A Century of Science 31 



of the comparative method, in whatever field it 

 may be applied, is that it brings before us a great 

 number of objects so nearly alike that we are 

 bound to assume for them an origin and general 

 history in common, while at the same time they 

 present such differences in detail as to suggest 

 that some have advanced further than others in 

 the direction in which all are travelling ; some, 

 again, have been abruptly arrested, others perhaps 

 even turned aside from the path. In the attempt 

 to classify such phenomena, whether in the histori 

 cal or in the physical sciences, the conception of 

 development is presented to the student with irre 

 sistible force. In the case of the Aryan languages, 

 no one would think of doubting their descent from 

 a common original : just side by side is the paral 

 lel case of one sub-group of the Aryan languages, 

 namely, the seven Romance languages which we 

 know to have been developed out of Latin since 

 the Christian era. In these cases we can study 

 the process of change resulting in forms that are 

 more or less divergent from their originals. In 

 one quarter a form is retained with little modifica 

 tion ; in another it is completely blurred, as the 

 Latin metipsissimus becomes medesimo in Italian, 

 but mismo in Spanish, while in modern French 

 there is nothing left of it but meme. So in San- 



