Pag. 52.
(13.) I by no Means intend to launch out into the philoſophical Reflections that may be made on the Advantages and Diſadvantages of this Inſtitution of Languages; 'tis not for Perſons like me to expect Leave to attack vulgar Errors, and the lettered Mob reſpect their Prejudices too much to bear with Patience my pretended Paradoxes. Let us therefore let thoſe ſpeak in whom it has not been deemed criminal to dare ſometimes take part with Reaſon againſt the Opinion of the Multitude. "Nor ſhould we be leſs happy, if all theſe Languages, whoſe Multiplicity occaſions ſo much Trouble and Confuſion, were utterly aboliſhed, and Men knew no other Method of ſpeaking to each other but by Signs, Motions, and Geſtures. Whereas Things are now come to ſuch a Paſs, that Animals, whom we generally conſider as Brute and void of Reaſon, may be deemed much happier in this Reſpect, ſince they can more readily, and perhaps too more aptly, expreſs their Thoughts and Feelings, without an Interpreter, than any Man living can his, eſpecially when obliged to make Uſe of a foreign Language."—Iſ. Voſſius, de Poemat. Cant. et Viribus Rythmi, p. 66.
