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First Part 101the nearer knowing who could have been the interpreters of this conventionfor such ideas, which, in consequence of their not corresponding to anysensible objects, could not be indicated by gesture or voice; so that we canscarcely form any tolerable conjectures concerning the birth of this art ofcommunicating our thoughts, and establishing a correspondence betweenminds: a sublime art which, though so remote from its origin, philosophersstill behold at such a prodigious distance from its perfection, that I nevermet with one of them bold enough to affirm it would ever arrive there, eventhough the revolutions necessarily produced by time were suspended in itsfavor; though prejudice could be banished from, or would at least consent tosit silent in the presence of our academies; and though these societiesshould consecrate themselves, entirely and during whole ages, to the studyof this thorny matter.The first language of man, the most universal and most energetic of alllanguages, in short, the only language he needed, before there was a necessityof persuading assembled multitudes, was the cry of nature. As this crywas never extorted but by a kind of instinct in the most urgent cases, toimplore assistance in great danger, or relief in great sufferings, it was oflittle use in the common occurrences of life, where more moderate sentimentsgenerally prevail. When the ideas of men began to extend and multiply,and a closer communication began to take place among them, theylabored to devise more numerous signs, and a more extensive language:they multiplied the inflections of the voice, and added to them gestures,which are, in their own nature, more expressive, and whose meaning dependsless on any prior determination. They therefore expressed visible andmovable objects by gestures, and those which strike the ear by imitativesounds: but as gestures scarcely indicate anything except objects that areactually present or can be easily described, and visible actions; as they arenot of general use, since darkness or the interposition of a material objectrenders them useless; and as besides they require attention rather thanexcite it; men at length bethought themselves of substituting for them thearticulations of voice, which, without having the same relation to any determinateobject, are, in quality of conventional signs, fitter to represent all ourideas; a substitution, which could only have been made by common consent,and in a manner pretty difficult to practice by men, whose rude organswere unimproved by exercise; a substitution, which is in itself still moredifficult to be conceived, since such a common agreement would haverequired a motive, and speech therefore appears to have been exceedinglyrequisite to establish the use of speech.We must suppose, that the words, first made use of by men, had in their