of it, till we should once more reach our own times. It is this latter task, to which, incompetent as we feel ourselves, we propose to offer some humble contributions in the present article.

We leave out of the account altogether, the primitive language, of which we know so little; nor shall we offer any hypothesis in regard to the confusion of language at Babel. However that might be, soon after the dispersion society must necessarily accumulate afresh; and, with society, the necessity must arise of some medium of communication. With even the most limited degree of advancement, something more would be necessary than the language of natural signs. A people, raised but a single step above the crudeness of savage life, would need some means of communicating their thoughts, their projects, their desires, their emotions. And, finding by experiment that they were endowed with the power of articulating distinct sounds, they would probably soon combine a few of those sounds with their signs. In proportion to their advancement in the cultivation of their powers, they would gradually increase the number of articulate sounds, definitely fixing the sense of each, and at the same time diminish the number of signs; laying aside the more slow and laborious method of communication, and substituting the more convenient. Writing must have been an invention subsequent in the order of time, and the result of some new necessity. As articulate language is a translation of the language of natural signs, so writing is the translation of articulate language into the language of signs again. Natural signs are the signs of ideas. Artificial signs are either arbitrary words, or sounds, or, as in written language, the signs of sounds; and these latter are the signs of ideas. Natural signs suggest immediately the ideas of which they are the signs. Artificial signs (we refer here to that which takes place in written language) suggest, first, the sounds of conventional terms, and, through them, ideas. In deciphering artificial signs, we think, first, of the sounds for which they stood; and then of the idea which belongs to those sounds; unless, indeed, by practice, the sound and the idea become so associated, that there is no perceptible interval between the conception of the sound implied in certain artificial signs, as letters, and the apprehension of

the idea; the two appearing to occur to the mind simultaneously. The case of the deaf and dumb is, probably, an exception,-to whom the combinations of figures, which we denominate letters, are signs of ideas, and not of sounds; and, perhaps, also, the Chinese, whose characters at the same instant represent both sounds and ideas. Written language being, therefore, a more complicated contrivance, evidently belongs to a later period of cultivation than that which is simply spoken. The gradation is, first, the language of natural signs; then, conventional terms, or words; then, artificial signs of these terms, or written language; ascending by degrees from rude picture writing to the most arbitrary characters, or letters.

In the views contained in the remainder of this article, we shall embrace both written and spoken language; as the theme we have proposed to ourselves could not be otherwise fairly treated.

Language is properly distributed into oral or spoken, and not spoken. The common division into oral and written is not perfectly accurate. It is not sufficiently comprehensive. It omits, entirely, the pantomimic language of the deaf and dumb, and of the early stages of civilization, which is, plainly, neither oral nor written. In addition to what has been said of languages, in general, it may be remarked, that the different languages are indebted for their peculiar characteristics and for their various degrees of perfectness, to the character, habits and mental constitution of the persons who gave to them, or to the parent languages, the first impulse; and to the peculiar circumstances under which those languages were placed, when they were, so to speak, in a forming state. Many influences, which cannot now be known, and many more, which cannot be appreciated, contributed to make them such as they are. Either the gay and vigorous, or dull and phlegmatic, temperament of those who were the master spirits of their various nations, at the period; the proximity to, or distance from other tribes, with the comparative amount of their intercourse; their being in a state of war or of peace, the climate, the character of various countries and their degree of cultivation, all played some part in moulding each particular language. Some instances of these influences have already been given.

Not-spoken language is divided into natural sign language and artificial sign or written language; or, generally, the language of natural and artificial signs. Artificial sign language is composed of hieroglyphical or of arbitrary characters. Hieroglyphical characters represent the object described, at once, to the eye. Arbitrary characters have a merely conventional signification, by virtue of which they express an intelligible meaning. These arbitrary characters are either signs of ideas, as in the Chinese; or, of sounds, as in most other tongues.

The progress of language seems to have been in the following order. First, the language of natural signs. Secondly, hieroglyphics; which are only natural signs fixed in permanent form; painted to the eye, in a fixed and enduring manner. Thirdly, syllabical languages, like the Chinese; partaking partly of the hieroglyphical character, and partly of the character of most other families of languages; the transition point between the former and the latter. Fourthly, the arbitrary forms of our own, and of most other tongues, which do not come from the Chinese stock.

The language of natural signs, the first in the series, is a subject of extreme interest. Every sort of pantomime, by which ideas are communicated, is included in this silent, but most expressive tongue. At the period of its earliest use, it was, of course, simple as it could be. It had not yet learned that extent, and richness, and accuracy of expression, to which it has since attained. The few plain ideas, which it was at first designed to represent, could be described in a very few common and constant signs. But even savage nations, at length, learned the necessity of making it more perfect. Those who could converse among themselves, in an articulate language of their own, adopted a language of natural signs, carried far beyond its incipient rudeness, to facilitate their intercourse with tribes of a different tongue. Major Long found the language of signs an organized medium of communication between various tribes of western Indians. But the natural sign language has been carried to its highest perfection in the efforts for the instruction of the deaf and dumb. The history of the instruction of that unfortunate portion of our race is, therefore, consentaneous with the history of the progress of the language of

natural signs. The earliest attempts in this department, of which we have a definite account, were made by Pedro de Ponce, a Benedictine monk, in Spain, in the year 1570. He taught four deaf mutes, of noble families, to write and to speak. In 1620, the first book, known to have been written on the subject, was published by John Bonet, another Spaniard, who was, also, the author of the manual alphabet, which is the basis of that now in use at Paris. For more than a century afterwards, various methods were applied in Spain, Holland, and England, and with various success. But it was not till 1755, that the system of natural signs seems to have received that attention which was necessary, as the only sure means of pouring light upon the minds which sat in darkness. Cut off from the ordinary mode of communication with mankind, through the ear, the art of articulation, which was, at first, viewed as the great desideratum, at length gave place in the more successful schools to the perfecting of the language of natural signs. In 1755, Heinicke, in Germany, and De l'Epée, in France, founded their independent systems of instruction, and established schools for the education of deaf mutes at Leipsic and Paris, which may be considered as substantially the germs of the two modes of treatment which have ever since been in vogue. At the basis of Heinicke's system, was instruction in articulation, which he deemed essential to the progress of the pupil. De l'Epee, more rationally, as we think, gave, comparatively, no attention to articulation, but directed his scholars immediately to the acquisition of ideas, through the language of natural signs. The system of De l'Epée was improved by the Abbé Sicard, who is thought to have surpassed his great master. The American system, as taught by the Rev. Mr. Gallaudet, at Hartford, is an improvement upon the Parisian, and well entitled, as experiments have proved, to be considered a universal language. In proof of this statement, it is remarked by a writer in the Encyclopedia Americana, that "he had employed it, or seen it employed, with complete success, in communicating with an American Indian, a Sandwich Islander, a Chinese, and the deaf and dumb in various parts of the United States, in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy." A native of the Sandwich Islands, who

visited the Asylum, at Hartford, gave the pupils a history of his life, in the sign language, which was perfectly understood. A Chinese was several years ago at the same place, who did not know a word of the English language. One of the deaf mutes, in an interview of an hour or two with him, learned all his history, and the history of his family and friends; the manners, customs, and religion of China, and the meaning of two or three Chinese words. A king, residing near the Black sea, in Nero's time, on a visit to Rome, saw an exhibition of pantomime. He was so delighted with the expressiveness of their silent language, that he petitioned that the actors might be permitted to return with him to facilitate his communication with savage tribes whose language was unknown. Before the earliest missionaries from America sailed from the Sandwich islands, some of them spent a short time with Mr. Gallaudet, in order to become familiarly acquainted with the language of natural signs; and, on their arrival, they found that they could immediately make themselves understood by the natives.

The expression of the countenance forms one essential item in the language of natural signs. Indeed, on reflection, we shall easily be led to perceive, that this portion of sign language is always learned, first, by the infant, as a most important subsidiary to the acquisition of an articulate language. The babe, in its mother's arms, interprets her expressions of love or of approbation, not by any thing it understands in the terms themselves, but by the tones of her voice, and the expressions of her countenance. It is not the articulate words, which bring ideas to its little mind; but the natural signs, which enable it to interpret them. The young child becomes acquainted with words just as do the deaf and dumb; with the exception, only, that the latter learn the form only, the former the sound. For example, if we would undertake to teach a deaf mute the meaning of the sign for hat, we should first take a hat, and write upon it in conspicuous letters, H A T. After leaving him to contemplate it awhile, we should remove the hat, but leave the letters; which, ever after, wherever he might see them, would suggest to his mind the idea of a hat. So a child, on hearing the terms good, bad, I love, I abhor, &c., learns their meaning by noticing the expression of countenance,