438 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



process of deterioration virtually comes to an end, unless only a small 

 portion of those who use it fall under the influence of culture. In such 

 a case the breach between the educated and the uneducated becomes 

 wider and wider. This gradual divergence can be traced both in the 

 Greek and in the Latin. A few persons continued to write the classic 

 tongues as nearly as they could; but they eventually became unintel- 

 ligible to the great mass of the people. Although Dante had a ready 

 use of the Latin and wrote much in that language, he nevertheless com- 

 posed a treatise to prove the superiority of the mother-tongue; and he 

 felt that in this alone could he give utterance to the inmost thoughts 

 of his soul. 



It is remarkable that the course of what we are wont to call civil- 

 ization is in a great measure parallel with that of language. During 

 the Mycenaean age in Greece the arts flourished to a degree that seemed 

 almost godlike to Homer's contemporaries. The historic era in Egypt 

 and Mesopotamia, the beginning of which is placed about three thou- 

 sand years B.C., is one of decline. The same is true of Mexico and 

 Central America. Here not only the age of growth, but also that of 

 decay, has been swept into the bottomless pit of oblivion. We see much 

 and know nothing. 



That thought embraces more than speech may often be inferred 

 from a study of public speakers. When persons who are in the habit 

 of thinking rather than talking endeavor to express themselves in 

 public they are frequently at a loss. They hesitate, repeat, often use 

 the wrong word, and are ill at ease for the reason that the vocabulary 

 which they have at immediate command does not offer the exact 

 terms they need. This is particularly true of mathematicians, who are 

 proverbially poor speakers. Take another example similar in kind. 

 I am translating from a foreign tongue into my own. I come across 

 a word for which an equivalent does not at once occur to me. My 

 memory brings into consciousness several synonyms, but all are re- 

 jected by my judgment as inadequate. My memory may be compared 

 to a plane surface on which my judgment moves about like a flash-light 

 until it discovers what I am looking for. Or I may come across a 

 foreign word that has no English equivalent. I must therefore transfer 

 it bodily or use an approximation. In such cases the dictionary rarely 

 affords any aid. It furnishes me, perhaps, with a number of more or 

 less equivalents, but it does not help me to select the particular word I 

 am in search of. Again, assuming that Leibniz discovered the Differ- 

 ential Calculus, did he do so with the German, the French or the 

 Latin language? Although we are not justified in assuming that the 

 discovery could have been made by a dumb person, it lies within a 

 sphere of thought where words count for little. There is abundant 

 evidence to prove that many of the subanimals carry on elementary 

 trains of reasoning which lead them to conform their actions to new 



