Feelings. Their arrangement. citra verbi opem sententiam complens." This definition agrees in the main with that which is to be gathered from the words of that excellent old grammarian, Priscian; viz.," Vox quæ cujuscunque passionis animi pulsu per exclamationem interjicitur:"*and on a full consideration of all these authorities, I would propose the following definition—An interjection is a part of speech showing forth any human feeling, without asserting any thing concerning it. 409. To illustrate this definition, it may be necessary to explain the import here given to the term "human feeling," and to state the different modes in which such a feeling may be shown forth in language without asserting its existence. First, then, it is to be observed, that I use the term "human feeling," as comprehending all those impressions, pleasurable or painful, which we receive through our bodily frame, our intellectual faculties, or our spiritual constitution: and these in their several degrees and modifications. In this view, so far is the interjection from being a "brutish" thing, that the nice and philosophical examination of it, as it has been practised in the different languages and ages of the world, would furnish matter for a better treatise than was ever yet written on the sensibilities and sympathies of human nature. Mr. Tooke declares that "the dominion of speech is erected upon the downfal of interjections." If so, the dominion of speech never was erected, nor ever will be, till the minds of all men are "a standing pool," incapable of being moved or incited to action even by the naked calculations of a cold, exclusive, hateful selfishness. 410. I do not pretend to reduce the infinite variety of human feelings to a systematic arrangement. The only attempt of the kind in relation to grammar, which deserves attention, is that of the very ingenious Bishop Wilkins; but it is a mere outline, and is meant to include only "rude, incondite sounds," the "natural signs of our mental notions or passions," and "several of which are common with us to brute creatures." It is as follows: I. Solitary, the result of a surprised I. judgment, denoting i. admiration, heigh! II. beginning discourse, i, to dispose the senses of the hearer, 2. expressing attention, ha! ii. to dispose the affections of the hearer, 2. by way of threatening, væ! wo! Though this scheme in its primary distinctions refers to the different uses of interjections, its ramifications are determined by the sound of the words employed for this purpose. These considerations should be kept apart, as their intermixture leads only to confusion. Therefore, before I examine the different methods which men have followed in giving utterance to their feelings, otherwise than in enunciative sentences, I deem it proper to say something of the feelings themselves; though, for the reason already intimated, my notice of them must be brief. I have already observed, that in the opening of our faculties, the earliest conceptions which we form are those of bodily existence; but even our conceptions are preceded by bodily feelings, each sense is pleasurably or painfully affected by external impressions, and these are soon distinguished from each other, and their existence signified to other persons by different modes of expression. When the mental faculties begin to expand, they connect feelings with conceptions, and so with external objects, at first by present sensation making us joyful or sad; afterwards by memory causing regret or pleasing recollection; and lastly, by foresight, creating in us hope or fear, desire or aversion. As we advance in the exercises of reason, we feel doubt or confidence, we are surprised at anything new or strange. Again, the social nature of man opens to him new trains of feeling, affectionate fondness, rivalry, enmity; we approve or disapprove the conduct of others, we applaud or censure, admire or despise them. Every such state of mind is evinced by a peculiar interjection, distinguished not so much by articulation as by tone, by length or shortness of utterance, or by the look or gesture with which it is accompanied; by the abruptness of violent and sudden passion, or the prolonged and gentle murmur of tender affection. Such feelings belong to mankind by their general constitution: others are of a local or temporary nature, and connected with particular objects or events, with religious doctrines and practices, with military ardour, with political party, or personal attachment; and these add to the boundless variety of interjectional cries, and words, and phrases. 411. It remains to be seen what modes of expression, independently Modes of of sentences clearly and fully enunciative, language affords for those expression. different feelings; and these will be found to rise by imperceptible gradation from sounds scarcely articulate to clearer articulations, thence to words formed from these incondite sounds, so to broken phrases, and, lastly, to short sentences interjected without direct relation to those by which they are preceded or followed. Incondite Vowels. 412. We may observe among the interjections noticed by Bishop But it is as often taken to express surprise, or exhortation, or com- 66 E i buon soldati, in campo, o in citadella, Si stanno zitti in far la sentinella. Allegri. Of the French chut! the Dictionnaire de l'Academie merely says, 413. Where the incondite sound is that of a vowel, the articulation is somewhat more distinct; but, on the other hand, it may be the more easily adapted by the flexible organs of the voice to express different states of the mind: a slight degree of elevation or depression, of length or shortness, of weakness or force, serves to mark a very sensible difference in the emotion meant to be expressed. Hence Cinonio thus speaks of the Italian ah and ahi :-" I varj affetti cui serve questa interiezzione ah ed ahi sono più di venti; ma v'abbisogna d'un avvertimento; che nell' esprimerli sempre diversificano il suono, e vagliono quel tanto che, presso i Latini, ah! proh! oh! vœ! hei! papa! &c. Ma questa è parte spettante a chi pronunzia, che sappia dar loro l'accento di quell' affettto cui servono; e sono-d'esclamazione di dolersi-di svillaveggiare di pregare-di gridare minacciando-di minacciare di sospirare-di sgarare-di maravigliarsi— d'incitare di dsegno di desiderare-di reprendere di vendicarsi— di raccomandazione di commovimento per allegrezza—di lamentarsi -di beffare-ed altri varj." Vossius observes of the Latin ah, that in ancient books it is often written a without the aspiration; as pro is also written for proh; and indeed the Greeks write a without the breathing. Thus the 739th and the 746th lines of the Philoctetes are both written A, å, å, å. So in the Plutus of Aristophanes, the old woman, alarmed lest her face should be burnt, cries Τὴν δᾄδα μή μοι πρόσφερ -*A, à, Oh! oh! Don't put the torch near me! Priscian, too, says that a is the name of a letter, and a preposition, and also an interjection. I need scarcely observe that both ah! and oh! are used by English writers as interjections of pain and sorrow. In youth alone unhappy mortals live, But ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive. Dryden. 66 Oh! this will make my mother die with grief. Shakspeare. Dr. Johnson says "Ah, interjection-a word noting sometimes dislike and censure- —sometimes contempt and exultation-sometimes, and most frequently, compassion and complaint." He also says Oh, interjection-an exclamation denoting pain, sorrow, or surprise.' The Greek 'I and Latin Io, varying but little in sound from O, were also sometimes used to denote pain or sorrow. Thus Philoctetes, in the agony of his bodily torture, cries iù, iù; and Polymestor, in the Hecuba of Euripides, uses the same exclamation. Thus Tibullus says Uror, io! remove, sæva Puella, faces! Lib. ii. Eleg. 4. Mater io! seu te Phrygiis in vallibus Idæ Seu tu sanguineis ululantia Dindyma Gallis De Rapt. Proserp. 2. 267. The tender and affecting force of the interjection oh! as an expression of deep-seated grief, was never more strikingly shown than in those lines of my old and ever-honoured friend, Wordsworth : She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave-and oh! The difference to me. Yet ah, and oh, aspirated and unaspirated, are constantly occurring as marks of slight and transient feeling; sometimes of contemptuous irony, as in the interjectional phrases of Mr. Tooke, above quoted; Words formed. and sometimes of grave remonstrance, as in Sidrophel's indignant reply to Hudibras : Oh! sir, Agrippa was no conjuror, Nor Paracelsus; no, nor Behmen; Nor was the dog a Cacodæmon. 414. The transition from these mere incondite consonants and vowels to words formed from them is simple and easily to be accounted for, since it is natural to name the cause from the effect. Of this we have an obvious example in the Latin væ, used only as a mere vocal interjection in that language, but found in many others, both as an interjection and also as the root of a numerous train of nouns substantive and adjective, verbs, &c. Thus we find as interjections, the Greek Oval; the Mæso-Gothic wai; the Welsh gwae; the Anglo-Saxon wa; the German weh! And in most of these languages the same sound becomes an interjectional noun, as in German, "wehe den gottlosen!" woe to the ungodly! Frankish, uue themo man!" woe to the man! in English, woe is me! Hickes reckons wa is me! and wam me! among the Anglo-Saxon interjections of grief. In old English we find "wo the be!"-" woe worth!" &c.; and in Scottish "wae's me!" and "wae's my heart: 66 From wae it is probable came the verb wail, and from waile wa came waileway, welaway, and corruptly welladay. Hickes expounds the Anglo-Saxon wala wa! heu! proh dolor! and he adds, in a note, "hæc interjectio frequenter tropicè ponitur pro dolore, præcipuè in scriptis Satyrographi, ut : Wote no wyght what war is ther that peace reineth We find it written variously, weylaway, wayleway, waileway, wel awaie: Betere hem were at home in huere londe, Than forte seche Flemmyssh by the see stronde, Whare routh moni Frensh wyf wryngeth hire honde, Sche seyd wayleway, When hye herd it was so : Biclept him in his armes twain, His song was waileway. Battle of Bruges. Sir Tristrem. Amis and Amiloun. |