ccess the
Grammar of our Language_. All our efforts of this kind seem to have been
render'd ineffectual hitherto, chiefly by the prevaliency of two false
notions: one of which is, that our Verbs have no Moods; and the other, that
our Language hath no Syntax."--_White's English Verb_, p. viii.

[83] A similar doctrine, however, is taught by no less an author than "the
Rev. Alexander Crombie, LL. D.," who says, in the first paragraph of his
introduction, "LANGUAGE consists of intelligible signs, and is the medium,
by which _the mind_ communicates _its thoughts_. It is either articulate,
or inarticulate; artificial, or natural. The former is peculiar to man; the
latter is _common to all animals_. By inarticulate language, we mean those
instinctive cries, by which the several tribes of inferior creatures are
enabled to express their sensations and desires. By articulate language is
understood a system of expression, composed of simple _sounds_, differently
modified by the organs of speech, and variously combined."--_Treatise on
the Etymology and Syntax of the English Language_, p. 1. See the same
doctrine also in _Hiley's Gram._, p. 141. The language which "is _common to
all animals_," can be no other than that in which AEsop's wolves and
weasels, goats and grasshoppers, talked--a language quite too unreal for
_grammar_. On the other hand, that which is composed of _sounds_ only, and
not of letters, includes but a mere fraction of the science.

[84] The pronoun _whom_ is not properly applicable to beasts, unless they
are _personified_: the relative _which_ would therefore, perhaps, have been
preferable here, though _whom_ has a better sound.--G. B.

[85] "The great difference between men and brutes, in the utterance of
sound by the mouth, consists in the power of _articulation_ in man, and the
entire want of it in brutes."--_Webster's Improved Gram._, p. 8.

[86] Strictly speaking, an _articulate sound_ is not a simple element of
speech, but rather a complex one, whether syllable or word; for
_articulate_ literally means _jointed_. But our grammarians in general,
have applied the term to the sound of a letter, a syllable, or a word,
indiscriminately: for which reason, it seems not very suitable to be used
alone in describing any of the three. Sheridan says, "The essence of a
syllable consists in _articulation only_, for every _articulate sound_ of
course forms a syllable."--_Lectures on Elocution_, p. 62. If he is right
i