174 



HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



[chap. 



Morpho- 

 logical 

 correla- 

 tions 

 indepen- 

 dent of 

 function, 



compar- 

 able to 

 inflections 

 without 

 meaning. 



]\Iorpho- 

 logy and 

 the science 

 of lan- 

 guage are 

 both com- 

 parative 

 sciences, 



may, by a very sliglat metaphor, be called the morphology 

 of language. We have seen that there are some morpho- 

 logical characters in organisms which are due to laws of 

 correlation merely, and appear to have nothing to do with 

 the adaptation of structure to function. Such are the 

 facts that in umbelliferous plants there is the same deeply 

 cloven or branched structure in the leaves and in the 

 inflorescence ; and that in man there are five toes on each 

 foot as well as five fingers on each hand. It is as im- 

 possible to assign any purpose for these correlations as it 

 wovdd be to assign a purpose for the laws of crystalline 

 formation ; they are not adaptations, they are nothing but 

 correlations.^ There are in some languages correlations 

 which may be compared to these : the best instance is that 

 of the inflections of Greek and Latin adjectives, which 

 contribute nothing to the meaning, and are only added 

 from a principle of correlation with their substantives. 

 The analogy, I think, is perfect. The logical principle 

 in language corresponds to the adaptive principle in 

 organization ; and we find that there are correlations in 

 organization which are not adaptations ; and correlations 

 in language which have nothing to do with meaning, 

 and consequently nothing to do with the logical prin- 

 ciple; they both consist in a kind of symmetry, which 

 appears as if it were sought for, not as a means but as 

 an end. 



Since the study of organic morphology and the study of 

 language have both become tndy scientific, the analogy 

 between them is really very remarkable. Both have be- 

 come comparative studies : the decisive step which first 

 made the study of language really a science was taken 

 when the study of comparative grammar, or comparative 

 philology, was commenced : a science of language was 

 impossible, so long as its data were obtained from only 

 one or two languages. In exactly the same way, the only 

 scientific morphology is that which is based on the com- 

 parison of forms which are widely different, but not so 

 different as to exclude a fundamental resemblance. And 



See the chapter on Morphology (Chap. XIX.). 



