moral affection has its appropriate cry;-the cry of joy is very distinct from that of grief;-of surprise from that of fear, &c.; and the pathologist finds, in the diseases of children more especially, that he can occasionally judge of the seat of a disease by the character of the cry, to which the little sufferer gives utterance; that there is, in the language of M. Broussais, a cry peculiar to the suffering organ.

By the cry, our vivid sensations are expressed, whether they be of the external or internal kind; agreeable or painful; and by it we exhibit all our natural passions, and most simple instinctive desires. Generally, the most intense sounds, to which the organ of voice can give utterance, are embraced in the natural cry; and, in its character, there is frequently something, that annoys the ear and produces more or less effect on those within hearing. It is, by its agency, that sympathetic relations are established between man and his fellows; and between animals of the same kind. The language, possessed by the greater part of animals, is this natural voice differing according to varying organization, and, therefore, instinctive; hence the various notes of birds; and the ranges, which we find the voice to possess in different species. Yet each species has one, by which it is distinguished and which it possesses, even when brought up in the same cage with one of another species; or when hatched, and attended to, by a foster mother endowed with very different vocal powers. In the case of a goldfinch and chaffinch, this has been put directly to the proof; and it is well known, that the cuckoo, which is never hatched or nurtured by its own. parent, still retains the note, that has acquired it its name in almost every language of the globe. It is, probably, by this natural cry, and not by any signs addressed to the eye, that the process of pairing is effected, and that the female is induced to select her mate. The vocabulary of the common cock and hen is quoted as perhaps the most extensive of that of any tribe of birds with which we are acquainted; or rather, as Dr. Good remarks,' we are better acquainted with the extent of its range than with that of any other. The cock has his watchword for announcing the morning; his love-speech and terms of defiance. The voice of the hen, when leaving her nest, after laying, is different from that which she assumes when the brood is hatched, and both are very different from her cries, when her young are placed in jeopardy. Even the chick exhibits a variety in its voice, according to the precise emotion it experiences. All these sounds are such as the larynx of the animal alone admits of; and hence we can understand why, so far, they should be mere modifications of the natural voice; but it is more than probable, that the chick learns the adoption of a particular sound by the parent to express a particular emotion, as an affair of education. It can scarcely be conceived, that the clucking of the hen, when she meets with food proper for her offspring, can be understood at first by the chick. But as soon as it traces the connexion between the sound produced and the object of such sound, it comprehends the signification ever afterwards.

There are sounds, which, from their discordant and harsh characters,

1 Book of Nature, ii. 277, Lond., 1826.

affect most animals perhaps independently of all experience. The cry of terror or pain appears to occasion sympathetically disagreeable effects on all that are within its sphere.

4. ARTIFICIAL OR ARTICULATE LANGUage.

Speech, likewise, is a vocal sound; but it is articulated, in its passage through the vocal tube; and is always employed to convey ideas, that have been attached to it by the mind. It is a succession of articulate sounds, duly regulated by volition, and having determinate significations connected with them.

The faculty of speech has been assigned by some philosophers chiefly to the organ of hearing. It is manifest, however, that this, like the musical car, is referable to a higher organ. The brain must attach an idea to the impression made upon it by the sounds that impinge upon the organ of hearing; the sound thus becomes the sign of such idea, and is reproduced in the larynx at the will of the individual. Of the intellectual character of the process, we have decisive evidence. The infant of tender age has the ear and voice well developed, yet it is long before it is capable of speech; this does not happen until it discovers the meaning of the sounds addressed to it, and finds its own larynx capable of producing similar sounds, which can be made subservient to its wishes. It is thus, by imitation, that it acquires the faculty of speech. Again, the idiot, notwithstanding his hearing may be acute, and voice strong, is incapable of speech; and, in the maniacal and delirious, the language participates in the derangement and irregularity of ideas. The brain must, therefore, be regarded as the organ of the faculty of language; and the ear, larynx, and vocal tube as its instruments. Man, who is endowed with the most commanding intellect, has the vocal apparatus happily organized for expressing its various combinations; and, according to Gall, if the ourang-outang and other animals are incapable of speech, it is because they have not the intellectual 'faculty of language. In proof, that it is not to the vocal organ that this deficiency must be ascribed, he remarks, that animals may be made to enunciate several of the words of human speech, and to repeat them with music. The case of the far-famed parrot of Colonel O'Kelly has already been referred to. Mr. Herbert' saw this parrot, about the year 1799: it then sang perfectly about fifty different tunes, solemn psalms, and humorous or low ballads; articulating every word as distinctly as man, without a single mistake; beating time with its foot; turning round upon its perch, and marking the time as it turned. If a person sang part of a song it would take it up where he left off; and when moulting and unwilling to sing, turned its back and said, "Poll's sick." Gall, amongst other cases, cites that of a dog mentioned by Leibnitz, which could articulate some German and French words. This dog, of which Leibnitz was an "eye-witness," was at Zeitz, in Misnia. A young child had heard it utter some sounds, which it thought resembled German, and this led him to teach it to speak. At the end of about eight years, it had learned thirty words, some of which were, tea, coffee, chocolate, and assembly.

In a note to the Rev. Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne, p. 227.

It spoke only after its master had pronounced the word, and appeared to do so only on compulsion, although it was not ill used. In the "Dumfries Journal," Scotland, for January, 1829, mention is made of a dog, then living in that city, which could utter distinctly the word "William," the name of the young man to whom it was much attached.2 There is no doubt, however, that in numerous animals speech would be impracticable, owing to defective organization, even were they gifted with adequate intellect.

It is difficult-perhaps impossible-to say, how man came to select certain sounds as the types of certain intellectual acts; nor is it a matter which strictly concerns the physiologist. It may be remarked, however, that whilst some contend, that speech is a science which was determined upon, and inculcated, at an early period of the world, by one or more superior persons acting in concert, and inducing those around them to adopt their articulate and arbitrary sounds; others affirm, that it has grown progressively out of the natural language, as the increasing knowledge and wants of mankind demanded a more extensive vocabulary. The first view is that of Pythagoras and Plato; but it was opposed by Lucretius and the Epicureans, on the ground, that it must have been impossible for any one person or synod of persons to invent the most difficult and abstruse of all human sciences with the paucity of ideas, and of means of communicating them, which they must have possessed; and that even allowing they could have invented such a science, it must still have been utterly impossible for them to teach it to the barbarians around them.

The opinions of those philosophers who confine themselves to the phenomena of nature, and hold themselves uncontrolled by other authority, accord with those of the Epicureans.

In the origin of language, it is probable, that words were suggested to mankind by sounds heard around;-by the cries of quadrupeds;-notes of the birds of the forest;-noises emitted by the insect tribe ;-audible indications from the elements, &c. These, being various, probably first of all suggested discriminative names, deduced from the sounds heard. It is this imitation of the noise made by objects, that constitutes the figure of speech called onomatopeia,—the "vox repercussa naturæ" or "echo of nature," as Wachter has defined it. Daily experience shows us, that this source of words is strictly physiological. Children designate a sonorous object by an imitation of the sounds rendered by it; and the greater number of sonorous bodies have had names, radically similar, given to them in languages differing most from each other. We say the serpents "hiss;" the bees "hum;" the storm "blusters;" the wind "whistles;" the hogs "grunt;" the hen "cackles," the man "snores," &c., words used, originally, not perhaps in these very shapes, but varying according to the varying idiom of language, to imitate the sounds elicited by those objects. Such words

Letter to the Abbé Saint Pierre, Oper. ii. 180.

"Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the World, p. 280, Amer. edit., New York, 1832. 3 Harris's Hermes, 3d edit., Book iii. p. 314, London, 1771; Beattie's Theory of Language, p. 246, London, 1803, and Good's Book of Nature, ii. 254, London, 1834.

4 Glossarium Germanicum, Lips., 1737.

VOL. I.-31

are numerous in all languages, and have been adopted to depict both the sound emitted, and the sonorous body itself; but, in some cases, the word imitating the sound has survived its transmission from language to language to the most modern times, whilst the name of the object whence it proceeded has experienced considerable mutation. The Sanskrit, the antiquity of which will not be contested, has a number of such words-as wilala, cat-kukada, hen-and waihu, wind; in the last of which the sound of the w (oo), imitates that of the passage of the air, and is found in the word corresponding to wind, (ooind,) in many languages. The Hebrew and the Greek have numerous phonetic words; but no language is richer, in this respect, than the Teutonic in all its ramifications, including the English. The animal kingdom affords us many examples, of which the following is one :—

Cuckoo. This word is nearly the same in almost all languages. Greek, nonxug; Latin, cucullus; Irish, cuach; Bask, cucua; Sclavonic, kukulka, kukuscka, &c.; Hungarian, kukuk; Hebrew, cacatha; Syriac, coco; Arabic, cuchem; Persian, kuku; Koriak, kaikuk; Kamtschadale, koakutschith; Kurile, kakkok; Tartar, kauk; German, kuckucks or guckguck; Dutch, koekoek; whence our words cuckoo and cuckold, and the Scottish gouckoo, gowk, or golk; French, cocu; &c.

In the greater part of languages, words, expressive of the cries of animals, are accurate imitations. Of this, the following are a few examples.

Bleating of sheep.-Greek, Banxaquas; Latin, balare; Italian, belare; Spanish, balar; French béler; German, blöken; Dutch, bleeten; Saxon, blætan, &c.

Howling of wolves.-Greek, ¿λoλuw; Latin, ululare; German, heulen; Dutch, huilen ; Spanish, aullar; French, hurler, &c. Hence the word owl.

Neighing of the horse.-Latin, hinnire; French, hennir; German, wiehern; Saxon, hnægan, &c.

Clocking or clucking of hens.-Latin, glocire; French, glousser; Greek, nannaČtv; German, glucken; Dutch, klokken; Saxon, clocean, &c.

To crow, like a cock.-Greek, xpaw; German, krähen; Dutch, kraayen; Saxon, craw, &c., whence the word crow, the bird.

The Latin words tinnimentum, tinnitus, tintinnabulum, &c., from tinnio, "I ring," are all from the radical tin, and imitate the sound rendered on striking a metallic vessel. The gurgling of water; the clanging of arms; the crash of falling ruins; are of the same character; and the game trictrac, formerly tictac, seems to have been so called from the noise made in putting down the men or dice.

In whatever manner language was first formed, it is manifest that the different sounds could make but transient impression, until they were reduced to legible characters, which could recal them to mind. On our continent, the fact has often been noticed of a tribe of Indians separating themselves into two parties, and remaining distinct for years. In such case, the language has become so modified, that after the lapse of a considerable period they have scarcely been able to comprehend each other. Hence, the importance of the art of writing, certainly the most valuable of human inventions. Of this, there have been two kinds, -imitative or alphabetical, and symbolical, allegorical, or emblemati cal, the latter consisting of hieroglyphics, designs representing external objects, or symbolical allegories. The former, or the written representation of spoken sounds, alone concerns us. To attain this, every com

pound sound has been reduced to certain elementary sounds, which are represented by signs, called letters. These elementary sounds, by combination, form syllables; and the syllables, by combination, words. The number of elementary sounds, admitted in each language, constitutes its alphabet, which differs more or less in certain languages; but as it is entirely a matter of human invention, and as the elementary sounds, of which the human voice is capable, are alike in the different races of mankind, we see readily, that the alphabets of the different languages must correspond, although the combinations of letters constituting syllables and words may vary essentially.

Into the origin of written legible language, it is not necessary to inquire. We may remark, that the invention has been considered so signally wonderful as to transcend human powers; and hence, St. Cyril, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, Isidore, and, in more modern times, Messrs. Bryant, Costard, &c., have been of opinion, that the knowledge of letters was first communicated to Moses by the Almighty himself, and that the decalogue was the earliest specimen of alphabetic writing. Many passages in the writings of Moses, show unequivocally, however, that written records must have existed prior to his time. În the passage in which writing is first mentioned in the sacred volume, the art is alluded to as one of standing:-" And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book or table;'" and in a subsequent chapter-"And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon, like the engravings of a signet, Holiness to the Lord."

The English alphabet is considered to consist of twenty-six letters. It may, however, by ultimate analysis, be reduced to twenty-five simple sounds-A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, Z, Ch, Sh, Th, and Ng. To these letters arbitrary names have been assigned, as Bee (B,) See (C,) Dee (D,) &c., which express very different sounds from those that belong to the letter when it forms part of a word or syllable. The word bad is not pronounced bee-a-dee, as the child, just escaped from learning his alphabet, must imagine; hence, he has to unlearn all that he has acquired; or to imagine, that different letters have very different sounds, according to the situation in which they are placed. To obviate this inconvenience, some persons are in the habit of teaching their children syllabically from the very first, by which they acquire the true sound attached to each letter of the alphabet. In the preceding enumeration of the simple sounds, that constitute the alphabet, C, Q, W, X, and Y, have been excluded, for the following reasons. C has always the sound of either S or K, as in cistern or consonant. Q has the sound of koo, as in quart, (kooart;) W of oo, as in word (oourd;) X of ks, or Z, as in vex, (vecks,) or Xerxes, (zerkses;) whilst Y has the sound of I or E, as in wry or yard, (wri or eeard.) Ch, Sh, and Th, have been added, as being true alphabetic or simple sounds.

Letters have been usually divided into two classes, vowels and consonants. The vowels or vocal sounds are so called, because they appear to be simple modifications of the voice formed in the larynx, uninter

Good, op. citat., ii. 273.