On nous fait du langage des prémiers hommes des langues de Geométres, et nous voyons que ce furent des langues de Poëtes. Cela dût être. On ne commença pas par raisoner mais par sentir.
The language of the first men is represented to us as the tongues of geometers, but we see that they were the tongues of poets. And so it had to be. One does not begin by reasoning, but by feeling.
—Rousseau, Essai sur l’origine des langues (1753)
Image: Poet's Tongue (and The Plastic Brain); or Ideas Had While in the Shower; 2010.
The language of the first men is represented to us as the tongues of geometers, but we see that they were the tongues of poets. And so it had to be. One does not begin by reasoning, but by feeling.
—Rousseau, Essai sur l’origine des langues (1753)
Image: Poet's Tongue (and The Plastic Brain); or Ideas Had While in the Shower; 2010.
