I04 The Influence of Language and Environment upon the 



environment must be understood all the external influences 

 brought to bear upon man in that sphere of life in which he 

 is found. It is, however, only to that phase of environment 

 known as social institutions or the influence of society, to 

 which we propose to ask your attention for a few moments. 

 The idea of the influence of such institutions upon the in- 

 dividual character is not by any means new, for writers, 

 both ancient aud modern, have been struck by its importance. 

 This is evidenced in the writings of Hippocrates, Galen, Poly- 

 bius, Bodin, and Montesquieu, and it is, perhaps, by no means 

 singular that, with his well-known powers of observation, the 

 father of medicine, the illustrious Greek physician, should have 

 entertained a conviction, though a crude one, that institutions, 

 or, as he termed it, the government of a single person, affected 

 the character of the people governed. But it is surprising that 

 many able writers, in considering moral and intellectual man as 

 the product of a fertilised organism through contact with 

 physical influences, should forget the relations which exist be- 

 tween the character of man as wrought out by impressionability 

 and innervation, and the teachings of tradition. These lean, 

 too, entirely to the paramount influence of geographical posi- 

 tion and physiological conditions. That these exert their due 

 influence and weight in the formation of character, through the 

 media I have described, is perfectly true, but it is not the whole 

 truth, and I venture to hope that the points I have already 

 submitted to your consideration will serve to impress upon your 

 minds the important bearing of certain well-known facts in 

 history, and that they will help to resolve one of the gravest 

 and most interesting facts of human existence. The object of 

 social institutions is to impress upon the mind of each in- 

 dividual of the tribe or nation the traditional customs and 

 beneficial government of such tribe or nation, which customs 

 are received, stored, and transmitted by means of language 

 Under these may be united all the various means of education 

 adopted by the nation, and these may be enumerated as 

 religion and its institutions, political, civil, and judicial in- 



