TEE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 27 



The importance of developmental history 

 for the cognition of the individual organism 

 is universally acknowledged. It was first of 

 all applied to zoology and botany. It is 

 well known that Lyell has represented the 

 life of our planet as a series of regularly 

 and gradually arising variations ; a sudden 

 and abrupt entering upon new phases of life 

 is here equally unknown as in the life of 

 any other organism of nature. Lyell ap- 

 peals likewise to the observation of facts. 

 Since the observation over a very short 

 period of recent earthly life yields nothing 

 more than the fact of a gradual variation, we 

 are certainly not justified in pre-supposiug 

 anything to have been different in the past. 

 I have always started vdth a similar view in 

 examining the life of languages, which falls 

 likewise within the range of our immediate 

 observation during its ultimate, most recent 

 and comparatively very short period of 



