Language 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



374 



of philology. He even seizes, as if by a kind 

 of instinct, upon abstract terms, and applies 

 them with ease and correctness ; but as life 

 advances, the facility of verbal acquisition 

 declines, and with some it entirely disap- 

 pears. Hence the plan appears to me to be 

 wise and in accordance with Nature, which 

 makes the acquisition of language an es- 

 sential part of early elemental education. 

 The same child which acquires almost with- 

 out effort his vernacular tongue may by a 

 similar process be taught to speak the prin- 

 cipal ancient and modern languages. HEN- 

 RY Thoughts on Education (Scientific Wri- 

 tings, vol. i; p. 335). (Sm. Inst., 1886.) 



1828. LANGUAGE, PROCESS OF 

 CHANGE IN The organs of speech are dif- 

 ferently framed by Nature in different cli- 

 mates and countries; and even in the same 

 countries some men pronounce their words 

 broader, softer, harder, quicker, or slower 

 than others, and some are unable to pro- 

 nounce this or that letter. These accidents, 

 by example and imitation, bring on a change 

 of vowels and consonants, whence a language 

 becomes unlike what it was at first. Pref- 

 ace to Boucher's Dictionary. (Translated 

 for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



1829. LANGUAGE, RACE-STRUG- 

 GLES FOR EXTENSION OF German and 

 Slav Contend for Control of Education. 

 The Germans are doing among the Slavs 

 what the French are doing in Syria. Both 

 in Germany and Austria they have societies 

 called German school associations. They 

 establish schools in Bohemia, in Moravia, in 

 Styria, and elsewhere, seeking to attract to 

 them the Slav children by means of gratui- 

 ties, good organization of the instruction, 

 hygienic management of the buildings, etc. 

 The expenses of these schools are covered 

 by assessment of the members of the associ- 

 ation. Naturally the Slavs resist, and in 

 order to struggle against the Germans they 

 also found societies of the same kind to 

 maintain Slav schools. In this struggle 

 evidently the school that is most perfect will 

 triumph in the long run. And this will 

 displace the linguistic frontier to the profit 

 of the nation that is most energetic. Aside 

 from the schools, societies of all kinds are 

 being formed for the propaganda of a lan- 

 guage, such, for example, as the Alliance 

 frangaise, which has been in existence since 

 1883. Novicow Les Luttes entre Societes 

 humaines, p. 101. (Translated for Scien- 

 tific Side-Lights.) 



1830. LANGUAGE, THE EVOLU- 

 TION OF Archbishop Trench How Lan- 

 guage is Divine God Gave, Not Names, but 

 a Power of Naming (Gen. ii, 19-20) Man 

 Not a Parrot. Even Trench at this point 

 succumbs to the theory of development, and 

 his testimony is the more valuable that it 

 is evidently so very much against the grain 

 to admit it. He begins by stating apparent- 



ly the opposite : " The truer answer to the 

 inquiry how language arose is this: God 

 gave man language just as he gave him 

 reason, and just because he gave him rea- 

 son; for what is man's word but his reason 

 coming forth that it may behold itself? 

 They are indeed so essentially one and the 

 same that the Greek language has one word 

 for them both. He gave it to him because 

 he could not be man that is, a social being 

 without it." Yet he is too profound a stu- 

 dent of words to fail to qualify this. . . . 

 " Yet," he continues, " this must not be ta- 

 ken to affirm that man started at the first 

 furnished with a full-formed vocabulary of 

 words, and, as it were, with his first diction- 

 ary and first grammar ready made to his 

 hands. He did not thus begin the world 

 with names, but with the power of naming: 

 for man is not a mere speaking machine; 

 God did not teach him words, as one of us 

 teaches a parrot, from without, but gave 

 him a capacity, and then evoked the ca- 

 pacity which he gave " [Trench, " The Study 

 of Words," pp. 14-15]. DRUMMOND Ascent 

 of Man, ch. 5, p. 177. (J. P., 1900.) 



1831. LANGUAGE THE NATURAL 

 STUDY OF CHILDHOOD Science Requires 

 Maturity of Mind. The study of language 

 should be prosecuted in childhood, as it is, 

 in fact, in the acquisition of the mother- 

 tongue. . . . The memory for words 

 should be exercised and stimulated. Choice 

 tales, poems (narrative and lyric) should be 

 learned for recitation. Natural history in 

 all its branches, as contrasted with the 

 sciences of Nature or scientific physics, 

 should be mastered with the objects before 

 the eye flowers, minerals, shells, birds, and 

 beasts. These studies should all be mastered 

 in the springtime of life, when the tastes 

 are simple, the heart is fresh, and the eye 

 is sharp and clear. The facts of history 

 and geography should be fixed by repetition 

 and stored away in order. But science of 

 every kind whether of language, of Nature, 

 of the soul, or of God as science, should not 

 be prematurely taught. For the consequence 

 is either disgust and hostility to all study, 

 on the one hand, or, on the other, superficial 

 thinking, presumptuous conceit, and, worst 

 of all, sated curiosity. The law of intellec- 

 tual progress involves effort and discipline 

 severely imposed and constantly maintained, 

 but the effort and discipline should follow 

 the guidance of Nature. PORTER Human In- 

 tellect, 61, p. 74. (S., 1893.) 



1832. LANGUAGE, THE SCIENCE 

 OF, UNITES THE AGES Value-of Philology. 

 Philology recognized its calling to be me- 

 diator between the remotest ages, to afford 

 us the enjoyment of preserving through 

 thousands of years an unbroken identity 

 with the noblest and greatest nations of the 

 world, by familiarizing us through the me- 

 dium of grammar and history with the 

 works of their minds and the course of their 



