The first application of names to objects, or the invention of significant words, has often been supposed to have taken its rise from the imitation of the voices of animals, or the sounds produced by various natural causes. The serpent hisses, the bees hum, the thunder peals, the tempest roars, the wind howls among the mountains ; the savage listens, and imitates the sound which salutes his ears, and the word which he pronounces, serves afterwards to teach to himself and his companions the idea of the object which first gave occasion to its utterance. To suppose words invented, or names given to things in a manner purely arbitrary, without any ground or reason, is to suppose an effect without a cause. There must always have been some motive which led to the assignment of one name rather than another, and we can conceive no motive which would more generally operate upon men in their first efforts towards language, than a desire to paint by speech, the objects which they named in a manner more or less complete, according as the vocal organs had it in their power to effect this imitation. A certain bird is termed the cuckoo from the sound which it emits. When one sort of wind is said to whistle, and another to roar ; a fly to buz, and falling timber to crash; when a stream is said to flow, and hail to rattle, the analogy between the word and the thing signified is plainly discernable. Thus in all languages a multitude of words are to be found that are evidently constructed, upon this principle.
Having thus briefly stated, and endeavoured to prove, that language was given to man, by Divine inspiration, to communicate our ideas to each other, to express our wants and our wishes, and to praise the Giver. It becomes us, as rational creatures, to make the best possible use of this blessing, and avoid, as far as it is in our power, perverting this inestimable gift to any bad purpose. The best use we can make of this Divine endowment, is the cultivation of our minds, in the practice of virtue, — a thirst after knowledge, — the love of truth, — and, above all, a desire to "search the Scriptures," that we may "become wise unto salvation."
Next to speech, writing is, beyond doubt, the most useful art which man possesses. Writing is plainly an improvement upon speech, and therefore, must have been posterior to it in order of time. Mankind, at first, thought of nothing more than by communicating their thoughts one to another when present, by means of words, or sounds which they uttered. Afterwards, they devised this further mode of natural communication when absent, by means of marks, or characters presented to the eye, which is called writing.
The invention of an alphabet, or of a number of arbitrary signs, which by their varied position, should express all the variety of human sentiment and language, seems to be a discovery, of so sublime and complicated a nature, that if not absolutely beyond the possibility of the mental energy of man to elicit, it must necessarily demand the lapse of ages to complete its development, and to advance it to perfection.
Written characters are of two sorts ; they are either signs for things, or signs for words. Of the former sort, signs for things are the pictures, hieroglyphics, and symbols employed by the ancients. Of the latter sort, signs for words are the alphabetical characters now employed by all Europeans. Pictures were undoubtedly the first essay towards writing. Imitation is natural to man; in all ages, and among all nations, men have attained some method of copying and tracing the likeness of sensible objects; those methods would soon be employed by mankind, for giving some imperfect information
