CHAPTER IV.
GESTURE-LANGUAGE AND WORD-LANGUAGE.
We know very little about the origin of language, but the subject has so great a charm for the human mind that the want of evidence has not prevented the growth of theory after theory; and all sorts of men, with all sorts of qualifications, have solved the problem, each in his own fashion. We may read, for instance, Dante's treatise on the vulgar tongue, and wonder, not that, as he lived in mediæval times, his argument is but a mediæval argument, but that in the 'Paradiso,' seemingly on the strength of some quite futile piece of evidence, he should have made Adam enunciate a notion which even in this nineteenth century has hardly got fairly hold of the popular mind, namely, that there is no primitive language of man to be found existing on earth.
"La lingua ch' io parlai fu tatta spenta
Innanzi che all' ovra inconsumabile
Fosse la gente di Nembrotte attenta.
Chè nullo affetto mai raziocinabile
Per lo piacere uman che rinnovella,
Seguendo 'l cielo, sempre fu durabile.
Opera naturale è ch' uom favella:
Ma cosi, o cosi, natura lascia
Poi fare a voi secondo che v' abbella.
Pria ch' io scendessi all' infernale ambascia
EL s' appellava in terra il sommo Bene
Onde vien la letizia che mi fascia:
ELI si chiamò poi: e ciò conviene:
Chè l' uso de' mortali è come fronda
In ramo, che sen va, ed altra viene."
In Mr. Pollock's translation:—
"The Language, which I spoke, was quite worn out
Before unto the work impossible
