HENCE LANGUAGE, if compared ac- Ch. I. cording to this notion to the murmurs of a Fountain, or the dashings of a Cataract, has in common this, that like them, it is a SOUND. But then on the contrary

Cicero's account of these Principles is as follows.

MATTER.

Sed subjectam putant omnibus sine ulla specie, atque carentem omni illa qualitate (faciamus enim tractando usitatius hoc verbum et tritius) MATERIAM quandam, ex quá omnia expressa atque efficta sint: (quæ tota omnia accipere possit, omnibusque modis mutari atque ex omni parte) eóque etiam interire, non in nihilum, &c.Acad. I. 8:

FORM.

Sed ego sic statuo, nihil esse in ullo genere tam pulchrum, quo non pulchrius id sit, unde illud, ut ex ore aliquo, quasi imago, exprimatur, quod neque oculis, neque auribus, neque ullo sensu percipi potest: cogitatione tantùm et mente complectimur.HAS RERUM FORMAS appellat Ideas ille non intelligendi solum, sed etiam dicendi gravissimus auctor et magister, Plato: easque gigni negat, et ait semper esse, ac ratione et intelligentia contineri: cætera nasci, occidere, fluere, labi; nec diutiùs esse uno et eodem statu. Quidquid est igitur, de quo ratione et via disputetur, id est ad ultimum sui generis Formam speciemque ridigendum, Cic. ad M. Brut. Orat.

Ch. I. contrary it has in peculiar this, that whereas those Sounds have no Meaning or Signification, to Language a MEANING or SIGNIFICATION is essential. Again, Language, if compared to the Voice of irrational Animals, has in common this, that like them, it has a Meaning. But then it has this in peculiar to distinguish it from them, that whereas the Meaning of those Animal Sounds is derived from NATURE, that of Language is derived, not from Nature, but from COMPACT.

FROM

(d) The Peripatetics (and with just reason) in all their definitions as well of Words as of Sentences, made it a part of their character to be significant κατὰ συνθήκην, by Compact. See Aristot. de Interp. c. 2. 4. Boethius translates the Words xarà σunns, ad placitum, or secundum placitum, and thus explains them in his comment -SECUNDUM PLACITUM vero est, quod secundum quandam positionem, placitumque ponentis aptatur; nullum enim nomen naturaliter constitutum est, neque unquam, sicut subjecta res à naturâ est, ita quoque a naturá veniente vocabulo nuncupatur. Sed hominum genus, quod et ratione, et oratione vigeret, nomina posuit, eaque quibus

libuit

FROM hence it becomes evident, that Ch. I. LANGUAGE, taken in the most comprehensive view, implies certain Sounds, having certain Meanings; and that of these two Principles, the SOUND is as the MATTER, common (like other Matter) to many different things; the MEANING as that peculiar and characteristic FORM, by which the Nature or Essence of Language becomes complete.

CHAP.

libuit literis syllabisque conjungens, singulis subjectarum rerum substantiis dedit. Boeth. in Lib. de Interpret, p. 308.

CHAP. II.

Upon the Matter, or common Subject of
Language.

Ch. II. THE TAH or MATTER OF LANGUAGE comes first to be considered, a Subject, which Order will not suffer us to omit, but in which we shall endeavour to be as concise as we can. Now this TAH or Matter is SOUND, and SOUND is that Sensation peculiar to the Sense of Hearing, when the Air hath felt a Percussion, adequate to the producing such Effect.(«)

As

(a) This appears to be Priscian's Meaning when he says of a VOICE, what is more properly true of SOUND in general, that it is-suum sensibile aurium, id est, quod propriè auribus accidit. Lib. I. p. 537.

The following account of the Stoics, which refers the cause of SOUND to an Undulation in the Air propagated circularly, as when we drop a stone into a Cistern of

water,

As the Causes of this Percussion are various, so from hence Sound derives the Variety of its Species.

FARTHER, as all these Causes are either Animal or Inanimate, so the two grand Species of Sounds are likewise Animal or Inanimate.

THERE is no peculiar Name for Sound Inanimate; nor even for that of Animals, when made by the trampling of their Feet, the fluttering of their Wings, or any other Cause, which is merely

Ch. II.

water, seems to accord with the modern Hypothesis, and to be as plausible as any-Ακούειν δὲ, τα μεταξὺ τῶ τε φωνοῦντος καὶ τῇ ἀκέοντος ἀέξος πλητισμένη σφαιροειδῶς, ἔιτα κυματουμένου, καὶ ταῖς ἀκοαῖς προσπίπλοντος, ὡς κυματῖται τὸ ἐν τῇ δεξαμενη ὕδωρ κατὰ κύκλους ὑπὸ τῶ ἐμβληθέντος λίθε Porrò audire, cum is, qui medius inter loquentem, et audientem est, aër verberatur orbiculariter, deinde agitatus auribus influit, quemadmodum et cisternæ aqua per orbes injecto agitatur lapide. Diog. Laert. VII.