332 THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 



own is the most perfect example — languages in which, by 

 further consolidation, inflexions have almost disappeared, 

 while, to express the verbal relations, certain new kinds 

 of words have been developed. Y\ nen we see the Anglo- 

 Saxon inflexions gradually lost by contraction during the 

 development of English, and, though to a less degree, the 

 Latin inflexions dwindling away during the development 

 of French, we cannot deny that grammatical structure is 

 modified by integration; and seeing how clearly the earlier 

 stages of grammatical structure are explained by it, we can 

 scarcely doubt that it has been going on from the first. 



In proportion to the degree of this integration, is the 

 extent to which integration of another order is carried. 

 Aptotic languages are, as already pointed out, necessarily 

 incoherent — the elements of a proposition cannot be com- 

 pletely tied into a whole. But as fast as coalescence pro- 

 duces inflected words, it becomes possible to unite them 

 into sentences of which the parts are so mutually dependent 

 that no considerable change can be made without destroying 

 the meaning. Yet a further stage in this process may be 

 noted. After the development of those grammatical forms 

 which make definite statements possible, we do not at first 

 find them used to express anything beyond statements of a 

 simple kind. A single subject with a single predicate, ac- 

 companied by but few qualifying terms, are usually all. If 

 we compare, for instance, the Hebrew scriptures with writ- 

 ings of modern times, a marked difference of aggregation 

 among the groups of words, is visible. In the number of sub- 

 ordinate propositions which accompany the principal one ; in 

 the various complements to subjects and predicates; and in 

 the numerous qualifying clauses — all of them united into one 

 complex whole — many sentences in modern compositions ex- 

 hibit a degree of integration not to be found in ancient ones. 



§ 113. The history of Science presents facts of the same 

 meaning at every step. Indeed the integration of groups 



