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No doubt at first sight it appears that much might be said in favour of the innate and organic nature of language. Its beauty,[19] its diversity, its power, its diffusion over the whole surface of the globe, give it the supernatural air of a gift which man, so far from originating, can only ruin and destroy. We see that in favourable situations language, like vegetation, flourishes and blossoms, while elsewhere it fades and dies away as a plant loses its foliage when deprived of nourishment and light. It seems, too, to participate in that healing power of nature, which effaces rapidly all trace of wounds received. Like nature, it produces mighty results out of feeble resources—it is economical without avarice, and liberal without prodigality.

Again; do we not see that almost every living thing is endowed in infinite variety with the faculty of uttering sounds, and even of intercommunicating feelings?[20] The air is thrilled with the voice of birds, and some of them even possess a power of articulation, which among many nations is the distinctive[21] definition of man. Nay, fancy has attributed to animals a power of language in the age of gold—a power which under certain[22] circumstances they are supposed to be still allowed to exercise.