353 
family [the Kafir languages] is well known.”* The Akkadian 
language which, according to Prof. Sayce, ceased to be spoken 
prior to the seventeenth century B.C. has been greatly affected by 
phonetic decay. Thus ma, 44 land,” which by the addition of 
the individualising affix da , becomes mada (Media, i.e. 44 the 
Land ”), appears next as mad , which, adopted by the Semitic 
Assyrian, goes through the avatars mad-atu , mad-tu , mat-tu , 
ma-tu . Timmena , 44 foundation-stone,” becomes successively 
timmen , timme , £im, tem , te ; f just as the Aryan ayus, 
(eternity) dwindled at one portion of its career to ae;% and we 
find the forms eal-swa , ct/so, oise, afe, cts. 
The obscure question of the special part played by various 
letters and sounds in the formation of the great mass of words 
must be approached in two ways ; (1) by an immense classifica- 
tion of known forms, and (2) by the aid of psychology, which, 
as regards archaic man, finds one of her chief helpers in scientific 
etymology, (riven the knowledge how primitive man regarded 
ideas and things in general, and given a vast number of sounds 
and forms, at least closely akin to those which he must have 
used, and the combination will show us the principles employed, 
and which obtained in his 44 natural selection.” And the recent 
vast advance in our information on these matters may make us 
reasonably take a most hopeful view of the probabilities of the 
future. We must not expect to find in natural processes that 
uniformity which has been well styled 44 the perfection of small 
geniuses.” We shall meet with no archaic Bishop Wilkins, with 
his da , 44 god,” ida, 44 devil,” dad, 44 heaven,” odad , 44 hell ;” no 
Dr. Murray with his nine primeval roots, ag, bag, lag, etc. We 
must not expect to hear, with Dr. Wienbarg, 44 the sylphlike 
waving and whispering of the letter-spirits.” § The path of 
laborious induction possesses no such assistants ; but, listening 
to nature, we shall find, with Emerson, that she hums her old 
tunes with innumerable variations ; and further, that languages 
reflect the characters of nationalities, even as he declares that 
44 Strasburg Cathedral is a material counterpart of the soul of 
Erwin of Steinbach.” The powerful and penetrating mind of 
Iamblichos the Neo-Platonist, called by succeeding members of 
the fraternity, 44 the Divine,” and of whom the Emperor Julian 
in enthusiastic admiration declared that 44 he was second to 
Plato, but in time only, not in genius,” seems to have grasped 
various true principles of language, a circumstance which his 
* Introd. Sci> Lang., ii. 13. 
+ Prof. Sayce, Assyrian Lectures , 144-5. % Vide p. 47* 
§ Apud Canon Farrar, Language and Languages , 225, Note 3. 
