Let us conſider how many Ideas we owe to the Uſe of Speech; how much Grammar exerciſes, and facilitates the Operations of the Mind; let us, beſides, reflect on the immenſe Pains and Time that the firſt Invention of Languages muſt have required: Let us add theſe Reflections to the preceding; and then we may judge how many thouſand Ages muſt have been requiſite to develop ſucceſſively the Operations, which the Human Mind is capable of producing.
I muſt now beg leave to ſtop one Moment to conſider the Perplexities attending the Origin of Languages. I might here barely cite or repeat the Reſearches made, in relation to this Queſtion, by the Abbé de Condillac, which all fully confirm my Syſtem, and perhaps even ſuggeſted to me the firſt Idea of it. But, as the manner, in which this Philoſopher reſolves the Difficulties of his own Starting, concerning
