ON THE PSYCHO-PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 537 



In no department of knowledge has the scientific 

 spirit worked a greater change than in the science of 

 language. With the exception of suggestions by Leibniz, 

 who clearly saw the necessity of founding the theory of 

 language on a broader basis than the small number of 

 classical and modern tongues then current afforded, 

 and of some glimpses of a correcter view such as those 

 contained in the much ridiculed writings of Lord Mon- 

 boddo, we find, up to the end of the eighteenth century, 

 hardly any attempt towards a methodical treatment of 

 the great problem. Philosophical theories and vague 

 etymologies, amounting frequently to little more than 

 punning with words, brought the subject into ridicule. 

 Herder has the great merit of having urged the im- 

 portance of the study of language and literature in 

 primitive forms l as the great gateway into anthropology 



(1751). The question attracted con - 

 siderable attention, partly through 

 the eccentricities of Lord Mon- 

 boddo, of which it has been well 

 said that they appeared more 

 ridiculous to his own than they 

 would to the present age, partly 

 through the controversy which 

 arose shortly after on the publi- 

 cation of Home Tooke's celebrated 

 '"Eiro Trr(p6fvra, or the Diversions 

 of Purley' (1786). Herder was 

 acquainted with Monboddo's work, 

 having occasioned a translation of 

 it to be made and written a preface 

 (1787) ; but he does not seem to 

 have taken any notice of Home 

 Tooke (1736-1812), who, as the 

 historian of the science of lang- 

 uage (Theodor Benfey, ' Geschichte 

 der Sprachwissenschaft,' Miinchen, 

 1869) says, would, for his novel 

 ideas and method, deserve to be 

 put at the entrance of the modern 

 linguistic epoch, had he been able 



to avail himself of a knowledge of 

 Sanskrit. 



1 This refers to the second great- 

 est work of Herder, his collection 

 of popular songs, published under 

 the significant title of " Voices of 

 the Peoples " (' Stimmen der Vb'lker 

 in Liedern,' 1778), a work which 

 had the greatest influence on 

 German literature as well as on 

 modern philological studies. See 

 Benfey, loc. cit., p. 316, &c. That 

 the publication of the ' Percy 

 Ballads' (1765), of Macpherson's 

 ' Ossian,' and of Lowth's ' Lectures 

 on Hebrew Poetry' (1753), formed 

 a great stimulus to Herder in his 

 historical and poetical studies is 

 shown by Haym in many extracts 

 and passages, also in the prefaces 

 of Herder himself and of his 

 editor, Joh. von Muller (Herder's 

 'Werke,' 1828, 'Zur schonen 

 Literatur und Kunst,' vols. vii. 

 and viii.) 



