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INTRODUCTION.

THOUGH reluctant to step between an Author and his readers, I yet cannot iefuse to comply with the request of my young friend and former pupil, that I should accompany his debut before the public, with a few introductory remarks. Having read a portion of the following work in manuscript, and examined its sheets since they have issued from the press, it is my conviction that it spreads before the reader a most interesting page in the book of knowledge, and that, though immediately designed for youth, there are very few who may not reap from its perusal, both pleasure and instruction.

The Author treats of language. His design is, to exhibit the various methods by which ideas are imparted to the mind, both from inanimate and animated nature. He thus discusses the whole subject of natural and artificial language, ascending through every gradation, from the simple dialect of the vegetable kingdom, to the complicated mechanism, and manifold utterances of human speech. The field which he explores, is one equally extended and attractive, and in directing into it the steps of youth, and leading the way, he has rendered to them an invaluable service.

To follow the Author through the various topics discussed,

INTRODUCTION.

would be a work of supererogation. I will here only allude to his interesting speculations on Instinct, Intelligence and Reason. Whether the distinctions which the Author has drawn on these abstruse and difficult subjects, are entirely satisfactory, I will not undertake to decide. Some may regard him as having solved the problem, while others will hesitate to give a decided assent to his theory. Be that as it may, all will regard it as highly ingenious, and worthy of examination. We know not, indeed, that the darkness which invests these mysterious points, will ever be wholly dissipated; yet we greet gladly every ray of light that may be shed. upon them. We welcome every well authenticated fact, even though we hesitate to yield an unqualified assent to the theory it is adduced to support. To him who fails to be convinced, yet the facts accumulated by the Author on these points will lose none of their intrinsic interest.

A delightful feature of the present work is the wide extent to which it draws illustrations from Natural History. Should it thus have the effect of awakening in the minds of youth, a deeper love of nature—a stronger relish for the pure pleasures which she waits to lavish on her votaries-a desire to drink deep of the delicious health-giving draught which sparkles in her ever-flowing cup, a most important object. would be accomplished, and the toil of the Author, I doubt not, abundantly rewarded. Surrounded, as we are, by the endlessly diversified scenery of nature-her thousand forms of beauty alluring the eye-her thousand melodies ravishing the ear her treasure house of unexhausted wonders lying open to our entrance-how little do we appreciate the extent and richness of her stores! In what inexcusable ignorance are we content to remain, suffering our eyes to roam heedless and

unadmiring over scenes, rich in every element of beauty and grandeur, and proffering to our enjoyment, "a perpetual feast of nectared sweets!" Let a youth be imbued with that love of nature, which will urge him to penetrate her secrets, and survey her wonders, and how healthful and invigorating its influence on his whole mental and moral character! The fashionable novel, with its seductive pictures, that at once vitiate the taste, enfeeble the intellect, and corrupt the heart, is thrown aside; the scenes of riotous dissipation are abaǹdoned; and amid the ever-varied beauties of nature-amid her flower spangled meadows and mountain solitudes, he drinks health, and wisdom, and virtue. Who can resist the magic of natural scenery?

"Who can forbear to smile with Nature? Can

The stormy passions in the bosom roll

When every gale is peace, and every grove

Is melody?"

The Volume of Nature, like that of Revelation, is written with the finger of Jehovah, and teaches, in every page, the lessons of his wisdom and goodness. Let, then, the parent, who would multiply to his child the sources of innocent enjoyment, and preserve him from the seductive influences of vice, instil into his bosom a love for natural scenery and natural science. And to such, may I not particularly commend the following work? It attempts, indeed, no scientific exposition of any branch of Natural History-unless we may speak of the natural history of Language. But its numerous illustrations, drawn from the vegetable and animal world, cannot fail to engage the attention, and stimulate the curiosity of youth, more than would a work more formally scientific. It every where opens glimpses of that region of

enchantment-that fairy land, to whose real and living wonders the creations of romance yield as far, in all the elements of interest, as does the mud-walled cottage of the peasant to the banditti-haunted castle among the Appenines. 'Truth is stranger than fiction.’ The inventions of man cannot rival in interest the creations of God. Upon the youth, then, I would urge the careful perusal of this work. Let them read it till the warm love of Nature, which it every where breathes, is transfused into their own breasts, and kindles in them an irrepressible desire to penetrate deeply into the mysteries of Jehovah's works.

I have dwelt so long on this topic, that I have little space to devote to that which is the main object of the work, viz. LANGUAGE. But surely no remarks can be needed from my pen, to awaken an interest in this subject. What a mystery is the expression of thought! What a wonderful creation of the mind is Language! Subtle itself almost to immateriality, yet embodying and rendering palpable those subtler essences, thought, truth, and emotion! The medium by which mind communes with mind, and the electric flash of feeling is transmitted round the entire circle of intelligent and rational existence! To change the figure; now flowing on, a pure crystal stream, whose transparent depths reflect the cloudless heaven of truth; now breaking into a torrent of impetuous and impassioned eloquence, and now swelling and undulating into song! Such is Language-the mirror of the soul-catching its most delicate hues, its most fleeting emotions-preserving them in their original vitality and freshness, and transmitting them from age to age, making each successive generation the inheritor of the collected wisdom of the past!

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