ould
seem, confounded two separate and distinct questions. 1st. Is there such
a relation between the sound and the sense? and 2d. Were these words
introduced into speech because of that resemblance?

In respect to the latter of these questions, Professor Mueller's answer,
so far as the word _thunder_ is concerned, is rather in favor of an
affirmative answer than against it. So far from its being 'hard to
establish the relationship betwixt _tender_, _thin_, and _thunder_,' on
the hypothesis that 'the original conception of thunder had really been
its rumbling noise; 'it is just as easy to establish this relationship
as it is to show the connection between the root _tan_, to stretch, and
its derivatives _tonos_, _tone_, _tendre_, _tener_, _thin_, and
_delicate_;--an undertaking which Professor Mueller finds no difficulty
whatever in accomplishing.

The idea of _stretching_ signified by the original root _tan_ has no
_direct_ or _immediate_ connection with any of the conceptions expressed
by the derivative words. But by stretching an object it is diminished in
_breadth_ and _depth_, while it increases in _length_; hence it becomes
_thinner_; so that the Mind readily makes the transition from the
primitive conception of _stretch_ to that of _thinness_, indicated by
the English word, and by the Sanskrit _tanu_, and the Latin _tener_,
_tenuis_. _Thinness_, again, is allied to _slimness_, _slenderness_,
_fineness_, etc.; ideas which are involved in the conception of
_delicate_, and furnish an easy transition to it.

But it is also from the notion of _stretching_, though in a still less
direct manner, that we gain an idea of sound as conveyed by musical
tones; '_tone_,' as Professor Mueller remarks, 'being produced by the
_stretching_ and vibrating of cords.' Still further: if we cause a heavy
piece of cord to vibrate, or, what is better, the bass string of a
violin or guitar, or strike a very low key on the piano, and pronounce
the word _tone_ in a full voice at the same time, the remarkable
similarity of the two sounds thus produced will be clearly apparent.
Thus the root _tan_, to stretch, becomes also expressive of the idea of
_sound_ as seen in the words _tonos_, _tone_, _tonitru_, _thunder_, etc.
But what is especially to be noticed is this: that in those derivatives
of _tan_, to stretch, which are _not_ indicative of ideas of sound (as
_tenuis_, thin, etc.), the sounds of the words do _not_ cause us to
imagine that we