234 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



was made on the curious fate whereby the proud 

 name of a noble race of warriors became perverted 

 into a common noun to describe the most abject 

 condition of humanity. It is very doubtful, how 

 ever, whether the striking contrast really exists 

 to supply a fit subject for moralizing. It is far 

 more probable that the name Slav is connected 

 with slovo, &quot; a word,&quot; and means the &quot; distinctly- 

 speaking people &quot; as contrasted with the Njemetch, 

 or &quot; talkers of gibberish,&quot; by which polite epi 

 thet the Slavic races have always distinguished 

 the Germans. This naive assumption, that it is 

 ourselves alone who talk intelligibly, while for 

 eigners babble a meaningless jargon, has been a 

 very common one with uninstructed people, and 

 &quot;Njemetch&quot; is not the only national appellative 

 that bears witness to its prevalence. The epithet 

 &quot; Welsh,&quot; which the Germans apply to the Ital 

 ians, the Dutch to the Belgians, and the English 

 to the Kymry of western Britain, has precisely 

 the same meaning ; and so had the word &quot; barba 

 rian,&quot; by which the ancient inhabitant of Hellas 

 described indiscriminately all people who did not 

 speak Greek. 1 



It was about the middle of the fifth century 



1 The name &quot; Wallach,&quot; by which the Germans designate the in- 

 habitants of Rumania, is the same word as &quot; Welsh.&quot; 



