28 July 1814 '.2 +

Logic

Ch.4.IV.V.VI.VII. Functions &c.

'.2.V Instrument, Language

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 Refer here to title Operations in which the composition of language has been described.

'.2.V. Main Instrument of Logic.

Grand Instruments of thought, in general, and of thought directed to the purposes of logic in particular,- the faculty of discourse, including the faculty of speech.

Under the head of the operations, in or to the performance of which logic is capable of being rendered serviceable, mention was made of the faculty of expression, of discourse, of converse. Correspondent to this as to any other operation, a demand may exist, as at any rate in the present instance does exist, for the mention of a correspondent faculty - say the faculty of giving expression to thought - the faculty of carrying on discourse - the faculty of holding converse with other persons - or say more concisely the faculty of discourse, the faculty of converse; of which the faculty of speech is but a modification - and no more but one out of several modifications.

By means of this faculty - by the performance of the correspondent operations, a correspondent product has in every nation - in every tribe or groupe of human beings, howsoever barbarous and uninstructed - been brought into existence. Numberless are the shapes in which the product has among different assemblages and races of men made its appearance: and in whatsoever of these shapes it has made its appearance, one general appellation language - a language - is applicable to designate the assemblage of audible signs, of which, with or without a correspondent collection of visible signs or characters it is composed: so many different collections of these signs employed by so many different tribes in the designation of the same collections of ideas, so many different languages.