60 BABWIKISM TESTED BY 



construction; we hold to be not very re- 

 mote from each, other. The floras and 

 faunas of the isolated parts of the world 

 present a characteristic type in a similar 

 way as the languages do. 



Now we observe during historical periods 

 how species and genera of speech dis- 

 appear, and how others extend themselves 

 at the expense of the dead. I only remind 

 you, by way of illustration, of the spread 

 of the Indo-Germanic family and the decay 

 of the American languages. In the earlier 

 times, when the languages were still 

 spoken by comparatively weak populations, 

 this dying out of forms of speech was, no 

 doubt, of much more frequent occurrence, 

 and, as the idioms of a higher organization 

 must have existed for a very long time — 

 as evinced by their superior development, 

 by their senile forms, and by the slow 

 variation of speech in general — it follows 



