Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/172

We may eaſily conceive that ſuch an Intercourſe ſcarce required a more refined Language than that of Crows and Monkeys, which flock together almoſt in the ſame manner. Inarticulate Exclamations, a great many Geſtures, and ſome imitative Sounds, muſt have been for a long time the univerſal Language of Mankind, and by joining to theſe in every Country ſome articulate and conventional Sounds, of which, as I have already hinted, it is not very eaſy to explain the Inſtitution, there aroſe particular Languages, but rude, imperfect, and ſuch nearly as are to be found at this Day among ſeveral Savage Nations. My Pen, ſtreightened by the Rapidity of Time, the Abundance of Things I have to ſay, and the almoſt inſenſible Progreſs of the firſt Improvements, flies like an Arrow over numberleſs Ages; for the ſlower the Succeſſion of Events,