Alfred Russel Wallace 



new principle in the theory of the origin of language by 

 showing that every motion of the jaws, lips and tongue, 

 together with inward or outward breathing, and especially 

 the mute or liquid consonants ending words which serve to 

 indicate abrupt or continuous motion, have corresponding 

 meanings in so many cases as to show a fundamental con- 

 nection. I thus enormously extended the principle of ono- 

 matopoeia in the origin of vocal language. As I have been 

 unable to find any reference to this important factor in 

 the origin of language, and as no competent writer has 

 pointed out any fallacy in it, I think I am justified in 

 supposing it to be new and important. Mr. Gladstone in- 

 formed me that there were many thousands of illustrations 

 of my ideas in Homer." — A. R. W. 



W. E. Gladstone to A. R. Wallace 



Hamarden Castle, Chester. October 18, 1895. 



Dear Sir, — Your kindness in sending me your most in- 

 teresting article draws on you the inconvenience of an 

 acknowledgment . 



My pursuits in connection with Homer, especially, have 

 made me a confident advocate of the doctrine that there is, 

 within limits, a connection in language between sound and 

 sense. 



I would consent to take the issue simply on English words 

 beginning with st. You go upon a kindred class in sn. I 

 do not remember a perfectly innocent word, a word habitu- 

 ally used in honam partem, and beginning with sn, except 

 the word " snow," and '' snow," as I gather from Schnee, 

 is one of the worn-down words. 



May I beg to illustrate you once more on the ending 

 in p. I take our old schoolboy combinations : hop, skip 

 and jump. Each motion an ending motion ; and to each 

 word closed with p compare the words run, rennen, courir, 

 currere, 



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