MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND LOWER ANIMALS. 189 



tion of many words further back than that of species, 

 for we can perceive how they actually arose from the imi- 

 tation of various sounds. "We find in distinct languages 

 striking homologies due to community of descent, 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 

 I; so that, in the expression I am, a superfluous and use- 

 less rudiment has been retained. In the spelling also of 

 words, letters often remain as the rudiments of ancient 

 forms of pronunciation. Languages, like organic beings, 

 can be classed in groups under groups ; and they can be 

 classed either naturally according to descent, or artificially 

 by other characters. Dominant languages and dialects 

 spread widely, and lead to the gradual extinction of other 

 tongues. A language, like a species, when once extinct, 

 never, as Sir C. Lyell remarks, reappears. The same 

 language never has two birthplaces. Distinct languages 

 may be crossed or blended together. 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 languages, gradually become ex- 

 tinct. As Max Miiller has well remarked : " A struggle 

 for life is constantly going on among the words and gram- 

 matical 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 the survival of certain 

 words, mere novelty and fashion may be added ; for there 

 is in the mind of man a strong love for slight changes 



