149 
the old Priscianic form, of old and little-known dialects. 
But all these, with a vast amount of linguistic and gramma- 
tical lore, were scarcely scientific. A good many of them 
were rather inclined to believe Greek and Hebrew to be 
the parents of languages, and to consider Latin to be a 
derivative from Greek, Arabic an impure form of Hebrew, 
and Turkish and Persian both barbarous corruptions of 
Arabic. The comparative science of language, the methodical 
classification of dialects, is one of our own days : the name 
we require for it is Glossology , or Dialectology , the science 
of tongues or dialects : and one regrets that a word so 
inappropriate as Philology should have received the sanction 
of usage. No philosopher would dare, of course, to violate 
the rule of Bacon (de Aug. Sc., iii. 4) : “ Nobis decretum 
manet, antiquitatem comitari usque ad aras, atque vocabula 
antiqua retinere, quanquam sensum eorum et definitiones 
SEepius iminutemus.” But let us hope the “vocabulum” is 
not yet so “ antiquum ” as to be unchangeable. The German 
“ Sprachkunde” is excellent, but “speech-cunning 33 would be 
uncouth to our ears, might perhaps mean Rhetoric , or the 
art of eloquence , and would be at variance with our rule (the 
rule of Linnaeus) to employ no scientific names but those derived 
from the Greek. Perhaps “ Dialectology ” may eventually 
obtain favour. It will have the virtue (which “ Philology ” 
has not) of really meaning what it stands for. Though 
“verba notionum tesserae sunt,” Bacon did not mean that 
the counter was to be stamped with the externals of another 
notio than the one it represented. 
If we picture to ourselves a man with a keen ear and 
an observant mind, standing in some open spot in the great . 
fair of Nijni Novgorod, we can imagine what a host of 
subjects for thought must be aroused and enter that mind, 
from the varied sounds which would strike that ear. The 
soft but sibilant Russ, the softer and less sibilant Servian, 
the harsher Bulgarian, the easy-flowing Osmanli, the rougher 
and more diversified Turkoman, Bashkir, and Mongol; the 
grunting Chinese, the guttural Arabic, the elegant and 
stately Persian, perhaps the strange Circassian, Georgian, 
Ossetic, the ear-breaking Pushtoo, mingled possibly with 
some sonorous tongue from the south of the Himalaya, and 
with the strongly accentuated dialects of Latins or Germans 
from the West, would meet in his sensorium with an appa- 
rently unmeaning tumult. And yet it would be clear, on 
reflection, that this was no tumult , nor yet unmeaning . 
Those varying sounds might all be observed to vary accord- 
ing to some law, and to recur at certain intervals ; each set 
m 2 
