date

20 Dec. 1815 Ch. 5 Chrestomathia Language
20 Dec. 1815 Ch. 5

Chrestomathia Language

Ch.5. Modes of discourse

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That the signs which address themselves to the ear were the first in use, several considerations concur in rendering manifest.

One is that the audible form is alike natural to mankind and to the inferior animals. The visible, though, as experience testifies, not altogether incapable of being employed by man in his intercourse with some of the most intelligent species of animals, is not, as far as appears, at any rate, in a degree approaching to that in which the audible is, natural to any of them.

The other proof is - that of all the denominations by which in any of the civilized languages this mode of communication is designated, the organs of speech are the only ones by which it is ever, in any direct way, designated. Witness this very word language, derived, as it is, from the Latin name for a tongue, lingua. Witness also the other word speech, by which, from what root soever derived, the audible mode /form/ and that to the exclusion of the visible mode /form/ never fails to be presented.

True it is that for the designation of both alike, there exists in the English the word discourse; which word is moreover derived /[...?]/ from the Latin discursus, having for its logical conjugate the verb discurro. But of the verb discurro, the original import is by far, more extensive, and, at the same time, less appropriate. By it is meant to run over or to run on and accordingly so far is it from being, in any sufficient degree on all occasions appropriate that on many occasions notwithstanding the seeming contradiction, even in speaking of discourse in its visible form, it has been found necessary to put aside that appellation, and, instead of it, to employ the word speech or the word language.

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    The hearing - its organ, the ear - the sight - its organ, the eye - the touch - its organ, the skin, and more particularly the skin of the hand - to all these senses has what is called discourse been made to address itself. Audible, visible, and tangible - such accordingly has respectively been the nature of the signs of which in these several cases discourse, this organ of the mind, has been composed.

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