ch. ix.] SPECIAL-CREATION OR DERIVATION 445 



along through Italian, Spanish, French, and their sister-dia- 

 lects, jump back again to some ancient language. Obviously 

 this is violating all the requirements of proper classification, 

 which consists in putting nearest together those objects 

 which are nearest alike. 



In view of these and other kindred difficulties, philologists 

 have long since agreed to arrange the Aryan family of lan- 

 guages in divergent and re-divergent groups and sub-groups, 

 along lines which ramify like the branches, branchlets, and 

 twigs of a tree. Let us trace the pedigree of the French and 

 English languages, according to this principle of classifica- 

 tion as elaborated by Schleicher, remembering that while 

 other philologists have objected to some of the details of the 

 classification, 1 all agree, and must agree, in the fundamental 

 principle. Starting, then, from the Aryan mother-tongue, 

 we first encounter two diverging lines of development, re- 

 presented by two extinct phases of language which we may 

 call the South Aryan and North Aryan. Following the pro- 

 gress of the South Aryan, we find it diverging on the one 

 hand into Indo-Iranian, and on the other hand into the 

 parental form of the Hellenic, Italic, and Keltic languages. 

 Neglecting the other branches, and following only the Italic, 

 we find the divergent forms of this exemplified in Umbrian, 

 Oscan, and Latin ; and again, following the career only of the 

 latter branch, we arrive at French and its kindred Romanic 

 dialects. On the other hand, as we follow the North Aryan 

 line, we find it first dividing info Teutonic and Slavo-Lettish 

 Neglecting the latter, we observe the Teutonic again diverg- 

 ing into Gothic, Old Norse, and Old German. Following 

 only the latter of these, we may observe it bifurcating into 

 High and Low German, from the latter of which is derived 

 the English which we speak. 



1 Indeed it is possible that the primary division should be into Eastern and 

 Western, or European and Asiatic, rather than Northern and South era Aryan. 

 But the future decision of this question will not alter the principle upon 

 which the classification is founded and which it is here cited to exemplify. 



