OF LANGUAGES. 



9 



various subdivisions by stating whether those languages 

 are monosyllabic, agglutinative, inflectional, &c. The prin- 

 cipal arrangement rests on the tendency displayed by a 

 language in its peculiar mode of thought. Though it may 

 appear difficult, nay even impossible, to find access to the 

 mysteries of reflection, we yet believe it will be possible to 

 fix in the various languages on certain enunciations, which, 

 once for all, determine the nature of a language. We shall 

 show how the terms of relationship supply this demand 

 most efficaciously, and using them as a guide, we shall soon 

 observe how all languages arrange themselves in two groups, 

 in one which displays a concrete, and in another which 

 manifests an abstract tendency. 15 This predilection towards 

 concreteness and abstractness prevails throughout, and we 

 therefore divide languages into concrete and abstract 16 ones. 

 This inclination occasionally assumes in the one case a 

 specializing and in the other case a generalizing aspect, e.g., 

 in the formation of the dual and plural of the first personal 

 pronoun, as will be shown hereafter (on page 61) ; but this 

 and other similar expressions are only modifications of the 

 inborn tendency towards concreteness and abstractness. 



We shall next turn our attention to the manner in which 

 the different categories as gender, number, space and time 

 are treated in the several dialects. The first two depict 

 especially the internal process of reflection, while the latter 

 two, space and time, becoming conspicuous in declension and 

 conjugation, represent mostly the external changes previ- 

 ously alluded to. 



An inquiry into the subject of gender will disclose the 

 fact that the concrete languages ignore gender, while the 

 abstract languages denote it. The various ways in which 



(15) Compare, Chapter VII., page 58. 



(16) The word " abstract'' will also include the power of imagination and 

 that of generalizing, which are allied to the power of abstracting. 



2 



