INTRODUCTION. 23 



sophic not only a mathematical meaning. The word 

 " positive " has, besides the logical signification, acquired 

 at least two meanings which are very specific, and 

 which it did not possess formerly. " Energy " has, 

 besides the general meaning, and the philosophical one 

 which Aristotle assigned to it, acquired a special meaning, 

 having first in England and then abroad taken the place 

 of " force " as a more correct and definable term. In 

 connection with it, " correlation " and " conservation " are 

 terms of very specific value. The word " fittest " and the 

 phrase " struggle for existence " mean something different 

 from what they meant fifty years ago. Then there are 42. 

 the terms " exact " and " science " themselves, which mean {;^^"^^^ 

 something different now from what they meant formerly, "ew words. 

 And cominw out of the more recent doctrines of the limits 

 of human and conscious individual knowledge, there are 

 the words " unconscious," " unknowable," and " agnostic," 

 which indicate whole trains of novel thought. It would 

 indeed be an interesting and useful investigation to follow 

 up to their origin the many new words and phrases, or 

 the altered meanings of well-known and familiar words, 

 in which the three principal European languages abound. 

 It would be a methodical study of the changes which 

 thought has undergone. 



Nor need such an undertaking be based upon any 

 particular or one-sided theory as to the connection of 

 Civilisation, Thought, and Language. This century has 43. 

 not been wanting in such, from the extreme theory of theory of 



o ' '' revealed 



De Bonald,^ who saw in Language an immediate Divine and M^al^ 

 revelation, to the most recent and more scientific view sdenceV 



Language. 

 1 De Ronald (1754-1840), 'Legislation primitive,' Paris, 1802. 



