28 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE 



after years of study, in learning a language sufficiently well 

 to avoid occasionally making one of those mistakes which 

 instantly betray his origin to the natives ; it may be a false 

 stress, or a word employed with an almost imperceptibly 

 different shade of meaning, or placed in a position in a 

 sentence where the native would never place it, or, finally, a 

 phrase which, though logically correct, is nevertheless not 

 permitted by the usage of the language. On account of 

 their innumerable relationships and associations, which is 

 indeed what makes them so dear to the nations that employ 

 them, all natural languages are extraordinarily difficult, and 

 therefore unsuitable for the purpose of international inter- 

 course. We require, accordingly, a language which shall be 

 not only neutral, but also as easy as possible : easy to learn, 

 easy to use, and easy to understand. 



These considerations bring me to the sought-for formula, 

 which we may express in a form similar to the celebrated 

 ethical dictum of Hutcheson and Bentham (" That action is 

 best which accomplishes the greatest happiness for the 

 greatest number ") : 



That international language is best which offers the greatest 

 facility to the greatest number. 



It may be objected, however, that facility is a subjective 

 idea : what is easy for one is not always easy for another. 

 Quite so, and it is exactly that observation which will serve 

 us as a guide in the investigation of the important conclusions 

 which may be drawn from our fundamental principle. 



In the first place, as regards the alphabet and the pro- 

 nunciation, our fundamental principle leads to the choice of 

 the Latin alphabet, with the exclusion of all accented or 

 otherwise specially modified letters ; neither a, 0, d, a, a, g, 

 nor the circumflexed c, g, h, j, 4, especially invented by 

 Dr. Zamenhof for Esperanto, can be tolerated, for they 

 hinder, and sometimes even render impossible, writing, 

 printing, and telegraphing. I have shown in the Introduction 



