gg THE DESCENT OP MAN. 



of many word's further back than that of species, for we can 

 perceive how they actually arose from the imitation of various 

 sounds. We find in distinct languages striking homologies due 

 to community of descent, and analogies due to a similar process 

 of formation. The manner in which certain letters or sounds 

 change when others change is very like correlated growth. We 

 have in both cases the reduplication of parts, the effects of long- 

 continued use, and so forth. The frequent presence of rudi- 

 ments, both In language and in species, is still more remarkable. 

 The letter m in the word am, means I; so that in the expression 

 I am, a superfluous and useless rudiment has been retained. In 

 the spelling also of words, letters often remain as the rudiments 

 of ancient forms of pronunciation. Languages, like organic be- 

 ings, can be classed in groups under groups; and they can be 

 classed either naturally according to descent, or artificiaily by 

 other characters. Dominant languages and dialects spread widely, 

 and lead to the gradual extinction of other tongues. A language, 

 like a species, when once extinct, never, as Sir C. Lyell remarks, 

 reappears. The same language never has two birth-places. Dis- 

 tinct languages may be crossed or blended together."" We see 

 variability in every tongue, and new words are continually crop- 

 ping up; but as there is a limit to the powers of the memory, 

 single words, like whole languages, gradually become extinct. As 

 Max Miiller'" has well remarked: — "A struggle for life is con- 

 "stantly going on amongst the words and grammatical forms in 

 "each language. The better, the shorter, the easier forms are con- 

 "stantly gaining the upper hand, and they owe their success to 

 "their own inherent virtue." To these more important causes 

 of the survival of certain words, mere novelty and fashion may be 

 added; for there is in the mind of man a strong love for slight 

 changes in all things. The survival or preservation of certain 

 favored words in the struggle for existence is natural selection. 



The perfectly regular and wonderfully complex construction 

 of the languages of many barbarous nations has often been ad- 

 vanced as a proof, either of the divine origin of these languages, 

 or of the high art and former civilization of their founders. Thus 

 F. von Schlegel writes: "In those languages which appear to 

 "be at the lowest grade of intellectual culture, we frequently 

 "observe a very high and elaborate degree of art in their gram- 

 "matlcal structure. This is especially the case with the Basque 

 "and the Lapponian, and many of the American languages."™ But 



"» See remarks to this effect by the Rev. F. W. Farrar, in an inter- 

 esting article, entitled 'Philology and Darwinism' in 'Nature,' March 

 24th, 1870, p. 528. 



»» 'Nature,' Jan. 6th, 1870, p. 257. 



"> Quoted by C. S. Wake, 'Chapters on Man,' 1868, p. 101. 



