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We speak of the flight of General Boulanger, yet, volatile as he 
is, he could scarcely fly without wings. With all this wealth of words. 
in the English language it is said that 300 suffice to express the wants. 
and feelings and ideas of the agricultural labourer, 3,000 are in general 
use, 12,000 are employed in the Bible, and 15,000 in all of Shakespeare’s 
plays. Several hundreds have dropped out of use since he wrote them, 
or have so contracted or expanded cies meaning that they would be 
understood in a different sense altogether. Crusade, for instance, once- 
full of material significance—a long journey and a hand-to-hand fight’ 
—has now purely a metaphorical meaning. The changes that have 
marked the growth of our mother tongue during the last eleven 
hundred years are so important that, supposing that the spiritualists- 
could raise the ghost of King Alfred, and he spoke in the Saxon 
of his day, not many of us would understand a word he uttered, 
nor could he comprehend us. The change is great indeed, only 
equalled by the development of new words and a multitude of 
slang expressions that corrupt Dan Chaucer’s “well of English 
undefiled.” The language of technicalities alone develops faster: 
than most of us can keep up with it. Ten thousand new words, the 
product of the age, will be recorded in the “Century Dictionary,” 
edited by the philologist Whitney, of Yale. Many of these technical- 
ities creep into the literary language. We read now of political 
parties splitting, like slates, “along their lines of cleavage,” of “ the 
survival of the fittest” among politicians, and “the influence of the 
environment” in modifying their votes or opinions. Concepts like 
these and “natural selection,” perhaps the most important concepts of 
our day, with names like Darwinists and Darwinism, will remain part 
and parcel of the English tongue so long as it endures.» When we 
think of the genealogy of mere words, “antique gems of great value,” 
of their power in recording the events of history and the discoveries. 
of science, how they compel reforms and effect rovolutions, as we 
realize dimly all they can tell us of the past and all that they may 
reveal to the future, surely we should endeavour to use them wisely in 
an age characterised by more words than ideas, If speech be really 
the sole distinction between man and beast, it will be well to remember 
the words of one of the greatest masters of our English tongue :— 
‘«?Tis not enough to speak, but to speak true.” 
Authorities—E. B. TyLor—“ Researches into the Early History of 
Mankind,” “ Primitive Culture,” “ Anthropology ” ; Gancick MALLERY 
—* Pictographs of the North American Indians” ; RicuarD OWEN-— 
‘“‘Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates,” vol. 5; T. H. Huxtry— 
“The Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals,” “Man’s Place in Nature,” 
“Critiques and Addresses”; W. H. Frower—‘ Osteology of the 
Mammalia” ; G. H. V. Mever—‘‘ The Organs of Speech” (Inter. Se.. 
Series); W. D. Wuirnery—“ Life and Growth of Language” ;: 
A. “De Quarrerucrs—‘ The Human Species” ; Karn ABEL— 
“Linguistic Essays,” ‘Slavic and Latin” ; Max MuLter—‘ Science. 
of Language,” (1 and 2 Series), “ Chips and Chapters from a German 
Workshop,” “ Biographies of Words,” “Science of Thought,” ‘‘ Hibbert- 
Lectures” ; A. H. Sayce—‘ Introduction to the Science of Language,” 
‘Principles of Comparative Philology, 1885,” Assyrian Grammar,” _ 
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