Brinton.] OxZ [March 20, 



each grammatical peculiarity, we should have an infallible, the 

 only infallible and exhaustive, picture of human progress. 



§ 4. Historical, Comparative and Philosophic Grammar. 



The Science of Grammar has three branches, which differ more 

 in the methods thej'^ pursue than in the ends at which they aim. 

 These are Historic, Comparative and Philosophic Grammar. 

 Historic Grammar occupies itself with tracing the forms of a 

 language back in time to their earlier expression, and exhibits 

 their development through the archaic specimens of the tongue. 

 Comparative Grammar extends this investigation by including 

 in the survey the similar development of a number of dialects 

 of the same stock or character, and explains the laws of speech, 

 which account for the similarities and diversities observed. 



Both of these, it will be observed, begin with the language and 

 its forms, and are confined to these. Philosophic Grammar, on 

 the other hand, proceeds from the universal constructive prin- 

 ciples of language, from the abstract formulae of grammatical 

 relations, and investigates their application in various languages. 

 It looks upon articulate speech as the more or less faithful ex- 

 pression of certain logical procedures, and analyzes tongues in 

 order to exhibit the success, be it greater or less, which attends 

 this effort. The grammatical principles with which it deals are 

 universals, they exist in all minds, although it often happens 

 that they are not portrayed with corresponding clearness in 

 lansjuage.* 



Philosophic Grammar, therefore, includes in its horizon all 

 languages spoken by men ; it essays to analyze their inmost 

 nature with reference to the laws of thought; it weighs the re- 

 lations they bear to the character and destiny of those who 

 speak them ; and it ascends to the psychological needs and im- 

 pulses which first gave them existence. 



It was grammar in this highest sense, it was the study of lan- 



* "Les notions grammatical es resident bien plut6t dans I'esprit de celui qui 

 parle que dans le materiel du language." Humboldt, Lettre & M. Abel-Remusat 

 Werkc, Bd. vii, s. 396. On the realms of the three varieties of grammar, see also 

 Dr. M. Schasler, Die Elemente der PhilosopJiische-'. Sprachwissenscha/t, etc., s. 35, 

 36, and Friedrich Milller, Gnmdriss der Spr achivissenscha ft, Ba.nd i,sS. 8-10 (Wien, 

 1876). Schasler observes that a main object in pliilosophic grammar is an inves- 

 tigation of "die genetisch-qualitativen Unterschiede der Redetheile," that is, of 

 tlie fundamental psychological differences of the parts of speech, as, what is the 

 ultimate distinciion between noun and adjective, etc.? 



