Il8 TRA.NSACTIONS iSQg-'OO 



the Greek inisthotos. It would be easy to go on for an hour with 

 similar examples all tending to show that no word ever had, or 

 ever could have had, any very remarkable meaning at the outset. 

 If then we find words having very strong meanings noiv, the 

 inference we draw is that humanit}^ has poured into language 

 the whole wealth of its experience, has told to it, and tried to 

 tell through it, the story without end of its joys and its sorrows, 

 of its struggles, its victories and its defeats, of its satis- 

 factions and disappointments, all the travail of heart and mind 

 and purpose that has marked its pilgrimage through the centuries. 

 That is whei'e language has got its meaning; that is why it is so 

 imcomparable, so overflowing, a depository of the secrets of our 

 race. Through long ages language and the human heart have 

 been pulsing in unison. 



It would be interesting to follow out some of the special lines 

 of development by which language as we know it has gained full- 

 ness and variety of significance ; and in doing so we could not 

 have a more interesting or instructive guide than M. Breal in his 

 "Essai de Semantique" already referred to. My time however 

 is exhausted, and I must close by expressuig the hope that what 

 has been said has been sufiicient to show that the study of language 

 is full of human interest, and cannot without loss be ignored by 

 anyone who cares to think over again the thoughts of his ancestors, 

 or who desires to estimate at its full value the thought of to-day. 



