128 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN' INSTITUTE. 



or quality of its bi-ain occurs from first to last. When " speaking- 

 man " appeared as a new species on the world's stage, the size and 

 power of his brain was fixed, ouce for all. There are variations in 

 diflferent races, as there ai-e diS"ei-ences in this I'espect among children 

 of the same parents ; Vmt the variations do not pass certain defined 

 limits, and are constantly tending, as Mr. Galton has shown of the 

 human stature, towards the general average. 



Thus it becomes apparent that in the case of man, or at least of 

 speaking man — for if there was a speechless liomo 2)riin (genius, be 

 belonged to another .species — the process of evolution, or, more 

 properly .speaking, of development, applies, not to his natural capa- 

 city, but to his growth in knowledge. Just as his bodily stature and 

 strengtli have remained the same from the earliest times and in all 

 stages of culture — ;is his osseous i-emains and the measurements of 

 existing races clearly show — so there can be no reasonable doubt that 

 his mental .stature and force have remained unaltered. We liave no 

 rea.son to doubt — we have every reason to believe — that the earliest 

 Aryans, savages as they undoubtedly were, could reason as profoundly 

 and feel as keenly as the mo.st cultivated of their descendants. As 

 the structure of language depends entirely on the natural capacity of 

 its earliest framers, it is clear that the Aryan tongue, in its primitive 

 form, must have possessed every quality and every power of expression 

 which have ever belonged to it. If, among other barbarians, there 

 have been tribes equal in natural capacity to the barbarous Aryans, 

 their languages will equally .show these eminent qualities. 



To apply these propositions, — if the language of the latest Aryans 

 possesses and constantly exercises the power of expressing abstract 

 ideas, we may be certain that this power was po.ssessed and constantly 

 exercised by the fii-st Aryan family. And further, among the barbar- 

 ous tribes of the present day, we may expect to find the same power 

 po.ssessed and exercised, with greater or less fulness, in proportion, not 

 to their degree of cultivation, but to their natural capacity. We 

 should expect that highly endowed communities of barbarians, like 

 the Algonkins and Iroquois, would have languages abounding in ab- 

 stract and general expressions. Such, in fact, we find to be the case. 

 If we take what Professor Max Miiller styles abstract terms of the 

 second decree — the most elaborate if not the most metaphysical of all 



