In this general system of three classes all languages now known find their place, for they include all possible means of expressing thought. Some belong of course to an intermediate. stage, others are even now in the process of transition. A few belong partly to the one and partly to the other class, as not every organic substance rises to the comparative perfection of animal organization, and nature has substances half plant and half animal, leaving a trace, a permanent specimen upon each step of the ladder on which organic life ascends. The higher organized classes especially show, one and all, distinct traces of a connection with the lower classes. Those of agglutinizing tendencies often keep the two words that express relation and idea, quite distinct, using each independent of the other, whilst even those of the third class are, as far as their roots or sounds for original ideas are concerned, still wholly monosyllabic. Their formative words are all secondary words, that is, in no case genuine roots, and even in the best inflected idioms many cases are found, where idea and relation are expressed merely by a mechanical junction, a more apparent than real union.

It was long supposed that every language had to pass through each of these three classes, as through so many stages of gradual development, progressing from a monosyllabic expression of the idea only to a mechanical combination of two sounds, in order finally to accomplish the organic union of inflected words. But the history of such languages as are known to us at various periods of growth and progress, positively contradicts such a presumption. No trace of such development is found in those idioms we esteem highest. Was the Latin ever monosyllabic? or has the Chinese during 2500 years of literary

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cultivation ever ceased to be so? The very fact that at the first dawn of history we see the languages of the earth already fully formed and developed, is the best evidence that we know nothing of the whole period, during which they first arose and were fashioned. We must not forget that language and history are alternating faculties of the human mind. The one must be made and perfected, before the other is thought of or begun. Moreover, both Schlegel and Humboldt agree, that there was a certain epoch in the history of the human race given to the creation of idioms, as Geology has her periods for other forms and creations. This utter absence of information, this complete want of material even, by which to judge, will ever prevent us from determining with precision, what course of development languages originally passed through, to assume their present form.

CHAPTER XL.

THE HISTORY OF LANGUAGES.

Their first origin unknown-Their early development ante-historical-No new languages formed.

THE history of the first origin of language we have seen to be a matter of speculation only; nor does history itself give any account of the growth, the building up of an idiom. That part of their development is ante-historical. As far, at least, as we know the history of the world, we meet with no absolutely new formation of a language, nor even with any essential addition

made to the radical elements by means of which language is formed. Even the Romance languages of our day, and the English, are not genuine, new formations, but at best only the budding of new, vigorous shoots from an old decaying trunk. But there is, nevertheless, a history of every idiom traceable: it is the history of all the changes which a complete and fully developed language has undergone in accordance with and under the influence of the fate of that nation by whom it was spoken. This forms the second period in the history of every idiom; this can be ascertained and studied, because it is contemporaneous with that of nations.

This period has, heretofore, been almost universally considered a period of decay, and this opinion has been apparently supported by the fact, that languages appear richer in words and forms the farther we can trace them back to their early ages. The idioms derived from the Sanscrit are poor in proportion to their age; the abundant inflections and ingenious combinations of the Latin have almost entirely disappeared in the Romance languages of our day. The meaning of radical parts is lost; the correspondence of sounds, their signs and letters, entirely disregarded. The simple analytic construction is substituted for the complicated and fastidious synthetic arrangement of ancient languages.

Another evidence in favor of such an opinion has been found in the well established fact, that the fuller of life and action the history of a nation is, the greater is the loss of original perfection in its language. The eventful history of all Indo-European races, and the comparative poverty and simplicity of modern languages, are easily accessible instances. Idioms are rich in propor

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tion as men lead a calm and impassionate life. There is known to Linguists a language which they consider one of the most perfect spoken by man; it possesses an almost unlimited flexibility; it is expansive, copious and systematic, soft, plaintive, and pleasing to the most fastidious ear. It is the Poongevee, spoken on the Gaboon river in Africa! Of Indo-European idioms, also, the Lithuanian passes for one of the richest and noblest; it still possesses the original Sanscrit terminations, which all other European tongues have long since lost-but the race who speak it, is almost unknown; it has no history, and both nation and tongue are rapidly disappearing. Most of the savage and uncultivated dialects of Africa and North America are among the most complex in organization and elaborate in structure-but where is their literature, and where are the great deeds of their men? The same is observed in branches of the same languages. The Old Norse, a rich and beautiful tongue, survives still, dwarfish in form and impoverished in estate, in modern Scandinavian languages. One of the sisters, however, left early their common home and sought refuge in distant Iceland. A few independent, noble families, unwilling to bear the yoke of the tyrant Harold Harfagr, left Sweden in 875, and settled the barren, lonely island; whilst the Old Norse in the mother country was subjected to violent changes and the influence of almost constant implication in continental strife and excitement, divided into various branches, and lost so much as to make its ancient sagas a mystery to modern readers, it remained pure and rich beyond measure in the far-off colony. There peaceable, intelligent men, animated by ardent patriotism and a warm attachment to their old legends, kept themselves and their tongue entirely free from

historical commotion, and their children can now read their eddas, their songs of Odin, Helge and Sigurd, far better and easier than the German could read his Ulfilas, the Englishman his Chaucer, or the Frenchman the edicts of his earlier monarchs. The Icelandic has thus remained pure and undisturbed, whilst the Swedish has lost most of its riches, and the Danish has suffered in proportion to its success during the wars with England and the Continent. The conquest of England by Canute was a death-blow to the Norse of Denmark.

CHAPTER. XLI.

THE DECAY OF LANGUAGES.

The older a language the richer-The decay only apparent-The material reduced-The sounds simplified-The inflections lost-Remarkable instances in English.

THIS SO-called decay, however, is but apparent; it is, in reality, a progress and an improvement. For the perfection of languages does not consist in their number of words, their variety of forms, or in consistent regularity. If it were so, the lowest idioms would be the best, and the Abiponese, which has a different pronoun for a third person, according as he or she is absent or present, standing or sitting, at rest or walking, would be infinitely superior to the German or the English.

Language, being a spiritual manifestation of the mind, tries, like the mind itself, to rise above matter; it has a tendency,