NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 517 



Persians, and Indians. He retraced tlieir manner of life, and, although 

 they left no historical data, he has shown almost in detail the point 

 of civilization at which they had arrived. 



I cannot, you know, enter into details relative to this science, at 

 once so recent and already so immense that it has been called com- 

 parative linguistic science. I can only indicate the great divisions, 

 because, perhaps I shall, by-and-by, have to refer to them. 



All the languages spoken on the surface of the earth have been 

 divided into three fundamental groups ; these are the monosyllabic 

 languages^ the agglutinative languages^ and the flexible languages. 



The monosyllabic languages are the most imperfect. Each of their 

 words consists of one syllable. As an example, I will name the Chi- 

 nese, which is a monosyllabic language, par excellence. In this lan- 

 guage each word presents itself with a sense perfectly absolute, and 

 the delicacies of our language, even the distinctions of time, of place, 

 of going, of coming, etc., can be translated only by a kind of para- 

 phrase. 



The agglutinative tongues form the second stage of language ; 

 here there are words, placed after the fundamental conception, which 

 serve to modify the primitive sense — roots, to employ the expression 

 in use. As examples of agglutinative languages, I will name the 

 negro languages, and those spoken by yellow people, and also by 

 very small numbers of white people. 



Finally, the highest development of language is that of flexible 

 language, so naijaed because, by simple changes in the termination of 

 a word, we can change and modify the absolute sense, and make it ex- 

 press divers shades of meaning, thus : I speak now ; I shall speak 

 to-morrow. Almost all the wliite races speak flexible languages. 



II. Writing. — Speech is evidently the first element in the forma- 

 tion of societies ; writing is the most essential element of the progress 

 of these societies. It is speech fixed. This alone permits the trans- 

 mission of the results of our efforts to the most distant descendants — 

 of the accumulation of the treasures that each generation has sepa- 

 rately acquired. I should like to dwell upon its history; but I should 

 be drawn too far, and so, for writing as for language, I can only indi- 

 cate a few facts. 



Almost with the lowest savages we find means to aid the memory, 

 and serve as souvenirs of events to which more or less importance is 

 attached. These are called mnemonic signs. They are sometimes 

 stones, sometimes pieces of wood shaped in divers ways. A mode of 

 appeal to the memory, found in both the Old and the New World, con- 

 sists in uniting packages of strings of difierent colors, on which are 

 made knots of divers forms. These are called quippus. You make, 

 so to speak, a quippu every time you tie a knot in your handkerchief 

 to enable you to recall something. 



Picturing objects, men, events, in a more or less faithful manner, 



