228 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



body, analysis and synthesis. Having seen how- 

 words may be built up, it remains for us to see 

 whether on analysis they bear trace of having been 

 built up in the way, and from the elements, 

 suggested. Comparative Philology has now made 

 an actual investigation into the words and struc- 

 ture of all known Languages, and the information 

 sought by the evolutionist lies ready-made to his 

 hand. So far as controversy might be expected 

 to arise here on the theory of development itself, 

 there is none. For the first fact to interest us 

 in this new region is that every student of Language 

 seems to have been compelled to give in his adher- 

 ence to the general theory of Evolution. All agree 

 with Renan that " Sans doute les langues, comme 

 tout ce qui est organist, sont sujettes a la loi du 

 development graduel." And even Max Miiller, the 

 least thorough-going from an evolutionary point of 

 view of all philologists, asserts that " no student 

 of the science of Language can be anything but 

 an evolutionist, for, wherever he looks, he sees 

 nothing but evolution going on all around him." 



The outstanding discovery of the dissector of 

 words is that, vast and complex as Languages 

 appear, they are really composed of few and simple 

 elements. Take the word " evolutionary." The ter- 

 mination "ary" is a late addition added to this 



