36 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



rearranged into groups. Into these groups are then classed 

 the various languages, conformably to the differences they 

 exhibit in their external appearance, whether it be incorpora- 

 tive, as the American ; alliteral, as the African; monosyllabic, 

 agglutinative, or inflectional. 



Whatever expressions are used in a language belong either 

 to the region of the concrete or the abstract. Concrete 

 matter surrounds us everywhere. Its presence is perceptible 

 to the senses. Everybody is more or less acquainted with 

 it, and it becomes available for producing greater clearness 

 in the explanation of difficult subjects. All that has to be 

 done is to point out the similarity existing in the matter to 

 be explained to the concrete that is already known. The 

 use of well selected parallels invests language with great 

 power. The more the mental disposition inclines towards 

 concreteness, and the less it tends towards abstractness, the 

 clearer and more distinct will be the expressions used in 

 speech so long as they refer to material objects, but the more 

 complicated and unintelligible if they are directed to abstract 

 thought. Thus savage or uncivilized tribes will be conciser 

 in their descriptions of concrete things than are more 

 civilized nations ; but they are confused and intricate when 

 they have to grapple with abstract ideas. Savages all 

 over the earth, in Asia, Africa, America, and Australia, 

 provide us with many instances of this kind. As abstraction 

 is the result of deduction from the concrete, it is in 

 consequence posterior in time to it. It presupposes a 

 deductive analytic faculty, which is not common to all. The 

 capability of passing from concreteness to abstractness is the 

 touchstone of languages. 



While concrete dialects are thus originally without names 

 for abstract qualities, abstract languages retain the ability to 

 use concrete expressions, though perhaps in a lower degree. 

 The peculiar force and impressiveness of the Biblical 



