347 
the upper hand, all other combinations were discarded ; mar 
had conquered.”* How and why ? It happened to conquer. 
But if any one of these various combinations “would have 
answered the purpose,” how was it that man, either sooner or 
later, so resolutely discarded all the rest in favour of one ? It 
chanced that he did so. But if I can get to Rome with equal 
facility by all roads, is it probable that I shall invariably use 
one only ? Scarcely. Thus Noire’s explanation of this myste- 
rious fact of language is (to illustrate it by a particular • 
instance) : — 
That man happened to select the sound mar. 
And that he subsequently happened to continue to use this 
sound to the exclusion of others. The rest is simple enough ; 
mar from association became connected with the idea of rubbing. 
Hence, language. We know that man has selected and con- 
tinued to use the root mar , but we would fain know ^vhy. 
It was an accident of circumstance ; “ as it fell upon a day.” 
But this bare possibility, the odds against which are 100, or 
perhaps 1,000, to 1, cannot surely be considered as an explana- 
tion of the occult fact of language and of the origin of phonetic 
types. According to Noire, the only link between the sound 
and the action is one of time ; they were contemporaneous. 
“ Stress or excitement ” is no special element in the case. 
These states might make a man exclaim mar, bar, Tear , or any- 
thing else. I fear that, after all, the real difficulty has eluded 
us, and that with Waitz, Greiger, and others, we are still outside 
the gate of the temple that enshrines the mystery. The 
questions — 
Why did man first select the sound mar ? and, 
How is that he has continued to employ it in a parti- 
cular connexion to the exclusion of other sounds ? — 
remain practically unanswered by Noire’s theory. To say that 
this or that matter happened to take such and such a turn, is 
practically only saying that things are as they are. 
14. Further examination of Professor Noirets views. 
Professor Noire adds, “ It is only by means of this visible 
effect [i.e., the effect of “ the individual activity ”] that the 
sounds acquire their meaning.” That is to say, when a man 
said da, he gave his fellow something. No doubt the element 
of gesture and demeanour is an exceedingly important one ; 
but it is here tacked on to an unsupported theory. And why is 
Noire compelled to hold that man accidentally said da? 
* Lects. Sci. Lang., ii. 348. 
