Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-08-27
A LECTuRE.

A. M. ROBINSON Delirercd before he Tuscaloosa
 Lycean, July 9h, 1881,
 Ladies and Genticmen-I propose to offer, this evening, views introductory to the consideration of THE PHILOSOPHY THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
 am aware that address an audience, many of whom are more deeply versed Tn the subject to be discussed than am myself; but am not detened by this consideration If the design of this institu ton has not been misapprehended, it IS intended to promote the free communication and reciprocal inter- change, not only of known facts, bat of opinions, among the members who belong to it. We ought not to refrain from repeating we'll known truths for the reiteraOn of these, while they may be useful to many, can be injurious to none Nor should the fear of possible prevent us from stating boldly what appears to be true; for the public statement of even our errors to an intelligent and investigating audience, may be useful The annunelatI0n oi an erroneous position, on interesting subject to an audience who have learned that they are not obliged to believe every thing they hear, may give immed- ate and useful employment to many minds, Tn de- tecting the error and eciting the truth on the sub- ject in question, that might otherwise have remained for the time idly employed or wholly inactive. In treating of the subject of language am aware that am speaking of things unseen, Gf words may be regarded things at all ) that l am presenting you with objects intangible; and that for this reason; shall be the less apt to interest you. The subject too, in point of utility and importance, has been re- garded secondary. Uords have been distinguish ed from filings: these have been called THE SONS OF HEAVEN; those THE DAUGHTERS OF EARTH. But the sacred historian has informed us that " the of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair" and selected companions among them. In like manner actual and substantial existences, which have been called the sons of Heaven, have sought an an alliance wlth words the daughters of Earth. It IS only by the kind cvility of these, that they them selves can be introduced into notice or render them- selves useful or important. Words are indeed but signs o ideas; and ideas themselves are but copies or perceptions, of external and internal nature. But there IS here mutual dependence: the existence of things without being known, would be a useless ex- istence; and knowledge can only be acquired and communicated, to any considerable extent, by means of language It will not be necessary for me, before
 this enlightened audience enter into an elaborate argument, or to quote Blair and other distinguished literary authorities, to prove that language is not merely useful 10 communicate knowledge, but that
 1t Is also the instrument of acquiring knowledge, and fixing 1t in own minds; that when we studying how to choose and to arrange our words senslby and appropriately, we are at the same time, learning to think correctly, or to have appro- prate and sensible thoughts. No truth is more ge- nerally acknowledged Language is a science, too,
 m which much progress is yet to be made. It is a medium, through which the thoughts of the most learned and most accurate are but ndistnctly, con- iusedly, and even enormously conveyed If it were not for inc illusions of an imperfect languages if all our words had precise meaning and that meaning
 identical in the mind of the speaker and the nearer, how many mooled points, about which the world have conended for ages, would be brought to a clusion at once We do not mean to say that our differences in opinion merely in words; and that
 the only difficulty is, that we employ different signs
 to denote the same ideas-which may indeed, lre- quenty be the but we mean more-that the appropriate of appropriate words would, not only prevent disputants from misaking each other, but by enabling them to see their way distinctly, would lead them to truth, and of course, to unifor- mity of opinion.
 Our subject is the English language; yet some ob- servations on the origin of language generally, may not be out of place. It has been regarded as ques ton of doubt and difficulty, whether language should | be esteemed as human invention, or whetherlts origin should be attributed to the teaching of Divine inspiration. The difficulty of accounting for it, as a human invention, is represented by an ingenious and elegant writer Dr. Blair, nearly nsurmount able. Language he first represents structure the most ingenious, orderly, and sublime; vehicle by which the most delicate and refined emotions of one mind may be transfused into another d system not only comprising the names of things, but ind- eating minute relations and differences among ob- jects; unfolding the invisible sentiments ofthc mind, and rendering abstract notions ineligible. Not con- tent with subservng the purposes of utility, he re- presents 1t as administering to taste for refined lux ury-adorning thought in garments of beauty-agi- tating the passions, and entertaining the fancy No
 invention, he says, can compare with the invention oflanguage; and yet this invention. if made by at a must have been the product of the rudest ages lahSuage, II invented, ne suppOseS, must nave been conventional and if conventional society must have previously been formed; and yet there seems to be an absolute necessity for speech previously to the | formation of society. These difficulties seem to him so great, that he is rather inclined to attribute lam guage to Divine origin. Still he supposes that Deity only communicated few indispensable ee- ments of speech, and left language poor, narrow, and imperfect to be improved and perfected by man. | The subject presents intrinsic difficulties; but they have neither been fairly stated happily removed | by the writer referred to. Language, as it now exists with all its compexity order, utility beauty, subimity, and grandeur, it would be idle to suppose was the invention of rude barbarians. Such an- guage never existed among such people. If rude barbarians invented language, it was one suggest ed by their indispensable wants-one poor and mar row, such as the writer supposes may have been communicated to man by Deity. Even an imper- feet language must have contributed to the improve ment of society; and the improvement of society would as naturally contribute to the improvement of l language There is something udicrous in suppos- ing that Deity by special interpretation, should give man poor wretched language, to answer his immediate necessities and to his purposes until man himself had time and opportunity to make q better.
 | think you will unite with me in rejecting this opinion, as highly improbable, if not absolutely absurd. The origin of language may doubtless be traced to the wisdom of Deity, but not to an exerton of miraculous power. This wisdom is dis played in the physical and intellectual construction of man, by means of which, where few associate together, some mode of communicating and inter changing ideas by articuate sounds, and other signs, necessarily springs up amongs them. It is doubtful whether language can properly be regarded as an lnvention It rather grows up spontaneously, out of the wants dispositions and capacities of man, than IS invented by any elaborate exertion of mind. To suppose that some ingenious individual sat down to patient study and wrought out system of speech, resembling