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THE KTHSOLOOY OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



43 



with the civilisations of other races, will for ever depend on die 

 prevailing national organism. 



All these phenomena appear to be susceptible of simple end 

 rational explanation. The earliest forms of language were neces- 

 sarily «iraple. As soon as they were sufficiently developed to 

 serve the purposes of speech, they were fixed by habit Every 

 subsequent new development or partial change of form must have 

 been the effect of some change in the ortjamsin, position or habits 

 of a family • and the tribe into which it expanded. Separation 

 from the main stock most have preceded every such change, 

 because proximity keeps up a communitv of habits and ideas. A 

 new physical geography operatinir, on the senses, the imagination 

 ajid the organism, exciting to a fresh in vend ye new, pouring in a 

 flood of new ideas, and leading to a dominion of new habits, 

 must powerfully aid the transition. At all events, before 

 there can be a new development of language the.d must be a 

 mental revolution, however brought about. It can hardly 

 ever be very rapid. It would rather seem to be analogous 

 to that slow operation of physical geography which produces 



* I ultall have nivautnn hereafter to examine the admlrahle discourse of Hansen, 

 lo which 1 have referred in a previous paper on the generation &c of languagea, 

 (ante Vol IH p. (J37.) He content plate* the formation of new languages la nationa 

 and communities, attrihuUng them to colonisation, political dim-uptiotm and dis- 

 tortion* &c. In the text I cMdly look to asuecoathre excision firom tribes, of single 

 paini or families with diifierent intellectual organisms, and their expoaure to new 

 stimulants, to evury tribe many kinds of orjrunlsm arcprodnced in each generation, 

 which would naturally lead to various intellectual dcratopment*, tf the parental 

 and social influenced did not destroy freedom of growth, and impress the same 

 national mould upon ail. We know In civilised countries huwgreet is the struggle 

 of genius to free itself from tor thraldom of conventional Ideas and expressjotw, 

 and shape out for itself an uriginal embodiment of its hnpinuiuin. Dnt if an 

 indJvid oal organism, beioru it ha* lost itt» youtaAU imprmibllity, escape from the 

 notional prison, which can only happen In ruder lands, arid obtain, in anew seen*. 

 ■Maw independence and fresh impulses, conaiderahle ehtiugvs fn Ides*, habit* and 

 language nuiy be produced, which will »h>?w tlwrnadve* In a more matured 2nd 

 distinct form in the next tfuierati'iru The old language must he imperfectly known 

 or greatly lost, to allow of a new development. The more fully the parents nfeservo 

 the former, the leas original will be the elaboration or the latter hy the children. 

 If an intellect of great vitality or originality happen to bo born amongst the latter, a 

 largo stride In a new direction may be made 1 1 is by a succession of such steps, each 

 requiring an extraordinary combination of favourable circumstances, which am in 

 grneml only oocnr at long- intervals, that a new Itinguajre is ultimately attained. 

 The intervals of fixation are never wholly so. A slow change goes on even in the 

 most fixed languages, so that each frwh step ia token from a somewhat different 

 level from that reached by the preceding one. But a tribe can never effect an 

 organic child ge in its language, which must remain the tome in all ideological 

 essential* so long as It retains its independent existence. The language of every 

 intact tribe has preserved Its organic identity nine* Its character was given to it by 

 the single pair why originated It. It Is not because the Chinese letters are ancient 

 that their hunruajres have retained their identity, but because the races hate 

 continued to exist while hundreds of others hav.i been destroyed or transformed. 

 Bo the Iranian Stall Posh have preserved theirs hy the aid of position, — so the 

 Copta, Siamese, Formoaans, Welsh Ac. A mixed tribe may make a mixed language. 

 But organic chani*s belong to segregated pain and their children. I do not 

 overlook the alow change to which the language of every nation la subjected, and 

 to which I have already drawn attention. (See On the gcniratUm f §i'9Wtn £c. 

 of langua$a t ante Vol. III. p. 671.) 



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