THE WITNESS OF PHILOLOGY. 359 



auch kclne Sprache ein abstractum, zu dcm sic nicht durch Ton 

 und Gefiihl gclangt wiire." * To my mind it is simply incon- 

 ceivable that any stronger proof of mental evolution could be 

 furnished, than is furnished in this one great fact by the whole 

 warp and woof of the thousand dialects of every pattern which 

 are now spread over the surface of the globe. We cannot 

 speak to each other in any tongue without declaring the 

 pre-conceptual derivation of our speech ; we cannot so much 

 as discuss the " origin of human faculty " itself, without 

 announcing, in the very medium of our discussion, what that 

 origin has been. It is to Language that my opponents have 

 appealed : by Language they are hopelessly condemnecL 



• Herder, Abhandl.y s. laa. 



24 



