THE LAW OF EVOLUTION CONTINUED. 385 



that among civilized nations there are examples of de- 

 creasing definiteness, (instance the breaking down of limits 

 between ranks,) the reply is, that such apparent exceptions 

 are the accompaniments of a social metamorphosis — a 

 change from the military or predatory type of social struc- 

 ture, to the industrial or mercantile type, during which the 

 old lines of organization are disappearing and the new 

 ones becoming more marked. 



§ 135. All organized results of social action — all super- 

 organic structures, pass through parallel phases. Being, as 

 they are, objective products of subjective processes, they 

 must display corresponding changes; and that they do this, 

 the cases of Language, of Science, of Art, clearly prove. 



Strike out from our sentences everything but nouns and 

 verbs, and there stands displayed the vagueness charac- 

 terizing undeveloped tongues. When we note how each 

 inflection of a verb, or addition by which the case of a noun 

 is marked, serves to limit the conditions of action or of ex- 

 istence, we see that these constituents of speech enable men 

 to communicate their thoughts more precisely. That the 

 application of an adjective to a noun or an adverb to a verb, 

 narrows the class of things or changes indicated, implies 

 that the additional word serves to make the proposition 

 more distinct. And similarly with other parts of speech. 



The like effect results from the multiplication of words 

 of each order. When the names for objects, and acts, and 

 qualities, are but few, the range of each is proportionately 

 wide, and its meaning therefore unspecific. The similes and 

 metaphors so much used by aboriginal races, indirectly 

 and imperfectly suggest ideas, which they cannot express 

 directly and perfectly from lack of words. Or to take a 

 case from ordinary life, if we compare the speech of the 

 peasant, who, out of his limited vocabulary, can describe 

 the contents of the bottle he carries, only as " doctor's- 

 stufT " which he has got for his " sick " wife, with the 



