INHABITANTS. 



37 



men of various races, Europeans and Americans, Africans, Chinese, Hindus, and 

 Malays, -.vlio understand English, and make more or less use of it, it will be found 

 that it has already become a vehicle for thought to at least 100,000,000 indi- 

 viduals. If, too, we bear in mind the rapid extension of the English-speakino- 

 nations, and the ever-increasing importance of commercial interests, we mav well 

 foresee a time when double this number will transact their business in the lano-uao-e 

 now spoken m the ports of Liverpool, New York, Sydney, and Calcutta. English 

 is far more highly favoured in this expansion than either the French, Russian, or 

 even the Spanish language, for there exist three great centres whence it spreads over 

 the entire world. The United States and Canada contribute as powerfully to its 

 extension as the mother country ; from Australia it gradually spreads over the 

 islands of the Pacific ; whilst in South Africa it gains ground amongst boers, Kaffirs, 

 and other natives of that continent. England and the English may almost be said 

 to lay siege to the habitable world. The Spanish language has only two centres of 

 dispersion, the Iberian peninsula and South America, and up till now, owing to 

 the commercial inferiority of the nations by whom it is spoken, it has exhibited but 

 little power of expansion. As to French, though highly appreciated by all nations 

 of culture as a common means of communication in matters of science and art, 

 and in social and national intercourse, it has but one centre whence it can spread, 

 viz. France and Algeria, for French Canada and the Antilles are too unimportant 

 to make their influence felt afar. 



English is thus without a rival in the rapidity with which it extends its domain. 

 It possesses, moreover, the advantage of belonging at one and the same time to 

 two distinct groups of languages. Germanic in its origin, spirit, and construction, 

 it also belongs to the Latin group, from which it has borrowed numerous words 

 relating to art, science, politics, and the ordinary affairs of life. It is possible to 

 meet with papers of a technical nature in which only the auxiliary verbs, prepo- 

 sitions, and conjunctions are of the old Anglo-Saxon stock. But good writers, 

 according to the subject they deal with, understand how to blend these words of 

 diverse origin, as the weaver knows how to arrange his threads when reproducing 

 a coloured pattern. Whilst French is easily acquired only by the Latin nations of 

 Southern Europe, English, owing to its double origin, presents no greater difficulties 

 to the Portuguese than to the Swede, to the Romanian than the German. It is 

 absolutely foreign only to the Slavs, who, in their intercourse with the inhabitants 

 of Western Europe, mostly make use of German or French ; but they, too, have 

 recently paid more attention to English, which the facility with which they acquire 

 foreign languages enables them to master quickly. 



Besides the advantages derived from the ubiquity of the English-speaking 

 peoples, and the large number of synonyms — many words of Anglo-Saxon origin 

 having been supplemented by words from the Latin conveying a similar idea — 

 English possesses precious qualities as a universal language. It is distinguished, 

 above all, by the simplicity of its grammar and its expressive conciseness. 

 No other language has been mutilated to the same extent ; but has not this 

 phonetic change emancipated thought and favoured the solution of abstract ques- 



