INTRODUCTION. 13 



certain point it is a question whether the student of a very 

 limited field might not lose more in largeness of view than he 

 gained by concentration. Whatever be the fate of my argu- 

 mentSj any one who collects and groups a mass of evidence, 

 and makes an attempt to turn it to account which may lead to 

 something better, has, I think, a claim to be exempt from any 

 very harsh criticism of mistakes and omissions. As the Knight 

 says in the beginning of his Tale : — 



" I have, God wot, a large feeld to ere ; 

 And wayke ben the oxen in my plough." 



[Beside ordinary references, I wish to acknowledge separately some 

 particular obligations. My friend Mr. Henry Christy has given me, for 

 years past, not only the benefit of his wide knowledge of ethnography, 

 but also the opportunity of studying the productions of the lower races 

 from the carefully chosen specimens in his great collection. I am in- 

 debted to Dr. W. 11. Scott, the Director of the Deaf and Dumb Institu- 

 tion, at Exeter, for much of the assistance which has enabled me to write 

 about the Gesture-Language with something of the confidence of an 

 "expert;" and I have to thank Prof Pott, of Halle, and Prof Lazarus, 

 of Berne, for personal help in several dilEcult questions. Among books, 

 I have drawn largely from the philological works of Prof. Steinthal, of 

 Berlin, and from the invaluable collection of facts bearing on the history 

 of civilization in the ' Allgemeine Cultur-Geschichte der Menschheit,' and 

 ' Allgemeine Cnlturwissenschaft,' of Dr. Gustav Klemm, of Dresden.] 



