THE "DELEGATION." 25 



The point of view which the Delegation has taken is that 

 the solution of the problem of an international auxiliary 

 language is a purely scientific and technical question. 

 Scientific in a douhle sense of the word : in the first place, 

 because the living germ of an international language is 

 already to be found in science and as an expression of the 

 civilisation of Europe and America, requiring only an 

 artificial development to bring it to maturity and to give us 

 the international auxiliary language in its final form ; in the 

 second place, because the method of artificial development 

 of the international language forms itself the object of a 

 science, and that indeed a new one, namely, the philology 

 of auxiliary language. The question is also a technical 

 one because the result obtained by theory is destined 

 for a practical purpose, namely, the daily use of mankind. 

 Our modern civilisation is signalised by the application of 

 science to practice. We are no longer pure empiricists. 

 Science penetrates into every department of daily life, and 

 all enlightened people are aware that the age of pure 

 empiricism is over. 



The movement for a universal language possesses its 

 epochs, like other things, but we may rest assured that the 

 era of the attempts to solve the problem of auxiliary language 

 in a purely empirical, or even indeed romantic, manner has 

 passed away with the Volapiik and Esperanto periods. 



The work of the Delegation has also been in a high degree 

 an organising one. The beginning of the year 1909 gave 

 birth to a Uniono di I'Amiki di la Linguo Internaciona, 

 extending over all parts of the world. From this union are 

 derived by election two directing bodies : firstly, the Komitato, 

 a commission which looks after matters of organisation and 

 business ; and secondly, an Academy, entrusted with the 

 scientific investigation of the international auxiliary language, 

 which sees to its steady progress, corrects the errors and 

 deficiencies which are sure to make their appearance, decides 



