IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 " IM 2.2 
 
 2.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 1.25 1 4 
 
 1.6 
 
 
 -« 6" 
 
 
 ► 
 
 v). 
 
 ^ 
 
 % 
 
 /a 
 
 e. 
 
 Ca, 
 
 
 o 
 
 ^l 
 
 7 
 
 ■9 
 
 w 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 \ 
 
 # 
 
 ^9) 
 
 .V 
 
 ^^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 n. 
 
 '^*^ 
 
 'Ij 
 
 ^^ 
 
 % 
 
 V 
 
 % 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 
 
 .'16) 872-4503 
 
CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-etre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger una 
 modification dans la m^thode normale de filmage 
 sont indiqu^s ci-dessous. 
 
 7 
 
 n 
 □ 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 Covers damaged/ 
 Couverture endommagee 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaur6e et/ou pellicul^e 
 
 Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes g^ographiques en nouleur 
 
 Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 D 
 D 
 □ 
 
 n 
 
 
 Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommag^es 
 
 Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 Pages restaur^es et/ou pelliculees 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages d^color^es, tachet^es ou piquees 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages d^tach^es 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 D 
 
 Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 □ Quality of print varies/ 
 Qualite in^gale de I'impression 
 
 D 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Relie avec d'autres documents 
 
 D 
 
 Includes supplementary material/ 
 Comprend du materiel supplementaire 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La reliure serree peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge int^rieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages branches ajoutdes 
 lors dune restauration apparaissent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela §tait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas 6t6 filmdes. 
 
 n 
 □ 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont itib film6es d nouveau de facon it 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 D 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires suppl^mentaires: 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce doc li, lent est film^ au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 14X 18X 22X 
 
 26X 
 
 30X 
 
The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 Library of the Public 
 Archives of Canada 
 
 L'exemplaire filmd fut reproduit grSce d la 
 p6n6rosit6 de: 
 
 La bibliothdque des Archives 
 pubtiques du Canada 
 
 The images appearing here are the oest quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol — •-(meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nettet6 de l'exemplaire filmd, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprimde sont film^s en commenpant 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second 
 plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires 
 originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la 
 premidre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d illustration et en terminant par 
 la dernidre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la 
 dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbole — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le 
 symbole V signifie "FIN". 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre 
 film6s d des taux de reduction diff6rents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour §tre 
 reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir 
 de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche & droite, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent la mdthode. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
ii 
 
 il 
 i 
 
 -r ■ 
 
 LAW IN LANGUAGE. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JAMES ROY, M.A., X 
 
 CANDIDATE FOR ADMISSION IN COURSE, AT CONVOCATION, 
 APRIL 30th, 1883, TO THE DEGREE OF 
 DOCTOR OF LAWS. 
 IN 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OK Mc(;iLi. COLLEGE. 
 
 . MONTREAL: 
 "Witness" Printing House, St. James St West. 
 
 1883. 
 
LAW IN LANGUAGE. 
 
 3l ©hijiis. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JAMES ROY, M.A., 
 
 f 
 
 CANDIDATE FOR ADMISSION IN COURSE, AT CONVOCATION, ' 
 
 APRIL 30th, 1883, TO THE DEGREE OF j 
 
 DOCTOR OF LAWS. ' 
 
 MONTREAL: 
 ■WITNESS" Printing House, St. James St West. 
 . 1883. 
 
LAW IN LANGUAGE. 
 
 1. "Laws," as defined by Montesquieu, "are, in the widest 
 signification, the necessary relations that have their origin in the 
 nature of things."* " Law, in the domain of science," £ ^ys Littr6, 
 *' signifies the necessary conditions which determine phenomena, 
 the constant and invariable relation between phenomena, or be- 
 tween the different phases of a single phenomenon."! Hooker 
 says : " That which doth assign unto each thing the kind, that 
 which doth moderate the force and power, that which doth appoint 
 the form and measure of working, the same we term a Law. "J 
 More modern scientific language, however, seems to consider laws- 
 as fixed and invariable modes of action, resulting from inherent, 
 tendencies called into operation by relations between different' 
 forms of existence. This may be seen from a sentence quoted, 
 from a work entitled : "A Candid Examination of Theism," and 
 written by an author who uses the name " Physicus." This author is 
 Mr. G. J. Romanes, a Canadian, so a friend informs me. On pageso 
 of that work, this sentence occurs : " Newly established relations 
 would necessarily of themselves give origin to new laws. ' This 
 definition of laws as modes of action resulting from relations, 
 rather than relations themselves, seems to be assumed in the use 
 of the term by almost all writers on science to day. 
 
 2. The discovery of these laws, in any department of nature, 
 is attended with a peculiar delight, never less than the most 
 exquisite gratification of the senses. Felix qui potuit rerum 
 cognoscere causas. \\ Every such discovery becomes a new 
 starting-point in the progress of the race. The law, once 
 perceived, becomes a new fact which, combined with other facts 
 of the same kind, furnishes a new basis for generalization. Im- 
 
 *De L' Esprit des Lois. Liv. i. Cnap. i. 
 tDictionnaire de La Langue Fran9aise. Sud voce, 21''. 
 JEccles. Polity. Bk. i. 11. i. 
 ilVirgil, Georg. Bk. IL, 1. 490. 
 
agination seizes upon it, and leaps to theories. Efforts to test the 
 correctness of the theories reveal new laws ; and the human race 
 starts upon a fresh journey of advancement. 
 
 3. It is no novelty to speak of the laws of matter; but to this 
 century is due chiefly the attempt to unravel the mysteries of 
 speech. There are good reasons for expecting to find language, 
 as well as material nature, subject to fixed laws. If speech were, 
 as some have supposed, an arbitrary invention, it might be desti- 
 tute of law and order ; but if it is a natural product of previously 
 existent causes, some relations must be found between the causes 
 and effects, and fixed ways of action must arise from these relations. 
 Man has universal characteristics which must show themselves in 
 all that is peculiar to the race, and not to specially gifted indi- 
 viduals. Of these, language is one. No brute speaks with articu- 
 late utterance. Man does. But man is physical, and his organs 
 are effected by geographical and meteorological conditions. He 
 is guided by ^ight and sound ; and, if one of these is wanting, 
 the other cannot produce the effects peculiar to that which is gone. 
 He is often wilful, and not submissive to reason ; and the stub- 
 bornness of unreasoning will shows itself in his habits of speech as 
 well as in other things. All these facts must have their relations 
 to his language. Laws must exist in it, since both the matter and 
 the mind that make the man have fixed peculiarities of action. 
 
 4 The various forms of human utterance grow. This fact, 
 we can partly observe for ourselves. At school, we are taught to 
 follow certain rules and forms of expression. When we are some- 
 what older, we read the newspapers. Immediately, we find coming 
 into use, words and phrases and constructions which our previous 
 instructions condemned. We hear the expression, " Help me do 
 this," instead of " Help me to do this ;'' "'You don't speak like we 
 do," instead of "Yqu don't speak as we do;'' "Will I go .''" ii- 
 stead of " Shall I go ?" We become indignant at what seem 
 barbarisms, though they are often really revivals of forms of speech 
 that had become obsolete. Our indignant protests are unheeded. 
 The barbarism becomes popular. The grammarian learns to de- 
 fend it ; and our language takes one step forward toward its slow, 
 but complete, transformation. 
 
5. Such changes, however, are necessarily too slow for a sin- 
 gle life to observe their wide effects. To the history of lan- 
 guage, then, we must go to learn the laws, in accordance with 
 which the transformations of speech take place. 
 
 {a). Of the many tongues of mortals, not one is without its 
 history. We boast of Alfred and Chaucer and Tennyson, as 
 Englishmen ; but so changed has become their speech that they 
 could not understand each other, were they all now living, and 
 acquainted only with the forms of speech peculiar to their day. 
 Victor Hugo and Littr6 spoke French, as did Thibeault and 
 Villehardouin ; but he who can with ease read the '* Autumn 
 Leaves" and the " History of the French Language" of the 
 former, cannot always read with equal ease the " Sonnets " and 
 the " History " of the latter. How far the modern Angelica 
 Palle and Constantino Oekonomos resemble Thucydides and 
 Homer may, perhaps, be surmised from the humorous exaggera- 
 tion of Edmond About, who says : *' Modern Greek differs from 
 ancient only by a system of barbarisms, the key to which is easily 
 found. It is all comprised in this : murder suitably the words 
 you learned at college. In the foundation of the language no- 
 thing has been changed." 
 
 (b). When we go back to the Latin out of which the Romance 
 languages sprang, to the Germanic dialects, from which came Eng- 
 lish and Frisian and Dutch, and to the Sanscrit itself, we become 
 conscious that all are but the outgrowths of something else that 
 has passed away. That which is to-day analytic, employing sep- 
 arate words, and not inflections, to express relations of thought, 
 was once synthetic or inflected ; and the inflected can be proved 
 to have arisen from languages more analytic than their progeny. 
 Examine the single word for *' emperor," in Villehardouin, and 
 you find the spelling and accent of it when used as a subject, 
 Empereres, as compared with those given to it when used as an 
 object, Empereor, still bearing the traces of the inflected Latin 
 nominative, Imperator, and the accusative, tmperatorem. On the 
 other hand, an examination of an inflected word, Latin or Greek, 
 will show the remains of old word-forms which, in some way,. 
 
6 
 
 have lost their power as words, and have become apparently ar- 
 bitrary, though regular, terminations. In f <pM/ a a vr o, 
 e-phile-s-a-nt-o, " they loved themselves," we havp an augment, a 
 stem, a tense sign, a euphonic connecting vowel be- 
 tween consonants, a relic of a pronoun, and a letter indicating 
 voice. In reg-er-e-mu-s, " we might rule," there are a stem, a 
 tense sign, a mood sign, a sign of a pronoun of the first person, 
 and a sign of the plural. To show how these syllables which be- 
 come mere inflections, arise from other words which once had a 
 separate existence, I quote a sentence from Earle's " Philology 
 of the English Tongue," p. 250, That author gives a VVest-of- 
 England sentence, ** Telln, what a payth out, I'll payn agan," and 
 appends the following remark : " Here the « represents the old 
 accusative pronoun, hine, which has been absorbed into the verb." 
 In this remnant, then, of an Anglo-Saxon word, we see how in- 
 flections arise. 
 
 (f). But this growth is seen, not only in the developjnent of one 
 language from another, and one word from others, but in the com- 
 binations of the separate words. Every student knows that there 
 is a time in language when presentive words, or words which 
 always present some conception to the mind, are of themselves 
 sufficient to convey connected trains of throught, and that there 
 is another time when symbolic words, or those the sense of which 
 depends upon their relation to presentive words, become more 
 and more necessary to fill up the meaning sought to be conveyed. 
 At one time, and to one race, complete sense is given by the 
 phrase ka/t mundo corde, in which not one symbolic word occurs. 
 At another time, and amongst another race, inflections are insuffi- 
 cient, and must be helped by particles, as in the Greek 
 MaKcipioL oi m^apol tt) Kap6ig, MakaHoi hot kathoroi te kardia, 
 while even these, to an English ear, must be supplemented by a 
 verb : '* Blessed are the pure in heart." * The necessities of bre- 
 vity in modern telegraphy are, to some extent, training us to a 
 certain return to that primitive simplicity when presentive words 
 alone convey connected thoughts, and have in themselves a full- 
 
 * Earle, p. 247. 
 
ness of meaning which needs few or no symbolics. Instead of say- 
 ing, " Send the box of peaches by the train, on Monday, at noon," 
 we save time and expense by writing, •' Send box peaches by 
 train Monday noon ;'" and the presentive words, with the aid of 
 one symbolic, convey all the meaning which it seems necessary in 
 ordinary correspondence to fill up by the use of six. Thus pro- 
 gress in civilization produces growth in language. 
 
 {(/). Growth is seen in the development of the meaiiing of 
 words. It would be mere commonplace to trace the progress of 
 the word perception from a sign of a purely mechanical act, to 
 that of one purely mental ; and any good dictionary will show 
 how words at first taken to represent the phvsical are afterwards 
 used as signs of mental, moral and spiritual thought, while 
 poetic or oratorical passion often c1o''-'js fleeting t'ljughts of 
 beauty in the weird imag ry of material filings. Or .he other hand, 
 0"p t \ the first things that strike the reflective ■ ^-eader of the His- 
 tory of Doctrines, is the dc3;rading transformation undergone 
 during the centuries by words once redolent of poetic beauty and 
 heavenly inspiration. The freshness of their first imagery becomes 
 forgotten. They then awaken no lively pictures, and kindle no 
 warm and loving enthusiasm, but become the mere expressions of 
 party feeling, and the dry, hard counters of intellectual sys- 
 tems. The term " Regeneration," for instance, once containing 
 a perfect vision of beauty, recalling the loveliness of young 
 leaves and soft grass, of blossoms and warbling birds, of balmy 
 breezes and the hum of busy insects, was made by the first Chris- 
 tians to represent the change of a soul once grovelling in worldli- 
 ness and wrong, into the home of every heavenly virtue, only to 
 become, in after ages, the battle-ground of contending sectaries, 
 whose wrangling served to show how far the original beauty of 
 the word failed to impress the minds, or show itself in the conduct, 
 of those who used it. 
 
 This growth of language, from one phase to another in a single 
 speech, and from one speech to others quite different, in sound, 
 vocabulary and syntax, proceeds by fixed and universal methods. 
 
 I. The first law to be noted here is this : Language follows 
 nature's demand for expression of thought and feeling. Peculiar- 
 
8 
 
 ities of organization and education frequently give power, while 
 circumstances give occasion, to hide both thought and feeling ; 
 but nature generally seeks to express itself. Such expression is 
 language ; and, while articulate speech is the peculiar possession 
 of man, even the lower animals have some forms of such language 
 as aids in communication. The ant organizes, and so must have 
 a language. The hen varies her cry to meet varied emergencies. 
 The terrier asks and gives thanks for food, not merely by looks 
 and gestures, but by low plaintive moanings, as if searching for 
 articulate speech. The crow, high in the tree-top, caws out his 
 warning to the plundering flock, with a sound distinctly varied from 
 his ordinary cry. So, too, man, by look and gesture and sound, 
 finds relief from the pent-up thought and feeling that rise within. 
 It is a law of his being that his organs instinctively discover their 
 own use. His mouth needs no special revelation to teach it to 
 suck in infancy ; and babes need no public conventions at which 
 to decide how to draw in their nutriment. Neither special revela- 
 tion nor public agreement must precede the use of eye or ear : the 
 revelation of their object comes through the instincts of their pos- 
 sessor ; and where vocal organs exist, the instinctive desire to ex- 
 press the sudden fear or admiration, the deliberate conviction or 
 the earnest inquiry, will bring these organs into play. Some 
 sound will be uttered. It may be an interjection, or the imitation 
 of some sound pronounced by surrounding nature, or an utterance, 
 the appropriateness of which is lost to view in the appar-^nt arbi- 
 trariness of its selection. An instance of a word whose origin was 
 apparently arbitrary is " gas," a term invented by Van Helmont, 
 to designate the subtle form of matter now recognized by that 
 name. Even *' gas," however, is not quite arbitrary, since it was 
 suggested by the word " Geist," the German term for spirit. But, 
 whether the sound is ejaculation, imitation, or the result of arbi- 
 trary choice, once let it be recognized as a sign for thought or 
 thing, and articulate speech has begun. This, at least, may be 
 assumed as true in the unsolved problem of the origin of speech. 
 As thoughts multiply, so do expressions ; and the latter neces- 
 sarily follow the former. It is most interesting to trace the growth 
 of thought, and even civilization, in the development of a single 
 
root through its successive changes. A good example is the Greek 
 root [io, bo. It is, like the Sanskrit ^o//, and the English ?noo, an 
 evident imitation of the lowing of cattle. In the substantive fiovg, 
 bous, Doric j8wf bos, Latin b^s, it signifies an ox or cow. In the 
 verb jSofj, buo, Latin boo, boa-e, it signifies " to make a loud cry, as 
 oxen make the loudest cries of any domestic animals. In the sub- 
 stantive povTvpov, boutyron, butter, it appears as a designation 
 of a production from the cow, showing a development of the Aryan 
 pastoral life, while other forms tell of agriculture, sacrifice, and 
 the perception of beauty, even by " bucolic " men, in large, soft, 
 lustrous eyes. In the verb /3o(t«(j, bosko, it appears again as the 
 act of feeding cattle ; and, inasmuch as oxen were the largest 
 domestic animals, it reappears in the prefix |3ov, bou, great, as 
 I3ov(3pomg, botibrssis, a voracious appetite. Each of these 
 forms becomes the root of many derivatives. Metaphor lends its 
 aid in the transformations. New compounds furnish new roots, 
 which again form new series of derivatives, till an examination of 
 a lexicon will give proof that, as the ideas of the 'Ancient Indo- 
 Europeans extended, the original onomatopoetic root became the 
 parent of more than two hundred surviving words. 
 
 As thought becomes elevated in character, so do the expres- 
 sions used to represent it. We first deal with concrete objects, 
 and with these as with individuals ; and not till afterward do we 
 rise to the conception of classes and abstract properties. We first 
 deal with material things and their qualities : afterward we deal 
 with thoughts and mental and moral qualities. So do abstract 
 terms tell of progress in classification, analysis and synthesis ; and 
 metaphor applies terms borrowed from the material world to 
 the mental and the moral. Missionaries, charmed with the luxu- 
 riant verbiage of savage tongues, have been prone to adduce them 
 as proofs of degeneracy from some higher state ; but the fact is 
 that this verbosity is an evidence that the races who use it have 
 not advanced beyond the lowest stages of intelligence. What in- 
 telligence can be found in a race which has words for every species 
 of tree, such as oak, pine, beech, birch, maple, elm, but which has 
 no word for the concept " tree," or which has separate words for 
 the leg of a fowl, a horse, a man, but no word for " leg .^" What 
 
10 
 
 intellectual development exists amongst people who have expres- 
 sions for " to be ill " and " to be well," but none for '• to be ?" 
 Yet in America, Polynesia and Africa, such races are found ; and 
 the absence of abstract terms is not to be traced to a loss of them, 
 but to the fact that the savages have never yet risen high enough 
 in intellect to distinguish the concrete from the abstract. A mis- 
 sionary once wished to translate " God is Love ;" and he tried to 
 find a Kaffir word for love by asking what the natives liked best, 
 proposing to use their expression for " liking " as a synonym for 
 the word he wished to translate. He obtained the word, and used 
 it ; but what did it mean ? To eat meat in an advanced state of 
 decomposition 1 Compare such languages with Greek, and you 
 will see how speech follows in the wake of mental endowment and 
 progress. A lexicon which gives the history of words shows the 
 growth of thought, in the developing use of its signs. Adjectives 
 are first used to point out qualities inherent in concrete objects ; 
 and it is not till after the lapse of time that their neuters become 
 used as marks to designate such qualities, no longer as attached 
 to material things, but as entities by themselves. In the case of 
 the expression, to Oeiov, /» theibn, as a synonym for the Deity, 
 it seems not to have been used until the fifth, or middle, period of 
 Greek literature, the time of Herodotus, between 470 and 431 
 B. C.» 
 
 A controversy has long existed between logicians, on the 
 question whether language precedes thought, or thought, language, 
 and whether thought can be conducted without language. The 
 controversy is not unimportant ; for, on it depend very largely 
 our views of the province of logic ; and by the decision we give 
 on its merits, our very terminology will be affected. One writer 
 speaks of Concepts and Judgments ; another, of Terms and 
 Propositions. One says, with Esser : ** To think, is to designate 
 an object through a mark or attribute." Another, with Sir William 
 Hamilton, says : " Thought is the comprehension of a thing under 
 a general notion." Bowen, while granting that language is the 
 expression of thought only, still refuses to designate anything as a 
 word except a common name. He considers thought as an act, 
 
 * Herodotus. I. 32. 
 
11 
 
 exclusive of perception, and the mere reference of single objects 
 
 or intuitions to classes, and so makes language follow the exercise 
 
 of the powers of abstraction. McCosh makes thought an act, 
 
 both intuitive and discursive, and holds a theory which may be 
 
 well expressed in the couplet : 
 
 " Thought leapt out to wed with Thought, 
 Ere Thought could wed itself to Speech." 
 
 It is, to a great degree, a controversy about words. In the 
 ambiguities of Precept, Concept, Language. Words, Thought, we 
 become lost. The term "Thought" is not, with any good rea- 
 son, confined to the results of the thinking process, but is properly 
 applied to that process itself ; and McCosh is, doubtless, correct 
 in calling every exercise of the intelligence. Thought, and in dis- 
 criminating Intuitive from Discursive Thought. On that ground, 
 all can agree with Hamilton in saying : " presentations and rep- 
 resentations of given individual objects might have taken place, 
 although there were no signs with which they were mentally con- 
 nected." A species of thought is possible without language ; and 
 language follows nature's demand for the expression of thought 
 and feeling. 
 
 II. A second law is that language follows the conditions of the 
 vocal organism. The sounds which any sentient being can utter, 
 depend upon the physical structure of the vocal organs, and upon 
 the habits of life by which they are affected. Whatever tends to 
 lessen or increase the elasticity of the vocal chords, to lessen or 
 increase the distensive or contractive power of the pharynx, to 
 open or close the nasal passages, or to modify the form of the 
 cavity of the mouth, must modify the sounds emitted, and must 
 ultimately affect the spelling of words written to denote these 
 sounds. These modifications of spelling perpetuate the original 
 changes of pronunciation, and produce new changes. Any one, 
 by making alterations in the relative positions of the organs of 
 speech, can produce, after a little practice, any required sound. 
 This fact has been confirmed and explained by scientific observa- 
 tion ; and on it have been based practical methods of acquiring 
 the pronunciation of the most difficult sounds, and of teaching 
 the dumb to speak. Helmholtz had perceived that each note has 
 
12 
 
 three aspects, — elevation, or place in the scale of sounds, which 
 arises from the number of vibrations originating it, — power, or 
 intensity, arising from the amplitude of the vibrations, — and 
 quality, by which we mean that peculiar difference given to each 
 note by the different instruments that produce it. He put leaden 
 soldiers on the notes, or keys, of a piano. When any note was 
 struck, other notes, harmonic to the first note, were so affected 
 that the leaden figures on them fell. He next found that the 
 harmonics so affected, varied with the form of the instrument. 
 This explained to Helmholtz what one would think needed no 
 explanation, that the different vowels and the peculiarities of indi- 
 vidual voices are due to the various shapes and positions assumed 
 by the individual organs of utterance. Professor Bell has made 
 this the basis of his " Visible Speech," by the aid of which even 
 an Englishman may pronounce the Gaelic word for calf, and 
 dumb people may learn to utter articulate sounds ; though what is 
 called the timbre or individuality of tone, depending on individual- 
 ity of structure, is not, as a general thing, under the control of the 
 will. 
 
 An important result of the experiments of Helmholtz remains 
 to be noticed. As the vowels emitted depend upon physical con- 
 formation and attitude, and as changes in the physical conformation 
 are produced gradually,so,when history records two entirely different 
 pronunciations, by the same nation, of the same vowel or conso- 
 nant sound, at different periods of its history, we may naturally 
 expect to find an intermediate period when an intermediate sound 
 prevailed. Thus, before the sound of o, as in encore, could pass 
 into that of the German umlaut it, it must have passed through the 
 intermediate stage of eu as in Jleur. This may be tested by gradu- 
 ally projecting the lips more and more while sounding o. The 
 actual facts confirm the correctness of this. Before the Latin 
 morum became the modern French miire, it passed through the old 
 French form meure ; and motum became men before it settled 
 into mil. 
 
 Of the fact that the conditions of the physical organism af- 
 fect the form of language, we have a proof when we suffer from 
 
13 
 
 a cold. To illustrate this, Papillon, in his Manual of Compara- 
 tive Philology, gives the following stanza from " The Lay of the 
 Influenzed " : 
 
 " Dever bore bedeath the bood 
 
 Shall byrtle boughs edtwide ; 
 Dever bore thy bellow voice 
 
 Bake belody with bide." 
 
 The last instance I shall notice, is that of the changes in what 
 are called " spirants." Every scholar knows that the initial s of 
 Sanskrit words often answer to the spiritus asper and to the diga- 
 ma (F) of Greek, although he may not be able to trace their re- 
 lationship ; and every teacher of Greek has found it impossible 
 to explain to inquiring students the formation of the Attic per- 
 fect (iKl/Koa, akeha, apart from the relation of the F to v. But 
 the law of physical form explains the connection of all these let- 
 ters. Let him who pronounces the Latin sedes project and contract 
 his lips, and sedes will become marvellously like the Greek k6oq 
 hedos. Then let him, while trying to pronounce this latter word, 
 contract his lips still more, and draw the lower one slightly back, 
 and £'5<'f, hedos becomes precisely the ^5t(5of, bhedos of the old 
 Doric and yEolic, the /? being sounded like bh, nearly like the 
 modern Greek /3, or the ancient F. The linguistic changes be- 
 tween the Sanscrit, the Greek and the Latin, then, were due to 
 certain changes, often very slight, in the relative positions of 
 the organs of speech. 
 
 in. A third law is that language follows nature's tendency to 
 the least necessary exertion. The law of parsimony is universal 
 in nature, which is sparing both of time and effort ; and human 
 nature is not excepted from the general tendency. In reasoning, 
 it is an acknowledged principle that entia non sunt mulliplicanda 
 praeter necessitalem. In action, too, the same principle prevails. 
 The oldest MSS. of the New Testament are uncials, whose large 
 and disconnected characters must have given the writers much 
 labor. The newer MSS. are cursives, whose abbreviations are 
 numerous and puzzling. To cursive writing, has succeeded 
 phonography ; and phonography itself develops its reporting 
 style out of its more laborious corresponding style. That which 
 
14) 
 
 takes place in written speech happens, also, in spoken. We are 
 prodigal neither of ime nor effort. This tendency to economy 
 is called the law of ease, and seems to be the most potent influ- 
 ence at work in the modification of languages. It manifests it- 
 self chiefly by abbreviations, transmutations, transpositions and 
 by imitation. Our own language furnishes many instances of 
 this tendency to abbreviate, transmute and transpose. Port 
 Ryerse, on Lake Erie, near the old homestead of the Ryerson 
 family, shows, in its name, the effect of indistinct enunciation on 
 terminations. The Gooderham family are not seldom spoken of 
 as " Goodrum. ' Of this tendency, Britain furnishes abundant 
 examples in the names Alnwick, Deptford, Haverford-west, 
 Greenwich, Keswick, Launceston, Leicester, Gloucester, Kircud- 
 bright, Cholmondeley, Beauchamp, &c. 
 
 In Canada, what multitudes complain of "rheumatiz' and 
 " neuralagi. ' Old Scotch folk never consult a dictionary, but 
 always " the dictionar." Caughnawaga becomes Caughnawag. 
 
 Dr. Frechette has deserved well of his countrymen for having 
 preserved in his dramas, for the philologist, many interesting ex- 
 amples of the same law, operating amongst the French-Canadians. 
 From one scene I adduce the following : " Canaj'en;" " epi tti^ 
 son beau-frere en duel, comme y disent ;" *'i?/ pis, y a la bande de voleurs 
 dii Carotige."* 
 
 The same tendency to abbreviate is heard when, in the Chan- 
 nel Islands, the peasant mother rocks her babe to sleep to the 
 chorus of her song ; 
 
 " Don, dors iii'n cfant, 
 II en est tetnps." 
 
 In fact, no language better exhibits the effects of this law than 
 the French. Compte, e.g., comes from computum, through the 
 abbreviation comptian, the atonic vowel of the penultimate having 
 been dropped in the rapid pronunciation of common life. 
 
 In Italian, the letter / becomes /, as in plus, which has become 
 pi'u, while plenus has become pieno, plumbum, piotnbo, and pluere, 
 piovere, clavis chiave, clamarc chiamare jlamma fiamma, glans ghian~ 
 da, and flos fiore. 
 
 * Le Ketour de I'ExiU, Act I, ycene ii. 
 
15 
 
 Latin tells the same tale, whether we consult Plautus or the 
 Graffiti o{ Pompeii, — those scribblings by idle Romans "of the 
 baser sort," on post and wall. Tabula becomes tahla, posiius he- 
 comes post us, &c. 
 
 Few instances of the loss of vowel sounds occur in Greek ; 
 yet, from the stem ■ket, p^t, we have Tr/xrw, pifta ; from ytv, 
 gsn, we have yiyvoftai, gig' fidmai ; and from fiev, men, we get 
 fiifivo), mimno, to say nothing of irarpdg, pat'rOs, and f^f/rpog, 
 mifros. 
 
 Nor does the law affect vowels alone, as has been seen in the 
 Italian i from /. After the time of Constantine the Great, the 
 the City of Boulogne was called Bononia, and after the Carlovin- 
 gians, Bolonia, whence came the modern name. Credentia must 
 have dropped the d, and become Creentia, before it became in 
 French, criance ; and ligare must first have become Hare, before 
 settling into Her. One of the advantages of the French language 
 in Philology is that in the historical documents of France, these 
 transitional forms are actually found. 
 
 The effects of rapid utterance find interesting examples in 
 modern Greek, also, inv Kiyv-K-nvy (pronounced Teen Eg-eepton) 
 becomes rr)v Kiyvnro, (pr. teen Eg-eepioJ, Tfjv ^.d/iov, (pr. teen S<i>non) 
 becomes rr) 2d/zo, [pr. tee Sam-o) and ri/v ndhv is pronounced 
 teem holin. From the same cause, the da^ .e case has disappeared 
 from the vernacular of Greece. Tw eln-f, is now pronounced 
 roi tint {too eepe) and ^loi tint, has become f^ov tlire, [moo eepe) the 
 genitive form having supplanted the dative, purely through changes 
 in pronunciation. 
 
 Apparent exceptions only serve, when examined, to confirm the 
 rule. Generallv, difficult sounds do not arise from easier ones ; 
 hence we should not expect to find middle mutes developing into 
 hard or tenues. Yet 'kiyu, lego, gives ?ifKi-(5?, lektos, and not 
 Aeyr(5?, legtos. But this arises from the fact that it is easier to 
 pronounce together mutes of similar strength than those of dissim- 
 ilar. It would seem, too, that the decay of old forms could never 
 be manifested by the addition of new sounds ; yet such is the 
 fact. In the transition from Latin to French, humilis, after becom- 
 
16 
 
 ing humlis, must have inserted a b sound, in order to become the 
 basis of humble. So of cumulus into comble, numerus into nombre, 
 ponere into pondre and gener into gendre. In Greek, too, /uoXeZv, 
 vidlein, must have given li^iidluKay mimdldka, and then fufiXuKa, 
 m'^ml^ka, before it gave the perfect /iEfiftXuKa, m'^mblnka. But 
 even this insertion of the p, b, arose from the same law of ease, 
 since the concurrence of the two liquids would have rendered the 
 pronunciation more difficult and unpleasant than the combination 
 of a liquid and a mute. 
 
 The same law of ease acts by imitation. It is generally most 
 comfortable to follow custom and float with the stream ; hence 
 there is a tendency to uniformity in language as in other things, 
 and imitation of others leads to new customs and new forms which 
 change grammatical structure, and so produce new languages out 
 of the ruins of the old. There arises a disposition to avoid irregu- 
 larities ; and if the time comes when old inflections seem to be 
 irregularities, their office is supplied by prepositions ; for Nature 
 seldom leaves destruction without the power of regeneration, and 
 where a want is felt, new means of supplying it will be found if 
 the old either are or seem incompetent. In the " Nonne Prestes 
 Tale " of Chaucer, we read of the Chauntecleer, that 
 
 "The Sonne," he sayde, " is clomben up on hevene 
 Fourty degrees and oon, and more i-wis ;" 
 
 but the tendency to avoid irregularities has driven clomb and 
 clomben out of use, and has supplied their place with climbed. So, 
 also, holpen has made way for helped. 
 
 In the same way, too, when the Saxon came forth from his 
 hiding places in the woods and marshes and islands, to his old 
 fields once over-run by the Norman, the apparent superfluity of 
 his Anglo-Saxon terminations gradually led to their abandonment. 
 By this same tendency has arisen the reduction, in modern Greek, 
 of many words originally of various declensions to one. But, 
 perhaps, one of the most interesting instances of this tendency to 
 imitate the past and the established, and never to abandon it 
 unless under the pressure of some necessity, is seen in the case of 
 French accentuation. Accent, in French, has four meanings. 
 
17 
 
 There is the tonic accent, or syllabic emphasis ; provincial accent, 
 
 or the intonation peculiar to some province ; oratorical accent, or 
 
 the modulation which emotion gives to words ; and grammatical 
 
 accent, or the signs used in writing words, and serving various 
 
 purposes in orthography. It is in reference to provincial accent 
 
 only that the adage is true : " He who speaks French well has no 
 
 accent." Littrd and Brachet are very emphatic in their assertions 
 
 that French has an accent, and both give the rule for placing it ; 
 
 but this is the tonic accent. The rule is that every masculine 
 
 termination is accented, and every feminine termination puts the 
 
 accent on the penultimate. The same rule is given by Brachet in 
 
 his Etymological Dictionary. That this rule is correct may be 
 
 learned by carefully observing the accent of any one who speaks 
 
 French, or it may be noticed in reading French prose. It is the 
 
 basis of that rhythmic harmony which gives so much pleasure to 
 
 the hearers of finished oratory. Even now, let any one read the 
 
 impassioned perorations of Massillon, say that of his 12th Synodal 
 
 Discourse, on the necessity of prayer, and it will be seen at once 
 
 that much of its power lay in the preservation and arrangement of 
 
 this tonic accent. But when you read French Poetry, you become 
 
 conscious that the rule is no longer observed. I shall quote a 
 
 stanza from the '' Priere du Mathiy' of Benjamin Suite, found on 
 
 page 102 of " Les Laurent icnnesP 
 
 " Sonnez, chant ez, gats carillons, 
 La voix dcs clocka ni'cst si chere ! 
 C'est D'lmanche, tt, tons, nous allons 
 Dire avcc votis notrc priereP 
 
 It will be noticed that the rule referred to would put the tonic 
 accent on the second syllable of Dimanche, while our Canadian 
 poet has put it on the first : 
 
 Cist DimUnchc, St, toUs, noils Ullons. 
 
 Likewise, in the fourth line, the accent is made to fall on the first 
 syllable of avec instead of the second, as the rule demands : 
 
 Dire avSc voUs ndtiS prUre, 
 
 To show how a prose writer would accent that word, I quote from 
 the " Philosophe sous les Toils " of Emile Souvestre, a passage found 
 on page i ^2 : Je naipas besoin de le dire de menager la vie, parce que 
 
18 
 
 In sais que la micnne est avec^ I will not pause to call attention to 
 the French-Canadian Idiom, found in the Parisian garret, avec 
 without a following regimen, but will simply note that when the 
 final word avec is read in prose, the accent falls naturally on the 
 last syllable, and not on the first, as in the verse of poetry just 
 examined. Perhaps the same apparent inconsistency may be bet- 
 ter seen in a couple of quotations from the poems entitled Chanson 
 and Consolons-nous, on pages 85 and 164 of Les Laurcnlicnms. 
 The scansion will reveal a double accent on the same word. The 
 first line of the Chanson reads : 
 
 "^mi, ta. vcilz, jyoUr mS dlstraire," 
 which when scanned, as may be seen by the marks I have used to 
 point out the light and the heavy syllables, puts the ictus on the 
 second syllable of ami. 
 
 In the second stanza of Consolons-notis we have : 
 
 "ig »>i(il/ietlr est Hn ami tSndrS 
 QWOnpeilt binir ; " 
 
 and the scansion shows the ictus on the first syllable of ami, in- 
 stead of the second. 
 
 The same contrast between the accent in poetry and in prose 
 exists from the time of Thibeault, in the 1 3th century, through 
 Charles D'Orleans in the 14th, to Corneille in the i6th, andto 
 Victor Hugo in our own days. Whence arose this diversity ? 
 Ancient poetry, in the nation from whose speech the Romance 
 languages sprang, was largely based upon prosodial quantity, not 
 on tonic accent. But the tonic accent was that which was most 
 heard amongst the people ; and, between it and the distinction of 
 syllables into long and short, there arose a struggle, the result of 
 which could not long be doubtful when men began to inquire into 
 the utility of preserving that which was unusual and apparently 
 unnatural. Utility and tradition clashed, and tradition had to 
 yield. As Littr6 says : " rancieti vers a longues et a breves se irouva 
 sans raison d'etre." Then came the incursions of the barbarians. 
 Next arose new nations, speaking new tongues. When a new 
 poetry sprang up, nothing had occurred to lesson the importance 
 of the caesura, and conservatism preserved it as a fundamental 
 principle in versification. At the place gf the C9@sura, no syllable 
 
19 
 
 ordinarily mute could bear the fundamental accent, which gener- 
 ally fell on the fourth, the sixth and the tenth syllables. But it 
 was soon found that intractable matter, in the shape of words, 
 refused so often to bear the tonic accent, and yet fit in harmoni- 
 ously into the allotted spaces, that a wide poetic license was the 
 consequence, and the tonic accent in its turn had to yield to the 
 exigencies of versification. Hence, when the demands of the 
 cresura were met, that became true which Littre says : " the 
 remainder of the accents are optional, and serve the poet to vary 
 the modulation and conform it to the feeling which inspires him." 
 It will thus be seen that French accentuation proves the law of 
 ease by showing that men continue to imitate the past until sheer 
 necessity drives them to a change. It may not be without interest 
 to know that modern Greek furnishes a case exactly parallel. 
 Geldart, in his work on that language says : *' In modern Greek, 
 quantitative verse no longer exists, and therefore the quantity of 
 syllables has lost the chief significance which it once possessed. 
 That quantity was ever recognized in pronunciation apart from 
 metrical considerations, there is but small evidence to show." As 
 an illustration of the first part of this quotation, I present a poem 
 entitled " Bacchi Laudes," written by Athanasios Christopulos. 
 
 This must be read with the modern Greek pronunciation, 
 which is represented under the lines, and according to the 
 accents. 
 
 'Orav irivu to KpacuKi 
 Otan peenoh toh krasaki 
 '2to ;j;pw(5 fiov ttott/p&ki 
 Stoh khreesoh moo poteeraki 
 Kal 6 vovg fiov i^aXiadt/, 
 Keh o noos moo zalisthee 
 T(5r' apxi((o nai ;\;opevw. 
 Tot arkhizoh keh khorebhoh 
 Kal yeTiiJ kui ;^;wpare£i«, 
 Keh yeloh keh khohratebhoh 
 Kr/ ^(Jt/ ft' evxapiOTEi. 
 Kee zoee ni' ebhkharistee 
 iSre Traiiovv v) ijipovrideg' 
 Tote pah-bhoon ee phrondeethes 
 
 Idre afivvovv 7) Unidec 
 Tote zbheenoon ee elpeethes 
 'idre (pEvyovv oi Kanvoi. 
 Tote pbebhghoon ee kapiiee 
 K?} Kap6id finv }'(i?j/vi(^Ei, 
 Kee kardeea moo ghaleeneezee 
 Kai TO aTfjdog fiov apx'is^t 
 Keh toh steethos moo arkheezee 
 N' avaaaivri , v' avairvy. 
 N' anasehnee, n' anapnee 
 Tia TOP K6a/nov titv fit fi^Xei, 
 Gheeah ton kozmon dhen me melee 
 'Af yvpi^y , onuQ &[Xet, 
 As gheereezee, opohs thelee 
 
20 
 
 To KjxinuKi ftov vii Ci'i. 
 Toh krasaki moo na /oe 
 
 11 KdvuTu va fif/ aThjiy, 
 lie kanata na mee steepscc 
 
 An TO iT?Myi I'li ///) 'A-ehjiij, 
 Ap toh playliee na incc Iccpsce 
 N' iiTrudiii'UfiE nn^i. 
 N' apotlianohme mazee 
 ''Offo V^w Tohrov, ToiiToi) 
 Osoh ekholi tooton, tooton 
 
 Toi' uKhur/iu jiov ttTmvtov, 
 Ton akcnohtohn moo ploolon 
 Viheo nivu kuI ikiihjkj' 
 Kosoh pcenoli kch rooplioh 
 
 *'()?Jl (TKl'jill?^(t TU t,\('>f 
 
 Ola skcebliala ta ekholi 
 Eif mvtva t^lv nfma!xu, 
 Ees kancna dhen prosekhoh 
 K(U mvlviL (5^^' i/i//(/)(7j. 
 Keh kancna dhcn psoephoh.* 
 
 Let any one read that drinking song, as Greek is usually read 
 by English scholars, according to quantity, and he will see how 
 rhyme and rhythm vanish ; but the comparison of that method 
 with the pronunciation and accents of modern Greece, will con- 
 vince him that there, as in France, the easy imitation of the cus- 
 tomary finally prevailed over what seemed artificial and un- 
 necessary. 
 
 IV. The last law which I shall notice is this : Language is 
 moulded by external circumstances. 
 
 ((^). Education, or the want of it, plays a great part in modify- 
 ing speech, and in retarding modifications. When the eye has 
 become accustomed to the written forms of words, the permanence 
 of a correct pronunciation is largely secured. This has fi.xed the 
 High German as the language of Germany since Luther published 
 the Bible in that form. Were the eye trained to look carefully 
 
 * Where Geldart has hesitated to give a translation, it is presumptuous to 
 attempt to supply it; yet, for some clue to the sense of the song given above, 
 and to its rhythm, though not its rhyme, the following may, perhaps, be allowed: 
 
 When I sip the costly vintage 
 From my little golden goblet, 
 And iny brain reels all confused. 
 Then I start at once to dancing. 
 Then I laugh and sport in joking, 
 And my life flies gratefully. 
 Then my cares all quit existence, 
 Then my hopes extinguish troubles, 
 Then my mind's conceits run free, 
 And my heart subsides in quiet. 
 And begins my breast its heaving. 
 Heaving, breathing, peacefully. 
 
 Then, for this round world what care I ? 
 
 Let it wander as it pleases. 
 
 So that wine remains with me. 
 
 Let the jar not cease its flowing. 
 
 From my side, let it not leave me, 
 
 Let VIS die together here. 
 
 This, ah! this, all my possession, 
 
 This, my one exhaustless treasure. 
 
 Sip I, drink I, I alone — 
 
 All the very dregs I cherish. 
 
 Guard them not for any other. 
 
 And all others I despise. 
 
21 
 
 upon printed forms, would the expression, " I should of done it," 
 sometimes heard and sometimes written, ever supplant the proper 
 form, " I should have done it ?" What but the want of a trained 
 eye led English soldiers in India to call Surajah Dowlah, " Sir 
 Roger Dowlcr ?" 
 
 An interesting fact in this connection is the formation of the 
 word Siamboul for Constantinople. The Greeks, when speaking 
 of entering that city, had an expression exactly equivalent to our 
 "going to town," the words *' to town '' being c'k; ryvUuhi; pro- 
 nounced ees iittn liokc. The Turks, judging from sound and not 
 from sight, supposed that (if and r;> were parts of the noun, and 
 so formed the \\ord Stambol or Stamboul. 
 
 (/ . Climate, too, by its influence on muscular action, has 
 affecteu our sounds and speech. Alex, von Humboldt, in his 
 Cosmos, says : " There ever remains a trace of the impression 
 which the natural disposition has received from climate, from the 
 clear azure of the heavens, or from the less serene aspect of a 
 vapour-loaded atmosphere. Such influences have their place 
 among those thousand subtle and evanescent links in the electric 
 chain of thought from whence, as from the perfume of a tender 
 flow ir, language derives its richness and its grace." The Latin, 
 smooth and sonorous in the south, shrank, as it developed into 
 French, and became stiff"er and less musical as it moved north and 
 west. Burgundy, He de France and Normandy lie precisely in 
 the geographical line indicated ; and it is interesting to notice 
 how the Latin amabatn became first ameve in Burgundy, then amoU 
 (pronounced as a French -Canadian would pronounce it, amoue) in 
 He de France, and at last amoue in Normandy. From this, 
 Brachet says : " May we not conclude that words, like plants, are 
 modified by climate, which is one of the factors of language, as 
 mathematicians say .?" 
 
 (f). Personal influence, too, moulds language. Many monu- 
 ments are found in the history of literature to show that no man 
 can arbitrarily impose laws upon the natural development of lan- 
 guage. Ronsard's eff'orts to trim the French according to classic 
 models ended in complete failure. But it has fallen to the lot of 
 individuals so to adapt their labors to the growing tendencies of 
 
22 
 
 their times that they have become leaders in the advance. Of such 
 were Luther in Germany, Chaucer in England, and Ptochoprodro- 
 mus in modern Greek.* 
 
 (d). Political changes are productive of modifications in lan- 
 guage. Court standards of speech ever produce their effect ; for 
 the desire to appear to the best advantage is a human instinct, 
 and will show itself in its efforts to copy what has a reputation for 
 refinement and elevation. When the Norman rules, "calf " and 
 " swine" are unfashionable terms ; and "pork " and " veal" become 
 the accredited substitutes. But woe to the language of the court 
 itself when the citoyen, the canaille^ and the sansculottes bear rule ! 
 The sounds that betray aristocratic lineage must then be hushed ; 
 for the guillotine is near. Then, the tones of Moli^re, still ex- 
 hibited in the rhymes of his comedies, are relegated to the " quel- 
 ques arpeyits de netge " called Canada ; and a new pronunciation 
 reigns in Paris, and rules the world that follows Paris. 
 
 ((f). Commerce, too, contributes its share to the modification 
 of language. The facilities for intercourse which now exist, our 
 railroads, steamships, telegraphs, telephones, &c., must, in time, 
 narrow down the list of necessary languages, so that barbarous 
 and curious old tongues must be left for the archaeologist and the 
 philologist, while a few leading languages will prove, eventually, 
 sufficient for the intercourse of men whose powers " no pent-up 
 Utica contracts." 
 
 Three hundred years ago. Hooker penned this sentence : — 
 " Of Law, there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is 
 the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world ; all things 
 in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her 
 care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power ; both 
 angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though 
 each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, 
 admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." 
 
 Beautiful words and true ! The centuries have but confirmed 
 them ; and the voice of the hills replies to the voice of the depths 
 that, in Law we have a revelation of Him in whose bosom it rests, 
 
 * Geldart, p.82. 
 
23 
 
 and that, by the study of Laws, the jarring diversities of human 
 thought and action are turned to harmony and peace and joy 
 The study of law has revealed the true method by which God has 
 brought from things that do not appear this wonderful universe of 
 usefulness and beauty. Law has revealed the trueorigin of nations 
 and has unfolded the universal methods of the human mind in its 
 attamment of truth and goodness. It unfolds to us the secrets of 
 individual and national prosperity. Every contribution, however 
 small, to our knowledge of its universal empire removes some mis- 
 conception, clears the way for a larger and truer view, and helps to 
 remove the encumbrances of ancient fancies from the pillars of 
 eternal truth. 
 
 Philology, the study of the Laws of Language, if it cannot lead 
 us back to the very beginning of human speech, leaves us not 
 without some rational account of the origin of the diversities of 
 tongues, shows how intimately man is connected with the material 
 world, and, by revealing some causes of his progress or degrada- 
 tion, suggests the moans for his improvement and success Per 
 haps. too. by showing the influence of man on man, the perpetua- 
 tion in one age of the influence of former ages, and the existence 
 of a plan and purpose in the rise and fall of languages, the study 
 of Law in Language may lead to the recognition of a wise and 
 kinaly Power behind the phenomena of growing civilizations and 
 a reverent regard for Him who. by the moulding power of speech 
 trains both Aryan and Semite for the work of raising all humanity 
 nearer and nearer to Himself.