408 ^I. A. cle Candolle on the Advantage 



German, English has the effect, to those who speak several 

 languages, of offermg the shortest cut from one point to an- 

 other. I have observed this in families where two languages 

 are equally well known, which often occurs in Switzerland. 

 When the two languages are German and French, the latter 

 almost always caiTies the day. " Why?" I asked of a German 

 Swiss established in Geneva. " I can scarcely tell you," he 

 replied ; "at home we speak German to exercise my son in the 

 language ; but he always falls back into the French of his 

 comrades. French is shorter, more convenient." Before the 

 events of 1870, a great Alsatian manufacturer sent his. son to 

 study at Zurich. I was curious to know the reason why. 

 " We cannot," he said, " induce our children to speak Ger- 

 man, with which they are quite as familiar as with French. 

 I have sent my son to a town where nothing but German is 

 spoken, in order that he may be forced to speak it." In such 

 preferences you must not look for the causes in sentiment or 

 fancy. When a man has choice of two roads, one straight 

 and open, the other crooked and difficult to find, he is sure to 

 take, almost Avithout reflection, the shorter and more convenient 

 one. I have also observed families where the two languages 

 known in the same degree were English and French. In this 

 case the English maintained supremacy, even in a French- 

 speaking land. It is handed down from one generation to 

 another ; it is employed by those who are in haste, or who want 

 to say something in as few words as possible. The tenacity of 

 French or English families established in Germany in speaking 

 their own language, and the rapid disappearance of German in 

 the German families established in French or English countries, 

 may be explained by the nature of the languages rather than 

 by the influence of fashion or education. 



The general rule is this : — In the conflict of two languages, 

 every thing else being equal, it is the most concise and the 

 most simple that conquers. French beats Italian and Ger- 

 man ; English beats the other languages. In short, it need 

 only be said that the more simple a language is, the more easy 

 it is to be learnt, and the more quickly can it be made avail- 

 able for profitable employment. 



The English language has another advantage in family use : 

 its literature is the one most suitable to feminine tastes ; and 

 every one knows how great is the influence of mothers on the 

 language of children. Not only do they teach what is called 

 " the mother tongue," but often, when well educated, they feel 

 pleasure in speaking a foreign language to their children. 

 They do so gaily, gracefully. The young lad who finds his 



