December, 1903,] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



207 



mode seems, it was abandoned in favour of a variant on 

 itself. One limb of the furrow was kept. From right to 

 left was stereotyped as the conventional direction in the 

 Orient, which never advanced beyond it ; from left to right 

 in the more business-like Occident. All four methods 

 CO existed among the Greeks, and in other countries there 

 was a conflict between two or more of them. What gave 

 the victory to the horizontal line and the rightward 

 direction ? Apparently a single consideration. The 

 successive transitions followed the path of least resistance, 

 and obeyed the principle of least effort. 



Among Orthoepies. 



The same imperious principle, aided by two unlike 

 factors, decided a conflict between pronunciations. In the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century Greek was pronounced 

 in England as in Greece ; until lately it was spoken as 

 English is spoken. By what agencies was the change 

 brought about ? 



1. Two groups of plants or animals, originally identical, 

 grow unlike one another when they are kept apart. The 

 English pronunciation of Greek derived from Greek 

 refugees, was gradually so much forgotten that Greek, as 

 spoken by Englishmen, grew unintelligible to foreigners. 

 It was evidently assimilating^ itself to English speech. 

 2. Two young Cambridge 2:)rofessors who had not learnt 

 the language from Greeks — Smith and Cheke — deliberately 

 set themselves to introduce a new style of pronunciation, 

 suggested by Erasmus, modelled on English as it was then 

 spoken. 3. They began by innovating timidly. Only 

 now and then did they let drop words according to the 

 new method, as if by accident. Day by day they increased 

 the number of words thus modified. When the innovation 

 was detected, they owned their design and communicated 

 their plan to the younger men, who gladly adopted the 

 new way. 4. Then the battle commenced. The dons 

 protested, and the Chancellor intervened. He issued a 

 succession of decrees, commanding the old way to be 

 retained and the new abandoned. Compulsion stimulated 

 opposition, but on the whole, and with relapses, the old 

 prevailed. 5. The issues were complicated by the identifi- 

 cation of the old method with Catholicism and the new 

 with Protestantism, and the fortunes of the struggle waxed 

 and waned with the fortunes of the ecclesiastical struggle. 

 English Greek throve under Edward VI., and fell back 

 when Mary came to the throne. It was finally triumphant 

 only with the triumph of Protestantism under Elizabeth. 



6. The underlying operative cause of the change was the 

 greater ease in teaching and learning the new way. Pupils 

 learnt more in a year by the new than in two by the old. 



7. Auxiliary agencies co-operated. The popularity of 

 Cheke and the influence of the Professor of Theology at 

 Cambridge smoothed the path. 



Here was illustrated the struggle for existence in all its 

 forms. The new species or variety was sown or planted 

 by foreign agency, or else a variety that was springing up 

 of itself was cross-fertilised by a foreign element It was 

 slowly and gradually introduced, battling with the variety 

 already in possession of the ground. The battle was not 

 fought out on its merits : the issue was not deterniiued by 

 the rightness of the one or the other mode. The result 

 was governed (1) by the superior ease of the acquisition — 

 namely, by its fitness to the environment; (2) by the 

 identification of the new struggle with a greater one— that 

 of Protestantism ; (3) by the popularity of its introducers 

 and the authority (disguised force) of its supporters. 

 Lastly, the new variety was represented by new individuals, 

 not modified old individuals ; it was the young professors 

 who taught, and tiie undergraduates who accepted, the 

 innovation. The old mode simply died out with the 



individuals who practised it. One generation was con- 

 sumed in the process. 



Among Dialects. 



The struggle among inflections might be illustrated by 

 exhibiting the conflict that took place between the 

 immigrant plural and the dual, which, in at least the 

 majority of known language^, was originally in exclusive 

 possession of the ground. How imperfect was the victory 

 of the invader is shown by the fact that, in the richest of 

 ancient languages, the dual long held a jjlace by the side 

 of the plural. There was likewise a struggle among the 

 various ways of forming the plural. In Old English six 

 distinct species of plural fought for superiority All but 

 one have disappeared, though individuals have survived. 



At the end of the tenth century four chief dialects were 

 used in the north of France, each with its literature, and 

 all with equal claims to predominance. In less than three 

 centuries the dialect of the Isle of France supplanted 

 Picard, Burgundian, and Norman, and became the French 

 language. It followed the conquests of the Duke of 

 France. Thus, in 1203, the Duke (become the King) of 

 France annexed Picardy, and "drove out" (historians tell 

 usj the Picard dialect. The driving out consisted in 

 Picard ceasing to be spoken. French was first introduced 

 into oflicial acts, and became the preferred language of 

 oftlcials, many of whom were doubtless expoi-ted from 

 Paris. It was taught in schools. Picard books next, and 

 very gradually, were written in French. Pari passu, it 

 was adopted Ln writing, or on ceremonial occasions bv all 

 who wished to be considered educated, even if they often 

 spoke their native dialect when in their " shirt sleeves," as 

 Cardinal Newman would have said. The populace stuck 

 to the speech that most of them had never unlearnt, and 

 it became a pafois, or a merely spoken tongue. The two 

 forms long co-existed, as English and its various dialects 

 have long lived side by side. A Burns will write his elegiacs 

 in English, his songs in Scots, aud his odes in a mongrel 

 dialfit, half Scots and half English. A Carlyle, even in 

 London, will cling to his northern Doric. So an Edward 

 Fitzgerald, in full nineteenth century, may have a dialect 

 "equal to Nithsdale." These are the unconquered survivors 

 of a victory tliat was won by force in part, and by force 

 masked as authority, but also in good part by the at 

 length voluntary surrender of the lieateu side. 



Among Languages. 

 The linguistic struggle has been complicated and 

 incessant in most European countries, where many nices 

 have lieen in conflict. Three or four languages strove for 

 mastery in ancient Gaul. German was spoken by the 

 12,000 Frank invaders. Popular Latin was spoken by six 

 million Gallo-Romans. Literary Latin was the language 

 of the church and of literature. And Low Latin was 

 afterwards the language of administration. German was 

 the first to succumb. In four centuries it ceased to be 

 understood by the soldiers, and in seventy years more it 

 had become an object of ridicule. But it survives in more 

 than 000 words, expressing the things of government, 

 law, and war, and thus forms no insignificant part of the 

 French language. The battle between Literary aud 

 Popidar Latin had more varying fortunes. lu the seeoud 

 century High liatin was in tlie ascendant ; it was the 

 dialect of the governing and educated classes. Two 

 centuries later it had lost its ascendancy. The classes that 

 spoke it were being extinguished by the decline of the 

 Empii-e. Popular Latin gained the upper hand. Theiv 

 was no battle, but the masses that spoke the vulgar tongue 

 were found everywhere, while the handful of nobles who 

 spoke the literary dialect di-^appeared day by day. aud, 

 alti'r the Germ;ui invasions, thev must have lost all 



