[Gutenberg 62598] • An essay on the origin of language, based on modern researches, and especially on the works of M. Renan

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1860 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. WOKDS NOTHING IN THEMSELVES. "Credibilius est, quia praesens est eis, quantum id capere possunt, Lumen Eationis.etern-e, ubi hsec immutabilia yera conspiciunt."--S. Atjqustin, Set. i. 4. "it may lead us a little," says Locke, "towards the original of all our notions and knowledge, if we remark how great a dependence our words have on common sensible ideas; and how those which are made use of to stand for actions and notions quite removed from sense, have their rise from thence, and from obvious sensible ideas are transferred to more abstruse significations, and made to stand for ideas that come not under the cognizance of our senses." So far we may seem to have been adducing a crowd of illustrations in support of this statement: for we have traced the germinal development of language from the seed and root of onomatopoeia to the various ramifications of metaphor, and have seen convincing reason to infer the primary origin of all words from sensible ideas. Essay on Human Understanding, in. i. 5. Are we then obliged to give in our adherence to the sensational philosophy, and to believe that " Nature, even in the naming of things, unawares suggested to men the originals and principles of all their knowledge?" Are we forced to accept the dogma that "there is nothing in the intellect, which has not previously existed in the sense?" Such are the questions which must now be considered, because these are the conclusions usually drawn from the premisses, which have been hitherto receiving our support. The discussion of them cannot be considered a digression, because it will lead us at least to recognise the existence of problems which are of the profoundest importance, the examination of which mut always bear reference to the facts...