Note 27 — Chapter I · THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.
Reading edition
Lucret. v. 1027-1089. The whole passage is one of remarkable beauty and ingenuity. Neither Epicurus nor Lucretius excluded altogether the innate element; v. Diog. Laert. x. 75, sq. Lucretius rightly regards language as no less natural than gesticulation, and so might have taught a lesson to Reid and Dugald Stewart. See Fleming’s Vocab. of Philosophy, s. v. Language. The whole theory is stated and ridiculed by Lactantius, Institt. Divv. vi. 10.