iS73-J The Future of the English Language. 371 



no doubt that this diversity of languages is an evil for 

 science, since it puts serious difficulties in the way of 

 the highest scientific culture, which consists, to use Dr. 

 Matthew Arnold's phrase, in " acquainting ourselves with 

 the best that has been known and said in the world " on the 

 particular object of our study. 



The advantage to commerce of a common language is 

 so obvious that it needs only to be named in order to 

 be appreciated. Is there any modern language which has 

 any chance of becoming the general medium of civilised 

 intercourse, both in speech and in writing ? At one time 

 the French language appeared likely to succeed to the 

 heritage of the Latin. It was the language of diplomacy 

 and of society ; its affinity to Latin made it easy of acqui- 

 sition to the Teutonic races who had learned Latin in their 

 schools ; and to the people of South Europe it was already 

 three parts known from its analogies with their own ver- 

 naculars.* That day has passed. If any language ever 

 becomes dominant, it is very unlikely that it will be French. 

 France is no coloniser. She is great, but her boundaries 

 are limited. Her home population decreases; her emigrants, 

 instead of founding new Frances, are absorbed in the new 

 Englands which are dotted over the globe. 



The German is no more a national coloniser than the 

 Frenchman. He increases much faster, but beyond the 

 boundaries of the Fatherland the language makes small 

 progress. The race goes to strengthen the American stock, 

 but the language has no root in the American soil. 



The best way to estimate the relative chances of various 

 languages will be to ascertain the number of individuals 

 who speak each of them. The statistics of language have 

 not received a very large amount of attention, but the 

 number of wide-extended languages is not very great. In 

 this case we may safely leave out of consideration the 

 languages which are not of European origin. The oriental 

 tongues are not aggressive nor numerically strong enough to 

 be factors in the problem. The materials for a rigidly 

 accurate census of languages do not exist, but an approxi- 

 mately correct solution can be formed : — 

 Portuguese. 



In Portugal 3,980,000 



,, Brazil 10,000,000 



13,980,000 



* There was a time when the Academy of Berlin published its transactions 

 n French. 



