EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



native dialects of these countries were numerous 

 and uncultivated ; and as all were in close polit- 

 ical and social connection with Rome, it was a 

 much simpler matter for all to learn Latin than 

 for the Romans and their subjects alike to learn 

 a score of barbarous tongues. The business of 

 life got more easily transacted in this way. No 

 such result followed the conquest of the Eastern 

 world, because Greek was spoken all over the 

 East, and every educated Roman knew Greek 

 already ; so that in this case it was a simpler 

 matter for the conquerors to talk Greek than 

 for their subjects to learn Latin. Practical con- 

 venience is the final arbiter in pretty much all 

 such cases. Now it must not be supposed that 

 the Latin talked all over the West was quite 

 like the elegant language of Caesar and Virgil. 

 It was only educated people in Rome or Milan, 

 and perhaps in such cities as Nismes or Lyons, 

 that talked like this. Colloquial Latin always 

 had plenty of dialectic peculiarities. Even in 

 Italy the Latin had supplanted, in former times, 

 a number of kindred Umbrian and Sabine dia- 

 lects, and we may be sure that all these left their 

 mark upon the common speech. In getting dif- 

 fused over Europe, this impure colloquial Latin 

 could not fail to pick up here and there some pe- 

 culiar word or phrase, while now and then some 

 other word or phrase would be lost from its old 

 stock and forgotten, so that people did not talk 

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