24 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



A close study of this pedigree of the Indo-Germanic 

 languages is, in many respects, of great interest. Com- 

 parative Philology, to which we are indebted for our know- 

 ledge of this subject, thus shows itself to be a true science — 

 a natural science. It, indeed, long ago anticipated in its 

 own province the phylogenetic method with the aid of 

 which we now attain the highest results in Zoology and 

 and in Botany. And here I cannot refrain from remarking 

 how much to the advantage of our general culture it would 

 be if the study of languages (which is undoubtedly one of 

 the most powerful means of culture) were comparatively 

 prosecuted; and if our cut and dried Philology were re- 

 placed by a living, many-sided, comparative study of lan- 

 guages. The latter stands in the same relation to the 

 former as the living history of organic evolution does to 

 the lifeless classification of species. How much deeper 

 would the interest taken in the study of language by the 

 students in our schools be, and how much more vivid would 

 be the results if even the first elements of Comparative 

 Philology were taught instead of the distasteful composi- 

 tion of Latin exercises in Ciceronian style ! 



I have entered with this detail into the " Comparative 

 Anatomy " and the history of the evolution of languages, 

 because it is unsurpassed as a means of illustrating the 

 Phylogeny of organic species. We find that in structure 

 and in development these primitive languages, parent 

 languages, derived languages, and dialects, correspond 

 exactly like the classes, orders, genera, and species of the 

 animal kingdom. The " natural system " is in both cases 

 phylogenetic. Just as Comparative Anatomy, Ontogeny, and 

 Palaeontology afford certain proof that all Vertebrates, 



