He caught the flash from the carbine of one of the horsemen on which the sun which had now risen reflected. 'Betrayed, betrayed,' he shouted, and rushed down the hill. Calling to the soldiers and pointing out the way he had taken, the Bheels darted after him. The horsemen galloped round the base of the hill, riding at, and over every thing, the progress of the wretched victim was soon arrested, one of them rode up, and felled him to the earth with the butt of his lance! He was tried the very evening he arrived in Camp, and the next morning was led out to meet the doom awarded him. Now that the worst had happened he seemed perfectly indifferent to his fate. I have had my revenge' he said, 'I have taken the life of one of your Sirdars, and now you take mine-be it so, it is valueless. My life I look upon as nothing compared to the one I have taken! He was conducted to a Gibbet erected on a hill overlooking the Camp, and its vicinity, and in a few minutes after ceased to exist, the body being left suspended as a warning to others. January, 1831. MILO. TO THE MEMORY OF A LADY WHO DIED OF CONSUMPTION. Too soon, too soon, though mingled with the skies Lost to the world,-its tumults, and its cares, For even here, ere fled to worlds of bliss, Soft as the light, from Pity's eye that strays, As her love-beaming eyes bent oer the lake, Translated, Oh! not dead, ere might betray And blessed, and crowned, yet flows the foolish tear; Thus kindred, friends and parents wept thy doom, Why teach it but to love thee, and depart? "Couldst thou not tarry with thy soul-lit smile- Alas, though human love might never twine When, with the light, away the vision hies, Or, as he sits alone, his thoughts renew Hopes buried now, and scenes from whence they grew. A black pomp moves scarce visible for tears, Well wert thou mourned! But tears at length consume. E. OBSERVATIONS ON THE FORMATION OF LANGUAGE, ARISING FROM A STUDY OF THE MOST SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF THE GREEK TONGUE. (From the French of Mr. Levesque.) If men, in order to create for their mutual accommodation, a language, should have been compelled to agree respecting the use of certain signs, of which they might have determined to compose it, they never could have succeeded, in forming this convention, since such convention demanded of itself, the assistance of language. The first method which they adopted among themselves, in order to express their wants, and with which necessity inspired them, was pantomime; but pantomime was not adequate to convey to them a mutual understanding of a language spoken, because pantomimic signs, bear no material affinity to vocal signs. The latter are addressed to the ear, the former speak to the eye; the one operate by means of the faculty, which, our organ of speech possesses of exciting in the air various vibrations; the other, by the power, which the different parts of the body, command of affecting various mouvements. How then have languages originated? By the aid of two expedients, which nature has presented to man. Nature has decreed, that in exhaling the air, we should emit sounds, which grammarians call vowels, since they are in reality, but simple emissions of the voice; she has decreed that we should expire the atmospheric air, in such manner, as to utter one of these sounds quicker than the other, or to vary the same sound, according to the different affections, by which we are influenced.* She has decreed in fine, that according to the nature of our affections, these vocal emissions, should be more softly, or more forcibly aspirated. Hence arise, the various exclamations, which express the different states of our affections, and which, without any other interpreter, reveal our sentiments to those, who hear us. Thus we have a primitive language, composed solely of vowels, more or less roughly aspirated. Certain consouants, which in many of these affections accompany the vowels, forin part of this language. I shall can We utter the sound a in joy, astonishment, grief, which never produces ambiguity in the expressions of the speaker. From which circumstance, we comprehend the reason of each monosyllable of the Chinese language, possessing many significations. I do not say aspirate, or not aspirate; for every vowel is of itself, an as piration. This has been acknowledged by the Greek grammarians, who have distinguished every initial vowel, by a soft, or rough aspiration; but there are many degrees of force, in the sound of the rude aspirate. call it, language natural, because we are indebted for it, entirely to our organization. Nature has also determined, that all what is susceptible of motion, should cause by this motion, agitation in the air, that the agitated air, should produce a certain sound, and that our organs should possess the power of imitating this sound. Thus we have a second language added to the primitive. I shall denominate this, language acquired, because man has learnt it, by frequenting with nature, in the same manner, as we obtain the knowledge of a strange tongue, by communing with foreigners. If mankind employed from the commencement, in form of language, certain natural emissions of the voice, to which they promptly united the imitation of the various sounds, which they heard, consequently there must have been originally, among our species, but one language, which may be termed, the primitive language, and from which all the others have been derived. This opinion has obtained with many of the learned. It would be prolix, to deduce in this place the reasons, which prevent me from adopting this opinion. I shall confine myself ouly to one observation, founded on experience. Whether, that in the different human races, there prevail some slight deviations in the vocal, and auricular organs, which escape the observation of anatomists, or be it, that such variation, exist from some other cause, certain it is, that nations do not agree, with respect to the most simple emissions of the voice, which we call vowels; a (va), a (âme), e (projet), è (succès), é (même), e (bretelle), i, o (homme), ó (dôme), u, ou, an, in, on, un, eu.* Other nations are unacquainted with a great part of those emissions; many are incapable of pronouncing the u, people of other states, cannot pronounce the ou; the greater part do not employ the vowel er. Our nasal vowels are unknown to the major number. We have only one i; the Russians employ two. Certain nations join to the vowels, aspirations more or less rude. The Greeks had in use three aspirates: the first a long time designated by our h, and since by the rude aspirate; the other represented by the gamma, and the third by the Khi. The slaves (Sclavonians) have the aspirates glagol, and Khier; the Germans the ha, and the ch. Some nations employ exclamations, or interjections, which are peculiar to them, and of which others are ignorant such are the Greek exclamations, peu, àrrarai, οττοτοῖ, Ελελελελεῦ. : It is for this reason, that I use the distinctive term of language natural. With regard to language, which I call acquir * I have not included the vowel en, because it exists only visually with us, and as it has one time the sound of an, and another time that of in. |