Might you not say, that all conclusions concerning fact were
founded on experience: that when we hear an articulate voice in
the dark, and thence infer a man, it is only the resemblance of
the effects which leads us to conclude that there is a like
resemblance in the cause: but that this extraordinary voice, by
its loudness, extent, and flexibility to all languages, bears so
little analogy to any human voice, that we have no reason to
suppose any analogy in their causes: and consequently, that a
rational, wise, coherent speech proceeded, you know not whence,
from some accidental whistling of the winds, not from any divine
reason or intelligence? You see clearly your own objections in
these cavils, and I hope too you see clearly, that they cannot
possibly have more force in the one case than in the other.
But to bring the case still nearer the present one of the
universe, I shall make two suppositions, which imply not any
absurdity or impossibility. Suppose that there is a natural,
universal, invariable language, common to every individual of
human race; and that books are natural productions, which
perpetuate themselves in the same manner with animals and
vegetables, by descent and propagation. Several expressions of
our passions contain a universal language: all brute animals have
a natural speech, which, however limited, is very intelligible to
their own species. And as there are infinitely fewer parts and
less contrivance in the finest composition of eloquence, than in
the coarsest organised body, the propagation of an Iliad or
Aeneid is an easier supposition than that of any plant or animal.
Pages:
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73