336 



NATURE 



[Fed. 13, 1879 



&c. The consequence is, that we get no general scheme 

 at all of any given verb, which, however, is perhaps the 

 less to be regretted, inasmuch as there are no true verbs 

 at all in the language. These Eastern Pol>'nesian tongues 

 hare certainly got beyond the purely isolating state of the 

 Chinese, in which each root passes in its unmodified state 

 directly into the sentence, where it becomes a true 

 word only in virtue of its position. But they have 

 not yet reached the next, or agglutinating state, because 

 in them all parts of speech are not yet clearly dif- 

 ferentiated. The so-called verb is merely a nominal 

 predicate with the various temporal, personal, and modal 

 relations more or less clearly expressed by determining 

 particles. Hence the so-called second person present 

 e pUle*oe, here rendered "thou rulest," is made up of the 

 enunciative e equally applicable to present and future time, 

 to thfe infinitive and to other words such as all the 

 numerals {e tasi = one, e lua = two, &c., with which 

 cf. a hundred, a thousand, &c.), of the noun^«/i? = order, 

 command, rule, and of the pronoun 'oe = thou. Thus, 

 the whole expression merely attributes the rule or 

 command, that is, the thitts^ in a vague way to the 

 subject, and seems scarcely to convey the idea of action, 

 that is, of the use of the thing as does the true verbal 

 form regis, thou rulest, in which the original nominal 

 conception is completely absorbed in the idea of action. 

 We thus see that the verb, as a distinct part of speech, 

 is not yet developed, though there is an evident tendency 

 towards its evolution. Hence these so-called verbs are 

 incapable of any change to express mood, tense, person^ 

 and even the plural forms, in which reduplication plays such 

 a large part, are adjectival, as may be seen by comparing 

 sisina, the plural of sina = white, with nonofo, the plural 

 of nofo = to sit. On these plural forms the editor 

 supplies some excellent supplementary matter at pages 

 13-16, which throws a strong light on the great influence 

 of euphony in the development of language in its earlier 

 stages. His remarks on the subtle distinction between 

 the particles a and 0, roughly corresponding to our 

 possessive, are also very good. If to the active or 

 transitive and passive or intransitive notions obviously 

 involved in the use of a and respectively, we add 

 those of the voluntary and involuntary states, nearly 

 aU the difficulties will be removed, and the law may 

 be confidently laid down that a is used with objects 

 over which we hzMQ free control, with those we pos- 

 sess, so to say, independently of ourselves, and which 

 we must use in a definite way. Thus : lona fale = his 

 house, i.e., which he needs must use as a place of 

 refuge or shelter ; but lana vda = his canoe, which he 

 can apply to twenty different purposes. So also in 

 the Tahitian : tdu vda = my canoe ; to'u fare = my 

 house ; for such is the amazing homogeneity of these 

 eastern Polynesian languages that the most delicate dis. 

 tinctions are often found to pervade the whole group from 

 New Zealand to Hawaii, or from Samoa to Easter Island 

 after a separation in some cases of certainly not less than 

 six hundred years. ' "' '\ 



Mr. Whitmee's notes betray altogether such a deep 

 insight into the true genius of this linguistic family that 

 we earnestly hope, ifphen another edition of this wofk is 

 called for, he may be induced to suppress the author's 

 grammar, and give us in its stead a thoroughly rational 



treatment of the subject. It will then be also very desir- 

 able in all cases to give'a literal, or at least a close, trans- 

 lation of the examples quoted in illustration of the various j 

 rules and principles laid down. Many phrases are given ] 

 in the present edition which may be useful to those 

 already acquainted with the language, but which, for 

 want of such a translation, it is to be feared will be thrown 

 away upon the ordinary student, who may not have the 

 opportunity of consulting a teacher. In the actual condi- 

 tion of these languages particles necessarily play a 

 very large part, and are constantly heaped up in the 

 sentence to a degree that must be very perplexing to the 

 beginner. Where possible these particles should be 

 translated, and when this cannot be done, which is very 

 often the case, their various functions in the sentence 

 should always be carefully indicated. This may, no 

 doubt, demand more space, but the space can be saved 

 by giving fewer examples and explaining them thoroughly. 

 A comparative table of Eastern Polynesian alphabets, 

 illustrating the interchange of letters between the various 

 dialects, and throwing some light on their peculiar pho- 

 netic system, would also be a desirable addition, and 

 might be brought within the compass of one or two 

 pages. But the essential point will always be to treat 

 the language from a rational standpoint, independently 

 of all fanciful Semitic, Aryan, or other affinities. The 

 easternPolynesian group has only just emerged from the 

 isolating or lowest stage of human speech, and still 

 hovers on the verge of the agglutinating or next stage, 

 and must be dealt with accordingly. Hebrew, the 

 classical tongues, English, French, and all others 

 familiar to us, have passed upwards from the isolating 

 through the agglutinating to the inflecting state, and 

 have, therefore, little in common with Samoan, Maori, 

 Tahitian, &c., beyond the faint reminiscences, still 

 lingering on, of their former condition. When these 

 simple truths are fully recognised grammarians may be 

 expected to treat languages with some regard to their 

 individual character. A. H. Keane 



COAL AND IRON 

 Coal and Iron in all Countries of the World. By M. 

 Pechar. (Manchester and London: John Heywood, 

 1878.) 



AMONG the results of the International Exhibition at 

 Paris which has just closed its doors, the reports 

 and other permanent records of the actual condition of 

 the great industries of the world are certainly not the 

 least valuable. Even where, as in the case of the work 

 now under review, the materials of comparison are not 

 wholly or mainly derived from the Exhibition itself, still 

 from it have been derived the desire and perhaps the 

 opportunity to execute the work on so complete a scale. \ 



The international character of the book is obvious from 

 every part, even of the title-page ; this is the authorised 

 English edition; the subject it professes to treat is 

 Coal and Iron in all Countries of the World; its author, 

 M. Pechar, is a railway director in Teplitz, Bohemia. 

 And it must be confessed that the contents of the book 

 do not belie the title-page. Indeed, the first page of the 

 General Remarks which introduce us to them would lead 

 us to suppose that we were going to bo treated to a 



