60 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



formation. The manner in which certain letters or 

 sounds change when others change is very like corre- 

 lated growth. We have in both cases the reduplication 

 of parts, the effects of long-continued use, aud so forth. 

 The frequent presence of rudiments, both in languages 

 and in species, is still more remarkable. The letter m 

 in the word am, means I ; so that in the expression lam, 

 a superfluous and useless rudiment has been retained. 

 In the spelling also of words, letters often remain 

 as the rudiments of ancient forms of pronunciation. 

 Languages, like organic beings, can be classed in groups 

 under groups ; and they can be classed either naturally 

 according to descent, or artificially by other characters. 

 Dominant languages and dialects spread widely and 

 lead to the gradual extinction of other tongues. A lan- 

 guage, like a species, when once extinct, never, as Sir 

 C. Lyell remarks, reappears. The same language never 

 has two birth-places. Distinct languages may be crossed 

 or blended together. 43 We see variability in every 

 tongue, and new words are continually cropping up ; but 

 as there is a limit to the powers of the memory, single 

 words, like whole languages, gradually become extinct. 

 As Max Muller 44 has well remarked: — " A struggle for 

 " life is constantly going on amongst the words and gram- 

 "matical forms in each language. The better, the 

 " shorter, the easier forms are constantly gaining the 

 " upper hand, and they owe their success to their own 

 " inherent virtue." To these more important causes of 

 the survival of certain words, mere novelty may, I 

 think, be added ; for there is in the mind of man a strong 

 love for slight changes in all things. The survival or 



43 See remarks to this effect by the Rev. F. W. Farrar, in an interest- 

 ing article, entitled " Philology and Darwinism " in ' Nature,' March 

 24th, 1870, p. 528. 



44 ' Nature,' Jan. 6th, 1870, p. 257. 



