A philosophical amusement upon the language of beasts / Written originally in French. By Father Bougeant ... , now confined at La Fleche on account of this work.
- Bougeant, père, 1690-1743. Amusement philosophique sur le langage des bêtes
- Date:
- 1739
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A philosophical amusement upon the language of beasts / Written originally in French. By Father Bougeant ... , now confined at La Fleche on account of this work. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[ §4 ] plain Method ? This is it. The whole Language of Beafts amounts to expreffmg the Sentiment of their Pallions, and all their Pallions may be re¬ duced to a very fmall Number, viz. Pleafure, Pain, Anger, Fear, Love, the Defire of eating, the Care of their Young. If then you intend to have the Dictionary of the Language of Beafts, obferve them in the Circumftances of thefe dif¬ ferent Paillons, and as they commonly have but one Expreflion for each, you will foon compofe your Dictionaries from the Model I have given you. Which done, you will of all thefe Dicti¬ onaries together compofe a Polyglot which will contain all the different Languages of Beafts. For Inftance, this Phrafe, “ I feel Pain -, ” you will render it at once in the Language of the Dog, the Cat, the Hog, the Magpy, the Black-bird, GfevThe whole correCtly pricked down in Sharps and Flats, and I give you my Word that this will produce a mighty comical Reading. You fee I am upon the merry Pin. And why. not ? But what will you fay of my Sincerity ? I fhall here make you a Confeftion, that will reduce the whole Language to almoft nothing. . I mean that you mull abfolutely retrench, from it what¬ ever is called Phrafe or grammatical ConftruCtion, not excepting the moft Contracted. Would you for inftance believe, that the moft eloquent Night> ingale cannot fay in his Language, I loveI am .very glad, I feel Pleafure. This however is per¬ fectly true. Any Phrafe into which there enters what you call Grammatically firft, fécond, and third Perfon, /, you, hey ye, and any other the like Pronoun, together with what you call Nouns Collective, Relative, Comparative, &c. are all of them to be blotted out of the Dictionary of Beafts. The Reafon of this is quite plain : For](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30376166_0072.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
