EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



of a uniform standard. In this way the vulgar 

 Latin insensibly diverged into a host of provin- 

 cial dialects, or patois, the divergence being great 

 or little according to the frequency of intercourse 

 between different localities. Thus the Tuscan 

 and the Savoyard could both understand the 

 Milanese, the inhabitant of Lyons could talk 

 with the Savoyard and with the citizen of Or- 

 leans, and the Orleanese would be intelligible 

 to the Parisian ; while, on the other hand, the 

 Parisian could hardly carry on a conversation 

 with the Savoyard, and would be quite incapable 

 of understanding the Tuscan. Some such slowly 

 graded transition may still be noticed by the trav- 

 eller from France to Italy who takes pains to 

 observe the speech of the common people. At 

 Nice, for instance, local newspapers are pub- 

 lished in a dialect which one hardly knows 

 whether to call French, Proven9al, or Italian. 



After this process of divergence had gone on 

 for some time, a new start was taken toward uni- 

 formity, but in such a way as to enhance and 

 complete the divergence already begun. When 

 literary men gave up trying to write classical 

 Latin, and began to clothe their thoughts in the 

 colloquial Romance or vulgar tongue of the 

 times, new centres of political and intellectual 

 life had begun to be formed at Paris, Toulouse, 

 and Florence ; and the dialects of these cities 

 began to assume preeminence as literary and 

 142 



