CatteU.] 550 [.March;.-), 



nothing. Philology, from the modern point of view, is ;i 

 thorough and comprehensive study not only of all languages 

 and their literature, but of the science of language. This i ; 

 to study man, for as a distinguished authority says; "there 

 is no nook of man's mind or heart or will, no part of his na- 

 ture or history, into which the student of language may not 

 be called to look." The Philologist therefore equally with 

 the Philosopher, may use the oft-quoted line of Terence, hu- 

 mani nihil a me alienum puto. We continue, indeed, to 

 send our bo} T s to the schoolmaster that he may teach them 

 Latin and Greek, for the scoffing of this practical age has 

 not made us undervalue this thoroughly tested and ap- 

 proved means of cultivating the youthful faculties, nor the 

 opulent results, in maturer years, of a familiar acquaintance 

 with the languages in which is contained the literature that 

 has quickened the intellectual life of all cultured nations. 

 But the study of languages in this age has more in view 

 than mental discipline or the ability to translate easily and 

 correctly the classic authors. Its aim is not merely to 

 know the thoughts of men which have come to us in 

 many languages — a great heritage — but to know also the 

 laws of mind in which all language is grounded. Words 

 are things. The Philologist studies his word as the Botan- 

 ist his plant. He inquires not only to what uses it may be 

 applied, but by what laws it grows. Words not only con- 

 tain thought but they are — merely as words — the product of 

 the laws of thought. To study these laws is to study mind; 

 and does not philosophy reappear in philology, which thus 

 comes to study with it those great questions which lie 

 nearest to the lives of men? It would, perhaps, better suit 

 another time and place to show how what I have said as 

 to the study of those words which have grown up between 



