42 DAllWINISM TESTED BY 



course of some, nay, of whole families of 

 them during a period of more than two 

 thousand jea,Ys, since a faithful picture of 

 them has been left us in writing. This, 

 for instance, is the case with Latin. We 

 know the ancient Latin quite as well as 

 the Romance languages, its unmistakable 

 offspring, partly through the process of 

 ramification and partly through foreign 

 influence, which you, gentlemen, would 

 call crossing ; we know the ancient Indie ; 

 we know the idioms which first emanated 

 from it as well as its less distant offshoots, 

 the neo-Indian dialects. So you see that 

 we have a firm and solid ground to stand 

 on for our observation. What we know 

 now of those languages which, owing to 

 an accident, we have been able to watch 

 for so long a period of time, because the 

 people who spoke them have been obliging 

 enough to leave written records behind 



