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ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



Though man as a species is one, every body admits that 

 the species contains many varieties. Why, therefore, should 

 the difference which is plainly perceptible in the outward 

 formation of race not correspond to a difference in the 

 method of shaping ideas as expressed by language ? If an 

 African Negro, an American Redskin, an Asiatic Tatar 

 remains what he is, and cannot be transformed into a 

 Bedouin or a Highlander, why should the language he 

 speaks be supposed to be changed contrary to its nature ? 



The capabilities of men lie within certain well-defined 

 limits, beyond which there is no progress. This fact applies 

 also to the languages they speak ; and, however gradual 

 this development from infancy to maturity may be, our 

 present knowledge does not enable us to describe step by 

 step the stages passed through. Individual capacity and 

 incapacity are left to their own devices on their way onward, 

 and though the duller man may progress slowly and halt 

 midway towards the final aim reached by the more gifted 

 competitor, both may not pursue the same direction, and 

 where the former prefers a roundabout road the latter may 

 choose a short cut. 



To observe and to mark the external peculiarities and 

 diversities occurring in languages is no doubt of very 

 considerable importance, because, without a minute know- 

 ledge of the details, a proper insight into the total cannot 

 be obtained ; but such a proceeding ought to be supple- 

 mented, as was pointed out before, by an investigation into 

 the causes which produced those peculiarities. No doubt 

 such a research, supported rather by philosophical considera- 

 tions than founded on historical proofs, has to encounter 

 great difficulties ; but if it were once rightly started and 

 pursued, the results of such examinations must necessarily 

 strengthen the correctness of observations applied to the 

 external construction. The internal process of thought 

 ought to reappear in the external form of speech, and if 



