l899-'oo TRANSACTIONS 103 



to nouns and thus becoming post-positions. In this manner different 

 cases are formed, but the " post-position " remains distinctly re- 

 cognizable. Sometimes modifying elements are introduced into 

 the body of a word. To express as briefly as possible the 

 difference between the agglutinative and inflectional languages, 

 we may say that, in the former, words adhere to one another 

 without losing their identity ; in the latter the whole inflectional 

 system is founded upon the complete sacrifice of certain words to 

 the function of modifying the meaning or incidence of certain 

 others. 



Of the inflectional languages lyatin, Greek and Sanskrit are 

 conspicuous examples. How elaborate is the accidence of lyatin 

 and Greek not a few of us know to our cost, but Sanskrit in 

 this respect leaves both far behind. The words used to make 

 case or person endings in these languages have been worn 

 down to mere rudiments, the origin of which for the most part 

 eludes all conjecture. What we all know is that, from this 

 intimate union of a root with a modifying element, the cases of 

 nouns and adjectives and the multitudinous forms of the verb 

 came into existence. Meanings which in English it would take 

 two or more words to express are in Lyatin or Greek expressed by 

 one owing to the fact that the root has been modified into the 

 sense we require by the element it has incorporated with itself. 

 The consequence is that, to some extent, case inflections render 

 prepositions unnecessary . In I^atin we can express ' ' eager for 

 fame," "useful to the state," "worthy of honor," "fond of 

 books," "oppressed by care" without using any preposition. 

 Still the preposition was not banished. No system of inflections 

 could be elaborate enough to express all the relations which pre- 

 sent themselves to human thought. I think it may even be said 

 that no possible array of prepositions could sufiice for the purpose. 

 We probably think we have all the prepositions we want; and yet 

 we often find ourselves using the same preposition in very diverse 

 senses — a pretty sure sign of a deficiency. There was therefore 

 ample work left even by the inflectional languages for the pre- 

 position to do ; and little as the writers of the Augustan age 

 suspected it, that apparently humble part of speech was designed 

 to destroy the whole case system in the family of languages 

 founded on the Lyatin. 



