THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 41 



fication of one form into several others in 

 the course of ages, whereas we, zoologists 

 and botanists, look upon all this as the 

 quastio vexata, whilst several among us, con- 

 sidering the existence of the species spon- 

 taneous or beginningless, are coolly sitting 

 in judgment over Darwin because he 

 holds very much the same opinion, with 

 regard to the animal and vegetable king- 

 dom, as you do of the species of language? 



Here is my answer. To trace the de- 

 velopment of new forms from anterior ones 

 is much easier, and can be executed on a 

 larger scale, in the field of speech than 

 in the organisms of plants and animals. 

 For once the glossologist has an ad- 

 vantage over his brother naturalists in this 

 respect. We are actually able to trace 

 directly in many idioms that they have 

 branched off into several languages, dialects 

 &c., for we are in a position to follow the 



