PI. in. Progress and Civilisation. 133 



giving to language greater precision as a vehicle 

 of thought, while at the same time it must afford 

 constant facilities for new modes of expression ; by 

 the perpetual extension it will be giving to the 

 intellectual powers, it will be constantly stimulating 

 the mind to satisfy its wants by coining new words 

 and framing new forms of expression. It is impos- 

 sible to estimate to what extent all the intellectual 

 faculties of man have been enlarged by this great 

 invention ; but we cannot avoid perceiving that all 

 the higher achievements of the human race are 

 directly or indirectly attributable to it. It seems so 

 necessary to us, so interwoven with our very being, 

 that we can scarcely contemplate it in the light of 

 an art or an invention ; it seems to have become a 

 part of our very nature. All accurate knowledge of 

 mankind is co-extensive with this art ; every other 

 means by which we try to read the Past is vague, 

 speculative and shadowy ; they resemble at best the 

 faint recollections of our earliest childhood, which 

 we are scarcely able to distinguish from dreams. 

 All those Sciences which treat of the structure of 

 Man, or of his origin, or of the conditions through 

 which he has passed, can only afford us external 

 views of him. We study with more or less accuracy 



