LOUIS AGASSIZ AND GEORGE BERKELEY 323 



but one of the results of the publication of the " Origin of Species " 

 has been to awaken new interest in the science of philology, and 

 to promote the progress of this science. We now know that, 

 far from being arbitrary, words and phrases and grammatical 

 forms contain in themselves a record of their history; a record 

 which often shows how they have come to be used as they are. 

 Nothing compels me to use one word rather than another, or 

 even to write at all ; yet it has been found, by statistical methods, 

 that choice of words by an author is as mechanical and orderly 

 as the chest measurements on page 157; for it is found that if 

 the proportion ^ in which common words are used be computed 

 from a hundred pages of an author, this same proportion will be 

 closely adhered to in all his works. His use of words is not 

 necessary, for he is free to write and to speak as he chooses, and 

 may justly, as well as legally, be held responsible for his words ; 

 but his choice conforms to a statistical type, and is as mechanical 

 as the sizes and velocities of the planets in their orbits. I make 

 my sentences long and complicated, or short and simple, as I 

 think best for the reader, for no particular length is necessary; 

 yet a tabulation will show that, while some are short and some 

 long, there is, for each writer, a mean or average sentence-length, 

 and that sentences which exceed this length in any specified 

 degree are exactly equal in frequency to those which fall short 

 of the average in the same degree. 



Does any one think for an instant that language is any the 

 less valuable now than it was before this discovery was made ? 

 No one ever dreams that the conversation of the wise is any less 

 entertaining, or less instructive, or less profitable now than it was 

 before men studied philology. 



As I understand Agassiz, it is not because natural history is 

 a language, that he holds it to be intended; but because it is 

 delightful to lisfen to the language of nature, and because it 

 abounds in beneficial instruction for mankind. 



Is it not because this is true that the man of science holds his 

 pursuit to be both the first and highest of duties and the greatest 

 of all pleasures ? 



"And if," says Agassiz, "this is indeed so, do we not find in this 

 adaptability of the human intellect to the facts of creation, by 



