REASON AND DIVERS TONGUES. 229 



known : a fact which the whole school of Mr. Ro- 

 manes's opponents have ever taught, and which we have 

 again and again insisted upon to ears and minds 

 evidently somewhat slow of apprehension. 



In commencing his exposition of doctrines of 

 comparative philology, Mr. Romanes modestly dis- 

 claims any right to speak as an expert in that science. 

 We desire to make even less claim to any special know- 

 ledge on the subject. The criticisms we shall make, 

 however, do not require or depend upon any special 

 knowledge of that kind. We all admit that speech 

 changes and grows, and every assertion (not a repetition 

 of already noted errors) made about philosophy by Mr. 

 Romanes might be freely conceded without weakening 

 our own position. Still we think it expedient to 

 examine what follows, for although it is relatively 

 unimportant, the matter it deals with is valuable as 

 throwing some useful side-lights on the main question. 

 This is especially the case with some statements of Mr. 

 Romanes which we deem more or less interestingly 

 erroneous. 



He says,* " Let it be noted that we are in the 

 presence of exactly the same distinction with regard to 

 the origin of language, as we were at the beginning of this 

 treatise with regard to the origin of man. For we then 

 saw that while we have the most cogent historical 

 evidence in proof of the principles of evolution having 

 governed the progress of civilization, we have no such 

 direct evidence of the descent of man from a brutal 

 ancestry. And here also we find that, as long as the 



* p. 242. 



