43° Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



the other? If so-, which will be the stronger? Will the one which 

 prevails be unaffected by the other, or, if affected, how far will the 

 intermingling go? This is not an imaginary case, as any one will 

 know, but one which is occurring now, and has occurred on countless 

 occasions in the endless past. For example, what will be the issue 

 as between Dutch and English in our own country? We may be 

 inclined to- venture on prophecy there, and yet how far from sure we 

 can be. Given a different result to the events of the past few years 

 and the problem might have taken quite a new complexioii. And 

 even as it is, who shall fix a date for amalgamation or absorption or 

 modification ? We know the principles, and we see them in con- 

 stant operation, but we cannot be precise as to their effects. The 

 fact is that all our calculations are vitiated by an unknown X, when- 

 ever living organisms are subjects of our investigation. The 

 Zoologist may lay down with the most rigid accuracy the character- 

 istics of the animal " sheep," but the knowledge will not help him 

 much in the determination of the character of an individual sheep. 

 The Political Economist may say that men buy in the cheapest and 

 sell in the dearest market, but a boycott; may be established in 

 defiance of the principle. The same limitation will be found to 

 exist in all the sciences which deal with life in any of its phases. 

 We have to content ourselves with collected facts and with general 

 principles which explain these facts, but we camiot dogmatise about 

 any future combination, the problem being generally toO' complex to 

 admit of accurate prognostication. The study of Language is more 

 than all other sciences subject to- this limitation, as it deals with the 

 very implement of all thought, the sphere in which the influence of 

 individuality is specially prominent. 



We find continually in language two opposing forces at work — 

 a centrifugal and a centripetal force — a force which tends to uni- 

 formity and a force which tends to eccentricity. We wi.sh at present 

 to look at one phase of the force which tends tO' uniformity — the 

 various phenomena of iteration which form a very striking feature 

 in all languages. We mean by Iteration the tendency to repeat 

 entirely or partially sounds already uttered. It will be noted that 

 Iteration, if it prevailed completely, would be the negation of language 

 as articulate speech, and would reduce language to the more or less 

 monotonous repetitions of similar sounds which we find character- 

 istic of the lower animals. Hence it is not an unfair inference to 

 suppose that we come near to the first beginnings of speech when 

 we deal with the phenomena of Iteration. We are led to the same 

 inference when we see that Iteration is specially characteristic of 

 children or of the races of mankind who come nearest children in 

 intellectual development. As the physiologist may see an epitome 

 of the development of the human race in the development of the 

 individual man ffom the embryo to the fully formed adult, so- we 

 may see in some measure the development of language in the 

 gradual acquisition of the powers of language from infancy onwards. 

 If we follow this thought we shall see Iteration beginning as some- 

 thing which we might call almost mechanical or purely animal, and 



