PREFACE. THIS HIS Second Series of Lectures on the Science of Language was delivered last year at the Royal Institution in London. Most of the topics treated in them had for many years formed the subject of my public courses at Oxford. In casting my notes into the shape of lectures to be addressed to a more advanced audience, I left out many things that were merely elementary, and I made several additions in order to show the bearing of the Science of Language on some of the more important problems of philosophy and religion. Whilst expressing my gratitude to the readers and reviewers of the first series of my Lectures, to those who differed from me even more than to those who agreed with me, I venture to hope that this second volume may meet with as many indulgent friends and intelligent critics as the first. M. M. OXFORD: June 11, 1864. |