2 
Friday, 3rd May, 1901. Mr. P. E. Vizard, a Vice- 
President, in the Chair. 
Mrs. Samson read a paper prepared by her hus- 
band, Mr. John Samson, entitled “The Science of 
Language; with special reference to English Philology.” 
Mr. Samson, although present, was unable to 
deliver the lecture himself owing to a severe cold. 
The paper began by referring to the interesting 
nature of the subject and to the fact that very few take 
the trouble to study the origin, development and science . 
of Language, though everybody uses it. There is scarcely 
any more fascinating pursuit than that of tracing words 
to their origins, investigating their real significance and 
correct application, comparing them with those of other 
languages and observing what relationship exists between 
them. Words are to the philogenist what fossils are toa 
geologist, and their interpretation reveals a world of 
meaning concealed from the unlearned. Reference was 
made to the pleasures of travel being extended when 
the names of the places visited can be made to tell their 
stories. The various speculations of philosophers with 
regard to the origin of language and how certain sounds 
come to represent certain things and ideas were then 
discussed. The principal families of languages were 
then described and allusion made to the origin of 
the Aryan race, whose speech was the mother of 
nearly all the languages spoken in Europe, as well as 
many in Asia. The lecturer then spoke of another 
method of classifying languages: the morphological, 
that is, the various methods by which they have been 
elaborated from the simple roots. The divisions under 
this head were explained, viz. :—the isolating, agglutin- 
ative, polysynthetic, the inflectional, and the analytical 
classes of language. Allusion was made to the laws 
which have been found to pervade the growth, alter- 
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