684 
ships and steam railways across frontiers, 
sometimes across several of them, not only 
crowd the nations together, but some com- 
mon code of communication between them is 
a desideratum—the world of commerce no 
less than that of lettersand research waits for 
it. Regulation for navigation on the high 
seas have been contrived by the maritime 
nations and adapted to all; we have like- 
wise a growing communication and con- 
formity in astronomical, chemical and elec- 
trical literature; uniformity of standards 
of weight and measurement, mechanical 
devices and the like. In asmall way, too, 
we have a universal language in musical 
notation; in the telegraphic alphabet, in 
the deaf-mute and in algebraic signs. How 
much longer will the international require- 
ments of the whole world have to wait be- 
fore a real world-language is hit upon? 
Must we wait until the struggle for polit- 
ical boundaries of the dozen or twenty sey- 
eral nations of Europe has concentrated the 
smaller ones into one dominant prodigy ? 
If not, when and how shall the movement 
be begun and carried out, and by whom? 
The time seems to be ripe for a practical 
consideration of these questions, and it con- 
cerns some association of learning to do so; 
and for several reasons the initiative would 
seem to be left with the Department of So- 
cial and Economie Science. 
I need not enlarge upon the magnitude 
of the continuing loss from the present 
diversity of tongues, not only in the time 
and effort spent in acquiring several lan- 
guages, when one beside the vulgar tongue 
might answer all purposes of education, if 
that other alternate tongue were common to 
the great civilized nations. The waste is 
still greater from the publication of re- 
searches, laws, treaties and records in sey- 
eral dresses, all of which must be con- 
sulted by the student who would keep 
abreast of the advance of knowledge. The 
shelves of our libraries are being piled high 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Voz. VI. No. 149. 
with books of all shades of usefulness and 
uselessness, and an extensive ransacking of 
bibliographies is required to master any 
given topic. The most of these have only 
ephemeral value, but this again adds to the 
burden. One good effect of an alternate 
language of learning would be the saving 
from this weary plowing of the sands; the 
truly classic works worth preserving would 
in a few generations be winnowed out and 
a lifetime would not be consumed in mas- 
tering the works of authors long superseded, 
but which, as they now stand mingled side 
by side, are indistinguishable. An Index 
Expurgatorius, by a scientific college de prop- 
aganda fide, is not in accord with modern 
notions, but it would be a great step in ad- 
vance to have all science uttered in one 
language and reviewed inthe same. When 
one thinks of the ten thousand volumes 
printed annually by the presses in English 
alone, one is tempted to sympathize with 
that Arabian Calif who ordered the great 
library of his time destroyed on the ground 
that it was either superfluous or heretical. 
Observe, there is no suggestion to invent 
a new language such as Volapuk aspired to 
be. We all know languages grow by laws 
of their own, and are not run into a mold. 
They are, however, plastic and susceptible 
of enrichment and improvement by human 
contrivance. Instances are quite numerous 
where one tongue has supplanted another ; 
and the example of two or more languages 
being taught and used concurrently is quite 
common. In fact, the task of imposing a 
second speech on a nation is much easier 
than that of imposing another religious cult, 
or a change of metallic money standards, 
either of which is still deemed to be feasible. 
The growth of languages may be com- 
pared to the formation of common paths 
and roads through the primitive wilderness ; 
at first following the trails of wild beasts ; 
whenever a tree falls across the path it is 
deflected and so continues long after the 
