NOTES. 75 



guage cannot, in relation to this question, be treated 

 as a thing by itself — it must be regarded as a posses- 

 sion of the human organism, and the simplification 

 of its structure merely means in most cases its more 

 complete adaptation to the requirements of the 

 organism. 



True degeneration of language is therefore only 

 found as part and parcel of a more general dege- 

 neration of mental activity. To some extent the 

 conclusion that this or that language, as compared 

 with its earlier condition, exhibits evidence of such 

 degeneration, must be matter of taste and open to 

 discussion. For instance, the English of Johnson 

 may be regarded as degenerate when com.pared with 

 that of Shakspeare. There is less probability of a 

 difference of opinion as to the degeneracy of modern 

 Greek as compared with " classical " Greek ; or of 

 some of the modern languages of Hindustan as com- 

 pared with Sanskrit, and I am informed that the 

 same kind of degeneration is exhibited by modern 

 Irish as compared with old ^ Irish. Degeneration, 

 in the proper sense of the word, so far as it applies 

 to language, would seem to mean simply a decay 

 or diversion of literary taste and of literary pro- 

 duction in the race to which such language may 

 be appropriate. 



