consequently, the fancy kept awake, and rendered more sprightly by this mode of utterance, operates upon style, and enlivens it with the strongest colours, and the most vehement expressions of untamed passion. (Art. 15. Corol.) 19. Undoubted facts confirm these reasonings. The style of all the earliest languages, among nations who are in the first and rude periods of society, is found, without exception, to be full of figures; and to be hyperbolical and picturesque in a high degree. (Art. 5. and 10.)

Illus. 1. The American Indian languages are known to be figurative to excess. The Iroquois and Illinois carry on their treaties and public transactions with bolder metaphors, and greater pomp of style, than we use in our poetical productions.*

2. In the Old Testament,-the best specimen of oriental style,— constant allusions to sensible objects characterize the language of the various writers. Thus, guilt is a spotted garment; iniquity is the treasures of darkness; a sinful life is a crooked path; misery drinks the cup of astonishment; vain pursuits are seen feeding on ashes; innocence is known by its white robes; wisdom is a lighted candle; and royal dignity is purple and a crown.

3. In the poems of Ossian, too, figures of speech abound; picturesque descriptions are as the "sons of song," for number; or as the heroes' "breasts of steel," for strength of expression; or as the "meteors of death," for the illusions they create in a reader's mind; and all the violent expressions of passion uttered about "the whitebosomed love of Cormac;" or about Fingal "of the noble deeds;" him who flew like lightning over the heath;" or "slowly moved as a cloud of thunder, when the sultry plain of summer is silent," whose "sword, is before him terrible as the streaming meteor of night—” confirm the position, that this sort of style is common to all nations in certain periods of society and language. A narration is condensed into a few striking circumstances, which rouse and alarm; the account of a battle is as rapid as the wounds of a warrior, and the deaths he inflicts!

20. Magnanimity and delicacy characterize strongly the poetry of rude nations, who, in the use of metaphors and similes, make little or no allusion to the productions of the arts. (Art. 29. Illus.)

Illus. Magnanimity and delicacy are nearly, if not necessarily, connected with all the strong and violent emotions of the mind; and these are the natural produce of an early, if not of a savage state of society. Strong emotions constitute the chief ingredient in magnanimity; and it requires only one addition to give them the polish of delicacy.

Corol. It is not improbable, that particular circumstances may prompt the latter sentiment, long before the introduction either of philosophy or of the arts. Those who are acquainted with human nature, and the analogy which subsists among its feelings, will there

* See Cadwallader Colden's "History of the Five Indian Nations."