102 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



with respect to the successive stages of development through 

 which each creature has passed. 



The formation of different languages and of distinct 

 species, and the proofs that both have been developed 

 through a gradual process, are curiously parallel.* But we 

 can trace the formation of many words further back than 

 that of species, for we can perceive how they actually arose 

 from the imitation of various sounds. We find in distinct 

 languages striking homologies due to community of de- 

 scent, and analogies due to a similar process of formation. 

 The manner in which certain letters or sounds change 

 when others change is very like correlated growth. We 

 have in both cases the reduplication of parts, the effects of 

 long-continued use, and so forth. ' The frequent presence 

 of rudiments, both in languages and in species, is still more 

 remarkable. The letter m in the word am, means /; so 

 that in the expression 1 am, a superfluous and useless rudi- 

 ment has been retained. In the spelling also of words, let- 

 ters often remain as the rudiments of ancient forms of pro- 

 nunciation. Languages, like organic beings, can be classed 

 in groups under groups; and they can be classed either nat- 

 urally according to descent, or artificially by other charac- 

 ters. Dominant languages and dialects spread widely, and 

 lead to the gradual extinction of other tongues. A lan- 

 guage like a species, when once extinct, never, as Sir 0. Lyell 

 remarks, reappears. The same language never has two 

 birth-places. Distinct languages may be crossed or blended 

 together, f We see variability in every tongue, and new 

 words are continually cropping up; but as there is a limit 

 to the powers of the memory, single words, like whole lan- 

 guages, gradually become extinct. As Max MiillerJ; has 

 well remarked: '^ A struggle for life is constantly going on 

 among the words and grammatical forms in each language. 

 The better, the shorter, the easier forms are constantly 

 gaining the upper hand, and they owe their success to their 

 own inherent virtue. ^^ To these more important causes of 



* See the very interesting parallelism between the development of 

 species and languages, given by Sir C. Lyell in "The Geolog. Evi- 

 dences of the Antiquity of Man," 1863, chap, xxiii. 



f See remarks to this effect by the Hev. F. W. Farrar, in an inter- 

 esting article, entitled "Philology and Darwinism," in "Nature," 

 March 24, 1870, p. 528. 



X " Nature," Jan. 6, 1870, p. 257. 



