THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 



" Yet," he continues, " this must not be taken to affirm 

 that man started at the first furnished with a full- 

 formed vocabulary of words, and as it were with his 

 first dictionary 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 capacity 

 which he gave.^'^ 



If the theory just given as to the formation of 

 Language, or at least as to the possible formation of 

 Language, be more than a fairy tale, there is another 

 quarter in which corroboration of an important kind 

 should lie. Hitherto we have examined as witnesses, 

 the makers of words ; it may be worth while for a 

 moment to place in the witness-box the words them- 

 selves. A chemist has two methods of determining 

 the composition of any body, analysis and synthesis. 

 Having seen how words may be built up, it remains 

 for us to see whether on analysis they bear trace of 

 having been built up in the way, and from the ele- 

 ments, suggested. Comparative Philology has now 

 made an actual investigation into the words and 

 structure of all known Languages, and the informa- 

 tion sought by the evolutionist lies ready-made to his 

 hand. So far as controversy might be expected to 

 arise here on the theory of development itself, there 

 is none. For the first fact to interest us in this new 

 region is that every student of Language seems to 

 have been compelled to give in his adherence to the 

 general theory of Evolution. All agree with Renan 

 1 Archbishop Trench, The, Study of Words, pp. 14, 15. 



