34 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [ft. ii. 



guistic differentiation. It is held by most philologists that 

 all languages in the tertiary or amalgamative stage of 

 development must have previously existed in the secondary 

 or agglutinative stage, — and, at a yet earlier period, in the 

 primary or juxtapositive stage, of which the Chinese is a 

 still living example. Against this view M. Eenan has urged 

 the absence or paucity of transitional forms connecting one 

 class of languages with another. Now in answering M. 

 Eenan's objection, I have begun by showing, from a con- 

 sideration of the Eomanic dialects, that the difficulty la 

 only imaginary. " A language like Latin, spread over a 

 vast space of country in imperfectly civilized times, in- 

 evitably breaks up into a host of local patois. Each secluded 

 rustic community has its own style of pronunciation, its 

 own choice of words and syntactical devices, its own method 

 of contracting or otherwise modifying its expressions. And 

 although the inhabitants of any given town can usually 

 communicate with those of the next town, the slight 

 differences accumulate until intercourse between distant 

 places is no longer practicable. In such a state of things 

 we find plenty of transitional dialects, as the Genoese and 

 Proven9al between Italian and French, and the Balearic 

 and Catalan between French and Spanish. The Tuscan can 

 understand the Genoese, the Genoese can understand the 

 dweller in Piedmont, the Piedmontese can understand the 

 Vaudois, the Vaudois can understand the Lyonnais, and 

 so on until we come to Paris ; but the Tuscan and the 

 Parisian cannot understand each other. Now the progress 

 of civilization in each country tends to kiU out the patois, 

 elevating that variety of the language which has been made 

 the vehicle of the dominant literature to supremacy over 

 the more provincial forms. Increased facilities of com- 

 munication, and the growth of large centres of population, 

 and commercial as well as literary activity, end by making 

 the inhabitants of all parts of the country speak and ^vrit6 



