improvement of society must have been extremely slow and limited. The lower animals, as has been already observed, have some kind of communications with each other, both by signs, and by the emission of sounds, which constitute a language suited to their nature; but they know nothing of articulate sounds, or what has been called conventional language. This acquirement was reserved for the human race, and forms one of man's remarkable and distinctive characteristics. But man has a natural language as well as the inferior animals. He instinctively expresses his wants and his passions by signs and by inarticulate sounds. There is, in this respect, a universal language, which, like the language of the inferior creation, it requires no instruction to understand. By the features of the face, and the gestures of the body, various emotions can be most significantly communicated. Joy and sorrow, indignation and pity, surprise, terror, and exultation, with every other powerful feeling of the mind, are thus represented. These signs and gestures are the instantaneous and involuntary effects of passion, and they speak a language which cannot be mistaken. The instinctive modulations and tones of the human voice form another branch of natural language. These cries are uttered involuntarily even in infancy, and at every period of life they burst forth spontaneously, in spite of all artificial refinements, without design, and even contrary to inclination. They form the nearest approach to articulate sounds; and some of them are even introduced into written language, under the grammatical name of interjections; but yet the difference is marked and specific. The intonations accompanying these sounds, are not, however, confined to them. They are carried into all the utterances of artificial language, and form, in common conversation, as well as in oratory, one of its most interesting and impressive features. It is obvious that these natural signs might have been sufficient for carrying on a limited intercourse in the rude stages of society; but they could never, even although greatly extended, have answered the purposes of civilized life; and, indeed, society could not have advanced a step beyond these rude stages, without a far more perfect power of communication. For purposes of improvement, man requires not merely to communicate to his fellows his feelings and passions, but ideas of objects, of actions, of relations, of abstract thoughts, of trains of reasoning; and something much more precise and varied than signs was therefore necessary. This essential gift has been bestowed in the power of forming artificial or conventional language. I have already noticed those properties of the atmosphere which render it a fit vehicle of articulate sounds, as well as the adaptation of the ear for the reception of such sounds, and their conveyance to the mind. I have now to mention an equally remarkable adaptation, in the organs of speech. The windpipe, the tongue, the teeth, the lips, are all admirably formed, among their other important uses, for this express purpose. Were any one of them made otherwise, some part of that admirable mechanism would be imperfect, which, as at present constituted, forms an instrument of such wonderful power and beauty. We are so accustomed to the human voice, that we are apt to overlook its perfections; and it requires some effort to induce us to attend to the means by which we obtain so familiar, but so delightful and necessary an endowment. But were we to enter into an analysis of the organs of speech, we should find, at every turn, proofs of the most refined and careful contrivance, for rendering the instrument such as might be best employed in conveying the sentiments of a rational creature, equally as regards precision, harmony, and emphasis. It is enough, however, for our present purpose, to know, that these effects are actually produced by a complicated combination of mechanical powers, which it has baffled all the resources of human art to imitate. In the origin of language, there seems to exist some obscurity. Much ingenuity has been expended in endeavoring to show that it was entirely the fruit of hunian invention. But the difficulties with which this supposition is attended are confessedly great; and its most zeal ous advocates are forced to admit, that language could only have originated in the surpassing genius of some superior minds. The opinion most consistent with probability is, that the Author of our nature, who bestowed the requisite powers and faculties, also taught the mode of exercising them. There are two facts which strongly bear on this point; the one is, that wherever, from defects in the organs of hearing, or from seclusion in infancy from human society, no opportunity has been afforded of learning articulate sounds by imitation, the faculty of speech has always been found wanting, except so far as subsequently acquired with labor and perseverance, by instruction from those who have previously practised it; and the other, that in all cases, the actual power of articulation is found to be so much limited to the formation of those sounds only which have been acquired in infancy, that it is with great difficulty the pronunciation of any new sounds can be attained at a more advanced age. But, independent of this, the succinct narrative which is afforded us in the inspired volume of the state of man in Paradise, seems greatly to favor, if it does not expressly declare, the immediate interference of Heaven to communicate this important instruction; for we are told, that God caused every beast of the field and every fowl of the air to pass in review before Adam, that, by observing their qualities, he might affix to them corresponding names; "and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." Man was then possessed, even at that earliest period, of the faculty of speech; and its copiousness and precision must have been quickly increased by the salutary exercise which was thus afforded, at once to his mental faculties, and to the power of giving them expression. Language thus commenced, as philosophy, unaided by revelation, might have conjectured, by giving names to existing objects. The art, once learnt, would be easily extended. From noting and expressing in words those things which come under the immediate cognizance of the senses, the mind would proceed to the formation of articulate sounds for conveying the idea of motions and qualities; and thence, again, it would rise to the marking of more abstract notions. A desire would be excited of expressing inward emotions and opinions more definitely than could be done by signs or exclamations. As soon as man received a companion of his own species, that last and best gift of Creative Goodness, the sympathies thus excited would originate this desire, and he would not be slow to follow its dictates. In the interchange of feelings and views, he would discover a gratification which would enhance tenfold the joys of Paradise, by reflecting them from a kindred bosom; and in this, more perhaps than in any other particular, he would find that it was good for him not to be alone. Ingenious men have delighted to trace language in its course of developement, as the wants, the feelings, and the opinions of men required to be communicated. In such an inquiry, there are few facts on which to rest a train of reasoning, and conjecture has been largely employed to supply their place. It is, however, obvious enough, that the copiousness of language would keep pace with the progress of knowledge, and the expansion of the human mind; and, accordingly, it has, generally speaking, been found, that the fulness, if not the perfection, of a language, is a just criterion of the extent to which mental improvement has been carried among those nations which employ it. But this is a subject on which it is unnecessary to dwell. The possession of the power of speech is a boon for which we cannot be sufficiently thankful. That it is adequate to the expression of all the ideas necessary to be communicated in the ordinary intercourse of society, and capable of expansion in proportion as the range of the human mind extends, are properties which constitute its peculiar value. Nor must we forget that language has a reflex influence on the mind, in giving a precision to our ideas and reasonings, which they would not otherwise possess; and that it is further of essential value, from the nature of its construction, which has enabled human ingenuity to separate its sounds into their constituent parts, and thus to origin III. 32 IX. ate the most beautiful and important of all human inventions, that of the letters of the alphabet. Hence the origin and transmission of history, of literature, of the arts and sciences; hence the accumulation of human knowledge, and the indefinite improvement of the human species, rendered more rapid and more secure by the modern invention of the art of printing. The stimulus already given to the mental powers, and the effects produced by that stimulus, we can partly compute; but who can anticipate the changes which these acquisitions are yet destined to produce? It is a vast power which is thus put into the hands of mortals. Let us rejoice that it is under the control of a Being infinitely wiser and better than the race of Adam; and that, along with the works of fallible man, is transmitted an Inspired Volume, which has the Creator and Redeemer for its theme, truth without any mixture of error for its matter, and life and immortality for its object.* THIRTEENTH WEEK-TUESDAY. HAY-MAKING.-PLEASURES OF RURAL SCENERY. I BELIEVE few people have beheld the occupations of the hay field, which this beautiful season every where presents, without feeling a very pure and elevated delight. The mowers moving gracefully in concert, the grass falling sheer beneath the scythe, its grateful fragrance, the maidens raking or tedding the hay, the loading of the carts to remove it to the barn-yard, all excite a sensible pleasure in almost every mind. "Wide flies the tedded grain. All in a row, Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field, *[These last lines are borrowed from Locke's celebrated and oftenquoted eulogy on the Bible.-AM. ED.] |