TSE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 21 



tliey liave never been directed by the will 

 of man ; they rose, and developed them- 

 selves according to definite laws ; they grew 

 old, and died out. They, too, are subject 

 to that series of phenomena which we 

 embrace under the name of "life." The 

 science of language^ is consequently a 

 natural science; its method is generally 

 altogether the same as that of any other 

 natural science. f In this respect, the 

 " Origin of Species," which you urged me 

 to read, could not be said to lie so very 

 far beyond my own department. 



Darwin's book is, in my opinion, called 

 forth by the tendency of our age, save that 

 passage where the author, humouring the 



* " Die Glottik," as the author says.— T. 

 t I argued this very point in the spring of the current 

 year in a course of three lectures, " On the Formation and 

 Progress of Human Speech," delivered to the members of 

 the " Torquay Natural History Society." — T. 



