Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 3, 1802).djvu/84

66] dug at a distance of one rod and a half. When the trenches are cut to a sufficient depth, they are filled up, and covered in the usual manner with straw and bushes. The expence of this method of draining is computed to be nearly 3l. per acre.

Land-ditching not only carries off the water from wet or marshy soils, but also meliorates stiff loamy clays; which, being thus better enabled to resist the long-continuance of moisture on their surface during the winter, promote vegetation very early in the spring, and the grass is rendered of a superior quality. The weeds, &c. change their colour, and are totally divested of their rankness: the corn also increases both in quantity and weight.—Another important advantage arising from this practice, is, that it will admit of the soil being ploughed at an earlier period of the spring, and later in autumn; while it may be tilled with greater facility, and kept clear from weeds at a very small expence.  . See.  LANGUAGE, signifies the expression of our ideas, and their different relations, by means of articulate sounds.

The acquisition of languages is an object of great importance. Without entering into a discussion concerning their origin, we shall briefly observe, that the power of speech is not naturally acquired; because, when considering its mechanism, certain positions and motions of the organs of the mouth, such as the tongue, the teeth, lips, and palate, &c. are necessary for uttering sounds, which cannot be imitated by persons living in a state of Nature, and must, tberefore, be the effect of art. Hence civil society alone could produce a language; and, as the former is not from Nature, or coeval with the animal, it follows that both must have had a beginning.

The same cause that first produced ideas, and made men rational creatures, also rendered them social or political, and in process of time produced all the arts of life: this cause, in the opinion of the late Lord, is no other than the necessities of human life. These are either the want of subsistence, or of defence against superior force and violence; so that, without the operation of one or other of these causes, there never would have been society, language, or arts, among men.

The most easy and correct method of acquiring languages, is, however, of greater consequence than the history of their origin. Singular as this assertion may appear to many of our readers, it is nevertheless true, that a just model, or plan of teaching, so useful an art as that of speech, to children or adults, has long been, and still remains, a great desideratum. And though we are not in possession of a perfect system of grammar, yet many excellent treatises have been written on that subjeft by ingenious men, who have, ivdividually, contributed to render the art of speaking and writing more familiar to persons of ordinary conception. Unfortunately, however, less attention has, in general, been paid to the acquisition of modern languages, than to. Hence we may confidently recommend the method pursued by Dr. of Greenwich, on whom the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. in 1787, conferred a gold