50 DABWINI8M TESTED BY 



coarnate families, as of Indo-Germanic and 

 Semitic, we cannot arrive at tlie conclusion 

 that they have descended from a common 

 parent. What we may call a material 

 derivation of all languages from one 

 common primitive form, we may safely 

 suppose to be impossible. 



But the question assumes a different 

 aspect with regard to the form of speech. 

 All the languages of a higher organization — 

 as for instance the Indo-Germanic parent 

 which we are able to examine — show by 

 their construction, in a striking manner, 

 that they have arisen from simj)ler forms, 

 through a process of gradual development. 

 The construction of all languages points 

 to this, that the eldest forms were in reality 

 alike or similar; and those less complex 

 forms are preserved in some idioms of the 

 simplest kind, as, for example, Chinese. 

 In a word, the point from which all 



