STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. 103 



the Latin, which was once a living language, but 

 which is now, so to speak, a fossil. The various 

 species of cats do not differ more than these six 

 languages differ, and yet the resemblances point in 

 each case to a common origin. Max Muller, in his 

 brilliant essay on Comparative Mythology* has said, 

 " If we knew nothing of the existence of Latin 

 if all historical documents previous to the fifteenth 

 century had been lost if tradition, even, was silent 

 as to the former existence of a Koman empire, a 

 mere comparison of the six Koman dialects would 

 enable us to say that at some time there must have 

 been a language from which all these modern dia- 

 lects derived their origin in common ; for without 

 this supposition it would be impossible to account 

 for the facts exhibited by these dialects. Let us 

 look at the auxiliary verb. We find : 



Italian. Wallachian. Rhsetian. Spanish. Portuguese. French. 



It is clear, even from a short consideration of these 

 forms, first, that all are but varieties of one common 

 type ; secondly, that it is impossible to consider any 

 one of these six paradigms as the original from 

 which the others had been borrowed. To this we 

 may add, thirdly, that in none of the languages to 

 which these verbal forms belong do we find the 



* See Oxford Essays, 1856. 



