242 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN, 



lower ingredients of the sign-making faculty ; and hence 

 that not only all languages in particular, but the faculty of 

 language in general, has been the result of a natural evolution. 



Here then, let it be noted, 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 there 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, 

 so long as the light of history is able to guide us, there can 

 be no doubt that the principles of evolution have determined 

 the gradual development of languages, in a manner strictly 

 analogous to that in which they have determined the ever- 

 increasing refinement and complexity of social organization. 

 Now, in the latter case we saw that such direct evidence of 

 evolution from lower to higher levels of culture renders it 

 well-nigh certain that the method must have extended 

 backwards beyond the historical period ; and hence, that 

 such direct evidence of evolution uniformly pervading the 

 historical period, in itself furnishes a strong prima facie 

 presumption that this period was itself reached by means of 

 a similarly gradual development of human faculty. And 

 thus, also, it is in the case of language. If philology is able 

 to prove the fact of evolution in all known languages as far 

 back as the primitive roots out of which they have severally 

 grown, the presumption becomes exceedingly strong that 

 these earliest and simplest elements, like their later and more 

 complex products, were the result of a natural growth. 



Nevertheless, as I have said, it is important to distinguish 

 between demonstrated fact and speculative inference, however 

 strong ; and, therefore, I will begin by briefly stating the 

 stages of evolution through which languages are now 

 generally recognized by philologists to have passed, without 

 at present considering the more difficult question as to the 

 origin of roots. 



