154 



Many of the above combinations are proven by the fact of their 

 occurring in the same lann;uao;e, the same fjroup of dialects, or the 

 same group of well studied alliances. Many others are easily dis- 

 proved by criticism, being mere coincidences. And many are probably 

 misplaced, as to the range of their radicals in the vertical rows, and 

 might be placed to ftir better advantage to exhibit the law of insensible 

 gradation. But the reality of the law is seen from these tables to be 

 indisputable, and the further multiplication of tables will but heighten 

 the illustration of the law. Arrange any one of the words of the 

 Parable of the Prodigal Son, translated by the Antiquarian Societ . of 

 Paris into the seventy or eighty local dialects of France, and the law 

 is at once established. The most incongruous and dissimilar forms 

 are seen to be organically derived from one another. The French 

 words^/,9 and garcon and the English boohj/ are but widely separated 



