that of the English E, but that of the English pronunciation of A flender, which is the proper English 4; confequently that the Scottish pronunciation of that vowel is juft. Hence we may alfo infer, that the Greek pronunciation of Alpha was that of the English open A, or the proper A of the Scots.. The found of the Epfilon, as pronounced in Scotland, is different from any found with which an English ear is acquainted.

Boaw, boo, clamo, fignifying to low or bellow like an ox or cow, alfo to cry, furnishes another proof of the proper found of the Greek Alpha. The word being formed from an imitation of the lowing of a cow, determines the found of that vowel to have been that of the open English A. The cow and fheep being deemed among a paftoral people the most valuable animals, to whose fafety and preservation their chief care was directed, imitation of the voices of both was naturally employed as expreffive of a cry.

The

It is obferved by Dr. Gregory, in his "Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World," that a child has more to learn in the first three years of his life, than he has in thirty years of any future period. vaft acquifition made by children during thefe years, with refpect to language, difcovers the wonderful flexibility of Man's organs of fpeech, and the vast operation of his imitative faculty*.

MOTION of tongue and lips being as natural to Man as utterance of found, it cannot well be maintained, that the language of primeval society must have confifted of inarticulate cries alone. Articulation must have early taken place as a constituent part of language, and must have been coeval with the first essays towards the formation of words. It is difficult to exercife the voice, without beginning or terminating the found by an application or motion of the tongue, lips, or throat. In imitating the voices of other animals,

*On this fubject, fee what the very learned and ingenious Author of "The Origin and Progrefs of Language" has written.

Man's organs of speech would naturally be exerted to make the imitation perfect. In this employment articulation was necessary. The language of nature may justly be allowed to have confifted of both fimple and articulate founds, without any artificial combinations of primitive words. Human art and contrivance would, however, very early be difplayed in rendering natural language more copious, and better adapted to communicate intelligence of wants and defires. It is difficult, if not impoffible, to determine by what rule men were guided in affixing certain names to inanimate things. It is equally difficult to conceive, that original names were merely arbitrary, and deftitute of any imaginary connexion with the cries and articulate founds of natural, language.. This much, however, is certain, that whatever principles ferved to determine original words. and names, combinations of words were governed by properties and qualities belonging to the fubject. The Galic language affords a copious

copious and curious illuftration of this propofition.

THE imagination paffes eafily from the recollection of one object, to that of another with which the firft is ufually connected. The intimate relation between objects of fenfe leads the mind into a habit of affociating ideas; fo that when an object which had once attracted attention becomes again the fubject of reflection, its ordinary concomitant rifes to view, and prefents itself in its former fhape and appearance to the mind. If the first operates as a caufe, and the attendant as an effect, which from experience is obferved uniformly to prevail, it will often happen, that the effect will figure as the object of greatest importance, and become the fubject of chief confideration. Hence it is, that the language of primitive fociety fo much abounds with thofe figures of speech which transfer the name of one object to its ufual con

comitant,

comitant, or the name of the proximate cause to its ordinary and natural effect.

THIS mode of forming language, and giving the appellation of one thing to another, ought not, in our opinion, to be ascribed wholly to the penury of words in early fociety: it is a mode of speech which is found to be agreeable to the natural operations of the human mind in all stages of fociety: it is relished by the cultivated genius of the refined rhetorician, as well as by the rude mind of the barbarous and unpolished orator. The deflection of words from their literal and primitive fenfe, and the deviation of the terms of a sentence from their plain meaning and common acceptation, are well known in the rhetorical schools by the names of tropes and figures. Thefe are fuitable to the

feelings of a warm imagination, as they give an animated air to language.