360 



THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 



fications whicli do not affect the essential relations of parta. 

 That this is just the kind of arrangement which results from 

 evolution, the case of languages wHl show. 



If we compare the dialects spoken in different parts of 

 England, we iind scarcely any differences but those of pro- 

 nunciation : the structures of the sentences are akaost 

 uniform. Between English and the allied modern languages, 

 th 3re are decided divergences of structm-e : there are some 

 unllkenesses of idiom ; some unlikenesscs in the ways of 

 modifying the meanings of verbs ; and considerable unijke- 

 aesses in the uses of genders. But these unllkenesses are not 

 sufficient to hide a general community of organization. A 

 greater contrast of structure exists between these modern lan- 

 guages of Western Europe, and the classic languages. That 

 differentiation into abstract and concrete elements, which is 

 shown by the substitution of auxiliary words for inflections, 

 has produced a higher specialization distinguishing these 

 languages as a group from the older languages. Neverthe- 

 less, both the ancient and modern languages of Europe, to- 

 gether with some Eastern languages derived from the same 

 original, have, under all their diflerences of organization, a 

 fundamental community of organization ; inasmuch as all ol 

 them exhibit the formation of words by such a coalescence 

 and integration of roots as destroys the independent meanings 

 of the roots. These Aryan languages, and others which 

 have the avuilgmnate character, are united by it into a class 

 distinguished from the apfoit'e and agghdinate languages ; in 

 which the roots are either not united at all, or so incompletely 

 united that one of them still retains its independent meaning. 

 And philologists find that these fundamental differences which 

 severally determine the grammatical forms, or modes of com- 

 bining ideas, ai'c really characteristic of the primary divisions 

 among languages. 



That is to say, among languages, where we know that 

 evolution has been going on, the greatest groups are marked 

 off from one another by the strongest structural contrasts ; 

 and as the like holds aiuong groups of organisms, there re- 



