the greatest skill, will often be found inadequate to
convey the impression with which the mind may labour. Cicero, that great
master of eloquence, frequently confessed, or declared, that words failed
him. This, however, may be thought to have been uttered as a mere figure of
speech; and some may say, that the imperfection I speak of, is but an
incident of the common weakness or ignorance of human nature; and that if a
man always knew what to say to an other in order to persuade or confute, to
encourage or terrify him, he would always succeed, and no insufficiency of
this kind would ever be felt or imagined. This also is plausible; but is
the imperfection less, for being sometimes traceable to an ulterior source?
Or is it certain that human languages used by perfect wisdom, would all be
perfectly competent to their common purpose? And if some would be found
less so than others, may there not be an insufficiency in the very nature
of them all?

22. If there is imperfection in any instrument, there is so much the more
need of care and skill in the use of it. Duncan, in concluding his chapter
about words as signs of our ideas, says, "It is apparent, that we are
sufficiently provided with the means' of communicating our thoughts one to
another; and that the mistakes so frequently complained of on this head,
are wholly owing to ourselves, in not sufficiently defining the terms we
use; or perhaps not connecting them with clear and determinate
ideas."--_Logic_, p. 69. On the other hand, we find that some of the best
and wisest of men confess the inadequacy of language, while they also
deplore its misuse. But, whatever may be its inherent defects, or its
culpable abuses, it is still to be honoured as almost the only medium for
the communication of thought and the diffusion of knowledge. Bishop Butler
remarks, in his Analogy of Religion, (a most valuable work, though
defective in style,) "So likewise the imperfections attending the only
method by which nature enables and directs us to communicate our thoughts
to each other, are innumerable. Language is, in its very nature,
inadequate, ambiguous, liable to infinite abuse, even from negligence; and
so liable to it from design, that every man can deceive and betray by
it."--Part ii, Chap. 3. Lord Kames, too, seconds this complaint, at least
in part: "Lamentable is the imperfection of language, almost in every
particular that falls not under external sense. I am talking of a matter