By the same Author. 
 
 Preparing, and will soon be ready, 
 
 A BRIEF GREEK SYNTAX, 
 
 WITH HINTS ON THE ACCIDENCE. 
 
 THE peculiarity of this Syntax, which is intended mainly for the higher 
 classes of Schools, will be a constant reference to the general principles 
 of all language, and an illustration of Greek Idioms by comparing them 
 with those of various other languages.
 
 ON 
 
 LANGUAGE,
 
 Works by the same Author. 
 
 ERIC ; or, Little by Little. A Tale of Roslyn School. Seventh 
 Edition. 
 
 JULIAN HOME. Third Edition, carefully reyised. 
 
 ST. WINIFRED'S ; or, The World of School. Second Edition. 
 
 An ESSAY on the ORIGIN of LANGUAGE, based on 
 Modern Researches. 8vo. 5s. 
 
 ' The uninitiated reader can, at the present time, find no better guide in the 
 English language.' ATHEX.ECM. 
 
 ' Mr. FABRAB has done what no one before him has attempted, and has filled up 
 in a very masterly manner a place that had been too long vacant in the popular 
 literature of science .... His book will be read with pleasure by those to whom 
 the subject is wholly new, and will command the respect of proficients in philology. 
 As a popular introduction to the science it is among the best books in any lan- 
 guage, and is unique in our own.' SPECTATOR.
 
 "N 
 
 CHAPTERS 
 
 ON 
 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 KEV. FKEDERIC W. FARRAE, M.A. 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; 
 
 HON. FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON ; 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'THE ORIGIN OF 
 
 LANGUAGE' ETC. 
 
 Non excogitandum neqne fingendum, sed inveniendum quid Natnra faciat 
 ant ferat. BACON. 
 
 '701 /j.ev ovv iff pi TOVTWV &>s etpov KO! avijvtav ovrias typwfya.' el 
 5e TIS &\\tas ftov\^fffrai $o<ieiv tetpi avruv, a.vfyK\rfrbv ^x^ Ta> T V 
 
 JOSEPHUS, Antt. x. 11, 7. 
 
 LONDON : 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 1865.
 
 LOSDOX 
 
 PBISTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AJfD CO. 
 NEW-STREET SQUAB E
 
 TO 
 
 R. B. LITCHFIELD, ESQ. 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 MANY YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP, 
 
 THESE PAGES 
 ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 WHEN, more than four years ago, I published my book 
 on the * Origin of Language,' it was, I believe, the only 
 book distinctly devoted to that subject which had 
 appeared in England since the end of the last century. 
 Since that time Philology has been daily gaining ground 
 as a study of infinite importance, and I believe that the 
 stimulus it has received has been mainly due to the 
 eloquence and genius of Professor Max Miiller, whose 
 first series of Lectures was published in 1861. The 
 views however which it was the object of my Essay to 
 explain and illustrate, although they were propounded 
 by philologists of the most unquestioned eminence, have 
 found in Professor Miiller a strong opponent, and there- 
 fore have met in England with but few converts and 
 fewer supporters. 
 
 Nevertheless after constant study, and the most 
 candid consideration of the objections urged against 
 them, I believe that those views, in spite of the vehe- 
 ment assaults directed against them, remain absolutely 
 unshaken. Now, if they are true, they furnish to Ety- 
 mologists so simple and luminous a principle whereby
 
 Vlll PEEFACE. 
 
 to guide their researches, and they throw so strong a 
 light on one of the most interesting problems that can be 
 presented for our solution, that it is most desirable that 
 they should not be dismissed unexamined and with a 
 sneer. I have therefore devoted some portion of this 
 book to a careful, detailed, and respectful review of all 
 that has been urged against them, and I have thought 
 it due to the high authority deservedly attributed to 
 Professor Miiller's opinion, to state those objections in 
 his own language. The answer may not be convincing 
 to every one, but at least it will be admitted that the 
 objections have been fairly met. I hope that I have 
 never used a single expression inconsistent with the 
 high respect which is due to the courtesy, learning, and 
 ability of so eminent an opponent. 
 
 The controversial part of the book however only 
 occupies a few chapters, and even in these I have 
 steadily kept in view the object of bringing the theory 
 into clearer and fuller relief, of placing it as far as 
 possible on a scientific basis, of removing the mis- 
 representations which have clustered round it, and of 
 supplying linguistic facts and illustrations which might 
 be valuable to the student without any reference to his 
 particular views. And, besides this, there are whole 
 chapters of the book which have no controversial aspect 
 whatever, and which may, I hope, contain suggestions 
 not wholly unworthy of consideration by scholars of 
 every shade of opinion. 
 
 I should not for a moment venture to speak of my 
 work in these terms if it contained nothing beyond the
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 results of my own thought. But besides my own 
 reasonings and speculations it sets forth the views of 
 those who are incomparably more entitled to a hearing. 
 A glance at almost any page will show that the au- 
 thorities quoted are neither few nor unimportant ; and, 
 as I have carefully avoided an idle parade of learned 
 names, I can assure the reader that there are very few 
 references in the book certainly none of any im- 
 portance which have not been derived immediately 
 from my own reading. And, more than this, I have 
 often fortified my position by the authority of others 
 in cases where the thought was my own, and was ex- 
 pressed in my own language. In one or two places, 
 which are always carefully pointed out, I closely fol- 
 low the reasonings of the late Professor Heyse, whose 
 book (System der Sprachwissenschaft} is one of the 
 wisest and most beautiful treatises on this subject which 
 have ever fallen into my hands. The reader too will 
 find constant allusions to other profound philological 
 writings, which I have always studied with great profit. 
 I have placed at the end of the book a list of the works 
 from which I have derived most advantage, and which 
 have been most constantly in my hands. 
 
 In conclusion I have only to thank those critics who 
 bestowed such indulgent consideration on my previous 
 labours. Their approval, and the still more valuable 
 notice of my work by some very eminent scholars, both 
 English and continental, have encouraged me to pro- 
 cee,d. My present book is solely addressed to serious 
 students. I am indifferent to the view taken of it by
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 the prejudiced and the ignorant; yet as I am solely 
 actuated by a desire for truth, I have tried to eliminate 
 every expression which was likely to cause needless 
 offence. If any such have escaped my notice I trust 
 that they will be attributed to a lively interest in 
 my subject, and that no one will consider them to have 
 been dictated by a presumptuous or unkindly tone of 
 mind. I shall be the first to regret it, if I have ever 
 been misled by the zeal of controversy into any want of 
 amenity or moderation. 
 
 I cannot hope to have escaped errors, and for these 
 I venture to ask an indulgent consideration. These 
 pages have been written, and the proof-sheets corrected, 
 under a pressure of other avocations which has often 
 made me hesitate whether I ought not wholly to aban- 
 don this subject to those who can study it under greater 
 advantages. Any mistakes into which I have fallen are 
 due to this cause, and not either to wilfulness or care- 
 lessness. Whether they are pointed out by friendly 
 or by unfriendly critics, I shall always be ready to 
 acknowledge and to correct them with cheerfulness 
 and candour. 
 
 HARROW: Augtist, 1865.
 
 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 LANGUAGE A HUMAN DISCOVERY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Nothing humanly discoverable has been made a subject of 
 
 revelation . . . . . . ,1 
 
 Language was humanly discoverable . , 3 
 Certainty of its non-revelation ..... 5 
 
 Scripture asserts its discovery by man .... 7-8 
 
 ' God said ' . . .... 8 
 
 Adam, the Name-giver . . . . . .10 
 
 Nature's teaching . . . ' . . . .11 
 
 Slavery to the letter , ' . . . , .12 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE EXPERIMENT OF PSAMMETICHUS. 
 
 The story probably true . . . '*'' . 14 
 
 It confirms inferences from other data . . -' -i : . 14 
 
 (i.) Deserted children would probably evolve a language . 15 
 
 (ii.) Animal-names among the earliest words . . .16 
 
 (iii.) Animal-names naturally Imitative . . .17 
 
 Their value as suggesting the Idea of Language . . .19 
 
 "Wild-children. Their Onomatopoeias . ... .20 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 THE NAMING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 Primitive necessity for Onomatopoeia . . . .22 
 
 Classification of animal-names . 23
 
 Xll SYNOPSIS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The class nnder which they must have originally fallen . . 24 
 
 Australian names for animals . . . . .24 
 
 Chinese Onomatopoeias . . . , . .25 
 
 Animal-names in Sanskrit . . -. . .26 
 
 In Hebrew . . . . . .28 
 
 In Ancient Egyptian . . . . . .29 
 
 Names adopted by Colonists . , ' . . .30 
 
 They are either (1) Borrowed native names .. . .30 
 
 Or (2) Expressive of attributes . . ^ . .30 
 
 Or (3) Misapplications suggested by analogy f . . .31 
 
 Or (4) When invented are invariably Imitative . . .34 
 
 Imitative words invented in modern Argots . . .35 
 
 Why new words must be Imitative . . . .37 
 
 Inferences . . .37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE INFANCY OF HUMANITY. 
 
 Primitive inferiority of Man . . ..- . .; , . 39 
 
 Man created with only the capacity of Speech . . , . 41 
 
 Even if Language were revealed . . . . .41 
 
 A priori objections are valueless . . . . .41 
 
 And presumptuous . . . .... .41 
 
 And contradictory of existing facts . . . * .. .42 
 
 Existing degradation of human races . . ... . 436 
 
 The 'state of nature' not necessarily miserable . . .46 
 
 Fancies versus Facts, respecting the first men . . .47 
 
 The Darwinian hypothesis . . . f .49 
 
 Language furnishes fresh proofs of our position . . . 52-3 
 
 Bizarre complexity and cumbrousness of savage dialects . .53 
 
 Opinion of Mr. Garnett . ... . . .54 
 
 And of Mr. A. Gallatin .. . . . >..' .55 
 
 Inference ..... 55 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT. 
 
 ' Invenisse non instituisse ' . . . . .57 
 
 Admitted fewness of roots . . . . .58 
 
 Very few words necessary for the wants of life '' . .59 
 
 Germs of Speech developed by the Intellect . . . 59-82 
 
 Realisation of the Ego . . . . . .62
 
 SYNOPSIS. Xlll 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Gradual distinctness of Sensuous Impressions . . .63 
 
 Sensations become Perceptions . . . . .64 
 
 Intuitions . . . .'.''.' . . 65 
 
 Kepresentations . . . . ' t .65 
 
 Concepts . . . . . . - .66 
 
 "Words correspond to Representations . . . . 67 
 
 Illustration of the Process . , ... .67 
 
 Recapitulation . . . . .69 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 POSSIBLE MODES OF EXPRESSING THOUGHT. 
 
 Tactile Language . . ._ . . . .71 
 
 Art, a Language addressed to the Eye . . . .72 
 
 Language of Gesture . . . . . . 73-6 
 
 Its advantages and imperfections . . . . .77 
 
 Superiority of Audible Language . . . , . . 79 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 SOUND AS A VEHICLE OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Analogies of Light and Sound . . . . .81 
 
 The Voice ..... , . . 82 
 
 Its penetrative power . . . . . . * .83 
 Machinery by which it is produced .... 84-5 
 
 Elementary Sounds . . y* .86 
 
 Material of Speech . .-'' . . . .87 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INTERJECTIONS. 
 
 Ultimate identity of Interjection and Onomatopoeia "V . 88 
 
 Two classes of Interjections . . . . .89 
 
 Interjections in different languages ,. . .. . 90-1 
 
 Home Tooke's denunciation of them . . . .92 
 
 Interjections are parts of Speech . ' .' . . .93 
 
 The source of many words . ..';.. . 94 
 
 Their value in Etymology . . ; . * . .96 
 
 'Roots' . . . -. . . ' . . . . 96 
 
 Dignity of Interjections . . . . . .98 
 
 The part they play in Literature ., 98-100
 
 XIV SYNOPSIS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Their high linguistic importance . . . . .100 
 
 Originally more numerous . *. , . . .101 
 
 Impressions provoke expressions. Ancient stories . 101-2 
 
 The Idea of Speech . . . . . : . 103 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 LAUTGEBERDEN, OR VOCAL GESTURES. 
 
 The term due to Heyse . . . . . 104 
 
 Expressions of the will ...... 105 
 
 Recapitulation ....... 106 
 
 What is Prof. Max Muller's view? . . . .107 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 .VOCAL IMITATIONS. 
 
 Epicurus ........ 109 
 
 Instinct of Imitation ...... 109 
 
 Onomatopoeias imitate the subjective impression . - . .110 
 
 Story of Phsedrus . . . . '- . . Ill 
 
 Diversity of Imitations for the same Sound . . .112 
 
 Not mere passive echoes . . . . \ , .114 
 
 But ideally modified . ' . . ,, . . .114 
 
 Names for Thunder . . .' . . .115 
 
 Instinctive evolution of Language . . . 116-7 
 
 Myths, indicative of Onomatopoeia . . .117 
 
 / 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FROM IMITATIVE SOUNDS TO INTELLIGENT SPEECH. 
 
 Sounds developed into words . . . . .121 
 
 Connection between Sound and Sense . . . . .121 
 
 Sounds, to become signs, must have been self-explaining . . 122 
 
 The only theory of Language ..... 123 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 ONOMATOPCEIA. 
 
 Matter-words and Form-words 124 
 
 Sounds as the signs of other sounds . . . .126 
 
 Vocal imitation only a stepping-stone for Language .>' . 127 
 
 Sounds became Words ...... 128 
 
 Imitation the starting-point . . . . .128
 
 SYNOPSIS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY ; HOW REFUTED. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First objection. ' Onomatopoeias few in number' . . . 130 
 
 Dictionaries of them . . . " ' . ' . .132 
 
 They become greatly modified in form . . . .132 
 
 Just as alphabetic letters lose their pictorial significance . .134 
 
 The Hebrew Alphabet . . . . . .136 
 
 Closeness of the Analogy ..... 137-8 
 
 New words, not self-explicative, never succeed . . .138 
 
 Second objection. ' Animal-names not Imitative* . .140 
 
 A few such instances would prove nothing . . .141 
 
 But nearly all of those adduced are Imitative . . . 141 
 As may be seen by their cognate forms : 
 
 The word ' Goose ' . . . . . . 143 
 
 The word ' Hen ' . . * . . .144 
 
 The word ' Dove ' . . . . . .145 
 
 The word 'Hog' . . . . . .164 
 
 The word 'Cat' . . . . . .146 
 
 The word 'Dog' ..... 147-9 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FERTILITY OF ONOMATOPOETIC ROOTS. 
 
 Third objection. ' Onomatopoeias are sterile ' . . 152 
 
 The root 'cuckoo' . . . . ... . 152 
 
 The root 'era' ....... 153 
 
 General predicative ' roots ' inconceivable . . . . 154 
 
 Onomatopoeia a luminous principle of Etymology . . .155 
 Immense fertility of Imitative roots .... 156 
 
 Fertility of the primitive sounds ma, ta, da, &c. . . 157-61 
 Onomatopoeias even among the numerals .... 162 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 DIGNITY OF ONOMATOPOEIA. 
 
 Language an echo of Nature ,, ; ... . - t . A ,. . 165 
 
 Fourth objection. ' Onomatopoeias are modern' . .166 
 
 If true, an argument in their favour . ... . 167 
 
 Their function in Poetry . f . . . 9 - , ' t . 168 
 
 Harmonies of Language . . . . ._ . .169
 
 XVI SYNOPSIS. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 SUPPOSED ILLUSORINESS OF THE SEARCH. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The search not ' lawless ' but the reverse . . . .171 
 
 Errors of ' scientific ' Etymologists . . . .174 
 
 Prof. Miiller's instances all fail ..... 174 
 
 The interjections Fie ! &c. . . ', . 174-6 
 
 'Squirrel' . . . . . . , . 176 
 
 Katze' . . . . . . . .176 
 
 ' Thunder ' Onomatopoetic in all languages . . .177 
 
 Examination, and probable history of the word . , 178-82 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 REFLEX IMITATIVE TENDENCY OF LANGUAGE. 
 
 The charge of ' fancifulness ' . . . , . ,.. .183 
 
 Falls to the ground . . . . .. . 184 
 
 Views of St. Augustine . . . . , . .185 
 
 Contain a residuum of truth . . . ., : .186 
 
 Instances . . . . . . ' . 187 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 THE PART PLATED BY THE IMAGINATION. 
 
 ' How are ideas not expressive of sound to be accounted for by 
 
 Onomatopoeia?' . ' . . . . .190 
 
 Illustration of the subject from the Chinese Ideography . .192 
 
 Fancy indispensable . . . . . > 193 
 
 Close analogy to the Progress of Language . . .194 
 
 Verbal roots could not have been the earliest . . . 196 
 
 Feebleness of abstraction among uncivilised races . 199 
 
 ' Ideas of going ' . . . . . . ' . 201 
 
 ' Ideas of standing ' . . . . ... 202 
 
 ' Ideas of tasting ' . . , . . . .202 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 METAPHOR. 
 
 Sound, the exponent of things soundless . . . " . 205 
 
 All impressions subjective . . . . ' . 206 
 
 The Sensorium Commune . . . . . . 207 
 
 Instinctively observed analogies of different senses . . 208 
 
 Light and Sound . . . . . . . 209 
 
 Other senses . . .211
 
 SYNOPSIS. XVli 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Gonders ........ 212 
 
 Catachresis ....... 212 
 
 ' The Pathetic Fallacy ' . ... 214 
 
 Personification .. ., .. . . . .214 
 
 Human relationships attributed to things inanimate . .215 
 
 The Unseen described by analogy . . . . . .216 
 
 Analogies to describe the Soul, &c. . . . 219-21 
 
 Localisation of the passions . ' . . . 221 
 
 Hieroglyphics . . . . .'",. 222 
 
 Colours in metaphor . . . . . . : . . 223 
 
 Metaphor among the Numerals . . . . 223-26 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 METAPHOR IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES. 
 
 Metaphor most abundant at earliest stages . . . 227 
 
 Hebrew vagueness of terms ..... 229 
 
 Hebrew Metaphors . . . . . 230 
 
 Metaphors in Greek Tragedy . . . . . 231 
 
 Metaphor and National Character . . . . .231 
 
 Kafir Metaphors ... . . . .233 
 
 Malay Metaphors . . . ... . 233 
 
 Chinese Homonyms . . . . . . 234 
 
 Metaphors in the Argot ..... 236-7 
 
 Evanescence of conscious Metaphor .... 237 
 
 Universal consequent confusion of Metaphors . . . 239 
 
 Especially in Shakspeare ...... 240 
 
 Metaphor, happily indispensable to Language .* . . 241 
 
 Their illustrative Power . . . . . 242 
 
 Languages without Metaphor . . . 2424 
 
 What the results would be ... . . . 245 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 OTHER LINGUISTIC PROCESSES. 
 
 Recapitulation , , . . . . . . 247 
 
 Struggle for existence among words .... 250 
 
 Different possible characteristics. 'Left'. . . . 251 
 
 Contradictory roots . . . . . .251 
 
 Their explanation ....... 252 
 
 Antiphrasis ....... 253 
 
 Errors about it ....... 254 
 
 Proclus's fifteen methods ...... 255 
 
 Reducible to three or four .... 256
 
 XV111 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXII. 
 
 THE NATURE OF WORDS. 
 
 PAGK 
 Analogists and Anomalists . . . . . 258 
 
 Confusions of the subject . .. . . -, . 258 
 
 Heraclitus ........ 260 
 
 Democritus ....... 261 
 
 Weak arguments on both sides . . . . 262 
 
 Universality of Analogist views . . ... . 263 
 
 The Jews Analogists ...... 264 
 
 Paronomasia ....... 265 
 
 Mystic import of words . . . . . ' . 266 
 
 And names. Biblical Etymologies .... 267 
 
 'Adam' . . . . . . ,. , . 268 
 
 Insulting name-changes . . . ; .271 
 
 Myths about Adam ...... 272 
 
 Import of names among the Greeks . . . 2725 
 
 Among the Eomans . ' . ' . . . . 275 
 
 Among the Moderns . . . . . . 276 
 
 Alterations of names . . . . . . 277 
 
 Euphemism '.-'. . . . . 278 
 
 Its source . . . . . . 278-80 
 
 The primitive granite of Language . . . . 280 
 
 Dangerous hypocorisms of Vice . . . . .281 
 
 The 'fatal force' of words . . . . 283 
 
 CHAPTEK XXIII. 
 THE NATURE OF WORDS continued. 
 
 Sound and sense ....... 286 
 
 The Senses, and the Understanding . . " iT ;- ' . 287 
 
 The three factors of a word ..... 287 
 
 Words express nothing of the nature of things . . . 288 
 
 They teach us nothing about things . . .' . 289 
 
 Which is a knowledge impossible to us . .' . . 290 
 
 And they teach us nothing about our abstract nature .- .291 
 
 A knowledge no less impossible to us . . . . 291 
 
 They merely express relations . . ' . . 292 
 
 And even as the signs of our conceptions they are essentially 
 
 imperfect . . ." . .' . 293 
 
 Instances . . . ...'. . 294 
 
 They are the starting-point of the full-grown Intelligence . 296 
 
 But the goal of its earlier development . . . . ' 295 
 
 Their immense historical, intellectual, and moral importance 296-7 
 
 Conclusion . . . . 298
 
 ERRATA AND ADDENDA. 
 
 Page 42, line 11, for which read whom. 
 
 43. See some examination of the question about races with a deficient language 
 in Mr. E. Burnet Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind 
 (p. 77 sq.), who also has some admirable chapters on gesture language, 
 picture writing, &c. Unfortunately Mr. Tyler's work appeared after 
 my own was in print. I am glad to find in his two chapters on myths 
 abundant confirmations of the arguments which I have used in a 
 paper on ' Traditions real and fictitious' in the Trant. of the Ethnol. 
 Soc. 1865. 
 
 156. The Essay of Buschmann's here referred to will be found translated in 
 the sixth volume of the Philological Society 1 * Transactions (1852-1853). 
 Buschmann shows that even as far back as the Etymol. Magnum these 
 sounds had been noticed, thus : jramros { curb TJ riav iraiSuv rS>v lunptav 
 7rpo<7<a'7J<recos, <us <j>ri<riv *O/XT)pos, irori yovva.ro. irajnrajjbvaii' (H. V.406). 
 oi'OfxaTOiretroirjTat ovv T] Ae'f cs. 
 
 197, line 5. Similarly ' parts of speech ' have little or no existence in the 
 
 gesture-language of deaf mutes. 
 212. Mr. Mayhew has collected some amusing anomalies to which the German 
 
 genders are liable: thus, Der Lbffel, the spoon; die Q-abel, the fork; 
 
 das Messer, the knife: Der Anfang, the beginning; die Mitte, the 
 
 middle ; das Ende, the end ; die Tinte, the ink ; daw Papier, the paper, &c. 
 
 Obviously there is no universal principle at work here, but only the 
 
 play of a bizarre and arbitrary fancy. 
 233. For some specimens of Australian metaphors, see the Transactions of the 
 
 Ethn. Soc. 1865, p. 292. 
 281. In the passage of M. Vambery's travels here alluded to, he says that the 
 
 value of a dress is in Turkestan mainly estimated by the stiffness of 
 
 the sound which it makes. ' The Oriental,' he observes, ' is fond of the 
 
 Tchak-tchwk or rustling tone of the dress.' (Travels, p. 173.)
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LANGUAGE, A HUMAN DISCOVERT. 
 
 Tldvra Qfia. ical avOpiairiva irtivra. Hippokrates. 
 
 GOD, who, in the words of Lactantius, 1 was ' the artificer 
 alike of the intelligence, of the voice, and of the tongue,' 
 gave to man, with those three gifts, the power of con- 
 structing a language for himself. Now we are entitled 
 to conclude from the widest possible observation of 
 God's dealings with the human race, that He never 
 bestows directly what man can obtain for himself by 
 the patient and faithful use of intrusted powers. 
 Science, for instance, by which we mean the sum total 
 of all that has been discovered respecting the laws of 
 nature, has furnished the human race with blessings of 
 inestimable value ; and yet its secrets were never 2 
 revealed by a voice from heaven, and, although within 
 the reach of human industry, were absolutely unknown 
 
 1 'Deus et mentis, et vocis, et linguae artifex.' Lactant. Instt. vi. 21. 
 
 2 ' The Scriptures have never yet revealed a single scientific truth.' 
 Hugh Miller, Testimony of the Rocks, p. 265.
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 
 
 CH. I. 
 
 to the ancient Hebrews. The living oracles intrusted 
 to their charge spoke much of the nature of God, and 
 revealed to the world that which, of himself, man could 
 but dimly and most partially discover or understand 
 his relation to his Creator, the scheme of the divine 
 government, and the means appointed for the purifica- 
 tion and deliverance of the soul. The high majesty and 
 grandeur of this fevelation, its sacred origin and un- 
 speakable importance, must not blind us to the fact that 
 there are other 1 revelations also, which unveil to us in 
 all their marvellous magnificence the works of God, and 
 which yet were never accorded to Psalmist, or Priest, or 
 Prophet, but to those great benefactors of their race 
 who from time to time have been inspired to devote 
 lives of ardent and devout study to the observation of 
 the laws which God has imposed on His created Uni- 
 verse. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the blessings 
 which science, by thus deciphering the divine records 
 of Creation, has conferred upon mankind; yet her 
 lessons have never been whispered by angel or law- 
 giver, but, if we may borrow a poet's simile, they have 
 been unclenched by sheer labour from the granite hand 
 of nature; they have ever been not immediate but 
 mediate ; not revealed to the idle, but discovered by the 
 patient; not direct from God, but granted indirectly 
 through the use of appointed means. Men have 
 attained to them, not by gliding down the lazy stream 
 of dogmatic inference, but by 
 
 Springing from crystal step to crystal step 
 
 1 'Deus natura cognoscendus, dein doctrina recognoscendus/ Ter- 
 tullian. ' Duo sunt quse in cognitionem Dei ducant, Creatio et Scriptural 
 Aug.
 
 CH. i. LANGUAGE, A HUMAX DISCOVERY. 3 
 
 of that bright ascent which leads to the serene heights 
 of knowledge. e And because all those scattered rays of 
 beauty and loveliness which we behold spread up and 
 down all the world over, are only the emanations of 
 that inexhaustible light which is above, they have 
 climbed up always by those sunbeams to the Eternal 
 Father of Light.' Grod never lavishes gratuitously that 
 which man can earn by faithful industry : this is an 
 axiom which may be confidently claimed, a truth which 
 may be broadly asserted, of every discovery which, was 
 possible to the intelligence of man. 
 
 That language is such a discovery that it is possible 
 for man to have arrived at speech from a condition 
 originally mute, merely by using the faculties which 
 God had implanted has been proved repeatedly, and 
 will, we hope, be further illustrated in the following 
 pages. Even those who cling with tenacity to a 
 belief in the revelation of language are compelled to 
 admit the 1 possibility of its invention. How, indeed, 
 can this be denied when it has been a matter of con- 
 stant observation that deaf and dumb children, before 
 they have been taught, can and do elaborate for them- 
 selves an intelligible language of natural and conven- 
 tional signs ? If, then, the invention of a voiceless 
 language, addressed to the eye instead of the ear, a 
 language so much more cumbrous and difficult than 
 articulate speech, and one in which the learner can 
 receive little or no assistance from the multitudinous 
 echoes of external nature, be thus easily within the 
 range of human capabilities so unusually limited, we 
 must conclude that a spoken language of which man 
 
 1 Chastel, De la Raison, pp. 283, 295. Dug. Stewart, Phil, of the 
 Mind, iii. 1. Comp. Home Tooke, Divers, of Purley, i. 2. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 OX LANGUAGE. CH. i. 
 
 must at once have perceived the analogon among the 
 living creatures with which he was surrounded, and 
 which required for its ample commencement no achieve- 
 ment more difficult than the acceptance of sounds as the 
 signs either of sounds or of the things which the sounds 
 naturally recall, was one which man, by the aid of the 
 divine instincts within him, would spontaneously and 
 easily invent, with nature as his beneficent instructress, 
 and all the world before him as the school wherein to 
 learn. We may therefore conclude, as Dante l did five 
 centuries ago, 
 
 That man speaks 
 
 Is Nature's prompting, whether thus or thus 
 She leaves to you as ye do most affect it; 
 
 ' Entia non sunt multiplicanda prseter necessitatem,' 
 said William of Occam ; ' frustra fit per plura quod fieri 
 potest per pauciora.' It is astonishing how much spu- 
 rious philosophy a,nd spurious theology is cut away by 
 this razor of the Nominalists. Those theologians who, 
 by the liberal intrusion of unrecorded and purely 
 imaginary miracles into every lacuna of their air-built 
 theories, do their best to render science impossible, 
 have earned thereby the merited suspicion of scientific 
 men. Nevertheless, all but the most obstinate and the 
 most prejudiced even of theologians ought to admit that 
 if man could have invented language, we may safely 
 conclude that he 2 did; for the wasteful prodigality of 
 direct interposition and miraculous power which plays 
 the chief part in the idle and anti-scriptural exegesis of 
 many churchmen finds no place in the divine economy 
 of God's dealings displayed to us either in nature, in 
 
 1 Carey's Dante, Parad. xxvi. 128. 
 
 2 Zobel, Urspr. d. Sprache, ad f.
 
 CH. i. LANGUAGE, A HUMAN DISCOVERY. 5 
 
 history, or in the inspired Word itself. This single 
 consideration ought to be sufficient for any mind philo- 
 sophically trained ; but as too many engines cannot be 
 employed against the invincible bastions of prejudice, 
 let us proceed to further and yet more conclusive argu- 
 ments. I have stated elsewhere l the positive reasons 
 which are adequate to disprove the revelation of language. 
 The whole character of human speech, its indirect and 
 imperfect methods, its distant metaphoric approxima- 
 tions, its traceable growth and decay, the recorded 
 stages of historic development and decadence through 
 which it passes, and the psychological and phonetic 
 laws which rule these organic changes, furnish us at 
 once with a decisive criterion of its human origin. An 
 invention which, in spite of all its power and beauty, 
 is essentially imperfect, could not have come direct from 
 God. The single fact that the spiritual and abstract 
 signification of roots is never the original one, but 
 always arises from some incomplete and often wholly 
 erroneous application or metaphor, is of itself adequate 
 to confirm an a priori probability. The vast multitude 9 
 of human languages certainly not fewer than 750 in 
 number differing from each other in words, in struc- 
 ture, and in sound, points inevitably, as we shall see 
 hereafter to the same conclusion. 
 
 Speech, moreover, is the correlative of the under- 
 standing. 3 It can express nothing which has not been 
 
 1 Origin of Lang., pp. 23-29. 
 
 2 The number is very uncertain. Pott reckons about a thousand, 
 Die Unglfichheit d. Menschl. Rassen. 230-244. Adrian Balbi reckons 
 860, Atlas Ethnogr. Dissert. Prelim, bcxv. sqq. Crawfurd, Ethnol. 
 Trans, i. 335, 1863. 
 
 s Heyse, Syst. d. Sprachwissenschaft, p. 51. We do not deny to 
 language a certain maieutic power which enables us to bring our con-
 
 6 ON LANGUAGE. CH. i. 
 
 developed by intelligence and thought. It can have 
 no existence independent of, or separate from our con- 
 ception of things. It may be unable to keep pace ivith 
 the advancing power of abstraction, but it never can by 
 any possibility anticipate or outstrip it. A language 
 without corresponding conceptions would be a babble of 
 unintelligible sounds ; ' for words,' says l Bacon, ' are 
 but the image of matter ; and, except they have life 
 of reason and invention, to fall in love with them is all 
 one as to fall in love with a picture.' If then a 
 language were dictated, or in any other manner 
 directly revealed to the earliest men, the comprehen- 
 sion 2 of ideas must necessarily have been inspired with 
 the signs which expressed them ; in other words, the full- 
 grown understanding must have been created together 
 with the language, since the only difference between 
 the imitative vocal faculty of children and some animals 
 consists in the fact that with animals the sound in most 
 instances remains a sound, while the understanding of 
 man teaches him the conceptions pari passu with the 
 sounds, so that the sounds become signs. But to assert 
 in this sense the creation of the human understanding, is, 
 after the manner of certain ignorant divines, to force upon 
 us as an article of faith, that which is nothing more than 
 
 ceptions into clearer light, by reducing them into shape, and by enabling 
 us to reason respecting them ; but when Hainan n calls speech the ' Dei- 
 para unserer Vernunft,' it is easy to see that the expression can with at 
 least equal truth be reversed. 
 
 1 Advancement of Learning, p. 100 ; compare the dictum of the Buddhist 
 philosopher : ' Le nom et la forme ont pour cause 1'intelligence ; et 1'in- 
 telligence a pour cause le nom et la forme.' Burnouf, Le Lotus de la 
 bonne Foi, p. 550. ' Wie der Mensch eine Einheit von Geist und Leib, 
 so ist das "Wort die Einheit von Begriff und Laut.' Becker, Organism 
 d. Sprache, 1, 2, 4. Hermann, Das Problem d. Sprache, p. 1. 
 
 * Maine de Biran, Orig. de Lang. (Euvres ined. iii. 239.
 
 CH. I. LANGUAGE, A HUMAN DISCOVERY. 7 
 
 an arbitrary l and anti-philosophic hypothesis. For to 
 suppose the creation of a full-grown understanding 
 contradicts the very nature of the understanding as 
 'the 2 faculty of relations or comparisons.' An under- 
 standing can no more exist without having passed 
 through the very processes which constitute its activity, 
 than a tree can show its thousand layers of wood with- 
 out having passed through as many seasons of growth 
 and change. The impulse to self-development, and the 
 capacity for it, are indeed innate in the higher races of 
 man; but to assert that the results 3 of this impulse 
 were revealed, is to contradict both History and the 
 order of nature. For nothing is more certain, even 
 as an historical fact, than that man did not come into 
 the world with his abstract ideas ready made ; nothing 
 is more certain than that the growth of abstract ideas 
 can be distinctly traced, and that, to be primitive, a 
 word 4 must express some material image. 
 
 For all reasoners, except that portion of the clergy who 
 in all ages have been found among the bitterest enemies 5 
 of scientific discovery, these considerations have been 
 conclusive. But, strange to say, here, as in so many 
 other instances, this self-styled orthodoxy, more ortho- 
 dox than the Bible itself, directly contradicts the very 
 Scriptures which it professes to explain, and, by sheer 
 
 1 Maine de Biran, ubi supr. p. 233. 
 
 8 Sir W. Hamilton, Discussions, p. 4, note, 
 
 1 Heyse, 1. c. 
 
 * Benloew, Sur T Origine des Noms de fHombre, pp. ix. 7. 
 
 * Witness the lives of Vigilius, of Giordano Bruno, of Vanini, of 
 Galileo, of Kepler, of Descartes, of La Peyrere, of Dr. Morton, of the 
 early geologists, and of hundreds more. There is hardly a single nascent 
 science against which theological dogmatism has not injuriously paraded 
 its menacing array of misinterpreted or inapplicable texts.
 
 8 OX LANGUAGE. CH. i. 
 
 misinterpretation, succeeds in producing a needless and 
 deplorable collision between the statements of Scripture 
 and those other mighty and certain truths which have 
 been revealed to Science and to Humanity as their glory 
 and reward. On the human origin of language, the 
 voice of the Bible coincides perfectly with the voice of 
 reason and of science. In the passage which deals 
 directly with the origin of language, the Bible implies, 
 as distinctly as it is possible to imply, that language * 
 resulted from the working of human faculties, and was 
 not a direct gift from God to man. 
 
 We shall consider the chief passage in Genesis im- 
 mediately : but before doing so it is necessary to clear 
 away a preliminary misconception. We find repeatedly, 
 in the earlier chapters of the Bible, the expression 
 6 God said ; ' and as this is used before the mention of 
 Adam's gift of speech, it is at once inferred that lan- 
 guage was revealed. Surely, such a method of inter- 
 pretation, stupidly and slavishly literal, and wholly 
 incapable of rising above the simplest anthropomor- 
 phism, shows that that vail which was upon the hearts 
 of men when Moses was read in their synagogues some 
 1800 years ago, is by no means as yet removed ! 
 Luther, far more advanced, and far more liberal than 
 many modern theologians, could enforce the explana- 
 tion that ( God said ' had nothing to do with the voice or 
 articulations of human language ; Bishop Patrick could 
 write * wherever in the history of the creation these 
 
 1 Any one who wishes to support by authorities the Revelation of 
 language has on his side Mohammed and some of the Rabbis ! See 
 Kircher, Tur. Bab. iii. 4, p. 147. Michaeler, De Orig. Ling. Vien. 1738. 
 Everything that can be said on the question is to be found in M. de 
 Bonald, Ladevi-Roche, and Siissmilch, Versuch eines Beweises dass die 
 erste Sprache ihren Ur sprung vom Schopfer erhalten habe. Berl. 1766.
 
 CH. i. LANGUAGE, A HUMAN DISCOVERY. 9 
 
 words are used, God said, it must be understood to 
 mean ' He l willed ; ' nay, more, St. Gregory of Nyssa 
 could vigorously and eloquently denounce the hypo- 
 thesis of a revealed language as 2 ' Jewish nonsense and 
 folly' (fikvapia Kai fiaTcuoTrjs 'Iov8aiKT)\ and St. Augus- 
 tine could unhesitatingly write " Vidit (ratio) impo- 
 nenda esse rebus vocabula, id est significantes quosdam 
 sonos:' yet some modern writers, essentially aggres- 
 sive and essentially retrogressive, doctors of that school 
 which learns nothing, and forgets nothing, and whom 
 eighteen centuries have only pushed back behind the 
 earliest Fathers in tolerance and liberality, can only 
 see in the certainty of a language discovered by man- 
 kind * a materialist, 3 and deistic hypothesis ! ' Before 
 being guilty of an inference so groundless as the sup- 
 posed revelation of language from the obiter dictum of 
 an 'auctoris aliud agent is' an inference which contra- 
 dicts the express assertion of the Jehovist when he is 
 treating directly of the subject might they not have 
 observed that the same expression is used by the Elohist 
 of God's laws respecting animals ? ' And God blessed 
 them (i. e. great whales, and every winged fowl, &c.), 
 
 1 As indeed it is rendered in the Arabic version. 
 
 2 Contra Eunomium Or. xii., Aug. de Ordine, ii. 12. Cf. St. Basil, 
 Orat. ii., and Severianus, De Micndi Great. (Bibl. Patr. xii. 119). 
 
 3 M. Ladevi-Roche, who in his treatise, De F Origine du Langage (p. 7, 
 1860, Bordeaux), undertakes to resuscitate the moribund reasonings of 
 M. de Bonald. Such arguments in this day are an anachronism, and they 
 are not worth the trouble of refuting. There is nothing of the slightest 
 value in his little treatise, and Science can afford to despise the declama- 
 tory anathemas hurled by the most ignorant of men at all her votaries, 
 from Thales and Anaxagoras down to Darwin and LyelL ' Cette opinion 
 semblait abandonee, quand elle a ete relevee de nos jours parune ecole 
 d'un zele fougueux et plus orthodoxe que la Bible, et qui semble avoir pris 
 a taehe de realiser le fameux Credo quid absurdum.' Baudry, De la 
 Science du Langage, p. 32.
 
 10 OX LANGUAGE. CH. i. 
 
 saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters 
 in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth ' (Gen. 
 i. 22). Are we then to infer from this that G-od also 
 revealed a language to animals, 1 and invented a dialect 
 for birds and whales, or rather are we to open our pur- 
 blind eyes to the fact that the letter killeth, and the 
 spirit giveth life? 
 
 But, as I have said already, the assertors of revealed 
 language distinctly contradict the very book to which, 
 in their desire to usurp the keys of all knowledge, they 
 groundlessly appeal as a scientific authority. For what 
 does the Jehovist say ? ' And out of the ground the 
 Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every 
 fowl of the air ; and brought them unto Adam to see 2 
 what he would call them : and whatsoever Adam called 
 every living creature, that was the name thereof. And 
 
 1 Cf. Steinthal Gesch. de Sprachwissenchaft, 15. Charma, Ess. sur 
 le Langage, p. 247. 
 
 * niN"1p=to try. In the Arabic version it is wrongly rendered 'to 
 teach,' 'ut ostenderet ei quod vocaret.' Walton's Polyglot. On the 
 other hand the Chaldee version renders ' man became a living animal,' 
 
 (*>VI B'SaS ) by 'a speaking spirit' (K^0 PP"^ 3 )- If these versions 
 were correct, it is obvious that the texts would contradict each other as 
 much as they do in M. Ladevi-Eoche's inference from Gen. ii. 19. ' Ce 
 que signifie "quo 1'homme avait ete cree pensant et parlant ' (p. 9). One 
 of the rabbis explains ' that was the name thereof,' to mean its name in 
 the thought of God before Adam uttered it. Hamann, Herder's friend, 
 approves this explanation, and illustrates it by ' the Word was God.' 
 John i. 1. For a mass of idle learning (?) on the subject of Adam's 
 ovofj.o6fffta, see Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 335 ; Jos. Antt. 1, 2 ; Fabricius, 
 Cod. Pseudep. v. 6 ; Buddseus, Hist. V. T. i. 93; Heidegger, Hist. Pair. 
 i. 148; Witsius, 3, 162; Carpzov. Ararat. Crit. p. 113; Otho, Lex. 
 Bab. s. v. Adam ; Hottinger, Hist. Or. 22, &c. After diligent examina- 
 tion of these passages, and many more on the same topic, I may safely 
 say that more really valuable exegesis may be found in a sentence or 
 two of Steinthal, Urspr. d. Spracht. p. 23 ; Gesch. d. Sprachwissensch. 
 p. 12, 15.
 
 CH. i. LANGUAGE, A HUMAN DISCOVERY. 11 
 
 Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the 
 air, and to every beast of the field'' (Gren. ii. 19,20). 
 When we remember the invariable tendency of the 
 Semitic intellect to overlook in every instance all secon- 
 dary causes, and to attribute every result directly to the 
 agency of superior beings, it is clear that by no possi- 
 bility could the writer have given more unmistakeable 
 expression to his view that language was the product of 
 the human intelligence, and had no origin more divine 
 than that which is divine in man. 
 
 Nature with its infinity of sweet and varied sounds 
 was ringing in the ears of primal man. * Heavens ! J 
 exclaims Herder, 'what a schoolroom of ideas and 
 of speech ! Bring no Mercury or Apollo as a Deus ex 
 machina from the clouds to earth. The whole many- 
 sounding godlike nature is man's language-teacher and 
 Muse. She leads all her creatures before him; each 
 carries its name upon its tongue, and declares itself 
 vassal and servant to this veiled yet visible god ! It 
 delivers to him its markword into the book of his 
 sovereignty, like a tribute, in order that he may by this 
 name remember it, and in the future use and call it. 
 I ask whether this truth, viz., that the understanding, 
 whereby man is lord of nature, was the source of a 
 living speech which he drew for himself from the sounds 
 of creatures, as tokens whereby to distinguish them, 
 I ask whether this dry truth could in Oriental fashion 
 be more nobly or beautifully expressed than by saying 
 that God led the animals to him to see what he would 
 name them, and the name that he would give them, 
 that should be the name thereof? How, in Oriental 
 poetic fashion, can it be more distinctly stated that man 
 discovered speech for himself out of the tones of living
 
 12 OX LANGUAGE. CH. i. 
 
 Nature, as a sign of his ruling intelligence ? and that 
 is the point which I am proving.' l 
 
 There are other meanings of the passage in Genesis, 
 full of profundity and moral value. This is not the 
 place to dwell upon them, although they have almost 
 universally been overlooked ; but what we may at once 
 conclude from the passage is this that in this case, 
 as in so many others, those who oppose science and try 
 to sweep back with their petty human schemes of in- 
 terpretation its mighty advancing tide, are usually as 
 much at variance with the true meaning of Scripture, 
 as they are in direct antagonism to reason and truth. 
 * The expressions of Moses,' says one 2 whose orthodoxy 
 none will call in question the late Archbishop Sumner 
 in his ' Records of Creation ' < are evidently adapted 
 to the first and familiar notions derived from the sen- 
 sible appearances of the earth and heavens; and the 
 absurdity of supposing that the literal interpretation 
 of terms in Scripture ought to interfere with the 
 advancement of philosophical inquiry would have 
 been as generally forgotten as renounced, if the op- 
 pressors of Galileo had not found a place in history.' 
 
 1 Abhandlung iiber den Urspr. d. Sprache. p. 77. This is one of the 
 most eloquent and delightful essays ever written. That Herder should 
 have lived to retract it, and retrograde into the orthodox mysticism of 
 Hamann is truly astonishing. He gave up his own invincible argu- 
 ments to acquiesce in an opinion which had been contemptuously re- 
 jected by Plato two thousand years before him, and which had even been 
 refuted by a Father of the Church Gregory of Nyssa when it had 
 been supported by Eunomius, the Arian Bishop of Cyzicus. 
 
 2 Abp. Sumner, Records of Creation, i. 270.
 
 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EXPERIMENT OF PSAMMETICHUS. 
 
 Keu (ffiotni TO. ircuSfa afupSrfpa trpoffiriinovTa BEKO2 ty&vfov. 
 
 Herod, ii. 2. 
 
 LET us try for a moment to pass back in imagination to 
 the dawn of humanity. Let us try to conceive not as 
 an idle exercise of the fancy, but in accordance with 
 inductive observations and psychological facts the 
 processes by which the earliest human beings were led 
 to invent designations for the immense and varied non- 
 ego of the universe around them. 
 
 The analogy between the childhood of our race and 
 the childhood of every human being has been instinc- 
 tively observed, and has been used for the purpose of 
 linguistic experiments. Whether Frederic II. (of Ger- 
 many) or James IV. (of Scotland) l ever shut up children 
 in an island or elsewhere, with no attendants, or only 
 such as were dumb, may not be certain; but after 
 due deliberation, I strongly incline to accept as a fact 
 the famous story which Herodotus received from the 
 Egyptian priests, that a similar attempt to discover the 
 original language was made by Psammetichus, king 
 
 1 See Origin of Lang. p. 9 and p. 14, where I have given some reasons 
 for not rejecting the story about Psammetichus, as is done by Sir G. 
 Wilkinson (Rawlinson's Herod, i. 251) on very insufficient grounds.
 
 ]4 ON LANGUAGE. CH. n. 
 
 of Egypt. I am not aware that a single valid argument 
 has been adduced against its authenticity. Not only does 
 the story carry with it, in its delicious naivete, the air 
 of truth, but also it is quite certain that a nation, so 
 intoxicated with vanity on the subject of their tran- 
 scendent age as the Egyptians were, would never have 
 invented a story which unjustly conceded to the Phry- 
 gians a precedence in antiquity. Accepting the story, 
 therefore, we disagree from Professor Max Miiller 1 in 
 despising all such experiments, and, on the contrary, 
 regard this fragment of practical philology as one of 
 extreme value, and all the more valuable because, as 
 he justly observes, all such experiments would now be 
 * impossible, illegal, and unnatural.' For the story, 
 if it be true, establishes three most important conclu- 
 sions, which are in themselves highly probable viz., 
 1* That children would learn for themselves to exercise 
 the faculty of speech ; 2. That the first things which 
 the young Egyptian children named were animals ; and 
 3. That they named the goats, the only animals with 
 which they were familiar, by an onomatopoeia ; for 
 that Bekos, the word uttered by the children, is simply 
 an imitation of the bleating of goats 2 is evident. It is 
 
 1 Lectures, First Series, p. 333. He is so far right that the experiment 
 would be inconclusive ; but why? because to make it valuable we should 
 require an indefinite number of children and an indefinite length of time. 
 But our assertion of the human origin and gradual discovery of language 
 rests on quite other grounds. 
 
 2 'Bekos' is (if we regard os as a mere Greek termination added by 
 Herodotus) the exact and natural onomatopoeia for the bleat of a goat, 
 as has been noticed by English children ; and it is in fact so used in the 
 chorus of more than one popular song, and in the French becqueter. The 
 fact that no suspicion of suck an explanation of the sound occurred to 
 Psammetichus, or any of those who heard the story, is an additional con- 
 firmation of its truth. It is strange that no Greek was ingenious enough
 
 CH. ii. THE EXPEKIMEXT OF PSAMMETICHUS. 15 
 
 to us a strong internal evidence of the truthfulness of 
 the story that it furnishes us with conclusions so exactly 
 in accordance with those at which we arrive from a 
 number of quite different data. The radii of inference 
 from many other sources all converge to the common 
 centre of a similar hypothesis. And be it observed that 
 the facts, so far from being invented in confirmation of 
 any such hypothesis, were interpreted by the Egyptian 
 philosophers in a totally different, and indeed in a most 
 ludicrous manner. The confirmation ought to remain 
 unsuspected, because it is wholly unintentional. 
 
 (i.) As regards the first of these conclusions that 
 children left to themselves would evolve the rudiments 
 of a language Max Miiller says that it ' shows a want 
 of appreciation of the bearings of the problem, if philo- 
 sophers appeal to the fact that children are born without 
 language, and gradually emerge from mutism to a full 
 command of articulate speech. We want no explanation 
 how birds learn to fly, created as they are with organs 
 adapted to that purpose.' The illustration appears to 
 be unfortunate in many respects, and wholly beside the 
 mark. Every bird flies at once and instinctively when 
 its organs are full-grown the action is as instinctive to 
 them as sucking is to every infant mammalian ; but the 
 exercise of speech is an action infinitely complex, and 
 innumerable accidents have proved that a single child 
 growing up in savage loneliness would have no articu- 
 late language. But is it by any means certain that this 
 would be the case with a colony of infants, isolated and 
 kept alive by some casualty which prevented them from 
 
 to hit on this explanation, although they had the onomatopoeias V?, 
 fi-flffcrw, 7jxia, &c. Compare the French name for a goat bouc, Germ. 
 boc, Ital. becco, &c.
 
 16 OX LANGUAGE. CH. n. 
 
 learning any existing dialect ? The question cannot be 
 answered with certainty, though it seems probable that 
 as our knowledge advances we may be able to affirm 
 that such must and would be the case. It is a well- 
 known fact that the neglected children in some of the 
 Canadian and Indian villages, 1 who are often left alone 
 for days, can and do invent for themselves a sort of 
 lingua franca, partially or wholly unintelligible to all 
 except themselves. And if it be objected to this illus- 
 tration that these children have already heard articulate 
 speech, which, on the theory of a human invention of 
 language, would not have been the case with the earliest 
 men, we again appeal to the acknowledged fact that 
 deaf-mutes have an instinctive power to develope for 
 themselves a language of signs a power which con- 
 tinues in them until they have been taught some artifi- 
 ficial system, and which then only ceases because it is 
 useful no longer ;- just as in the animal kingdom an 
 organ decays, and becomes rudimentary when its exer- 
 cise ceases to be of any importance to the possessor. 
 
 (ii.) Our second observation from the story of Herodo- 
 tus was that the first things which the children named 
 were animals ; and this too is precisely in accordance 
 with every-day facts. Even a young infant learns very 
 soon to distinguish practically between the animate and 
 the inanimate creation ; and few things excite its asto- 
 nishment and pleasure more than the various animals 
 around it. Careful observation of the progress of children 
 in the power of using speech will soon convince any one 
 that they learn to name the dog, the cow, the sheep, 
 and the horse among their earliest words, and indeed 
 
 1 Mr. R. Moffat testifies to a similar phenomenon in the villages of 
 S. Africa, Mission. Travels.
 
 CH. it. THE EXPERIMENT OF PSAMMETICHUS. 17 
 
 soon after they have learnt to attach significance to 
 those natural sounds by which all nations express the 
 relationships of father l and mother. Thus, in repre- 
 senting the animals as the first existing things which 
 received their names from the earliest man, the Jehovist 
 of the Book of Genesis wrote with a profound insight 
 into the nature of language and the germs out of which 
 it is instinctively developed. 
 
 (iii.) But, thirdly, from the fact that the only sound 
 used by the Egyptian children was an imitation of the 
 sounds made by the only living things with which they 
 were familiar, we saw another indication of the fact 
 that onomatoposia (which is only a form of the many 
 imitative 2 tendencies which characterize the highest 
 
 o 
 
 animals) is the most natural and fruitful source out of 
 which the faculty of speech was instinctively evolved ; 
 the first stepping-stone in the stream which separates 
 sound from sense, matter from intelligence, thought 
 from speech ; the keystone of that mighty bridge which 
 divides the Svvajus from the epyov, the faculty from the 
 fact. In this point also our inference i& curiously con- 
 firmed by a variety of observed phenomena. 
 
 What, for instance, are the names by which, in the 
 present day, children first learn to distinguish animals ? 
 Are they not invariably onomatopoetic ? 3 Is any one 
 acquainted with any child, ordinarily trained, which 
 first learned to call a dog, a cow, or a sheep by their 
 names, without having learnt, by means of the nursery 
 
 1 See Buschman, Ueber d. Naturlaut. 
 
 2 The cause of this particular development of the imitative instinct 
 will be explained hereafter. 
 
 1 A horse does not frequently neigh ; and this is probably the reason 
 that in so many dialects the childish onomatopoeia for it is derived, not 
 
 C
 
 18 ON LANGUAGE. CH. n. 
 
 onomatopoeias, that a sound may stand for a thing ? 
 This is the most difficult lesson of all language ; and 
 when, by the use of a few words, the child has once 
 learnt it, when it has once succeeded in catching this 
 elementary conception, the rest follows with astonishing 
 rapidity. Hence, very few onomatopoeias, and these 
 borrowed from the commonest and simplest objects, are 
 sufficient for the purpose. What the child has to learn 
 is, that a modification of the ambient medium by a 
 motion of the tongue can be accepted as a representation 
 of the objects which are mirrored upon his retina in 
 other words, that the objects of sight may be recalled 
 and identified by articulated sounds. But how is he to 
 learn this marvellous lesson ? Only by observing in- 
 stinctively that since certain things give forth certain 
 sounds, the repetition of the sound, by an inevitable 
 working of the law of association, recalls the object 
 which emits it. Nor is it the slightest objection to this 
 to say that the child does not learn the onomatopoeia 
 for itself, but learns it from its nurse. Supposing that 
 
 from the sound it makes, but from the sounds (Lautgeberden) addressed 
 to it, e. g. in English gee-gee ; in parts of Germany, on the other hand, 
 hotte-p'drd ; in Finland humma, &c. See Wedgwood, Etym. Diet. s. v. 
 Hobby, ii. 246. (That horse is itself an onomatopoeia seems probable 
 from the cognate form hross, Germ. Boss.) The fact, then, that a young 
 child names a horse from the sounds used in urging horses on, only 
 shows how widely various are the points which may suggest the onoma- 
 topoetic designation. Similarly in Spain a mule-driver is called arriero 
 from his cry arri, and in the French argot an omnibus is aie aie. The 
 whole observation illustrates the active, living power of speech, which is 
 no mere dead matter that can be handed over from father to son. See 
 Heyse, Syst. d. Sprachwissenschaft, 47. Even a watch is to a child in- 
 variably a tick-tick, and the very same onomatopoeia is used in the Lingua 
 Franca of Vancouver's island, and in which we also find 'hehe,' ' liplip,' 
 'tarn-water/ &c. for ' laugh,' 'boil,' ' cataract,' &c.
 
 CH. ii. THE EXPERIMENT OP PSAMMETICHUS. 19 
 
 we grant this, what does it prove? Simply the fact 
 that every nurse and every mother is guided by the 
 swift, beautiful, and unerring beneficence of instinct to 
 follow the very same process which the great mother, 
 Nature, adopted when man was her infant child ; or let 
 us say, in language more reverent, and not less true, 
 that such a process is in instinctive unconscious accord- 
 dance with the great method of the Creator. For the 
 whole idea of language, the conception that those 
 impressions which the brain mainly receives through 
 the sense of sight may be combined and expressed by 
 means of the sense of hearing, influenced through the 
 organs of sound, the discovery, in fact, of a common 
 principle, by virtue of which unity and coherence may 
 be given to every external impression, all lies in the 
 discovery, by a child, that a rude ideal imitation of the 
 bark of a dog may serve as a sign or mark for the dog 
 itself. Hence, although Professor Max Miiller's desig- 
 nation of the onomatopoetic theory of language as the 
 ' bow-wow theory,' J was accepted by all flippant minds 
 as a piece of crushing and convincing wit, it is really 
 nothing but an undignified way of expressing that which 
 is, as we shall see by his own admission, a great 
 linguistic probability, and which at any rate deserves 
 respectful consideration because it has been deliberately 
 accepted by some of the greatest thinkers and the 
 greatest philologists of the century. 
 
 Plutarch tells us the commonly-accepted Egyptian 
 legend that Thoth was the first inventor of language ; 
 
 1 We are glad to find an expression of half-regret for this unfortunate 
 term in later editions of Prof. Muller's lectures ; to abandon it finally 
 would be but a graceful concession to the many eminent men who have 
 held the view. 
 
 C 2
 
 20 ON LANGUAGE. CH. n. 
 
 and he adds the curious tradition that, previous to his 
 time, men had no other mode of expression than the 
 cries of animals. That such may well have been the 
 case is illustrated by the fact that it has been found 
 to be so among wild children lost in the woods and there 
 caught long afterwards. Thus we are told of Clemens, 
 one of the wild boys received in -the asylum at Over- 
 dyke (an asylum rendered necessary by the number of 
 children left destitute and uncared for in Germany after 
 Napoleon's desolating wars), that 'his knowledge of 
 birds and their habits was extraordinary,' and that * to 
 every bird he had given a distinctive and often very 
 appropriate name of his own, which they appeared to 
 recognise as he whistled after them ; ' l a sentence which 
 can only mean that his onomatopoeias were of the most 
 objective or simply-imitative kind. Here, then, in his- 
 torical times, is a surprising, unquestionable, and most 
 unexpected confirmation of the inferences which we felt 
 ourselves entitled to draw from the story of Psammeti- 
 chus. Without dwelling on the arguments adduced in a 
 previous 2 work, or attaching too much importance to 
 the fact that the aborigines of Malacca f lisp their words, 
 the sound of which is like the noise of birds,' or that the 
 vocabulary of the Yamparicos is f like the growling of a 
 dog, eked out by a copious vocabulary of signs,' we may 
 find a very strong indication of the reasonableness of 
 
 1 See an interesting paper on Wild Men and Beast Children, by Mr. 
 E. Burnet Tylor, Anthropol. Eev. i. p. 22 ; and Ladevi-Roche, De F Orig. 
 du Lang. p. 55. H t. Hist, d'une jeune Fille sauvage, Paris, 1775. 
 Tulpius, Obs. Med. p. 298. Camerarius, Hor. Subsec. Cent. 1. Francf. 1602. 
 Diet, des Merveilles de la Nature, v. Sauvage. Virey, Hist, du Genre 
 Hum. i. 88 and ad f. &c. 
 
 2 Origin of Lang. p. 75 seqq.
 
 CH. ii. THE EXPERIMENT OF PSAMMETICHUS. 21 
 
 our belief in the certainty that the more savage (i. e. the 
 more natural and primitive) any language is, the more 
 invariably does it abound in onomatopoeias, and the 
 more certain we are to find that the large majority of 
 animals has an onomatopoetic designation.
 
 22 OX LANGUAGE. CH. HI. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE NAMING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 'Fingere . . . Grsecis magis concessum est, qui sonis etiam quibusdam et 
 affectibus non dubitaverunt nomina aptare ; non alia libertate, quam qua 
 itti primi homines rebus appellationes dederunt.' 
 
 QUINCTHJAN, Instt. Or. Tiii. 3. 
 
 EVERT fact which as yet we have passed in review 
 would lead us to the conclusion that the first men, in 
 first exercising the faculty of speech, gave names to the 
 animals around them, and that those names were ono- 
 matopoetic. 1 It is hardly too much to say that they 
 could not have been otherwise. For unless we agree 
 with the ancient Analogists, and see a divine and mys- 
 terious connection, a natural and inexplicable harmony 
 between words and things, by virtue of which each word 
 necessarily expresses the inmost nature of the thing 
 which it designates ; or unless we are Anomalists, and 
 attribute the connection of words with things to the 
 purest accident, and the most haphazard and arbitrary 
 conventions ; unless we declare ourselves unreservedly 
 
 1 The word 'onomatopoeia' is now universally understood to mean a 
 word invented on the basis of a sound-imitation. It may be worth a 
 passing notice that Campbell's use of it in his Rhetoric (ii. 194), to 
 signify the transformation of a name into a word, as when we call a rich 
 man a Croesus, or as in the line ' Sternhold himself shall be out-Stern- 
 holded' is, so far as we are aware, wholly unauthorised.
 
 CH. in. THE NAMING OF ANIMALS. 23 
 
 the champions of one or other of these equally exploded 
 views, or accept in their place some mystical or inex- 
 plicable theory of * roots,' we must be prepared with 
 some other explanation which shall exclude from lan- 
 guage alike the miraculous and the accidental. What 
 this explanation is will appear hereafter ; but at present 
 we may say that, having disproved the revelation of 
 language, we cannot suppose its development possible 
 without some connection between sounds and objects. 
 Now, as we have seen already, no connection is so easy 
 and obvious, so self-suggesting and so absolutely satis- 
 factory, as the acceptation of a sound to represent a 
 sound, which in its turn at once recalls the creature by 
 which the sound is uttered. If we consider the natural 
 instinct J which leads to the reproduction of sounds, the 
 brute imitations of wild-men and savage children, the 
 onomatopoetic stepping-stones to speech adopted by all 
 children, and the a priori presumption just explained, 
 little or no doubt upon this point can remain in any 
 candid mind. 
 
 But we can go yet further by examining the actual 
 nomenclature of animals in existing languages. 
 
 If we consider any number of names for animals in 
 any modern language, we shall find that they fall into 
 various classes, viz. : 1. Those for which no certain 
 derivation can be suggested; 2. Those derived from 
 
 1 This imitativcness (in -which lies the tendency to onomatopoeia) is 
 found even in animals. I once possessed a young canary which never 
 sang until it had heard a child's squeaking doll. It immediately caught up 
 and imitated this sound, which it never afterwards lost. It is well-known 
 that nest-birds, if hatched by a bird of another species, will reproduce, 
 or attempt to reproduce, its notes. There are good reasons for believing 
 (since wild dogs do not bark) that the bark of the domestic dog is the 
 result of hearing the human voice. See Rev. dis deux M&ndes, Feb. 1861.
 
 24 OX LANGUAGE. en. in. 
 
 some analogy, or characteristic, or combination of cha- 
 racteristics which the animal presents ; 3. Those which 
 are distinctly onomatopoetic in origin or in form. 
 
 The first class of words cannot of course furnish us 
 with any linguistic inferences, and may here be left out 
 of the question ; l under the second and third classes fall 
 all names of recent origin ; and ?/, as the Bible asserts, 
 and as has been shown to be independently probable, 
 animals were the first objects to receive names, they 
 MUST have received names belonging to the third 
 class (viz. : onomatop&ias}, because no previous words 
 would have existed wherewith to designate or combine 
 their observed qualities. 
 
 But the imitative origin of animal names is not only 
 a priori most probable, but reasoning a posteriori we 
 see it to be generally the fact. If we would discover 
 any analogies for the speech of primitive man, we must 
 look for them in the languages of those savage nations 
 who approach most nearly to the condition in which 
 man must have appeared upon the earth. Yet if we 
 examine the vocabulary of almost any savage nation for 
 this purpose, what are we certain to discover ? That 
 almost every name for an animal is a striking and 
 obvious onomatopoeia. 
 
 Take, for instance, the following names of some of 
 the few birds and animals found in Australia : 
 
 Ke-a-ra-pai. The white cockatoo. 
 
 Wai-la. The black cockatoo. 
 
 Ka-rong-ka-rong. A pelican. 
 
 1 We assume, however, that every word has a reasonable derivation 
 if we only knew what it was ; just as we know that no place in the world 
 ever received a name which could not be accounted for, though there are 
 hundreds of such names of which we can now give no explanation.
 
 CH. 111. THE NAMING OF ANIMALS. 25 
 
 Ki-ra-ki-ra. The cock king-parrot. 
 Kun-ne-ta. The hen king-parrot. 
 Mo-a-ne. The kangaroo. 
 Nga-ii-ivo. The seagull. 
 
 These are chosen almost at random from 'Threlkeld's 
 Australian Grammar,' and in other cases the author 
 himself calls marked attention to the similar origin of 
 others, as follows : 
 
 " Kong-ko-rong. The emu, from the noise it makes" 
 
 p. 87. 
 " Pip-pi-ta. 1 A small hawk, so called from its cry." 
 
 p. 91. 
 " Kong-kung. Frogs, so called from the noise they 
 
 make." p. 87. 
 " Kun-bul. The black swan, from its note." p. 87. 
 
 Or again, let us take some specimens from a North 
 American 2 dialect the Algonquin. Shi-sheeb, duck ; 
 Chee-chish-koo- / ivan, kos-kos-koo-oo, owl; oo-oo-me-see, 
 screech-owl; mai-mai, redcrested woodpecker; pau- 
 pau-say, common woodpecker; shi-shi-gwa, rattle- 
 snake; pah-pah-ah-qwau, cock. 3 
 
 In Chinese, too, a language which is generally believed 
 to retain more of the characteristics of primitive speech 
 than any other, ' the number of imitative sounds is very 
 considerable.' A few may be seen quoted by Professor 
 
 1 Compare the English name Pippit ; the Latin Pipilare, &c. 
 
 2 The highly euphonic character of the New Zealand language renders 
 it unsuitable for illustrating the point before us; otherwise one can 
 hardly avoid seeing onomatopoeias in Ti-oi-oi, Aki-aki, Akoa-akoa, the 
 names of different birds, Pipipi, the turkey, &c. See the Ch. Miss. Soc.'s 
 New Zealand Gram. Lond. 1820. 
 
 3 I have borrowed these Algonquin words from a suggestive chapter 
 in Dr. Daniel Wilson's Prehistoric Man, i. 7-i.
 
 25 ON LANGUAGE. CH. in. 
 
 Miiller in the first series of his Lectures (p. 252) ; but 
 in point of fact they constitute a whole class. The 
 sixth class of Chinese characters is called Hyai-Shing 
 ' meaning and sound.' " These," says Marshman, 1 in his 
 Chinese Grammar, " are formed by adding to a character 
 which denotes the genus, another which denotes the 
 imagined sound of the species, or the individual sig- 
 nified. They adduce by way of example kyang, which, 
 by adding to shooi water, the character kong, forms 
 a character which denotes a rapid stream, from an allu- 
 sion to the sound of its water when rushing down with 
 violence. And also ho, the generic name of rivers, 
 which is formed by adding to shooi, water, ho the sup- 
 posed sound of a river in its course." These, with the 
 signs Chwan-chyn, are about 3,000 in number. 
 
 Savage languages are, as we have already observed, 
 the best to show us what must have been the primitive 
 procedure ; but we can trace the same necessary ele- 
 ments of words in languages far more advanced. In 
 Sanskrit, for instance, is not go, the original of our cow 2 
 (Germ, kuh ; comp. the words bos, /3oDs, ftoda), jodw], 
 a direct imitation of the sound which the English 
 child imitates by moo (comp. mugire) ? Is not bukka a 
 goat (comp. bukkana barking, bukhara the lion's roar, 
 ySvo-o-o), fivfcrys, bucca, buccina, buck, butt) a very 
 obvious onomatopoeia ? Is not cukara 3 a pig (cf. <rvs, 
 sus, Irish suig, Welsh hwch, Eussian cushka] as trans- 
 parently onomatopoetic as krakara a partridge, hinkara a 
 
 1 Marshman, Chinese Gram. p. 24. It must be admitted that his ex- 
 planation is not particularly lucid. 
 
 * Go, in Sanscrit, also means a voice ; almost all the derivatives from it 
 adduced by Pictet are evident onomatopoeias. Even in Chinese the animal 
 is called ngow, gu, &c. 
 
 3 These words mean the animal which makes the sound cu, kra, hin.
 
 en. HI. THE NAMING OF ANIMALS. 27 
 
 tiger ? Can we see any other origin for pvdna, bhashaka, 
 and rudatha, names for the dog, from kvan to sound, 
 bhash to bark, and nid to cry? In hansa a goose 
 (Lithuan. 'Zasis, Thibet, ngangba), and in the Persian 
 gigranah, a crane, the same principle is indubitably at 
 work, and in all these instances the onomatopoeia, as it 
 is indeed incontestible, is frankly admitted by M. 
 Pictet, 1 the highest of authorities in everything which 
 concerns the primitive Aryans, although he never 
 admits such an explanation unless it is absolutely neces- 
 sitated by the facts. Yet in the following cases also, 
 where the Sanskrit root runs through the whole Aryan 
 family of languages, he cannot avoid referring the names 
 to simple imitation ; nor can any candid reader avoid 
 agreeing with him as a glance will show. 
 
 Bheda. Rani ; compare the Danish beede, &c. 
 Vatsa. Calf; from vad and sar, giving a voice, i. e* 
 
 lowing. 
 Menada. He-goat, ' dont le cri est me ' (cf. p^icds 
 
 and the Phrygian JJM a sheep). 
 Makshika. Fly ; from map, to sound (musso). 
 Bha, Bhramara (cf. </3t//,a&>, fremo, &c. ). The bee. 
 Bambhara (cf. jSopfios, &c.). The bee; like our 
 
 childish word bumble-bee. 
 Indindira. Great bee (cf. nOprivrj). 
 Druna (probablement aussi une onomatopee). A 
 
 drone. 
 
 1 See Pictet, Les Origines Indo-Europeennes, ou les Aryas Primitifs, 
 i. pp. 330535. We should certainly feel inclined to add many other 
 words (e. g. sarispra, serpent, &c.), in spite of the often-strained and 
 unlikely derivations suggested for them. If they were not originally 
 onomatopoeias, they have at least become so ; and instances of this reflex 
 tendency are hardly less important, as throwing light upon our in- 
 quiries, than names indubitably imitative in their origin.
 
 28 OX LANGUAGE. CH. HI. 
 
 Katurava. Frog (cri rauque) ; and Bheka, frog ; 
 
 ' sans doute une onomatopee.' 
 Bhiruka (root bhr, cf. Pers. bir, thunder). A bear. 
 Kurara and Khara$abda. Eagle. 
 Kukkuta. A cock. 
 Grdhra. Vulture. 
 
 Krdgha (Pers.). Hawk (cf. karaghah, crow). 
 Krkavdku. Fowl in general ; from krka, and va9, 
 
 to sound. 
 Uhika, alu, ghuka, gharghara, &c. Owls of different 
 
 kinds. 
 Karaka. Crow. Kaka (cf. chough, &c.), ' e*videm- 
 
 ment une pure onomatopee.' 
 Kuktika. Cuckoo. 
 
 Kolm. Swan ; ' imitatif du cri kouk ! kouk ! ' 
 Karatu. Crane. 
 Tittiri. Partridge. 
 Varvaka. Quail. 
 Pika. Woodpecker ; ' cette racine n'est sans doutc 
 
 qu'une onomatopee.' 
 
 The list might be indefinitely multiplied ; but let us 
 now turn to the Hebrew, and see what analogous facts 
 it offers. For the sake of English readers we will 
 represent the Hebrew words in English characters also, 
 that they may judge for themselves. Take, for instance, 
 such distinctive imitative words as 
 
 Scherakreka. A pye; the Greek icapd/ca^a. 
 Bochart, Hieroz. ii. p. 298. 
 t Zarzir. A starling. Id. p. 353. 
 
 Schephiphoun. The horned snake. Gresen. 
 Thes. iii. p. 146.
 
 CH. nr. TIIE NAMING OF ANIMALS. 29 
 
 .V)K Aryeh. The lion. The supposed derivations are 
 
 very doubtful. 
 M .K lyim. Lynxes. Nomen ovofjuzTOTroirjriKov. Boch- 
 
 art, Id. i. 845. 
 -13 Gur. A whelp. 
 
 Shdchal. The roarer. From an Arabic root= 
 rugitus. 
 
 Dukiphath. Lapwing (rather Hoopoe, cf. Copt. 
 kukupha); Lat. Upupa. 1 Bochart, Hieroz. ii. p. 347. 
 OVV Tziim. Wild cats, &c. 
 N'5? Labhia. A lioness ; ' rugiendi sonum imitans.' 
 
 Gresen. Thes. s. v. 
 
 D^p Sis. A swallow ; compare Ital. zizilla, Lat. zinzu- 
 lare, &c. Bochart, Hieroz. vol. ii. p. 62. 
 Tor. A turtle-dove (turtur, &c.). 
 Tsildtzdl. A locust, from its shrill noise. 
 
 Again, if we take the ancient Egyptian language 2 we 
 find such words as mouee, a lion ; hippep, an ibis ; ehe, a 
 cow ; hepepep, hoopoe ; croor, frog ; rurr, pig ; chaoo, 
 cat ; phin, mouse. 
 
 We see then that, alike in the Semitic and in the 
 Aryan families, onomatopoeia supplies a certain and 
 satisfactory etymology for the names of many animals ; 
 and if we add doubtful cases, where the suggested deri- 
 vations are awkward and farfetched, we might say, 
 without exaggeration, of most animals. We have seen 
 similar onomatopoeias in the ancient Egyptian, which is 
 supposed to have affinities with both ; and we have 
 found them immensely prevalent in various sporadic 
 
 1 Hence, the Greek legend about its cry, that it was the transformed 
 Tereus crying IIoD, iroO. 
 1 Prehistoric Man, i. 71.
 
 30 OX LANGUAGE. cu. nr. 
 
 families, which some would call Turanian a name 
 which we may on some future occasion see very good 
 reason to reject. In fact, in these Allophylian savage 
 dialects, and the more so in proportion to the primitive 
 character of the people who speak them, onomatopoaia 
 appears to be the rule, and terms derived from other 
 relations or properties the rare exception. Without 
 going any further, is it possible to doubt what must 
 have been the tendency of animal nomenclature among 
 the earliest men ? 
 
 It has often happened in modern times that the 
 extension of travel and commerce has thrown nations 
 into connection with lands in which the flora and fauna 
 are wholly different from their own. The instinctive 
 procedure which they adopt to name these new objects 
 will add new strength to our position. For here again one 
 of these four processes takes place; either 1. They adopt 
 the existing or aboriginal term, which they find already 
 in use ; or 2. They use a compound, expressive of 
 some quality or resemblance, as in cat-bird, snow-bird, 
 mocking-bird, blue-bird, &c ; 3. They misapply some 
 previous name of the animal most nearly resembling 
 the one to be named ; or 4. If they invent a new and 
 original (indecomposible) term, it is invariably an 
 onomatopoeia. 
 
 1. The first procedure requires no illustration, as it 
 offers nothing curious or instructive beyond the fact 
 that the shorter and easier a native name is, the more 
 readily is it adopted. The only reason why this practice 
 is not more common is the inordinate length of the 
 delicate imitative appellations in primitive languages. 
 
 2. The second process is not so common, and is only 
 interesting as illustrating the variety of observed charac-
 
 CH. in. THE NAMING OF ANIMALS. 31 
 
 teristics by which a name may be suggested. For 
 instance, the elephant has been called by names meaning 
 i the twice-drinking animal (dvipa], or the two-tusked 
 (dvirada\ or the creature that uses its hand (hastiri) ; 
 yet these different conceptions all represent one and 
 the same object. Similarly the serpent is called in 
 Sanskrit by names meaning ' going on the breast,' l or 
 * wind-eating.' Pictet furnishes us with many similar 
 instances of this method of nomenclature, which is illus- 
 trated by the name duck-billed platypus, or * beast with 
 a bill,' for the ornithorhynchus of New-Zealand, and the 
 Dutch aardvark, or ' earth-pig,' for the Orycteropus 
 capensis. * Of everything in nature,' says Bopp, * of 
 every animal, of every plant, speech can seize only one 
 property to express the whole by it.' 
 
 3. The third process deserves passing notice, because 
 we shall see hereafter its importance. 'In the slow 
 migrations of the human family,' says Dr. Daniel 
 Wilson, * from its great central hives, language imper- 
 ceptibly adapted itself to the novel 'requirements of 
 man. But with the discovery of America a new era 
 began in the history of migration. ... In its novel scenes 
 language was at fault. It seemed as if language had its 
 work to do anew as when first framed amid the life of 
 Eden. The same has been the experience of every new 
 band of invading colonists, and it can scarce fail to strike 
 the European naturalist, on his first arrival in the New 
 World, that its English settlers, after occupying the 
 continent for upwards of three centuries, instead of 
 
 1 Les Orig. Indo-Eur. i. 383. It is perhaps more common in the 
 Zincali language than any other. BiondelK Studii Linguistici, p. 114, 
 and in many argots, e. g. in the German Rothwelsch, goose is Plattfusz, 
 hare Laugfusz, ass = Langohr, &c. Id. 113.
 
 32 OX LANGUAGE. CH. m. 
 
 inventing root-words wherewith to designate plants and 
 animals, as new to them as the nameless living creatures 
 were to Adam in Paradise, apply in an irregular and 
 unscientific manner the names of British and European 
 flora and fauna. Thus the name of the English part- 
 ridge is applied to one American tetranoid (Tetrao 
 umbellus), the pheasant to another (Tetrao cupido) ; and 
 that of our familiar British warbler, the robin, to 
 the Turdus migratorius, or totally different American ' 
 thrush.' 
 
 Mr. E. J. Eyre remarks that when an Australian sees 
 any object unknown to him, he does not invent a name 
 for it, but immediately gives it a name drawn from its 
 resemblance to some known object. This is very true, 
 but it is strange that he should have considered it as 
 peculiar to Australians. 2 On the contrary, the fact has 
 been observed from the earliest times, and is noticed by 
 authors so ancient as Epicurus, 3 Aristotle, 4 and Varro. 
 The latter 5 observes that in Latin the names of fish are 
 usually borrowed from the land creatures which most 
 resemble them, as anguilla (eel) from anguis (snake). 
 Several similar instances occur among the Eomans. 
 The elephant, for instance, they called the Lucanian ox, 
 
 1 Prehistoric Man, i. 62. 
 
 2 'Der Mensch stellt bestandig Vergleichungen an zwischen dem 
 Neuen was ihm Yorkommt, mit Alten was er schon kennt.' Pott. 
 Etym. Forsch. ii. 139. 
 
 * "O9fv Kal irfpl TUV oSrJActfi/ cwrb nav (paivopfvcw xpr] ffrmeiovcrBai. Epic. 
 ap. Diog. Laert. x. 32. 
 
 4 QbaiKo.. i. 1. 
 
 5 ' Vocabula piscium pleraque translata a terrestribus ex aliqua parte 
 Bimilibus rebus, ut anguilla.' Varro, De Ling. Lat. v. 77. (Comp. 
 X' S > *7X e * os )- Compare Amos ix. 3, where ' snake ' is used for a sea- 
 creature. By a very natural transference anguilla in later Latin means 
 a thong for punishing boys the Scotch ' tawse.' Du Cange. 8. v.
 
 CH. in. THE NAMING OF ANIMALS. 33 
 
 not being at first familiar with its name, and knowing 
 of no animal larger l than the ox ; the giraffe they styled 
 camelopardus, from its points of resemblance to the 
 camel and the leopard, and ovis fera 2 (or foreign sheep), 
 from the mildness of its disposition ; and they knew the 
 black lion by the synonym of * Libyan bear.' The 
 Dakotas, we are told, call the horse sungka-wakang, 3 or 
 spirit-dog; and Mr. Darwin 4 tells us that in 1817, 'as 
 soon as a horse reached the shore, the whole population 
 took to flight, and tried to hide themselves from " ilie 
 man-carrying pig" as they christened it.' Some 
 American nations call the lion * the great 5 and mischiev- 
 ous cat.' In the Fiji Islands man's flesh is known as 
 * long pig.' When first they saw a white paper kite 6 they 
 called it * manumanu' (a bird), having never seen such 
 a thing before ; and money from the same cause they 
 called * ai Lavo,' from its resemblance to the flat round 
 seeds of the Mimosa scandens. The Dutch could find 
 no better name than Bosjesbok, bush-goat, for the grace- 
 ful African antelope ; and in the Spanish name alligator 
 we see that they regarded that unknown river-monster 
 as a large lizard. 7 The New Zealanders called the first 
 horses they saw ' large dogs,' as the Highlanders are 
 said to have called the first donkey which they brought 
 to their mountains * a large hare.' The Kaffirs called 
 
 1 It is very doubtful whether in some Aryan languages there has not 
 been a confusion between the names for elephant and camel. See Pictet 
 s. v. Le Chameau. 
 
 See Plin. viii. 17- Fera=peregrina. 
 
 Prehist. Man, i. 72. 
 
 Voyage of the Beagle, p. 408. 
 
 Michaelis, De T Influence des Opinions sur le Langage. 
 
 Seeman, Mission to Viti, pp. 45, 377. 
 
 El lagarto, the lizard. See Farrar, Origin of Lang, p, 119. 
 D
 
 34 OX LANGUAGE. CH. in. 
 
 the first parasol 1 to which they were introduced 'a 
 cloud.' To this day the Malays have no better name 
 for rat than 2 * large mouse.' This, then, is an important 
 principle to notice in all theories respecting language. 
 
 4. If, however, none of these processes furnish a con- 
 venient name for animals hitherto unfamiliar to new 
 colonists, if the native name be too uncouth or difficult 
 for adoption, and the animal offer neither a ready 
 analogy, nor any very salient property, to provide itself 
 with a new title, then a new name must be invented ; 
 and in this case we venture to assert that there is not 
 to be found in any country a single instance of a name 
 so invented which is not an onomatopwia. Such 
 names as whip-poor-will, pee-vfla.ee (Musdcapa rapax), 
 towhee (Emberiza erythropterd], kittawake (Larus 
 tridactylus\ &c., may be profusely paralleled ; and in 
 some cases the onomatopoetic instinct is so strong that 
 it asserts itself side by side with the adoption of a name ; 
 thus (as in the childish words moo-cow, bumble-bee) 
 the North American Indian will speak of a gun as an 
 Ut-to-tafi-gmi, or a Paush-ske-zi-gun.. It has often 
 been asserted that man has lost the power of inventing 
 language, and this present inability is urged as a ground 
 for believing that language could not have been a 
 human invention. We have elsewhere 3 given reasons 
 for disputing the assertion, and even if it were true, it 
 would be beside the mark, seeing that the absence of 
 all necessity of exercise for a faculty is the certain cause 
 of its all-but-irretrievable decay. From the fact, how- 
 
 1 Charma, Or. du Lang. p. 277, who refers to Condillac, Gram. eh. v. 
 Crawford, Malay Gram. i. 68. 
 
 3 Origin of Lang. p. 68 sqq. A very few instances of invented words, 
 with some remarks upon them, may be found, Id. pp. 60, 61.
 
 CH. in. THE NAMING OF ANIMALS. 35 
 
 ever, that when men do invent new words they are 
 almost invariably onomatopoeias, we see an indeM 
 pointing us back with unerring certainty to the only 
 possible origin of articulate speech. For whatever 
 may be true of abstract * roots,' it is demonstrable, and 
 will be shown hereafter, that roots which by their 
 onomatopoetic power are the only ones capable of 
 explaining and justifying themselves, so far from being 
 the sterile playthings which Professor M. Miiller repre- 
 sents them to be, have in them a fertility and a power 
 of growth which can only be represented by the analogy 
 of vegetable life, and which is as sufficient to account 
 for the fullgrown languages of even the Aryan family as 
 the germinative properties of an acorn are sufficient to 
 account for the stateliest oak that ever waved its arms 
 over British soil. 
 
 The history of colonisation, then, by reproducing 
 some of the conditions of primitive man, enables us to 
 see his linguistic instincts in actual operation, and 
 those instincts undeniably confirm our theory by dis- 
 playing themselves in the very directions which we have 
 been pointing out. But we can offer yet another proof 
 of the reasonableness of our view in certain languages 
 of modern invention, to which we shall again allude. I 
 mean the various Argots of the dangerous classes 
 throughout Europe. These languages have to fulfil 
 the opposite conditions of being distinct to those who 
 use them, and unintelligible to the rest of the world. 
 And how do they effect this ? Partly indeed by gene- 
 ralising the special, and specialising the general; partly 
 by seizing on some one very distinct attribute and 
 describing it, if necessary, by periphrases ; but also in 
 great measure by the obvious resource of direct sound- 
 it 2
 
 36 OX LANGUAGE. CH. in. 
 
 imitation. Thus the German thief, no less than the 
 English, calls a watch a tick, the French thief calls it 
 tocquante ; the Italian thief speaks of a pig as grug- 
 nante, the German as grunnickel, the English 'the 
 grunting,' the French as grondin, &c. These languages 
 must, from their very nature, remain uncultivated, and 
 the consequence is that they abound in onomatopoeia. 
 In the English slang, a pulpit is a Tmm-box ; carriages 
 and horses are rattlers and prads. In the French 
 argot the heart is battant; a sheep is belant; a 
 grimace is bobine ; a marionette is boms-bouis ; to die 
 is claquer', a liar is craquelin; to drink a health is 
 eric-croc ; a skeleton-key is frou-frou ; a glutton is 
 licheur ; a shoe is paffe ; a soldier, by an onomatopoeia 
 \which it would take too long to explain, is piou-piou ; 
 a little chimney-sweeper is raclette ; a cab is roulant ; 
 .a dog tambour ; a noisy child tarabate ; and gendarmes, 
 from the songs which soldiers like, is called tourlouru. 
 These are but a few instances out of many, and it is 
 impossible to deny that they establish the necessity of 
 having recourse to onomatopoeia when new words have 
 to be invented. They therefore furnish a fresh support 
 to the views here advocated. 
 
 When by strict etymological laws we have traced back 
 a word through all its various changes, instructive and 
 valuable as the process is sure to have been, we have 
 done nothing to explain its origin or to account for its 
 earliest history, unless we can point to its ultimate germ 
 in some onomatopoetic or interjectional root ; and per- 
 haps in the majority of cases this can be done with a fair 
 ...mount of probability; for the number of roots required 
 for the formation of a language is extremely small ; and 
 that small number is amply supplied by the imitation
 
 CH. ni. THE XAMIXG OF AXIMALS. 37 
 
 of natural sounds, and by the instinctive utterances 
 which all violent impressions produce alike in animals 
 and in men. The reason why new words, except of an 
 imitative kind, are not invented is because every word 
 involves a long history from its sensational origin to its 
 final meaning, and the result without the process is felt 
 to be a contradiction and an impossibility. This is why 
 all attempts to frame an artificial language have been 
 a failure, and the ponderous schemes of Kircher, and 
 Becker l and Dalgarno, and Wilkins, and Faignet, and 
 Letellier can only move us to a smile, because they are 
 based on a conventional theory of language which is 
 utterly mistaken. This, too, is the reason why lan- 
 guage is stronger than emperors, and Tiberius 2 could 
 neither give the citizenship to a word, nor Claudius 3 
 procure acceptance even for a useful letter. A radically 
 new word to have any chance of obtaining currency 
 must of necessity be of an imitative character. It is a 
 curious fact that some of the tribes 4 on the coast of 
 New Guinea derive even the names which they give to 
 their children from direct imitations of the first sounds 
 or cries which they utter. 
 
 We are surely entitled then to draw secure inferences 
 from the facts hitherto observed, and those inferences 
 
 1 For an account of their systems see Du Ponceau, Mem. sur le 
 Syst. Gram, de quelques Nations Indiennes, pp. 26-31, 320. Hallam, 
 Lit. Eur. iii. 362 ; and Letellier, Etablissement immediat de la Langue 
 Universelle. 
 
 2 ' Tu enim Caesar civitatem potes dare hominibus, verbis non potes,' 
 said Capito to Tiberius. Sueton. De Ulustr. Gram. 
 
 * Claudius vainly tried to introduce into the Roman alphabet an 
 antisigma X, with the value Ps. 'pro qua Claudius Caesar Antisigma > 
 hac figura scribi voluit, sed nulli ausi sunt antiquam scripturam mutare. 
 Priscian, i. De Literarum Numero et Affinitate. 
 
 4 Salverte, Hist, of Sames, i. 62. Engl. Transl.
 
 38 OX LANGUAGE. CH. in. 
 
 may be summed up in the observation that animals 
 were among the first objects to receive names, and that, 
 in the absence of any previous words, they could not 
 have been named except by onomatopoetic designations. 
 This we have endeavoured to render strong and secure 
 by many proofs, drawn both a priori from the nature 
 of the case, and from the analogies presented by the 
 methods in use among children and among savages; 
 and a posteriori from the phenomena which have 
 invariably recurred when, in the course of history, a 
 condition of circumstances has been reproduced which 
 in any way resembles that which must have existed in 
 the case of primal man.
 
 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE INFANCY OF HUMANITY. 
 
 ~*Ht> -)(f6vos 8r' %v &TO.KTOS avOpdnrtav jSi' 
 Kal 0Tjpic8rjs, icrxws 0' inrr^perris. 
 
 TijviKavrd /uoi Soice? 
 TlvKi>6s TIS &\\os Kal ff 
 Teyovevcu, bs . 
 
 6eiov el 
 
 IGNOT. ap. SEXT. EMPIRIC. 
 
 As we have here arrived at a sort of landing-place, we 
 may devote a separate chapter to consider the full 
 bearing of the conclusions thus formed. In so doing, 
 we are not digressing from the main point, but rather 
 we are removing a groundless prepossession which would 
 lie in the road of all further advance, and we are at the 
 same time calling attention to one of those important 
 facts which it is the object of philology to illustrate or 
 discover. 
 
 For, obviously, if language was a human invention, 
 and was due to a gradual development, there must have 
 been a time in man's history when he was possessed of 
 nothing but the merest rudiments of articulate speech ; 
 in which, therefore, he must have occupied a lower 
 grade than almost any existing human tribe. This is a 
 conclusion which cuts at the root of many preconceived
 
 40 OX LANGUAGE. CH. iv. 
 
 theories. Thus, Lessing l remarks that God is too good 
 to have withheld from his poor children, perhaps for 
 centuries, a gift like speech; and M. de Bonald asks 
 how we can suppose * that a Good Being could create a 
 social animal without remembering that he ought also 
 from the first moment of his existence to inspire him 
 with the knowledge necessary to his individual, social, 
 physical, and moral life.' Such reasoners, therefore, 
 reject the doctrine of the human origin of language as 
 alike an injustice to God and an indignity to man. 
 
 In answer to such ' high priori ' reasonings, it might 
 be sufficient to say that we are content, for our part, 
 humbly to observe and record what God has done, 
 rather than to argue what He ought to do or ought not 
 to do, incompetent as we are in our absolute ignorance 
 * to measure the arm of God with the finger of man.' 
 Claiming for ourselves the character of observers only, 
 and desirous to accept the results to which our enquiries 
 directly lead, without any regard to system or prejudice, 
 we might easily repudiate assumptions which rest on the 
 mere sandy basis of systematic prejudice. It is childish 
 arrogance in us to argue what plans are consonant to, 
 and what are derogatory of God's Divine Power and 
 Infinite Wisdom. Seeing that we have not the capacity 
 for understanding that which is, it is preposterous in us 
 to argue on any general principles as to what must have 
 been. Perfect humility and perfect faith, a faith in 
 Truth which seems to have the least power in many of 
 the loudest champions of a supposed orthodoxy, are 
 the first elements of scientific success. The problems 
 and mysteries which encumber all our enquiries, the 
 
 1 S'dnmtl. Schriften, Bd. x.
 
 CH. iv. THE INFANCY OF HUMANITY. 41 
 
 adamantine wall against which we dash ourselves in 
 vain whenever we seek to penetrate the secrets of the 
 Deity, should at least prevent us from following Lessing 
 and M. de Bonald in laying down rules of our own, in 
 accordance with which we fancy that God MUST inevitably 
 have worked. 
 
 Moreover, if language was a Revelation and not an 
 Invention, at what period in man's life was it revealed ? 
 If, indeed, man was, according to the Chaldee paraphrast, 
 wealed *a speaking intelligence' (see p. 10), we get 
 over this difficulty, though it is only at the expense of 
 an absurdity, and by making the Bible contradict itself. 
 But if not, there must have been a time, on any sup- 
 position, when man wandered in the woods a dumb 
 animal, till God bethought Him of inspiring language. 
 Surely such a view is even less pious than that of 
 Lucretius himself. 'Any one,' says Steinthal, 1 'who 
 thinks of man without a Language ' [or, he should ha?e 
 added, the capacity for evolving a language] ' thinks of 
 him as one of the Brutes ; so that any one who calls 
 down the Deity as his teacher of Language, gives Him 
 only an animal as a scholar.' In other words, unless 
 man was born speaking, (and it is apparent in Scrip- 
 ture that language was subsequent to creation), then, 
 even on this theory, man must have once been destitute 
 of a language, and must, therefore, on this theory also, 
 have emerged from a condition of mutism. Why then 
 should a similar belief be held an insuperable objection 
 to a theory so certain as the human discovery of lan- 
 guage ? It is forsooth an insult to the dignity of man 
 and a slur on the beneficence of God to suppose that 
 
 1 Urspr. d. Sprache, p. 40.
 
 42 ON LANGUAGE. CH. iv. 
 
 man appeared on this earth in a low and barbarous 
 condition ! But WHY is it ? Do those who use such 
 reasonings consider that they are thereby arraigning 
 and impugning before the bar of their own feeble cri- 
 ticisms the actual dealings of God? If it be indeed 
 irreconcileable with Grod's goodness to suppose that He 
 would have created man in a savage state, is it more 
 easy to believe that He would nmv suffer, as He does 
 suffer, the existence of thousands who are doomed 
 throughout life to a helpless and hopeless imbecility, 
 and that for no fault of their own? thousands in which 
 the light of reason has been utterly quenched ; thousands 
 in whom it never existed, and who pass in helpless 
 idiocy from the cradle to the grave, as irresponsible as 
 the brutes who perish, without language, without reli- 
 gion, without knowledge, without hope? Facts like 
 these ought to silence us for ever when we attempt 
 beforehand to assign limits to the possible workings of 
 God's Providence. We know that He is infinitely good 
 and gracious, but we cannot know how His Providence 
 will work. 
 
 If for many ages millions of the human race have 
 been, and still are, born into a low and barbarous con- 
 dition, why may they not have been originally so created? 
 We know from history and from ordinary reasoning that 
 existing savage races could not have sunk 1 into this 
 condition, and there seems every ground for believing 
 that they are morally, mentally, and physically incapable 
 
 1 Archbp. Whately (Preliminary Dissert, iii. in the Encycl. Britannica) 
 argues that savages can never, of themselves, rise out of degradation ; it 
 is as easy to show that they can never sink into such a condition. We 
 do not believe that the primeval savages were in any way direct ancestors 
 of the two noble races the Aryan and the Semitic.
 
 CH. iv. THE IXFAXCY OF HUMANITY. 43 
 
 of rising out of it, since they melt away before the 
 advance of civilisation like the line of snow before the 
 sunlight. 'God,' says M. Jules Simon, 1 'who suffers 
 millions of savages to exist in three quarters of the 
 globe, may well be supposed to have permitted in the 
 beginning that which he permits at the present day,' 
 What shall we say, for instance, of the tallow-coloured 
 Bosjesman, 2 who lives for the most part on beetles, 
 worms, and pismires, and is glad enough to squabble 
 with the hyaena for the putrid carcass of the buffalo or 
 the antelope ? Of the leather-skinned Hottentot, 3 * whose 
 hair grows in short tufts, like a worn-down shoe brush, 
 with spaces of bare scalp between,' and who is described 
 as a creature 'with passions, feelings, and appetites 
 as the only principles of his constitution'? Of the 
 Yamparico, ' who speaks a sort of gibberish like the 
 growling of a dog,' and who ' lives on roots, crickets, 
 and several bug-like insects of different species ; ? 4 Of 
 the aborigines of Victoria, 5 among whom new-born 
 babes are killed and eaten by their parents and brothers, 
 and who have no numerals beyond three? Of the 
 Puris 6 of Brazil, who have to eke out their scanty 
 language by a large use of signs, and who have no 
 words for even such simple conceptions as l to-morrow ' 
 
 1 Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1841, p, 536. 
 
 2 Caldwell, Unity of the Human Race, p. 75. 
 
 3 Personal Adventures in S. Africa, by Eev. G. Brown (a missionary), 
 p. 7. 
 
 4 Capt. Mayne Reid, Odd Races, p. 330 sqq. 
 
 * W. Stainbridge on the Aborigines of Victoria. Trans, of Etkn. 
 Soc. 1861, p. 289. Fern-roots, grubs, mushrooms, and frogs are their 
 main diet ; that of some other savages is too disgustful for utterance. 
 Greenwood, Curiosities of Savage Life, p. 15. 
 
 6 Mad. Ida Pfeiffer, Voyage round the World,
 
 44 OX LANGUAGE. CH. iv. 
 
 and s yesterday ' ? Of the naked, houseless, mischievous, 
 vindictive Andamaner, 1 with a skull hung ornamentally 
 round his neck ? Of the Fuegians, 2 * whose language is 
 an inarticulate clucking,' and who kill and eat their old 
 women before their dogs, because, as a Fuegian boy 
 naively and candidly expressed it, ' Doggies catch otters, 
 old women no'? Of the Banaks, 3 who wear lumps of 
 fat meat, artistically suspended in the cartilage of the 
 nose ? Of the negroes of New Guinea, 4 who were seen 
 springing from branch to branch of the trees like 
 monkeys, gesticulating, screaming, and laughing? Of 
 the Alforese 5 of Ceram, who live in trees, * each family 
 in a state of perpetual hostility with all around ' ? Of 
 the forest-tribes of Malacca, 6 'who lisp their words, 
 whose sound is like the noise of birds ? ' Of the wild 
 people of Borneo, 7 whom the Dyaks hunt as if they 
 were monkeys ? Of the cannibal Fans 8 of equatorial 
 Africa, who bury their corpses before eating them ? Of 
 the pigmy Dokos, 9 south of Abyssinia, * whose nails are 
 allowed to grow long like the talons of vultures, in 
 order to dig up ants and tear in pieces the flesh of 
 serpents, which they devour raw ' ? Of the wild Veddahs 10 
 of Ceylon, who have gutturals and grimaces instead of 
 
 1 Mouatt's Andamaners, p. 328. 
 
 2 Darwin, Voyage of a Naturalist, p. 214. The boy who gave the 
 philosophic defence of cannibalism, imitated, as a great joke, the screams 
 of the poor old women, while being choked in the smoke. 
 
 3 Hutchinson, Ten Years' Wanderings, p. 245. 
 
 4 Crawfurd, Malay Gram. i. clxi. 
 
 s Pickering, Races of Man, p. 304 sqq. 
 
 Id. 7 Id. 
 
 6 Du Chaillu's Equatorial Africa. This has been denied. 
 
 9 Prichard, Nat. Hist. L 306. Norris's Note. Dr. Davy, Researches, 
 ii. 177. 
 
 10 Sir J. Emerson Tennent, Ceylon.
 
 CH. iv. THE IXFAN'CY OF HUMANITY. 45 
 
 language ; ' who have no God ; no idea of time and dis- 
 tance; no name for hours, days, or years; and who 
 cannot count beyond five on their fingers'? Of the 
 Miautsee, 1 or aborigines of China, whose name means 
 'children of the soil,' and who, like the Malagassy, 
 the Thibetans, and many African tribes, attribute their 
 origin not to gods and demigods, not even to lions (as 
 do the Sahos), or to goats (as do the Dagalis), but, with 
 unblushing unanimity, to the ape ? Of the Negrilloes 
 of Aramanga, the Battas of Sumatra, the wild people 
 of Borneo, the hairy Ainos of Jesso, the Hyglaus of 
 the White Nile, the Kukies and other aborigines of 
 India, even the Cagots and other Eaces Maudites of 
 France and Spain ? These beings, we presume no one 
 will deny, are men with ordinary human souls. If then 
 (rod can tolerate for unknown generations the perpe- 
 tuation of such a state of existence as this, the perpetu- 
 ation of people with squalid habits, mean and deformed 
 heads, hideous aspect, and protuberant jaws, what 
 possible ground is there for denying that he may also 
 have suffered men at the Creation to live in what is 
 called a state of nature, which is the name given to a 
 state of squalor and ignorance, of savagery and degra- 
 dation? Considering these facts, and believing with 
 Schlegel that savage nations are savage by nature, and 
 must ever remain so, some (and among them Niebuhr) 
 have been Polygenists precisely because they thought 
 
 1 Authorities for the facts mentioned in these two sentences will be 
 found in Hitter, Erdkunde, Asien, ii. 273, 431 sqq. ; Hope, Ess. on the 
 Origin of Man ; Virey, Hist. Nat. du Genre Humain, ii 12 ; i. 190. 
 Pickering, Races of Man, 175-179, 302-308; Journ. A&iat. Soc. of 
 Bengal, xxiv. 206 ; Prichard, Nat. Hist, of Man, i. 250-274 (ed. Norris). 
 Pouchet, Des Races, p. 59; Perty, Anthropol. Vortrage, p. 41; Michel, 
 Hist, des Races maudites, &c.
 
 46 OX LANGUAGE. CH. iv. 
 
 it was more consonant with God's attributes to have 
 created men in different grades of elevation than to 
 have suffered them to degenerate in so many regions 
 from a condition originally exalted. 1 The argument in 
 this case may be as worthless as in the other; but 
 what is the value of a method of reasoning from which 
 two conclusions so opposite can be drawn ! 
 
 It would be an error to suppose that * the state of 
 nature,' with its imperfect language, its animal life, its 
 few natural wants, its utter ignorance, is necessarily a 
 state so low as to render existence a misfortune or a 
 curse. Nature, in all probability, provided as bountifully 
 for her first-born as she does for many of his descend- 
 ants ; and if not, she at any rate c makes habit omni- 
 potent and its effects hereditary.' Even the Fuegian, 
 in his land of cold and rain, crawling from the lair in 
 which he lies, unsheltered, coiled up like an animal on 
 the wet ground, to gather at all hours, from morn till 
 midnight, the mussels and berries, which are his only 
 food, does not decrease in numbers, and must, there- 
 fore, as Mr. Darwin observes, 2 be supposed 'to enjoy a 
 sufficient share of happiness (of whatever kind it may 
 be) to render life worth having.' It is hard to say how 
 little is ' necessary ' for man ; and it is certain, both 
 from Scripture and history, that not only the luxuries 
 and ornaments of life, but even those things which we 
 regard as indispensable, were the gradual inventions, 
 or long-delayed discoveries, of a race which had received 
 from Grod certain faculties in order that they might at 
 once be exercised and rewarded by a perpetual progress 
 in dignity and self-improvement. There can be no 
 
 1 Pouchet, Plural, des Races, p. 105. 
 
 2 Darwin, Voy. of a Naturalist, p. 216.
 
 CH. iv. THE INFANCY OF HUMANITY. 47 
 
 question that the systems of those Eabbis and Fathers, 1 
 and their modern imitators, who make Adam a being of 
 stupendous knowledge and superhuman wisdom, are 
 more improbable, as well as more unscriptural, than 
 those of writers who, like Theophilus of Antioch among 
 the Fathers, and Joseph Ben Grorion among the Jews, 
 make his original condition a weak and inferior one. 
 Philosophy, the arts, the sciences, the observations of 
 the simplest natural facts, the elucidation of the simplest 
 natural laws, required centuries to elaborate. We do 
 not even hear of the first kingdom till some thousands 
 of years after the first man. It is but as yesterday that 
 man has wrung from the patient silence of Nature some 
 of her most important, and apparently her most open 
 secrets. 
 
 It is forsooth a degradation to suppose that man 
 originated in an ignorant and barbarous condition ! 
 People prefer the poet's fancies : 
 
 One man alone, the father of mankind, 
 Drew not his life from woman ; never gazed 
 With mute unconsciousness of what he saw 
 On all around him; learned not by degrees: 
 Nor owed articulation to his ear ; 
 But, moulded by his Maker into man, 
 At once upstood intelligent, surveyed 
 All creatures ; with precision understood 
 Their purport, uses, properties ; assigned 
 To each his place significant ; and filled 
 With love and wisdom, rendered back to Heaven 
 In praise harmonious the first air he drew. 
 
 1 Clem. Alex. Strom, iv. 25, 173 ; 23, 152. Buddseus, Philos. 
 Hebr. 383-388, where he gives the Eabbinic fancies about Adam Kadmon. 
 Suidas s. v. 'ASdp. South, State of Man before the Fall, &c. On the 
 other side see Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. 12, 96 ; Greg. Naz. Or at. xxxviii. 
 12 ; and even Irenseus, Adv. Hares, iv. 38.
 
 48 ON LANGUAGE. CH. iv. 
 
 He was excused the penalties of dull 
 Minority. . . . History, not wanted yet, 
 Leaned on her elbow, watching Time, whose course 
 Eventful should supply her with a theme. * 
 
 Fascinating and poetical, no doubt; the primal man, 
 regarded as a being beautiful of body, gracious in soul, 2 
 filled in heart with virgin purity and sweetness, and 
 discovering everything with exquisite and lightning- 
 like spontaneity ! Nevertheless, ' Science 3 banishes 
 amongst myths and chimeras the fancy of a primitive 
 man, burning with youth and beauty, to show us upon 
 icy shores I know not what abject being, more hideous 
 than the Australian, more savage than the PatagoDian, 
 a fierce animal struggling against the animals with 
 which he disputes his miserable existence.' What 
 support is there for the poetic hypotheses of those who 
 love their own assumptions better than they love the 
 truths which science reveals? In a handful of rude 
 and bizarre traditions, in a few skulls of the very 
 meanest and most 4 degraded type, in here and there a 
 gnawed fragment of human bones, in a few coarse and 
 pitiable implements of bone and flint, what traces have 
 we of that radiant and ideal protoplast whom men have 
 
 1 Cowper, The Task. 
 
 * The Bible tells us nothing of this kind ; but it would take us too 
 long here to examine fully the Biblical data. I believe that when fairly 
 and thorougly considered, they sanction the view here expressed. For 
 a picture of frightfully degraded aboriginal races, see Job xxx. 1-8 ; 
 Ewald, Gesch. d. Volkes Israel, i. 27 ; De Gobineau, i. 486. 
 
 3 Aug. Laugel, Rev. des Deux Mondes, May 1, 1863 ; cf. De Gobineau, 
 De Tlnegalite des Races, i. 228 ; Link, Die Urwelt, i. 84 ; Lyell, Princ. 
 of Geol. i. 178 ; Laugel, Science et Philosophie, p. 270. 
 
 4 It has even been suspected (most likely on insufficient grounds), from 
 the position of iheforamen magnum, that the head was not vertical on the 
 neck. See Ethnol Trans, p. 269, 1863.
 
 CH. IT. THE INFANCY OF HUMANITY. 49 
 
 delighted to invest with purely imaginary attributes, 
 and to contemplate as the common ancestor of their 
 race ? But man, in his futile and baseless arrogance, 
 must exalt the earliest representatives of his kind, 
 though he cannot deny the infinite debasement of his 
 cotemporary brethren. He refuses to see in his far-off 
 ancestors what he must see in his living congeners, a 
 miserable l population maintaining an inglorious struggle 
 with the powers of nature, wrestling with naked bodies 
 against the forest animals, and forced to dispute their 
 cave-dwellings with the hysena and the wolf. 
 
 Years pass before the infant can realise and express his 
 own individuality; ages may have rolled away before 
 those ancestors of man who lived in the dim and misty 
 dawn of human 2 existence could in any way understand 
 their own position in the yet untamed chaos of the 
 ancient world. The recognition of the long and feeble 
 periods of animalism and ignorance is no more degra- 
 ding to humanity than the remembrance of the time 
 when he was rocked and swaddled and dandled in a 
 nurse's arms is a degradation to any individual man. 
 Disbelieving, on the scientific ground of the Fixity of 
 Type, 3 the Darwinian hypothesis, we should yet consider 
 
 1 It is agreed on all hands that Gen. i. 26, has no bearing on this 
 question, since it refers to the moral and intellectual nature of man 
 reason, liberty, immortality. ' Non secundum formam corporis factus 
 est ad imaginem Dei, sed secundum rationalem mentem.' Aug. de Trin. 
 xii. 7. Obviously if all men even Mundrucus and Ostiaks are created 
 in the ' image of God,' then the first men were so, however low theif 
 grade. 
 
 8 It is a remarkable fact that native legends betray a reminiscence of 
 the Elk, Mastodon, Megalonyx, Deinotherium, &c. Hamilton Smith, 
 Nat. Hist, of Human Spec. pp. 104-106 ; Maury, Des Ossemens humains 
 (Mem. de la Soc. des Antiq. i. 287), &c. 
 
 3 I may perhaps be allowed to refer to my paper on this subject read 

 
 50 ON LANGUAGE. CH. iv. 
 
 it disgraceful and humiliating to try to shake it by an 
 ad captandum argument, or a claptrap platform appeal 
 to the unfathomable ignorance and unlimited arrogance 
 of a prejudiced assembly. We should blush to meet it 
 with an anathema or a sneer ; and in doing so we 
 should be very far from the ludicrous and complacent 
 assumption ' that we were on the side of the angels ! ' 
 Is it not indisputable that man's body ' all but an 
 inappreciable fragment of its substance ' is composed 
 of the very same materials, the same protein and fats, 
 and salines, and water, which constitute the inorganic 
 world, which may unquestionably have served long ago 
 as the dead material which was vivified and utilised in 
 the bodies of extinct creatures, and which may serve in 
 endless metensomatosis l for we know not what organisms 
 yet to come ? Was there, or was there not, a time in the 
 embryonic dawn of individual life, when every one of 
 us drew the breath of life by means not of lungs but of 
 a species of gills ? Is this fact any disgrace to us, or 
 will any pseudo-theologian have the dogmatic hardi- 
 hood to deny it ? Are we, in our gross and haughty 
 ignorance, to assume that, because by God's grace we 
 carry in ourselves the destinies of so grand a future, a 
 deep and impassable gulf of separation must therefore 
 divide even the material particles of our frame from 
 those of all other creatures which find their develop- 
 ment in so poor a life ? What sanction have we for 
 this assumption? Is it to be found in the future fate of 
 
 before the British Association this year, and now in the Ethnolog. Soc.'s 
 Transactions. 
 
 1 If the word, which has the authority of Clemens Alexandrinus, and 
 which is now imperiously demanded by the wants of science, may be 
 pardoned on the score of its necessity.
 
 CH. iv. THE INFANCY OF HUMANITY. 51 
 
 the elements of our body destined, as we know they 
 are, to be swept along by the magic ! eddy of nature, 
 to be transmuted by her potent alchemy into nameless 
 transformations, and subjected by her pitiless economy 
 to what we should blindly consider as nameless dis- 
 honour ? or, looking backwards as well as forwards, is 
 it to be found in the fact that there are stages in the 
 earlier development of the human embryo, during 
 which the most powerful microscope, and the most 
 delicate analysis, can neither detect nor demonstrate 
 the slightest difference between the 2 three living germs 
 of which one is destined to be a wolf, the second a 
 horse, and the third a man ? If the question is to be 
 degraded from scientific decision into a matter for tea- 
 table aesthetics and ignorant prepossessions, is this 
 certain embryonic degradation or immaturity less op- 
 pressive than the admission of a bare possibility that, 
 myriads of centuries ago, there may have been a near 
 genetic connection between the highest of the animals 
 and the lowest of the human race? It is not yet 
 proved that there was ; we believe that there was not ; 
 but, nevertheless, the hypothesis is neither irreverent 
 nor absurd. Let those who love truth only consider 
 what are the certain facts about our mortal bodies, and 
 be still; awaiting the gradual revelation of His own 
 past workings which the All-wise Creator may yet 
 vouchsafe, not assuredly to the clamorous, the idle, and 
 the ignorantly denunciative, but to humble and studious 
 enquirers, to those loftier and less self-complacent 
 souls, whom He has endowed with the desire, the wisdom, 
 and the ability to search out the pathless mystery of 
 
 1 Coleridge, Aids to Reflection ; Huxley, Led. pp. 15-19"; Hamlet, \. 1. 
 
 2 Karl Snell, Die Schopfung des Menschcn, p. 130. 
 
 I 2
 
 52 OX LANGUAGE. CH. iv. 
 
 His ways, through long years of noble and self-sacrifi- 
 cing toil. 
 
 It has, indeed, been asserted that the languages of 
 Rome barbarous nations for instance, the Greenlanders 
 and the North American Indians are of so rich, so 
 perfect, and so artistic a structure, that they could not 
 possibly have been achieved by them in their present 
 condition, and furnish a proof that they have sunk into 
 savagery from a state of higher culture. Du Ponceau ' 
 speaks in the most glowing terms of the genius dis- 
 played in the infinite variety and perfect regularity of 
 those languages. Charlevoix calls attention to the 
 beautiful union of energy and nobleness in the Huron, 
 where, as in the Turkish, 'tout se conjugue.' Dr. 
 James says that there are seven or eight thousand pos- 
 sible forms of the verb in Chippeway. Appleyard 2 tells 
 us that ' the South African languages, though spoken 
 by tribes confessedly uncivilised and illiterate, are 
 highly systematic and truly philosophical ; ' that in 
 Kafir there are a hundred different forms for the pro- 
 noun 'its,' 3 and that 'the system of alliteration main- 
 tained throughout its grammatical forms is one of the 
 most curious and ingenious ever known.' Threlkeld 4 
 tells us similar facts about the Australian dialects; and 
 Caldwell, 5 in his ' Comparative Grammar of the Dravi- 
 dian Languages,' occupies many pages with the laws of 
 euphonic permutation of consonants and harmonic se- 
 
 1 Et. du Ponceau, Mem. sur le Syst. Gram, de quelques Nations in- 
 diennes, passim. A most valuable and brilliant work. 
 
 2 Kafir Grammar, pref. 
 
 * Id. p. 66 ; p. 6, note, &c. 
 
 4 Threlkeld, Australian Gram. p. 8. 
 
 * Dravidian Grammar, pp. 126-138.
 
 CH. iv. THE INFANCY OF HUMANITY. 53 
 
 quence of vowels, which exist both in those and in the 
 Scythian languages. Instances of similar exuberance 
 and complexity in savage languages might be indefinitely 
 multiplied ; l and the argument that they imply an 
 intellectual power superior to what we now find in these 
 races, and that they therefore prove a condition pre- 
 viously exalted, is so plausible that in a former 2 work 
 I regarded it as convincing. Further examination has 
 entirely removed this belief. For this apparent wealth 
 of synonyms and grammatical forms is chiefly due to the 
 hopeless poverty of the power of abstraction. It would be 
 not only no advantage, but even an impossible incum- 
 brance to a language required for literary purposes. The 
 'transnormal' character of these tongues only proves that 
 they are the work of minds incapable of all subtle 
 analysis, and following in one single direction an erro- 
 neous and partial line of development. When the 
 mind has nothing else to work upon, it will expend its 
 energy in a lumbering and bizarre multiplicity of lin- 
 guistic expedients, and by richness of expression will 
 try to make up for poverty of thought. Many of these 
 vaunted languages (e. g. the American and Polynesian), 
 these languages which have countless forms of conju- 
 gation, and separate words for the minutest shades of 
 specific meaning, these holophrastic languages, with 
 their 'jewels fourteen syllables long,' to express the 
 commonest and most familiar objects, so far from 
 proving a once-elevated intellectual condition of the 
 people who speak them, have not even yet arrived at 
 
 1 Appleyard, p. 69 ; Du Ponceau, p. 95 ; Howse, Cree Gram. p. 7 ; 
 Pott, Die Ungleichheit d. menschl. Sagen, p. 253 ; Steinthal, Charakter- 
 istik, p. 176 ; Maury, La Terre et FHomme, p. 463. 
 
 * Origin of Lang. p. 28. See too Vater, Mithrid. iii. 328.
 
 54 OX LANGUAGE. CH. iv. 
 
 the very simple abstraction l required to express the 
 verb * to be/ which Condillac assumed to be the earliest 
 of invented verbs ! The state of these languages, so far 
 from proving any retrogression from previous culture, 
 is an additional proof of primordial and unbroken bar- 
 barism. The triumph of civilisation is not complexity 
 but simplicity : and unless an elaborate Polytheism be 
 more intellectual than Monotheism, unless the Chinese 
 ideography, with its almost indefinite number of signs, 
 be a proof of greater progress than our alphabet, then 
 neither is mere Polysynthetism and exuberance of syn- 
 onyms a proof of actual culture in the past, or possible 
 progress in the future. If language proves anything, 
 it proves that these savages must have lived continuously 
 in a savage condition. 2 
 
 I will here quote two high and unbiassed authorities 
 in support of the same conclusion: 
 
 'It has already been observed,' says Mr. G-arnett, 3 
 ' that very exaggerated and erroneous ideas have been 
 advanced respecting the structure of the class of lan- 
 guages of which we have been treating in the present 
 paper. They have been represented as the products 
 of deep philosophical contrivance, and totally different 
 in organisation from those of every part of the known 
 
 1 In American and Polynesian languages there are forms for ' I am 
 well,' ' I am here,' &c., but not for ' I am.' In Elliot's Indian Bible ' I 
 am that I am,' is rendered ' I do, I do' (compare the French idiom ' il 
 fait nuit,' &c.). More than this, savage nations cannot even adopt the 
 verb ' to be.' A negro says, ' Your hat no lib that place you put him in.' 
 'My mother done lib for deyilly' (=is dead). Hutchinson, Ten Years' 
 Wanderings, p. 32. 
 
 2 See among many other authorities Pott, Die Ungl. der mensch!. 
 Safen, p. 86; Du Ponceau, Transl. of Zeisberger' s Lenni-Lenape Gram. 
 p. 14 ; Crawfurd. Malay Gram. i. 68 ; Adelung, Mithrid. iii. 6, 205. 
 
 1 Philological Essays, p., 321.
 
 CH. iv. THE INFANCY OF HUMANITY. 55 
 
 world. The author of " Mithridates " regards it as an 
 astonishing phenomenon that a people like the Green- 
 landers, struggling for subsistence among perpetual ice 
 and snow, would have found the means of constructing 
 such a complex and artificial system. It is conceived 
 that there cannot be a greater mistake than to suppose 
 that a complicated language is like a chronometer, or a 
 locomotive engine, a product of deep calculation, and 
 preconceived adaptation of its several parts to each 
 other. The compound parts are rather formed like 
 crystals, by the natural affinity of the component ele- 
 ments ; and whether the forms are more or less complex, 
 the principle of aggregation is the same.' 
 
 * In those which abound most in inflections,' says Mr. 
 Albert Gallatin, 1 ' nothing more has been done than to 
 effect, by a most complex process, and with a cumber- 
 some and unnecessary machinery, that which, in almost 
 every other language, has been as well, if not better 
 performed by the most simple means. Those transitions, 
 in their complexness, and in the still visible amalgama- 
 tion of the abbreviated pronouns with the verb, bear, in 
 fact, the impress of primitive and unpolished languages.' 
 
 Language, then, from whatever point of view we 
 regard it, seems to confirm instead of weakening the 
 inference to which we are irresistibly led by Geology, 
 History, and Archaeology that Man, 
 
 The heir of all the ages in the foremost files of Time, 
 
 is a very much nobler and more exalted animal than the 
 shivering and naked savage whose squalid and ghastly 
 relics are exhumed from Danish kjokken-moddings, and 
 
 1 Archeeologia Americana, ii. p. 203, quoted by Mr. Garnet*.
 
 56 ON LANGUAGE. CH. iv. 
 
 glacial deposits, and the stalactite flooring of freshly- 
 opened caves. These primeval lords of the untamed 
 creation, so far from being the splendid and angelic 
 beings of the poet's fancy, appear to have resembled far 
 more closely the Tasmanian, the Fuegian, the Green- 
 lander, and the lowest inhabitants of Pelagian caverns 
 or Hottentot kraals. We believe that in Scripture itself 
 there are indications that they appeared upon the sur- 
 face of the globe many ages before those simple and 
 noble-minded shepherds from whose loins have sprung 
 the Aryans and Semites those two great races to whom 
 all the world's progress in knowledge and civilisation 
 has been solely due.
 
 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF DISTINCT THOUGHT. 
 
 Wenn ein unendlich Gefuhl aufwogt in der Seele des Dichter's, 
 
 dann mag er ahnen von fern das Geheimniss der Sprache, 
 Wie in der Zeiten Beginn aus dem erwachenden Geist, 
 
 Da er sich selbst und die Dinge vernahm, das lebendige Wort sprach 
 Offenbarung und That, gottlich und menschlich zugleich. 
 
 GEIBEL. 
 
 LANGUAGE may with more accuracy be called a Discovery 
 or a Creation, than an Invention of the human race. 
 Undoubtedly the idea of speech existed in the human 
 intelligence as a part of our moral and mental constitu- 
 tion when man first appeared upon the surface of the 
 earth. In this sense we may call language a divine 
 gift, and may apply to it, with perfect truth, the passage 
 of Tertullian : * invenisse dicuntur necessaria ista vitse, 
 noil instituisse ; quod autem invenitur fait, et quod fait 
 non ejus deputabitur qui invenit, sed ejus qui instituit. 
 Erat enim antequam inveniretur.' * 
 
 But the germs may perish for want of development, 
 and like the seeds in the diluvium, or grains of wheat in 
 the hand of a mummy, may lie hidden for centuries 
 before they meet with that combination of circumstances 
 which is capable of quickening them into life. Yet we 
 
 J Apolog. adv. Gentes, zi.
 
 58 ON LANGUAGE. CH. v. 
 
 do not agree with Leasing in supposing that if man dis- 
 covered language by the exercise of his own endowments, 
 i.e. if he merely evolved the speech-power which existed 
 within him as an immanent faculty, long centuries 
 would necessarily have been required for the purpose. 
 The wants of primitive men, like the wants of infants, 
 are few and simple, 1 and wholly sensuous. It is certain, 
 by universal admission, that the ultimate roots of lan- 
 guage are few in number ; it is nearly certain that no 
 language possesses more than a thousand, and that some 
 have far fewer. These roots we regard as mere etymo- 
 logic fictions ; but if, with Max Miiller, we suppose that 
 they were ever used as words, there must, even on this 
 theory, have been a period when men used but a f&iu 
 words ; and consequently, since the notion of any reve- 
 lation of these roots is expressly repudiated, there must 
 have been a time, however short, in which man had no 
 words, no articulate language at all, and in which 
 significant gestures could have been his only way for 
 communicating his thoughts. And this time, however 
 short, must also be postulated even if, in defiance of 
 Scripture, it be supposed that language was revealed. 
 
 But why should it be held impossible that man once 
 existed with nothing but the merest rudiments of 
 speech ? There are whole nations even now which, if 
 the testimony of travellers is to be accepted, possess very 
 
 1 Prof. Max Miiller traces back all language to ' roots,' and there he 
 would stop, declaring the use of them to be an ultimate and inexplicable 
 fact. Inexplicable indeed! yet the 'theory of roots,' 'phonetic types,' 
 incapable of further analysis and, so far as appears, either wholly arbi- 
 trary, or else containing in themselves some mystic inherent fitness, is 
 offered to us in the place of theories, so simple, so natural, and in part 
 so demonstrable, as those -which trace the rise and gradual growth of 
 language out of onomatopoeia and interjection.
 
 CH. v. DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT. 59 
 
 little more. Nor, indeed, is it necessary to look to the 
 remotest parts of the earth to find how very few are the 
 words which are necessary to express the wants of man. 
 Mr. D'Orsey mentions that some of his parishioners had 
 not a vocabulary of more than 300 words ; and although 
 the assertion has been widely disputed, I should cer- 
 tainly be inclined to confirm it out of my own experi- 
 ence. I once listened for a long time together to the 
 conversation of three peasants who were gathering 
 apples among the boughs of an orchard, and as far as I 
 could conjecture, the whole number of words they used 
 did not exceed a hundred ; the same word was made to 
 serve a multitude of purposes, 1 and the same coarse 
 expletives recurred with a horrible frequency in the 
 place of every single part of speech, and with every 
 variety of meaning which the meagre context was 
 capable of supplying. Kepeated observation has since 
 then confirmed the impression. If this be so in Chris- 
 tian and highly-civilised England in the nineteenth 
 century, what may not have been perhaps ten thousand 
 years before the Saviour was born into the world ? 
 
 If, then, man once existed with only the germs of 
 speech and of understanding, to what was their develop- 
 ment due? The question admits of distinct answer, 
 and that answer is full both of interest and value. 
 
 The first men who ever lived must have learned for 
 themselves those simplest lessons which have to be 
 learnt afresh by every infant of their race. Confused, 
 yet lovely, was the multitude of influences and appear- 
 ances by which they were surrounded ; how should they 
 
 1 Just as in Chinese the same root may be a noun, a yerb, and some- 
 times also a particle. Heyse, 134.
 
 60 ON LANGUAGE. en. Y. 
 
 thrid the ail-but inextricable mazes of impressions so 
 manifold ? Over their heads the sun, and moon, and 
 the infinite stars of heaven, 1 rose and set in endless 
 succession ; the heavens outspread their illimitable 
 splendour ; woods waved, and waters rolled, and flowers 
 exhaled their perfume, and fruits yielded their sweet- 
 ness, and the hours of day and night and the four 
 seasons of the year encircled them in their mystic dance. 
 Had man been created unintelligent, and merely recep- 
 tive, the waves of this vast tide of being must have broken 
 over him in vain ; and, in the absence of a living spirit, 
 the world must have continued to seem unto all save 
 the Highest Being a formless chaos no better, for all 
 its lustre and loveliness, than if the darkness had still 
 brooded over the void abyss. But that soul, ' created 
 in the image of God,' whose birth is recorded in the 
 book of Genesis, bore no resemblance to the statue-man 
 of Condillac's famous Traite des Sensations. Had it 
 been so, the senses could only have produced a jarring 
 multitude of heterogeneous impressions, and man would 
 have continued to be that mere organised sensitive mass 
 which Saint Lambert supposes him to be at the moment 
 of his birth until ' Nature has created for him a soul ! ' 
 For unless there had also been in man the ' intellectus 
 ipse ' of Leibnitz, unless there had been the intelligence, 
 as well as the sensorium commune, even sensation 
 would be impossible, 2 seeing that in the complex act 
 which we call sensation man opposes the internal action 
 of his conscious individuality to the influence of external 
 causes. Without this apperception, there could be no 
 
 1 See a glorious passage of S. Chrysostom, Or. xii. 385, quoted by 
 Lersch, i. 89 ; and Herbart, Lehrb. d. Psychol. p. 194. 
 
 2 Herbart* Psychol. p. 108.
 
 CH. v. DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT. 61 
 
 such thing as self-conscious sensation, 1 nor could man- 
 kind ever have arisen to any higher region than that of 
 mere organic impressions. 
 
 But although at first the intellect be but a passive 
 and dormant faculty, it is there, and it is the sole 
 clue wherewith we disentangle the myriad-ravelled in- 
 tricacy of sensuous impressions. And thus the senses 
 become the gateways of knowledge; and a man born 
 without the capacity for external sensations would also 
 be of necessity soulless and mindless, because, though 
 not the single source of all our thoughts and faculties, 
 the senses are yet the necessary condition of their 
 development. Thus it is that the senses, during the 
 earliest days of man's existence, act the part of nursing 
 mothers 2 to the soul, to which afterwards they become 
 the powerful and obedient handmaids. They are the 
 organs of communion between man and the outer world ; 
 they place him en rapport with it, uniting man to the 
 Universe, and men to one another. Thus they baptize 
 man as a member of the moral and physical cosmos, 
 
 1 See Viet. Cousin, Cours de Phil. iii. passim. ' Sensation,' says Morell, 
 ' is not purely a passive state, but implies a certain amount of mental 
 activity. It may be described on the psychological side as resulting 
 directly from the attention which the mind gives to the affections of its 
 own organism. Extreme enthusiasm, or powerful emotion of any kind, 
 can make us altogether insensible to physical injury.' Hence, a soldier, 
 during the battle, is often unconscious of his wounds, and a general of 
 the roar of cannon going on around him. ' Numerous facts of a similar 
 kind prove demonstrably, that a certain application and exercise of 
 mind, on one side, is as necessary to the existence of sensation, as the 
 occurrence of physical impulse on the other.' Psychology, p. 107. In 
 point of fact, some nations are as pre-eminent for the keenness of their 
 senses as for the meanness of their intellect, which could not be the case 
 if the senses created the intellect. 
 
 2 Heyse, I. c.
 
 62 ON LANGUAGE. CH. v. 
 
 and awaken thereby the intellect, which would other- 
 wise l remain infructuous, like an unquickened seed. 
 
 The first conception which man must learn is the 
 conception of his own separate independent existence, 
 and without this conscious distinction between the Ego 
 and the Non-ego, not indeed as a notion so clear and 
 accurate as to admit of expression by the nominative of 
 the personal pronoun, but as the general basis of all 
 possible sensations, he cannot advance a single step. 
 And this lesson he learns by contact with the outer 
 world, and mainly, beyond all doubt, from the organ of 
 sight. At first he would regard himself (as all children 
 do) rather as an object than a subject; 2 rather as 'me' 
 than as * I ;' rather as 58s than as syto ; rather in relation to 
 others than as ' the machine which is to him, himself.' 
 But even this elementary lesson is sufficient for the 
 purposes of further education ; and 
 
 As he grows he gathers much 
 
 And learns the use of ' I ' and ' me,' 
 
 And finds ' I am not what I see, 
 And other than the things I touch : ' 
 
 So rounds he to a separate mind 
 
 From whence clear memory may begin, 
 As thro' the frame that binds him in 
 
 His isolation grows defined. 3 
 
 1 ' The earliest sign by which the Ego becomes perceptible is corporeal 
 sensation.' Feuchtersleben, Med. Psychol. p. 83, quoted by Fleming, 
 Vocab. of Phil. p. 457. 
 
 2 Mr. Browning, with that rare metaphysical accuracy which charac- 
 terises him, no less than the other great poet of our age, chooses the third 
 person as the only appropriate one for the meditations of the semi-brutal 
 Caliban. 
 
 ' Setebos, Setebos, and Setebos ; 
 Thinketh he dwelleth in the cold grey moon,' &c. 
 
 Theology in the Island. 
 * Tennyson, In Memoriam, xliv.
 
 CH. v. DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT. 63 
 
 The child, like the primal man, who has advanced 
 thus far, learns with rapid and intuitive instinct to 
 separate and discriminate between the many distinct 
 and different impressions caused by physical contact 
 with the outer world. 
 
 Thus, then, by means of an instinctive and reciprocal 
 action, the senses develop the self-conscious individu- 
 ality; and the self-consciousness, which contains indeed 
 the germ of all intelligence, first quickens and then 
 distinguishes, analyses, and combines, the impressions of 
 those senses which have called it into life. And since 
 two factors the physical and the psychical are in- 
 dispensable to every true sensation, the two are so in- 
 timately related that, whereas without the psychical 
 factor the physical could not exist, on the other hand, 
 without the physical factor the psychical could not be 
 developed. Speech is undoubtedly the product of the 
 thinking spirit; but this spirit 1 received the first im- 
 pulse of development from the impressions of the outer 
 world and the needs of practical life. 
 
 At first, if we may trust the analogy of childhood, 
 even . sensuous influences must have been frequently 
 repeated before they produced any definite impression. 
 Feeling, which is a dull total impression, precedes 
 sensation, to which indeed some of the lowest organisms 
 
 1 Steinthal, Grammatik, Logik, und Psychol. 238 fg. Heyse, 46. 
 In this and the following remarks I have chiefly, though by no means 
 exclusively, followed this wise and clear thinker. I fear that the un- 
 familiar words, intuition, representation, concept, &c., will render this 
 tedious to readers unaccustomed to metaphysical enquiry ; but I thought 
 it better to adopt them than to confuse matters by that excessive loose- 
 ness of English philosophical terms which we chiefly owe to the vacil- 
 lating usage of Locke. I am greatly indebted to Fleming's Vocabulary 
 of Philosophy.
 
 64 OX LANGUAGE. CH. v. 
 
 can never attain at all ; for, as we have seen already, 
 an act of attention is required for every definite sensa- 
 tion, and it is not until after many sensations that we 
 obtain a clear perception. * Light l strikes on the infant 
 retina ; waves of air pulsate on the infant tympanum, 
 but these as yet produce neither sight nor hea'ring ; they 
 are only the preparations for sight and hearing. . . . On 
 the educated sense objects act so instantaneously as to 
 produce what we call their sensations ; on the uneducated 
 sense they act only so as to produce a vague impression, 
 which becomes more and more definite by repetition.' 
 
 It is not, however, long before the sensuous impression 
 (Sinnes-eindruck] has kindled the electric fire of self- 
 consciousness in other words, the presentation soon 
 becomes a perception or a sensation ; for by a perception 
 (Wahrnelvmung} we mean a conscious presentation in 
 reference to an object, and by a sensation (Empfindung} 
 we mean a conscious presentation in reference to the 
 modification of our own being. The impression on the 
 senses, by calling into reciprocal action the two parts of 
 our nature, produces a sensation, i. e. a certain conscious 
 change in the state of our own minds ; and these sensa- 
 tions rapidly give us a perception, i. e. they teach us 
 something, which is at least subjectively true, respecting 
 the qualities of matter. 
 
 But sensation and perception are common to man 
 with the more intelligent animals, and the perfection 
 
 1 Lewes, Biog. Hist, of Phil. p. 442. That attention is necessary even 
 for a sensation, we may see from the fact that ordinarily (without a 
 definite act of abstraction and observation) we are wholly unconscious of 
 the numberless reflections of light, sound, smell, &c., which are playing 
 on our senses. In fact, the phenomena of abstraction, reverie, preoccu- 
 pation, absence of mind, &c., all point to this conclusion. See Sir H. 
 Holland, Chapters on Mental Physiology.
 
 CH. v. DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT. 65 
 
 of human reason enables us to advance further than this. 
 Sensations tell us nothing about objects, but only about 
 properties or attributes ; we rise from sensations there- 
 fore to intuitions (Anschauungeri), 1 which are a complex 
 of all the sensations caused by an object, Sensations 
 are analytical ; they come to us from different senses, 
 and tell us the shape, colour, sound, weight, hardness, 
 &c., of an object: the intuition gives us the object 
 itself as the synthesis of all these separable attributes, 
 so that gradually we grow familiar with the sensuous 
 perception, in its totality, as a ' collective impression,' 
 or definite picture, ' presented 2 under the condition of 
 distinct existence in space or time ; ' and this we call an 
 Intuition, i. e., according to the definition of Coleridge, 
 ' a perception immediate and individual.' 
 
 And when this intuition has, by the power of abstrac- 
 tion, been raised into a complete picture, capable of 
 being analysed into various elements, and is held fast 
 in the consciousness as a permanent intellectual form, 
 which may be banished and recalled cut will, then we 
 have a Representation (Vorstellung) 3 the first per- 
 manent product of intellectual spontaneity, the first 
 definite intellectual exertion of the will. 
 
 Lastly, by still higher processes of intellectual abstrac- 
 
 1 Steinthal, Gram. Log. und Psychol. 261. His general outline of the 
 psychological process differs in some particulars from Heyse's. Mr. Mill 
 (Logic, i. 58 sq.) briefly touches on the same subject. He only alludes 
 to perceptions as acts of the mind ' which consist in the recognition of 
 an external object as the exciting cause of the sensation.' 
 
 2 Mansell, Proleg. Log. p. 9. We mean, of course, an ' empirical 
 intuition,' which, in the Kantian philosophy, corresponds to the repre- 
 sentation of a sensible object. German, Anschauung. 
 
 1 Steinthal calls this Ansehauung der Anschauung, i. e. a power of 
 regarding the intuition (v. supra) as an Intuition, which is firmly fixed 
 in the consciousness and memory. Grammatik, p. 295. 
 
 F
 
 66 OX LANGUAGE. CH. v. 
 
 tion, in which the judgment for the first time plays a 
 part, we raise the representation into the sphere of 
 generality, and then possess a notion or concept (Begriff). 
 A concept 1 grasps an object as the synthesis of all its 
 constituent attributes or properties ; the Kepresenta- 
 tion or image ( Vorstellung) is subjective, and different 
 people may have different images of the same object; 
 but the notion is the objective conception of the species, 
 and being independent of all accidental marks of the 
 individual representation, is and must be the same for 
 all men. The representation is due to the analytic 
 activity of Abstraction, but is entangled with the sen- 
 suous accidents of the individual object; the notion (or 
 concept) is the product of a higher creative activity of 
 the thinking (logical) intelligence, and produces that 
 ideal synthesis which enables us to think of a Genus or 
 Species. It so far retrogrades to the concrete intuition 
 as to reduce to unity a multitude of phenomena ; but 
 this unity is not that of the immediate object, but one 
 ideally recognised by the synthetic activity of the in- 
 tellect. The representation is arrived at by a merely 
 material analysis of the Intuition; the notion 2 by a 
 formal and logical analysis ; and distinct knowledge is 
 impossible without notions, which are thus the com- 
 mencement of the development of pure logical thought. 
 
 1 ' Conception ' should more accurately be used of ' the act of the under- 
 standing, bringing any given object or impression into the same class 
 with any number of other objects or impressions, by means of some 
 character or characters common to them all' (Coleridge, Church and 
 State, Prel. Rcm.'); concept of the result of the act. 
 
 2 'Notions, the depthless abstractions of fleeting phenomena, the 
 shadows of flitting vapours, the colourless repetitions of rainbows, hare 
 effected their utmost when they add to the distinctness of our know- 
 ledge.' Coleridge.
 
 CH. v. DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT. 67 
 
 Nevertheless, words correspond not to notions, but to 
 images or representations. They mark the object of 
 perception, not in the totality of its essential attributes, 
 but by some single mark whereby the image may be 
 conceived and fixed in the intelligence. In fact, the 
 representation ( Vorstellung\ which in ordinary, although 
 not in philosophical language, is called the conception, 
 is a mere empirical notion, derived from familiarity 
 with the external properties of the object (Anschauungs- 
 begrif, Erfahrungsbegriff], and this is what every word 
 expresses. The logical conception may be indefinitely 
 more accurate and profound, but must yet employ the 
 same word for its expression. Thus, to men in general, 
 * bird ' simply means a creature with wings ; nor would 
 their rough definition of it exclude either butterflies 
 or bats; yet the man of science has no other word 
 than this (bird), to express the complex of essential cha- 
 racteristics involved in the accurate definition. And the 
 philosopher uses the word 'man,' no less than the world 
 in general ; although the philosopher thereby expresses 
 an idea which it exhausts his intellect to describe or to 
 define, while the world merely implies by it the animal 
 which Plato characterised as ' a feather! ess biped,' and 
 which a modern philosopher has described as c a forked 
 radish with a curiously carved head.' 
 
 To illustrate this process : (i.) I see a bird flying, or 
 a tree in bloom, and it makes a sensuous impression 
 on my retina ; but if I am absent or preoccupied, I may 
 be wholly unconscious of this impression, which does 
 not become even a sensation until my consciousness is 
 excited. But when this is done, when my Attention is 
 drawn to it, I have (ii.) a perception (Wahi^nehmung], 
 When I contemplate this perception as an inward pic- 
 
 T 2
 
 68 ON LANGUAGE. CH. v. 
 
 ture, mirrored in my consciousness, I have (iii.) the 
 intuition (Anschauung) of the flying bird and the 
 blooming tree. If, by abstraction, I separate this 
 individual phenomenon in its concrete totality into its 
 several component elements, and range those elements 
 under some definite intellectual form as an ideal pos- 
 session of my consciousness, I then have (iv.) the repre- 
 sentations ( Vorstellungen, vernacule ' conceptions ') of 
 * bird,' ' flying,' * tree,' ' blooming.' But the analytic 
 activity of the intelligence proceeds still farther into 
 particulars : it separates the elements of a representa- 
 tion, and apprehends them as so many independent 
 representations. In the tree it distinguishes between 
 leaf, twig, stem, root, and the properties of height, 
 greenness, &c. all of which furnish so many separate 
 representations. It further distinguishes the species of 
 a representation, such as tree, into oak, beech, pine, &c., 
 each regarded as special representations, and recognised 
 by specific signs ; all of which I bear in mind when I 
 use the word ' tree,' which thus, by material analysis, 
 becomes to me (v.) an empirical concept (Erfahrungs- 
 begriff), formed by a synthesis of observed characteris- 
 tics, and expressing more or less adequately the nature 
 of the object. Lastly, by still further acts of intellec- 
 tual abstraction, I arrive (vi.) at the logical notion 
 (Verstandesbegriff), which is no longer merely empirical 
 or material, but which, by the synthetic activity l of the 
 judgment, recognises the object as the sum-total of all 
 those attributes (and those only) which constitute its 
 essence. 
 
 Once more then. From passive receptivity I am 
 
 1 Heyse, p. 86.
 
 CH. v. DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT. 69 
 
 awoke by sensuous impressions into free, spontaneous, 
 creative activity, whereby I pass through the stages of 
 sensation and perception to that of Intuition, in which 
 I first become independent of the immediate effect of 
 the external object on my senses, and then free myself 
 from the dominion of the senses, and possess an inward 
 picture which I can contemplate without any assistance 
 from them. Still advancing, my intellect creates re- 
 presentations for itself, no longer merely retaining the 
 sensuous picture, but forming it to an ideal existence, 
 and using it as its own possession and its own pro- 
 duction. 
 
 Sensations, Perceptions, Intuitions are individual 
 and special in their character ; but representations are 
 general, and no longer refer to that which is single and 
 concrete, or to the individual object of perception. In 
 this sense all words are Abstracta. The real world of 
 appearances, in which everything is individual, is 
 recreated ! by the intelligence into an ideal world of 
 general conceptions. 
 
 Thus, then, we have traced the psychological growth 
 of the concepts, which may be represented by language. 
 A word is a recognised audible sign for a special definite 
 Intuition or concept. From the genesis of the concept 
 we pass to the genesis of the sound which is accepted 
 as its sign ; and the questions which we have to consider 
 are, How does the sound originate, and what is the 
 connection, if any, between these two elements, the 
 intellectual and the sensual, the concept and the sound ? 
 We need not fear that all such questions are insoluble. 
 Speech is the expression of the free intellect, and if the 
 
 1 Heyse, p. 88.
 
 70 ON LANGUAGE. CH. v. 
 
 laws and processes of the intellect are capable of being 
 conceived and understood, why should Speech, 1 which is 
 nothing miraculous, arbitrary, or accidental, but which 
 is the natural organ and product of the intellect, be 
 deemed incapable of similar comprehension ? 
 
 1 Heyse, s. 20.
 
 71 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 * 
 
 POSSIBLE MODES OF EXPRESSING THOUGHT. 
 
 lie winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with 
 his fingers. PBOV. vi. 13. 
 
 FROM what we have already observed, it is evident that 
 every mode of expression serves only to describe internal 
 sensations, not outward facts ; it throws light on that 
 which is subjective, not on that which is objective ; it 
 expresses ourselves, not the world around us; sensations, 
 perceptions, intuitions, not external things. 
 
 But what is the medium of expression ? Obviously 
 it must have been one of the senses, which are the main 
 gateways of knowledge, the portals of intercommuni- 
 cation between man and man, between men and the 
 Universe around them. 
 
 It is conceivable that a language (i. e. a mode of com- 
 munication) might have been invented which should use 
 the medium of * the touch, the taste, or the smell. Yet 
 such a language, in the case of the two latter, could not 
 but be infinitely imperfect, difficult, and obscure, nor 
 has the attempt ever been made. This is to a less 
 degree the case with the touch. It is well known that 
 among certain animals the touch does serve all neces- 
 sary purposes of intercommunication. Bees, for instance, 
 
 1 Heyse, p. 29 ; Charma, Ess. sur le Lang, p. 50.
 
 72 ON LANGUAGE. CH. vi. 
 
 to mention but one notorious case, communicate to 
 each other the death of the queen by a rapid interlacing 
 and striking together of the 'antennae. Nor is a tactile 
 language wholly unknown to man. For instance, the 
 Armenian merchants, as we are informed by the traveller 
 Chardin, are able to inform each other of any modifica- 
 tion in their bargains, however complex, without the 
 notice of the purchaser, by holding their hands toge- 
 ther under their mantles, and moving * them in a par- 
 ticular manner. Yet a language which required for its 
 possible development a constant contact, could never 
 serve the purposes of so elevated a being as man. ' A 
 
 The two highest and most ideal senses remain, and 
 these, as they affect the soul more nearly and powerfully 
 than the others, were clearly the best adapted for the 
 expression of thought, which is a modification of the 
 intelligent subject. We find accordingly that all actual 
 language addresses itself to the eye or to the ear. 
 
 For in point of fact Art may be regarded as a lan- 
 guage. We have read of a sculptor who conveyed, by 
 means of a statue, the intense impression produced in 
 his mind by the dawn of a summer day ; and there is 
 scarcely a thought, an emotion, or a fact that may not 
 be conveyed by painting. Imitation a fundamental 
 principle on which rests the possibility of any commu- 
 nication between two sentient beings may appeal as 
 directly to the eye as to the ear. Philomela effectually 
 reveals, by the mute tapestry, her woven tale : 
 
 1 Voy. en Perse, iv. 267, ed. Rouen. ' The finger extended means ten ; 
 bent it means five ; the bottom of the finger is one ; the hand, a hundred ; 
 the hand bent, a thousand. By similar motions of the hand they indicate 
 pounds, shillings, and pence, their faces all the while continuing to be 
 expressionless and blank.'
 
 CH. vi. MODES OF EXPRESSION. 73 
 
 Os mutum facti caret indice. Grande doloris 
 Ingenium est, miserisque venit solertia rebus ! 
 Stamina barbarica suspendit Candida tela, 
 Purpureasque notas fllis intexuit albis, 
 Indicium sceleris. 1 
 
 Shakspeare's mutilated Lavinia does not lack the means 
 of revealing the authors of the outrage she has suffered. 
 Pictures and hieroglyphics continue to this day among 
 various Indian tribes, a sure method of reporting facts ; 
 and we know from history that a rude sketch first con- 
 veyed to Montezuma the ominous intelligence that men 
 in strange vessels and of strange garb had landed on his 
 shores. Nay, more, the mighty invention of a written 
 alphabet has translated the sounds addressed to the ear 
 into symbols for the eye ; and one half at least of the 
 thoughts of other men, whereof we become cognisant 
 from day to day, is conveyed to us through the medium 
 of sight. 
 
 How easy and how natural would have been a lan- 
 guage of gesticulation, addressed solely to the eye, is 
 proved by the large use of gestures to supplement the 
 lacunas of a miserable speech among some degraded 
 savage tribes ; as, for instance, the Delaware Indians, 
 who count by raising their hands a certain number of 
 times, striking them as many times as there are tens. 
 With savages generally, quot membra, tot linguae ; and 
 of course for the deaf and dumb an eye language is the 
 only one that can exist. To them the 'parole matiuelle' 2 
 is the only possible or intelligible speech, as it undoubt- 
 edly would be to the whole human race if the sense of 
 hearing were to become extinct. And that such a lan- 
 
 1 Ov. Met. vi. 38 sqq. 
 
 2 An expression of Jamet (Mem. sur flnstr. des Sourds-muets, p. 15), 
 quoted by Channa, p. 187. Condillac called it ' langage de la danse.'
 
 74 ON LANGUAGE. CH. vi. 
 
 guage would be most rapidly developed, and would be 
 the same throughout the globe, appears certain from the 
 fact that deaf mutes from different countries can at once 
 converse together with freedom, when their speaking 
 countrymen can hold no communication; and that 
 many signs, even some which apparently are quite arbi- 
 trary, 1 are mutually intelligible to the deaf mute and the 
 savage. ^Elian 2 relates an amusing instance of such a 
 result. The tyrant Tryzus, that he might repress all 
 possible means of conspiracy, published an edict that 
 his subjects were to hold no communication with each 
 other, either in public or in private. The order was at 
 once rendered nugatory by an extraordinary develop- 
 ment of the power of expressing thought by signs and 
 gestures. When even this mode of intercourse was for- 
 bidden by the suspicious despot, one of the citizens 
 went into the forum, and, without speaking a word, 
 burst into a flood of tears. He was soon surrounded by 
 a weeping multitude, who flew upon the tyrant and his 
 bodyguard when he advanced to scatter them, and vin- 
 dicated by his assassination their liberty of speech ! 3 
 
 In truth, gesture is a most eloquent and powerful 
 exponent of emotion, and may add almost incredible 
 force to the utterance of the tongue. ' Every passion 
 
 1 See some curious confirmations and instances of this in Marsh's 
 Lectures, ed. Smith, p. 486. 
 
 2 Hist. Far. xiv. 22. 
 
 3 See some excellent remarks in Marsh's Lectures, pp. 486-488. 'The 
 language of gesture,' he says, ' is so well understood in Italy, that -when 
 King Ferdinand returned to Naples after the revolutionary movements 
 of 1822, he made an address to the lazzaroni from the balcony of the 
 palace, wholly by signs, which, in the midst of the most tumultuous 
 shouts, were perfectly intelligible to his public. And it is traditionally 
 affirmed that the famous conspiracy of the Sicilian vespers was organised 
 wholly by facial signs, not even the hand being employed.'
 
 CH. vi. MODES OF EXPRESSION. 75 
 
 of .the heart,' says Cicero, 1 * has its appropriate look, and 
 tone, and gesture ; and the whole body of man, and his 
 whole countenance, and all the voices he utters, reecho 
 like the strings of a harp to the touch of every emotion 
 in his soul.' * What would you have said had you heard 
 the master himself? ' exclaimed ^Eschines to the admir- 
 ing Rhodians, who had just heard him read the mighty 
 oration of Demosthenes on the Crown ; and Demosthenes 
 has doubtless told us one great secret of that eloquence 
 which 
 
 Fulmined o'er Greece, and shook the Arsenal 
 
 To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne, 
 
 when he defined gesticulation as the first, the second, 
 and the third qualification of the successful orator. 
 Who that in modern days has seen a Kemble or a 
 Siddons, a Rachel, a Helen Faucit, or a Ristori, can be 
 ignorant of what a language may be uttered by every 
 motion and every look ? Yet it is probable that even 
 the first of our modern actors falls short in this respect 
 of the skill of the ancient pantomimes, of whose ' loqua- 
 cissimae manus, linguosi digiti, silentium clamosum, ex- 
 positio tacita,' Cassiodorus 2 gives so lively a description. 
 These may have been the considerations which led 
 Isaac Vossius deliberately to give the preference to ges- 
 ticulation over language, and to regret that the whole 
 human race does not banish ' the plague and confusion 
 of so many tongues,' and adopt an universal and self- 
 evident system of signs and pantomimic expression. 3 
 'Nunc vero,' he continues, 'ita comparatum est ut 
 
 1 De Oratore, iii. 216. 
 
 * Var. iv. 51. 
 
 * Many an amusing story has been told of the facility with which by 
 such means of expression Englishmen have travelled all over the con- 
 tinent with no fragment of any language except their own.
 
 76 ON LANGUAGE. CH. vi. 
 
 animalium, quae vulgo bruta creduntur, melior longe 
 quam nostra hac in parte videatur conditio, utpote quse 
 promptius et forsan felidus sensus et cogitationes suas 
 sine interprete significant, quam ulli queant morta- 
 les (!), prsesertim si peregrine utatur sermone.' 1 Idle 
 as the complaint may be, it is founded on the fact that 
 gesture is in many cases more rapid and intense in the 
 effect which it produces than words themselves. The 
 sidelong glance, the drooping lid, the expanded nostril, 
 the curving lip are more instantaneously eloquent than 
 any mere expression of disdain; 2 and the starting eye- 
 ball and open mouth tell more of terror than the most 
 abject words. M. Charma tells an anecdote of the actor 
 Talma that, disgusted at the disproportion of praise 
 which' was attributed to the words of, the poets, by 
 which in the theatre he produced such thrilling effect, 
 he one day, in the midst of a gay circle of friends, 
 suddenly retreated a step, passed his hand over his fore- 
 head, and gave to his voice and figure the expression of 
 the profoundest despair. The assembly grew silent, pale, 
 and shuddering, as though (Edipus had appeared among 
 them, when, as by a lightning-flash, his parricide was 
 revealed to him, or as though the avenging Furies had 
 suddenly startled them with their gleaming torches. 
 Yet the words which the actor spoke with that aspect 
 of consternation and voice of anguish formed but the 
 fragment of a nursery song, and the effects of action 
 triumphed over those produced by words. 3 
 
 1 Is. Vossius, De Poematum Cantu, p. 66, Oxon. 1673. It was the 
 love of paradox, apparent in this passage, that led Charles II. to say of 
 Voss that he believed everything except the Bible ! 
 
 2 See Charma (Ess. sur le Lang. p. 21), who has treated this subject 
 admirably. 
 
 * Garrick on rare occasions used, as he called it, ' to go his rounds,'
 
 CH. vi. MODES OF EXPRESSION. 77 
 
 It is, however, easy to see that gesture could never 
 be a perfect means of intercommunication. Energetic, 
 rapid, and faithful, it is yet obscure because it is syl- 
 leptic, i. e. it expresses but the most general facts of 
 the situation, and is incapable of distinguishing or 
 decomposing them, and wholly inadequate to express 
 the delicate shades of difference of which every form of 
 verbal expression is capable. The flashing of a glance 
 may belie years of fulsome panegyric ; a sudden yawn 
 may dissipate the effect of a mass of compliments 
 poured out during hours of simulated interest ; an irre- 
 pressible tear, a stolen and smothered sigh, the flutter 
 of a nerve, or the tremble of a finger, may betray the 
 secret of a life which no words could ever have re- 
 vealed. 1 The veiled and silent figure of Niobe may be 
 more full o*f pathos than the most garrulous of wailing 
 elegies. The wounds of the victor of Marathon, or the 
 maimed figure of the brother of ^Eschylus, the unveiled 
 bosom of Phryne, or the hand pointing to the Capitol 
 which Manlius had saved, may have produced effects 
 more thrilling than any eloquence; but such appeals 
 were only possible at moments of intense passion, or 
 under a peculiar combination of circumstances. The 
 
 i. e. to make his face and gestures assume in succession the aspects 
 produced by the whole round of passions and emotions, from simple good 
 humour to that of profound despair. 
 
 1 ' Whereto the Queen agreed 
 
 With such and so unmoved a majesty 
 
 She might have seemed her statue, but that he, 
 
 Low-drooping till he well-nigh kissed her feet 
 
 For loyal awe, saw with a sidelong eye 
 
 The shadow of a piece of pointed lace, 
 
 In the Queen's shadow, vibrate on the walls, 
 
 And parted, laughing in his courtly heart.' 
 
 Tennyson, Idylls of the King, p. 208.
 
 78 ON LANGUAGE. CH. vi. 
 
 ancient orators, well aware of the power which lies in 
 these mute appeals, made them gradually ridiculous by 
 the frequency with which they employed them ; and the 
 introduction of a weeping boy upon the rostrum would 
 produce but little weight when many of the audience 
 knew that weeping may express a wide variety of 
 emotions, and when an injudicious question as to the 
 obscure cause of those moving tears might elicit the 
 mal-apropos complaint ' Se ex pcedagogo vellicari.'' l 
 
 In moments of extreme passion, then, a language of 
 gesture, a language appealing to the eye rather than the 
 ear, is not only possible but extremely powerful, and 
 one which will never be entirely superseded. And pos- 
 sibly some natures may be so sensitive, some faces so 
 expressive, that even during the most peaceful and 
 equable moments of life the passing thought may touch 
 the countenance with its brightness or its gloom. But 
 this could never be the case with any but a few; 
 and even with these, what attention would be found 
 equal to read and interpret, without fatigue, symbols 
 and expressions so subtle and so fugitive ? Moreover, 
 to the blind, and to all during the darkness, and when- 
 ever an opaque body intervened, and whenever the face 
 was turned in another direction, such language would 
 instantly become impossible. It is incapable of repre- 
 senting the distinctness and successiveness of thought ; 
 it is limited on every side by physical conditions ; it 
 requires an attention too exclusive and intense ; it 
 would reach a shorter distance, 2 and appeal to a less 
 spiritual sense. 
 
 1 ' Puer, quid fleret, interrogates, se ex psedagogo Tellicari respondit.' 
 Quint, vi. 1. On the adoption of this trick before the dikasteria, see 
 Aristophanes, Vesp. 568-571. 2 Charma, p. 51. Heyse, 29.
 
 CH. vi. MODES OF EXPRESSION. 79 
 
 For though both Sight and Hearing are ideal senses, 
 as distinguished from the inferior ones of touch, taste, 
 and smell, Hearing is more ideal in its nature, and 
 reaches more nearly to the soul than Sight. It is the 
 clearest, liveliest, and most instantaneously affected 
 of the senses. That which is seen is material, 1 and 
 remains in space, but that which is heard (although in 
 reality as permanent and as corporeal ) yet to our blunt 
 senses has a purely ideal existence, and vanishes imme- 
 diately in time. Hence sound is especially adapted to 
 be the bearer; and the ear to be the receiver of thought, 
 which is an activity requiring time for its successive 
 developments, and is therefore well expressed by a 
 succession of audible sounds. Juxtaposition in space 
 appealing to the eye could only remotely and analo- 
 gously recall this succession in time. Moreover, hearing 
 requires but the air, the most universal of all mediums, 
 the most immediate condition of life; whereas the eye 
 requires light as well, and is far more dependent on 
 external accidents. The fact that even a sleeper is 
 instantly awoke to consciousness by the tremor of his 
 auditory nerve under the influence of the voice, is a 
 proof of the impressive and immediate adaptability of 
 sound to the exigencies of the intellectual life. So that 
 hearing is the very innermost of the senses, and stands 
 in the strictest and closest connection with our spiritual 
 existence. The ear is the ever-open 2 gateway of the 
 soul ; and, carried on the invisible wings of sound, 3 
 
 1 Heyse, 29 ; and see some beautiful remarks in Herder's Abhandlung 
 uber d. Urspr. d. Spracke, a. 101-108. 
 
 2 Heyse, p. 31. 
 
 s "Eirea irrtp6evra, or (as Home Tooke called his famous work) 
 language not only the vehicle of thought, but the wheels.
 
 80 OX LANGUAGE. CH. vi. 
 
 there are ever thronging through its portals, in the 
 guise of living realities, those things which of themselves 
 are incorporeal and unseen. Wonderful, indeed, that a 
 pulse of articulated air should be the only, or at any 
 rate the most perfect means wherewith to express our 
 thoughts l and feelings ! Without its incomprehensible 
 points of union with all that passes in a soul which yet 
 seems so wholly dissimilar from it, those thoughts and 
 emotions could perhaps have no distinct existence the 
 exquisite organism of our hearing would have been 
 rendered useless, and the entire plan of our existence 
 would have remained unperfected ! 
 
 1 Herder, Ideen zur Gesch. d. Menschheit,f. 190.
 
 81 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOUND AS THE VEHICLE OF THOUGHT. 
 
 ' Words are the sounds of the heart, and writings its pictures.' 
 
 YANGTSEE. 
 
 A GREAT part of the world around us is inanimate and 
 dumb ; yet such is the nature of all substances l that, 
 by means of sound, we can interpret to the intellect their 
 innermost peculiarity and constitution, even when light 
 is absent, or the eye is most easily deceived. The 
 inward shudder or oscillation of the component parts, 
 even of lifeless objects, produced by any mechanical or 
 external interference, betrays to us at once the degree 
 of cohesion and homogeneity between the component 
 particles, and some of their most general and necessary 
 properties. There is, as might have been expected, a 
 close analogy between the phenomena of Light and 
 those of Sound. Thus Sound, 2 in general, corresponds 
 to Sheen', Clear Sound to Brightness; Echo to Reflexion; 
 Noise, a confused indistinct sound, to Glimmer ; Clang, 
 a steady, pure, homogeneous sound, to Gloiv; Tone, 
 which is the element of music, and is derived from TS ivw 
 
 1 In the earlier part of this chapter I am mainly following the guidance 
 of Heyse (Syst. d. Sprachwissenschaft, 16), but I generally use my own 
 words, because I have sometimes to amplify and more often to condense. 
 
 2 Schall, Schein ; Hall, Helle ; Wiederhall, Wiedersehein ; Gerausch, 
 Schimmer or Geflimmer ; Klang, Glanz ; Ton, Farbe. 
 
 a
 
 82 OX LANGUAGE. CH. vii. 
 
 because it depends on the greater or lesser tension by 
 which it is produced, corresponds to Colour, and the 
 relations between the different colours in a picture no 
 less than those between the different intervals and 
 harmonic relations of sound in music, are expressed by 
 the word Tone. 
 
 All these kinds of sound are produced out of lifeless 
 substances by mechanical influence ; but they all differ 
 from articulate sound, and from all sound which is the 
 dynamic product of the animal organism. For sound, 
 thus spontaneously produced, the Germans reserve the 
 word Laut, for which we have no exact English equi- 
 valent, unless we choose a special sense of the word 
 utterance. 
 
 Voice (Stimme) is the capacity of dynamic sound- 
 production, but in English is chiefly used of man alone. 
 The lower order of animals, which have no lungs, and 
 fish, whose element is the water which is not a con- 
 ductor of voice, are dumb. The higher animals have 
 each their own utterance, by which they are recognisable, 
 and by which they recognise each other. It has gene- 
 rally been asserted, and it is repeated by Heyse, that 
 we cannot speak properly of a language of animals, 
 because their utterances only express a general con- 
 sciousness of existence, or at the best but a few sensa- 
 tions, a few longings and desires of the animal life 
 (^ fV Xn}> which, even in their highest possible develop- 
 ment even in the song of the nightingale cannot 
 attain to the expression of anything individual. With 
 this conclusion, so like a thousand other hasty assertions ! 
 of human dogmatism, it is not necessary to agree, but, 
 
 1 See a paper on ' The Distinction between Animals and ilan,' in the 
 Anthropological Review, No. 5.
 
 CH. vn. SOUND AS THE VEHICLE OF THOUGHT. 83 
 
 in order not to break the continuity of the subject, I 
 have relegated all further examination of it to another 
 place. 
 
 Man possesses a voice, a capacity for the dynamic 
 production of sound, as a mere animal Being in the 
 yet dark and unconscious slumber of natural Life. The 
 new-born infant enters the world with a cry, which is a 
 mere natural sound, the expression of animal feeling, 
 and is soon liable to various modifications for the pur- 
 pose of expressing the different stirrings of life and 
 sensation. These natural sounds are no more speech 
 than the cries of animals are ; no human intelligence is 
 expressed by them ; and the origin of rational language 
 cannot be explained by them alone. They are inarti- 
 culate and involuntary; they are mere modifications of 
 the breath, and do not express the thinking spirit. 
 Nevertheless, they prove the possession of a high capa- 
 city, and this capacity is developed by man into signi- 
 ficant speech, as the expression of his highest and 
 innermost nature. His voice, independently of the 
 words it utters, is capable, by natural flexibility, of 
 expressing every variation of emotion, in all degrees of 
 intensity; and by virtue of the penetrating nerve- 
 shaking influence of sound upon the soul, it can convey 
 to others a sympathy * with the same feelings, and the 
 impression of a free activity. It instantly and involun- 
 tarily stirs the attention of the hearer by an energy 
 which, like that of the soul itself, is to the highest 
 
 1 The power of influencing by the voice is found in all, but in very 
 different degrees. Few had it in greater perfection than Dr. Chalmers, 
 who, we are told, moved a whole congregation to tears by the few simple 
 words ' It was because God was very gool to him.' Every one has 
 experienced the effect of what Lamartine beautifully calls ' the gift of 
 tears in the voice.' 
 
 o2
 
 84 ON LANGUAGE. CH. vn. 
 
 degree varied, energetic, and effectual, yet is at the 
 same time ideal and unseen. The voice, then, by a 
 natural necessity, by an organic connection, is the organ 
 of the understanding ; and speech is the expression of 
 the thinking spirit in articulate sounds. The union in 
 speech of sound and sense, the combination of the 
 phonetic and the intellectual elements into one organic 
 unity, will be the subject of our enquiry hereafter. At 
 present we must say a few words on the mechanical 
 means by which the emission of the voice is rendered 
 possible. 
 
 The voice of man is produced by a machinery far 
 more exquisite l and perfect than that possessed by any 
 other animal. The Larynx, with ite cartilages and 
 muscles, forms, in point of fact, a combination of 
 musical instruments ; it is at once a trumpet, an organ, 
 a hautboy, a flageolet, and an ^Eolian harp. ' The air 
 passing upwards and downwards through the larynx and 
 trachea, 2 forms its analogy with the wind-instruments: 
 the vibration of the chordae vocales, its resemblance to 
 the stringed.' < The voice 3 is produced by the larynx, 
 which is situated beneath the base of the tongue, and 
 in front of the pharynx. The sides of the larynx are 
 formed by the two large thyroid cartilages, which rest 
 on the annular cricoid cartilage. On the upper surface 
 of the back of the cricoid cartilage are mounted two 
 small cartilaginous bodies, called the arytenoid, which 
 are moveable in various directions by various muscles. 
 
 1 Ladevi-Roche, De F Orig. du Lang. p. 49 ; et ibi Bossuet, Con- 
 naissance de Dieu et de soi-meme, p. 194. 
 
 2 Hilles, Essentials of Physiology, p. 272. 
 
 3 I have abridged this account from Dr. Carpenter's Animal Physio- 
 logy (p. 528), generally using his own words.
 
 CH. VH. SOUND AS THE VEHICLE OF THOUGHT. 85 
 
 To these arytenoid cartilages are attached two ligaments 
 of elastic fibrous substance, which pass forward to be 
 attached to the front of the thyroid cartilage, where 
 they meet in the same point. These are the instruments 
 concerned in the production of sound, and also in the 
 regulation of the aperture by which air passes into the 
 trachea; and they are termed vocal chords. By the 
 meeting of these ligaments in front, and their separation 
 behind, the usual aperture has the form of a V ; but it 
 may be narrowed by the drawing together of the ary- 
 tenoid cartilages until the two vocal ligaments touch 
 each other along their whole length, and the aperture 
 is completely closed. In ordinary breathing the ary- 
 tenoid cartilages are wide apart ; but for vocal sounds 
 it is necessary that the aperture should be narrowed, 
 and that the flat sides rather than the edges of the vocal 
 ligaments should be opposed to one another. When 
 the ligaments are brought into position, by the contrac- 
 tion of certain muscles, the air, in passing through the 
 larynx, sets them in vibration, in a manner very much 
 resembling that in which the reed of a hautboy or 
 clarionet, or the tongue of an accordion or harmonium, 
 is set in vibration by the current of air made to pass 
 beneath them. The rapidity of the vibration, and 
 consequently the pitch of the sound, depends on the 
 degree of tension of the vocal ligaments.' * When we 
 reflect,' says Mr. Hilles, 1 'that the range of the human 
 voice will extend, although rarely, to the compass of 
 two octaves, and that in this range are included, in some 
 singers, as many as 2,000 minor tones, we shall form 
 some idea of the extreme delicacy of motion, of which 
 the laryngeal muscles are capable when fully educated.' 
 
 1 Ubi supra, p. 275.
 
 86 OX LANGUAGE. CH. vii. 
 
 The elementary sounds of which the voice is capable 
 are about twenty in number, 1 and it is easy to see that 
 the permutations and combinations of these sounds are 
 amply sufficient to provide the world with an infinite 
 variety of languages. The elements of articulate sound 
 are three 1. The aspirate, 2 which is a mere strength- 
 ened expiration ; 2. The vowel sounds, produced by a 
 continuous stream of air passing through the trachea, 
 and modified only by the form of the aperture through 
 which they pass ; and 3. The consonants, 3 for the utter- 
 ance of which is required a partial or complete inter- 
 ruption of the breath in its passage through the organs 
 in front of the larynx. These are of two kinds, viz. 
 those 4 of which the sound can be prolonged, and the 
 explosive consonants (b, p, d, t, g, &), which require a 
 total stoppage of the breath at the moment previous to 
 their pronunciation, and which therefore cannot be 
 prolonged. The sound of the former is modified by the 
 position of the tongue, palate, lips, and teeth, and also 
 by the degree in which the air is permitted to pass 
 through the nose. 
 
 1 Harris, Hermes, ii. 2, 3rd ed. p. 325. 
 
 2 Heyse, p. 74. In pp. 78, 79 Heyse traces what he supposes to be 
 the natural connection of the vowels with various emotions ; he admits, 
 however, that language in its final stage confuses and neglects these 
 primitive relations of sound to emotion, and makes the vowels mere signs 
 in the service of the free understanding. Hence it is in interjections and 
 other primitive words that we must study their original value. But 
 alike for vowels and for consonants such enquiries seem to me both 
 dubious and difficult. 
 
 3 Hence it is in the use of consonants, speaking generally, that the 
 sounds uttered by animals differ from the articulate human voice. 
 Aristotle speaks of ol aypa^naroi tioQoi olov Qypicw, Probl. xi. 57. They 
 have but one or two consonants at most. Id. x. 39. K, for instance, is 
 called ' litera canina.' ' Irritata canis quod rr quam plurima dicit.' 
 Lucilius. ' R is for the dog.' Shaks. 
 
 4 Carpenter, /. c.
 
 CH. vii. SOUXD AS THE VEHICLE OF THOUGHT. 87 
 
 Now, the natural sensuous life expresses itself in three 
 kinds of natural sound, viz., Interjections, Imitations, 
 and those sounds, expressive of some desire, which in 
 imitation of the German Lautgeberden l we may roughly 
 designate as vocal gestures. Aspirates and vowels are 
 generally sufficient to express the mere passing emotions 
 of the natural life ; consonants are more the expres- 
 sion of the free intelligence. Interjections are the arbi- 
 trary expression of subjective impressions ; Imitations 
 advance a step farther, spontaneously reproducing some- 
 thing which has influenced the senses from without ; 
 Lautgebevden, though like .jterjections they have their 
 source in the subject,' are not a mere utterance of 
 passive sensation, but an energetic expression of will, 
 though as yet only in the form of desire. 
 
 At present, it will be observed, we are only dealing 
 with the elements of articulate speech ; the natural 
 sounds out of which, by the aid of the understanding, 
 perfect language is developed, and which in themselves 
 are the mere expressions of animal feeling. In tracing 
 the physical development of sound which corresponds to 
 the psychical development of thought, we have not yet 
 got beyond the means of finding vent for the sensuous 
 impression, or at most the conscious perception. We 
 have not even arrived at the root, which corresponds, in 
 the development of sound, to the intuition (Anschauung) 
 in the development of thought. The word which cor- 
 responds to the representation (Vorstellung) is beyond 
 the vocal elements which we have yet reached. The 
 further steps of the Process, which are as yet unex- 
 plained, will become evident as we proceed. 
 
 1 Heyse, p. 71.
 
 88 ON LANGUAGE. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 INTERJECTIONS. 
 
 'Hs SiSdffKfi 'Eir'tKOvpot tyvffei <rr\ rot ovofj.ara, airopfadvT(cv TWV trpfauv 
 avdpitnrwv Tivas <pwvas KO.TO. TUV irpa.yiJ.dTWV. OKIG. c. Cds, i. 24. 
 
 THE theories of the interjectiqnal and onomatopoetic 
 origin of language are not in reality different, and both 
 of them might without impropriety be classed under 
 the latter name; for, in point of fact, the impulsive 
 instinct to reproduce a sound is precisely analogous to 
 that which gives vent to a sensation by an interjection. 
 When we see a person laugh or yawn we can hardly help 
 following their example, not from an instinct of imi- 
 tation, but from a nervous sympathy ; and the same 
 nervous sympathy * forces a child to reproduce any 
 sudden sound which is not beyond its power of articula- 
 tion, as any one may see who cares to try the experi- 
 ment. This result, no less than the utterance of a cry 
 of joy or pain, arises from a purely physical cause, 
 namely, the general influence on the nerves communi- 
 cated to the delicate organs by which the voice is 
 produced. The reason why children and savages are 
 more given to imitative and interjectional sounds is 
 because of the greater delicacy and sensibility of their 
 
 1 Wiillner, Ueber d. Urspr. d. Sprache, p. 6, fg. ; Poggel, Ueber das 
 Verhaltniss zwischen Form und Bedeutung, 5, .
 
 CH. Tin. INTERJECTIONS. 89 
 
 nervous organisation. Nevertheless, while aware of 
 this fact, I have preferred, for the sake of clearness, to 
 treat separately of these two phonetic elements; and 
 first of Interjections. 
 
 Interjections l are of two kinds ; namely, 
 
 1. Those which are caused by some inward sensation, 
 such as the cry of anguish, and the exclamation of joy ; 
 sounds of the voice, which are neither definite in origin 
 nor distinct in articulation, but are perfectly vague both 
 as to the form they assume and the source from which 
 they arise ; and, 
 
 2. Those which are evoked by some external im- 
 pression, especially by perceptions of the ideal senses, 
 sight and hearing. These stand on a higher stage than 
 the last. They do not indeed, like imitations, express 
 the external character of the thing perceived, but the 
 inward excitement of the soul in consequence of the 
 perception, whether it assume the form of astonishment, 
 pleasure, surprise, disgust, or fear. In these the sound 
 of the voice receives a more specific limitation, and 
 vowels and aspirates are distinctly uttered. 
 
 We do not purpose to trace in the half-obliterated 
 records of language the natural connection between 
 particular vowel-sounds and particular sensations ; but 
 it seems clear that by the very constitution of man 
 certain sounds are the natural and almost necessary 
 exponents of certain conditions. There are certain 
 ' inarticulate bursts of feeling not reacted on by the 
 
 1 Heyse, p. 72, 27. There is some meaning in the verse of Dr. King : 
 ' Nature in many tones complains, 
 Has many sounds to tell her pains ; 
 But for her joys has only three, 
 And those but small ones, Ha ! ha ! he ! '
 
 90 OX LANGUAGE. CH. vm. 
 
 mind.' l This will appear at a glance if we compare 
 the interjections of a Semitic with those of an Aryan 
 language, and observe their almost complete identity. 
 Thus, for instance, the nn, nx, and nn^ which occur in the 
 Hebrew of the Bible (Ez. xxx. 2, vi. 11 ; Mic. ii. 7), are 
 the same expressions of astonishment, fear, pleasure, or 
 indignation which we find in the Latin hahe, aha, &c., 
 and which in so many Aryan dialects are worn down to 
 the mere of the vocative case. The 'in is ' the obscure 
 deep sound of seriousness, of threatening, or lamenta- 
 tion,' and is therefore like the Greek oval, the Latin 
 heu, eheu, vae in different circumstances. 2 The more 
 definite expression of lamentation, \rr\r\ (Am. v. 16), 
 offers an obvious analogy to the Latin ohe, while the 
 *nR (Prov. xxiii. 29), >0 (Ez. ii. 10), and ^s (Mic. 
 vii. 1 ; Job x. 15), are almost identically the same 
 with at/So?, papse, phui, s\e\sv, and even the Irish 
 whilleleu ! We find the same exclamations, Ha ! ha ! for 
 surprise, Au-e ! for sorrow, Abah ! for disgust, among 
 the New Zealanders; 3 and the Australian Ala! dif- 
 fers little either in sound or meaning from the English 
 Halloo! 
 
 Latin is particularly rich in genuine interjections ; 
 and, besides this, Latin, Greek, English, and nearly all 
 languages have a number of words which, although used 
 inter] ectionally, are not really to be classed under this 
 head, like the Hebrew np^n, ^ ysvoiTo, ' Grod forbid ! ' 
 Such are the Latin malum ! nefas ! macte ! amabo ! 
 age, sodes, sis, nae, profecto, &c., some of which are 
 
 1 Ewald's Hebrew Grammar, 440. 
 
 2 See, too, Glass, Phil. Sacr. lib. iv. tract. 8. 
 
 8 Ch. Miss. Soc. New Zealand Gram. p. 57. Threlkeld's Austral. 
 Gram. p. 20.
 
 CH. viii. INTERJECTIONS. 91 
 
 verbs, and some are adverbs. Such too are the Greek 
 ays, <?pe, 161, aypsi, Ssvrs, &c., and the English strange ! 
 hark ! adieu ! welcome ! the deuce ! Very many of such 
 spurious interjections are explicable by some ellipse ; 
 they are in fact abbreviated sentences as much as the 
 single letter (or ) for ov, ' not ! ' with which the poet 
 Philoxenus l is said to have replied in writing to the 
 tyrant Dionysius, who had invited him to the court of 
 Syracuse. Under this head fall a large number of 
 abbreviated oaths and exclamations, such as eccere, 
 epol, mehercle, medius fidius, for per aedem Cereris, 
 Pollucis ; ita me Hercules, Dius films, juvet, &c. 2 
 
 The Greeks, not very accurately, reckoned interjec- 
 tions under the head of adverbs ; the Latins, correctly 
 observing that the interjection is, as it were, flung into 
 the sentence (inter jacio), and is quite capable 3 of 
 expressing some emotion even if no verb be added, 
 placed them separately as a distinct part of speech. 
 This classification has given rise to the most amusing 
 vehemence of argument. The interjection, it is asserted, 
 
 1 Egger, Notions filem. de Gram. Comp. p. 103. It is curious to see 
 how a spurious interjection like Alas ! which comes from the exclamation 
 Ai lassa, 'ah, me weary! ' in the songs of the Proven9al troubadours, is 
 never used by the common people. They instinctively recognise its 
 artificial and aristocratic origin, just as they substitute 'the Fall,' 
 ' Harvest,' &c., for the only Latin name of a season, Autumn. 
 
 2 Energetic brevity is indispensable to an interjection ; hence, in all 
 languages oaths assume a curt form, as morbleu = par la mort de Dieu ; 
 'zooks,' by God's looks; 'zounds,' by God's wounds, &c. 
 
 3 Priscian says, ' Interject ionem Graeci inter adverbia ponunt,' and adds 
 that the Roman grammarians separated the interjection, ' quia videtur 
 affectum habere in sese verbi, et plenam motus animi significationem, 
 etiamsi non addatur verbum, demonstrare.' xv. 7. Quintilian (Instt. 
 Or. i. 4) mentions the rearrangement of the parts of speech by the 
 Romans, who had no article, and he adds, 'Sed accedit superioribus 
 interjectio.*
 
 92 ON LANGUAGE. CH. vni. 
 
 is incapable of grammatical analysis, and belonging to 
 the inarticulate cries and sounds of instinctive lan- 
 guage it is also incapable of etymology, and stands in 
 no syntactical relation to the rest of the sentence. 
 Home Tooke bewails that ' the brutish inarticulate In- 
 terjection, which has nothing to do with speech, and is 
 only the miserable refuge of the speechless, has been per- 
 mitted, because beautiful and gaudy, to usurp a place 
 amongst words, and to exclude the Article from its well- 
 earned dignity.' And when asked ' Why such bitterness 
 against the interjection?' he replies, 'Because the 
 dominion of speech is erected upon the doivnfall of 
 interjections. Without the artful contrivances of lan- 
 guage, mankind would have nothing but interjections 
 with which to communicate, orally, any of their feelings. 
 The neighing of a horse, the lowing of a cow, the bark- 
 ing of a dog, the purring of a cat, sneezing, coughing, 
 groaning, shrieking, and every other involuntary con- 
 vulsion with oral sound, have almost as good a title to 
 be called parts of speech as interjections have (!). 
 Voluntary interjections are only employed when the 
 suddenness and vehemence of some affection or passion 
 returns men to their natural state, and makes them for 
 a moment forget the use of speech ; or when from some 
 circumstance the shortness of time will not permit them 
 to exercise it. And in books they are only used for 
 embellishments, and to mark strongly the above situa- 
 tions. But where speech can be employed they are 
 totally useless, and are always insufficient for the pur- 
 pose of communicating our thoughts. And, indeed, 
 where will you look for the Interjection ? Will you find 
 it amongst laws, or in books of civil institutions; in 
 history, or in any treatise of useful arts or sciences ?
 
 CH. viii. INTERJECTIONS. 93 
 
 No. You must seek for it in rhetoric and poetry, in 
 novels, plays, and romances.' 
 
 Neither the energy of this passage, nor the endorse- 
 ment of it by Professor Max Miiller as ' an excellent 
 answer to the interjectional theory,' move us at all. 1 
 Whether, indeed, grammarians choose to rank the 
 Interjection as a part of speech or not, is a matter of 
 great indifference, although the fact that they are re- 
 gularly declinable in Basque 2 shows that their unsyntac- 
 tical character is merely an accident of language. But 
 at any rate, on the confession of the adversary, they do 
 not deserve all this scorn. We do not assert that a 
 mere interjectional cry has of itself attained to the 
 dignity of language, but that, like the imitation of 
 natural sounds, it was a stepping-stone to true lan- 
 guage, both by suggesting the idea of articulate speech 
 and by supplying a large number, if not the entire 
 number of actual roots. I desire no better illustration 
 of this than the one which Professor Miiller has sug- 
 gested. ' Even,' he says, * if the scream of a man who 
 has his finger pinched should happen to be identically 
 the same as the French helas, that scream would be an 
 effect, an involuntary effect of outward pressure, whereas 
 
 1 I cannot see any force in the objection that 'if the constituent ele- 
 ments of speech were mere cries, &c., it would be difficult to understand 
 why brutes should be without language.' Max Miiller, Lectures, i. 355. 
 Obviously, as has been observed a thousand times, the mere power of 
 articulation is not the source of language (Orig. of Lang. pp. 79, 164). 
 Half the arguments aimed at the interjectional and onomatopoetic theories 
 altogether miss their mark by not observing that all which those theories 
 profess to explain is the cause which guided man in the choice of words 
 to express thought. There would be force in the objection if we held 
 with Hamann that speech is the ' Deipara unserer Vernunft ;' or with 
 Shelley, that ' He gave man speech, and speech created thought. 1 
 
 2 Mentioned doubtfully by Mr. Marsh. Lectures, ed. Smith, p. 197.
 
 94 OX LANGUAGE. CH. vm. 
 
 an interjection like alas! helas, Italian lasso, to say 
 nothing of such words as pain, suffering, agony, &c., is 
 there by the free will of the speaker meant for some- 
 thing, used with a purpose, chosen as a sign.' 
 
 Precisely! but is that any reason why we should 
 despise the word helas, or ridicule the theory which 
 points out that in the supposed instance the interjection 
 would have been the source, the root, the origin of the 
 word ? Undoubtedly the cry of pain, as such, is not a 
 word, but is a mere physical expression of pain due to 
 the reflex action of the animal soul upon the organs of 
 speech ; but this cry, by the law of association, when 
 repeated recalls the feeling itself; it becomes therefore 
 first a symbol, and then a sign of the feeling ; it stands 
 for our subjective intuition ( Anschauung) of the feeling, 
 and thereby at once is elevated from a sound to a word, 
 becoming, in fact, as much a word as any other, because 
 it stands in precisely the same relation to the thing 
 which it signifies. In fact, it stands, if anything, on a 
 higher grade of dignity than any ordinary word, because 
 its significance is more absolute and immediate. Let 
 us, for instance, reject the purely artificial word ( alas ! ' 
 and take the natural interjection ah ! ach ! and we have 
 at once not merely the probable, but the absolutely 
 certain l root of a very large class of words in the 
 Aryan languages, such as a^oy, achen, ache, anguish, 
 anxious, angustus, and the word agony itself. When 
 this fact is a little more widely expanded and illustrated, 
 we have the interject] onal 2 theory proved. Indepen- 
 
 1 Cf. Wedgwood, Etym. Diet, i. p. xii. See a list of the derivatives 
 from the root in Garnett, Ess. on Engl. Dialects, p. 64. 
 
 2 M. Muller, Lectures, ii. 88. We see no great objection, and abso- 
 lutely no ambiguity, in the words ' onomatopoetic ' and ' interjectional ' ;
 
 CH. vin. INTERJECTIONS. 95 
 
 dently of the many and wise students who have accepted 
 it, it is a theory for which most important arguments 
 may be adduced, and therefore is not one which either 
 can be or deserves to be sneered out of notice by a 
 mere nickname, such as that over which so many who 
 are ignorant of the very rudiments of the subject have 
 complacently chuckled. 
 
 Professor Miiller himself admits that 'with interjec- 
 tions some kind of language could l have been formed ; ' 
 and when we have shown at least the extreme probability 
 that a very large portion of existing language has had 
 such an origin, surely all a priori objections must fall to 
 the ground. If the science of Comparative Philology 
 is to do nothing more than 
 
 To chase 
 
 A panting syllable through time and space, 
 Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark 
 To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark ; 
 
 and if in that venerable receptacle for all ethnogra- 
 phic and philological theories we can only catch an 
 archaBological curiosity in the shape of some desiccated, 
 never-spoken, lifeless 'root,' we cannot but think that 
 it was hardly worth the trouble of being pursued ! An 
 etymology of this kind is no etymology at all. What 
 are we the wiser for being told that a whole class of 
 words comes from a root ' il,' to go, and another class 
 from a root ' ar,' to plough ? If this be all, one is some- 
 what weary of the information when it comes, unless, 
 indeed, which of course often is the case, one has been 
 rewarded during the search by the discovery or obser- 
 
 and we can assure Prof. Miiller that, so far as we know, no one has 
 accepted the word ' Imsonic ' except the learned suggestor ! 
 1 Lectures, i. 353.
 
 96 ON LANGUAGE. CH. vi:i. 
 
 vation of other linguistic or phonetic laws. Still, if 
 these be regarded as ultimate etymologies, they throw 
 no light whatever on questions which we must regard 
 as soluble, as interesting, and as important, viz. what 
 is the origin of words ? Why were sounds chosen as 
 the signs of all things which can become the object of 
 thought ? and why were special sounds chosen in parti- 
 cular cases? To all these questions the interjection al 
 and imitative theories are adequate, up to a certain 
 point, to furnish us with intelligent and valuable 
 answers ; they throw a light on the germs and on the 
 development of language, and they furnish a clear ex- 
 planation of the origin and history of words in so many 
 cases that we may fairly argue the existence of similar 
 principles, even in the cases where the wear and tear of 
 language have broken many important links in the 
 chain of evidence. To refer words to some dry * root,' 
 which confessedly was never used in the intelligent 
 speech of articulately speaking men, and to leave this 
 root without any attempt at further explanation, is to 
 offer us a caput mortuum as the prize of our researches, 
 and to abandon unnecessarily, as beyond our reach, 
 many of the deepest problems of language and of human 
 history. If, for instance (to recur to previous examples), 1 
 a large class of words came from the root ' ach,' and 
 another large class from the root *dhu,' and if the 
 former be an interjection, and the latter an onoma- 
 topoeia, we have got at final facts which give a neiu 
 meaning and interest to the history of the derivatives 
 from these roots ; but if we are told that a large family 
 of words come from *ar,' or 'ga,' or 'sal;' and if about 
 
 1 Origin of Lang. p. 109.
 
 CH. vin. INTERJECTIONS. 97 
 
 ' ar,' and ' ga,' and ' sal,' nothing more can be said, then 
 what have we learnt ? The roots are mere mysterious 
 nonentities, which have taught us nothing and come 
 from nowhere. The earth rests on the back of an 
 elephant, and the elephant stands on a tortoise; but 
 what does the tortoise stand upon ? 
 
 But in point of fact it has repeatedly occurred to 
 me that Professor Miiller really does agree to a very 
 great extent with the theories which he often seems to 
 repudiate; in other words that the argument is in 
 great measure due to mutual misapprehension. For in 
 his new volume he ' wishes to stand entirely neutral ' 
 with regard to the theory that all roots were originally 
 onomatopoeias or interjections (p. 92), 1 demanding only 
 that the derivatives should be drawn according to the 
 
 o 
 
 strictest rules of comparative grammar. If this be so, 
 we entirely agree with him ; so far from wishing to 
 arrive at derivations per saltum and 'undo all the 
 work that has been done by Bopp, Humboldt, Grimm, 
 and others during the last fifty years,' the majority, at 
 any rate, of those who hold the sneeriDgly termed Pooh- 
 pooh and Bow-wow theories to be both valuable and true, 
 have always felt the profound est respect and gratitude 
 to those great men, and the keenest appreciation of the 
 immortal discoveries which have resulted from their 
 labours. 
 
 The opponents of these theories constantly try to 
 depreciate them by asserting that Interjections are 
 purely animal, and Onomatopoeias either vulgar or 
 childish. Now, as applied to their primitive condition, 
 
 1 Cf. also ii. 314, where he allows a possibly onomatopoeic origin to 
 the root Mar which he traces through so many stages. 
 
 H
 
 98 ON LANGUAGE. CH. vm. 
 
 their first stage, this language is capable of some sort 
 of meaning. Nobody asserted that they were language, 
 but only that they are the raw material of it. They are 
 the steps by which man mounts to true language ; they 
 are 
 
 the ladder 
 
 Whereto the climber-upward turns his face ; 
 But when he once attains the utmost round, 
 He then unto the ladder turns his back, 
 Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees 
 By which he did ascend. 
 
 If, as we are convinced, they helped to suggest the 
 very idea of speech, and supplied man in part with the 
 sounds which his tongue could modulate, and the plastic 
 influence of his intellect could mould, it is surely un- 
 gracious to turn round and insult them as ' brutish and 
 inarticulate.' 
 
 And this, in the present instance, is the more 
 unreasonable and inexcusable, because, as we have seen 
 already, many interjections have passed unaltered into 
 the domain of finished language. 1 They have their own 
 province in the kingdom of speech, and if it be not 
 universal, it is at least as noble as any other province. 
 If they appear but seldom, as Home Tooke scornfully 
 observes, in Law or History or Science, they are yet 
 capable of adding both power and beauty to rhetoric, 
 poetry, and the drama, and are entitled therefore to a 
 splendid position in the domain of literature. Feeling 
 and passion, no less perhaps we might say far more 
 than logic and abstract thought, demand their proper 
 
 1 A long list of words and words full of tragic grandeur might be 
 adduced which come immediately and professedly from interjections ; 
 such as olpiafa, ald^oi, 6\o\v<a, a\a\d,fa, ululo, ejulo, &c.
 
 CH. vin. INTERJECTIONS. 99 
 
 exponents in the Speech of Man, and it can hardly be 
 correct to rank no higher than the purring of a cat, or 
 the neighing of a horse, the expressions which give vent 
 and utterance to the most passionate emotions in the 
 instant of their most overwhelming power. 1 Mr. Marsh 
 has reminded us that the interjections of Whitfield, 
 ' his Ah ! of pity for the unrepentant sinner, his Oh ! of 
 encouragement and persuasion for the almost converted 
 listener, formed one of the great excellences of his 
 oratory ; ' 2 and as in a former volume I endeavoured to 
 redeem the onomatopoetic element of language from 
 the charge of vulgarity by collecting many remarkable 
 passages to show that onomatopoeia often added a sin- 
 gular charm to the loftiest and loveliest passages of the 
 greatest poets, so it would be easy to redeem Interjec- 
 tions from similar injustice by the same process. Take 
 but passages like these : ' They shall not lament for 
 him, saying Ah ! my brother, or ah ! sister. They 
 shall not lament for him, saying Ah lord! or Ah his 
 glory!' or the passionate outbreak, 'Thus saith the 
 Lord, the Lord of hosts, . . . Ah ! I will ease me of 
 mine adversaries.' And not to add many other Biblical 
 apostrophes, who does not know Wordsworth's touching 
 lines ? 
 
 She lived unknown, and few could know 
 
 When Lucy ceased to be, 
 But she is in her grave, and oh ! 
 
 The difference to me !' 
 
 Any one acquainted with poetry will remember how 
 many exquisite passages owe, to an interjection, their 
 
 1 ' Echo des emotions profondes de 1'ame, 1' interjection traduit 1'affec- 
 tion du moment, de la minute, plus fidelement que toutes les descriptions 
 ne pourraient le faire.' Chavee, Les Langucs ct les Races, p. 17. 
 
 2 Lectures, p. 196. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 OX LANGUAGE. CH. vm. 
 
 beauty and their pathos. It was probably a lurking 
 sense of some such truth that led Horne Tooke to say 
 that they were * beautiful;' what he means by the 
 qualification that they are also * gaudy,' I can but dimly 
 conjecture. 
 
 Sanetius 1 loftily relegates Interjections from the 
 region of speech with a dictum of Aristotle that ' all 
 parts of speech must be originated by convention, not 
 by nature.' Now Interjections, he says, are natural, 
 because they are found among all, resembling in fact 
 the crie's of birds and animals. Passing over for the 
 present the arrogant assumption, which runs through 
 such vast portions of human reasoning, that everything 
 pertaining to man must differ in kind no less than in 
 degree from its analogon among brutes, we may observe 
 that the naturalness of interjections, their independ- 
 ence of what Horne Tooke calls 'the artful contriv- 
 ances of language,' their truthfulness, and simplicity, 
 and freedom from the degraded conditions by which 
 language is made subservient to the concealment of 
 thought, is in fact one of their chief glories. Another 
 of their remarkable properties, ' which not 2 only vindi- 
 cates their claim to be regarded as constituents of lan- 
 guage, but entitles them unequivocally to a high rank 
 among the elements of discourse,' is the inherent and 
 independent expressiveness, by which we may condense 
 into a single ejaculated monosyllable all, and more than 
 all, of a whole sentence ; condense it too with an im- 
 pressiveness which no mere sentence can emulate. And 
 again, the interjection is 'subjectively connected with 
 
 1 Sanctius, Minerva, i. 2. See Harris, Hermes, ii. 5. Horne Tooke, 
 Div. of Purley, i. 5. 
 
 2 Marsh, Lectures, p. 194.
 
 CH. vni. INTERJECTIONS. 101 
 
 the passion or sensation it denotes, and is not so much 
 the enunciation or utterance of the emotion, as symp- 
 tom and evidence of it,' in other words it is subjective 
 not objective, expressive not descriptive, and therefore 
 may be rightfully considered as ' the appropriate lan- 
 guage, the mother-tongue of passion.' Eegarded from 
 this point of view, it stands on a higher rather than a 
 lower grade than the other constituents of human speech. 
 
 If we look to savage nations as displaying to us a 
 picture of the infancy of man, we shall expect to trace 
 some of the earliest and most important facts of speech 
 exemplified in their languages. We have seen already 
 how prominent a part Onomatopoeia plays in those lan- 
 guages ; nor is Interjection less predominant. The 
 exclamations used by the excitable Indians, the Kafirs, 
 or the New-Zealanders, are beyond all comparison more 
 rich and varied than those used by more advanced 
 nations. It is undoubtedly one of the effects of civi- 
 lisation to dimmish the impressionable excitability of 
 untutored races; and as excitability finds in interjections 
 its most natural utterance, we naturally expect to find 
 them more numerous among primitive races, and we 
 may reasonably suppose that at the dawn of humanity 
 the interjectional element provided a larger 1 number of 
 roots than it now could do. 
 
 The ancients had some remarkable stories which show 
 how fully they felt that utterance is the spontaneous 
 and almost inevitable means for the expression of emo- 
 tion. For instance, Herodotus 2 and other historians 
 
 1 The very words Sprechen, sprache are etymologically connected with 
 brechen (cf. fragor, frangere, /Wryvw/w), and like the phrases /^(cu ipairfiv, 
 rumpere vocem (Herod, i. 85 ; Virg. JEn. ii. 129), imply the interjectional 
 outburst of speech. See Heyse, p. 114. 
 
 * Herod, i. 85. Cic. Div. i. 53, &c.
 
 102 ON LANGUAGE. CH. vm. 
 
 tell us how the dumb son of Croesus burst out with an 
 articulate voice for the first time when he saw a soldier 
 on the point of assassinating his father. Aulus Gellius 
 relates a story that ^Egles, a dumb Samian athlete, 1 
 seeing that he was being cheated by a deceitful lot in a 
 sacred contest, cried out with a loud voice, and from 
 that time recovered the power of speech. Pausanias has 
 a similar anecdote about Battus of Gyrene, who first got 
 .over his impediment of speech in consequence of the 
 horror caused by suddenly catching sight of a lion in 
 the African desert. We are inclined to consider that 
 these stories are not wholly fabulous, and at any rate 
 we have heard a perfectly authentic instance of a lady, 
 who for years had lost her voice, and who recovered it in 
 .consequence of the shock caused by a sudden emotion. 
 She had been riding up a hill in Ireland, and being in 
 advance of the rest of the party, came suddenly and 
 unexpectedly on an exceedingly glorious view. Turning 
 round eagerly to signify her delight, she found that the 
 sudden effort had restored loudness and clearness to her 
 voice, and from that time forward experienced no 
 difficulty in speaking, although for a very long period 
 she had only been able to use an inarticulate whisper. 
 Expression, then, by a law of nature, is the natural and 
 spontaneous result of impression ; and however merely 
 animal in their nature the earliest exclamations may 
 have been, they were probably the very first to acquire 
 the dignity and significance of reasonable speech, be- 
 cause in their case more naturally than in any other 
 the mere repetition of the sound would, by the associa- 
 tion of ideas, involuntarily recall the sensation of which 
 
 1 Aul. Gell v. 9. Val. Max. i. 8.
 
 CH. vin. INTERJECTIONS. 103 
 
 the sound was so energetic and instantaneous an expo- 
 nent. In the discovery of this simple law, ivhich a very 
 feiv instances would reveal to the mind of man, lay 
 the discovery of the Idea of Speech. The divine secret 
 of language, the secret of the possibility of perfectly 
 expressing the unseen and immaterial by an articula- 
 tion of air which seemed to have no analogy with it, 
 the secret of accepting sounds as the exponents and 
 signs of everything * in the choir of heaven and furniture 
 of earth,' lay completely revealed in the use of two or 
 three despised interjections ! l To borrow a simile from 
 the eloquent pages of Herder, they were the sparks of 
 Promethean fire which kindled language into life. 
 
 1 The objection 'Why, then, did not animals also discover language?' 
 rises so often from the grave where it was long since buried, and appears 
 to be endowed with such inextinguishable vitality, that we must again 
 repeat that it was not the mere possession of these vocal cries that 
 enabled man to invent a language, but that, the Innate Idea of language 
 being already in his mind by virtue of his divinely-created organism, the 
 possession of these natural sounds taught him how, and supplied him 
 the materials wherewith, to develop the Idea into perfect speech. 
 We entirely agree with the remark of Wilh. von Humboldt, ' Die Sprache 
 liesse sich nicht erfinden, wenn nicht ihr Typus in dem menschlichen 
 Verstande schon vorhanden ware.' Ueber d. Verschied. d. menschl. 
 Sprachbaues, p. 60. The same thing has been said from the beginning. 
 TO 5 rot? oiicri ffrjuavTixas (pwva.s tfbtvpiffKfiv Kal irpoffrjyopias, r<av avOpfaircav 
 elvcu TWV r $i v \oyiKijv Suyajujv Qeodev tv eavToTj KfKTrjnei><i>v, 
 K.r.\. Greg. Nyss. Contra Eunom. xii. p. 848.
 
 104 ON LANGUAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LAUTGEBERDEN, OR YOCAL GESTURES. 
 
 ' Isis et Harpocrates digito qui significat st ! ' 
 
 Vet. Poeta ap. Varr. L. L. IT. 10. 
 
 So far as I am aware, Professor Heyse, in his * System 
 der Sprachwissenschaft,' was the first to distinguish 
 accurately between interjections which are the signs of 
 individual emotion beginning and ending with the 
 utterer, and which are in fact a concentrated soliloquy, 
 and those which, like visible gestures, convey meaning 
 to some other person, and generally intimate a desire or 
 command. It was certainly Heyse who first 1 called the 
 latter by the expressive and picturesque name of Laut- 
 geberden or Begehrungslaute, vocal gestures or sounds 
 of desire, like st! ps! schl and to animals brr! He 
 called them by this name both because they are often 
 connected with gestures, and because they can be repre- 
 sented by them ; as st! by the finger on the lips, &c. 2 
 Such in English are tush ! pish ! pshaw ! pooh ! which 
 are expressive of contempt or aversion, and can only be 
 conceived of as addressed to another ; hush! hist! 3 mum ! 
 
 1 See Syst. der Sprach. p. 29. ' Die Lautgeberden. So nenne ich 
 solche, zum Theil consonantische und dabei nicht syllabische Laute,' &c. 
 
 2 Compare the French zest ' interjection, qui ne se prend que dans 
 cette acception proverbiale, " entre le zist et le zest" ' i. e. ' middling.' 
 
 1 M. Nodier observes that it would hardly be supposed that etymo- 
 logists could be found who derived st ! from ' silentium tene.' ' Cela, est
 
 CH. ix. LAUTGEBERDEX, OR VOCAL GESTURES. 105 
 
 hark ! halloo ! hip, &c. ; and of this nature are many of 
 the exclamations addressed to animals. 'Among them,' 
 says Mr. Marsh, 1 who does not however refer to Heyse, 
 ' are all the isolated, monosyllabic, or longer words by 
 which we invite or repel the approach, and check or 
 encourage the efforts of others; in short, all single 
 detached articulations intended to influence the action 
 or call the attention of others, but not syntactically 
 connected with a period.' 
 
 This class of interjections rises, in three respects, 
 above those previously noticed ; first, because they are 
 mainly consonantal, and therefore approach more nearly 
 than the others, in which consonants play a very sub- 
 ordinate part, to the complicated articulations of 
 human speech; secondly, because they have for their 
 object, not merely expression, but communication ; and 
 thirdly, because they do not originate in a mere passive 
 feeling, but are, as has been already noticed, the ener- 
 getic utterance of desire or will, and are spontaneous 
 rather than involuntary. They hardly attain to the 
 dignity of Language because they express no thought, 
 and are the utterance rather of the feeling life than of 
 the thinking spirit ; yet they, in common with the other 
 natural sounds which we have mentioned, correspond to 
 a new step in the development of the human intelli- 
 gence. The Interjection corresponds to the dawn of 
 sensation ; the mere Imitation is an analogon of the 
 word into which it almost immediately passes ; the 
 Vocal gesture is an analogon 2 of the sentence, especially 
 of the imperative sentence (compare st ! with the Latin 
 
 cependant vrai, car il n'y a point d'idee bizarre dont ce genre d' erudition 
 ne puisee offrir un exemple.' Diet. p. 87. 
 
 1 Mareh, Lectures, p. 196. 2 Heyse, p. 73.
 
 106 OX LANGUAGE. CH. ix. 
 
 sta !). And thus in the sphere of the natural life, the 
 three chief steps in the development of Intellect and 
 Language are foreshadowed or represented. 
 
 To recapitulate a little. Impressions affecting the 
 senses produced a physical effect on the organs of sound, 
 and thereby provoked interjeetional expressions ; the 
 repetition of these expressions recalled, by the law of 
 association, the impressions of which they were the 
 utterance, and recalled them not only in the mind of 
 the speaker but also of the hearer. Hence the Inter- 
 jection served as a sign, and could be recalled by the 
 intellect, no less than the impression by the memory. 
 Here, then, we are at once furnished with all the 
 elements or requirements of speech, namely impres- 
 sions producing sensations, sensations becoming repre- 
 sentations (Vorstellungen), and representations expressed 
 by signs. Thought receives its life from Sensation, and 
 Language receives from the interjeetional elements its 
 capability of being intuitively understood. Is any 
 other origin of speech conceivable ? l Speech results 
 from the combined working of the Intellect and the 
 Senses, and no part of speech more directly and imme- 
 diately illustrates this united activity of the Senses and 
 the Intellect than the Interjection. Is it then strange 
 that Interjections should become as it were the tap-root 
 of all Language ? If we extend the meaning of ' Inter- 
 jection' to embrace the imitations of all spontaneous 
 sounds expressive of physical conditions, not only the 
 natural sounds of wrath, horror, disgust, &c., but those 
 which express the sounds of yawning, sneezing, licking, 
 heavy breathing, shuddering, &c., then the words im- 
 
 1 See on the whole subject F. Wiillner, Ueb. d. Urspr. d. Sprache. 
 Minister, 1838 (passim).
 
 CH. ix. LAUTGEBERDEX, OR VO^AL GESTURES. 107 
 
 mediately reducible to this origin may be counted by 
 hundreds ; and if to these we add their derivatives, they 
 may perhaps be counted by thousands. And this is 
 equivalent to saying that they alone can form a lan- 
 guage ; for be it remembered that even the Bible itself 
 says all that it has to say by the help of 10,000 words. 
 
 And as we shall say no more on the Interjectional 
 origin of Language, we will add what has long been a 
 puzzle to us. While arguing against such an origin, 
 Professor Miiller appears to us to accept what is the 
 same thing in other words. If, as is probable, he also 
 seems to have at least modified his originally strong 
 hostility to Onomatopoaia, we may yet perhaps live to see 
 a change of view as complete, though less marvellous, 
 than that of Herder. I allude to the only passage in 
 which I can from his writings discover the faintest 
 gleam of light on the question, * What was the origin of 
 roots ? ' Now if he confessedly gave up this question as 
 insoluble, there would be no more to say ; but this he 
 does not do. He rejects utterly and distinctly the 
 miraculous origin of language, yet he says t\i&t phonetic 
 types ' exist as Plato would say by nature, though with 
 Plato we would add that when we say by nature, we 
 mean by the hand of God.' He rejects and nicknames 
 the Interjectional theory of Language ; yet on a page 
 (i. 370) which, in spite of the generally matchless 
 clearness of his style, gives me none but the very 
 vaguest and most uncertain conception of his funda- 
 mental belief on the matter, unless it be a complete 
 acceptation of the Interactional theory, he says, re- 
 ferring to Heyse, * There is a law which runs through 
 nearly the whole of nature, that everything which is 
 sti^uck rings. ... It was the same with man, the most
 
 108 ON LANGUAGE. CH. ix. 
 
 highly organised of nature's works.' In the note he 
 says that this fact * can of course be used as an illustra- 
 tion only, and not as an explanation.' Yet he adds, 
 * The faculty, peculiar to man in his primitive state, by 
 which every impression from without received its vocal 
 expression from within, must be accepted as a fact.' 
 And in the text he continues, ' Man . . . was endowed 
 not only, like the brute, with the power of expressing 
 his sensations by Interjections, and his perceptions by 
 onomatopreia. He possessed likewise the faculty of 
 giving more articulate expression to the rational con- 
 ceptions of his mind.' This was 'an irresistible 
 instinct;' * the creative faculty which gave to each con- 
 ception, as it thrilled for the first time through the 
 brain, a phonetic expression.' Now what explanations 
 have we here ? Language was not revealed, yet * pho- 
 netic types ' ' exist ... by the hand of God.' Language 
 did not arise from Interjections or Imitations, yet it 
 came from these plus an irresistible instinct whereby 
 man gave ' more articulate expression to the rational 
 instincts of his mind.' l I leave the explanation as I 
 find it. The postulated additional instinct is either a 
 mere development of the Interjectional faculty, or I can 
 only repeat of it, ' Entia non sunt multiplicanda prseter 
 necessitated. Frustra fit per plura quod fieri possit per 
 pauciora.' 
 
 1 Long after this passage was written I met with an almost verbally 
 identical criticism of this passage in Steinthal, Philologie, Geschichte, und 
 Psychologie (Berlin, 1864), p. 21. He ends, 'd. h. obwohl hier der 
 Ursprung der Sprache erklart sein sollte, so bleibt er doch eben vollig 
 unerklart."
 
 109 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 TOCAL IMITATIONS. 
 'O yap 'Eirf/covpos e\tyfv STI ou^l faurrijfuSvus oirroi eBftno ret 6v6fj.ara, 
 
 OAAct QvfflKUS KtVOVfJLfVOl, d)S ol ^ffffOVTfS KO.I 1TTaipOVTJ Kdi /J.VKUfJ.tVOl 
 
 Kal v\cu<TOvt>rts Kal aTfva&tnts. PBOCLUS, p. 9. 
 
 EPICURUS, if he be correctly reported by Proclus, in the 
 often-quoted passage which stands at the head of this 
 section, espouses the views of the Analogists who argued 
 for the natural origin of language, against the Ano- 
 malists who regarded it as the result of convention. 
 Thus much, at least, is certain : the sounds to which 
 language gave distinct meaning and regular articulation 
 were all of them readily supplied by nature, 1 partly as 
 the involuntary expressions of feeling or desire, under 
 which heads fall the Interjections and Lautgeberden, 
 partly as the instinctive imitations of an external world 
 of sound. 
 
 The instinct of imitation has a far deeper foundation 
 than is usually supposed, and plays a most important 
 part in the history of human progress. There is hardly 
 a branch of art, there is hardly a mechanical invention 
 which has not originated in the observation and copying 
 of some process or phenomenon of nature. The instinct, 
 
 1 ra ov6fjMTa Kal TO. prf^ara tpwval, a! Se ifxaval <f>iifffi, TO. &pa dvop.ara 
 Kal rck jS^/nora <j>vcTfi, Alex. Aphrodis. Schol. in Arist. de Interpr. 
 p. 103, in Lersch, i. 89.
 
 110 OX LANGUAGE. CH. x. 
 
 as Herder observes, is common to men and to the higher 
 animals, and is by no means the result of intelligent 
 reflection, but an immediate product of organic sym- 
 pathy. As one string sounds in unison with another, 
 as a lute laid on the table echoes the tune played upon 
 the lute in the performer's hand, so the human 
 organism is a musical instrument strung into such 
 exquisite harmony with nature, that it vibrates in sym- 
 pathy with all external influences. The imitative in- 
 stinct is in fact a kind of intellectual assimilation. 
 We have already seen how powerfully it has worked 
 among all nations in the nomenclature of animals, 
 which were probably the earliest objects to acquire a 
 name. At present, however, we are speaking only of 
 natural sounds, and simple imitations which have not 
 yet reached to the position of language, but are the 
 childish instinctive echoes of sensuous perceptions, or the 
 playful reproductions of animal cries and other sounds. 
 The main object of language is communication; but 
 these imitations, in their earliest stage, convey nothing 
 to the hearer, and are merely the result of an inherent 
 tendency to imitate and reproduce, which is found also 
 among birds and animals, and in which a child at a very 
 early stage of his existence finds spontaneous amusement. 
 It is however important to observe that the imita- 
 tion is purely subjective ; in other words the imitative 
 sound represents rather the impression produced than 
 the sound which produced it. 1 The sounds of nature, 
 
 1 ' Man vergesse nieht, dass urspriinglich niclit von Naehahmung des 
 Lautes der Aussenwelt die Rede sein kann, so dass gleiehsam ein 
 Wetteifern mit der Natur stattgefunden hatte ; sondern dass der Mensch 
 durch den Eindriick des aiisseren Lautes eine bestimmte Empfindung 
 erhalte, und dass sieh diese unmittelbar, ohne Reflexion, durch einen
 
 CH. x. VOCAL IMITATIONS. Ill 
 
 for instance, are inarticulate ; but by the very nature of 
 the human voice, as used for purposes of speech, the 
 imitation must be more or less articulate, and must 
 require consonantal sounds for its production. It is 
 true that caw-caw, bow-wow, fipsKS/ceicet;, KOI' Kot, &c., 
 are not words ; but nevertheless they are imitative 
 utterances which stand much nearer to words than the 
 mere unarticulated emission, which is quite within the 
 range of the human voice, of the sounds which are 
 actually uttered by the rook, the dog, the frog, or the 
 pig. A child can with a little practice imitate with 
 tolerable accuracy the crowing of a cock, and this imi- 
 tation merely exercises one capacity of his voice ; but if 
 he says * cock-a-doodle-doo,' the imitation is subjective, 
 and merely reproduces in a conventional but very simple 
 manner the impression caused by the cock's noise ; the 
 child has not yet got to a word properly understood, but 
 he is on the high road which leads directly to it. Some 
 inkling of this fact must be lurking in the curious story 
 of Phaedrus about the buffoon who received the plaudits 
 of a crowded theatre for his very successful imitation of 
 the squeaking of a pig. As he had begun by bending 
 down his head into the bosom of his robe, the multitude 
 believed that he had a pig concealed there, and re- 
 doubled their applause when he shook out his robe and 
 showed them that it was empty. An envious rustic 
 exclaimed that he could excel the exhibitor, and next 
 day both of them appeared on the stage. The buffoon, 
 pretending to have a pig hidden in his robe, repeated 
 
 Laut aussert,' &c. Wiillner, Ueber die Verwandschaft des Indogerm., &c. 
 3. ' The imitative nature of language consists in an artistic imitation 
 not of things, but of the rationed impression which an object produces 
 by its qualities.' Bunsen, Outlines, ii. 103.
 
 112 ON LANGUAGE. CH. x. 
 
 his exhibition of the previous day to the delight of the 
 populace; the rustic, going through the same panto- 
 mime, pinched the ear of a real pig which he had 
 brought in with him, and which naturally squeaked its 
 sincerest and best. The people exclaimed that the 
 buffoon's imitation was much the more natural of the 
 two, and ordered the rustic to be kicked out ! 
 
 At ille profert ipsum porcellum e sinu, 
 Turpemque aperto pignore errorem probans, 
 En ! hie declarat quales sitis judices ! ' 
 
 'Nevertheless,' says Perrault, 'the people was in the 
 right ; for the comedian who imitated the pig had 
 studied all its most marked and characteristic sounds, 
 and, collecting them together, came closer to the notion 
 which all the world has of a pig's grunts.' 2 The story 
 is too curious not to be true, and the explanation too 
 ingenious not to be correct ! 
 
 The same fact as to the nature of linguistic imitations 
 explains the vast diversity in the articulated attempts 
 of various nations to reproduce one and the same sound. 
 This subject has been already illustrated fully, 3 and 
 little more need be added upon it. Who would assert 
 that kiao kiao in Chinese, and dchor dchor in Mandshu, 
 cock-a-doodle-doo in English, and Goekerdihce in Fran- 
 conian, are not onomatopoeias for the crowing of a cock, 
 
 1 Phsedrus, Fab. v. 5. 
 
 2 Parallels des Anciens et des Modernes, iii. 216. Charma, p. 253. 
 
 3 See Lobeck, Aglaophamus, i. 779. Origin of Lang. pp. 81-85. The 
 fact, however, that the actual sounds imitated are often really different 
 in different countries has often been overlooked. Ding-dong represents 
 the tone of a large church-bell, but bilbil or tintinnabulum of a little 
 hand-bell. So pflV represents the laughter of an Oriental, cacMnnus 
 of an Italian, &c. Compare, however, J^J^J with yeAcwo, lachen, Gothic 
 hlahjan.
 
 CH. x. VOCAL IMITATIONS. 113 
 
 because on paper they look so different ? or that ' bang ' 
 is not an onomatopoeia for the sound of a gun, because 
 it is wholly unlike the ' Pouf ' of the French ? or that 
 Screech-owl is not as onomatopoetic as ulula ? or that 
 taratantara is not as much an imitation of the trum- 
 pet as the Hebrew Chatzotzrah (rn/ivq ), or thie Grerman 
 Kling-klang as the Hebrew (^) Tziltzal, though 
 they have not a letter in common? The Greeks used 
 both Koyj; and /3\<u\|r (compare our '/op') to imitate 
 the sound of the Clepsydra, for which sound Na3vius 
 invents the word ' bilbit amphora.' Yet a Latin poet 
 says ' glut glut l murmurat unda sonans,' and from this 
 derives the word ' glutton ; ' and Varro 2 makes * puls ' 
 (our pulse) to be an onomatopoeia of similar meaning ! 
 A. comparison of the sounds of animals, as represented 
 in different languages, will illustrate the fact most 
 clearly. Coleridge speaks of the nightingale's ' murmurs 
 musical and sweet jug-jug J while Tennyson writes in 
 the person of a peasant-woman, 
 
 Whit, whit, whit, in the bush beside me chirrupt the nightingale, 
 
 and the Turkish poet, still trying to reproduce the same 
 sound, calls the bird a bulbu.1. How then is this remark- 
 able diversity to be explained ? 3 The reason of it is, that 
 
 1 ' Percutit et frangit vas ; vinum defluit, ansa 
 
 Stricta fuit, glut glut murmurat unda sonans, 
 Credit glntonem se rusticus inde vocari.' 
 
 Anthol. Lot. ii. 405. Burm. 
 
 2 Varro, L. L. iv. 22. For K^, jSActy, KI/{, &c., see Eustathius, 
 p. 768, 12. 
 
 * In the fanciful and often absurd Omithophonia of Bcerius one may 
 see how manifold are the ways of representing our impression of a bird's 
 note. Parts of it are quoted in Nodier's Diet, des Onomatop. p. 283 ; and 
 he also gives at length Bechstein's amazing analysis of the song of the 
 nightingale. 
 
 I
 
 114 OX LANGUAGE. CH. x. 
 
 man does not attempt to make the identical sound which 
 he hears, but artistically l to reproduce it or the impres- 
 sion it has made, just as a painter often purposely deviates 
 from the actual colours of nature because they would 
 not produce the same effect on the mind under the 
 limited conditions of his art. In fact the mind no less 
 than the sense contributes its share to the imitative 
 result. It is not a dull passive echo, but an ideal re- 
 flection. The mind, like the magic glass of Cydippe, 
 modifies every image which it reflects. It is, as has 
 been proved repeatedly, an absurdity to say that there 
 is any resemblance between the impression and the 
 phenomenon or object which produces it. The former 
 is of course a coefficient of the latter, but as the rela- 
 tions between them are utterly unknown, any comparison 
 of the two involves an inherent absurdity. 
 
 Imagination then plays no small part even in the 
 production of these imitative sounds, and it is probable 
 that among primeval races imagination, as exercised in 
 the appellative faculty, was far more delicate and active 
 than it now is ; indeed, we may at once infer that such 
 was the case by noticing its workings among savage 
 tribes. Language, be it remembered, was not fashioned 
 at the writing-desk or in the close study of the philo- 
 sopher. * If we would follow its track,' it has been said, 
 * we must place ourselves under the broad free heaven, 
 in the fresh life-exuberant Youth of Mankind, in the 
 age of overweening strength, fermenting vigour, over- 
 flowing plenty. . . . The whole deeply-felt necessity 
 which urged the primitive men from one step of lan- 
 guage to another must come out before us in most 
 
 1 See Benloew, Recherches sur t Origine des Horns de Nombre, p. 91. 
 

 
 CH. x. VOCAL IMITATIONS. 115 
 
 living reality, and penetrate our whole being with its 
 inward and primitive force. So possibly may we suc- 
 ceed in finding once more the long-obscured traces of 
 past millenniums.' 1 
 
 The manifold forms which words may assume, which 
 are yet all directly inspired by the imitative principle, 
 are perhaps best shown in the names for thunder, 
 although the word thunder itself, and its cognates, 
 tonitru, donner, tonnerre, &c., are believed to have had 
 a different origin, 2 and merely to have been subsequently 
 moulded into onomatopoetic semblance by an uncon- 
 scious feeling of congruity. Two treatises have been 
 written on the subject, one by Grimm ( Ueber Namen 
 des Donners, Berlin, 1855), and another by Pott (Ueber 
 Mannichfaltigheit des sprachlichen Ausdrucks). 3 From 
 the latter of these (which the author did me the honour 
 to send me with a most kind letter) I select a few 
 only of the names for thunder. Such are Sanskrit 
 gargi, distant thunder ; vagragvala, a clap of thunder ; 
 Gaelic tairneanach; Bohemian hrmeng, hromobitj', 
 Albanian /Sou^/SoiA/r ; Wallachian tresuetU', Icelandic 
 thruma. Who does not see the imitative instinct here 
 at work? Yet the results are as different as are the 
 individual impressions, which even differ in the same 
 person with the mood in which they find him at any 
 particular time. Nay, more, our impressions are often 
 
 1 Drechsler, Grundlegung zur vrissensctiaftlichen Konstruction des 
 gesammten Worter- und FormscJiatzes zunachts der semitischen, ver- 
 suchsweise und in Grundzugen aueh der indogerm. Sprachen, p. xxi. 
 Can no one influence the German writers to remember that life is too 
 short for such intolerably long-winded titles to their books ? 
 
 2 I have examined, further on, the connection of rdveiv and tonitru. 
 Pott, uU infra, p. 208. Heyse, p. 93. 
 
 3 Printed in the Journal of Steinthal and Lazarus. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 ON LANGUAGE. CH. x. 
 
 purely conventional in their origin. Ancient writers 
 for instance, and nearly all writers down to the time of 
 Milton, make the song of the nightingale ' most melan- 
 choly,' and fancied they caught in it the echo of a 
 bereaved mother's wail. But in modern days we have 
 long been agreed that it is 
 
 the merry nightingale 
 That crowds and hurries and precipitates 
 With fast thick warble its delicious notes. 
 
 What the eye sees and the ear hears depends in no 
 small measure on the brain and the heart. The hiero- 
 glyphics of nature, like the inscriptions on the swords 
 of Vathek, vary with every eye that glances on them ; 
 her voices, like the voice l of Helen to the ambushed 
 Greeks, take not one tone of their own, but the tone 
 that each hearer loves best to hear. 
 
 So far then we have examined ( 1 ) the development 
 of 'representations,' as the objects of distinct thought; 
 and (2) the natural sounds out of which can alone be 
 framed the language which expresses thought. It still 
 remains to catch a glimpse, so far as is possible, of the 
 further process of development which weds the sounds 
 of language to its sense. Bat even so far as we have 
 yet proceeded we may see that Speech was not produced 
 either by purely arbitrary or by distinctly conscious 
 processes. The human organism evolved it as an in- 
 tegral part of its own life, by an unconscious necessity 
 which resulted from its inmost constitution. 2 There 
 was no need to search for the sounds which should 
 
 1 Vid. Od. iv. 278. fK 5* bvofna.K\T)$i]v Aavaiav ov6/j.a.es api<rrovs 
 
 irdmcav 'Apytiuv <f>uv^]v IffKOvtr" a\6xourtv. 
 
 2 Drechsler, ubi supra, p. 10.
 
 CH. x. VOCAL IMITATIONS. 117 
 
 correspond with and paint the sensations they expressed ; 
 Instinct supplied them, in the form of Interjections and 
 Imitations, far more powerfully and swiftly than could 
 have been done by the wavering process of conscious 
 selection. ' As the artist fashions the symbol in which 
 his Idea is reborn, not by conscious consideration, but, 
 like nature, by unconscious science ; as the heart stirred 
 by joy or sorrow, still, without search or hesitation, im- 
 mediately, unconsciously, but surely and appropriately, 
 utters the sound which truly paints the colour of the 
 passion, so it is in all language.' To develop Language 
 was the appointed task for the youth of humanity, 
 and its work, as is ever the case with the work of the 
 inspired artist, is inconceivable to the uninitiated, and 
 wonderful to all. 
 
 It is a curious and interesting fact that even among 
 uncivilised nations we find what appears to be a trace, 
 mythologically expressed, of this same conception, viz. 
 that it was the mighty diapason of nature which fur- 
 nished man with the tones which he modulated into 
 articulate speech. The Esthonian l legend of the kettle 
 of boiling water which ' the Aged one ' placed on the fire, 
 and from the hissing and boiling of which the various 
 nations learned their languages and dialects, mythically 
 represents the Kesselberg, with its crests enveloped in 
 the clouds of summer steam, which they regarded as the 
 throne of the thunder-god ; and the Languages which it 
 distributes are the rolling echoes of Thunder and Light- 
 ning, Storm and Kain. They have another and still more 
 beautiful legend of a similar character to explain the 
 
 1 Grimm, Urspr. d. Sprache, p. 28. The explanations are given by 
 Steinthal, Gcsch. d. Sprachwissenschaft bet den Griichen und Romern. 
 p. 10.
 
 118 OX LANGUAGE. CH. x. 
 
 origin of Song or Festal-speech. The god of song 
 Wannemunne descended on the Domberg, on which 
 stands a sacred wood, and there played and sang. All 
 creatures were invited to listen, and they each learnt 
 some fragment of the celestial sound; the listening 
 wood learnt its rustling, the stream its roar ; the wind 
 caught and learnt to reecho the shrillest tones, and the 
 birds the prelude of the song. The fish stuck up their 
 heads as far as the eyes out of the water, but left their 
 ears under water ; they saw the movements of the god's 
 mouth, and imitated them, but remained dumb. Man 
 only grasped it all, and therefore his song pierces into 
 the depths of the heart, and upwards to the dwellings of 
 the gods. 
 
 The legends of savages, and their mythical attempts 
 to express a dim philosophy of speech, are so extremely 
 few that it is interesting to observe in them thisten- 
 deney. The following legend of the Australian abori- 
 gines appears at first sight to be meaningless. They 
 say that there was an old woman named Wururi, who 
 went out at night and used to quench the fires with a 
 great stick. When this old woman died the people 
 tore her corpse to pieces. The Southern tribes coming 
 up first ate her flesh, and immediately gained a very 
 clear language. The Eastern and the Northern tribes, 
 who came later, spoke less intelligible dialects. If 
 Steinthal 1 be right in seeing in Wururi a personification 
 of the damp Night-wind, then at the root of this legend 
 also, lies the notion that the Imitation of Nature helped 
 largely to furnish the material of speech. 
 
 1 Gesch. der Sprachwissenschaft, p. 9.
 
 119 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FROM IMITATIVE SOUNDS TO INTELLIGENT SPEECH. 
 
 Wl(yd\ri rovruv apx^l xal $i$d<TKa\os rj <J>V<TIS, ft voiovffa /ii,uT)T(/coi/j ijfjLM 
 nai OtriKovs TUV ovofjArwv, ols Sij\ovrai ra ifpdynara. 
 
 DION. HAL. De Comp. Verb. p. 94. 
 
 THE Intelligence plays but a very subordinate part, and 
 finds no adequate expression, 1 in the Natural Sounds 
 which tell of sensation and sensuous impression. 
 
 Reasonable speech begins when the mind has arrived 
 at those immediate individual perceptions which we have 
 called Intuitions, 2 and which correspond to the German 
 Anschauungen. These intuitions are expressed, in the 
 parallel development of sound, by Roots. 
 
 The Representation is a development of the Intuition, 
 by means of Abstraction ; and in the same way the Word 
 is a development of the Root by a formal limitation of 
 the merely material meaning of the root into a deter- 
 minate object of thought, which also externally assumes 
 a determinate and limited Sound. 
 
 1 Throughout this brief section I generally follow Heyse, p. 88 sqq., 
 except where otherwise indicated ; I do not however translate him, fre- 
 quently preferring other forms of expression or arrangement of sentences, 
 and frequently interweaving my own comments or illustrations. 
 
 2 ' Every act of consciousness of which the immediate object is an 
 individual thing, state, or act of mind, presented under the condition of 
 distinct existence in space or time.' ManseL, Proleg. Log. p. 9, in 
 Fleming, p. 272.
 
 120 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xi. 
 
 Just as the intuition (Anschauung) melts into the 
 representation (Vorstellung) without acquiring any per- 
 manent fixity, so in actual speech the Eoot vanishes 
 into the Word. It has no independent existence ; but 
 can only be separated into its elements by an analysis 
 of Language in its finished state. 
 
 The production of the word is necessarily coincident 
 with the production of the 'representation.' For in 
 consequence of man's double nature, partly corporeal 
 partly spiritual, he cannot firmly grasp a ' representa- 
 tion ' otherwise than by means of the word which is its 
 sensuous sign. The creative Spontaneity of the Intellect 
 in the production of the ' representation ' must express 
 itself in a corresponding spontaneous effort of the phy- 
 sical organism. The representation must receive an 
 objective form. In order to grasp and retain the repre- 
 sentation in his own intellectual possession, man must 
 necessarily likewise clothe it in a palpable form, for 
 himself, and since his life is essentially social for 
 others also. In order to master an object and appro- 
 priate it to himself for his own mental purposes, he 
 must give it an Ideal existence instead of its real one, 
 and even this Ideal existence must have its sensuous 
 form in order that it may be exhibited and expressed. 
 He cannot be thoroughly conscious of the representation, 
 as of something which he definitely possesses, without 
 giving it some form of expression, 1 and the most perfect 
 and natural form, as has been shown already, is furnished 
 by Sound. 
 
 We have arrived then at that point in the Rise of 
 
 1 Similar reasoning may be found in Humboldt, Ucber d. Verschied. d. 
 menschl. Sprachbaues, p. 68. See p. 51 of the Analysis of this work by 
 M. TonneUe.
 
 CH. xi. FROM SOUNDS TO WORDS. 121 
 
 Language at which man must develope those Natural 
 Sounds which he possesses as a part of the animal crea- 
 tion, into meaning and appropriate words, so specialised 
 as to become the signs of distinct conceptions. What we 
 have yet to try and understand is the reason why parti- 
 cular sounds should have been attached to particular 
 conceptions ; or in other words we must try and dis- 
 cover whether there are any principles on which we can 
 establish a natural, organic connection between words, 
 regarded as sounds, and the meanings which we attach 
 to them. 
 
 Now unless we take refuge in miracle or mysticism, 
 unless we shield ourselves behind a plea of lazy igno- 
 rance, which simply means a refusal to enquire, or hide 
 that very ignorance under the exploded jargon of a 
 pseudo-metaphysical science by talking of occult causes, 
 we must admit that there must have been an original 
 connection between sound and sense. ( The word,' as 
 Steinthal observes, 'belongs not only to the speaker 
 but to the hearer,' and ' comprehension * and speech are 
 only different effects of the same power of Language.' 
 Now a root, or a word, could be practically neither root 
 nor word if it were unintelligible to the hearer ; it would 
 be as meaningless as the babble of an idiot. How then 
 could such a sound be intelligible? It is too late in 
 the day to talk of the possibility of Convention being 
 the origin of the meaning attached to sounds. Against 
 such a theory alone applies with full force the celebrated 
 dictum of Humboldt that ' man is man only by means 
 of language, but that without language he never could 
 have invented language.' Now as the connection be- 
 
 1 Steinthal, Urspr. d. Sprache, p. 11. Humboldt, Ueber d. Verschied. 
 p. 70. Heyse, p. 13. Becker, Organ d. Sprache, 3.
 
 122 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xi. 
 
 tween sound and sense was not arbitrary, and was not 
 miraculous, it must have had a definite reason. Any 
 sound therefore which would at once express and con- 
 vey even the simplest sensation, must necessarily be a 
 spontaneous natural sound ; i. e. it must be either imita- 
 tive or interjectional. The living, feeling, observing 
 Child of Nature, without deliberation, influenced only 
 by sensation or the imitative instinct, produces a sound 
 to represent his conceptions ; and this sound, so origi- 
 nated, is instantly intelligible, by virtue of its natural 
 force, to a fellow-man, similarly organised, standing on 
 the same step of mental development, and surrounded 
 by precisely the same conditions, circumstances, and 
 climatic influences. The nearer men stand to the 
 natural life, the more they resemble one another. 1 In- 
 dividuality is evolved by dawning civilisation. The 
 whole life of the savage in all its external indications, 
 is the life rather of a species than of an individual, 
 and consequently it is dominated over by certain natural 
 necessities rather than by the freedom of the Intellect. 
 Hence among uncultivated races, far more than among 
 civilised races, the sound uttered by each individual 
 would with extraordinary rapidity be accepted and under- 
 stood as a sign by the entire nation. Thus there would 
 be in the Origin of Language nothing either capricious 
 or mystical, but the harmonious and perfect working 
 of laws and instincts inseparable from the very nature 
 of mankind ; and it may confidently be asserted that if 
 the explanation thus offered as to the original union 
 between sound and sense be not correct, it is at any rate 
 
 1 It has been said that the members of savage tribes are, even in 
 countenance, so exactly like each other that no passport system would be 
 possible among them.
 
 CH. xi. FROM, SOUNDS TO WORDS. 123 
 
 an explanation that naturally suggests itself, it is one 
 which has been accepted by many profound and eminent 
 philologists, it is one which may be supported by many 
 powerful and valuable arguments, and no other worth 
 considering has ever been offered in its place. 
 
 We say ' no other;' for the theory of ' phonetic types ' 
 stops short of this question altogether. There must 
 have been a reason why a ' phonetic type ' was a type, 
 and this is the reason which, as being deeply interesting 
 as well as most important, we try to discover. For if 
 the ' phonetic type ' was < an accidental label stuck on to 
 a thing ' there is an end to the Science of Language, and 
 words are but the accidents of accidents. Is not such 
 a view of words an instance of the very fault which 
 the author of it reprobates, the fault of preferring the 
 unintelligible which can be admired to the intelligible 
 which can only be understood ? 
 
 We must now consider yet more closely the growth 
 of natural sounds, and especially Imitations, into Lan- 
 guage, which together with a defence and explanation 
 of the results arrived at will occupy the two next 
 sections.
 
 124 OX LANGUAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ONOMATOPCEIA. 
 
 Sf earn QwvTJi jjdfii)(ns -irpbs r^v TTOIOTIJTO rov inroKfifj.evov 
 %X OV - "Sum. s. v. fftfa. 
 
 IF we consider on the one hand the different kinds of 
 natural sound, and on the other the stock of words 
 which belong to intelligent speech, we shall find many 
 close points of contact and transition between the two. l 
 We find, in fact, in Imitations and Interjections two 
 concurrent points of origin for the two main classes of 
 words. All the words of language may be classed under 
 two great divisions, which may be called Matter-words 
 and Form-words. To the former class belong Nouns 2 
 and Verbs, which supply the main materials of Thought 
 and Speech, and signify perceptible objects or distinct 
 actions ; to the latter belong pronouns, particles, &c., 
 which express our perceptions as modified by nume- 
 rous relations of Space and Time. Now as a general, 
 though far from invariable rule, all matter-words of 
 whose origin we can give any account at all spring from 
 imitative sounds; and form-words from interjections, 
 especially from what have been called Vocal Gestures. 
 
 1 Heyse, p. 90. 
 
 2 A somewhat similar division is found in Aristotle's fyvval 
 
 /jf),ua) and <f>wv
 
 CH. xir. ONOMATOPOEIA. 125 
 
 In the primitive language indeed, parts l of speech had 
 no recognised existence ; the very genius of language 
 was holophrastic, and a sound stood for a sentence, 2 the 
 same sound having many meanings according to its 
 position or pronunciation. Nevertheless there must 
 have been from the first a traceable distinction between 
 nominal and pronominal roots. 'A rigorous analysis 
 of the Indo-European tongues,' says Mr. Garnett, 
 ' shows, if we mistake not, that they are reducible to two 
 very simple elements : 1. Abstract nouns, 3 denoting the 
 simple properties or attributes of things. 2. Pronouns, 
 originally denoting the relations of Space.' We shall 
 hope to show reasons for believing that nouns had, for 
 the most part, their direct origin in imitative sounds ; 
 and considering that in the origin of language the dis- 
 tinction between parts of speech is only of the slightest 
 and most rudimentary character, 4 if we can trace the 
 genesis of nouns, we have solved the problem before us. 
 
 1 ' Die Sprache ist nicht stiickweis odpr atoraistisch, sie ist gleich in 
 alien ihren Theilen als Ganzes und demnach organisch entstanden.' 
 Schelling, Einl, in die Philos. d. Mythologie, p. 51. On the primitive 
 speech-cells, which have as yet no special organs for the functions of 
 distinct parts of speech, see Schleicher, Die Darwinische T/teorie und die 
 Sprachwissenschaft, p. 23. This is an ingenious pamphlet showing the 
 light which the Darwinian hypothesis throws upon language. 
 
 2 ' Les inventeurs des langues n'etaient pas des grammairiens comme 
 Condillac, Adam Smith et tant d'autres, qu'on croirait avoir dine avec 
 nos premiers parents, tant ils sont bien instmits de la maniere exacte etr 
 precise dont le premier langage a et6 formeV Du Ponceau, Mem. sur le 
 Syst. Gram, des Langues de V Amerique du Nord, p. 15. 
 
 8 It is impossible to speak of the priority of nouns or verbs ; both 
 originate together, as specialisations of the original vague elements of 
 speech. See Schleicher, Compend. d. vergl. Gram. p. 412. 
 
 4 Every lingua franca presents a picture of what the primitive lan- 
 guages must have been, by reducing language to its simplest elements 
 and by the almost complete elimination of grammar. See Appleyard, 
 Kaf. Gram. p. 10. Latham, Var. of Man, p. 320 sqq. Here for in-
 
 126 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xn. 
 
 An imitative sound, gives expression to an auditory 
 perception, and therefore has a necessary and obvious 
 relation to the object which causes the perception. The 
 sound, perceived and reproduced, gives to the Intellect 
 a fixed mark of the object perceived. How then could 
 man more naturally name the representation of an 
 object which he has grasped in his intelligence, than by 
 the copy of its characteristic mark ? Now when the 
 Imitative natural sound is firmly held as a sign of, and 
 then as a name for the representation, it becomes a 
 Word ; and this method of forming words is named 
 Onomatopoeia. 
 
 First of all man names the perceived sound, itself by 
 the natural imitation of it, e.g. a croak, a shriek, ftoij, 
 &c. ; next the producing of the sound, as croaking, 
 shrieking, /36ai>, &c. ; and finally the object from which 
 the sound emanates, and which the repetition of it 
 recalls before the mind, as crow, /Sovy, cuckoo, &c. 
 
 Now those who attack the Onomatopoetic theory in- 
 variably leap to the conclusion that we mean by it to 
 describe Language as due solely to the Instinct of Imita- 
 tion, and that as other animals have this instinct and 
 yet do not possess language the theory breaks down. 
 Possibly indeed such a notion may arise from want of 
 sufficient precision in our statements of the theory ; but 
 as we have repeatedly protested against it before, so we 
 
 stance is a negro crier's rersion of the notice that ' Pigs without rings 
 in their noses are to be shot.' ' I say suppose a pig walk iron no lire 
 for him nose ! gun shoot ! kill im one time.' Hutchinson, Ten Years' 
 Wanderings, p. 32. And here is a specimen of the Chinese ' pigeon ' 
 (i. e. 'business') English. 'My chin-chin you, this one velly good flin 
 (= friend) belong mi; mi \vantchie you do plopel pigeon (= proper 
 business), along he, all same fashion along mi,' &c. Prehistoric Man, 
 ii 428.
 
 CH. xii. OXOMATOPCEIA. 127 
 
 here again caution the student that this is not our view, 
 and that to argue as if it were is not to refute but to 
 misrepresent. A mere capacity for sensuous imitation 
 would end, as it does with the jay and the mocking- 
 bird, in a mere collection of natural sounds. But here 
 the intellect steps in, and makes the imitation a means 
 for the satisfaction of its higher needs. In itself the 
 mere imitation is a natural sound expressive of a sen- 
 suous impression, and nothing more; but the mind 
 seizes upon it as a means for its own culture, reproduces 
 it at will as the sign of a fixed representation, as the 
 name of that representation, and so as a WORD. . And 
 when the Sound has become a Word, it has a far richer 
 and at the same time more abstract meaning, inasmuch 
 as it no longer signifies or even calls attention to the 
 imitated Sound, but stands for the whole conception. 
 Nobody for instance in using the word cow l dreams of 
 its primeval significance as the creature that Imvs (in 
 North Country dialect * coo '), but as a most useful 
 domestic animal, possessing numberless familiar attri- 
 butes. 
 
 Now, as far as the mere outward form is concerned, 
 there may be only a single step from the natural Sound 
 to the Word ; nay more the two may be phonetically 
 
 1 Is it conceivable that any one can, with this explanation before him, 
 prefer to derive it from the Sanskrit root gu, to go? Would any human 
 being have fixed on going as a special attribute, a characteristic mark, 
 of the cow ! so characteristic as to be selected out of a host of attributes 
 to suggest the animal's name! See Pictet, Lts Orig. Ind. i. 331, who 
 very sensibly admits the onomatopoetic origin. See too T. Hewitt 
 Key's able pamphlet, Qu&ritur, p. 8. I take this opportunity of apolo- 
 gising to Professor Key for my inadvertence in attributing to him the 
 derivation of ' vivo ' from ' bibo,' which he never in any way sanctioned 
 (Orig. of Lang. p. 105). I have already explained to him by letter 
 the origin of my mistake.
 
 128 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xn. 
 
 coincident; but between the inner meaning of the two 
 lies the entire chasm which separates the natural life 
 of sense from the free intellectual life, the entire chasm 
 which separates the sensation from the concept. 
 
 It is true that in finished language the pure and 
 obvious onomatopoeias are mainly those which express 
 the actual sounds imitated, or verbal forms derived 
 from them ; to roar, 1 buzz, whizz, crack, clang, screech, 
 hiss, rustle, &c.; and more rarely substantives, such 
 as crow, cuckoo, peewit, &c., because when the Intellect 
 pierces deeper into the nature of things, it often rejects 
 the crude imitation which is no longer a necessity, and 
 proceeds to the naming of objects by deeper-lying and 
 more significant characteristics, which are often ex- 
 pressed by words in which all traces of original imitation 
 have disappeared for centuries. 
 
 So far Heyse ; with much that he proceeds to add, we 
 disagree, and we shall incidentally give reasons for doing 
 so in the following part of the chapter. On one point 
 however we are entirely of his view, in regarding the 
 onomatopoetic principle as a starting-point of Lan- 
 guage; we do not however think with him that the 
 advancing intellect of mankind soon dispensed with it, 
 and still less that it had but a trifling influence in 
 
 1 It would be easy to produce a very long and striking list of such 
 verbs in Hebrew. Greek is also rich in them, as o\o\vtw, a\a\d^eiv, 
 (j.r)Kaffdai, fj.vKaff6ai, PpvxfiffOcu, fioifciv, xpM eTt 'C "') """P'C 6 '") ffi^etv, K\ay- 
 yaivtiv, K.T.A. Latin ululare, balare, mugire, rugire, stridere, hinnire, 
 sibilare, &c. See Egger, Notions Blementaires de Gram. Comp. p. 155. 
 The little poem Philomela, by Albius Ovidius Juventinus, is a string of 
 such onomatopoeias, mostly of his own invention. It deserves a passing 
 glance, though its value is purely philological. Many of these imitations 
 with others may be seen in the fragment of an old glossary, ' Ex regula 
 Phocae.' Mai, Auct. Class, vi. 600.
 
 CH. xii. OXOMATOPCEIA. 129 
 
 liberating the intellect from mere sensuous impressions. 
 The fact that it is still seen so conspicuously at work in 
 the language of children and savages seems to us to 
 refute such conclusions. I venture to disagree from 
 Heyse only in the small degree of importance which he 
 attaches to the principle. Granting that he is correct in 
 considering the Sound to be a mere means, or element, 
 or * moment ' in the development of the Word, just as 
 the perception is in the development of the concept, 
 granting that the Word never, or very rarely, continues 
 to be a mere Echo or Reflex of the sensuous impression 
 still without this means, without these mere echoes, 
 it seems to us certain that language could never have 
 existed. They were the appointed instrument to de- 
 velope the latent germ, or Idea, of Speech, and we 
 believe that they suggested the vast majority of actual 
 roots. 
 
 Perhaps a consideration of the objections to the 
 theory will enable us to understand it more clearly. 
 They will at any rate leave the reader more in a posi- 
 tion to judge for himself, and will show our desire to 
 avoid mere ex parte statements and reasonings. I 
 have searched for these objections and refutations far 
 and wide, and not consciously shirked any one of them ; 
 and in order to give them the best possible position, I 
 shall quote them, as often as I can, from the pages of 
 Professor Max Miiller. It will, I think, be seen that 
 the only ones which are at all insuperable are aimed 
 not at the theory rightly understood, but at mere mis- 
 apprehension of it.
 
 130 ON LANGUAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEOKT ASSERTED 
 
 PAUCITY OF ONOMATOPOEIAS, EVEN IN ANIMAL NAMES. 
 
 ' Gallorum cantus, et ovantes gutture corvos, , 
 
 Et vocum quidquid bellua et ales habet, 
 
 Omnia cum simules ita vere ut ficta negentur, 
 
 Non potes humanae vocis habere sonum.' 
 
 Auson. Epig. Ixrvi. 
 
 1. THE first objection to the theory that the imitation 
 of natural sounds was the chief starting-point of lan- 
 guage, and the source of most nominal roots, is that 
 * the certain onomatopoeias in our language are few in 
 number? 
 
 * Though there are names in every language formed 
 by mere imitation of sound, yet these constitute ! a very 
 small proportion of our dictionary. They are the 
 playthings, not the tools of language, and any attempt 
 to reduce the most common and necessary words to 
 imitative roots ends in complete failure.' 
 
 So wrote Professor Miiller in his first series of Lec- 
 tures (i. p. 347); but it is fair to hope that his view 
 has been a little modified, because in his second series 
 
 1 A similar objection is urged byEgger: 'Si Ton compare a 1'immense 
 richesse des langues grecque, latine et frar^aise, le petit nombre des 
 mots dont il peut rendre compte, on se convaincra que 1' Etymologic lie 
 doit pas accorder a 1'onomatopee une trop grande importance.' Notions 
 fyementaires, p. 155.
 
 CH. xiii. OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEORY. 131 
 
 he writes (ii. 92), * There is one class of scholars who 
 derive all words from roots according to the strictest 
 rules of comparative grammar, but who look upon the 
 roots in their original character as either interjectional 
 or onomatopoeic.' With regard to this theory, which is 
 the only one which I am maintaining, he says, */ should 
 wish to remain entirely neutral, satisfied with con- 
 sidering roots as phonetic types till some progress has 
 been made in tracing the principal roots not of Sanskrit 
 only, but of Chinese, Bask, the Turanian, and Semitic 
 languages, back to the cries of man or the imitated 
 sounds of nature.' 
 
 Our reply to the objection is this : That if the pro- 
 posed etymologies be correct, 'the words formed by 
 mere imitation of sound ' do not constitute by any 
 means 'a very small proportion of our dictionary.' 
 Perhaps the meaning is however that the obvious, 
 certain, and indisputable onomatopoeias are few in 
 number. Indeed we conceive that this must be the 
 meaning because elsewhere it is admitted ' that each 
 language possesses a large stock of words imitating the 
 sounds given out by certain things.' l The word * few ' 
 then is a very relative word, and if any one will examine 
 for himself with patience a fair portion of a Greek, 
 Hebrew, or English Lexicon, he will find that even the 
 certain onomatopoeias, with their derivatives, furnish 
 him with a very long list ; and that the number of words 
 which have so much of the onomatopoetic element in 
 them as most plausibly to be referred to a similar origin 
 (especially as any other account which can be given of 
 them is at least equally questionable), is very large in- 
 
 1 Lectures, ii. 89. 
 K 2
 
 132 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xin. 
 
 deed. In French and in English the student will find 
 the task ready performed to his hands by Charles Nodier 
 in his Dictionnaire des Onomatopees, and by Mr. Hens- 
 leigh Wedgwood in his Dictionary of English Etymo- 
 logy. The former is full of errors which were perhaps 
 inevitable at the time when it was written ; and every 
 student will find a good deal from which he must withhold 
 his consent until further proofs are adduced. But even 
 with this deduction a candid consideration of M. Nodier's 
 and Mr. Wedgwood's labours can hardly fail to convince 
 him that the objection as to the paucity of actual 
 onomatopoeias is one which is wholly without weight. 
 Only, in looking for onomatopoeias he must remember 
 that there is an immense gap between articulate and 
 inorganic sounds, 1 and that he is looking, not for imita- 
 tions, like bow-wow, but for human words adopted into 
 rational speech, and therefore framed by the Intelligence 
 of man from mere raw echoes to artistic articulated 
 sounds in accordance with the processes which we have 
 already endeavoured to trace. He must remember too 
 that in the course of ages, Words (to borrow the frequent 
 similitude) are tossed and rolled and chipped 2 out of 
 
 1 And, for this reason, ' in the imitative synonyms of the same or 
 cognate tongues, we must expect only to meet with resemblances of a 
 very general nature. 1 Mr. Wedgwood, in Phil. Trans, ii. 118. It is 
 most necessary to enforce this observation. Onomatopoeia is not so 
 much the imitation of sounds, as the instinctive and quasi-imitative 
 reproduction of the impressions made by sounds. Wiillner, Urspr. d. 
 Sprache, s. 28. We must not therefore expect to find them either uniform 
 or exact. They may range over wide phonetic differences, and yet be 
 onomatopoetic in origin. 
 
 2 Similarly, in ideographical characters which were once pictorial, ' that 
 the resemblance should be in many cases so exact as in itself to demon- 
 strate the object, is scarcely to be expected.' Marshman, Chinese Gram. 
 p. 17. And Ewald (Hebr. Gram. 135) says of the Hebrew alphabet,
 
 CH. xin. OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEORY. 133 
 
 shape like the pebbles which are perpetually tumbled 
 by the sea-waves upon a shingly beach, and that there- 
 fore a word, once distinctly imitative, has often lost 
 every possible external trace of its sensuous origin. It 
 is now an established fact that every abstract word has 
 acquired its meaning by derivation and metaphor from 
 other words expressive of mere sensation, 1 yet how long 
 and difficult, in some cases how uncertain or even im- 
 possible, it is to point out the intervening stages ; and 
 to the flippant and the ignorant how ridiculous is the 
 apparent inadequacy of the origin to produce the result ! 
 Yet the fact has now been demonstrated, and we only 
 ask the same patience and unprejudiced learning in the 
 endeavour to trace the physical origin of all our words 
 from natural sounds. And as we are confirmed in our 
 conviction of the sensational origin of all our abstract 
 words by observing that the more primeval and uncul- 
 tivated a language is, the more numerous are its sense- 
 words, and the fewer its abstractions, so we are confirmed 
 in our conviction about onomatopoeia by observing its 
 extreme prevalence and vividness in the tongues which 
 have least been subjected to the influences of civilisa- 
 tion. * That portion of the vast growth of language,' 
 says an ingenious writer, 2 ' which can be traced to a 
 directly mimetic root may remain a small fraction of 
 the whole; but if it be the only portion whose structure 
 is intelligible to us, we shall readily believe that the 
 
 ' The signs have been for the most part very much altered, because in 
 \vriting they retained the dead traces only from habit, without thinking 
 of their meaning according to the intention of the first discoverers.' 
 This is, verbatim, true of language also. 
 
 1 ' So hat auch keine Sprache ein Abstractum, zu dem sie nicht durch 
 Ton und Gefiihl gelangt -ware." Herder, Abhandl. 6. 122. 
 
 2 In Macmillaris Magazine.
 
 134 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xm. 
 
 working of this principle is limited by our ignorance 
 and not by its own nature. The progress of all science 
 consists in the destruction of these phantasmal limita- 
 tions which, like the circle of the visible horizon, we 
 project upon the outward world. . . . The study of lan- 
 guage, we doubt not, is destined to achieve an analogous 
 triumph over the weakness of our imagination, teaching 
 us, in the imperfect accents of the child or the savage, 
 to recognise the working of that principle which has 
 perfected for us the instrument of thought.' 
 
 Let us take a parallel case. It is now admitted by 
 all competent scholars that all alphabetic writing de- 
 rived its origin from pictorial and ideographic signs 
 which originated from systems invented in Egypt, in 
 Mesopotamia, and elsewhere. The analysis of the whole 
 body of speech into its elementary sounds, and the 
 representation of these sounds to the eye by figures on 
 a plane surface, is so marvellous a discovery, hardly less 
 marvellous than the discovery of speech itself, that, 
 like speech and no less erroneously, it has been attri- 
 buted to direct inspiration, and ascribed by Jews and 
 Christians to Moses, Abraham, Seth, or Noah, 1 as by 
 the ancient Egyptians to the god Thoth. Yet it is now 
 established that writing was a gradual human discovery, 
 and that the secret of it, like that of speech, was sug- 
 gested by the instinct of imitation. Now this has been 
 proved by precisely similar steps of induction to those 2 
 
 1 Voss, De Arte Grammatica, pp. 39-43. He truly says that on this 
 topic ' multi multa tradideruiit et fuse, et confuse.' 
 
 2 In fact the processes are strictly analogous. The alphabet originally 
 presented pictures, i. e. copies or imitations, to the eye, and when the 
 secret of such representation was once learnt, the pictures rapidly became 
 conventional and unrecognisable : so language presented copies or imita-
 
 CH. xm. OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEORY. 135 
 
 which we have followed in referring all roots to an 
 onomatopoetic origin ; and if the steps of the argument 
 have been in the one case universally accepted as con- 
 clusive and satisfactory, why should they not be simi- 
 larly accepted in the other ? Just as we have proved 
 that imitative words are most common in savage lan- 
 guages ; that they are more numerous and distinct in 
 primitive than in modern languages ; that many of 
 them are confessedly and clearly traceable ; that they 
 supply us with a vera causa or adequate explanation ; 
 that the steps of the progress are thus simple and 
 natural ; and that no other theory has been seriously 
 attempted ; so we show that picture-writing has pre- 
 vailed and does prevail among various uncultivated 
 races ; that it is the most obvious principle which could 
 have been adopted; that it explained itself; that in all 
 traceable instances the picture was the origin of the 
 letter ; and that for instance in Egyptian l writing 
 the Demotic or enchorial system is a corruption of the 
 Hieratic, which is a degeneration of the Hieroglyphic, 
 which is but a modification of the pictorial. With these 
 clues we take any alphabet ; and as the Aramaean is the 
 most important, and may most probably, as tradition 
 asserts, have been the origin of the Phoenician, and 
 through that of the Greek, and through that of the 
 Eoman alphabet and of our own, and as the Hebrew 
 alphabet is one of our oldest approximations to the 
 Aramaean, 2 let us take that alphabet, and see how it was 
 
 tions to the ear, which imitations were rapidly modified out of mere 
 echoes into definite words by the action of well-defined physical and 
 psychical laws. 
 
 1 See for details the admirable article on Hieroglyphics by Mr. E. S. 
 Poole in the 8th ed. of the Encycl. Britannica. 
 
 2 According to Ewald it was not invented by the Phoenicians (Luc.
 
 136 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xm. 
 
 arrived at. "We find then at once that the name of each 
 letter is the name of some object, and the form of the 
 letter a rude representation of the form of the object. 
 Thus : 
 
 X Aleph = an ox; originally "V" an ox's head. 1 
 
 i Beth = a house; sometimes f| a tent (nearly as in 
 Chinese). 
 
 j Gimel = a camel; the form representing its neck 
 or hump. 
 
 T Daleth = a door ; Greek A a tent-door. 
 
 1 Vau=a tent-peg, or hook. 
 
 And so on in nearly every case ; so that in the doubtful 
 instances, such as n He, and D Samech, 2 we are entitled 
 at once to conclude a similar parentage, though not with 
 certainty discoverable. If we take other letters from 
 the Greek alphabet, which were not among the original 
 (froiviKtjia <ypafjL/Aa,Ta of Cadmus, some curious origins are 
 suggested to us. Thus Simonides, the legendary in- 
 ventor of the letters , i^, and &>, is said to have invented 
 the figure of the first because it resembles a saw of which 
 its sound is an imitation, and the second because 'ps* 
 recalls the whistling of an arrow, which the letter 
 roughly represents. Of T and <E>, both of which are 
 mythically attributed to Palamedes, tradition tells us 
 
 Phars. iii. 220), but by the Aramaeans (Plin. Nat. Hist. vii. 56). The 
 name of each letter begins with the letter for which it stands. 
 
 1 See Ewald's Hebr. Gram. 135-140. 
 
 2 The word samech possibly means ' a prop;' but may not its form, 
 no less than that of the letter B, the Greek <r s, and the English S, 
 represent the chief sibilant animal, the serpent? If we remember the 
 curious fact that the Hebrew letters are arranged according to the mean- 
 ings, and not on any scientific principle (e. g. T and H (weapon and 
 scrip), * and D (hand and hollow of hand), JJ and a (eye and mouth) 
 come together), then samech, if it ever stood for ' serpent,' comes appro- 
 priately after 3 (a fish). Cf. Ajnos ix. 3.
 
 CH. xni. OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEORY. 137 
 
 that one represents the flight of cranes, 1 and the other 
 a crane standing on one leg. These last are but illus- 
 trations, and very doubtful ones ; but our argument is 
 this. Supposing that the forms of the Hebrew letters 
 had lost even the remotest resemblance to the things 
 which they once represented, and that the names of the 
 large majority of them had been phonetically corrupted, 
 so as to have lost all trace of their original significance, 
 supposing, too, that other historical links in the chain 
 of evidence had been broken, still, if we could only in 
 two or three cases have distinctly proved that in spite 
 of these corruptions the alphabetic signs certainly had 
 such an origin, would any one have hesitated about 
 accepting the explanation as an adequate one for the 
 entire series of letters ? Would any one have hesitated, 
 even if all direct proof failed, and the explanation were 
 merely suggested as possible ? Surely not ; and the a 
 priori simplicity and naturalness of the explanation 
 would help, as in the case of language, to give it imme- 
 diate weight. In both cases we have direct proof to a 
 considerable extent ; but even an hypothesis, resting on 
 no direct proof, deserves attention, and sometimes even 
 inspires conviction, if it be clear, adequate, and intrin- 
 sically probable, particularly if it be only rivalled by 
 theories which rest their claims on ' elementary unin- 
 telligibility' or which begin by abandoning the problem 
 altogether. But onomatopoeia, as a theory of the forma- 
 tion of language, is something more than an hypothesis; 
 it rests on the basis of a large induction ; and it furnishes 
 
 1 ' Turbabis versus, nee litera tota volabit. 
 
 Unam perdideris si Palamedis avem.' Mart. xiii. 75. 
 i e. they no longer represent the letter, if one crane be removed. 
 
 ' Haec gruis effigies Palamedica porrigitur *.' Auson. IdyB.
 
 138 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xm. 
 
 a remarkably close analogy to other processes of the 
 human mind. 1 
 
 So that we are not disturbed when our opponents tell 
 us that we can produce few direct and indisputable 
 imitations in illustration of our theory. In the first 
 place it is not a fact that we can produce only a few 
 even of these. We can produce more than enough for 
 the purpose; and more even than might have been 
 expected because the very theory as we have stated it 
 admits for the rapid tendency of language to become 
 mechanical by corruption. 2 At first, as we have said 
 already, people hate to use a word which is a mere 
 sound to them, alike strange and unmeaning. Their 
 own language they will use all their life without the 
 vaguest consciousness of the etymology or original 
 meaning of any one of its words, because it is familiar 
 to them, and they are as indifferent to its obliterations 
 as they are to the blurred and dinted surface of a piece 
 of money in their own coinage. But they will not use 
 a foreign or strange word, until, like a coin, it has been, 
 to use the technical term, surfrappe with an image and 
 superscription which they understand. If a foreign 
 word be introduced they will either not use it at all, or 
 
 1 Words whether written or spoken are signs ; to convey an impression 
 to others we must imitate either the sound or the shape of that which 
 produced it. ' L'onomatopee est done le type des langues prononcees, et 
 1'hieroglyphe le type des langues Sorites.' Nodier, Diet, des Onomatopees, 
 p. 11. 
 
 2 Origin of Lang. pp. 57-61, where numerous instances are given from 
 the names of horses, of ships, and of flowers. Prof. Miiller gives some 
 from the names of inns (ii. 530 sqq.). Many are supplied in Philolog. 
 Trans, v. 138 (by Dr. Whewell), and by Mr. Isaac Taylor in his ad- 
 mirable work on Words and Places, pp. 409 sqq. Steinthal also men- 
 tions a few, Gesch. d. Sprachwissensck. s. 6 : e. g. Vormund, Leumund from 
 Jtfww^protection, not from Mund mouth; Zanktiiffe for Xanthippe, &c.
 
 CH. xni. OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEORY. 139 
 
 not until they have twisted it into some shape which 
 shall explain itself to them. Let any one try to intro- 
 duce such a word, not being in any sense imitative, 
 and he will find himself fail as egregiously as the 
 Emperor Tiberius. We see then, from watching the 
 laws and instincts still at work, that words not self- 
 explicative would have had no chance of obtaining 
 currency at the dawn of language, and that therefore 
 the most vital and powerful roots must have been not 
 arbitrary but self-explaining, i. e. imitative; and also 
 that the process of phonetic corruption is such as to 
 lead us to expect a priori that but few words, compared 
 with the whole number, would retain a positive and 
 unmistakeable trace of their primitive origin, precisely 
 in the same way as, and for the same reason that, only 
 a few letters in the Alphabet have retained their original 
 and significant shape. 1 But if the words which retained 
 such a trace were even far fewer than they are, we 
 
 1 Let us take an instance ; we assert the imitative origin of language, 
 and some one objects ' But the word horse is not imitative of a neigh ; ' 
 and if we answer ' Yes, it ultimately was so,' people laugh. Yet horee 
 is derived from the unquestionable onomatopoeia hresch 'to neigh,' 
 though one cannot always bring so distinct a proof at once. Now 
 assert the imitative, pictorial origin of the alphabet, and some one 
 objects that Mem means ' water,' and the sign D does not in the least 
 resemble water. Good; but the original sign (much as in our own 
 cursive character) was like the Chinese Q^Q, and represented waves. 
 It would greatly assist those who really wish to arrive at truth on this 
 subject, if they would bear these analogies constantly in mind ; and that 
 is my reason for dwelling on them here. But the majority of those who 
 know nothing about the matter content themselves with the refutation 
 implied by a stolidly self-complacent smile ; just as for years people used 
 to refute the theory of the world's diurnal revolution on its axis. This 
 m/cTj a\oyla is no new thing : 
 
 ' Dixeris hsec inter varicosos Centuriones, 
 Continuo crassum ridet Vulfenius ingens ; 
 Et centum Grsecos curto centusse licetur.' Pers. v. 189.
 
 140 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xnr. 
 
 should still be entitled to believe that they revealed to 
 man (as has been previously explained) the great and 
 wonderful discovery which lies at the root of all language 
 the discovery that the physical and spiritual worlds 
 with all their phenomena are capable of analysis, of 
 expression, and of communication by a world of vocal 
 sounds. 
 
 2. It is another, and perhaps it will be considered a 
 more telling form of the same objection, that * we 1 speak 
 of a cow, not of a moo ; of a lamb, not of a baa. . . . 
 If this principle of onomatopoeia is applicable anywhere, 
 it would be in the formation of the names of animals. 
 Yet we listen in vain for any similarity between goose 
 and cackling, hen and clucking, duck and quacking, 
 sparrow and chirping, dove and cooing, hog and grunt- 
 ing, cat and mewing, between dog and barking, yelping, 
 snarling, or growling.' 
 
 To say nothing of the fact that this aggressive sen- 
 tence supplies us for its construction no less than twelve 
 confessed onomatopoeias, I may perhaps refer to the entire 
 answer to the previous objection, as well as to the whole 
 of my second chapter ' On the Naming of Animals,' as 
 a sufficient proof that we do find the principle most 
 remarkably at work in the large majority of animal 
 names, especially in those languages in which we should 
 be most reasonable in expecting it, such as Sanskrit, 
 Hebrew, Chinese, and the languages of savage tribes. 
 Before entering on the argument we may oppose asser- 
 tion with assertion and say with M. Nodier : 2 ' La plupart 
 
 1 Lectures, i. 344-351, 1st ed. I have not shirked a single argument, 
 or shadow of an argument, which I could find in these Lectures, or in 
 the writings of Pott, Steinthal, &c. 
 
 2 Diet, des Onomatopees, p. 38. Cf. Pott, Doppelung, pp. 29. 51 sqq.
 
 CH. xiii. OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEORY. 141 
 
 des animaux sont caracterises par 1'onomatopee.' Even 
 were it true, which we shall Bee good reason to doubt, 
 that in this handful of selected names, there is no 
 trace of imitation, there are hosts of names in which 
 there is such a trace, and these would be enough to 
 prove the real point for which alone we have been 
 contending. Such, for instance, are horse, buck, hog, 
 cow, ai-ai, agouti, lion, 1 kooloo-kamba, cuckoo, crow, 
 crane, crake, quail, peewhit, chough, owl, buzzard, sand- 
 piper, pigeon, 2 daw, tit, finch, whip-poor-will, cricket, &c. 
 That there are numerous instances where the ultimate 
 name has been derived from some other attribute of 
 the animal is only what we should expect in the growth 
 of language. Although the names here urged against 
 us are mostly onomatopoetic, it would be quite easy to 
 select as many that are not. The selection of such 
 instances as a disproof of our principle would be analo- 
 gous, as an argument, to the inference that the names of 
 animals in the Komance languages are not derived from 
 Latin because renard, blaireau, belette, mouton, crapeau, 
 hochequeue, moineau, have no connection with vulpes, 
 meles, mustela, ovis, rana, motacilla, or passer ; or that 
 the names of birds are not generally onomatopoetic 
 though even the ancients 3 had observed this fact, 
 because redbreast, wagtail, eagle, vulture, falcon, may 
 not be. 'The most immediate and the most naive 
 sensations of a people always end,' says M. Nodier, ' by 
 
 1 Hebr. N'37, 'rugiendi sonum imitans,' Gesen. Thes. s. v. Cf. 
 Germ. Lowe ; and the old Egyptian mouee. The name agouti is frem its 
 cry couy. 
 
 2 From the onomatop. pipi, pipire. Vid. Diez, s. v. Piccione. 
 
 8 SX^SOP yap TO. tr\fto"Ta rwv opvewv curb rfjy Qxav^s fx * r ^l v crnpcurlav. 
 Athen. ix. 392. This is especially the case in Latin : grus, graceulus, 
 bubo, strix, buteo, &c. Pott, Doppelung, p. 51.
 
 142 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xin. 
 
 disappearing before its illusions.' For instance, almost 
 every name given to the species of the genus Goatsucker 
 is an onomatopoeia ( Chum-owl, Night-jar, Spinner, Jar- 
 owl, &c.), of which an Australian variety is called More- 
 pork, an American variety Whip-poor-will, and another 
 (Caprimulgus Lyra) Chuck Will's Widow, each of these 
 names being crude analogies from its cry: yet over 
 these natural and distinctive names how constantly 
 prevails the name AtyodijXr)?, caprimulgus, tete-chevre, 
 Ziegenmelker, Russian kozodoi, goatsucker, &c., from a 
 stupid superstition as old as the time of Aristotle (Hist. 
 Anim. ix. 30, 2), which is not even yet extinct. 
 
 I will not however rest on any of these general 
 considerations, but will at once come still more closely 
 to the point and examine each of the words which Mr. 
 Max Midler has himself chosen to disprove our theory ; 
 taking his argument sentence by sentence from the 
 beginning. Nearly every paragraph will show whether 
 there is any ground for his allegation that 'most of 
 these onomatopoeias vanish as we trace our own names 
 back to Anglo-Saxon and Gothic, or compare them with 
 their cognates in Greek, Latin, or Sanskrit.' Reversing 
 this sentence, we should be inclined to say that on the 
 contrary it is only by such tracing and comparing 
 that we can, in many cases, prove the imitative nature of 
 the word. 
 
 ' We speak of a cow, not of a moo.' A strange 
 instance this! since 'cow,' as we have seen already, 
 is unquestionably imitative in origin, and is admitted 
 to be so, if one must quote an authority, by M. Pictet 
 himself. Yet simply because the imitation is not 06- 
 vious, a child has to learn how to get at the word cow, by 
 crossing to it over the onomatopoeic stepping-stone ' moo.'
 
 CH. xin. OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEOEY. 143 
 
 ' Of a lamb, not of a baa.' Yet the Sanskrit word 
 for a ram is bheda, as the Danish is beed^, and the 
 French belier; and all three come from baa! The 
 derivation of 'lamb,' like that of several names for 
 sheep, is uncertain, so We will say nothing about it, 
 only as before calling attention to the consequent 
 necessity for the imitative stepping-stone baa-lamb, and 
 to the fact that if ' lamb ' be not imitative, many words 
 for lamb in other languages are, e. g. the Swiss baageli, 
 the Swedish bagge, the Malay biri-biri. 
 
 ' There is no connection between goose and cackling.' 
 Are we so sure of this ? Almost certainly there is. Mr. 
 Wedgwood mentions that in Lithuania guz-guz is a cry 
 to call geese ; but setting this aside, and accepting the 
 Aryan and non-interjectional origin of the word, it is 
 derived from the Sanskrit hansa ; Greek ^v ; Lat. anser ; 
 Germ, gans, &C. 1 And what is the derivation of hansa ? 
 Let M. Pictet, always anxious to avoid an onomatopoeia 
 when he can, tell us : * La racine est probablement has, 
 ridere, par allusion au cri peu melodieux de 1'oiseau 
 et a la maniere dont il ouvre son bee pour le pousser' 
 (Les Aryas Primitifs, i. 388). ( Goose ' then is a word 
 which, so far from having ' no connection with cackling,' 
 is doubly imitative, and is solely suggested by cackling ! 2 
 And this its imitative character is further established 
 by the fact that a similar root for the name is discover- 
 able all over the world, from Iceland to Japan, not only 
 
 1 The French oie is from avicula, an interesting instance of the use of 
 the general for the special, and a proof of the value attached to the bird ; 
 compare our ' birds ' for ' partridges.' 
 
 2 It is connected with many other onomatopffiias, such as -^aivu, yawn, 
 gackern, gingrire, &c. Wiillner, Urspr. d. Sprache, s. 27. The name 
 of the bird is almost always imitative Swedish gaas t Danish gaas, 
 Mexican Halacatl, &c.
 
 144 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xin. 
 
 in Aryan, but even in the remotest allophylian lan- 
 guages ! l Moreover in other instances the name given 
 to the bird is an unconcealed onomatopoeia, as for 
 instance in the Scotch claik or clake. 
 
 ' There is no similarity between hen and clucking.'' 
 To expect ' similarity ' is to misunderstand the condi- 
 tions of the problem, as already explained. Neverthe- 
 less the name * hen ' (Sanskrit Kanaka, Persian Rank, 
 German Hahn, Huhn, Henne) is as certainly imitative 
 as is cock, and expresses clucking distinctly enough. 
 Of the Sanskrit Kuhkuta, Pictet says: 'C'est la une 
 onomatopee que Ton retrouve dans 1'ancien Slave 
 kokoshu, &c.' Kukkubha is <un autre nom imitatif.' 
 . Krkavaku is still more remarkable, being formed from 
 vakil, 2 the creature that cries krka, * un mot par lui- 
 meme imitatif du cri guttural ' (Pictet, i. 396). Even 
 Professor Pott, who is always most cautious in admitting 
 an onomatopoeia, sees it without hesitation in the word 
 cock, quoting the verb cucuriref a distinct invention 
 for the purpose, adopted by the author of * Philomela :' 
 
 ' Cucurrire solet gallus, gallina gracillat," 1. 25. 
 
 * There is no similarity between a duck and quack- 
 ing.' As we have already proved and illustrated, the 
 
 1 It is curious to observe that Varro knowing of course nothing 
 whatever about the origin of the word did instinctively find a ' similarity 
 between goose and cackling;' for he says, ' De his plereeque ab suis 
 vocibus, ut haec : upupa, cuculus, corvus, hirundo, ulula, bubo ; item haec : 
 pavo, ANSEE, gallina, columba.' De Ling. Lot. v. 76. 
 
 2 Formed on the exact analogy of the African kooloo-kamba, the 
 creature which cries kooloo (Du Chaillu's travels) ; and the Galla dada~ 
 goda, for which see Wedgwood, i. v. 
 
 * See his paper Zur Culturgeschichte (on the names of fowl and goat). 
 I do not know where it appeared. Professor Pott was so kind as to send 
 me a copy of the paper.
 
 CH. xin. OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEORY. 145 
 
 objective repercussion of a subjective impression in 
 many cases neither aims at nor pretends to * similarity ' 
 even in the first instance, and much less after the 
 phonetic modification of centuries. And next, the name 
 
 * duck ' is derived from the same root as the German 
 
 * tauchen,' from the animal's habit of diving ; but duck, 
 tauchen, dab, dive, &c., are imitative in origin, although 
 here the imitation is not from the sound which the bird 
 makes. Yet from this sound we have the name irama 
 a duck in modern Greek, which Diefenbach compares 
 with the Italian papero a gosling, and the Spanish 
 parpar to quack. 1 
 
 4 Between sparrow and chirping.' Sparrow is a very 
 doubtful word, but if we compare such cognate forms 
 as sprew, spreuve, sparaviere, &c., it is impossible to 
 assert that it was not originally mimetic ; and we fully 
 believe it was. 2 And if we hear no chirp in the word 
 
 * sparrow,' we do in the names of many other birds which 
 twitter and chirp, as, for instance, tnrirfyos, <nr%a, 
 pinson, finch, fringilla, 3 linnet, pipit, tit, &c. 
 
 ' Between dove and cooing ; ' but there is a direct 
 similarity between cooing and the synonyms for dove, 
 turtle, culver, pigeon (from pipi, v. ante), and cushat, 4 
 
 1 Wedgwood, i. 497. The names anas, >njff<ra, the French canard, 
 the Mongol ngusun, &c. are probably imitative. Wiillner, Urspr. d. 
 Spraehe, s. 27. 
 
 May it not be connected with the Greek tydp ' a starling,' an imita- 
 tive word from if/cu'pw, I scrape ? The mere confusion between starling 
 and sparrow is nothing, because instances of much more startling inter- 
 changes of name may be adduced, as in vulpes 'fox ' and wolf, &c. 
 
 * The Sanskrit bhrnga, which also means a bumble-bee ; ' ce qui 
 ne laisse aucun doute sur son caractere d'onomatopee.' Pictet, i. 486. 
 
 4 Which Pictet derives from cu cow, and sceotan to rush the bird 
 that rushes to cows ! ! ! He makes the Anglo-Saxon cuh/fre, ' culver,' mean 
 cow-lover ; surely it would be even better than this to connect it with the 
 
 L
 
 146 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xin. 
 
 so that out of five names four are from the bird's mur- 
 muring voice. But besides this, 'dove' is connected 
 with dive, dab (cf. cZa6-chick, tap, &c.), from the very 
 remarkable characteristic which it has of ducking 1 the 
 head, whence too is derived the Latin columba (cf. 
 Ko\v(jif3d(t)) ; and therefore dove no less than duck is 
 imitative, though not from the bird's voice. 
 
 ' There is no similarity betiveen hog and grunting.' 
 Surely a most unfortunate assertion, as will be very 
 apparent from Mr. Wedgwood's note on the word. ' Hog. 
 Breton, hoc'h houtfh, swine, from houc'ha to grunt. So 
 Lap. snorkeset to grunt, snorke a pig, &c.' Moreover^ 
 
 * grunter ' is in English an actual synonym for pig, as 
 Mr. Tennyson shows us : 
 
 If thou be he, or draggled mawkin thou 
 That tends her bristled grunters in the sludge. 
 
 The Princess. 
 
 With the Italian -ciacco t the French cochon and goret 
 (cf. %olpos}, the Kussian ciishka, or, not to quote the 
 invariably imitative name in other Aryan languages, 
 the Sanskrit sukara (qui fait su, son iinitatif pour 
 grognement,' cf. swine, &c.) before him, it is strange 
 that Professor Miiller should have hazarded this instance. 
 ' There is no similarity between cat and mewing ! ' 
 Not in English, at first sight, but in the most ancient 
 of tongues the Chinese a cat is ' Miau ! ' The word 
 
 * cat ' is traced back by Pictet to an African origin, and 
 so it is impossible to say whether or no its original form 
 was imitative. That it was so seems very probable 
 
 Sanskrit kalarava, ' 1'oiseau dont la voix est un murmure.' The analo- 
 gies of goatsucker and bergeronette for wag-tail, and Pferdehiiter for a 
 Peruvian bird, and Vyaghrata, tiger-goer, for lark, &c. are not to the 
 point, since there is no connection between pigeons and cows. 
 1 Cf. Pictet, i. 400. Wedgwood, s. v.
 
 CH. xin. OBJECTIOXS TO THE IMITATIVE THEORY. 147 
 
 from the imitative forms which several developments 
 of the word take, of which the most striking is the 
 German Katze, which, I must repeat (whatever may 
 have been its origin), * obviously catches an echo of the 
 animal's remarkable spit,' as is rendered nearly certain 
 by a comparison of the Wallachian metze, 1 pisice; ^ 
 unless indeed it be from the sound made in calling <- ~< 
 the animal, like the Polish kic kid, and the English 
 puss. If so, then in this case, as in the cries made in 
 calling a pig (cushu cushu, chig chig, &c.), we see the 
 various points of possible origin for an onomatopoetic 
 word ; it is one of the many instances which connect a 
 Lautgeberde with an imitation. In other words we see 
 that the sound made by an animal is often instinctively 
 adopted as the sound to invite or repel its approach, and 
 so passes into the animal's name. 
 
 Lastly, * there is no similarity between dog and bark- 
 ing, yelping, or snarling.'' Is it certain ? The Icelandic 
 ' doggr ' at any rate looks very like a growl ; 2 and, if 
 not, the synonyms Hound, German Hund, Greek Kva>v, 
 Canis, the Sanskrit Qvan, are distinctly imitative, and 
 are recognised as such by Pictet, who adds that, except 
 on the imitative principle, it is impossible to account 
 for the wide similarity between the names for the dog 
 among various nations. A name bow-wow might, 
 indeed, have been invented, 'yet, strange to say, we 
 hardly ever find a civilised language in which the dog 
 
 1 Diez, s. v. Gatto ; and Wedgwood, Et. Diet. 
 
 2 To say nothing of the fact that the dog furnishes to language his 
 full share of onomatopoeias ; such as the words jBatffc, baubari, v\aKTfiv, 
 better, aboyer, f>vy%os, knurren, &c. In some Canadian languages the 
 dog is called gagnenon. 
 
 L2
 
 148 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xm. 
 
 was so called' (ii. 312). True, and for this perhaps a 
 very sufficient reason may be given. Although as far 
 back as history carries us the dog has been a domesti- 
 cated animal, yet it must at one time have been "wild, 
 and it may probably have received a name, or some of 
 its names, while in this condition. Now it is at least 
 doubtful whether the bark is a dog 1 8 natural utterance, 
 and whether in its original state the dog did bark. 
 For whole races of dogs, and perhaps it may be said all 
 wild dogs, do not know how to bark, for instance the 
 Esquimaux dogs, and those which run wild in the 
 Pampas, in Chili, and in the Antilles, which only howl. 
 Indeed Prichard, 1 who notices this fact, mentions the 
 conjecture that the dog's bark * originated in an at- 
 tempt to imitate the human voice ! ' If this conjecture, 
 however apparently ludicrous, be correct, then men will 
 have contributed more to the language of dogs, than 
 dogs to the language of men ; for, as Dr. Daniel Wilson 2 
 observes, the words bark, yelp, howl, snap, snarl, whine, 
 whimper, are ( words directly derived from the dog 
 language!' At any rate it is certain that the dogs 
 left by the Spaniards on Juan Fernandez to destroy the 
 goats on which the pirates fed, had, when found thirty 
 years afterwards by Don Antonio Ulloa, forgotten how 
 to bark, and only imitated very awkwardly the bark of 
 other dogs. It is known too that some puppies brought 
 by Mackenzie from Western America were unable to 
 bark, though their puppies acquired the power. There 
 would be a reason then why bow-wow should not be the 
 
 1 Prichard, flat. Hist, of Man, p. 33 (ed. Norris). Sev. des Deux 
 Mondes, Feb. 1, 1861. 
 
 2 Prehistoric Man, i. 83. Many German words, as winseln, heulen, 
 &c., might have been added.
 
 CH. xin. OBJECTIONS TO THE IMITATIVE THEORY. 149 
 
 particular form assumed by any onomatopoetic name 
 of the dog. 
 
 'What really took place was this,' says Professor 
 Miiller rather dogmatically. * The mind received nu- 
 merous impressions from everything that came within 
 its ken. A dog did not stand before it at once pro- 
 perly defined and classified, but it was defined under 
 different aspects, now as a savage animal, now as a 
 companion, sometimes as a watcher, sometimes as a thief, 
 occasionally as a swift hunter, at other times as a coward 
 or an unclean beast. From every one of these impres- 
 sions a name might be framed, and after a time the 
 process of natural elimination would reduce the number 
 of these names, and leave only a few or only one, which 
 like canis would become the proper name of the dog ' 
 '(ii. 312). Now, would it not be amazing if the most 
 obvious aspect of all, the noise made by the animal, 
 which would be the first thing noticed about it, as it is 
 the first thing noticed by all children, should not have 
 contributed one of the characteristics which suggested a 
 name ? Secondly, observe that the name which in the 
 Aryan family did prevail was the one derived from the 
 onomatopreia ^van. Thirdly, observe that out of Jive 
 Sanskrit names for dog, three are imitative, viz. cvan, 
 rudatha from rud (rudire) * 1'animal qui hurle et gemit,' 
 and bhacha ' the barker ' from the root bhach, to bark ! 
 Do not these facts speak for themselves ? 
 
 Surely therefore, even when we meet Professor 
 Miiller on ground selected by himself, we can abund- 
 antly vindicate the applicability of our theory, throw- 
 ing, we trust, some further light on the nature of the 
 theory in the course of our enquiry. We have dwelt 
 upon it in detail because he does so, being desirous,
 
 150 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xnr. 
 
 from his well-merited authority in all matters of philo- 
 logy, to give full consideration to all the arguments on 
 the subject which we could find in his writings, and to 
 state the reasons why they do not carry conviction to 
 our minds. To us the answer appears complete and 
 convincing.
 
 151 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 FERTILITY OF ONOMATOPOETIC ROOTS. 
 . 
 
 ' Sed cunctas species animantum nemo notabit, 
 Atque sonos ideo dicere quis poterit ? ' 
 
 Alb. Ov. Juventinus, Philomel. 68. 
 
 IN his second series of Lectures, the Professor returns 
 to the attack with undiminished vigour, and as though 
 he felt the insecurity of the outpost which we have just 
 been trying to carry by assault, he entirely abandons it, 
 and retreats behind another which is presumed to be 
 more strongly fortified. In point of fact he cedes by 
 implication his previous position ; ' Ibi omnis effusus 
 labor ! ' Nevertheless, as the cession is only apparent, 
 we do not regret the trouble we have taken to secure 
 our ground ; and so we proceed to the new points of 
 attack and defence. 
 
 'The onomatopoaic theory,' he says (Lectures, ii. 91), 
 * goes very smoothly as long as it deals with cackling 
 hens and quacking ducks ; but round that poultry-yard 
 there is a dead wall, and we soon find that it is behind 
 that wall that language really begins.' 
 
 So far as this means merely that natural imitations 
 are not in themselves language, but only the materials 
 of it, and the stepping-stones to it, we not only agree 
 with such a view but have from the first been asserting 
 and illustrating it. If however it means that out of
 
 152 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xiv. 
 
 the sphere of animal names the imitative principle is 
 excluded from its immense share in the elements of 
 language, then we must once more emphatically dissent. 
 For the meaning will then be the same as that which 
 has so often been asserted in other forms, and which 
 we will consider as the third objection, viz. that 
 
 3. Onomatopoeias are * like artificial flowers without 
 a root. They are sterile, and are unfit to express any- 
 thing beyond the one object which they imitate.' 
 
 Professor Miiller illustrates this by saying that there 
 are but few derivatives from the root ' cuck,' which is 
 found in cuckoo, and cock,- and that ' cuckoo stands by 
 itself like a stick in a living hedge.' Heyse implies the 
 same (s. 92) by his remark that many onomatopoeias 
 are not ' old fruitful roots of language, but modern 
 inventions which remain isolated in language, and are 
 incapable of originating any families of words, because 
 their meaning is too limited and special to admit of a 
 manifold application.' 
 
 There is a certain primd fade truth in this remark, 
 but it seems to us wholly immaterial to the question 
 before us, which is merely this, * Did language originate, 
 from interjectional and imitative roots?' With the 
 reasons urged against the interjectional origin we have 
 already dealt ; and it is surely no refutation whatever 
 of the imitative origin of another great division of 
 language to say that some imitative roots (and especially 
 modern ones) are infructuous, or nearly so. The pau- 
 city of the original roots of Language is an admitted 
 fact, and if the difficult combination of c's or k's in 
 4 cuckoo ' be a root of which little use is made we cannot 
 be surprised, although even from this root, as Professor 
 Miiller himself admits, various words have been derived,
 
 CH. xiv. FERTILITY OF OXOMATOPOETIC ROOTS. 153 
 
 and the list of derivatives might be largely increased ; ! 
 but at any rate there are plenty of other roots which we 
 believe to be imitative, and some ivhich every one will 
 admit to be so, which so far from being sterile are ' the 
 mothers of thousands.' On the very page from which 
 we have been quoting, Professor Muller supplies us with 
 one, the root ru or kru, which passes through all kinds 
 of fruitful metamorphoses, and ' has ever so many rela- 
 tions from a rumour to a row.' But this, says the Pro- 
 fessor, ' is derived from a root which has a general 
 predicative power. It is not a mere imitation of the 
 cry of the raven ; it embraces many cries from the 
 harshest to the softest.' Here apparently we are at issue. 
 For whether the root was originally suggested by the cry 
 of the raven or not, and this is a matter on which dogma- 
 tism is impossible, it is most certainly a natural sound, 
 a sound caught from nature, an imitative sound, and 
 therefore the words formed from, it were formed in 
 strictest conformity with the Imitative theory. ' It 
 might have been applied to the nightingale as well as 
 to the raven,' says Prof. Muller. In the absence of any 
 proof we should hold this to be very questionable, but 
 if so it only shows how exquisitely delicate were the 
 nuances which a word might receive by differences of 
 pronunciation. Every one will admit that crow and 
 croon are onomatopoeias ; yet the one is used of the 
 harsh caw of the rook, and the other of the soft moan 
 of doves. Every one will admit that these names of the 
 grasshopper in different languages Sanskrit ciri, Ar- 
 menian dzghrid, Greek ypv\\os, Cymric grilliedyz, 
 Basque quirquirra, Mahratta ralra, Chinese sirsor, 
 
 1 The verb to cock, cog, cockade, coquet, coxcomb, &c. ; in short, so 
 many that even this root cannot be called a sterile one.
 
 154 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xiv. 
 
 Hebrew tsldtsdl, and many more which might be ad- 
 duced l are all imitative: yet how immensely are 
 they varied by the fantasies of imitation ! How is this 
 to be explained ? Simply by the fact to which it is so often 
 necessary to recur, that words are not mere imitations 
 but subjective echoes and reproductions repercussions 
 which are modified both organically and ideally which 
 have moreover been immensely blurred and disinte- 
 grated by the lapse of ages. Koka in Sanskrit is a 
 confessed onomatopoeia, and it means a goose, a cuckoo, 
 a frog, a lizard, and a wolf. How wide then must be 
 the differences expressed by one and the same imita- 
 tion ! But we leave it to the reader whether it is more 
 reasonable to suppose that the root ( kru ' was a ' pho- 
 netic type,' having f a general predicative power,' 
 arrived at by abstraction from the combined influence 
 of all sorts of noises from the murmur of rivers, and 
 the barking of dogs, to the songs of nightingales, or 
 to suppose with us that it was an imitative root, the 
 echo of some one distinct sensuous impression, which 
 subsequently was modified to suit other sounds, and 
 which passed through a whole cycle of meanings by the 
 working of processes which we shall hereafter consider ? 
 Which of the two suppositions is most in accordance 
 with common probability, and with the remarkable 
 feebleness of the power of abstraction among all unci- 
 vilised men ? 
 
 But we shall perhaps best refute the asserted sterility 
 of imitative roots, by producing a few instances of the 
 
 1 Pictet, i. 528. Our blunted senses can no more realise the original 
 
 delicacy of the appellative faculty than they can attain to the keen 
 
 perfection in which they still exist in the savage. Lepsius, Paldogr. 
 p. 21, quoted by Pott, Etym. Forsch. ii. 261.
 
 CH. xiv. FERTILITY OF OXOMATOPOETIC ROOTS. 155 
 
 vast range of conceptions which they have been made to 
 express. If, in a few traceable instances, an onomatopoeia 
 be found to fructify so far as to convey notions and impres- 
 sions which might be thought to be infinitely removed 
 from the possibility of even a metaphorical expression 
 by sounds borrowed from the outer world, we shall 
 see that these sounds, raw and vulgar as they may 
 originally have been, were the natural sound-cells * iri 
 which thought was quickened and developed into perfect 
 speech. Whether the earliest origin of a word can be 
 definitely proved or not, let it be considered that the 
 choice rests in every case between an ultimate imita- 
 tion or interjection and nothing. Most etymologists 
 when they have got to a root stop there, at the most 
 interesting point of the enquiry, pretending to offer no 
 explanation whatever of the root itself, although if they 
 could do so they would obviously be throwing a flood of 
 light on the whole history of the word, and would also 
 be inevitably illustrating the influence of certain pri- 
 mary psychological laws, the observation of which is of 
 the utmost importance both to philosophy and history. 
 It is true that the Mimetic School (if I may be allowed 
 such a term in treating of a subject in which the nomen- 
 clature is as yet cumbrous and only tentative) must 
 often stop short of what they believe to be the final 
 step of Etymology ; but this does not detract from the 
 value of their actual results, nor diminish their belief in 
 the principle on which they rely. The principle indeed 
 is one which requires the less proof, because we see its 
 
 1 The prominence recently given to Mr. Darwin's theories naturally 
 suggests this metaphor. Since -writing it I have met with Aug. 
 Schleicher's pamphlet (previously referred to) on the bearings of Lan- 
 guage upon the hypothesis of development.
 
 156 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xiv. 
 
 daily-working and powerful effect even on living lan- 
 guages, and especially in the process of their earliest 
 acquisition. 
 
 Let us look at the history of one or two imitative 
 roots, and I think that we shall definitely prove how 
 little they deserve the charge of sterility. 
 
 For instance, let us take some of the simplest and 
 earliest roots, beginning with ma. From the fact that 
 it is among the most facile, and therefore among the 
 earliest sounds uttered by children, we have it (and 
 cognate sounds) first applied in almost all languages to 
 name the simplest and tenderest and earliest known of 
 relationships, * motherhood.' This is not an hypothesis 
 but a certainty ; l it is one of those linguistic discoveries 
 which must be accepted as established facts from which 
 to start in all enquiries about the origin of language. 
 'It is impossible to doubt,' says M. Pictet, 'of their 
 nature, purely phonetic and imitative of the earliest 
 infantile syllables, when one finds them reappear 
 among the most diverse nations. The reduplications 
 papa, mama, so familiar to our European ears, have 
 astonished more than one traveller who discovered them 
 among the negroes of Africa, no less than among the 
 savages of America and Oceania.' a For a comparative 
 list of such terms we must refer to the interesting and 
 ingenious essay of Buschmann Ueber den Naturlaut. 
 In it he points out that this identity of terms is due to 
 the fact we have mentioned, and is no proof whatever 
 
 1 Lists have often been published. Among others, see Nodier, Diet, 
 des Onomatopees, pp. 18-21 (taken from De Brosse). 
 
 2 Pictet, ii. 348. The fact that in Sanskrit and most Aryan lan- 
 guages they are attached to a verbal root in no way detracts from 
 their imitative origin.
 
 CH. xiv. FERTILITY OF ONOMATOPOETIC ROOTS. 157 
 
 of the connection or relationship of Languages. It is 
 one of the merits of the Imitative theory that it explains, 
 not in this case only but many others, the similarity of 
 a few words in languages which, as may be easily proved, 
 are neither genetically nor historically connected with 
 each other, but which have probably been separate from 
 the very dawn of human life. 
 
 But the root ma (or am, 1 which is the same thing) 
 does not remain sterile. We get from it at once, as we 
 should expect alike from the limited range of a child's 
 experience and his limited command of articulate 
 sounds a name for other relations, as the Latin amita 
 aunt, the German amme 2 a nurse, the Spanish and 
 Portuguese ama a housewife, amo master of a house, 
 amma screech-owl from its supposed affection for its 
 young (cf. stork from (rrepyco), and, indeed, in all pro- 
 bability the root ' amo ' 3 I love, with all its immense 
 stream of derivatives. 
 
 Then by an easy and natural transference we get 
 the Latin mamma, the breast, which is also found with 
 the same meaning all over the world ; and the Dutch 
 
 1 Cf. Hebr. DK= mother, grandmother, &c. It is strange that Plato 
 does not in the Cratylus notice this syllable, which would have afforded 
 so singularly strong an illustration of the point contended for (viz. the 
 intrinsic meaning and appropriateness of certain consonants) in sections 
 91-94. C. Lenorman sees in this reticence ' une reservation conseille'e 
 par la gravite religieuse de cette syllable pv, qui esb le nom meme des 
 mysteres.' Comment, sur le Cratyle, p. 275. 
 
 * Diez, ed. Donkin, s. v. Ama ; and cf. Pictet, ii. 350. 
 
 * "We say ' in all probability.' If any one prefers to suppose that 
 ' amo ' is from the Sanskrit am ' to rush forward,' he may ; and he will 
 have Professor Miiller on his side. (Lectures, ii. 91.) Let me here 
 observe that the mere production of some analogous Sanskrit form as 
 the derivation of a word is by no means a refutation of its imitative 
 origin. I have already called attention to many admitted Sanskrit 
 onomatopoeias.
 
 158 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xiv, 
 
 moeder the womb, &c. And so by simple laws of assor 
 elation we get to the English mammetj Swiss mdmmi 
 a doll, German memme a coward, and memmerei pol- 
 troonery. So widely and so rapidly does the ripple 
 spread on the surface of language ! 
 
 Equally universal, equally fruitful, and equally rapid 
 in its development is the cognate root pa. In Greek 
 alone we have irarrip a father, irdTrwos a grandfather, 
 TraTTTra^G) to wheedle and to prattle, irdinros the first 
 down on the cheek of youth, TraTnToairsp^ra the 
 bearded seeds of the dandelion, TraTnrcaSrjs woolly. In 
 Latin we have papparium (the English pap), and 
 papilla the bosom (cf. mammilla). In Sardinian 
 papai to eat, in Italian (and Russian) pappo bread ; 
 in Spanish and Portuguese (connected with papilla) 
 we have papo a dewlap, or anything fat and puffy. 
 Then from Papa as a title of respect, we get Pope, 
 Papist, Papistry. In German we have Pappe in the 
 sense of paste, pasteboard. 
 
 Thus from some of the most obvious derivatives of 
 two very simple imitative roots we at once and without 
 any shadow of difficulty get meanings so different, and 
 apparently so much beyond the range of onomatopoetic 
 representation, as aunt, owl, breast, doll, coward, dande-. 
 lion-seed, bread, a fatty protuberance, the Pope of 
 Eome, and pasteboard ! Who after this shall assert 
 the sterility of imitative roots ? 
 
 From ta and da, two other of the earliest sounds, we 
 get to dade? an old English word for teaching a child 
 
 1 Not to be confounded with Mawmet (from Mahomet). See Wedg- 
 wood, ii. 372. 
 
 2 Vide Diez (ed. Donkin), s. w. Dandin and Tartagliare. Wedgwood, 
 a v. Dade.
 
 CH. xiv. FERTILITY OF OXOMATOPOETIC BOOTS. 159 
 
 to walk ; to toddle, to dawdle, to dandle ; the French 
 dandin a simpleton ; the Italian dandolo a toy, and 
 tartagliare to stutter; the Dutch tateren to stammer; 
 the Icelandic lotto, to suck, teat, &c. (cf. rfaffrj, &c.) 
 
 Again, from ba, to mention only a few out of many, 
 we have in Latin babiger, 1 bubulus, and baburrus stu- 
 pid (Gloss. Isid.), babcecalus a trifler (Arnob. iv. 141), 
 basium, buss, a kiss ; in Greek we have /3a/3aia>, 
 /3a/z/3aXt'eti>, I stammer ; in Hebrew ??? confundere, 
 ^23 Babel, 2 Babylon. In the Eomance languages 
 babbo a father (Ital.), babbuino baboon, beffa a scoffing 
 (shooting out the lips\ babbeo a blockhead, bambino 
 a doll, bava 3 slaver (cf. Bavieca the name of the Cid's 
 charger), Spanish babosa a slug, badare to gape ; then 
 through the Scotch word ' abeigh ' to stand gazing or 
 gaping at a thing, we have ( abeyance,' and ' to stand at 
 bay,' &c. In French we have babines large lips, beyer, 
 bavardage, babiller, babiole, &c. 4 In English babe, 
 babble, baboon, baffle, &c. We have not nearly ex- 
 hausted the list, and indeed the fertility of this root 
 may perhaps form the excuse or apology for those very 
 bold theorists who have erroneously supposed that the 
 letter B is a picture of the closed lips requisite for the 
 enunciation of this important labial. 5 
 
 Again, from ta and ba as emblematic of early, confused, 
 inarticulate sounds we get such national names as Tatars, 
 from ta-ta the Chinese onomatopoeia for a barbarian, 
 
 1 See Forcellini, Lex. Tot. Lat. s. w. 
 
 * 'Ej3pa<oi yap -r^v av-fywrw BajSeA. Ka\ovffi. Jos. Antt. i. 5. Compare 
 our ' babble.' 
 
 * Diez, Wedgwood, Nodier, Scheler, &c. 
 4 Nodier, Notions de Linguistique, p. 24. 
 
 4 For the odd notion of Pierius Valerianus, see Orig. of Lang. p. 75.
 
 160 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xiv. 
 
 whose language sounds to them like a mere collection 
 of meaningless noises, and the word barbarian l itself 
 from the Sanskrit varvara a jabberer or confused 
 talker. Of similar origin is the name Zamzummim, 2 
 applied by the Hebrews to one of the primitive tribes 
 of Palestine, and transferred, from an instinctive 
 sense of its derivation, as a nickname to the fanatics in 
 the seventeenth century who pretended to speak with 
 tongues, precisely as St. Paul applies the word fidpfiapos 
 in 1 Cor. xiv. 11. Possibly the word Hottentot, and 
 certainly the word Walsch (from Sanskrit mlech), and 
 the Hebrew Jjp (from 3V? to' stammer, Ps. Ixiii. 1), 
 illustrate the same curious fact, of which, indeed, we 
 see daily instances, that ignorant people of all races 
 and ages regard the language of foreigners as an un- 
 meaning babble. For the surprisingly numeroiis de- 
 velopments of this word bar through almost every shade 
 of meaning we must refer our readers to the pages of 
 Diez, Wedgwood, and other etymologists. 
 
 Ohe jam satis! we imagine that we hear the reader 
 sigh ; nevertheless for the sake of the argument we 
 must detain him a little longer. From the imitation 
 then of inarticulate sounds we get such words as Traros, 
 Traretv ; French patte a foot, patin a skate, patois a 
 dialect; English patten (cf. pittle-pattle, pit-a-pat). 
 From the labial ra attached to various vowels to re- 
 produce low sounds we get to hum, to mutter, muzzle, 
 
 1 KOT' ovo/jMTOiroiiav M TU>V Sv<rfK<pAp(as Kal rpa-^tus ical 
 AoXoiWwj', Suid. See the Author's article on ' Barbarian' in Dr. Smith's 
 Diet, of the Bible, i. 166 ; and cf. Types of Mankind, p. 560 ; Pictet, Orig. 
 Ind. i. p. 55 ; Eenan, Langues Semitiques, i. 35 ; and Mr. Is. Taylor's 
 Words and Places, pp. 67, 87. 
 
 2 See Mr. Grove, s. v. Zamzummim, Diet, of the Bible.
 
 cm. xiv. FERTILITY OF ONOMATOPOETIC ROOTS. 1(51 
 
 mute, and to be mum for to be silent, whence 
 come mummery, and mumble, and mumps ; from the 
 same root come the French mot a word, and motto, as 
 we see from the line of Lucilius, *Non audet dicere 
 muttum ; ' the Latin mussare, muse, and music, and 
 amuse; musca a fly, and musket, for which latter 
 word and its curious history we must refer to Diez and 
 Scheler, the Greek pv^o, and mystery with all its cog- 
 nates. Beyond such a word as this language can hardly 
 proceed ; it dashes itself in vain against the 'flammantia 
 mcenia mundi,' the adamantine barrier which separates 
 the temporal from the spiritual, the unseen from the 
 seen. It is one of those words which, as lamblichus 
 says, ' being more excellent than every image is yet 
 expressed by an image.' Yet to this distance Language 
 attains by barely a single stride from the simple imita- 
 tion of the sound naturally produced by closing the 
 lips. Mr. Miiller derives mutus from the Sanskrit mu 
 to bind, and contemptuously refuses to give up either 
 it, or many other words for which we should claim an 
 imitative origin, ' to the Onomatopoeic School.' In this 
 we are convinced that he will find very few followers. 
 That fj,v (like mum) is simply a natural sound made by 
 closing the lips, and that from it come first /u,ww, then 
 ^ivau, then /XVOTT/J, then nvaTrjpwv, and a number of 
 derivatives of every shade of meaning from pvaos 
 ' hatred ' to nv%6s ' a corner,' P.VKOS ' phlegm,' and 
 fivmjs ' a mushroom,' seems to us a fact which can 
 hardly be seriously denied. Dr. Liddell and Dr. Scott 
 collect no less than forty-six such derivatives under the 
 word fivto, and that number might very easily be doubled 
 in Greek alone. So much then for the sterility of ono- 
 matopoeias !
 
 162 ON LANGUAGE. CH. sir. 
 
 Perhaps if any one class of words could be chosen as 
 presenting an insuperable obstacle to the endeavour to 
 trace them from an imitative origin, it would be the 
 class of numerals,, the existence of which is due to one 
 of the greatest efforts of analysis and abstraction an 
 effort in fact such, that to this day many savage tribes 
 have not attained to it. Even Plato l argued that the 
 existence of numerals at any rate must depend on cus- 
 tom and convention, since it was impossible that there 
 could be any resemblance between the name of a nu- 
 meral and the number which it indicated. In modern 
 times the progress of comparative philology has thrown 
 a flood of light on the origin of the numerals ; it has 
 shown the pronominal origin of the first, second, and 
 third numerals, and it is most probable that all three 
 sprang from interjectional or imitative elements; for 
 instance the Sanskrit ekas* one is etymologically con- 
 nected with aham ' I,' in which there is nothing fan- 
 ciful in supposing that (as in the Hebrew nin) we 
 catch a very natural reproduction of the act of respira- 
 tion. There is however one numeral which comes 
 from an onomatopoeia pur et simple. It is the word 
 4 myriad,' which is undoubtedly connected with the root 
 pvpa), I roll or flow. ' The derivation of the idea of a 
 large number from the sight of water falling in infinite 
 drops is too obvious,' says Dr. Donaldson, 3 * to require 
 any remark.' No one, we hope, will now deny the con- 
 
 1 eirtl, 3 /3\TioTe, ei 8e\fis eirt T^V a.pi6fj.ov ^\0eli/, ir68fv ojfei teii> 
 ov6fj.ara ti/xojo evl eicdffTifi r<av apiBfuwv tireveyKflv, fav /n^ tqs n T^V a^v 
 6fio\oyiav KO! <rvv&i\Ki\v Kvpos ex 6 '" T * J/ ovopn.r<i>v op96r7]ros irtpi. Plato, 
 Crat. p. 435. 
 
 2 Bopp, Vergl. Gram. 309 sqq. Donaldson, Crat. 154, &c. 
 
 s Cratylus, 163, where he also supposes a relationship between x e ' 
 flow, x i *-6s fodder, and x^o thousands.
 
 CH. xiv. FERTILITY OF ONOMATOPOETIC ROOTS. 163 
 
 nection l between pvpo) and the obvious onomatopoeia 
 murmur. The connection between a multitude and 
 sound, and the extremely natural metaphor of waves to 
 describe the roar of a crowd (undo, salutantum, Virg. ; 
 turbo, fluctuantis populi, Aul. Gell. ; pevfia (fxorwv, 
 JEsch.\ show us how probable such a derivation is. 
 Tempting as it is to derive pvpfirjl; l an ant ' from this 
 root, we fear that Benfey's attempt to do so is scien- 
 tifically untenable. 2 But if even a numeral can be 
 so easily and directly traced to an imitative sound, 
 there is little reason to doubt the wide applicability of 
 this principle of word-formation. 
 
 So that by taking the very first and simplest illus- 
 trations that came to hand, we have shown that imita- 
 tive roots are not sterile ; that, on the contrary, almost 
 every one of them produces so numerous and diverse an 
 offspring as to show the possibility of expressing by 
 their means every possible conception that Language is 
 capable of expressing at all. And, with all these proofs 
 before us, we say with Steinthal 3 that it is inconceivable 
 to us that any one should be hardy enough to deny that 
 Onomatopoeia was the primeval tendency of language 
 which has furnished us with all elementary words. 
 Those who do so must abandon all attempts to see any 
 connection between sound and meaning, except such as 
 
 1 Benfey did so on the very insufficient ground that the v in fivpw 
 is long, and in murmuro short. Wur eel-lexicon, i. 16. See the ad- 
 mirable pamphlet Sur f Origine des Noms de Nombre, by Louis Benloew, 
 Giessen, 1861. 
 
 1 The Sanskrit vamri, vamraka, the Latin formica, and the form 
 &vp/j.a preserved in Hesychius, seem to render it possible that the 
 root is v am = vomere, from the formic acid which the insect throws 
 from its mouth. 
 
 1 Gram. Log. und Psychol. p. 309. 
 
 X 2
 
 164 ON LANGUAGE. cfi. xiv. 
 
 was due to the most absolute and unmeaning chance. 
 Without the aid of imitation the earliest communica- 
 tions of mankind must have been a meaningless jabber 
 of arbitrary sounds, and such, from the very nature of 
 the case, they must always have remained.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 DIGNITY OF ONOMATOP(EIA. 
 
 ' 'Oyo;uaT(wroua, id est, fictio nominis, Grsecis inter maximas habita 
 virtutes, nobis vlx permittitur. Et sunt plurima ita posita ab Us, qui 
 sermonem primi fecerunt, aptantes affectibus vocem.' 
 
 QtrmcTiL. Instt. Or. viii. 6. 
 
 CONDILLAC complained that to suppose man to have 
 learnt his language from imitation would be to place 
 him below the animals, and this was why he favoured 
 the Interjectional origin rather than the Onomatopoetic. 
 We have seen already that both points of origin are 
 requisite, and that neither can be separated from the 
 other ; but independently of this, Condillac's objec- 
 tion, which is perfectly worthless as an argument, was 
 founded on the common misconception of supposing 
 that animal cries offered the only materials for imita- 
 tion. On the contrary every sound of nature con- 
 tributed its element to human speech, the rustling 
 and whispering of her forest leaves, the howling of 
 her storms, the booming of her seas, the rush of her 
 cataracts, the rippling sequacious murmur of her rivu- 
 lets. That there must be an intimate connection 
 between nature and language is shown by the manner 
 in which the sound of a language is often a reflex of the 
 geographical conditions by which the people who speak 
 it are surrounded by the strident hirrient roughness of
 
 166 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xv. 
 
 Northern tongues (for instance) compared with the soft l 
 musical vowelled undersong of the sunny South. It was 
 suggested by Nodier that the presence or absence of the 
 more remarkable and difficult articulations of language 
 is always explicable by the existence or non-existence of 
 certain animals in the countries where they are spoken, 
 and that the tiger and the rattlesnake have suggested 
 the click of the Hottentot and the rough sibilant of 
 the North American Indian. This may be true or not ; 
 but, as we have shown, 2 onomatopoeia rests on a far 
 wider basis than this, and reproduces ideally and articu- 
 lately that ringing shiver caused by the oscillation of 
 material particles which results from every possible 
 impact. Yet if it were probable that man had been 
 taught to speak by listening to the animals alone, it 
 would be absurd to reject such a conclusion solely in 
 consequence of that a priori assumption of human exal- 
 tation which has stood so often in the path of science, 
 and which has so often prevented men from reaching 
 the Gate of Honour by making them refuse to pass 
 under the Gate of Humility. 
 
 4. It has however been urged, with more of plausi- 
 bility, that the most obvious and intentional onomato- 
 poeias are generally modern and often undignified, and 
 that onomatopoeia could never therefore have been a 
 leading principle of Language. 
 
 We reply briefly that pure imitations are the only 
 words now open for us to invent, and therefore that 
 many such words are apparently modern. Whether 
 they are, in any case, really so may be doubtful when, to 
 
 1 Greek, removed to the enervating climate of Asia Minor, becomes 
 the soft Jonian. 
 
 3 Origin of Lang. 76.
 
 CH. xv. DIGNITY OF ONOMATOPOEIA. 167 
 
 give but one instance, we learn that the Laplanders 
 have the onomatopoeia Ho slam' in the very same sense 
 as ourselves, although * countless ages must have elapsed 
 since their ancestors and ours parted from a common 
 stock.' 1 Probably there are not many words which 
 have thus for ages preserved their exact form in the 
 mass of detritus of which modern languages are 
 composed ; but all we have asserted is the traceable 
 existence, often even to the latest moment of a word's 
 history, of the original imitative element. And the fact 
 that an onomatopreia is the only word whose invention 
 is still admissible, is an additional proof of our propo- 
 sition. For what is the reason of this fact? Simply 
 because an onomatopoeia is the only word formed in 
 obvious accordance with the earliest principle of lan- 
 guage, the only one which is immediately intelligible, 
 the only one which possesses an inherently graphic 
 power, the only one which can add the beauty of novelty 
 and delighted surprise to the effects produced by exist- 
 ing language, the only one which has any chance of a 
 permanent currency. The fact, then, that new words 
 are mostly imitative is so far from furnishing an argu- 
 ment against us that it tells distinctly in our favour. 
 It tends to prove that the only words which can be 
 invented on any reasonable principle are onomatoposias ; 
 and therefore points back to onomatopoeia as the neces- 
 sary principle of all language at its commencement. 
 
 In the present stereotyped condition of language, in 
 which it has been so largely modified and its spontaneous 
 development checked in so many ways by the influence 
 of writing and literature, we can hardly be astonished 
 
 1 Wedgwood, i. p. iv.
 
 168 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xv. 
 
 to find that a direct sound-imitation, particularly if 
 it be rude and inartistic, is probably too special and 
 limited in significance to give birth to a family of words. 
 Yet the fact that the greatest and most popular poets 1 
 of every age and nation, from Homer to Tennyson, from 
 Ennius to Gothe, from Archilochus to Burger and 
 Lamartine, have employed these Echoes of Nature freely, 
 and that the passages in which they have done so have 
 attracted constant attention, is at least sufficient, as I 
 have previously shown, 2 to redeem these words from the 
 position of ' illegitimate pretenders to the dignity of 
 language.' The timid rhetoricians of the Silver Age, and 
 the desiccated pedantic grammarians of a later period, 
 might not venture to use such a privilege, 3 but they 
 could at least point with admiration to the Xi/y^g /3ioy, 
 and the <rl%e 8' o<^6a\fios, and the 
 
 Ka.fiKO.Lpf 8e yaia 
 
 of Homer ; they could catch the hurtling of battle in 
 
 ffKeirrer' otffTuv re poi^ov Kal Sovvov o.K6vT<av, 
 
 and a murmur of the f hollower-bellowing ocean' in 
 
 | aicaXappdrao fiaOvppoov 
 
 1 ol x a P l * ff T&'roi iroi.i\T<av re Kal ffvyypcupfuv ra pey aiirot re 
 KaraffKfvd^ovffiv ov6faara, ffvfj.ir\eKOfres eiriTrjSeicas a\\Ji\ois TO ypd/j-nara, 
 Kal ras <rv\\a./3a,s 8e oiiceitas, ols tiv $ov\<avTO.i na.po.ffrrfffai irdOfffi, iroiKi\as 
 <pi\oTfxyovffi. Dion. Hal. De Comp. Verb. p. 94. Steinthal, Gesch. d. 
 Sprachurissensch. p. 340. 
 
 2 Origin of Lang. pp. 91-96. 
 
 * Quinctilian says, ' Minime nobis concessa esi ovofjutroiroita.,' and he 
 goes on to say that, werfi it not for the authority of the ancients, they 
 could hardly even venture to use such words as hinnire and balaref 
 (Instt. i. 5, 72.) He adds in another place that it was more permissible 
 to the Greeks; and in two places he admits that it was a primitive 
 principle of language. ' Non ali& libertate, quam qu& illi primi homines
 
 CH. xv. DIGNITY OF ONOMATOPOEIA. 169 
 
 Further study and the comparison of more languages 
 would have shown them that there is no poet worthy of 
 the name who does not abound in imitative expres- 
 sions ; that these are in fact the most appropriate, the 
 most simple, the most passionate, the most picturesque; 
 and that ' poetry reproduces the original process of the 
 mind in which language originates. The coinage of 
 words is the primitive poem of humanity, and the 
 imagery of poetry and oratory is only possible and 
 effective, because it is a continuation of that primitive 
 process which is itself a reproduction of creation.' l 
 
 There are whole poems, like the Paradise Lost, . 
 and whole languages like the Hebrew which are, one 
 may boldly say, an onomatopoeia from beginning to end. 
 An imitative harmony runs throughout them, and their 
 very sounds bear the impress of the thoughts they 
 breathe. Often this is due to the number of vigorous 
 and appropriate imitations which they contain, as in 
 Homer : 
 
 ' Par quel art le chantre d'Achille 
 Me rend-il tant de bruits divers ? 
 II fait partir la fleche agile 
 Et par ses sons s'fflent les airs. 
 Des vents me peint-il le ravage ? 
 Du vaisseau que brise leur rage 
 Eclate le gdmissement ; 
 Et de 1'onde qui se courrouce 
 Centre un rocher qui la repousse 
 Ketentit le mugissement.' * 
 
 rebus appellationes dederunt ' (viii. 3, 30) ; and ' et sunt plurima ita 
 posita ab iis, qui sermonem primi fecerunt, aptantes affectibus vocem' 
 (viii. 6, 31). 
 
 1 Bunsen, Outlines, ii. 135. 
 
 2 Eaeine (le fils), Ode sur FHarmonie.
 
 170 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xv. 
 
 But often it results from a certain inward inexplicable 
 harmony which makes sound the coefficient of sense, 1 
 and by virtue of which thoughts are often welded into 
 an apparently indissoluble union with the language in 
 which they are expressed. 
 
 1 On the whole subject, which cannot here be pursued, see L. Quicherat, 
 Traiti de Versification Franyaise, pp. 144-176. Pobel, Grundzuge einer 
 Theorie des Reims. The question of Assonances, Rhymes, Alliterations 
 belongs to this part of our enquiry, but may safely be passed over. It 
 is curious to find a powerful euphonic concord (a sort of Umlaut) running 
 through the South African dialects. In Kafir, for instance, the adjective 
 varies its prefix ten or twelve times, according to the prefix of the 
 governing noun. Appleyard, Kaf. Gram. p. 6.
 
 171 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SUPPOSED ILLUSORINESS OF THE SEARCH FOR 
 ONOMATOPOEIAS. 
 
 1 Alphana vient d'equus sans doute, 
 Mais il faut admettre aussi 
 Qu'en venant dela jusqu'ici 
 II a bien change sur la route ! ' 
 
 THE last objection we have found urged against the 
 Onomatopoetic theory is 
 
 5. The difficulty and illusoriness of the search. 
 
 If the search were * lawless,' if it were ' detrimental 
 to all scientific etymology,' the objection that it was 
 also one in which we are peculiarly liable to be misled 
 by the imagination might hold. But be it remembered 
 that up to a certain point, and that point very far back 
 in the history of the word, the search of the Sanskritist, 
 and the search of those who hold the Imitative theory, 
 would be identical. Without pledging ourselves to 
 the invat^iable applicability of Grimm's law, we should 
 guide our enquiry by certain recognised rules of phonetic 
 change, except in cases where there was good reason to 
 admit that such rules are superseded by other more 
 general and more potent influences. The only differ- 
 ence would be that we should carry our research rather 
 farther back, and should hold in our hand a clue both 
 simple and natural, which we believe to be sufficient to
 
 172 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xvi. 
 
 suggest many discoveries and explain many anomalies. 
 Considering the extreme uncertainty of many etymologies 
 confidently proposed by Sanskrit scholars, and the great 
 improbability of the conclusions to which they often 
 point, the importance of some broad fundamental prin- 
 ciple to guide the researches of etymology can hardly 
 be overrated. 
 
 That there is an uncritical as well as a critical 
 school of Etymology we do not of course deny ; but we 
 do deny that an acceptance of the Imitative theory at 
 once stamps a man as belonging to the uncritical 
 school. There is nothing whatever in the theory which 
 supersedes the necessity of ' acting in subordination to 
 the well-discovered principles and rules of phonology, 
 so as not to swerve a foot's breadth from them unless 
 plain actual exceptions shall justify it.' Etymologists 
 of every school ought cordially to reecho the wise and 
 weighty words of Diez: 1 'How little often can ety- 
 mology accomplish ! how doubtful are its results ! The 
 highest point reached by the etymologist is the con- 
 sciousness of having acted scientifically. For the 
 attainment of absolute certainty he has no security. 
 Some insignificant new thing may hurl down from him 
 under his feet a result previously gained with great 
 labour. This will happen to him in every extended 
 investigation ; it is included among the daily experiences 
 of the etymologist, from which even the most keen-eyed 
 are not free. Therefore modesty ! even when every 
 fact seems to support our theories.' For a long time to 
 come a large number of proposed derivations can only 
 be regarded as plausible and tentative. 
 
 1 I quote the translation from Dwight's Mod. Philology, i. 238.
 
 CH. xvi. ONOMATOPOEIA NOT ILLUSORY. 173 
 
 *I cannot help observing,' says Professor Pott in a 
 private letter, which I am sure that he will forgive me 
 for quoting, * that the giving chase to onomatopoetical 
 terms seems to me to be somewhat unfruitful, because of 
 the numerous illusions to which such a study would be 
 necessarily exposed.' Now caution is of course neces- 
 sary; but we do not think that, in modern times at 
 any rate, the charge of mere reckless guessing and 
 fancying can be brought with more justice against 
 philologists of this school than against those of any 
 other school which may choose to monopolise the title 
 of * Scientific.' After the philological labours of men 
 like Bopp, and Grimm, and Pott, and Diez, and Cur- 
 tius, and Max Miiller, and of English scholars like 
 Professor Key, the main laws of Etymology are too 
 generally understood to render tolerable any defiance of 
 them. Doubtless the ancient grammarians l furnish us 
 with many amusing vagaries, and it would not be diffi- 
 cult to select scores of them from the * Etymologicum 
 Magnum;' but this was but natural, in days before 
 Etymology existed, or could have existed, as a Science, 
 nor is it in the least chargeable on their vague recogni- 
 tion of the onomatopoetic principle, but resulted from 
 their unavoidable ignorance of every language except 
 their own. This is quite enough to account for what 
 De Quincey 2 calls, * the unspeakable spirit of absurdity 
 which came over both Greeks and Komans the moment 
 they meddled with etymology.' But since philology has 
 been a Science, can it be proved that onomatopoeia has 
 been a greater source of error than any other principle? 
 Cannot etymological extravagance be illustrated at 
 
 1 See Lerseh, SprachphU. d. Alien, iii. 82. 
 
 2 Works, viii. p. viii. (Black's ed.)
 
 174 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xvi. 
 
 least as abundantly from the pages of Bopp and other 
 eminent Sanskritists as from any who hold the views 
 here supported ? If a philologist like Benfey * could 
 derive vaiavdos from u= f to bring forth,' and avOos 'a 
 blossom,' and if a scholar so eminent as the late 
 Dr. Donaldson could connect dulcis ' sweet ' with SoXi^os 
 'long,' because fruit lengthens as it ripens, surely the 
 scientific etymologists ought to see how liable they are 
 to error, and ought to take care how they throw a slur 
 upon the labours of those who after all only carry their 
 views one step farther back. If I select no more 
 instances to enforce the obvious advice that ' those who 
 live in glass houses should not throw stones,' it is be- 
 cause such a task, when one is engaged in trying to 
 establish a reasonable theory, and not in exposing the 
 errors of others, is both ungracious and irksome. 
 
 . But fortunately Professor Miiller offers us some illus- 
 trations of his assertion that if we look for the interjec- 
 tional or imitative element in roots we become lawless 
 and fanciful. Let us examine these, and see if there be 
 any occasion to admit that they are erroneous and 
 illusory. We do not think there is. 
 
 In both of his volumes (i. 354, ii. 92) he selects the 
 etymologies proposed for the words foul, filth, fiend, &c. 
 These words Mr. Wedgwood (Etymological Dictionary, 
 i. p. xiii.) had derived, through various stages, from an 
 
 1 See Benfey, Wurzd-lex. L 413. His error is exploded by Donaldson, 
 Cratylus, p. 653. His derivation of dulcis I only learn by the report of 
 a listener to one of his Cambridge lectures. Obviously dulcis is onomato- 
 poetic in origin, no less than J\VKVS -with which it is connected ; both 
 belong to the universal root Ik, an imitation of licking the lips, &c. 
 Origin of Lang. p. 84. For a very amusing exposition of several 
 dogmatic vagaries in which learned philologists have indulged, see 
 Professor Hewitt Key's pamphlet Quceritur, &c.
 
 CH. xvi. OXOMATOPffilA NOT ILLUSORY. 175 
 
 ultimately interject! onal root, the instinctive expression 
 of disgust, fob ! fie ! faugh ! This, argues Professor 
 Miiller in both his volumes, is impossible, and to accept 
 it would be to undo the patient labour of years, and 
 to throw back etymology into a condition of chaotic 
 anarchy. ' For fiend is the present participle of the 
 Gothic fijan to hate ; and as a Gothic aspirate always 
 corresponds to a tenuis in Sanskrit, the same root in 
 Sanskrit would at once lose its expressive power. It 
 exists in fact in Sanskrit as piy to hate, to destroy.' 
 He adds in his Second Series of Lectures, * Besides 
 piy to hate, there is another root in Sanskrit, puy to 
 decay. From it we have the Latin pus, puteo, pu- 
 tridus ; Greek pyon and pyiho ; Lithuanian pulei 
 matter; and in strict accordance with Grimm's law, 
 Gothic fuls, English fouV 
 
 Now surely the answer to these reiterated objections 
 is absolute and triumphant. ' He does not observe,' says 
 Mr. Wedgwood, t that the sound of breathing, and the 
 interjection of disgust, are represented as often by the 
 combination pu as by /u.' This single short sentence 
 is sufficient not only to crumble to the dust Professor 
 Miiller's objection, but even to turn all his examples into 
 so many additional illustrations of the inter) ectional 
 element of language, from which it is quite clear that 
 piy to hate, and puy to decay are as much derived 
 as are the Teutonic forms of similar words beginning 
 with / or ff. For, in point of fact, p and / are fre- 
 quently united in the same instinctive vocal-gesture of 
 disgust, especially when it assumes its strongest form 
 as in the Latin word pfui! That this is really the 
 primitive element of these words we may conjecture as
 
 176 ON LANGUAGE. CH. XYI. 
 
 securely as that there was once a form tcpsXas l when 
 we compare the two forms fis\as and tcskawos. But 
 what force is there then in this instance, selected and 
 repeated by Professor Miiller himself, and therefore 
 one to which he evidently attaches great importance ? 
 In what way does it tend to refute the Inter] ectional 
 theory ? So far from overthrowing that theory, it tends 
 directly to its support ! 
 
 Another instance which he gives of the supposed 
 illusoriness of onomatopoeia is the word 'squirrel ' (i. 350). 
 But although every one who has ever heard squirrels 
 rustling amid the whispering leaves of a grove, must 
 feel a certain harmonious appropriateness in the sound, 
 yet who has ever dreamed of urging it as an instance 
 of original imitation ? Certainly the ' some people ' 
 to whom he refers for the opinion must have been tiros 
 of the most ignorant description, seeing that sciurus 
 the shadow-tail is a word known to all schoolboys, 
 even if they are not aware that our English word, like 
 so many animal names in the Eomance languages, 
 comes from the diminutive sciuriolus (as abeille from 
 apicula, grenouille from ranuncula, &c.). That 
 squirrel might, however, have been very naturally ex- 
 pressed by an imitative sound is clear from the Persian 
 warwarah, the Latin viverra, the modern Greek 
 
 A third instance is katze, cat. In my * Origin of 
 Language ' I quoted it from Mr. Wedgwood as a 
 probable onomatopoeia, adding, ' It must however be 
 
 1 See Buttmann, Lexil. a. v. Kf\cuv6s. The form c/xe \e6pov for fie\o- 
 Bpov in the Etym. Magn. is an additional proof. Similarly the existence 
 ,of ffiiv and cum would at once lead us to infer a form w even if it were 
 not found.
 
 CH. xvi. ONOMATOPOSIA NOT ILLUSORY. 177 
 
 admitted that there is no sibilant in kater.' This fact 
 Mr. Miiller adduces (i. 351) to explode the notion 
 of its onomatopoeian origin, and says that though the 
 Sanskrit mdrjara sounds like purring, it really means 
 the animal that cleans itself. Of * cat ' I have already 
 spoken, and will only add that if katze and mdrjara be 
 not of imitative origin yet they are words which an 
 imperious instinct an instinct of which the workings 
 are powerfully apparent in language has at any rate 
 forced into an imitative form ; and if this unconscious 
 instinct can work so powerfully in finished languages, 
 we are the more necessitated to believe in its primary 
 influence. 
 
 The only other case urged to show ' how apt we are 
 to deceive ourselves when we once adopt this system 
 of onomatopoeia ' is the word thunder, which likewise 
 figures in both series of the Lectures on Language 
 (i. 350, ii. 93). Now, although no philologist would 
 select the particular words tonitru, donner, tonnerre, to 
 illustrate the system of onomatopoeia, because of their 
 frequently asserted origin from the root tan, to stretch, 
 for which reason I formally excluded the word both 
 on a previous page, and in a previous 1 work, yet 
 it is not a word on which we need object to accept the 
 challenge of an opponent; and that for the two fol- 
 lowing reasons : 
 
 (1) It is known, and admitted, that if a list of names 
 for the thunder 2 be collected from languages in every 
 region of the globe, the imitative principle is, in the 
 immensely preponderant number of instances, distinctly 
 
 1 Origin of Lang. p. 82. 
 
 2 See the treatises of Grimm and Pott previously referred to, and 
 add Adelung, Mithridat. i. xiv. ; Eenan, De I' Orig. du Lang. p. 139. 
 
 If
 
 178 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xvi. 
 
 perceptible. This therefore proves that the most 
 natural and simple mode of nomenclature for the phe- 
 nomenon would be that of onomatopoeia ; and this again 
 defends us from the charge of fanci/ulness when we 
 assert that the form assumed by the word thunder 
 (whatever its origin) is the result of the onomatopoetic 
 instinct, which is no other than an imperious sense of 
 the necessity that in certain instances there should be a 
 perceptible analogy between sound and sense. 
 
 But (2), even if we waive all discussion of the certainty 
 of the etymology of tonitru from tan, what is tan 
 itself ? Mr. Wedgwood would class it with such words 
 as to din, to dun, and other words expressive of con- 
 tinuous sound. Professor Miiller replies that there are 
 certain laws which change tan into than, and quite a 
 different root dhvan into dun, and that these two roots 
 preserve their individuality, and are and have been 
 separate from the commencement. He says, indeed, 
 * There may be, for all we know, some distant relation- 
 ship between the two roots tan and dhvan, and that 
 relationship may have its origin in onomatopoeia? 
 We believe that the history and meaning-of many words 
 derived from these two roots show this to be the case, 
 and if so our point is proved. At present, however, we 
 are only concerned with the root tan to stretch. 
 
 * From * this root we have in Greek tonos, our tone, 
 tone being produced by the stretching and vibrating of 
 cords.' It expresses * that tension of the air which gives 
 rise to sound.' Now we ask is it even conceivable that 
 those fathers of our race who framed the Aryan lan- 
 guage should have been so perversely eccentric, as, out of 
 
 1 Lectures, i. 356, ii. 92.
 
 CH. xvi. OKOMATOHEIA NOT ILLUSORY. J79 
 
 the thousand 1 possible relations which might have 
 been selected as a characteristic, to choose the notion 
 of stretching as a natural, obvious, or intelligible one, 
 wherewith to express the thunder? Supposing, as we must 
 do, that external objects and simple phenomena must 
 have been among the earliest things to receive names, 
 is it conceivable that a word for stretching should have 
 been chosen as peculiarly applicable to the most terrible 
 phenomenon of storms ? Is it conceivable that at a 
 period so very early in human history they should have 
 noticed that ' tension of the air which gives rise to 
 sound,' (?) and that too when they must have had at 
 hand a host of roots expressive of sound, any one of 
 which would have suited better the object to be named ? 
 And if on the other hand they only selected the root tan 
 because it was a root which they already possessed, and 
 because it was well adapted to express the sound pro- 
 duced by the vibration of cords, why then, tan being 
 an onomatopoeia (cf. the very obvious cognate words 
 twang, TijvsXXa,, &c., words which spontaneously present 
 themselves as imitative of the sound produced by tre- 
 mulous strings), tonitru, tonnerre, &c., are not only 
 imitatively moulded, but are after all of an origin 
 demonstrably onomatopceian even accepting all the 
 premisses of our opponents. How then do they show 
 the illusory nature of our search ? 
 
 But here surely the unsuitableness of the particu- 
 lar onomatopoeia ought at once to convince our com- 
 mon sense that our history of the word is incorrect. 
 Could any human being have ever dreamed of per- 
 
 1 Origin of Lang. L c. 
 N 2
 
 180 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xvi. 
 
 ceiving any analogy between thunder and harpstrings ? 
 We may indeed imagine how 
 
 Wind that grand old harper smote 
 His thunder-harp of pines ; 
 
 Now strike the golden lyre again, 
 
 A louder yet, and yet a louder strain ! 
 
 Break his bands of sleep asunder 
 
 And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder. 
 
 We can, I say, understand this because 'thunder' 
 becomes very rapidly, as language advances, a word for 
 any loud noise, and indeed a mere epithet or intensive 
 prefix as when we hear in low comedies of a person 
 being a ' thundering brick ! ' But all these expressions 
 belong to the mechanical or artificial stage of language, 
 and it is, we repeat, inconceivable that the reason why 
 the Sanskrit tanyu, thunder, should have been derived 
 from tan to stretch, was because some old Aryan on 
 hearing thunder was reminded of the resonance of 
 tense strings. If indeed he were reminded of any in- 
 strument at all, it would have been a wind instrument, 
 as Homer was when he wrote 
 
 The vast heaven trumpeted around ; 
 
 and as the Hebrews were when they confused the 
 images of Sinaitic thunder with those of trumpets and 
 archangelic voices (Ex. xix. 16, xx. 18, cf. 1 Thess. iv. 
 16, Rev. i. 10, &c.). But we may, I think, assume it 
 as a certainty that ' thunder ' was a phenomenon which 
 received its name long before any musical instrument, 
 either wind or string, was known.
 
 CH. xvi. ONOMATOPOEIA NOT ILLUSORY. 181 
 
 The only way out of these difficulties and contradic- 
 tions appears to be as follows. If it be accepted as 
 certain that torntru, &c., come ultimately from tan, 
 and that the primitive conception of the root tan was 
 that of ' stretching,' we must assume that some word 
 like TOVOS or tone, for the voice, was derived from or 
 connected with it, not because the ancient Aryans knew 
 anything about the chordae vocales, but from the more 
 general notion of stretching the throat in speaking and 
 singing. The steps in the word's history will then be 
 as follows: I. Tan is an onomatopoaia to express the 
 sound made when a tightened string is twanged, and 
 
 In its clear vibration sings 
 Like to the swallow's voice. 1 
 
 2. This onomatopreia was transferred to the human 
 voice, because the throat, during loud utterance, is 
 obviously in a tense state. 3. The word 'voice' was 
 naturally transferred to thunder, just as it was in 
 Hebrew where the word ^ip Kohl means both voice 
 and thunder the voice of the Lord (Ps. xxix., Ex. ix. 
 23, &c.) How natural is this analogy may be easily 
 shown. In the book of Job we read of f the thunder of 
 the captains.' In the narrative of the Evangelists, when 
 a voice came to our Lord from heaven, * The people 
 that stood by and heard it said that it thundered ; others 
 said, An angel spake to him.' 2 In modern literature the 
 metaphor of thunder as applied to eloquence or poetry 
 is one alike of the commonest and the most natural. 
 
 We are quite ready and indeed are very glad to admit, 
 if need be, that 'the very same root tan, to stretch, 
 
 1 a; 5" vtrb na\bv &fifff xf\i$ovi ei/ce'A/rj avS-fiv. Horn. Od. xxi. 
 
 2 John xii. 29.
 
 182 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xvi. 
 
 yields some derivatives which are anything but rough 
 and noisy,' such as tender, thin, &c., and we do not see 
 at all that the relationship of these words would be hard 
 to establish * if the original conception of thunder ' (i. e. 
 of course the word thunder) ' had been its rumbling 
 noise.' ' Thunder J as we have seen, unlike the words 
 for the same thing in almost every other language, may 
 be an onomatopoeia not at first hand but at second hand, 
 by one of those very processes of transference, analogy, 
 and metaphor which we shall hope to illustrate in the 
 next chapter; and, given the imitative basis, the fact 
 that its linguistic superstructure should contain words 
 so dissimilar in meaning from it as ' thin ' and ( tender ' 
 is precisely what we should have expected, and precisely 
 the fact which we shall subsequently urge as an addi- 
 tional proof that, given your seedlings of language in 
 the form of a few imitative sounds, these sounds, when 
 quickened by the intellect, possess a germinal force 
 sufficient to make them bourgeon into the noblest tree 
 which ever 'bore aloft on its immortal boughs the 
 language and the literature of a mighty nation.'
 
 183 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 REFLEX IMITATIVE TENDENCY OF LANGUAGE. 
 
 ' Se consideriamo il ragguardevol numero di onomatopee sparsi in ogni 
 lingua, e sopra tutto in quello che serbano ancora intatte le impronte 
 della primitiva loro formazione, appare manifests la naturale tendenza 
 dell' uomo a rappresentare gli oggetti per mezzo delle loro proprieta 
 piu distinte.' BIONDELLI, Studii Linguistid, p. 114. 
 
 IF it be meant as a reproach to the assertors of the 
 imitative origin of language that their etymologies 
 are ' fanciful,' we have replied already that they are not 
 one whit more so than those of the etymologists who 
 arrogate to themselves the title of * scientific.' But, in 
 point of fact, the name * fanciful' carries with it no 
 stigma at all, as we hope to prove further in the next 
 chapter. * The very nature of association in the human 
 mind is essentially fanciful ; ' and if a fancy, the most 
 playful and bizarre, can be shown to have preponderated 
 in the growth of abstractions, it might be expected to 
 play its part in the origin of roots. But we really are 
 not aware exactly at what point of the enquiry the 
 fancifulness is supposed to begin. For 
 
 (i.) Professor Miiller admits freely that ' an arbitrary 
 imposition of articulate sounds to signify definite ideas, 
 is an assumption unsupported by any evidence' (ii. 
 338); and 
 
 (ii.) That * all roots, i. e. all the material elements of
 
 184 ON LANGUAGE. CH. XVIT. 
 
 language, are expressive of sensuous impressions, and 
 sensuous impressions only.' 
 
 Here then again ' habemus confitentem.' For, if all 
 roots were sensuous, and no root arbitrary, what follows ? 
 That every root must have been imposed, i. e. that every 
 sound must have been chosen, for some reason. Now 
 step by step we have shown that the easiest, and there- 
 fore the earliest, sounds must have corresponded to the 
 earliest impressions ; and there could have been no con- 
 ceivable reasons for the earliest sounds except those 
 which we have suggested. Are we then more * fanciful ' 
 than those who accept the only possible alternatives, 
 i. e. of considering that roots were ' inspired,' or of 
 appealing to their supposed occulta vis ? This much is 
 certain : Either the origin of Language was that which 
 we have explained, and which even our opponents admit 
 to be possible; or the problem must be practically 
 abandoned as inexplicable and insoluble, while at the 
 same time it is treated of in a number of self-contra- 
 dicting formulas. 
 
 The word ' sugar,' as well as squirrel, is adduced as 
 an instance of the deceptiveness of fancy. 'Who does 
 not imagine that he hears something sweet in the French 
 sucre, sucre? Yet sugar came from India, and it is 
 there called sarkhara, which is anything but sweet- 
 sounding.' True; but this remark has no connection 
 whatever with the subject under our discussion. We 
 do not even fancy that the word ' sugar ' has any par- 
 ticular sweetness in its sound. The theory of an 
 imitative origin of language is wholly unconnected 
 with the mysticism of the Analogists, whose views we 
 shall discuss hereafter, and who, when the Science of 
 Language was unknown, and few men could speak any
 
 CH. xvn. REFLEX OXOMATOPCEIAS. 185 
 
 but their mother-tongue, may be excused for having 
 held the erroneous notion of an inevitable, inherent, 
 and intrinsic harmony between word and thing. The 
 connection between sound and sense, as we have said 
 already, was not arbitrary ; but neither was it miracu- 
 lous. It must always have arisen from some determinate 
 reason; and the only conceivable reason that can be 
 suggested is the Imitative and Interjectional origin of 
 roots. We did not know that any one had ever 
 adduced 'sugar' as an onomatopoeia, though certainly 
 it would be a natural error to connect it with the imi- 
 tative roots sugere, suck, &c. 
 
 Let us consider some similar cases. St. Augustine, 1 
 after stating the Stoic belief in the onomatopoetic theory, 
 continues, that, in the case of things without life, a 
 certain analogy was allowed to come into play, so that 
 the softness or harshness of words was allowed to carry 
 with it an impression of the softness or harshness of 
 things. * The very words " lenis" and " asper," ' he says, 
 ' have a leniency and asperity in their sound. Voluptas 
 pleasure is a soft, crux cross is a harsh word. So that 
 words suggest their own meaning. Mel " honey " is as 
 sweet to the ear as honey is to the taste ; acre " sour " 2 
 is bitter to both ; " lana " wool and " vepres " a bramble 
 are rough to the ear, as the things they mean are to the 
 touch. The Stoics considered a concord between sound 
 and sense to be the very cradle of language.' 
 
 Doubtless there is in this passage much confusion of 
 
 1 Dial. Princ. c. 6. Quoted in that great storehouse of philological 
 learning, Lersch, Die Sprachphilosophie d. Alien, iii. 47. 
 
 2 Our 'eager' in its old sense, as 'eager milk,' the French 'aigre;' 
 also sharp. 'It is a nipping and an eager air.' Shaksp. Cf. iriKpds, 
 which means both pointed and bitter.
 
 185 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xvn. 
 
 thought. In his statement about the invention of words 
 capable of reproducing a natural sound, the Bishop 
 reports the Stoics correctly; but the vast portion of 
 language not capable of resulting from direct and 
 immediate imitation was formed, not by the very crude 
 and often purely imaginary analogy to which he refers, 
 but by processes of derivation and composition which 
 we have partly observed already, and which we shall 
 consider further in following chapters. Yet after these 
 deductions have been made, there is in the passage 
 which we have quoted a residuum of truth. There is 
 unquestionably a certain meaning, appropriateness, and 
 symbolic power in sound. 1 It is certain that, as a rule, 
 and independently of all confusion between a word and 
 the inevitable associations which it summons up, things 
 beautiful, soft, and pleasing, are generally represented 
 by soft and pleasing words, 2 while things which are 
 mean and repulsive receive mean and repulsive titles. 
 This, however, is often the result of long-continued 
 association modifying the existing forms of language. 
 It is only another exhibition of that instinct which 
 demands in almost every language the observance of 
 certain euphonic concords, and which fills with subtle 
 specimens of paronomasia and alliteration every great 
 work of poetry from the Psalms of David and the 
 precepts of Meng Tseu down to the last volume of 
 Tennyson's poems. The sense of hearing works in 
 harmony with the other senses, and assimilates itself to 
 the conditions and emotions of the mind to which it 
 conveys its impressions ; it demands, for instance, that 
 
 1 Pott, Etym. Forsch. ii. 261. He gives many instances. 
 * See more on this subject with various instances in Origin of Lang. 
 pp. 67-71.
 
 CH. xvii. KEFLEX OXOMATOPffilAS. 187 
 
 pleasurable sensations should be described in pleasurable 
 sounds, just as it demands that the cadences of poetry 
 should be soft and smooth when they glide along the 
 waves of beauty and happiness, but grating and rough 
 when they deal with objects of wrath and terror. The 
 Cyclopes of Virgil toil at the anvil, 
 
 Illi inter sese multa vi brachia tollunt,' 
 
 and his giants heap the hills, one on the crest of the 
 other 
 
 Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam, 
 
 in very different strains from those in which Camilla 
 flies over the plain, or in which Ennius l makes his 
 rapid cavalry rattle to the fight 
 
 It eques, et plausu cava concutit ungula terram. 
 And in Milton, 
 
 On a sudden open fly 
 With impetuous recoil and jarring sound 
 The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
 Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
 Of Erebus, 2 
 
 in far different sounds from those in which 
 
 Heaven open'd wide 
 
 Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound, 
 On golden hinges moving. 3 
 
 There is then a sort of reflex action going on, there 
 is a circular motion in language, by which words start 
 from an imitation, and then losing in the course of ages 
 
 1 Ennius, Ann. xvii. ap. Macrob. Sat. vi. 1. 
 
 2 Par. Lost, ii. 80. 
 
 3 Ibid. vii. 204.
 
 188 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xvn. 
 
 their imitative force are remoulded on the old natural 
 principle by a certain imperious demand for an open 
 congruity between sound and sense whenever it is at all 
 possible or permissible. We have already seen this 
 principle at work in the words katze and thunder; and 
 to these we may add the Romance words for nightingale, 
 Italian rossignuolo, Spanish ruysenor, French rossignol, 
 which are merely modifications of lusciniola, a dimi- 
 nutive from luscus, meaning the bird that 
 
 Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid 
 Times her nocturnal note, 
 
 and which yet are evidently meant to snatch an echo of 
 onomatopnetic music. One might select many such 
 instances, but every one can find them with ease. Who 
 would not fancy that he heard something of the kanonen- 
 gebrull in the word cannon ? Yet it merely comes from 
 canna, a reed. Clarion, for all its sonorous fulness, is 
 from clarus, and means the clearly -sounding instru- 
 ment; minstrel, liquid and musical, is nothing but a 
 corruption of the vulgar ministerial^ ; and lute, with 
 all its vowel-sweetness, is nothing but the Arabic article 
 el kneaded up into the substantive ud, as in alchemy 
 or algebra, or, to take an instance from our own lan- 
 guage, as the n of our indefinite article gets tacked on 
 to eft in the word newt. Thus it is that language 
 reverts to its primary instincts. Its earliest sounds were 
 imitative, and after long deviations from their primitive 
 source, after being subjected to a thousand varying 
 influences, they yet tend to become imitative again. 
 Carried far away from its primitive source, subjected to 
 numberless modifications, its words still, if I may be 
 forgiven the metaphor, are like those
 
 CH. xvii. REFLEX ONOMATOPffilAS. 189 
 
 Sinuous shells of pearly hue 
 Within, and they that lustre have imbibed 
 In the sun's palace-porch, where when unyoked 
 His chariot-wheel stands midway in the wave : 
 Shake one and it awakens ; then apply 
 Its polished lips to your attentive ear, 
 And it remembers its august abodes, 
 And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there. l 
 
 1 Landor. By a curious coincidence the same lines have been quoted 
 to illustrate the same point by the ' Times ' since these pages were 
 written.
 
 190 ON LANGUAGE. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 THE PAET PLATED BY THE IMAGINATION IN THE 
 INVENTION OP LANGUAGE. 
 
 ' What surmounts the reach 
 Of human sense, I shall delineate so, 
 By likening spiritual to corporal forms, 
 As may express them best.' MILTON, Par. Lost, v. 37. 
 
 IN one of those pregnant concessions to the importance 
 of the Imitative principle which make us sometimes 
 hope that our eminent opponent is more than half con- 
 vinced by the arguments adduced in its favour, after 
 allowing that there is ' a large stock ' of onomatopoeias 
 in every language, he says, * And who would deny that 
 some words originally expressive of sound only, might be 
 transferred to other things which have some analogy 
 with sound ? ' 
 
 'But,' he continues (ii. 89), 'how are all things 
 which do not appeal to the sense of hearing how are 
 the ideas of going, moving, standing, sinking, tasting, 
 thinking, to be expressed ? ' 
 
 This is the last arrow, and meant apparently to be 
 the most effective, which is shot Parthian-like into our 
 forces. The point of it has already been turned aside 
 by the considerations previously adduced. But in order 
 to leave no argument unconsidered, I hope throughout 
 this chapter to bring an abundance of instances which
 
 CH. xvni. IMAGIIS T ATION. 191 
 
 will be adequate to remove the suggested difficulty, or 
 at any rate to show that it is neither fatal nor final. 
 
 Let us return for a moment to first principles. 
 
 I have said repeatedly that no school of etymologists 
 pretends to explain the derivation of all words. The 
 Imitative school indeed is the only one which offers any 
 explanation of the ultimate origin of even a large 
 number of words. We are not therefore in a ivorse 
 position than any others, although we are convinced 
 that the Science of Philology can go farther and attempt 
 more than has yet been accomplished. Consequently it 
 is no refutation of our principles to adduce any special 
 group of words which we are unable to explain, any 
 more than it would be a refutation of the arguments of 
 Bopp, or Grimm, or Pott, to perform the easy task of 
 assembling long lists of words in the Aryan languages of 
 which they could give, and could pretend to give, no 
 account whatever. Nevertheless, as we shall see, the 
 linguistic processes which we shall illustrate in the next 
 chapter are sufficient to account for the possible expres- 
 sion of any conceptions whatever; and with this we might 
 perhaps rest content. Given the segment of a circle 
 however small, and the whole circle can immediately be 
 reproduced ; given a distinct and decisive clue to the 
 processes of language, and no serious difficulty remains 
 in effecting its complete reconstruction. Of the group of 
 words and conceptions which Professor Muller proposes 
 as incapable of explanation on our principles, we shall 
 have something to say before we enter on the more 
 general enquiry. The riddle which he proposes is after 
 all a riddle which is easily solved by the same clues 
 which enable us to understand how modifications of 
 the voice could effect the far more difficult result of
 
 192 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xvm. 
 
 expressing or describing the images which fall on the 
 retina of the eye. Meanwhile, as an illustration is 
 often more clear and convincing than many arguments, 
 let me once more recur to the progress of writing to 
 illustrate my position, which it does in a very remark- 
 able manner. I have already adduced the Hebrew 
 alphabet to show the analogy between the imitative 
 origin of writing and of speech ; I now adduce the 
 Chinese ideography to illustrate how elemental roots 
 were extended into finished and all-expressive lan- 
 guage. 
 
 The Chinese writing is ideographic, i. e. it has no 
 alphabetic letters, but signs each of which stands for a 
 conception. The most ancient Chinese characters (like 
 our astronomical and chemical symbols) were rude pic- 
 tures of material objects, just as we believe the earliest 
 words to have been rude imitations of sounds chosen as 
 the most obvious and self-explaining characteristics of 
 such objects as admitted of such representations. These 
 characters were about 200 in number, and are called 
 Siang-hing or Images, as 
 
 
 
 Sun. Moon. Mountain. Tree. Dog. Fish. 
 
 We see that the picture was conventional or ideal rather 
 than an actual copy. For instance, in the character for 
 fish we see the scales and the tail conventionalised, or 
 represented according to an accepted symbolism, as is 
 the case with the roots and boughs of the tree ; and as 
 again, in language, mere imitations are ideally and 
 articulately modified.
 
 CH. xvni. IMAGIXATIOX. 193 
 
 But soon arose the need for representing more com- 
 plicated objects; and, for these, neiv signs were not 
 invented, but the old ones were combined by the most 
 ingenious combinations and the liveliest metaphors, just 
 as imitative roots were transferred, agglutinated, com- 
 pounded, or inflected, to express intellectual operations, 
 and various conditions incapable of being externally 
 perceived. Thus, for instance, to signify light we have 
 the sun and moon ; for hermit we have a man over a 
 mountain ; for singing, a mouth and a bird ; for wife, 
 a woman, a hand, and a broom ; for hearing, an ear 
 placed at a door ; for tears, an eye and water, &c., as 
 follows : 
 
 Tears. 
 
 To express abstract ideas, or acts of the understanding, 
 use is made of analogies and metaphors suggested by 
 the simple characters ; for instance, a heart represents 
 the soul ; a house stands for man ; a broom for woman ; 
 a hand for artisan ; three men, one behind the other, 
 means 'to follow,' &c. The notions 1 of roughness, 
 rotundity, motion, rest, were represented by a moun- 
 tain, the sky, a river, the earth ; the sun, moon, and 
 
 1 So too with objects which would hare been too difficult to represent 
 in this manner, the mixed characters hing-ching are used, which are 
 
 half representative and half syllabic. Thus the sign yly , ' place ' (/i 
 
 in Chinese), joined to a fish, means the fish li or carp ; and the word 
 pS, white, is only pronounced in the character composed of a tree, 
 
 , pi!, which means cypress.
 
 194 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xvin. 
 
 stars stood for smoothness, splendour, anything artfully 
 wrought or delicately worked; extension, groioth, in- 
 crease, were figured by clouds, the firmament, and vege- 
 tables; motion, agility, slowness^idleness, and diligence, 
 by various insects, birds, fish, and quadrupeds. ' In this 
 manner passions and sentiments were traced by the 
 pencil, and ideas not subject to any sense were exhibited 
 to the sight, until by degrees new combinations were 
 invented, new expressions added ; the characters dwindled 
 imperceptibly from their primitive shape, and the Chi- 
 nese language became not only clear and forcible, but 
 rich and elegant in the highest degree.' * These characters 
 are called kia-tsiei, or borrowed. 
 
 No more vivid notion than this could be given of the 
 exactly analogous processes of language ; but we have 
 not yet done with our illustration. 
 
 For these characters, idealised as they are, do not in 
 the more modern systems of writing, retain more than a 
 dim and vague resemblance to the original picture, as 
 follows : 
 
 sun, becomes 
 
 moon, becomes Q 
 
 mountain, becomes jjl 
 
 tree, becomes /|C 
 
 dog, becomes X 
 
 fish, becomes 
 
 1 Sir W. Jones, Asiatic Researches, ii. 195. He refers to the Chinese 
 writer Li Yan Ping.
 
 CH. xvm. IMAGINATION. 195 
 
 And to take one or two compound signs : 
 
 bird and mouth = song, becomes pj| 
 
 ear and door = hearing, becomes R-4I 
 
 tree pe, or cypress, becomes 
 
 Now if all this were not a matter of historic certaintj^, 
 only imagine how * fanciful ' a person would be called 
 who should assert that the cursive sign stood for the 
 object! How completely, for instance, in the above- 
 written characters does the dog lose his head and legs ! 
 What a ghostly simulacrum is left him of his curly tail ! 
 The ear at the door looks more like three flags, and 
 the moon assumes the resemblance of an eccentric 
 ladder. Nevertheless, that eccentric ladder sprang by 
 direct filiation from a very passable crescent moon, and 
 the hatchet of the first compound sign was once a very 
 sweet little mouth with a Cupid's bow for the upper lip ! 
 So much then for the reproach of ' fancifulness ' in 
 inquiries of this kind. For if written characters are 
 liable to these Protean metamorphoses, how much 
 rather should we expect them in the words spoken every 
 day, and subject to all the changes likely to arise from 
 their utterance millions of times by millions of mouths 
 in millions of different vocal modifications ? 
 
 But now suppose that the Siang-hing or original 
 image-characters had been lost, and some ingenious 
 theorist, by the aid of an intelligent observation and 
 analysis of the li or modern system of writing, had 
 conjectured its originally pictorial intention ; and if he 
 succeeded in proving that, say a thousand .out of some 
 
 o 2
 
 196 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xnn. 
 
 30,000 recognised signs had this origin, would he not 
 be fairly entitled to conclude there being in his proce- 
 dure no intrinsic unlikelihood, but on the contrary an 
 a priori probability that the rest, which he was unable 
 to explain, were similarly developed from rude imita- 
 tions ? Would the charge of uncertainty in some in- 
 stances, or the charge of degrading the divine dignity 
 of the invention, be a disproof of his position ? Would 
 it be fair to produce a group of indecomposable signs, 
 and flout him with failure if he could give no account 
 of them ? Would it be philosophical to provide his 
 critic with a nickname, and call his system the * scrap- 
 book ' or the * baby-scrawl ' theory ? Well then we 
 say to each of our opponents, ' mutato nomine de te 
 Fabula narratur ! ' The rule of Varro * is more equi- 
 table, viz., that he who has given many excellent deriva- 
 tions ought rather to be thanked for those than blamed for 
 an occasional failure ; particularly when he admits that 
 for many words no etymology whatever can be offered. 
 And here we must again stop to object decidedly 
 against the notion, common apparently to most philo- 
 logers, that verbal roots, such as going, moving, tasting, 
 &c., or as some prefer to call them, predicative roots, 
 were the earliest. To us such a conception is logically 
 inconceivable. The invention of a verb requires a 
 greater effort of abstraction than that of a noun, for, 
 obviously, we must have generalised from individual 
 phenomena before we can express them verbally under 
 the conditions of 'motion, action, or existence.' In 
 
 1 ' Igitur de originibus verborum qui multa dixerit commode, potius 
 boni consulendum, quasi qui aliquid nequivsrit reprehendendum ; prae- 
 sertim quum dicat etymologice non omnium verborum dici posse causam.' 
 Varro, De Ling. Lat. vii. 4>
 
 CH. xvm. IMAGINATION. 197 
 
 some places, indeed, Professor Miiller ' appears to hold the 
 correct view, that at first * roots ' stood for any and every 
 part of speech, just as the monosyllabic expressions of 
 children do, and just as they do to this day in that lan- 
 guage of arrested development, the Chinese. This is 
 the view supported with such brilliant acumen, and 
 illustrated with so much philological learning, by the late 
 Mr. Grarnett 2 in his Essay on the Nature and Analysis 
 of the Verb. We believe with him that all language 
 is reducible to roots which are either the basis of ab- 
 stract nouns, or are pronouns denoting relations of place, 
 which latter we believe to have arisen from interjec- 
 tional elements. Now, ' a verb is not a simple, but, 
 ex necessario, a complex term, and therefore no primary 
 part of speech.' 3 From these views we cannot accept 
 it as even possible that, * from roots meaning to shine, 
 to be bright, names were formed, for sun, moon, stars, 
 the eyes of man, gold, silver, play, joy, happiness, love. 
 With roots meaning to strike, it was possible to name 
 an axe, the thunderbolt, a fist, a paralytic stroke, a 
 striking remark, and a stroke of business.' It seems 
 inconceivable that men should have needed, and, there- 
 fore, should have invented, a word meaning ' to shine ' 
 before they had any designation for the sun, or a verb 
 meaning 'to strike ' before they had the imitative 
 sounds tud, tup, tuph (cf. our confessed onomatopoeias 
 thud, tap, tat, rub a dub, &c.), 4 which were amply 
 
 1 Lectures, ii. 86. Bunsen, Outlines, ii. 130. 
 
 2 The Philol. Essays of the late Eev. Sick. Garnett, edited by his Son, 
 pp. 289-342. No more sound, or valuable, or interesting contribution 
 to Philology has appeared for many years than this volume of Essays. 
 
 Garnett, p. 290. 
 
 4 So obvious is this imitation as to be found also in the Semitic 
 languages. Cf. Hebr. CjQfl, C]h, &c.
 
 198 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xvin.. 
 
 sufficient for a host of derivatives in every language, as 
 TUTTTO), Tvpiravov, drub, drum, thump, and so forth. 
 We have already seen that the verb is represented by 
 a combination of the noun in the history of Chinese 
 ideography, and it seems to me impossible that it could 
 
 have been otherwise in speech. In Chinese ming Q|j 
 'bright' is 1 from P] yih the sun, and pf ngyneh 
 the moon; and yj~ fwun Ho divide' is composed of 
 77 tao a knife, and /I pah eight. This is a con- 
 ceivable process ; the other would be, in the old sense of 
 the word, preposterous. Nor is it a question as to what 
 is merely probable in language ; for we may regard it 
 as established by the large inductive process of Mr. 
 Garnett, and many others, that ' the radical terms em- 
 ployed to denote action, passion, or state, had originally 
 rather the force of nouns than verbs,' and this espe- 
 cially in the Celtic, which, it need hardly be remarked, 
 is one of the very oldest members of the Aryan family. 
 If so, we must entirely give up the notion that the 
 names of objects came from predicative or verbal roots. 
 We hope, too, that the instance of the root tup 
 and the origin assigned to it, will show our reason 
 for not attaching any importance to the whole divi- 
 sion of roots into primary and secondary, which is 
 elaborated in Professor Miiller's first series of lectures 
 (p. 250). 
 
 It requires but the feeblest power of abstraction a 
 power possessed even by idiots to use a name as the sign 
 of a conception, e. g. to say 'sun ;' to say * sheen,' as 
 the description of a phenomenon common to all shining 
 
 1 Marshman, Chinese Gram. p. 23.
 
 CH. xviii. IMAGINATION. 199 
 
 objects, is a higher effort, and to say * to shine ' as ex- 
 pressive of the state or act is higher still. Now, fami- 
 liar as such efforts may be to us, there is ample proof 
 that they could not have been so to the inventors of 
 language, because they are not so, even now, to some 
 nations of mankind after all their long millenniums of 
 existence. Instances of this fact have been repeatedly 
 adduced. Even in the Mithridates l we find it noticed 
 that the Society Islanders have words for dog's tail, 
 bird's tail, and sheep's tail, yet no word for tail ; that 
 the Mohicans have verbs for every kind of cutting, and 
 yet no verb 'to cut,' and forms for ' I love him,' * I love 
 you,' &c., but no verb meaning 'I love.' The Choc- 
 taws 2 have names for every possible species of oak, but 
 no word for the genus oak. The Australians 3 have no 
 generic word for fish, bird, or tree ; and the Eskimo, 
 though he has verbs for seal-fishing, whale-fishing, and 
 every other kind of fishing, has no verb mean ing simply 
 ' to fish.' * Ces laugues,' says Du Ponceau, in his admi- 
 rable Essay, ' generalisent rarement.' Thus, they have 
 separate verbs for * I wish to eat meat,' and * I wish to 
 eat soup,' but no verb for 'I wish ; ' 4 and separate words 
 for a blow with a sharp, and a blow with a blunt instru- 
 ment, but no abstract word for blow. Mr. Crawfurd 5 
 bears similar witness to the Malay languages. 'The 
 Malay,' he says, * is very deficient in abstract words ; 
 and the usual train of ideas of the people who speak it 
 
 1 Adelung, Mithr. iii. 325, 397. See, too, Pott, Etym. Forsch. ii. 167. 
 Heyse, p. 132. 
 
 2 Latham, Races of Man, p. 376. 
 
 8 De Quatrefages, Rev. des Deux Mondes, Dec. 15, 1860. Maury, 
 La Terre et IHomme, p. 433. 
 4 Du Ponceau, p. 120. 
 4 Crawfurd. Malay Grammar, i. 68 seq.
 
 200 OX LANGUAGE. cu. xvni. 
 
 does not lead them to make a frequent use even of the 
 few they possess. They have copious words for colours, 
 yet borrow the word colour, warna, from the Sanskrit. 
 With this poverty of the abstract is united a redun- 
 dancy of the concrete. No word for tree or herb, yet 
 urat, fibre; akar, root; pdrdu, tree-crown; tanglcai, 
 stalk ; battan, stock ; tungal, trunk ; ddan and turuk, 
 twig ; tukut, tunas, and gagang, shoot, &c.' He gives 
 many similar instances, and an analogous one is to be 
 found even in Anglo-Saxon, which had abundant words 
 for all shades of blue, red, green, yellow, &c., but bor- 
 rowed * from the Latin the abstract word * colour ; ' 
 and abundant names for every form of crime, before it 
 borrowed from Latin the abstract words ' crime ' and 
 * transgression.' With instances like these before us 
 and they might be indefinitely multiplied who shall 
 believe that the sun, and moon, and earth, had not been 
 named at all until they received names from roots 
 meaning to shine, to measure, and to plough ? or that 
 cows and reptiles, and creeping plants, and flowing 
 water, and clouds, made shift with being anonymous 
 until after men possessed an indefinite number of verbs 
 all meaning 'to go'? 2 
 
 And now then, having cleared the way by these pre- 
 liminary considerations, let us (though we might, as we 
 have shown, fairly decline to accept any one particular 
 test) very briefly consider whether there is no answer, on 
 our principles, to the question, ' How are all things which 
 do not appeal to the sense of hearing how are the ideas 
 of going, moving, standing, sinking, tasting, thinking to 
 be expressed?' It would be tedious to go through 
 
 1 Dr. D. Wilson, Prehistoric Man, i. 61. 
 8 See Prof. Key, ubi sup., 8-16.
 
 CH. xvin. IMAGINATION. 201 
 
 them all ; let us then take each alternate word. If the 
 question can be answered for these, it can be as easily 
 answered for the rest. Let it be observed that in 
 attempting to answer it at all we are doing something 
 beside and beyond what our opponents ever attempt to 
 do ; we are rising above 'that indolent philosophy which 
 refers to a miracle whatever it is unable to explain.' 
 
 ' Ideas * of going.' I am not aware that anybody has 
 attempted to explain the origin of the Sanskrit verb 
 ' gaj to go. Of other Sanskrit verbs with this meaning 2 
 there is at least a reasonable probability that 'pat' 
 (also to fall) and sr, and srp (also to creep), are of imi- 
 tative origin, as they are closely analogous to many 
 formations of similar meaning which are confessedly so. 
 Moreover, to confine ourselves to our own language 
 alone, what shall we say of the words creep, crawl, 
 dawdle, dance, 3 rush, hurry, patter, totter, stump, stamp, 
 and many more, to say nothing of such as expressly 
 imply noise combined with motion, as whizz, whirr, 
 hurl, &c. ? Every one of these is an ' idea of going;' 
 every one of these is and the proof is easy onoma- 
 topoetically expressed. 
 
 * Ideas of standing.' 4 It would have been difficult, 
 
 1 I must remark, en passant, that I am not responsible for this use 
 of the word 'ideas;' though, indeed, it is hopeless to redeem this noble 
 word from the mass of confused usages into which it has fallen. Not 
 one modern writer in twenty thousand uses it either carefully or ac- 
 curately in its only true and proper meaning. 
 
 2 As for the root 'i' 'go' in Uvai, &c., Plato says, r$ 5' o3 liar a irpbs 
 ra XeTrTa irdj/TO, & 5rj fj.d\i<rra Sia iruvroiv Jot &v. In other words i as the 
 subtlest of the vowels, is chosen, by a sort of imitative analogy, to express 
 notions of movement, penetration, &c. Crat. p. 426. I leave this as I 
 find it. 
 
 3 Cf. Hebr. pi, tanzen, &c. 
 
 4 Plato, whether in irony or earnest, derives ffr&tra. from feffis (not
 
 202 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xvm. 
 
 perhaps, to choose any conceptions so apparently incapa- 
 ble of mimetic or interjectional expression as these ; yet 
 their origin can be explained. It has long been noticed 
 that combinations of s and t have been chosen in many 
 languages as expressions of stability, urnj/Lw, sto, setzen, 
 sitzen, stemmen, &c. There must have been some 
 reason for this, and we believe it to be furnished by the 
 simple instinctive Lautgeberde st ! a sound peculiarly 
 well adapted to demand attention (compare whist! 
 usht ! &c.), and therefore well adapted to express 
 stopping and standing as the immediate results of an 
 awakened attention. Even Heyse was struck with the 
 fact that the Lautgeberde offers a close analogy to the 
 imperative sentence, and that st ! was equivalent to the 
 command sta ! * stop ! 
 
 * Ideas of tasting.' An unfortunate selection to prove 
 the difficulty of extending imitative words, because we 
 believe that the word taste itself, together with nearly all 
 its synonyms and words which express similar meanings, 
 are very easy onomatopreias. Taste, for instance (Ital. 
 tastare, Germ, tasten, &c.), is from taxitare, a frequenta- 
 tive of taxare, a verb defined by Aulus Gellius to mean 
 ' pressius crebriusque tangere.' Now tax is an open and 
 unconcealed imitation, as * Tax, tax tergo meo erit,' in 
 Plautus. 2 And as for the difficulty or impossibility of 
 similarly expressing other ideas of tasting, what does 
 Professor Miiller say to the words Jtt? ; Arabic, laluka ; 
 Sanskrit lih, lak; \i%&>, lingo, ligurio? or the words 
 
 going) with an euphonic epenthesis st ! (i) tie ffraffis ait6<f>affis rov ifvai 
 /3ov\fTCu eivai, Sta Se -rbv Ka\\<trrciffp.bv (Travis WV^OWTOJ. Cratylus, p. 
 426). 
 
 1 System, p. 73. 
 
 2 Pers. ii. 3, 12.
 
 CH. xvni. IMAGINATION. 203 
 
 trinken, drink, quaff, saufen, souper, sup, soup, quaff? 
 or to sugere, succus, saugen, suck? or to schmecken and 
 smack ? or to gurgle, gulp, gobble, guzzle, &c. ? or to 
 hundreds more whose origin may be less transparent, 
 but is hardly less certain ? Are these ' ideas of tast- 
 ing' or are they not? are they onomatopoeias or not? 
 The answer to either question can hardly be doubtful. 
 
 I think, therefore, that on this point also the chal- 
 lenge has been most fairly accepted, and fairly met ; for 
 it would be no less easy to go through the * ideas of 
 moving, sinking, aud thinking.' And here for the pre- 
 sent I may leave the controversy.
 
 204 ON LANGUAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 METAPHOK. 
 
 Tlepl TUV a.S4i\ci>v curb ruv (paivopfvwv XP^J ffrifj-eiovcrdat. Kal yap Kal 
 tirivoiai traaai airb TCCV alaQ-fifffcav yey6vacri Kara, re irepiirruffiv Kal avaXoyiav 
 Kal 6p.oi6rtiTa Kal ffbvQtffiv ffVfj.$aX\opvov ri Kal \oyifffwv. 
 
 EPIC. ap. Diog. Laert. x. 32. 
 
 BARON BUNSEN, in one of those eloquent and magnifi- 
 cent bursts of dogmatism which are to be found in 
 his noble book, The Philosophy of Universal History, 
 after describing the Imitative theory in a manner which 
 at any rate does not apply to any of its present holders, 
 and which is based on complete misapprehension of 
 their views, says that such a theory is not only disproved 
 by all history and diametrically opposed by facts (!), but 
 is ' a most absurd supposition in itself, as most objects 
 have no sound tvhatever.' 1 
 
 If the former pages of this volume have not satisfied 
 the reader as to the utter groundlessness of the first 
 assertions, it is hardly worth while to argue further ; 
 and I trust that he will have already seen enough to 
 show that the last assertion is none the less erroneous for 
 sounding at first mention plausible. If not, the follow- 
 ing chapter will show that as an objection to our theory 
 it has no weight whatever. Indeed, as we have several 
 
 1 Bunsen, ii. 131.
 
 CH. xix. METAPHOR. 205 
 
 times observed, it is not true, to begin with, that 'most 
 objects have no sound whatever.' Even the mass of 
 objects in the dumb and inanimate world are so con- 
 stituted that the sound produced by them is generally 
 the best and truest indication of their character and 
 properties. The clang of various metals, from the deep 
 reverberations of iron to the tremulous shiver of thin 
 steel, and the sharp tinkling of brass and tin the 
 whisper and splash of cohesionless liquids the crackle, 
 and blare, and roar of flame the ringing resonance of 
 stone and marble the creaking of green boughs the 
 ripping of dead wood the clink of glass the dull thud 
 of soft and yielding bodies the discontinuous rattle of 
 hard, dry substances the flap or rustle of woven fabrics 
 in the wind- every one of these sounds, and of thousands 
 more, betrays instantaneously to the ear the nature of 
 every substance, and is recognisable even from a dis- 
 tance and in the dark. And every one of these sounds 
 is capable of articulate representation. It is not too 
 much to say that there is hardly an inanimate substance 
 in the creation which does not in some way or other 
 connect itself with sound that does not in some way or 
 other recall an acoustic image of itself, 
 
 We have observed the influence exercised over lan- 
 guage by the emotions (interjections), by the will (Laut- 
 geberden\ and the deep-lying instinct of imitation 
 (onomatopoeia); it remains to see how the materials 
 thus provided were moulded and multiplied by the 
 imagination and the fancy. 
 
 At first sight there might have appeared to be a 
 difficulty absolutely insuperable in making audible 
 sounds the exponents of impressions which come to us 
 through the gateways of four most different Censes in
 
 206 OX LAXGUAGE. CH. xix. 
 
 translating for the ear the perceptions which we form 
 through the medium of touch, and taste, and smell, and 
 sight; in giving expression by means of the undula- 
 tions of air sent pulsing upon the tympanum by vibra- 
 tions of the. vocal chords, and motions of the lips and 
 tongue to all that pleases or disgusts in contacts, and 
 savours, and odours, and in the infinite many-coloured 
 world of visual images. Yet over this seemingly fathom- 
 less abyss of separation, Nature flings in one wide arch, 
 and without an effort, her marvellous aerial bridge ! 
 
 The difficulty is at once enormously reduced by 
 observing that nothing corresponding to the impressions 
 of the senses has any objective or actual existence. 
 There is no such thing in the abstract as a smell, a 
 taste, or a colour. There is nothing in any way analo- 
 gous to these words beyond the boundary-line of our 
 own individualities. Infinitely small particles floating 
 invisibly in the air rest on the fibro-mucous membrane 
 which lines the nasal cavity, and by mechanical or 
 chemical, combinations affect the olfactory filaments, 
 and we say that there is a smell; movements of air 
 undulating on the tympanum are conveyed to the 
 auditory nerve, and modified by the exquisite and 
 dimly-understood mechanism of the cochlea, otolithes, 
 and semicircular passages, and we say there is a sound ; 
 rays of light falling on the cornea, and variously 
 refracted by the crystalline and vitreous humours, pro- 
 duce an inverted image of objects upon the network of 
 optic nerves, and we say that we see ; the delicate sur- 
 face of the skin, conveying the impression of resistance 
 under various forms, leads us to say of an object when 
 we touch it that it is hard, or round, or square ; and 
 other impressions are conveyed by the tongue or palate
 
 CH. six. METAPHOR. 207 
 
 which we say are sweet or acid. But what are the 
 objective realities corresponding to the words 'a smell,' 
 * a colour,' 'a sound,' * roundness,' 'sweetness?' There 
 are no such objective realities, they are pure nonenti- 
 ties. The words are absolutely meaningless, except so 
 far as they express the modifications, however produced, 
 of one and the same sentient subject. Even substance 
 is but a purely hypothetical postulated residuum after 
 the abstraction of all observable qualities. Nothing has 
 any existence for us except as a synthesis of attributes, 
 and even these attributes are not inherent in matter, 
 but are merely affections of our personality which we 
 project into the external world, and endow with a purely 
 imaginary objectivity; they are but shadows of the 
 inward microcosm flung by the light of our own life 
 upon the external universe, and invested by imagination 
 with an independent reality. 
 
 When therefore we express by words the impressions 
 of every sense, we are not translating from a number of 
 languages which have no analogy with each other, but 
 we are merely expressing a single subject namely, 
 ourselves. We are dealing, not with external realities, 
 but with subjective sensations. The impressions, how- 
 ever various may be the sources whence they are derived, 
 all act upon a sensorium commune ; l however diverse 
 may be our sensations, they are all of them nothing 
 more than material changes in one common brain. In 
 point of fact, we have not five senses, but only one 
 
 1 ' Wie hangt Gesicht und Gehor, Farbe und "Wort, Duft nnd Ton 
 zusammen ? . . . . Wir sind ein denkendes sensorium commune nur von 
 versehiedenen Seiten beriihrt Da liegt die Erklarung.' Herder, s. 94. 
 By the name sensorium commune, however, I do not mean merely the 
 brain, but the brain, the nerves, the organs of sense, &c. See Bain, 
 The Senses and Intellect, p. 61.
 
 208 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xix. 
 
 sense, the sense of feeling. There may be no connection 
 between a sound and a colour; but since both the 
 sound and the colour are but states produced in a 
 thinking subject, the brain which is affected by the 
 sound can use sound as a means of expressing the effect 
 of the colour also. A smell, the striking of a clock, 
 muscular resistance, and the form of a triangle, are 
 separated from each other by an abyss of difference; 
 there is nothing in common even between different 
 sensations received by the same organ as white and 
 black. Language expresses nothing but the relations 
 of things, and as these are purely subjective, the mind 
 which creates these supposed relations is also capable of 
 expressing them. 
 
 Hence, by an apparently instinctive process a pro- 
 cess, at any rate, not derived either from logical inference 
 or physical research we find throughout all language 
 an interchange between, rather than a confusion of, the 
 words which properly belong to different senses. This 
 is especially the case in the terms expressive of light 
 and sound. We find nothing to alter in such verses as 
 'All the people saw the thunderings and lightnings, 
 and the noise of the trumpet' (Ez. xx. 18), or 'I turned 
 to see the voice which spake with me'(Eev. i. 12). 
 In jEschylus, ' The voice ' and the clash are seen (Prom. 
 Vinct. 21, 22) ; in Sophocles the pa3an flashes ((Ed. 
 Tyr. 187), and the echo gleams back from the distant 
 rock ((Ed. CoL 137): by the voice the blind beholds, 
 the ears of the deaf are sightless.' 
 
 All the effects produced by the senses are indeed but 
 different threads which Nature has woven into one web ; 
 
 1 Boyes, Illustrations to JEschylus, &c., p. lii.
 
 .CH. xix. METAPHOR. 209 
 
 but between light and sound, the two most infinite in 
 their revelations of the outer world, there seems to be 
 a distinct and peculiar connection. 'They are,' says 
 Lamennais, 1 merely 'two different organs of the same 
 faculty, two different manifestations of the same sense.' 
 Hence, the Greek Apollo is the god both of melody and 
 of brightness. 
 
 The imaginative power to perceive these analogies 
 works instinctively and without reflection ; the mere 
 copy or imitation of a sound is, by a new step in the 
 progress of language which is due to the imagination 
 elevated into a symbol for things which it cannot 
 directly imitate, and finally, this symbol is promoted by 
 the understanding into a general sign ; but each step is 
 taken naturally and unconsciously. Nothing is more 
 common in ordinary language than to hear people adopt 
 these self-explaining and vivid analogies. 2 We speak 
 indifferently of a clear tone or a clear light ; and the 
 word * tone ' itself is applied to a picture no less than to 
 a harmony. No one is struck with a sense of incon- 
 gruity when we speak of a gamut of colours, or a 
 chromatic sequence in a piece of music. Sophocles 
 speaks of a man as ' blind both in ears and eyes.' 3 Who 
 does not see the beauty of this sentence in a modern 
 writer? 'And as the chorus swelled and swelled till 
 the air seemed made of sound, little flames, vibrating 
 too, as if the sound had caught fire, burst out between 
 the turrets of the palace and the girdling towers. That 
 
 1 Esquisse d'une Philosophic, in E. Arnould's Ess. d?Hist. Lit. 168. 
 
 2 I gave some striking instances from the poets in the Origin of Lang. 
 p. 126. In French there are several which are hardly admissible in 
 English, as 'sombres gemissements,' 'lueurs eclatantes,' &c. 
 
 3 TV(f>\bs rd T' ura r6v re vovv TO. T' U^/JLVT' tl. (Ed. Tyr. 371. 
 
 P
 
 210 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xix. 
 
 sudden clang, that leaping light, fell on Romola like 
 sharp wounds.' * ' Is not the delight of the quavering 
 upon a stop of music,' says Lord Bacon, ' the same with 
 the playing of light upon the water 2 
 
 Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus ? 
 
 Are not the organs of the senses of one kind with the 
 organs of reflection the eye with a glass, the ear with 
 a cave or strait determined and bounded ? Neither are 
 these only similitudes, as men of narrow observation 
 may conceive them to be, but the same footsteps of 
 nature, treading or printing upon several subjects or 
 matters.' 3 Hence it is that, by a purely unconscious 
 sense of analogy, we find repetitions of light expressed 
 by precisely the same kind of reduplication as repeti- 
 tions of sound ; so that purpura and marmor indicate 
 waves of light no less naturally than murmuro and 
 susurro indicate waves of sound. 4 Quick motions, also 
 producing a sort of flash in the air, are represented by 
 imitative reduplications, as papilio, the butterfly, which 
 in Basque is chickitola, and in Botocudo is kiaku-keck- 
 keck. 
 
 1 Romola, ii. 85. There is a direct etymological connection between 
 fragor and bright; between Qdos, 'light,' and Qrju't, 'I say.' VideHeyse, 
 e. 115. A writer whom I have previously quoted says, ' We can readily 
 imagine the imitative tinkle passing into the French etincelle and the 
 English twinkle the sharp delicate impression on the ear recalling that 
 upon the eye." Mocmillaris Mag. 
 
 2 Compare ' It is like listening to the mysterious music in the conch 
 sea-shell ; it is like watching the fleeting rays of light which shoot up to 
 heaven as we are looking at the sunset.' Robertson, Addresses, p. 227. 
 Every one knows how Sanderson, born blind, compared ' red ' to a 
 trumpet-note; the reverse story of Massieu, the deaf-mute, comparing 
 a trumpet-note to the same colour, is not so generally known. 
 
 8 Adv. of Learning, bk. i. 
 
 4 Dwight, Mod. Philology, 2nd Series, p. 210.
 
 CH. xix. METAPHOK. 211 
 
 Nor is this interchange of the terms proper to diffe- 
 rent senses at all confined to the eye and the ear. ' Ye 
 have made our odour to be abhorred in the eyes of 
 Pharaoh,' we find in Ex. v. 21 ; and 'truly the light is 
 sweetj in Eccl. xii. 7. Dr. Kalisch correctly observes 
 that what such expressions lose in logical accuracy they 
 gain in richness and force; and hence we find them 
 frequently in the poets, as in ^Eschylus, KTVTTOV S^Sopica, 
 s I see a sound,' and in Lucretius, * loca vidi reddere 
 voces' Crashaw talks of ' the murmur of a sparkling 
 noise ;' Akenside of t tasting the fragrance of a rose ;' 
 Byron of ( inhaling an ambrosial aspect." 1 The adjec- 
 tives soft, sharp, hard, mild, rough, smooth, are used 
 indifferently of sounds, of lights, of touch, of taste ; ! 
 the adjective nice, which belongs properly to the region 
 of taste alone, is on the lips of some people an epithet 
 of universal meaning; and other adjectives, not pro- 
 perly belonging to the domain of any sense, are trans- 
 ferred indiscriminately to each sense, so that, for 
 instance, we are not surprised to hear of a rich colour, 2 
 a rich tone, or rich viands; of delicate tints, delicate 
 odours, or delicate textures. To such an extent is this 
 carried that we hardly notice it in ordinary conversation, 
 nor are we struck by anything metaphorical in the turn 
 of expression when we hear a person speaking collo- 
 quially of a glorious day or a glorious concert ; of bitter 
 
 1 The whole subject is admirably treated by Wilhelm von Humboldt, 
 Ueber die Verschiedenheit d. menschl. Sprachbaues, s. 78, fg. But it is 
 not easy to establish any clear distinction between words used symboli- 
 cally (tcatf 6p.oi6Tijra) and analogically (KO.TO. avaXo-fiav'). SeeLersch, iii. 
 63 ; Heyse, p. 95. One or two of the instances given above are quoted 
 by Mr. Boyes, in his Illustrations to JEfchylus and Sophocles. 
 
 * In Chinese the word for a gem, is also applied to a dainty. 
 
 p 2
 
 212 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xrx. 
 
 cold, bitter experience, or a bitter taste; of a sweet 
 smell, a sweet voice, a sweet taste, a sweet look, or a 
 sweet feeling. 
 
 We see then that there is no difficulty in expressing 
 anything with which all the senses are conversant in 
 terms derived from the instinctive or imitated sounds 
 furnished to us by one of them ; and thus we are at once 
 supplied with a nomenclature sufficiently ample for all 
 the phenomena of the material universe. At every step 
 in this part of the progress of language, the imagination 
 is dominant. From this source is derived the whole 
 system of genders for inanimate things, which was 
 perhaps inevitable at that early childish stage of the 
 human intelligence, when the actively-working soul 
 attributed to everything around it some portion of its 
 own life, but which has been wisely discarded by our 
 own language as a useless encumbrance. To the quick 
 fancy of the child of nature it seems impossible to 
 regard anything as absolutely without life. The Indian 
 thinks that the shade even of his arrow will accompany 
 him to the regions of the blest. Hence, well-nigh 
 everything is spoken of as masculine or feminine. How 
 completely fanciful were the analogies which in each 
 case suggested the gender is seen from the different 
 genders attributed in different languages to the same 
 thing, and cannot be more clearly illustrated than by 
 the fact that the sun, which in nearly every other lan- 
 guage is masculine, becomes feminine in German (die 
 Sonne}; and the moon, which so many nations wor- 
 shipped as a goddess, is, in German, made masculine 
 (der Mond). 
 
 By a similar play of fancy, the names for various parts 
 of the body are catachrestically applied to things without
 
 CH. xix. METAPHOR. 21$ 
 
 life. 1 We talk of the leg of a stool ; of the foot, crest, 
 spur, or shoulder of a mountain ; of the teeth of a saw 
 or a comb; of the neck of a bottle; the tongue of a 
 balance or a shoe, the eye of a needle, the head of a 
 cabbage, the arm of a chair, the breast of a wave, the 
 bosom of a rose. Even an island is an oe or ' eye ;' an 
 isthmus is a neck ; a harbour, a jaw ; 2 a central place, a 
 navel ; 3 a crag is a tooth ; a river-bank, a lip ; and a 
 promontory, a ness, naze, or nose. Plants are named 
 from animals or the limbs of animals, as fox -tail, mouse-! 
 ear, goat's-beard, cock's-comb, hare's-foot, crane-bill, 
 lark-spur. Even dead instruments or parts of them are 
 called by the names of animals, as a monkey, a batter- 
 ing-ram, a pig of lead, 4 chevaux de frise, a frog ; cochlea, 
 a screw ; testudo, a penthouse of shields ; lupus, a bit ; 
 s-^vos, a pitcher ; icopaj; , a grappling-iron ; oi/oy, a wind- 
 lass. Ships and ploughs, both as wholes and in their 
 parts, are spoken of as living things. 5 Attributes and 
 functions of animate beings are transferred to the inani- 
 mate, as living water, the living rock, quick-silver ^ 
 lively colours, couleur morte, bleu mourant, a living 
 coal, dying embers ; a comparison stumbles ; an alley is 
 blind ; the ground thirsts, and drinks in the dew. By 
 a reverse process, the life of vegetables is symbolically 
 
 1 Heyse, p. 99. 
 
 2 2aAjuu5jj(Tia yva.8os, JEsch. Prom. V. 571. Both Job and Sophocles 
 talk of ' the eyelids of the morn,' Job iii. 9 ; and in Ps. ex. 3, we even have 
 ' the womb of the morning.' 
 
 3 Judg. ix. 37 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 12 ; Ps. Ixxiv. 12 ; Soph. OE. T. ; Eur. 
 Med.; Plin. iii. 12. It is hardly worth while to heap up references for 
 the other instances ; for 'tooth,' see 1 Sam. xiv. 4; Job xxxix. 28. For 
 lip, Gen. xxii. 17, &c. Heb. 
 
 4 Which the Greeks called a dolphin of lead. Thuc. vii. 41. 
 
 * Heyse quotes Grimm, Gesch. d. deutsch. Sprache, p. 56 ff. ; Pott, 
 Mttaphern vom Leben, in Aufrecht und Kuhn's Zeitschr. ii. 2.
 
 214 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xix. 
 
 applied to the life of man ; we talk of the scion of a 
 noble stock ; the fruit of good works ; ' a rod of the 
 stem of Jesse ; ' a seed of thought ; the propagation of 
 the Gospel ; a green memory and a green old age. We 
 may notice, in passing, how powerfully the poetic in- 
 stinct reproduces these tendencies of early language. 
 What Mr. Buskin has called ' the pathetic fallacy,' is 
 the indomitable desire to see in Nature, or at least to 
 attribute to her, a sympathy in our joys and sorrows, 
 our hopes and fears. Hence, to the imaginations of 
 the Psalmist and Prophet, ' the hills clap their hands, 
 the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and 
 sing ; ' ( the morning stars shout for joy ; ' * the moun- 
 tains * skip like rams, and the little hills like young 
 sheep;' the fir-trees howl, for the cedar is fallen; the 
 raging waves of the sea foam out their own shame ; the 
 heavens declare the glory of (rod, and the firmament 
 showeth his handy work ; the sun is as a bridegroom 
 going out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to 
 run his course. In modern poets the same fancy recurs 
 with constant intensity, so that there is hardly a single 
 aspect of nature which has not been made to express or 
 to interpret the thoughts and passions of mankind, and 
 hardly a single modern poem which does not illustrate 
 this imaginative power. 
 
 To the same source is due the universal prevalence 
 of personification (or, as it is technically called, Proso- 
 popoeia) in ancient times. To many ancient nations 
 
 1 It is curious to find the very same expressions in Chinese. ' Chu- 
 king ait, Montes et colles pro gaudio tripudiant, volucres etbestise laetitia 
 exultant et saltant ad citharse sonum.' P. Premare, Notitia Lingua 
 Sinica, p. 243. I am aware, however, that Premare's theories may have 
 led him to heighten the similarity; See Stanislas Julien, Lao Tseu 
 Tao-te-Ting, pref.
 
 CH. xix. METAPHOR. 215 
 
 the earth itself was a living creature, the stars were 
 divine animals, and the very rainbow lived and drank 
 the dew. No wonder that their 
 
 ' Fancy fetched 
 
 E'en from the blazing chariot of the Sun 
 A beardless youth, who touched a golden lute, 
 And filled the illumined groves with ravishment. 
 
 No wonder that, in their belief, an Oread danced on 
 eveiy hill, a Naiad lurked in every fountain, a Hama- 
 dryad lived or languished in every tree, and troops of 
 Napseads and young Fauns or gamesome Satyrs sported 
 among the forest glades, while 
 
 On the level brine 
 Sleek Panope and all her sisters played. 
 
 Mythology no less than language springs in great 
 measure from these plays of a self-deceiving fancy. The 
 primal men thought thus because they could not other- 
 wise express their feelings, and they spoke thus because 
 this inability to express themselves otherwise in turn 
 reacted on their thoughts. Nor is Mythology unknown 
 even in these days. We have long personified under 
 the name of Nature the sum-total of (rod's laws as 
 observed in the physical world ; and now the notion of 
 Nature as a distinct, living, independent entity seems 
 to be ineradicable alike from our literature and our 
 systems of Philosophy. 
 
 In the same manner human relationships are con- 
 stantly attributed by analogy to external things. In 
 jEschylus the Salmydessian harbour is a stepmother of 
 ships ; flame-smoke is the sister of fire ; dust the brother 
 of wind ; and plunderings are the blood-relations of run- 
 nings to and fro. In Pindar, Autumn is the tender 
 mother of the Vine stalk ; and in Hipponax, the fig-tree
 
 216 ON LANGUAGE. en. xix. 
 
 is a sister of the vine. In the Semitic languages this 
 figure occurs with astonishing frequency; e.g. in Hebrew 
 and Arabic, sparks are the sons of fire, an arrow the sou 
 of a bow, a disease the firstborn of death ; a sound from 
 heaven is the daughter of a voice ; 1 a brave man is a son 
 of valour ; an infant is the son of a year ; a confirmed 
 boy is a son of the law; a condemned criminal is a son 
 of death ; a bad woman is a daughter of worthlessness ; 
 lions are sons of haughtiness; a lynx is the son of howl- 
 ing; a vulture is the daughter of a wing. 2 The figure 
 is more rare in modern poetry, yet Peele calls lightning 
 1 the faire spouse of thunder/ and Tennyson says 
 
 Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed 
 Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay. 
 
 But it is time to pass to still more important applica- 
 tions of the imaginative principle. It is not difficult to 
 see how by its obvious aid man might, by the methods 
 we have been observing, frame a nomenclature for all 
 that he could see, or hear, or taste, or smell, or touch. 
 But how was he to name the abstract, the ideal, the 
 spiritual, the mental, the imponderable, the unseen ? 
 how to name the intuitions of the reason, the conclu- 
 sions of the understanding, the thoughts of the mind, 
 the yearnings of the spirit, the emotions and passions 
 of the soul, nay how was he even to find names for 
 the reason, the understanding, the spirit, the mind, the 
 soul themselves? 
 
 Could he have invented new terms? would any mystic 
 
 1 Compare Milton, 
 
 'Left that command 
 Sole daughter of his voice.' 
 
 2 For a large number of similar expressions in Arabic, especially in 
 the names of birds and animals, see Bochart, Hieroz. vol. ii. p. 230.
 
 CH. xix. METAPHOR. 217 
 
 'roots' have appeared by some inexplicable partheno- 
 genesis in his intelligence ? Whatever might have hap- 
 pened, this did not happen. Even if it had been 
 possible to him, the instinctive dislike to needless neo- 
 logisms, observable in every stage of the history of lan- 
 guage, would have probably checked the development 
 of such a power. At any rate the permutations and 
 combinations of the few roots already supplied by ono- 
 matoposia and interjections, were found amply sufficient 
 for the new purpose for which they were required ; and 
 this application of existing sounds was at once easier 
 and more agreeable than a fresh exercise of the power 
 of Invention. We see from hundreds of instances that 
 even the misappropriation of an old term is greatly pre- 
 ferred to the elaboration of a new one. The Greek, 
 whose commonest relish was boiled fish o-fyov (from tya> 
 I boil), used this same word even when his relish hap- 
 pened to be garlic or cress ; and he preferred to say a 
 horse-comber of camels (ITTTTOKO^OS KafLrjXwv) to saying 
 a camel-comber ; and a hecatomb of twelve oxen (from 
 sicctTov = 100) rather than invent an accurate name. 
 The Komans with their military proclivities called any 
 interspace an intervallum, which properly meant a 
 space between the stakes of a palisade. 'The silver 
 pyxis' is quite a proper expression, though pyxis pro- 
 perly means a box made of box-vfood. Homer does not 
 hesitate to say ItcrtSsr) Kvvsrj, or helmet of weasel-skin,, 
 though literally the expression meant 'a weasel-skin 
 dogskin,' just as 'aerea galea' would mean etymologi- 
 cally ' a brazen catskin.' In Exod. xxxviii. 8 we read 
 of ' looking-^asses of brass ' where the misapplication 
 is as perfectly correct as the phrase 'a white blackbird,' 
 because the word f looking-brass ' would be intolerably
 
 218 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xix. 
 
 novel. Mr. Tennyson shocks no one by the line ' Whose 
 blazing wyvern weathercocked l the spire.' The French 
 talk of ' un cheval ferre d'argent ' rather than compose 
 a proper term for shoeing a horse with silver. A new 
 name is never resorted 2 to unless it is absolutely essen- 
 tial and indispensable. 
 
 But quite independently of the necessity for finding 
 articulate sounds to describe the phenomena of the 
 mind to express the strange unseen world of the Ego 
 no less clearly than that of the Non-ego there was 
 another reason why all that was subjective should have 
 been named by means of mere modifications of roots 
 already acquired. For this shadowy unseen subjective 
 world was incapable of being knoivn at all except by 
 analogy of those things of which we acquired a knowledge 
 through the action of the senses. The mind, like the 
 eye, becomes conscious of itself only by reflection from 
 other things. We have seen already that men always 
 explain and name the hitherto unknown by adopting 
 the name of that known thing which most nearly re- 
 sembles it ; and that they seem incapable of under- 
 standing new phenomena except by the aid of such 
 analogies as are supplied them by phenomena with 
 which they are already familiar. 3 This may be an in- 
 tellectual weakness, but it is one which recurs with the 
 regularity of a law ; and in the nomenclature of mental 
 and spiritual entities it was inevitable, because those 
 invisible things were only revealed and rendered cog- 
 
 1 Unless it be by the verb ! Imagine its being conjugated thus : I 
 weathercock, thou weathercockest, he, she, weathercocks, &c. ! 
 
 2 Savage languages specialise everything because they have so few 
 abstract terms ; but it is a law of progressing language, to get rid of all 
 exuberance, and to content itself with the fewest words possible. 
 
 * Charma, p. 258.
 
 ca. xix. METAPHOR. 219 
 
 nisable by the things that are seen. 'It is a false 
 assertion,' said Bacon 1 long ago, 'that the senses of man 
 are a measure of all things; because on the contrary, all 
 perceptions, of the senses no less than of the mind, are 
 from the analogy of man, not from the analogy of the 
 Universe. And the human intellect is presented like 
 an unequal mirror to the rays of external things; it 
 mingles its own nature with the nature of things, which 
 it distorts and confuses.' And this remark is the same 
 as that of Proclus, being in fact a mere truism TO 
 <yvyva)(TKOv Kara rrjv savrov yiyvaxr/est, <f>vaiv ' that which 
 knows, knows in accordance with its own nature.' 
 
 Let us then see a few of the analogies which suggested 
 a terminology for the world of mind. 
 
 It is strange to observe with what unanimity the 
 names for the soul of man have been borrowed from 
 the most obvious of invisible agencies, the wind 'which 
 bloweth where it listeth,' or possibly rather from the 
 breath of life. 2 Thus in Hebrew, alike tJ>53 nephesh, 
 the animal life (Job xii. 10), r\r\ ruach, the human 
 principle of life, and no^J neshamah, life considered as 
 an inspiration of the Almighty, 3 all have the meaning 
 of breath or wind; and therefore resemble the Greek 
 words TTvor), Trvsv/Mt, and tyvxij, of which the latter is 
 derived from -io), ^ blow. The Latin words animus 
 
 1 Novum Organum, i. 1, aph. 41 ; comp. Boethius, De Consol. Phil. 
 ' Omne quod recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis.' 
 
 1 Just as ' blood ' is often used for life, Lev. xvii. 2. See Gesenius, 
 Thesaurus, ii. 901. 
 
 3 Of these words neshamah is never, and ruach rarely (Eccl. iii. 21), 
 applied to animals. In Gen. ii. 7, ' a living soul ' should be rather ' a 
 living animal,' or 'creature.' The Hindoos distinguish between Brah- 
 matmah and jivdtmah, 'the breath of God' and 'the breath of Life.' 
 Vide Bohleu, Genes, ad I.
 
 220 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xix. 
 
 and anima, the German Geist, and the English ghost, 
 have the same origin. If we take other words of similar 
 meaning, we shall still find them to have been derived 
 from the analogy offered to the rapidity of thought by 
 swift physical motion. Thus our 'soul,' the German 
 ' SeeleJ is probably from the same root as the word Sea * 
 and the Greek crsiw ; and the Greek 6vfj,6s comes from 
 the root dvco, atro TTJS Ovcrsws KOL ^sascas rr/f ^u^y. 2 
 Again, the word reason, ratio, oratio, the German Rede, 
 &c., come from the Latin reor, which is in all probability 
 connected with the Greek psw, I flow; an etymology 
 which, if correct, is curiously analogous to the derivation 
 6f 'soul' from the same root as the word 'sea.' If we 
 enquire how men found a word for an act which most 
 men consider so purely immaterial as that of thinking, 
 we get to this result ; that, since thought is inconceiv- 
 able and impossible without signs of some description, 
 and since words are the most universal of signs, it has 
 been assumed that there is an indissoluble unity between 
 thought and speech. Hence in Hebrew lX and ")3"i 
 mean first to speak and then to think, while D 11 "^ and 33H 
 pass through the meanings of (first) to think, and then to 
 speak, sigh, 3 and murmur. Other words to express the 
 same thing are derived from the .notions of cutting 
 (dividing, dissevering), seeing, and acting (compare 
 thing and think, res and reor). The Greek <bpdeiv is 
 to speak, <f>pde(rdai, to say to oneself, i.e. to think, which, 
 according to Forster, the South Sea Islanders express by 
 * speaking in the stomach.' In Latin, however, external 
 
 1 See Heyse, p. 97. 
 
 2 Plato, Crat. p. 419 c. 
 
 3 The similarity of the Hebrew rVK>, and our sigh, is a noticeable 
 instance of resemblance due to onomatopoeia.
 
 CH. xix. METAPHOR. 221 
 
 accidents of thought are selected to represent thought, 
 as considerare, (perhaps) to fix the eyes on the stars, 
 like our expression * star gazing ; ' deliberare, to weigh 
 in the balance, like the French penser, and our 'to 
 weigh a matter;' cogitare, to act with the mind; and, 
 among others reor, which Home Tooke renders / am 
 thing-ed, 1 (!) and which, if the Romans ever attached 
 such an astonishing notion to it, would well deserve the 
 title which Quinctilian 2 gives it of a * verbum horridum.' 
 Again> the soul with its faculties, emotions, and de- 
 sires is shadowed forth in language by the various parts 
 of the body in which they were once supposed to be 
 localised, or by which they are capable of being exter- 
 nally indicated. 3 Thus in Hebrew the heart, the liver, 
 and the kidneys are used for the mind, and under- 
 standing ; 'the bowels' means mercy, like the Greek 
 (nr\dfxva ; 'the flesh' means lust; the loins, strength; 
 the nose is used for anger, so that ( long of nose' means 
 patient, and * short of nose' irritable; a 'man of lips' 
 is a babbler (Job xi. 2); the neck is the symbol of ob- 
 stinacy ; the head of superiority ; thirst or paleness the 
 picturesque representatives of fear. In Greek the dia- 
 phragm ((fiprfv, renes, reins) is used for the understanding; 
 the liver for feeling ; the breast for courage, the nostrils 
 for contempt (cf. ftvKrfipss, &c.) ; the stomach and the 
 bile for anger. Similarly in Latin, the nostrils are used 
 for taste and refinement; the nose for satire; 4 the eye- 
 brow for sorrow or disdain ; the stomach for anger ; the 
 
 1 Diversions o/Purley, ii. 5. 
 
 2 Quintilian, Instt. viii. 3. 
 
 * See numberless passages in Glass. Philolog. Sacra, p. 866 sqq. 
 
 * Homo obesse, or emunctse naris in Horace, &c. In Turkestan, ' to be 
 long-nosed ' means to be proud. See Vambery's Travels.
 
 222 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xix. 
 
 throat for gluttony. The Lithuanians use the same 
 word for soul, heart, and stomach ; and the same is pro- 
 bably true of many nations. Many of these metaphors 
 have been transferred to English, and we also use the 
 blood for passion (hot, or young blood), the phlegm for 
 dulness, the spleen for envy ; we say that a person has 
 sanguine hopes ; we talk of a melancholy man, which 
 means properly a man whose bile is black ; a man has a 
 nervous style, or is nervous in the hour of trial ; and we 
 say of a bitter-minded critic that he has too much gall. 
 The words * body' or 'head' are common in all languages 
 to express personality. The North American Indians 
 constantly use ' body' in speaking of themselves, just as 
 the Greeks used Se/ww and Kapa; 'c'est un plaisant corps' 
 is a common expression in French ; and in English. 
 *head' has even passed into compounds such as boy-, 
 hood, widowhood, and ' so much a-head.' 
 
 We are again reminded of the analogy between speech 
 and writing. Tzetzes has preserved the following valu- 
 able fragment of Choeremon on Hieroglyphics. 1 * For 
 joy,' he says, 'they paint a woman playing on a drum ; 
 for misfortune, an eye weeping ; for non-possession, two 
 empty hands outstretched ; for rising, a snake coming 
 out of a hole ; for setting, the same going in ; for return 
 to life, a frog ; for the soul, a hawk, and the same for 
 the sun, and for (rod; ... for a king, a bee; for the 
 earth, a bull ; a boy signifies increase ; an old man, 
 decay ; a bow, sharp force ; and there are a thousand 
 other such.' We know, from modern researches, 2 that a 
 cynocephalus stood for anger, a hand with a pair of oars 
 
 1 Quoted in Sharpe's Egypt. Hieroglyphics. 
 
 2 Encycl. Britan., art. Hieroglyphic.
 
 CH. xix. METAPHOR. 223 
 
 for a workman, a crux ansata and serpent for immortal, 
 and so on in an endless series of metaphorical pictures. 
 
 It is a proof of the extent of metaphor that almost 
 every colour recalls at once its emblematic meaning. 1 
 Black is indissolubly connected with notions of death, 
 mourning, villany, and misfortune; white with inno- 
 cence, candour, and festivity ; rose-colour with beauty 
 and freshness; purple with magnificence, luxury, and 
 pride; red and scarlet and crimson with shame, and 
 sin, and crime; yellow with old age, decay, and jealousy; 
 green with springtime, vigour, and youth. 
 
 It might have been supposed that if there were any 
 one domain of language, however restricted, from which 
 Metaphor no less than Onomatopoeia must necessarily 
 be excluded, it would be the names of numbers. Yet 
 what do we find on examination ? Rapidly as they come 
 to be regarded as abstractions, the signs of the most 
 abstract conceptions, yet they like all other abstractions 
 were once living metaphors, images borrowed from na- 
 tural phenomena. Thus five (the same word precisely 
 as cinq, cinque, quinque, ireine, the Gothic fimf, the 
 German funf, &c.) is derived from the Sanskrit pani, a 
 hand ; just as in Celebes, and among various Indian 
 tribes, the words for ' hand' and * five,' or sometimes the 
 words for 'hand' and 'two,' are identical. In Chinese 
 ny and ceul, 'two,' also mean 'ears.' The Abiponian 
 word for four is gejenknate, which means the foot of an 
 ostrich, from its four toes. 2 The name mille, a thou- 
 sand, is in all probability connected with milium* millet 
 
 1 See Pott, Etym. Forsch. ii. 263 fg., where many illustrations are given. 
 
 2 Pott, ZahlTnethode, p. 4 ; Pictet, Lea Orig. 2nd. ii. 578. 
 
 1 This is at least as probable as the derivation from ftvpioi. Dr. 
 Donaldson, Varron. p. 263, connects it with miles, dp-iAfo. Festus
 
 224 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xix. 
 
 grass, from the same root as mola, mill, &c., which are 
 of onomatopoetic origin. It is therefore a metaphor of 
 the liveliest description. The Greek %iXiot is derived 
 by some etymologists from ^iXos a heap of fodder, 1 
 ^5w I pour, &c. Myriad is derived from the imitative 
 root mur, which we find in murmur, the Greek /j,vpo), I 
 pour, &c. The syllable to/ma, which in Gal la forms the 
 compounds of ten, is derived by Professor Pott from 
 tahamet^ hair, and G-ilj 2 informs us that the Orinoko 
 Indians touch their hair to indicate a large number, 
 just as the Abipons heap up handfuls of grass, or hand- 
 fuls of sand. The Mexicans used the word tzontli, 
 f hair,' for 400, and their hieroglyphic for 200 is half a 
 feather. Their word for 8,000, xiquipilli, means 'sack,' 
 because they had sacks which would exactly contain that 
 number of cacao grains. In Chinese the word tome, 
 which means 1,000, is borrowed from a root meaning 
 ' mist,' and therefore resembles the Latin phrase 'Nubes 
 peditum,' and a * cloud of witnesses.' In Sanskrit the 
 word jaladhi, ' ocean,' is used for 100 crores of lacs of 
 rupees. The morbid imagination of the Hindoos made 
 them familiar with excessive numbers, and though they 
 formed some compound up to a million (pra-yu-ta), with 
 the syllable yu to add, yet for numbers like 10 billions 
 they were obliged to resort to symbols such as padma 
 or abja, ( lotus,' from the extreme fecundity of this plant, 
 
 states that milium comes from mille, but obviously the reverse of this 
 is the fact. L. Benloew, ubi infra, p. 68. 
 
 1 Donaldson, Varron. ib. It is connected with a Sanskrit root, Hila, 
 seed. 
 
 . z ' Si toccano i lor capelli in alto di stupore.' Gilj, ii. 332, quoted by 
 L. Benloew, Reckerches sur I' Origine des Noms de Nombre, p. 64. Many 
 of the particulars about numbers here mentioned are borrowed from 
 Pott's ZdJtlmethode, p. 120, &c.
 
 CH. xix. METAPHOR. 225 
 
 of which the fruit produces millions of grains. In 
 Egyptian a lotus-leaf attached to its stem was the sign 
 for 1,000.* The Greek ^rff^os, the Latin calculus both 
 recall the day when numeration was impossible without 
 the aid of pebbles. If we examine the Semitic nume- 
 rals we find a repetition of the same facts. 2 For instance 
 the Hebrew eleph meaning 1,000, is properly a herd of 
 oxen, and possibly there may be an allusion to this 
 meaning in the punning speech of Samson after his 
 victory at Kamath-lehi; meah 100 is not improbably 
 derived from mo water; shibndh 7 is considered by Dr. 
 Mommsen to mean 'a finger' from a root 'to point,' 
 because after counting five on his left hand, and begin- 
 ning the number six with the thumb of the right hand, 
 the forefinger or indicator would be seventh in order ; 3 
 shenayim ' two ' was doubtless suggested, like the name 
 and form of the letter shim, itself, from shen 'a tooth, 
 either from the bicuspid teeth or the double row in the 
 mouth which may also account for the invariable dual 
 form of the word for teeth in Hebrew. Strange as this 
 may sound it admits of many parallels. In Thibet and 
 Java 'two' is expressed by paksha 4 a wing, or by other 
 
 1 I must again refer to the able and interesting pamphlet of M. L. 
 Benloew, who has however borrowed most of his facts from Prof. Pott. 
 
 2 We may here observe that whatever may be the apparent resemblance 
 of the Sanskrit eka ' one ' to the Hebrew tchad, and the Sanskrit shash 
 'six' to the Hebrew shesh, it is nearly certain (in spite of Dr. Donald- 
 son's authority in Maskil le Sophir, p. 42 sqq. ; Ntw Cratylus, pp. 187, 
 194 sqq.) that the resemblance is merely apparent, and purely accidental. 
 It is not indeed impossible that the Aryans borrowed from the Semites 
 the single number saptan seven (Hebr. iiyilK') from its mystery and 
 importance in the Semitic system. The reader may see the question 
 clearly discussed in M. Benloew's pamphlet, p. 95, &c. 
 
 * Hofer's Zeitschr. i. 262 ; quoted by Dr. Donaldson, Maskil le Sopher, 
 p. 42. 4 Pott, L c. 
 
 Q
 
 226 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xix. 
 
 members which are double as bdhu arm, vetra eye, &c. 
 Among the Samoieds between the Yenisei and the Lena, 
 the Sioux Indians, &c., two is expressed by 'hand' for 
 the same reason. The history of the Hebrew word 
 gnashtei ' eleven ' is very curious ; from gndshath to 
 labour comes gnashtoth a thought, and thence comes, 
 according to Simonis, the word for eleven, meaning ten 
 counted on the fingers and one in thought. 1 In English 
 the word score is from the root Sciran to shear, because 
 'our unlearned ancestors to avoid the embarrassment of 
 large numbers, when they had made twice ten notches, 
 cut off the piece or Talley (Taglie) containing them; 
 and afterwards counted the scores or pieces cut off.' 2 
 If then in a region so unpromising as that of numbers 
 we find it so easy to trace the influence of onomatopceia 
 and metaphor where need we despair? May we not 
 infer the origin of words in cases which are doubtful, 
 from their origin in cases which are proved ? May we 
 not say with De Maistre, ' Ce qu'on sait dans ce genre 
 prouve beaucoup, a cause de 1'induction qui en resulte, 
 pour les autres cas: ce qu'on ignore, au contraire, ne 
 prouve rien excepte 1'ignorance de celui qui cherche.' 
 
 1 Gesenius, Thes. s. v. 8 Diversions of Purley, ii. 4.
 
 227 
 
 CHAPTEK XX. 
 METAPHOR continued. METAPHOR IN VARIOUS 
 
 LANGUAGES. 
 
 ' Among these, fancy next 
 ller office holds, of all external things 
 Which the five watchful senses represent, 
 She forms imaginations, aery shapes, 
 Which reason joining, or disjoining, frames 
 All what we affirm or what deny, and call 
 Our knowledge and opinion.' 
 
 MILTON, Par. Lost, v. 105. 
 
 THE pictorial Metaphors with which all languages abound 
 become obscured in course of time under the wearing 
 and modifying processes of literary cultivation, into * a 
 mass of arbitrary, opaque, uninteresting conventional- 
 isms.' But the more ancient, and the more uncivilised 
 a language is, the fewer are its abstractions, and the 
 more numerous are its undisguised metaphors. These 
 metaphors, no less than those of every poet, are due to 
 the spontaneous and unconscious l play of the fancy and 
 the imagination. An abridged personification, says 
 J. P. Richter, 2 is the natural and necessary language of 
 savage life. In modern languages it is by no means 
 always possible to trace the sensuous image underlying 
 
 1 Heyse, p. 100- Steinthal, Urspr. d. Sprache, p. 27. 
 3 J. Paul Kichter, Aesthetik, 56.
 
 228 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 every word which implies conceptions incapable of any 
 but a symbolical expression. But in such a language 
 as Arabic we may still see what the condition of every lan- 
 guage must once have been. There the dominion of fancy 
 and poetry is still obvious, and every word is a picture 
 of which the colours are still bright and clear ; with us 
 the power of abstraction is riper, and the sensuous 
 element has left nothing more than the traces of its 
 former prevalence. 
 
 In fact a style abounding in metaphors is now gene- 
 rally accepted as a proof of weakness, since for an ad- 
 vanced stage of thought it is necessary as far as possible 
 to attach to each word one clear meaning, as little 
 mingled as possible with mere external analogies. 
 Bergmann tells us that the turns of phraseology which 
 the Kalmucks most admire in their own language ' are 
 precisely those which a more advanced civilisation, and 
 a corresponding development of taste, would reject as 
 spurious.' Similarly, ' the Koran is held by the devout 
 Mahommedan to be the most admirable model .of com- 
 position ; but exactly those ornaments of diction and 
 imagery, which he regards as the jewels of the whole, are 
 most entirely in the childish taste of imperfect civilisa- 
 tion.' The gorgeous luxury of Oriental prose would 
 with us be thought extravagant even in the most elabo- 
 rate poetry, and we have long got beyond the stage 
 which makes it almost impossible for an Oriental even 
 to find a title for a book without calling it a mirror, 
 a flower, or a pearl. 
 
 A glance at the metaphors of some Semitic, Aryan, 
 and Allophylian nations will perhaps illustrate and 
 relieve our subject. 
 
 In Hebrew the paucity of words necessitates the con-
 
 CH. xx. METAPHOR. 229 
 
 stant use of metaphor. * The Hebrew has scarcely any 
 individuated words. Ask a Hebrew scholar if he has 
 any word for a ball (as a tennis ball, pila lusoria) ; he 
 says, " yes." What is it then ? Why he gives you 
 the word for globe. Ask for orb, for sphere, &c. Still 
 you have the same answer. The individual circum- 
 stantiations are swallowed up in the general outline.' 1 
 This latter instance is rather catachresis than meta- 
 phor; i. e. it is rather the application of the same word 
 to different things, than the direct suggestion of a com- 
 parison. But we can best see the rapid working of 
 metaphor in the extraordinary diversities of meaning of 
 which the same Hebrew word 2 is capable. Take for 
 instance the word -fw (Tor), which means a turtle- 
 dove, an ox, 'a string of pearls,' a turn, and a manner ? 
 Or again take the word 1-13 (goor)\ in its meaning 
 of ' a lion's whelp ' we see the imitative principle again 
 at work ; but how comes the verb, goor, to acquire the 
 meanings to sojourn, to assemble, to be afraid, to reve- 
 rence, to worship? Or take the word 3ny gnarabh, 
 which in its various conjugations means to mix, to ex- 
 change, to stand in the place of, to pledge, to interfere, 
 to be familiar ; and also to disappear, to set, and to do 
 a thing in the evening ; besides all this, with various 
 vowel modifications the same three letters mean ' to be 
 sweet,' a fly, or beetle, an Arabian, a stranger, the weft 
 of cloth, the evening, a willow, and a raven. Assuming 
 that all these significations are ultimately deducible 
 
 1 De Quincey on Language, Works, viii. 81. To this is due the ex- 
 treme uncertainty of rendering many Hebrew words. 
 
 2 'Non est mirum doctissimos etiam Judseorum hodie nihil certi de 
 rerum nominibus, ut animalium, plantarum, metallorum, vestium, instru- 
 mentorum, docere posse.' Gesner, Hist. Quadrup.
 
 230 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 from one and the same root, we see at once the extent 
 to which metaphor must have been at work. In most 
 instances the steps of the transition have vanished. In 
 Hebrew the same word means fatness and ashes ; l 
 perhaps this may be because the ancients used ashes 
 for manure ; but who shall tell us with any certainty 
 why 22? means ' to become wise,' and 22? to make 
 cakes ? 
 
 Again, all Hebrew literature abounds in metaphor. 
 Glassius in his laborious Philologia Sawa (pp. 807 
 912) has collected innumerable examples of metaphor 
 drawn from the sun, and moon, and stars ; from the 
 times of the day and night ; from fire, air, and water ; 
 from 'the body, the life, the senses, and the actions of 
 men ; and in short from almost every observable phe- 
 nomenon of nature and of life. To take one set of 
 phenomena alone, the mere names of the vine, the 
 olive, the cedar, the lion, the wolf, the serpent, the fox, 
 the horse, the heifer, the goat, the sheep will call up at 
 once in, the memory of the Biblical student the bold 
 metaphors with which they are associated. Christ is 
 ' the true vine,' ' the branch,' * the Lion of the tribe of 
 Judah,' and ' the Lamb that was slain ;' Herod is 
 ' that fox ;' Esau is ' a wild ass of a man ;' 2 ' with- 
 out are dogs,' and the Gentiles are ' dogs ;' Satan is 
 ' a serpent,' and * a roaring lion ;' the Cretans are 
 f evil beasts.' 
 
 With the use of metaphor in Aryan languages we 
 are familiar, and therefore choosing the Greek trage- 
 dians as our storehouse of illustrations, we may from 
 
 1 Plin. xvii. 9. Gesen. Thes. s. v. JKJT 
 
 2 Compare the Sanskrit nara-sinha man-lion, and 'two lion-like 
 men of Moab.' 2 Sam. xxiii. 20.
 
 CH. xx. METAPHOR. 231 
 
 their pages glean the farther fact that in the metaphors 
 of a language we may always learn the habits, the 
 amusements, and the tastes of a nation. For no meta- 
 phors are so common among these Athenians as the 
 very ones which we should expect to be most frequently 
 before their minds, namely those derived from hunting, 
 and from rowing. 7)pav ' to hunt ' comes to be a mere 
 ornate word for * to pursue.' Thus Xerxes desires ' to 
 hunt Athens' (Pers. 229) ; an ambitious man 'hunts for 
 the tyranny' ((Ed. Tyr. 540); 'it is not right to hunt 
 impossibilities' (Ant. 92); 'they will have come to 
 hunt after marriages which cannot be hunted ' (Prom. 
 Vinct. 860). Nautical metaphors are still more fre- 
 quent. As for epscra-eiv ' to row ' we have it in all kinds 
 of conjunctions; we hear of 'rowing a plan' (Ant. 
 159); to row with another is to aid him (Aj. 1307); 
 the two Sons of Atreus row threatenings (Id. 246); 
 ' row round your heads the tabouring of your hands ' 
 (Sept. c. Theb. 836). A fair wind from a person's eyes 
 wafts away a lukewarm friend (Track. 812); we even 
 are told of 'the harbour of a cry,' ' the prow of the 
 heart,' and ' the rudders of horses.' The Greeks are 
 generally supposed to have had little or no sympathy 
 with external nature, yet the euphemistic pleasure 
 which they display in the incessant use of the word 
 4 blossom' (avdos), no less than their fondness for 
 garlands, shows that they were far from being dead to 
 impressions of natural beauty. ' Disease blooms forth 
 upon the flesh. The nightingale is shrouded in a 
 bloomy bower of woes. The hoariness of old age is a 
 white blossoming. ' The misfortunes of a noble family 
 
 1 Cf. EccL xii. 5.
 
 232 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 are made to burst forth into bloom. The haughty 
 speech is the effloi^escence of the lips. Groans are the 
 flowers plucked from the tree of anguish, and the 
 chanters of the funeral dirge shower these upon the 
 bier ; so that not only the custom but the very lan- 
 guage of the Greeks, veiled as it were the deformity of 
 death, and scattered the corpse with flowers.' 1 
 
 Before leaving the subject of Aryan metaphors we 
 may further observe that the metaphors of a writer, no 
 less than those of a nation, always carry upon them the 
 strong mark of his own individuality, as for instance 
 the constantly recurring ' bow ' and ' wings ' in the 
 Divina Commedia of Dante ; and that the metaphors 
 most frequently adopted at any particular epoch stamp 
 with terrible energy the characteristics of the age. 
 Take for instance the commencement of the Ckristiade 
 by F. Hojeda : 
 
 Canto al Hijo de Dios, humano y muerto 
 Con dolores y afrentas por el hombre : 
 Musa divina, en su costado abierto 
 Bana mi lengua y muevela en su nombre, 
 
 ' I sing the Son of God, who was man and died for man 
 amid anguish and insults ; divine Muse, steep my 
 tongue in his open side, and make it move in his 
 name.' Well may M. Arnould, 2 from whom I quote 
 the lines, ask whether any one but a Spanish monk 
 in the time of Philip the Second could ever have 
 written them ! 
 
 If we now turn to the metaphors in use among 
 
 1 Boyes, p. liv. Mr. Boyes has so amply and so happily illustrated 
 this subject of the metaphors in Greek tragedy, that in this paragraph 
 I found all that I wanted done to my hand. 
 
 2 Ess. de Theorie et d'Hist. Lit. p. 203.
 
 CH. xx. METAPHOK. 233 
 
 savage races we shall find them still more distinct and 
 picturesque. Take for instance a few specimens of 
 Kafir metaphors. 1 Ingcala * flying ant' means 'great 
 dexterity;' inja 'dog' means a dependant; quanka 
 'to be snapped asunder' means 'to be quite dead;' 
 zikhla 'to eat oneself means 'to be proud,' and there- 
 fore is an exact parallel to Mr. Tennyson's expression, 
 
 Upon himself, himself did feed. 
 
 'He is a wolf means 'he is greedy;' 'he is an ox' 
 means ' he is strong.' 2 
 
 Some of the Malay metaphors are very lively. Thus 
 mabuk-ombak ' sea-sick ' means properly ( wave-drunk ; ' 
 mata-ari ' the sun ' is literally ' the eye of day ;' mata- 
 JcaJd ' the ankle ' is ' the eye of the foot ; ' mata-ayar 
 ( a spring ' is ' the eye of water ' (compare the Hebrew 
 fy). The expression for an 'affront' is 'charcoal on 
 the face ;' a key is the ' child of a lock ;' a knee-pan is 
 the 'cocoanut of the knee;' malice is 'rust of the 
 heart;' sincerity ' a white heart,' like the Latin ' candi- 
 dum ingenium;' impudent is 'face of board.' 3 
 
 Scarcely less ingenious are the metaphors in Chinese. 
 4 Capricious' is expressed by 'three mornings, four 
 evenings ;' cunning or persuasive speech by 'convenient 
 hind-teeth, ready front-teeth ;' ' disagreement' by 'you 
 East, I West ; ' attention by ' fine-heart.' Neng ' a 
 bear' means ' powerful ;' 'hao ' a boar' is ' a brave man;' 
 non ' the roar of water among stones' is ' anger.' 4 
 
 1 Appleyard's Kafir Grammar, p. 71. Some of these are quoted by 
 Prof. M. Miiller, in his Second Series of Lectures. I had however 
 made a note of these long before I saw them there. 
 
 * Appleyard, p. 128. 
 
 * Crawford's Malay Gram, and Diet, i. 62. 
 4 Premare, Not. Ling. Sin. p. 242.
 
 234 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 We encounter once more in Chinese the phenomenon 
 which we have observed in Hebrew, in the number of 
 different meanings possessed by the same root; a phe- 
 nomenon not solely but mainly explicable by the in- 
 fluence of metaphor. For instance, chou means a book, 
 a tree, great heats, Aurora, and the loss of a wager; 1 
 Ou means ' me,' and also an orator, nothing, a bat, and 
 a kind of tree; 2 Yu means 'me,' and also to agree, to 
 rejoice, a kind of measure, stupid, a black ox, &c. ; Yu 
 ' thou ' means also milk, tender, to eat, honey-cake ; Y 
 'he' or 'she' is also to laugh in spite of oneself, to 
 sigh, a new-born infant, respect, a stout dog, &c. ; 
 Tchy the sign of the genitive means also it, him, 
 branches, to sustain, yellow fruit, a dead tree, and a 
 labourer ! 3 
 
 We must here digress for a moment to remove a 
 misconception. It has been the fashion to compare 
 these homonyms with others which have not the 
 remotest connection with them. Thus we have seen 
 (in the note) that the sound ' cent ' has six different 
 meanings in French, but these words had no original 
 connection with each other, since cent comes from 
 centum, sans from sine, sang from sanguis, sent from 
 sentit, sens from sensus, sont from sunt, and s'en from 
 se inde. 4 Thus aune means an alder-tree and an ell, 
 
 1 The missionary Bourgeois, in his Lettres edifiantes, bitterly com- 
 plains of the consequent difficulty which he experienced in learning 
 Chinese. 
 
 2 It might be supposed that such a multiplicity of homonyms would 
 introduce endless confusion into a language. Practically, however, such 
 is not the case ; e. g. in French the words cent, sang, s'en, sans, sent, 
 sont, sens, widely different as is their meaning, are never confused. It 
 is the same in English with heir, ere, e'er, air, and Ayr, &c. 
 
 1 Benloew, De quelques Caractercs du Lang. Prim. p. 41. 
 
 4 Heyse, 210, 220. Similarly we haveners 'towards,' from versus;
 
 CH. xx. METAPHOR. 235 
 
 but in the former meaning it comes from alnus, in the 
 latter from ulna ; Hail! as a salutation in English is 
 the German heil, but as congealed water-drops it is the 
 German Hagel ; pecher ' a peach ' is Mai us Persica, 
 pecher * to fish ' is from piscari, and pecher ' to sin ' 
 from peccare ; tour ' a tower ' is from turns, and when 
 it means ' a turn ' i. e. a walk, it is from a late vulgar 
 sense of tornare; louer 'to praise' is from laudare, 
 louer 'to let' from locare. These instances are only 
 false analogies of those which we have been considering. 
 They are accidental, being due merely to the phonetic 
 corruption or disorganisation of a language in its ad- 
 vance ; whereas those in Hebrew, Chinese, or Coptic are 
 truly primordial and arose from that indetermination 
 which characterises every primitive language, an in- 
 determination which it is the object of every cultivated 
 language to mould into gradual precision. 
 
 There are certain dialects or languages spoken by 
 whole classes of men in all countries, yet unowned by 
 any nation. Such are the Italian gergo, furbesco ; the 
 Spanish germania; the Portuguese Caldo; the Ger- 
 man rothwelsch (red Italian ?) ; the Dutch bargoens or 
 dieventael ; the English cant, slang, thieves' Latin, 
 pedlar's French, St. Giles's Greek, flash-tongue, gib- 
 berish, &c. ; the French narquois or Argot. This 
 language of crime and misery ' this pustulous vo- 
 cabulary of which each word seems an unclean ring 
 of a monster of mud and darkness,' is formed (and the 
 
 vers ' a verse,' from versus ; verre ' glass,' from vitrum ver ' a worm.' 
 from vermis; vkre 'truly' (in old French), from verb. In fact, so 
 numerous are these homonyms, that in 1807 a Dictionnaire des 
 Homonymes was published in Paris by St. de la Madelaine. Charma, 
 p. 272. An interesting list of English homonyms may be found in 
 D wight's Mod. Philolog. ii. 311.
 
 236 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 same remark applies partially to the harmless lingua 
 franca of the Mediterranean, the Ligoa geral of South 
 America, the Chinese pigeon-English, the Haytian 
 French, the jargons of the Bastaards of Africa, the 
 Canadian half-breeds, and the English, French, and 
 Chinooks in Columbia) 1 by the adoption of foreign 
 words, by the absolute suppression of grammar, by 
 grotesque tropes, wild catachresis, and allegoric me- 
 tonymy. The study of these corrupt dialects is a most 
 fruitful field for the philologist, and suggests many of 
 the primitive expedients and tendencies of language. 
 But Metaphor is the widest and most important basis 
 of them all, and it is adopted conventionally for the 
 express purpose of disguise and concealment. The 
 words chosen are all from the vernacular, but the senses 
 are entirely different, and are all allegorical. Borrow 
 points this out in his book on the Gipsies, and M. 
 Michel, 2 who has thought the Argot worthy of a serious 
 historian, and who is the greatest authority on the 
 subject, says, ' La metaphore et 1'allegorie semblent 
 former en effet Velement principal de ce langage. . . . 
 Tin fait qui ne saurait manquer de frapper un esprit 
 philosophique a 1'aspect de ce dialecte, c'est que partout 
 Vargot est base sur le vneme principe, cest-a-dire sur 
 la metaphore ; et a cet egard toutes les branches de 
 
 1 See specimens in Latham, Var. of Man, p. 330 ; Appleyard, Kafir 
 Gram. p. 10 ; Nodier, Notions de Linguistique; Hutchinson, Ten Years 
 among the Ethiopians, pp. 21-32, &c. 
 
 * Etudes de Phitologie Comparee sur V Argot, par F. Michel ; Paris, 
 1856. Victor Hugo dwells on it in Les Miserables, Le Dernier Jour d"un 
 Condamne, and Notre Dame de Paris; and it is also touched on in 
 Vidocq, Eugene Sue, &c. There are several English slang dictionaries, 
 &c., beginning as far back as the year 1560; and also in other lan- 
 guages, as Studii sulle Lingue Furbesche, Milan, 1846.
 
 CH. xx. METAPHOR. 237 
 
 ce jargon se ressemblent.' ' Again, M. Victor Hugo, 
 whose splendidly powerful chapters on this subject in 
 Les Miserables are well worth the study of the 
 Philologer, says, * Slang is nothing but a vestibule, in 
 which language having some wicked action to commit, 
 disguises itself. It puts on these masks of words, these 
 rags of metaphors. In this way i't becomes horrible 
 and can scarcely be recognised. The metaphors say 
 everything and conceal everything. The devil becomes 
 " the baker." " Les sorgneurs sont sollicer les gails a 
 la lune," " the prowlers are going to steal horses at 
 night." This passes before the rnind like a group of 
 spectres, and we know not what we see.' 
 
 Metaphor then is universal, and the Imagination 
 plays a prominent part in every form of human lan- 
 guage. It is in their earliest dawn (as we have seen 
 already) that languages are most metaphorical. As 
 civilisation advances, the fancy, to which the origin of 
 the word was due, is forgotten altogether, or remains a 
 dead letter to the popular consciousness even when the 
 etymology of the word is known. 8 The intermediate 
 factor vanishes, and the word appears as the immediate 
 expression of the representation in its totality. To take 
 one or two instances out of thousands : the word 
 * caprice' is in very common use, and is a word to which 
 a most definite meaning is attached; yet out of the 
 myriads who use it correctly how many are distinctly 
 aware that it is a metaphor derived from the swift, short 
 
 1 Michel, ubi supra, pp. i., xxiv. The singular points of resemblance 
 in the Argots of different nations are pointed out bj Biondelli, Studii 
 Linguistici, in a very interesting paper, Origine, Diffusions, ed Im- 
 portanza delle Lingue Furbesche, pp. 107120. 
 
 * Heyse, 164.
 
 238 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 leaps of the wild goat on the hills 1 (copra, compare 
 ait; from tuWtu), just as the Italian nuce comes from 
 nucia a goat, and ticchio a freak from ziki a kid, and 
 the French verve from vervex a bell-wether ? Or again 
 how often do people when they 'make a stipulation' 
 recall the fact that the origin of the expression is a 
 custom, dead for centuries, of giving a straw in sign 
 of a completed bargain ? or when they talk of money 
 remember that the word is derived from the accident 
 that gold and silver were coined by the Eomans 2 in the 
 temple of Juno Moneta ? We speak of muskets with- 
 out being aware that the word is ultimately derived 
 from the onomatopoeia musso I buzz, whence come 
 musca a fly, muscatus speckled, muscheta a sparrow- 
 hawk, and hence a musket ; 3 we talk of varnish without 
 recalling the golden tresses of Berenice ; 4 of intoxication 
 with no reference to the poison with which arrows were 
 once smeared ; of a dunce without any intentional insult 
 to the memory of Duns Scotus ; of a poltroon with no 
 allusion to being maimed in the thumb ; of a saunterer 
 
 1 See Diez, s. v. Capriccio ; Scheler, s. v. Mr. "Wedgwood, with less 
 probability, connects the word with the roots riccio, ericius (a hedgehog), 
 herisser, Qpitraeiv. Etym. Diet, s, v. 
 
 2 Probably the Romans thought just as little of the interesting historic 
 fact fossilised in the word pecunia ; and the Greeks of that involved in 
 the derivation of ofio\os, which shows that money was first used in 
 ingots (j8'\os). 
 
 s This derivation seems at least as probable as the one suggested by 
 Mr. Wedgwood. The Italians called their muskets, &c., by the names 
 of hawks, falconetto, sagro, &c. ; compare the French sacre, couleuvrine, 
 &c. The Italian terzuolo, a pistol, properly means a male hawk, perhaps 
 from the fancy that the third bird in a nest was a male, or because the 
 male was one third smaller than the female. 
 
 4 This word, however, is disputed. It may come from the city 
 Berenice, where amber-coloured nitre was found, or from vitrinus 
 glassy. See Diez, s. v. Vernice, ed. Donkin.
 
 CH. xx. METAPHOR. 239 
 
 with no reference to the Holy Land ; and not to multi- 
 ply instances which any one can find in hundreds for 
 himself, we go on ending our year with the months of 
 September, October, November, and December, without 
 once troubling ourselves with the consideration that the 
 months are really the 9th, 10th, llth, and 12th, and 
 that our nomenclature merely continues to embalm an 
 error of Eomulus nearly three thousand years ago. 
 
 This complete evanescence of the original meaning 
 of words and phrases gives rise to that confusion of 
 metaphors which is so common in every literature. 
 There is perhaps in careful writers too pedantic a 
 scruple against ever mingling two conceptions origi- 
 nally distinct. We are not of course advocating such 
 reckless intermixtures as Lord Castlereagh's f My Lords, 
 the main feature on which this question hinges,' or as 
 that by the poetic young tradesman, quoted by Cole- 
 ridge, who said that sorrows 
 
 Round my heart's leg tie their galling chain. 
 
 But when Milton wrote in one of his finest sonnets 
 
 I bate no jot 
 
 Of heart or hope but still bear up, and steer 
 Uphillward, 
 
 we cannot but regret that the mere confusion of meta- 
 phor involved in the words 'steer uphillward' 1 would 
 have made him alter that fine expression into the much 
 
 1 Comp. Sams. Agonistes : 
 
 'I hear 
 
 The tread of many feet steering this way.' 
 Probably the metaphor is a reminiscence of Euripides, Iph. Taur. 266 : 
 
 The word wopfl/xevw might have been added to the naval metaphors be- 
 fore alluded to, for Euripides employs it constantly.
 
 240 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 tamer phrase ' Eight onward.' Who is annoyed by the 
 confusion involved in Mark vii. 21, 22, Out of the heart 
 proceed evil thoughts, &c., ' an evil eye ; ' or in 1 Tim. 
 vi. 19, ' Laying up in store a good foundation' (cnroBr)- 
 travpl^ovTss} ; or in 2 Cor. v. 2, ' to be clothed upon with 
 our house;' or in 2 Tim. ii. 26, 'that they may recover 
 themselves (lit. grow sober, avav^aicn) from the snare 
 of the devil ? ' l The greatest poets have not been the 
 most careful to avoid these incongruities. ^Eschylus 
 talks of * a beacon-light being a lucky throw of the 
 dice 72 for a sentinel. Horace says 
 
 Urit enim fulgore suo, qui prcegravat artes 
 Infra se positas. 
 
 And Shakspeare, to say nothing of his * taking up arms 
 against a sea of troubles,' 3 shows in every play his 
 lordly disregard of mere pedantic conventionalities in 
 the way of accuracy. This passage, ' extrait d'une piece 
 intitulee La Tempete,' particularly offends the critical 
 sense of M. Varinot, the author of the Dictionnaire des 
 Metaphores.* 
 
 The charm dissolves apace, 
 And as the morning steals upon the night 
 Melting the darkness, so their rising senses 
 Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle 
 Their clearer reason. 
 
 What English reader with ordinary breadth of under- 
 standing, found anything to jar upon his mind in this 
 
 1 Glass. Phil. Sacr. p. 919. 
 
 * rpls l| pa\ov(rris TTJcrS' e/iol QpvKrwplas. Agam. 33. 
 
 8 ' No image of the sea is suggested ; and arms, incongruous in relation 
 to the literal sea, is not so in relation to a multitude ; besides that the 
 image arms itself evanesces for the same reason into resistance. 1 De 
 Quincey, Works, vii. 121 (Black's ed.). 
 
 Paris, 1819.
 
 CH. xx. METAPHOR. 241 
 
 passage ? Yet listen to the groan of the French critic ! 
 ' II y a la tant de choses mal-assorties, que 1'esprit ne 
 peut rien voir avec clarte. Le matin qui se glisse fur- 
 tivement sur 1'obscurite, et qui en meme temps la fond, 
 les esprits des homines qui chassent des fumees, des 
 fumees ignorantes, et des fumees qui voilent. Un 
 poete peint un ange (! !) qui franchit les airs, et le 
 represente au meme moment comme etant a cheval, et 
 comme faisant voile sur le sein de 1'air. II est impos- 
 sible que Pimagination se forme un tableau net d'objets 
 aussi confus.' Poor outraged historian of French meta- 
 phors ! and what a drunken savage Shakspeare must 
 have been ! 
 
 Many have bewailed the necessity of metaphor as the 
 source of constant error, and the strongest proof of the 
 weakness of our intellectual faculties. 'Verborum trans- 
 latio,' says Cicero, * constituta est inopiae causa.' l Un- 
 doubtedly it is so ; but with such faculties as we have, 
 metaphor, and the necessity for the metaphoric element 
 in language, becomes fruitful of blessings. 2 It becomes 
 a means whereby we observe and compare the analogous 
 phenomena of the physical and intellectual world. It 
 adds something of the grace, and charm, and mystery 
 of nature to the thoughts of man. It is the very essence 
 of our most poetical conceptions, and the best mode of 
 shadowing forth our profoundest intuitions. * Thought,' 
 says the eloquent and ingenious Du Ponceau, 'is vast as 
 the air; it embraces far more than languages can ex- 
 press ; or rather, languages express nothing. They only 
 make thought flash in electric sparks from the speaker 
 
 1 Cic. De Oratore, iii. 39. Cf. Seneca, De Benefitiis, ii. 34, &c. 
 * See this subject more fully discussed in the Origin of Language, 
 p. 136 sqq. 
 
 B
 
 242 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 to the hearer. A single word creates a crowd of concep- 
 tions, which the intellect combines and marshals with 
 lightning-like rapidity.' l 
 
 It is idle therefore to complain that metaphor sup- 
 poses a certain indigence, and that if the intellect were 
 endowed with the power of directly and immediately 
 seizing any phenomenon, and of providing an inde- 
 pendent expression for every modification of our minds, 
 it would be unnecessary to drag ourselves from one 
 analogous idea to another. 2 Obviously we must take 
 the mind as we find it; and since it has not been 
 endowed with the power of direct intuition into the 
 nature of things it cannot dispense with tropes and 
 allegories; which so far from hindering and obscuring 
 our power of insight, are, on the contrary, its mightiest 
 assistants. 3 In the true and etymological sense of the 
 word, they illustrate, i.e. they pour a flood of light upon 
 our thoughts. And, reversing the metaphor, we may 
 say with equal truth, that they are the gracious clouds, 
 through whose vail it is alone possible for us to gaze 
 upon the too-dazzling sun. 
 
 A Language without figures and metaphors would 
 of necessity be a language without poetry. We have 
 already shown the truth of this assertion 4 by comparing 
 the language of Science with the language of common 
 life. It will be interesting to illustrate it further by 
 taking the instance of any ' philosophical language ' 
 
 1 Et. du Ponceau, Syst. Gram, des Langues de TAmerique, p. 32. 
 
 2 Charma, p. 100. 
 
 1 See Arist. Ehet. m. i. 2. In fact they perform in language something 
 of the same function as the symbolic actions of orators or poets. They 
 make our thoughts more clear, graphic, vivid. 
 
 4 Origin of Lang. p. 134 sqq.
 
 CH. xx. METAPHOR. 243 
 
 framed in strict accordance with these supposed prin- 
 ciples of perfection. 
 
 4 Une langue philosophique ! ' says Du Ponceau, ' bon 
 Dieu, qu'est-ce qu'une langue philosophique ? . . . une 
 langue philosophique ! et pourquoi non un monde, une 
 creation tout entiere de la main et de la facon des philo- 
 sophes ? ' There have however been several attempts at 
 languages framed on these accurate principles, intended 
 by their inventors to serve as an unerring medium of 
 communication among all nations. 1 The seventeenth 
 century seems to have been particularly fertile in them. 
 A German prince offered a reward of 300 crowns for 
 the best universal language, and Becker wrote in conse- 
 quence his Notitia Linguarum universalis. The prince 
 repaid him by compliments, and asked him to dinner, 
 'which was more,' says Du Ponceau, 'than the thing 
 was worth.' It was published in 1661 at Frankfort, and 
 is now very rare. In the same year was published Dal- 
 garno's Ars Signorum, vulgo Character universalis. 
 Lond. 166 1. 2 It is founded on the assumption that 
 there has been a complete and certain distribution of 
 all things and ideas. A few years after (in 1 668) ap- 
 peared the celebrated Essay towards a Philosophical 
 Language of Bishop Wilkins, occupying an enormous 
 folio volume. Its ingenuity was undoubted, and c uni- 
 
 1 M. Charma, pp. 290-300, gives a long list of writers who have 
 touched on this subject, as Herm. Hugo, Bacon, Des Cartes, Dalgarno, 
 Wilkins, Becker, Kircher, Jo. Voss, Leibnitz, De Brosses, Changeux, De 
 Maimieux, Destrutt de Tracy, Laromigniere, Grosselin, &c. See espe- 
 cially Degerando, Des Signes et de tArt de penser, iv. 10. Some of 
 these systems were founded on a self-explaining pasigraphy, in which 
 e. g. necessity was expressed by a chain, duration by a clock, equality 
 by two parallel lines, a method by a geometrical instrument, &c. 
 
 * See Hallam, Lit. of Europe, iii. 362. 
 B 2
 
 244 ON" LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 formity, the perfection of small geniuses, was observable 
 throughout it.' The substantives were a series of anti- 
 
 O 
 
 theses. Thus da meant God, ida devil ; dad heaven, 
 odad hell ; dab soul, adab body ; pida presence, pidas 
 absence ; tadu power, tadus imbecility, The numbers 
 were fashioned on similar principles,^ pobal 10, pobar 
 100, pobam 1,000. It would be impossible to imagine 
 any spoken language so inconceivably dry, and dreary, 
 and bald, and dead as this, ' I do not know,' observes 
 Du Ponceau, 1 ' whether any one ever studied, learnt, or 
 cultivated this language. It is only found in some 
 libraries, a sad monument of the aberrations of the 
 human intellect,' Without absolutely endorsing so se- 
 vere a remark, we may certainly agree with Hallam that 
 ' it is very fortunate that neither of these ingenious but 
 presumptuous attempts to fasten down the progressive 
 powers of the human mind by the cramps of association 
 had the least success.' 
 
 The metaphors without which no language worthy 
 of the name can even exist are a proof of the human 
 
 1 He mentions also the Specieuse-Generale, a philosophic language by 
 which Leibnitz designed to reduce to a sort of calculus the expression of 
 all truths. It appears from a work of Raspe (Hist. Lingua Charac- 
 teristic<E) to have represented every idea by numbers, and was supposed 
 capable both of eliminating all errors, and leading to new discoveries. 
 ' It only wanted a grammar and dictionary to make it complete ! ' 
 Another was invented by a M. Faignet, and England was imposed upon 
 by a pretended language of the Island of Formosa, invented by a French 
 deserter, who Judicrously called himself Psalmanasar ! See Du Ponceau, 
 pp. 26-31. Probably hundreds of such attempts have been still born. 
 Quite recently I have seen one by M. Letellier, Etablissement immudiat 
 de la Langue Universelle, 1862. There must be singular fascination in 
 a problem which has interested so many great minds. Among others 
 Mr. Babbage was once attracted by it. Passages from the Life of a 
 
 iloso-jpher, p 25.
 
 CH. X.T. METAPHOR. 245 
 
 invention of language, because they are confessedly 
 formed on indirect and imperfect analogies, and are 
 sources of constant l ambiguity and error. But for this 
 very reason they are best suited to our limited human 
 condition. Who would insult the stars because at night 
 he can no longer see the sun ? We live but in the 
 twilight and the moonlight, and the very dimness of our 
 vision saves us perhaps from a thousand dangers. The 
 old bon mot, found in so many different forms, 2 l that 
 the true use of speech is not so much to express our 
 thoughts as to conceal them,' false as it is in one sense, 
 is capable, in another sense, of an innocent application. 
 At no period of history was it more evident than now, 
 that the passions of men would be far more furious and 
 uncontrollable than they are, if it were not possible to 
 maintain a truce by the common acceptance of words 
 and formulas which are fairly and honestly capable of 
 expressing widely different forms of belief. The gra- 
 cious shadows, the beneficent imperfections of language, 
 save us from being scorched up by a fulness of truth for 
 which we are yet but ill-adapted. Unhappy would be 
 the nation which should have a perfect language. It 
 would be a field of battle continually bathed in blood ; 
 language would then be the mirror of our thoughts, and 
 would reveal with intolerable clearness all our passions, 
 and all our susceptibilities. 3 
 
 1 See Mill's Logic, i. 48. 
 
 * Goldsmith's Citizen of the World. The saying is usually but 
 erroneously attributed to Talleyrand ; it occurs also in one of Voltaire's 
 dialogues, and in a couplet of Young's. See Pearls and Mock Pearls 
 of History. 
 
 * Du Ponceau, p. 225. This is one of the many striking thoughts 
 with which his singularly able Essay abounds.
 
 246 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xx. 
 
 We have spent some time over the consideration of 
 metaphors, but perhaps not too long, when we consider 
 that by their means a breath of air may be said to be-' 
 come the picture and exponent alike of the seen and of 
 the unseen Universe.
 
 247 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 OTHER LINGUISTIC PROCESSES. 
 
 'O \6yos StdQuvos Kal 6 vovs iroiKiXcos rp^irtrau. 
 
 PYEEHO in Diog. Laert. ix. xi. 95. 
 
 IT may be well, before we proceed farther, to sum up 
 briefly the main results which the previous pages have 
 been intended to develop, to illustrate, or to prove. 
 
 Language then was not a direct Eevelation of the 
 Almighty ; nor was it an inevitable result of our 
 physical organisation ; nor was it a purely mechanical 
 invention, accepted by general agreement, in conse- 
 quence of a felt necessity : but the capacity for Lan- 
 guage was a part of our human constitution, and in the 
 development of this capacity, the Senses, the Memory, 
 the Understanding, the Emotion, the Will, and the 
 Imagination all played their part. The great secret 
 the Divine Idea of Language became intuitively evident 
 to man from the working of his Intellect upon two 
 strictly analogous facts. He found that the effect of 
 powerful passion was to force from him involuntary 
 spontaneous sounds, which, when repeated, recalled the 
 passions by which they had been originally stimulated, 
 and not only recalled them by virtue of the Law of 
 Association to him who had originally felt them, but 
 also conveyed and expressed them to others who were
 
 248 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxi. 
 
 similarly affected by similar causes. But besides this, 
 as may still be observed in children, the delicate sen- 
 sibility of the nervous system in the still fresh and 
 unworn human organism gave rise to a spontaneous 
 echo of external sounds, an echo which partly repeated 
 and imitated the sounds themselves, and partly modified 
 them in accordance with the ideal impression which 
 they reproduced. Originally this repercussion of the 
 sounds which had thrilled the auditory nerve was not 
 due primarily to an instinct of conscious imitation, but 
 to a far subtler law of physical sympathy with the outer 
 world ; but as it conveyed a pleasurable sense of power 
 it would at once be adopted as a voluntary exercise 
 apart from any necessity. In this instance also it would 
 be instantly discovered that the imitative sounds, how- 
 ever modified by organic or subjective influences, in- 
 evitably recalled, by the same law of association, the 
 external phenomena with which they were connected. 
 In both cases it would be instantly discovered that 
 sounds were capable of becoming signs not of sounds 
 only but of things. Here then were the elements of 
 language ; here lay hidden the germs of that infinite 
 discovery which made man worthy of his destined im- 
 mortality ; here, ready provided by the working of 
 divine laws, were the materials by which he was enabled 
 to express his own sensations, and to recall the most 
 striking aspects and influences of the world in which he 
 lived. 
 
 The nascent intelligence, sharpened by the wants of 
 life, at once saw the importance of this marvellous 
 faculty, and began with unerring and unconscious in- 
 stinct to work upon it. Man soon found that it was 
 not necessary to rest content with crude interjections
 
 CH. xxi. OTHER LINGUISTIC PEOCESSES. 249 
 
 and vowel sounds, to express his own feelings, or rough 
 reproductions to recall the living creatures and num- 
 berless influences of the outer world. The interjections 
 and imitations were more and more modified, till they 
 barely retained the faintest echo of their sensuous origin. 
 They were soon accepted as purely ideal signs, and 
 their history and derivation was in the course of ages 
 as completely forgotten or obscured as if they had been 
 meaningless tokens arbitrarily adopted and absolutely 
 devoid of any historical connection with the meanings 
 for which they stood. 
 
 The intimate relation, perhaps we may say the 
 ultimate identity, of the effects produced by different 
 senses, would at once suggest the possibility of observing 
 analogies so far as to translate into sounds addressed to 
 the ear alone, the impressions produced by every other 
 sense ; and it would be an easy transition to adopt the 
 same principle in shadowing forth by self-suggesting 
 symbols those spiritual and intellectual phenomena 
 which were none the less really felt from their being 
 intangible and unseen. The power of Imagination, 
 however simply and almost unconsciously exercised, was 
 fully adequate to the task thus imposed upon it. In 
 fact it is very probable that long periods would elapse 
 before it was c .lied upon in any large measure to claim 
 its dominion over the higher realms of speech. The 
 rich religious, spiritual, metaphysical, and moral vo- 
 cabulary of the most civilised Aryan nations must not 
 be taken as any measure of the wants of primeval lan- 
 guage. If to this day the Chinese can only express the 
 notions of ' virtue' or * happiness' by crude analyses 
 four- words-long ; if many savage nations are destitute 
 of words for the conceptions of the very commonest and
 
 250 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xxi. 
 
 most ordinary virtues ; if, even in languages of con- 
 siderable cultivation, it is a matter of no slight diffi- 
 culty to find a proper term for the Divine Being ; nay, 
 more, if a language so powerful and noble, so greatly 
 enriched from a thousand different sources as the 
 English, had until two centuries back no word for 
 * selfishness,' the most prevalent of all human vices, is 
 it likely that Language would be overburdened at its 
 commencement with the demands likely to be made 
 upon its capacity for metaphorical expression ? 
 
 The word t selfish' to which I have just alluded was 
 due to an accidental flash of individual genius, and this 
 has probably been the source of many words most 
 valuable and astonishing in their picturesque or imagi- 
 native power. Many a poet who never sang, many 
 an unknown demigod whose discoveries have never been 
 recorded, has thus contributed his forgotten share to 
 the sum of human wisdom and knowledge. There 
 must have been hundreds of tentative words, main- 
 taining side by side a precarious life in the struggle for 
 existence, before the vitality of those that deserved per- 
 manence could be fully tested. We have seen already 
 that every sound produces an impression which admits 
 of manifold forms of vocal expression ; and it is still 
 more true that all those phenomena which were in- 
 capable of direct vocal representation, admitted of 
 many different names because they might be regarded 
 in a thousand different aspects, and furnished a thou- 
 sand different characteristics. Many of these character- 
 istics must have been simultaneously seized upon as 
 marks of the conception before any one of them was 
 finally chosen. Never perhaps was there a higher scope 
 for heaven-born genius than that which was offered to
 
 CH. xxi. OTHER LINGUISTIC PROCESSES. 25 
 
 men before the plasticity of language had been moulded 
 by writing and literature into rigid, determinate, and 
 intractable forms. 
 
 As an instance of the different points of view from 
 which the same thing could be regarded let us take the 
 word * left.' In the Polynesian languages it means 
 * South,' because the Islanders turn to the west to find 
 the cardinal points ; yet in Latin ' laeva ' is used for the 
 East, and in Greek dpiarspa is used for the West, 
 because in taking omens the Greek augur turned to 
 the North, and the Koman to the South ; and in the 
 Semitic languages again, from the custom of turning to 
 the East for devotion, ' left' means North. Hence * left' 
 has been used among different nations for every one of 
 the four points of the compass. 1 
 
 It is however still more strange to find the same 
 root not only used for different notions, but actually 
 applied to things which are essentially contradictory. 
 Thus in Chinese louan means both ' to make a distur- 
 bance,' and 'to govern well;' ton is both 'to poison' 
 and 'to nourish ;' kon is both a worm-eaten vessel, and 
 ' to mend a vessel ; ' tsing ' pure,' ' clean,' is used for 
 'a sink.' 2 In Hebrew 3 &O3 means both 'he created' 
 and 'he destroyed;' -pa means both he 'blessed' 
 and ' cursed ; ' hhn means both ' to shine' (Job xxix. 3) 
 
 1 See Garnett's Essays, p. 287. Hundreds of instances might be given 
 where the shades of meaning acquired by the same word in different 
 languages have been widely different from each other. Thus the root 
 vnlwan 'to plunder' furnishes both the Latin Vulpes, and the German 
 Wolf. The German Stuhl means a stool; the Russian stol a table. 
 The German Zaun means ' a hedge,' and is the same word as our 'town,' 
 &c. Benloew, Sur les Noms de Nombrc, p. 85. 
 
 2 Premare, Not. Ling. Sin. p. 242. 
 
 1 Glass. Philol. Sacr. p. 746. Gesenius, Thesaur. s. v. "133.
 
 
 252 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xxi. 
 
 and to be inglorious (Ps. Ixxv. 5); ^n is used for 
 both reproach and kindness ; ^DD both for infidelity 
 and for constancy; anp is applied both to the holiest 
 and the most contaminated things; nsn implies both 
 longing and abhorrence. The Hebrew root mx to be 
 willing means in Arabic to be unwilling ; one word in 
 Arabic means both to be kindled and to be extin- 
 guished, and the same root is used for to be righteous 
 and to be unjust. In Sanskrit bhiruka means both 
 timid and formidable. We find similar contradict ori- 
 ness in the applications of the Greek 1 roots which occur 
 in ayos, ^psia, airrw, &c., the Latin words cams, sacer, 
 &c., the English fast, dear, &c. Thus too in Greek the 
 prefix a is sometimes negative, sometimes copulative or 
 perhaps intensive ; and in German the inseparable pre- 
 positions ent- and ver- sometimes express negation and 
 sometimes not. The explanation of the phenomenon is 
 to be found in the Law of Association of Ideas, and the 
 harmony of the apparent discord is generally dis- 
 coverable in the history of the word itself. In some 
 cases the word or root which has acquired opposite 
 senses was really a p'sav] \egis like the Hebrew Barak 
 involving the notion of a solemn address to God, and 
 therefore equally applicable to blessing and cursing ; or 
 the Latin * sacer ' which means set apart or tabooed, 
 and therefore is equally applicable to things sacred and 
 things accursed. 
 
 But in other cases of contradictory roots the explana- 
 tion lies in the fact that Association works often by 
 contrasts, and a thing recalls its opposite, and therefore 
 at once suggests that use should be made of the same 
 name. For ' the number of things 2 known to us, and 
 
 1 See Dr. Donaldson, New Cratyl. p. 80. 2 Mill's Logic, \. 231.
 
 CH. xxi. OTHER LINGUISTIC PROCESSES. 253 
 
 A 
 
 of which we desire to speak, multiply faster than the 
 names for them. Except on subjects for which there 
 has been constructed a scientific terminology, with 
 which unscientific persons do not meddle, great diffi- 
 culty is generally found in bringing a new name into 
 use', and independently of that difficulty it is natural to 
 prefer giving to a new object a name which at least 
 expresses its resemblance [or contrast] to something 
 already known, since by predicating of it a name en- 
 tirely new, we convey no information. . . . The more 
 rapid growth of ideas than of names thus creates a per- 
 petual necessity for making the same names serve, even 
 if imperfectly, on a greater number of occasions.' In 
 this principle we find the explanation of the contra- 
 dictory application of roots ; it becomes easy to under- 
 stand why in Hebrew (in which language the most 
 striking instances of the fact are supplied) Ntpn means 
 * t:> sin,' and Nt?rj * to expiate sin;' Eh# 'to root up,' 
 and Knit? < to take root.' 
 
 The ancient philosophers and grammarians singularly 
 mistook this principle of nomenclature, which they 
 called tear* tvavTiaxriv or the naming by opposites. 
 Nothing can be more confused than their method of 
 treating it, and this perhaps arises from their utter and 
 necessary ignorance of the Science of Etymology. Ob- 
 serving that in some rare and extreme cases Euphemism, 1 
 the use of pleasing and well-omened words, passed into 
 Antiphrasis, the denomination of things positively harm- 
 ful by beneficent names (.as in * the gentle ones ' for the 
 Furies, and 'the better' or 'the well-named' for the 
 
 1 Probably, however, neither Manes nor Pare*, though so often ad- 
 duced, are instances of Euphemism. Of this subject we shall treat 
 further on.
 
 254 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxi. 
 
 left hand), they carried the same principle into ordinary 
 words, and were content to derive lucus ' a grove ' a 
 non lucendo, from its excluding the light; l coelum ( the 
 heaven ' from celatum ( concealed,' because it was open ; 
 bellum ' war ' from bellum beautiful, f quod sit minime 
 bellum;' aridum 'dry' from apSsvsiv 'to water,' be- 
 cause it had ceased to be watered, 2 &c. ! These absur- 
 dities are pardonable enough in Varro, Donatus, or 
 Charisius, but it is strange that they should have been 
 repeated for so many centuries. It is quite true that 
 Irony, preventing any possibility of error by a change 
 of tone, often contemptuously pronounces the opposite 
 of what it intends, as when Micaiah the son of Imlah 
 says to Ahab, ' (TO up to Ramoth-GHlead and prosper, 
 for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king,' 
 or as when the indignant Ida exclaims 
 
 You have done well, 
 And like a prince and like a gentleman. 
 
 And sometimes the feeblest and most meaningless kind 
 of Irony confines itself to a single word, as when a 
 dwarf is nicknamed Atlas, or a very ugly woman is 
 called Venus. But it may safely be asserted that no 
 such preposterous and pointless process as this could 
 ever have been deliberately adopted as a method of 
 providing words. Many instances can be adduced in 
 which the relation of contrast has led to the adoption 
 of the same root to express, under slight modifications, 
 opposite conceptions ; but this differs entirely from the 
 
 1 Lucus is another form of locus, and originally means a clearance in 
 a grave, which explains its connection with lux. The derivations of 
 ccelum and bellum are obvious. 
 
 2 Lersch, Sprachphil. iii. 133. Lobeck has written one of his ex- 
 haustive papers De Antiphrasi et Euphemismo.
 
 CH. xxi. OTHER LINGUISTIC PROCESSES. 255 
 
 ancient notion of Antiphrasis, or a deliberate calling of 
 things after properties which they do not possess, an 
 erroneous notion which may be finally banished from 
 the list of linguistic processes. 
 
 Proclus, in his commentary on Plato's Cratylus, 1 gives 
 a catalogue raisonne of some fifteen methods for form- 
 ing words, as for instance 1. by imitation (xara /JLC/JLTJ- 
 ow\ as to hiss (<rtgo>); 2. by reference to something 
 else, or analogy ; 3. by catachresis, the recognised mis- 
 application of a word, as when we say that a sound is 
 sweet ; 4. pseudonymously, i.e. with a disregard of the 
 etymological meaning, as when we talk of a silver box, 
 or a brass looking-glass ; 5. with a reference to history, 
 as o/3oXos an obol, from /3e\os an ingot ; 6. by an ex- 
 tension of meaning (eTriBtaTsraKOTo), as %ayypd<pof, pro- 
 perly a painter of animals, to a painter of any other 
 objects ; 7. hyperbolically, as when we talk of a man's 
 having no heart', 8. euphemistically, as when we call 
 the Furies ' gentle ones ; ' 9. analogically, as when we 
 talk of the head of a mountain, or the leg of a table ; 
 10. from resemblance, as when we say that a man's 
 frame of mind was crude and bitter ; 11. by slight modi- 
 fication of existing words; 12. elliptically, as rpd-n-s^a 
 for TSTpdirs^a ; 13. from discoverers, as when we call 
 wine ( Bacchus;' 14. from things invented, as when we 
 call Vulcan 'fire;' 15. by excess (icaO* vTrspo^v), as 
 when we call a cask 'a tile' (ic'spa^oi), and a physician 
 'a chirurgeon' (%Eipovpy6s); and to these he might have 
 added many others, for instance, by synecdoche, as 
 when we speak of * a thousand head of cattle.' 
 
 There is very little value in this enumeration of Pro- 
 
 1 P. 44. Quoted by Lersch, iii. 94.
 
 256 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xxi. 
 
 clus's, for a cursory examination J shows that all the 
 processes which he has separated, naturally fall under 
 the three heads of 1. Imitation, 2. Metaphor, and 
 3. Antiphrasis, with the exception of one or two (e.g. 
 11. by modification, and 12. by ellipse) which belong to 
 formal etymology, and need no explanation, or further 
 remark. His allusion, .however, to the Historical origin 
 of words (under which head fall 13. and 14. in the above 
 list) is new and important, and on it is based the whole 
 of that beautiful and valuable Science which has received 
 of late the title of Linguistic Palaeontology. 
 
 1 Lersch, iii. 05.
 
 257 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE NATURE OF WORDS. 
 
 A.6yos fidBvs Kal &it6fyi)ros 6 irtpl Qixrtvs bvo^arcav. 
 
 OKIO. c. Cels. i. 24. 
 
 WE have now advanced sufficiently far in our enquiry 
 to be able to estimate more accurately the nature and 
 import of Words. 
 
 It was the endeavour to arrive at some secure con- 
 clusion upon this subject which led to the constant and 
 eager controversies on the origin of Language which 
 occupied some of the clearest intellects among the 
 Greeks and Romans. In the hands of the Gramma- 
 rians the question degenerated from the high philoso- 
 phical import which it had in the minds of the ancient 
 Philosophers ; but in one form or other, with number- 
 less modifications, it was a problem which occupied a 
 thousand years of, thought and argument. It is the one 
 thread, which under various colours, runs through the 
 whole history of Greek philology * from its dawn in the 
 loftiest regions of metaphysical speculation to its decline 
 into a dry and dusty register of grammatical forms and 
 dialectic varieties. 
 
 The nomenclature of the controversy, and with it the 
 views of the combatants, shifted continually from age to 
 
 1 Lersch, Die Sprachphil. d. Alien, a. 2. 
 S
 
 258 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 age; but amidst a crowd of differing terms the main 
 fundamental question always was this, Did words origi- 
 nate by Nature (Qixris) or by Convention (6s(ns, avvdrjK^}? 
 Was their form and significance determined by some in- 
 ward necessity, or by mere arbitrary caprice? Have 
 words any abstract propriety and fitness (opdorrjs), or 
 are they merely invented anyhow and at haphazard? 
 Is there in words any intrinsic force and meaning, or 
 are they mere accidental labels stuck upon things which 
 we wish to mention ? Is there any connection between 
 names and things, or are names mere artificial counters 
 used to assist our mental calculations ? 
 
 Those who decided in favour of the first of these 
 hypotheses those who held that names existed by na- 
 ture, and had a necessary and mystic connection with 
 the things they signified were called Analogists : 
 those who regarded words as mere conventional signs of 
 our conceptions were called Anomalists. 
 
 It was to be expected that the discussion of a subject 
 which the Ancients had no means of deciding, and the 
 use of watchwords and party cries * capable of such 
 widely different acceptations as Averts and No/ios, would 
 lead to infinite confusions of thought, and would render 
 it difficult in many cases to decide to which school any 
 particular thinker really belonged. Moreover, our ma- 
 terials for forming an opinion of what was really held 
 by the great thinkers in the Golden Age of Greek Phi- 
 losophy, are often to be derived from prolix commen- 
 tators and puzzle-headed scholiasts. Heraclitus and 
 Democritus were at opposite poles, yet if Democritus 
 
 1 ' So wirken Schlagworter allemal um so weiter, je weniger sie verstan- 
 den werden ; und die Parteien zerfallen sobald sie sich ihr Schlagwort 
 klar macihen wollen ! ' Steinthal, Grammatik, p. vii.
 
 CH. xxii. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 259 
 
 called words ' sounding images' (ayd\nara (frwvrjsvra} he 
 used a phrase which Heraclitus himself might readily 
 have adopted. Pythagoras is distinctly classed by Proclus 
 among the Analogists, and by Ammonius no less clearly 
 among the Anomalists. Epicurus, and his glorious ex- 
 ponent Lucretius, attack Pythagoras J for believing in a 
 Namegiver, and attribute language to the instincts of 
 nature sharpened by the spur of necessity ; yet nothing 
 can be more clear than that their views were utterly at 
 variance with the mystical conceptions of many other emi- 
 nent Analogists. In Plato's great dialogue, the Cratylus, 
 where this subject is treated, the difficulty of arriving at 
 any clear conception of the view propounded is so great, 
 that no two commentators have ever been found to agree 
 in the exact interpretation of it. Instead therefore of 
 entering into this war of words, and labyrinth of indis- 
 tinct conceptions, it will be sufficient to contrast the 
 assertions of one or two of the chief supporters of both 
 schools, and see how far they contain any germ of truth ; 
 for the problem, baldly stated, *Is Language due to 
 Nature or to Convention?' is very nearly meaningless, 
 and has no value as an intelligible formula. For con- 
 vention requires discussion, agreement, concert ; and as 
 these are impossible ivithout Language, we are at once 
 involved in a vicious circle. 2 The controversy had its 
 root (as we see very distinctly from the Cratylus} in the 
 opposition between the Ionic and Eleatic Schools of 
 
 1 On this subject see Lersch, i. p. 25 ; Steinthal, Geschichte der 
 Sprachwissenschaft, pp. 150-176. Lersch's book derives immense value 
 from its rich collection of quotations from all the ancient philosophers 
 and grammarians ; but it is eminently bewildering, and deficient in 
 clearness and critical power. See Steinthal, Gesch. p. 74. 
 
 2 See Herbart, Psychol. 130, quoted by Steinthal, Grammatik, 
 p. 315. 
 
 S 2
 
 260 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 Physiology, 1 of which the former maintained the per- 
 petual flux (Trdtna psl\ and the latter the stability and 
 reality of all things. In its ultimate consequences and 
 developments it involves many of the most important 
 questions in Theology, in Philosophy, and even in 
 Science. But we need go no farther than the Cratylus 
 to learn that there is in Language both a natural and a 
 conventional element, and that (if we must use abstrac- 
 tions) both the human understanding, and that myste- 
 rious entity 'the nature of things,' contributed their 
 respective quotas to the Laws and Forms of speech. 
 
 Heraclitus, the very prince of all ancient philosophers, 
 may be regarded as the father and founder of the Ana- 
 logists. He held (if we may accept the flickering lamp 
 of Ammonius as adequate to illuminate his proverbial 
 darkness 2 ), that Names were the immediate product of 
 a Natural power which assigned to each thing its proper 
 designation as a necessary element of that thing's exist- 
 ence, the relation between the two being similar to 
 that which exists between a sensation and the object 
 which causes it. 3 Names, he thought, were like the 
 natural, not like the artificial images of visible things, 
 i.e. they resembled the shadows cast by solid objects, or 
 the reflections in mirrors and on the surface of still 
 water. 'Those who use the true word do really and 
 
 1 Lersch, i. 10. 
 
 2 'O ^KuTfiv6s was his name even among the ancients ; yet the frag- 
 ments of him which have come down to us are luminous, nay radiant, 
 with thought and meaning. His alleged obscurity, like that of Bishop 
 Butler, must simply have arisen from the novelty and profundity of his 
 speculations, not from any defects of expression or any intellectual 
 vagueness. 
 
 * Such, we suppose, must be the meaning of the sentence, Sxrirtp 
 atff(h)ffiv &\\r)v firl &\\ois rSiv aiffBriTwv 6pw/j.ev Tfrayii.fv7iv. Ammonius, 
 ad Arist. de Interpr. p. 24, in Lersch, i. 12.
 
 CH. xxir. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 261 
 
 truly name the object, while those who do not, merely 
 make an unintelligent noise. Hence the philosopher's 
 object is to discover the ti*ue names which nature has 
 assigned to things, just as it is the part of a keen 
 observer to distinguish accurately the appearances of 
 objects.' l Nothing then can be clearer than that Hera- 
 clitus here enunciates the most absolute views of the 
 Analogist school, that Words are the immediate copies 
 of Things, produced by Nature herself, not due to any 
 subjective influence of human caprice, but correspond- 
 ing to Kealities by an objective necessity. On this 
 subject we shall have more to say hereafter. The Ana- 
 logism of Epicurus was of a very different character; 
 he too held that Words were a natural product, but by 
 
 * Nature' he only meant a physical organic necessity, 
 which is a very low and onesided view of Language, 
 even when invested with poetic colours in the orgiastic 
 and splendid verse of Lucretius, or arrayed in some 
 shadow of scientific authority in more modern writers. 2 
 
 Democritus, that Fichte of the ancients, held an 
 opinion the direct reverse of that propounded by Hera- 
 clitus. He referred everything to opinion, and custom; 
 
 with him even the experience of the Senses 3 was but 
 a reflex of established prejudices, and Speech the mere 
 result of arbitrary human agreement ! Nay, he not 
 only asserted this, but he tried, according to Proclus, 4 to 
 prove it by four philological arguments; viz. 1. By the 
 existence of Homonyms, or identical words for different 
 
 1 Ammonius, L c. 
 
 2 E. g. in Becker's Organism, der SpracJie. 
 
 Democr. de Anim. Vide Lersch, i. 13. 
 
 4 Proclus, Schol. in Plat. Cratylus, p. 6. Id
 
 262 ON LANGUAGE. CH. XXH. 
 
 objects, as, for instance, K\eis to mean both a key and a 
 collarbone ; 2. By Polyonymy, or the existence of dif- 
 ferent synonyms for the same object, as avOpwrros^ ^Epo-^r, 
 and jSporos, for 'man;' 3. By the possibility of changing 
 a proper name ; for if names corresponded to some 
 inward characteristic, we could not change a man's 
 name l from Aristocles to Plato, or from Tyrannion to 
 Theophrastus ; 4. By the accidental absence of some 
 words formed analogously to others ; e.g. we have <f)po- 
 vsiv from <f>p6vr)<Tis, but no similar verb from Sucaioavvrj. 
 Few Heracliteans, we suppose, would be appalled by 
 the production of such raw arguments as these, even 
 when they received a practical illustration from the 
 Megarian Diodorus, who called one of his slaves 'But 
 in truth' (a\\a ^rfv\ and another by some other con- 
 junction, to show that in Language Use is the only 
 important principle, and that no word has any other 
 meaning than the one which you may choose to attach 
 to it ! Still, the Analogists had equally little in the 
 way of argument to produce on their own side. Hera- 
 clitus held that the Study of Words was a direct road 
 to the discovery of abstract truth, 2 but there is little 
 enough of truth, abstract or otherwise, in the Etymolo- 
 gies which occupied the attention of his followers; and 
 as for the attempts of the grammarian Nigidius 3 to 
 support them by arguing that when we say the word 
 Vos we indicate by the movement and protrusion of the 
 
 1 Hermogenes in Plato's Cratylus illustrates this by the constant 
 changing of slaves' names. Cratyl. p. 384. 
 
 2 ''EfaipfrSv <pofft rov 'Hpatc\fireiov 8i5a<r/ca\eou T^V Sta TIV ovofiiirwv 
 M r^v rtav ovrtav yvuaiv 65ov. Proclus in Parmenid. i. 12. ' Qui 
 imagines rerum in verbis sic ut in cera expressas putarent.' Lobeck, 
 Aglaopham. ii. 871. 
 
 1 Quoted by Aul. Gellius. x. 4.
 
 CH. xxn. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 263 
 
 lips the persons to whom we are speaking, whereas when 
 we say Nos we draw in the breath and the lips, the 
 less we say about them the better ! They belong to an 
 infinitely worse form of hypothesis than that already 
 quoted from St. Augustine; they are far more futile 
 than the attempts which have amused so many writers, 
 from Plato down to Dr. Wienbarg and Mr. D'Arcy 
 Thompson, to discover the distinct psychology and phy- 
 siognomy of particular alphabetic letters. 1 
 
 But the Analogists were less guided by definite argu- 
 ments than by deep mysterious convictions. They ap- 
 pealed to the names of the gods, as being peculiar and 
 appropriate, because they were felt to be too sacred to 
 admit of being changed. 2 They called attention to the 
 effects of blessing and cursing, which, they argued, could 
 not be mere arbitrary words, because they often worked 
 their own achievement, and possessed an inherent power, 3 
 which proves that Speech binds together God and Man, 
 Heaven and earth, words and things in a common band 
 of thought. 
 
 The very universality of such views as these among 
 nations in the most various stages of culture, and men 
 of the most different capacities, the fact that they have 
 been held alike by Jews and Gentiles, by savages and 
 philosophers, by the abjectly superstitious and the pro- 
 
 1 Every one knows what Plato makes out of the letters R and L. 
 Cratylus, p. 424 seqq. Moritz Drechsler occupied an entire book with 
 the letter M (Grundlegung zur wisxenschaftHchen Konstntktion, &c. 
 Erlangen, 1830) ; and in Mr. D. Thompson's Day-dreams of a School- 
 master we find traced the villanous lineaments and character of the 
 letter K. Dr. Wienbarg in his curious little book, Das Gehiimniss des 
 Wortes, p. iv., says that he has listened diligently to 'the sylphlike 
 waving and whispering of the letter-spirits.' 
 
 2 Iambi, de Mystcriis, yii. 5. Lersch, i. 43. 
 * Ammonius. Id. ib.
 
 264 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 foundly learned, shows that they must rest upon some 
 principle, or at any rate must deserve a careful exami- 
 nation. It must not be supposed that the enquiry has 
 now become a mere meaningless anachronism/ On the 
 contrary, it lies at the root of many widely-reaching 
 controversies. On it, for instance, ultimately turns the 
 long dispute between the Realists and the Nominalists. 
 St. Anselm declared that unless the abstract man were 
 a reality, unless man, the idea which objectively corre- 
 sponds to the word ' man,' had an actual independent 
 existence, 1 the doctrine of the Incarnation could not be 
 true. On the other hand, Fichte's singularly crude and 
 unconditional acceptance of the theory which deprived 
 names of all but a purely conventional value, 2 was a 
 direct result of his subjective idealism. To this day the 
 disputes which gather round the meanings of general 
 terms both in Science and Theology are largely modi- 
 fied by the influence of some, often unconscious, theory 
 respecting the nature of words. 
 
 It is then very important to try and illustrate what 
 the most advanced Analogists held on this subject, and 
 thereby to arrive at some point from which we can 
 criticise their opinions. 
 
 The early Jews seem to have held the views of the 
 Analogists in their extremest form. We do not indeed 
 find the doctrine stated by them in so many words, the 
 nearest approach to such a statement being a verse of 
 questionable authenticity in the book of Ecclesiasticus 
 (xvii. 5), 'in the sixth place he imparted them Under- 
 standing, and in the seventh Speech an interpreter of 
 the cogitations thereof,' where Language is described as 
 
 1 Hampden, Bampton Lectures, p. 478. 
 
 2 Von der Sprachfahigkeit, Sammtl. WerJcen, 8. Heyse, s. 57.
 
 CH. xxn. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 265 
 
 a divinely-created sense. But we find throughout the 
 Bible so vast an importance attached to the mere phy- 
 siological quality of certain sounds, so solemn a method 
 of inference from mere names and words, as to leave 
 no doubt respecting the views which suggested such a 
 method of enquiry and illustration. No doubt the con- 
 stant Paronomasias or plays on words which occur in the 
 sacred writers may be due in part to the pleasure which 
 all people, and the Orientals especially, seem to derive 
 from the assonance of different parts of a sentence, 1 
 a pleasure which, combined with the tendency to Pleo- 
 nasms found in all earl} 7 tongues, lies at the bottom of 
 that whole system of Parallelism in which Hebrew 
 poetry consists. But as similar alliterations and Par- 
 onomasise are most frequent at that earliest stage of lan- 
 guage when the meaning of words is freshest, brightest, 
 and least conventional, we must consider them as partly 
 due to some vague belief in the inherent affinities of 
 words. Thus in the very second verse of Genesis we 
 
 1 The Arabic names Harut and Marut, Abel and Kabel (Cain and 
 Abel), Dalut and G'ialut (David "and Goliath) ; compare Kophy and 
 Mophy in Herod. &c. In the Bible we have Huz and Buz, &c. A 
 Hindoo constantly adds meaningless rhymes even to English words, and 
 will talk of a button-bitten, kettley-bittley, &c. But a sort of irap^xT/ffts 
 is used, and used with admirable effect by the very best writers, as in 
 the New Testament, tropvda iroj/^pi'a, <f>66voi q>6voi (Rom. i. 29, 31), 
 affvvtTcas cwwOtTus, Kpivfis KaraKpttxis, &c. ; in the Prayer-book holy, 
 wholly, giving and forgiving, changes and chances, &c. These asso- 
 nances, which are common in Cicero and Sallust, are the special delight of 
 St. Augustine. In poetry too they are frequent :- euVxwo/uaj &A.-yiW/uu, 
 Eur. Apprehends and comprehends, Shakesp. Mids. Right's Dream. 
 Sorted and consorted, Love's Lab. lost. ' Sly slow hours,' Horn, and 
 Jul. ' Is every breath, a death,' AlFs well, Sfc. ' Actions and exactions," 
 Daniel. ' Fear the fierceness of the boy,' Beaum. and Flttch. ' Shrill, 
 chill with flakes of foam,' &c. Tennyson. To enter fully into this subject 
 would be to write a book on Rhyme, its origin, the source of its pleasur- 
 ableness, &c.
 
 266 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 find the words Tohoo vabohoo as a description of the 
 primal chaos ; and similar instances may be found in 
 Job xxx. 19, Is. liv. 8, Ps. xviii. 8, 1 &c., degenerating in 
 Judg. xv. 16, and in the apocryphal story of Susannah, 
 into mere puns, 2 and rising in Is. v. 7 into very beautiful 
 and pathetic force. Perhaps the best instance to prove 
 that a distinct importance was attached to the mere 
 sound is to be found in the vision of Jer. i. 11, 12, where 
 the Lord says, * Jeremiah, what seest thou ? And I said, 
 I see a rod of an almond tree,. Then said the Lord unto 
 me, Thou hast well seen : for I will hasten my word to 
 perform it.' In this remarkable passage it is clear that 
 the symbolic vision derives no small part of its force, if 
 not its whole basis, from the similar sound and deriva- 
 tion of the two words Shakeed c an almond tree ' and 
 Shakad ' to hasten.' Even this, strange as it may seem 
 to us, is not a singular instance. In Amos (viii. 1, 2) 
 * Amos, what seest thou ? And I said, A basket of 
 summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end 
 is come upon my people,' an important clue to the 
 meaning lies in the similarity between Kaytz 'fruit,' 
 and Kehtz ' an end,' both which words have the imita- 
 tive origin Kdtsatz to cut (cf. Ezek. vii. 6). Even in 
 Dan. v. 28 there is evidently a play on Peres and the 
 Hebrew Paras a Persian ; and, to take an instance still 
 more important, the title Nazarene, as given to our 
 Lord, and referred to by St. Matthew as having fulfilled 
 an ancient prophecy, seems to find its sole explanation 
 in the similarity of the word Nazarene to Netzer 4 a 
 
 1 See Glass. PhiloJ. Sacr. p. 951. 
 
 * In the story of Susannah the pun rests on the similarity of frfves 
 a mastick-tree, and trxifai to cleanse ; icplvos a holm-oak, and irp'urai 
 to saw asunder ; Luther admirably renders the pun by the words Linden 
 finden, and Eichen, zrichen.
 
 CH. xxn. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 287 
 
 branch,' a title given to our Lord in Is. xi. 1. It seems 
 nearly certain, if I may quote what I have said else- 
 where, 1 that ' St. Matthew, well aware of the importance 
 attached by Orientals generally, and the sacred writers 
 in particular, to the mere quantity of certain sounds as 
 connecting them with other sounds expressive of dif- 
 ferent conceptions, . . . may have been led to suppose 
 that this passage in Isaiah bore out his general reference 
 to the prophets, and indicated the fact which he nar- 
 rates.' It is extremely probable that by bearing these 
 views of language in mind we may throw great light on 
 St. Paul's difficult expression, ' For this Agar is Mount 
 Sinai in Arabia,' since Agar means a rock, and was 
 probably a local name for the Arabian mountain. 
 
 It is however in the method of treating proper names 
 that the belief in their absolute significance is most 
 clearly shown. The Jews seem to have held to the full 
 that ' imago animi, vita3, vultus nomen est.' ' The name 
 was, according to Hebrew and Eastern writers in general, 
 an integral part of the object itself; it was not deemed 
 indifferent ; it was no conventional sign ; it was an es- 
 sential attribute.' 2 Hence we have no less than fifty 
 etymologies in the Book of Genesis alone, and in almost 
 every one of these instances the derivation connects the 
 name, prophetically or otherwise, with some event in 
 the person's life. It would however be an error to re- 
 gard these as always meant for mere etymologies; indeed 
 as such they are in many cases scientifically untenable. 
 Even in Gen. ii. 23, Isshah 'woman' cannot be derived 
 
 1 Dictionary of the Bible, s. v. Riddle, where numerous other instances 
 are given, the number of which might easily be doubled. 
 
 2 Kalisch, Genesis, p. 114. Hiller, Onomasticon, p. 950. Ewald, 
 Proph. d. alien Bundes, i. 18.
 
 268 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 from Eesh l 'man ;' nor can Noah be derived from Nd- 
 ckam ' to comfort ' in Gen. v. 29 ; nor again, since 
 Moses is an Egyptian name (Ex. ii. 10, cf. Gen. xli. 45), 
 can it be possibly derived from the Hebrew Maskah 
 * he saved.' 2 These instances, and they might be largely 
 multiplied, show that in many cases the inferences 
 drawn from names in the Bible are not intended as 
 etymologies, but are adduced to illustrate the mystic 
 relations of words, and to represent certain facts and 
 influences in the lives of those who bore them. For to 
 the Oriental every word appeared to have in itself a 
 divine primeval character, and to retain some fragment 
 of the creative breath. 3 It is well worth our enquiry 
 whether there is not a still earlier instance of this view 
 in the explanation of the name Adam ? To suppose 
 that it is derived from Adamah ' earth ' is philologi- 
 cally difficult, if not impossible ; and both words are 
 probably connected with adam ( he was red,' * red 
 being the colour by which the Semitic race is depicted 
 
 1 ' The similarity of the sound only could have been alluded to, and 
 by no means the derivation of the word.' Mason and Bernard, Hebr. 
 Gram. \. 122. See, however, on the other side, Ewald, Hebr. Gram. 
 i. 318 ; Katisch, Genesis, p. 116. Gesenius (Thes. i. 87) says that the de- 
 rivation, ' quamvis non satis accurata, tamen scriptori sacro notatu digna 
 videbatur.' 
 
 2 Accordingly Josephus says, Antt. ii. 9, 6, rb ykp vSiap pa ol AlyvTrrtoi 
 naXovffiv, ti<ri)s 8e TOVS e{ uSaros ffadfvras. On Noah, Mr. J. Perowne 
 says, ' It is quite plain that the name "rest" and the verb " comfort" 
 are of different roots ; and we must not try to make a philologist of 
 Lamech, and suppose that he was giving an accurate derivation of the 
 name Noah. He merely plays upon the name after a fashion common 
 enough in all ages and countries.' Diet, of the Bible, s. v. 
 
 * Wienbarg, Das Geheimniss des Wortes, p. viii. 
 
 4 See Jos. Antt. i. 1, 2 ; Leuden, Onomast. s. v. Adam. The Indians 
 have a tradition that man was made out of red clay ; the Chinese say 
 that it was yellow clay.
 
 CH. xxii. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 269 
 
 on the Egyptian monuments. We may then accept 
 Gen. ii. 7 as one of those instances in which the name 
 serves to remind the writer of some cognate or similar 
 word, 1 which naturally suggested the same conclusion 
 as that drawn by the Greeks from the similarity of 
 \aas 'a stone,' and Xaos * people,' 2 and by the Komans 
 from the resemblance of ' homo' and ' humus.' In this 
 way at any rate we remove, for those who feel it, the 
 difficulty (!) arising from the fact that the ultimate 
 constituents of man's body are not dust and clay, but 
 albumen, phosphate of lime, fat, haematin, and many 
 chemical ingredients. 
 
 There are fifty of these allusive applications of names 
 in the book of Genesis alone, and the instances of Isaac, 
 Jacob, Seth, Esau, Edom, Judah,Gad, Dan, Peleg, Shem, 
 Japheth, will at once occur to the reader's mind. In 
 some instances, as those of Eve, Abel, Noah, Nabal, 
 Solomon, the name was clearly supposed to have a pro- 
 phetic character. 3 Even in the New Testament we find 
 
 1 Thia mode of treating words is not uncommon ; many etymologies 
 of the ancients which sound so absurd to us were not always meant for 
 'etymologies' in the strict sense, but for allegorical interpretations, or 
 sometimes even for a mere memoria technica : as when the Roman 
 Jurisconsults derive 'mutuus' 'quod ex meo tmimfiat,' and testammtum 
 from testatio mentis ; or as when the Fathers connect ' Paschal ' and 
 iraffxtiv, or the Pythagoreans forbade the use of peas and beans (\dBvpoi, 
 epf&ivdoi) because they were \~fi6its itai tptfiovs irapd>w/j.a ; or the Stoics 
 derive Ov^'iapa from Ovfwv fefta, and Solcecism from a6ov \6yov cuKur/uoV, 
 &c. Lobeck, Aglaopham. p. 869. 
 
 2 There is possibly an allusion to this in Homer's play upon \aovs 
 and \iBovs. Comp. Pind. 0. ix. 66. 
 
 1 The ancients noticed the same fact in the name Hippolytns, &c. 
 ' Protesilae, tibi nomen sic fata dederunt, 
 
 Victima quod Trojae prima futurus eras. 
 Idmona quod vatem, medicum quod lapida dicunt, 
 
 Discendas artes nomina prseveniuut.' Auson. Ep. xx.
 
 270 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 our Lord himself in a solemn moment fixing on the 
 mind of his greatest Apostle a new and solemn signifi- 
 cance given to the name be bore. ' Thou art Peter, and 
 on this rock will I build my Church.' 1 St. Paul also is 
 probably playing upon a name when, in Phil. iv. 3, he 
 affectionately addresses a friend as yvrjcm 'Zv&ye, ' true 
 yokefellow,' since it is an ancient and very probable 
 supposition that Syzygus or Yokefellow is there a proper 
 name. 
 
 So deep was the sacredness attached to names that 
 the great ebbs and flows in the tide of Jewish thought 2 
 may be traced by a diligent study of the names they 
 adopted. Hence too their practice, under certain grave 
 conditions, of changing men's names, a practice which 
 is strikingly illustrated in the histories of Abraham, 
 Sarah, Jacob, Benjamin, Joshua, and Gideon. * Call 
 me not Naomi (pleasant), but Mara (bitter),' said the 
 broken-hearted widow of Elimelech. In later times 
 we find the name of Pashur indignantly changed by 
 Jeremiah into Magor-missabib, i.e. 'terror on every 
 side' (Jer. xx. 3 10), but no ingenuity has yet been able 
 decisively to state why the name of Saul of Tarsus was, 
 after his conversion, changed to Paul. 
 
 1 ' Among the Hebrews even anagrams formed a part of the cabbalistic 
 science, and afforded a clue to the discovery of those mysterious oracles 
 which it was imagined the Almighty in his wisdom had connected with 
 the giving of proper names.' Salverte, i. 12. One or two astonishing in- 
 stances (Sheshach, &c.) from the two modes of interpretation called 
 Athbash and Grammateia might be adduced. The belief in the signi- 
 ficance of anagrams lasted till a very late period. The series of miracles 
 connected with the ' garnet ears ' of wheat were suggested from the fact 
 that the letters of Pater Henricus Garnetius (hanged for complicity in 
 the Gunpowder Plot, 1606) form the words 'piugere cruentus arista.' 
 
 2 See Ewald's article on Names in Kitto's Cyclop.
 
 CH. xxn. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 271 
 
 In one of the Chaldean oracles of Zoroaster we find 
 the rule 
 
 I TOT" d\Aa|7js, 
 flffl yap ord/xara irdp' tKatffrois BtoffSora 
 5vvafj.iv tv Te\ToTs &ppr\rov e^aiTa. 1 
 
 The Jews, however, did not share this reverence for 
 barbarous or foreign names ; on the contrary, their 
 ' contumelia numinum ' 2 was proverbial among the 
 ancients and made them deeply unpopular. This was 
 why they changed Bethel * the house of God ' into 
 Bethaven * the house of vanity ; ' Beelzebul * Lord of 
 heaven ' into Beelzebub ' the Lord of filth ; ' Kir Heres 
 ' the city of the Sun ' into Kir Cheres * the city of de- 
 struction;' Har Hamischah 'the mount of olives' into 
 Har Hamaschith ' the mount of corruption ; ' 3 Jerub- 
 baal and Meribbaal into Jerubbesheth and Mephibo- 
 sheth, where Baal * Lord ' is altered into Bosheth 
 i shame.' This custom may very possibly have been 
 confirmed in the Jews by a literal acceptation of Exod. 
 xxiii. 13, ' Make no mention of the name of other gods, 
 neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.' It was how- 
 ever equally common in the case of men ; thus Achan 
 was changed to Achor or * trouble,' and the impostor 
 Barchocebas * the son of a star ' was called Barchozibas 
 4 the son of a lie.' 4 
 
 Much of this notion respecting the intrinsic signifi- 
 cance of names 5 rose from the belief that Language 
 
 1 Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 271. 
 
 2 Plin. xiii. 9. Winer, Bibl. Realworterb. s. v. Gotteslasterung. 
 
 8 Selden, de Diis Syr. Syntagm. 2, p. 211. I am aware that nearly 
 all these instances are strongly disputed. 
 
 4 Salverte (History of fiames, p. 12, ed. Mordacque) gives a Persian 
 instance. 
 
 * Philo speaks of the natural power of words. See Bochart, Hierozoi-
 
 272 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 was divinely inspired, and the result of Adam's incom- 
 parable wisdom. According to the Cabbalists Adam 
 was taught by the Angel Eaziel, and received a celestial 
 alphabet ; according to others his teacher was a certain 
 Somboscer. Clemens Alexandrinus l distinctly attri- 
 butes his power of naming the animals to a prophetic 
 gift, and St. Chrysostom 2 took it as a proof of consum- 
 mate intelligence. The phrase 'that was the name 
 thereof implied, says Eusebius, 3 that the name had an 
 intrinsic and natural meaning. * God called the light 
 day, and the darkness he called night,' says Theophilus, 4 
 * since man would not have been able to name these 
 things, nor indeed anything else, if he had not received 
 their designation from the God who created them.' 
 The same views are still held by many, perhaps by the 
 majority. 'Adarn,' says South in his sermon on the 
 State of Man before the Fall, ' came into the world a 
 philosopher, which sufficiently appears by his writing 
 the nature of things upon their names.'' It is a curious 
 and significant fact that we find the very same con- 
 ception among the Chinese, who say that Fohi per- 
 formed his duty of nomenclature so well 'that by 
 naming the things their very nature was made known.' 5 
 All that we have said about the Jews finds its parallel 
 in the literature of the Greeks and Eomans. All the 
 Epic poets from Homer 6 downwards, all the Lyric poets 
 beginning with Pindar, 7 all the tragedians the pro- 
 cow, vol. i. p. 58 ; Heidegger, Hist. Pair. p. 37, &c. Some of the riews 
 of the Rabbi and Fathers are quoted by Michaeler, De Orig. Linguae, 
 pp. 167-196. 
 
 1 Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 335. 2 Chrys. Ham. XIV. in Gen. 
 
 9 Euseb. Preep. Evang. xi. 6. 4 Theoph. ad Autolyc. ii 18. 
 
 5 Chou-king, Dissert. Prelim, p. 84. ' Find. Nem. vii. 42. 
 
 6 On the name Odysseus, Od. i. 20.
 
 CH. xxn. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 273 
 
 found and majestic ^Eschylus no less than the tender 
 realistic Euripides, nay even the orators, 1 who spoke 
 for the people, resort to these plays on words, and 
 especially on names, as a necessary ornament of their 
 style. No doubt with some of them it became a mere 
 trick of rhetoric, 2 a mere acrrsLorr^s capable of being 
 reduced to definite rules; but with men like Homer, 
 Pindar, and ^Eschylus it was regarded in a far different 
 light. Throughout the whole of Grecian Antiquity 
 reigned the popular belief that there existed a necessary 
 mysterious connection between words and the objects 
 signified by them, so that man unconsciously, as though 
 under the guidance of a higher Power, expressed, in 
 the words whereby he named things or persons, their 
 innermost being and future destiny as though in a 
 symbol incomprehensible even to himself. 3 If the com- 
 mentators had understood this tendency they might have 
 saved themselves their bursts of indignation against 
 these * putida et frigida etymologia, et tragicd digni- 
 tate alienaS* We think the pun on a man's name the 
 lowest kind of wit, but assuredly it was no intention to 
 
 1 Chiefly however in jest, as Conon played on the name Thrasybulus ; 
 and Herodicus on the names Thrasymachus, and Polus, and Draco, say- 
 ing that the laws of the latter were the laws of a Dragon. Herodotus 
 (vi. 50) records the joke of Cleomenes on the name Krius (ram). Cicero 
 is particularly full of these jokes, playing on the name Verres (boar-pig) 
 with constant delight, as well as on the name Chrysogonus, &c. When 
 Philippus, punning on the name Catulus, exclaimed ' Quid latras, Catule ?' 
 the happy answer was ' Furem video.' Quinct. vi. 3. 
 
 2 See Arist. Bhet. ii. 23. 
 
 8 Schwable in Steinthal, Gesch. d. Sprach. B. 17. 
 
 4 Such a play on words seems to have acted like a red rag on com- 
 mentators, from whom a curious florilegium might be gathered of vitu- 
 perative phrases against this 'ludicra dicendi ratio," 'illepida carminis 
 forma,' 'argutise,' &c. Quinctilian leads the way with his 'frigidum 
 sane.' Instt. Or. \. 10. 
 
 T
 
 274 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 be witty which led j^Eschylus to spend twelve bitter 
 lines of a splendid and passionate chorus in denouncing 
 
 Sweet Helen 
 Hell in her name, but heaven in her looks; 1 
 
 nor did he imagine himself to be comic when he makes 
 Cassandra in the mid screams of her heart-shaking 
 prophetic frenzy play on the meanings of the names 
 Apollo and Aguieus. 2 Nor again would Sophocles have 
 admitted the charge of bad taste for beginning the 
 tragic denunciation of Pyrrhus by Philoctetes with the 
 terrible paronomasia, 
 
 *fl irvp ffv KaL vav 8eT/xa. s 
 
 In all probability both he and his predecessor believed 
 profoundly in the science of Onomantia. ' Modern trans- 
 lators have often tried to apologise for what might seem 
 an unwarrantable play upon words, but no apology was 
 needed in a city where to commemorate the self- 
 sacrifice and courageous heroism of Leaena the inha- 
 bitants themselves had erected the bronze figure of a 
 lioness.' Nor, it may be added, would such a method 
 of treating names be considered unimportant among a 
 nation whose chiefs were persuaded to a most important 
 military enterprise by the accidental omen in the name 
 
 1 'EXeVr; 6\eVas, e\av5pas eAeVroAts. ^Esch. Ag. 689. See on this 
 subject, Salverte, i. 37. The English lines are from Peele's Edward I. 
 
 2 Ag. 1040, 1049. In ^Eschylus we also find these paronomasias on 
 Epaphus (Prom. 875), on the river Hybristes (Id. 742), on lo (Id. 7 18), 
 on Prometheus (Id. 86), &c. Sophocles has them on Ajax, Sidero, and 
 Polynices ; Euripides on Theoclymene, Theonoe, Thoas, Meleager, 
 Aphrodite, &c. ; Theocritus on Pentheus (xxvi. 26), &c. 
 
 * Any one who wishes to see the instances collected may consult 
 Lersch, iii. 11-17; Sturz, Opuscc.p. 78, De Nominibus Greeds; Meineke, 
 ad Euphor. p. 128; Elmsley, Bacch. 508; Creuzer, de Arte Hist. Grcea. 
 p. 52 ; Host, ad Phcen. 639, &c.
 
 CH. xxii. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 275 
 
 of an envoy who was called ' Hegesistratus ' or ' leader 
 of an army.' l 
 
 The same feelings profoundly actuated the Komans. 
 They would all have echoed the language of Ausonius 
 (Ep. xx.) : 
 
 Nam divinare est nomen componere, quod sit 
 Fortunse, morum, vel necis indicium. 
 
 In their levies, Cicero informs us, they took care to 
 enrol first such names as Victor, and Felix, and Faustus, 
 and Secundus; and were anxious to head the roll of 
 the census with a word of such happy augury as Salvius 
 Valerius. Caesar gave a command in Spain to an 
 obscure Scipio simply for the sake of the omen which 
 his name involved. Scipio upbraids his mutinous 
 soldiers with having followed to the field an Atrius 
 Umber a 'dux abominandi nominis' (Liv. xxviii. 28), 
 being, as De Quincey calls him, a * pleonasm of darkness.' 
 The Emperor Severus consoled himself on the im- 
 moralities of his Empress Julia, because she bore the 
 same name as the profligate daughter of Augustus. To 
 come down to later times, Adrian VI. when he became 
 Pope wished to retain his own name, but was prevented 
 from doing so on being informed by his cardinals that 
 all the Popes who had done so, had died in the first 
 year of their reign. 2 
 
 In almost every other national literature, and that 
 not in consequence of a mere desire to imitate the 
 ancients, but from an outgrowth of the same feelings 
 which animated them, we find examples of the same 
 
 1 See Herod, ix. 91. Grote, v. 259. 
 
 2 Mervoyer, fit. sur FAssoc. d'Idees, p. 376. As bearing on the same 
 subject I may refer to a paper of mine on Curious Predictions in ' the 
 Museum.' 
 
 X 2
 
 276 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 belief in the independent value of words and names. 
 In Shakspeare the play upon names is often introduced 
 in some of the most thrilling passages; as in Cym- 
 beline (v. 5) : 
 
 Thou Leonatus art the lion's whelp 
 
 The fit and apt construction of thy name ; 
 
 Being Leo-natus doth import so much ; 
 
 and in King John, Constance even in the transport of 
 her anguish exclaims (iii. 1): 
 
 lawful let it be, 
 That I have room with Rome to curse awhile ; 
 
 and in As You Like it Claudio breaks forth with 
 
 Hero, what a Hero hadst thou been 
 
 If half thy outward graces had been placed 
 
 About thy thoughts, and counsels of thy heart ; 
 
 and once more in Richard //., ii. 2, John of Gaunt 
 replies to the King's address, 
 
 Old Gaunt indeed and gaunt in being old ; . . . 
 Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave 
 Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones ; 
 
 upon which the King asks in surprise, 
 
 Can sick men play so nicely with their names ? 
 
 and Gaunt gives this very striking answer : 
 
 No ! Misery makes sport to mock herself. 1 
 
 Poets of undeniable taste have continued the process 2 
 
 1 ' God forgive me for making such bad puns,' writes Sir W. Napier 
 in one of his indignant letters, ' but a bitter feeling sometimes turns to 
 humour to avoid cursing.' Life of Sir W. Napier, ii. 241. 
 
 2 All our earlier and Elizabethan writers supply similar instances. 
 Thus in the comedy of Patient Grissel we have Furio thus addressed : 
 
 ' When thou com'st to her rough and. furious 
 
 I pray thee on thy life be like thy name ; ' 
 and in Decker 
 
 ' Thy name is Angela 
 And like that name thou art.'
 
 CH. xxn. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 277 
 
 down to the most recent times. Cowper says of the 
 poet Bloomfield 
 
 "While fields shall bloom thy name shall live ;* 
 
 and even Wordsworth begins his touching lines to the 
 memory of Charles Lamb with the allusion 
 
 From the most gentle creature born in fields 
 Had been derived the name he bore, a name 
 Hallowed to meekness and to innocence. 
 
 The changes of name for purposes of scorn, com- 
 pliment, or memorial are also common in all periods 
 of history. The Athenians were christened by their 
 enemies Grapenians (Ke^i/atot); Demosthenes sneers 
 at ^Eschines for changing Tromes and Emprisa, his 
 parents' names, into Atrometus and GTlaucothea ; Chry- 
 sippus received the contemptuous appellation Chesip- 
 pus ; Antiochus Epiphanes was changed by the angry 
 Jews into Epimanes ; Tiberius Claudius Nero from his 
 drunkenness was nicknamed Biberius Caldius Mero ; 
 ^Etius, not without a reference to his name, was called 
 "A#eos, 2 and the Arians were nicknamed Ariomanites. 
 Jerome changed the name of his adversary Vigilantius 
 into Dormitantius ; the original name of Servius II. 
 was Groin, and this was the reason why he first of those 
 who assumed the tiara changed his name ; Louis XI. 
 altered the name of his barber Olivier le Diable, first 
 into Olivier le Mauvais, then to 0. le Malin, and then 
 into 0. le Daim, and by a public decree forbade either 
 of his former names to be mentioned; 3 Maria Theresa 
 on the other hand called her minister Thunichtgut by 
 
 1 He has a similar play on the name Edgeworth. 
 
 2 Gieseler, Church History, i. 329, Engl. tr. 
 
 * P. Mervoyer, Et. sur F Association d'Idees, p. 377.
 
 278 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 the much more promising title of Thugut. Salverte 
 tells a story of a Delaware chief, who being accustomed 
 only to names that had a real reference, asked the 
 meaning of Colonel Sprout's name. ' The colonel was a 
 man of remarkable size. The chief was told that the 
 name meant " a shoot." " No," he said, " he cannot be 
 the shoot, he is the tree itself." ' He could not con- 
 ceive the existence of a name which was not significant. 
 The universal prevalence of Euphemism as a prin- 
 ciple of language is due to a belief in the mystic power 
 of words to work their own fulfilment, as one of the 
 laws of destiny, 1 It is hardly necessary to refer to the 
 familiar instances of the Erinyes called Eumenides, or 
 * the gentle ones,' of Epidamnus changed into Dyrrha- 
 chium, Axeinos into Euxine, Maleventum into Bene- 
 ventum, Egesta into Segesta, or Capo Tormentoso into 
 Cape of Good Hope. ' These omens derived from 
 names,' says De Quincey, 2 * are common to the ancient 
 and modern world. But perhaps they ought to be 
 classed under a much larger head, viz. words, gene- 
 rally, no matter whether proper names or appellatives, 
 viewed a,s operative powers and agencies, bearing, that 
 is to say, a charmed power against some party con- 
 cerned from the moment that they leave the lips.' 
 After mentioning the utter avoidance of all direct 
 mention of death, he continues, ' Good taste is not in 
 itself sufficient to account for a scrupulousness so 
 general and so austere. . . . This timidity arises from 
 
 1 See Disraeli, Curios, of Lit. ii. 62. Mill's Logic, ii. 30. The mere 
 euphonic changes of name are of course quite different ; such as Diocles 
 into Diocletian, De la Borgne to Strabo, Charpentier to Fabricius, 
 Schwartzerd to Melanchthon, &c. 
 
 2 De Quincey's Modern Superstitions, "Works, iii. 303 (Black's ed.).
 
 CH. xxii. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 279 
 
 the old superstition still lingering amongst men. . . . 
 No progressive knowledge will ever medicine that 
 dread misgiving of a mysterious and pathless power 
 given to words of a certain import, or uttered in certain 
 situations, by a parent for instance to persecuting or 
 insulting children ; l by the victim of horrible oppres- 
 sion when labouring in final agonies; and by others, 
 whether cursing or blessing, who stand central to great 
 passions, to great blessings, or to great perplexities. 
 And here, by way of parenthesis, I might stop to at- 
 tempt an explanation of the force attached to that 
 Scriptural expression " Thou hast said iV It is an 
 answer adopted by our Saviour, and the meaning seems 
 radically to be this, 2 the popular belief authorised the 
 notion that simply to have uttered any great thesis, 
 though unconsciously, simply to have united verbally 
 any two great ideas, though for a purpose the most 
 different or even opposite, had the mysterious power of 
 realising them in act. . . . An exclamation, though in 
 the purest spirit of sport, addressed to a boy, " You 
 shall be our Imperator," 3 was many times supposed 
 to be the forerunner and fatal mandate for the boy's 
 elevation. Words that were blind, and words that were 
 torn from frantic depths of anguish, oftentimes, it was 
 thought, executed themselves. To connect, though but 
 for denial or for mockery, the ideas of Jesus and the 
 Messiah, furnished an augury of their eventual coinci- 
 
 1 Jacob's deathbed prophecy, turning as it mainly does on the signifi- 
 cance of names, will at once occur to the reader. 
 
 2 By quoting this explanation for the sake of the thoughts which it 
 involves, I do not mean to endorse its truth. That it does express the 
 Jewish conception is illustrated by their belief in the famous Bath Kol. 
 
 * Such stories are told of Galba, and of our own Henry VII. among 
 others.
 
 280 OIS T LANGUAGE. CH. xxii. 
 
 dence. It was an argument-urn ad hominem, and 
 drawn from a popular faith.' ! 
 
 Undoubtedly hundreds of instances might be adduced 
 in which chance words have seemed to become living 
 powers effectual for evil or for good. It is easy to ex- 
 plain this on the hypothesis of accidental coincidences ; 
 but the explanation has never carried conviction to the 
 popular instinct, and there can be little doubt that this 
 dark ominousness of words their apparent power of 
 meeting with .malignant exterior influences, and coope- 
 rating with them for evil has been one great ground 
 for the views of the Analogists as to their inherent 
 force. Again, there are words in all languages which 
 appear to have been directly created, to have issued 
 direct from the human mind. For, says M. Victor 
 Hugo, 'it is the mystery of language to paint with 
 words which have, we know not how or why, faces. 
 This is the primitive foundation of every human lan- 
 guage, or what might be called the granite. Slang 
 swarms with words of this nature, words created all of 
 one piece, it is impossible to say when or by whom, 
 without etymologies, analogies, or derivatives solitary, 
 barbarous, and at times hideous words which have a 
 singular power of expression, and are alive. The exe- 
 cutioner, le taule ; forest le sabri ; fear taf ; the devil 
 le rabouin. . . . They form transparent masks, gro- 
 tesque and terrible like a Cyclopean grimace.' Ad- 
 miring the rare eloquence of this passage, we must 
 reject its assertion that words are ever thus created. 
 Their origin may be forgotten, but assuredly there was 
 
 1 De Quincey quotes as another instance of stray words taking effect, 
 and becoming fruitful of consequences, the answer of the impatient 
 Pythia to Alexander the Great, D iral aviKarbs e?.
 
 CH. xxii. THti NATUEE OF WORDS. 281 
 
 always a definite and intelligible motive for the forms 
 they assume. Nay even the instances which M. Victor 
 Hugo selects are easily explicable. ' Taule ' is derived 
 from * tollere,' the cry of ' tolle, tolle ' being frequent 
 in an old passion-play. Sabri is very possibly a mere 
 metathesis for arbres. Taf l is a pure onomatopO3ia from 
 a French proverb in which tif-taf is used like our own 
 expression ' my heart went pit-a-pat.' Lastly rabouin 
 is from the Spanish rabo ' a tail,' and means the per- 
 sonage with a tail ; and M. Michel, from whose phi- 
 lological study of the Argot we borrow these derivations, 
 thinks that the medieval belief that the Jews were born 
 with tails rose from a consequent misinterpretation of 
 the word Rabbi. 
 
 Another ground for accepting the mystic origin of 
 language has been the extraordinary and inexplicable 
 moral influence which words have exercised. The 
 Athenians, by a tendency which they named Asteiotes 
 or Hypocorisma, systematically substituted pleasant for 
 unpleasant names, and gilded the most disagreeable 
 subjects with tolerable and decorous designations. 2 
 The left hand being ill-omened they called ' the better' 
 or ' well-named ' hand ; idiocy they called simplicity 
 (cf. * natural,' * simpleton,' ' buon huomo'); 'taxes' 
 were termed 'subscriptions' or 'contributions;' 'the 
 prison' was 'the house;' the executioner 'a public 
 servant;' a general abolition of debts was 'a disbur- 
 dening ordinance.' 3 Now imagine the power and 
 
 1 According to Michel, and Nodier, and Covamivias, taffetas is also an 
 onomatopoeia from the noise made by the substance ; and a passage in 
 M. Vambery's Travels (p. 173) shows this derivation to be certain. 
 
 2 rovs ' AOrivaiovs \4yovari ras ruv irpayfidrcav Svffx e p f ^ as oi/6fjM<ri XPn~ 
 
 l <t>t\avdp<aTrois tiriKa\vTrroiTas affTfiias vTroKopltffOcu. Plutarch. 
 See Stallbaum, Plato, Rep. p. 474 E. For the flattering hypocorisms
 
 282 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xxn. 
 
 danger of this hypocoristic process in times when it was 
 fashionable to fling a delicate covering over the naked 
 hideousness of vice. Thucydides 1 in one of the most 
 profound and memorable passages in his history tells us 
 how the morals of the Grreeks of his day were under- 
 mined, and how carefully they concealed the ruin of 
 their character under the flowers of their speech. ' The 
 customary meaning of words with reference to actions 
 they changed,' he says, * at their will and pleasure ; for 
 unreasoning rashness passed as " manliness " and " esprit 
 de corps," and prudent caution for specious cowardice ; 
 sobermindedness was a mere " cloak for effeminacy," and 
 general prudence was " inefficient inertness." ' 2 ' Men are 
 wont for the most part,' says Procopius, ' to be ashamed 
 not of base deeds but of base names.' * Venit ad me,' 
 says Seneca, 3 ' pro amico blandus inimicus ; vitia nobis 
 sub virtutum nomine obrepunt ; temeritas sub fortitu- 
 dinis titulo latet ; moderatio vocatur ignavia ; pro cauto 
 timidus accipitur.' We are familiar with the * Steal ? 
 Foh! convey the wise it call' 4 of Shakspeare's rogue. 
 The same hypocorisma runs through the whole vocabu- 
 lary of the Argot. To take instances of such euphemism 
 from Shakspeare alone, we find that ' Thieves ' call 
 
 of lovers and parents see Plut. de Leg. Poet. p. 44 ; De AdvJat. et Amic. 
 Discrimine, 56 c ; De Auditione, p. 44 F. (These are quoted at length 
 in Stallbaum's Plato, Legg. ii. 5.) See too Lucret.'iv. 1154 ; Hor. Sat. i. 
 3, 37-48, &c. 
 
 1 Thuc. Hist. iii. 82. 
 
 * Compare a very similar passage in Clarendon's Life, ii. 39. 
 
 3 Sen. Ep. xliv. ; in Ep. cxiv. there are some striking remarks on this 
 subject. 
 
 4 Compare K. Rich. II. iv. 1 : 
 
 ' Bolingbroke. Convey him to the tower. 
 K. Rich. Oh ! good ! Convey ? Conveyors are you all.' 
 The French emporteur has the same sense.
 
 CH.XXU. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 283 
 
 themselves * St. Nicholas's clerks' (Henry IV. I. ii. 1), 
 * nut-hooks' (Merry Wives, i. 1), * Michers' (Henry IV. 
 I. ii. 4), 'Trojans' (Love's Labour's lost, v. 2), any- 
 thing in fact but thieves', just as to this day among the 
 low and the vicious a lie is not a lie but ' a cram;' and 
 to steal is not to steal but ' to bag ' or * to crib,' and this 
 devil's vocabulary gives opprobrious names to virtues, as 
 well as glossing names to every vice. 1 It is hardly pos- 
 sible to exaggerate the effects of such words, when we 
 see throughout all history the influence of single ex- 
 pressions. Consider the effects produced on the Saxons 
 by the word 'niedrig? on the French by the word 
 ' gloire ; ' on many nations by the simple onomatopoeia 
 t barbarian ;' on philosophy by the use of the word ' at- 
 traction ;' on our Indian government by the misappli- 
 cation of the term * landed proprietor.' 2 All these are 
 
 1 We must again refer to the chapter in Les Miserables by V. Hugo. 
 ' One word,' lie says, ' resembles a claw ; another a lustreless and 
 bleeding eye ; and some phrases seem to snap like the pincers of a crab. 
 All this lives with the hideous vitality of things which are organised in 
 disorganisation. It is the ugly, odious, cunning, treacherous, venomous, 
 blear-eyed, vile, profound, and fatal language of misery. . . . The words 
 are deformed, wild, imprinted with a kind of fantastic bestiality. You 
 fancy that you hear hydras conversing ; in darkness it gnashes its teeth, 
 and talks in whispers, supplementing the gloom by enigmas. It is a 
 horrifying froglike language which goes, comes, hops, crawls, slavers, and 
 moans monstrously in that common grey mist composed of crime, night, 
 hunger, vice, falsehood, injustice, nudity, asphyxia, and winter which 
 is the highnoon of the wretched. . . .' 
 
 ' Mirlababi, surlababo 
 
 Mirliton, ribonribette 
 
 Surlababi, mirlababo 
 
 Mirliton ribonribo.' 
 
 This is that shrill and leaping chorus of the galley-slaves ' which seems 
 illumined by a phosphorescent gleam, and appears cast into the forest by 
 a will-of-the-wisp playing the fife.' I abridge from the translation of 
 Les Miserables by Sir F. Lascelles Wraxall. 
 * See Origin of Lang. p. 114.
 
 284 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxii. 
 
 instances of those * rabble-charming words' which, as 
 South says, ' have so much wild-fire wrapped up in 
 them.' Consider again the marvellous correlation of 
 Language and national morality ; ' the indefinable and 
 indefinite unison of style and individual character. 
 There is then <a besotting intoxication which this 
 verbal magic, if I may so call it, brings upon the mind 
 of man. . . . Words are able to persuade men out of 
 what they find and feel, to reverse the very impressions 
 of sense, and to amuse men with fancies and paradoxes 
 even in spite of nature and experience. . . . He who 
 shall duly consider these matters will find that there is 
 a certain bewitchery or fascination in words, which 
 makes them operate with a force beyond what we can 
 naturally give account o/.' 2 
 
 The facts which we have here passed in review must 
 receive due attention from the philologist, whatever 
 theory of language he may hold. It is not strange that 
 when taken in conjunction with the subtle laws which 
 influence what can only be called the germination of 
 language, they inspired the ancient Analogists with a 
 conviction respecting their own theories, which the 
 jokes and sneers of the opposite school were quite un- 
 able to shake. But in spite of the apparent ominous 
 force of language, in spite of its subtle sorcery, its 
 hidden operative agencies, its imperceptible growth, 3 
 
 1 ' Genus dicendi imitatur publicos mores ; si disciplina civitatis 
 laboravit et se in delicias dedit, argumentum est luxuriae public* ora- 
 tionis lascivia : si modo non in uno aut ,in altero sint, sed approbata et 
 recepta. Non potest alius esse ingenio, alius animo color.' Seneca, Ep. 
 114. See also Herder, Geist der ebraischcn Poesie, i. 12. Origin of 
 Lang. p. 145. 
 
 2 South's Sermons. 
 
 3 Prof. Max Miiller (Lectures, i. 203) considers this expression 'incon-
 
 CH. xxn. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 285 
 
 its secret germinative power in spite even of certain 
 imponderable and inexplicable elements which remain 
 after all that is discoverable in the history of language 
 has been subtracted, we have seen in the course of our 
 previous enquiries, and shall see further in the next 
 chapter, that the Analogists were wrong ; that lan- 
 guage is no diviner than any other product of the 
 human intelligence; that it contains in itself the 
 germs of no new truths ; that it has nothing whatever 
 to tell us of the nature of things. 
 
 ceivable,' and as an instance in which ' poetical phraseology takes the 
 place of sound and severe reasoning.' I can only reply that it is an 
 obvious metaphor which approximately represents the facts and their un- 
 known cause ; and it is one which he himself constantly employs. See 
 pp. 36, 40, 59, 66, 126, 130 of his Lectures (First edition). Indeed his 
 terms are contradictory, for on p. 66 he says that his use of the word 
 ' growth ' means mere accretion, like that of the crust of the earth ; yet 
 on p. 49 ' Language requires a soil on which to grow ; ' and again on 
 p. 59 ' Kemove a language from its native soil, tear it away from the 
 dialects which are its feeders, and you at once arrest its natural growth.' 
 Moreover Bunsen, the last person whom he would wish to disparage, says 
 even more strongly that language ' has all the distinctive peculiarities of 
 vegetable nature, &c.' Outlines, ii. 135, and in i. 166 he talks of ' the 
 analogy existing between the development of plants and words.' Schleieher 
 says ' Die Sprachen leben, wie alle Naturorganismen ; sie handeln nicht 
 wie der Mensch, haben also keine Geschichte, woferne wir dieses Wort 
 in seinem engeren und eigentlichen Sinne fassen.' Comp. d. vergl. 
 Gram. p. 1.
 
 286 OX LANGUAGE. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXIII. 
 THE NATURE otf WORDS continued. 
 
 Words are the notes of thought, and nothing more ; 
 Words are like seashells on the shore, they show 
 Where the mind ends, and not how far it has been. 
 
 BAILEY'S Festus. 
 
 IT has been a favourite practice with writers on Lan- 
 guage to illustrate the union of sound and sense in 
 Words by the analogous union of Body and Soul in 
 Man ; 1 and the analogy is not unnatural, because Lan- 
 guage owes its development both to physical and to 
 intellectual laws. But we must not be misled by a 
 mere figure of speech to the conclusion that the organic 
 union of sound with sense is as inexplicable a mystery 
 as the combination of soul and body into one living 
 being. If the connection between them were purely 
 arbitrary, if no account could be given of the conformity 
 between the sign and the thing signified, we might ac- 
 cept the existence of language as an ultimate fact which 
 no enquiry could penetrate or explain. But we have 
 seen in the previous pages that there is no reason for 
 assuming that the origin of Language lias been veiled 
 in this divine obscurity; so far from offering us an 
 
 1 Becker, Organism* d. Sprache, 1, 2, 4. Hermann, Das Problem d. 
 Sprache, p. 1.
 
 CH. xxin. THE NATUEE OP WORDS. 287 
 
 insoluble problem it is capable, as we have seen, of a 
 perfectly simple, perfectly natural, and perfectly demon- 
 strable solution. Sounds, the material of words, are 
 furnished to us by the sense of hearing acted upon by 
 the Voice, the organs of the Voice being stimulated 
 to energy by a reflex action resulting from nervous im- 
 pressions, whether caused by external influences or by 
 inward emotions. Direct imitation of sounds (onoma- 
 topoeias), as well as instinctive utterances of feeling 
 (interjections), are due to this close living sympathy 
 between soul and body, the instinct of imitation being 
 probably, in its earliest stages, a purely nervous pheno- 
 menon and not a conscious act. 
 
 The material of speech having thus been supplied by 
 the body, and by the senses, the Soul began to play its 
 part. The Imagination, working by the Law of Asso- 
 ciation of Ideas, elevated the modified imitation or the 
 instinctive cry into a symbol of the thing from which 
 the sound emanated, or of the emotion by which the 
 cry was caused. 
 
 Then, thirdly, the Understanding seized upon this 
 symbolic mark as a sign of the object signified, a sign 
 capable of being banished and recalled at pleasure, and 
 capable further of being elevated above the mere indi- 
 vidual representation into a pure concept of an entire 
 genus or species. 1 
 
 In every word then we can distinguish three factors : 
 (i.) the sound, which is the incarnation of the thought ; 
 (ii.) the inner form of the word, or the special method of 
 this incarnation ; and (iii.) the meaning, i.e. the intui- 
 
 1 See Heyse, pp. 95, 160. And for a still fuller treatment of the 
 whole subject Steinthal, Charakter. des hauptsdchlichsten Sprachbaue*, 
 76-105. Gramm, Log. und Psychol. 236-320, et passim.
 
 288 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxm. 
 
 tions and concepts which the word expresses. In this 
 respect a word resembles a work of art, which also con- 
 tains three elements : e.g. the material of this statue is 
 marble; the form of it is a virgin figure with sword and 
 scales ; and it represents Justice. 1 
 
 Now the ancients very generally believed that words 
 were images, copies, imitations, microcosms of the sensible 
 world, 2 and that they expressed the nature and essence 
 of things ; and similar expressions have been used down 
 to the latest times ; this conception of them being, as 
 we saw in the last chapter, common alike to the pro- 
 foundest philosophers and the most untutored savage. 
 Is there any gleam of truth in such a view ? 
 
 Absolutely none, unless it may be supposed to lie in 
 the single fancy that interjections being purely uncon- 
 scious must, in the nature of things, have some myste- 
 rious unison with the feelings which they indicate ; 3 and 
 unless again it be imagined that tbere is some secret 
 connection between the unknown essence of things and 
 the manner in which they are capable of affecting the 
 auditory nerve. 
 
 'Word' is etymologically connected, not with iverden 4 
 to become, but with the roots war, wahr, op-cua, ver- 
 bum, ver-um ; and therefore involves the notion of 
 something visible, or perceptible. To call a word a 
 ' copy ' of anything external is an expression almost 
 
 1 Steinthal, Urspr. d. Sprache, p. 130. 
 
 2 foiKfvai TOIS fMffi TWV dparuv, Heracl. ; ayd\/j.ara <l>u>v4\tma,, 
 Democr. They are also called 5f)\w/j.ara, diretKacr/xoTa, /ii/i^uara, &c. 
 Lersch, iii. 24, et passim. 
 
 3 On this subject see Steinthal, Grammatik, p. 304. Wullner, Urspr. 
 d. Sprache, p. 3. 
 
 4 Heyse, p. 115. For the derivation of Speech, v. ante. Language 
 is from Lingua, which conies from the onomatopoetic root Ik.
 
 CH. XXIIT. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 289 
 
 meaningless; for a word cannot in any sense be the 
 exact equivalent either (i.) of a thing, or (ii.) of our 
 notion of a thing. 
 
 (i.) Words can tell us nothing whatever about things. 
 
 For of things, of the external world, of matter, of 
 the Non-Ego, 1 we know and can know nothing what- 
 ever ; in other words, it is certain that the Non-Ego is 
 not only unknown but incognisable. For even in re- 
 ceiving sensations the soul is active as well as passive ; 2 
 unless it were so, it would no more perceive than a 
 mirror perceives the objects reflected on its surface. It 
 modifies every sensation which it receives, 3 and it creates 
 by its own activity that synthesis of accidents which we 
 call substance. It is true that in common language we 
 talk of heat, colour, smell, &c., not only as sensations 
 within us, but as qualities assumed to be inherent in 
 things themselves. But this is a mere imbecility of 
 language, since not only these secondary qualities but 
 even the so-called primary qualities of figure, extension, 
 solidity, &c., have long ago been proved by metaphy- 
 sical enquiry to be mere modifications of our conscious- 
 ness. Matter is not the cause of our cognitions, but 
 only their element or part. 'Things and the senses 
 can no more transmit cognitions to the mind, than a 
 man can transmit to a beggar a guinea that he has not 
 got' * To say that our sensations teach us anything 
 
 1 If any of my readers are wholly ignorant of philosophy and its ter- 
 minology, they will find nothing to understand in the next two or three 
 pages ; nevertheless they contain the reasonings and conclusions of some 
 of the subtlest and profoundest thinkers who ever lived. 
 
 2 Aristotle distinctly recognised this very important fact ; ofa-f rrjs 
 T^/VX^S ISiov rb alff6dvfffOtii otne rov (TU/JMTOS. De Somno, i. 5. 
 
 1 See Lewes, Biogr. Hist, of Philosophy, p. 579. 
 * Ferrier, Inst. of Metaphysics, p. 473, et passim. 
 
 U
 
 290 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xx:n. 
 
 whatever about things in themselves is nonsense. What 
 can we know about salt, for instance, if its taste, white- 
 ness, shape, &c., which form the abstract complex or 
 collective impression of it, be merely accidents of our 
 own consciousness, or forms of the apperception ? Can 
 an East wind be like the sensation of cold ? J Can heat 
 be like boiling water ? Can pain be like the pricking 
 of a pin ? Can the nature of a poppy leaf be like 
 drowsiness, or our sensation of the colour red? Can 
 the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope be like the rose or 
 star which we see in consequence of the arrangement of 
 the mirrors placed inside the tube ? The external world 
 imparts as little of its own nature to the sentient subject 
 as the finger of a performer to the strings on which he 
 plays, and the sensations which we receive from it as 
 little resemble it as the music evoked from those strings 
 resembles the epidermis by the contact of which they 
 are evoked. 2 'Just as the little green, red, or gold 
 clouds which the eye, when blinded for any length of 
 time by the sun, sees flitting before it, reveal only a 
 certain internal disposition of the organ of sight; so 
 also do the qualities in which the world mirrors itself 
 before us, reveal only the internal natural constitution 
 of our own intelligence.' Nay more, speaking logically, 
 the external world is posited by the activity of the Ego; 
 even the belief in its existence is the result of involun- 
 tary mental laws. The arguments of Fichte are logi- 
 cally unanswerable, that ' all that we could know of 
 things without us, even their bare existence, is still 
 within us, and is only a thought, a something thought 
 
 1 Mill, Logic, i. 60 ; ii. 4. Victor Cousin, Cours tfHist. de la Phil. Mor. 
 g me ]e^on. 
 - Chalybaus, Hist, of Spec. Phttos., Eng. Tr. p. 156.
 
 CH. xxin. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 291 
 
 of by ourselves;' i.e. in Fichtean language 'the Ego 
 posites the Non-Ego, and ascribes to it the activity, the 
 causality which it is not conscious of exercising itself.' 
 How then even if we stop far short of this subjective 
 Idealism can words tell us anything whatever about 
 the nature of things ? Obviously they cannot. Expe- 
 rience is a mere ' tissue of relations.' The 'Ansich ' or 
 intrinsic nature of things happily in no way concerns us, 
 and whether it concerns us or not must for ever remain 
 unknown. 
 
 (ii.) But perhaps Words, if they can tell us nothing 
 about things, may yet tell us something about notions, 
 i.e. about ourselves, and the modifications of our own 
 consciousness ? 
 
 Not in the least ! The subject is and must ever 
 remain for us as incognisable as the object, the Ego as 
 the Non-Ego ; and for the very same reasons. We only 
 know the modifications, changes, accidents, sensations of 
 the Ego, and we only assume an unknown something 
 whose very existence consists in being thus affected. 
 The Ego is nothing more than an assumed something 
 stripped bare of everything whereby its existence is 
 made conceivable, 1 and it is unknown alike to internal 
 and to external experience. It is what remains of a 
 bundle of faggots when every single faggot has been 
 removed and excluded ! * It is the thought of an ab- 
 stract something, invested by a paralogism of the reason 
 
 1 Kant, Krit. d. reinen Vemunft, p. 431, quoted by Chalybaus, p. 39. 
 ' That which we call "I" is the object of intellect alone. We are never 
 objects of sense to ourselves.' Ferrier, Inst. of Metajih. p. 80. 'For my 
 part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always 
 stumble on some particular perception or other of heat, light, or shade, 
 love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never catch myself at any time 
 without a perception.' David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, i. 4, 6. 
 
 C 2
 
 292 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxm. 
 
 with imaginary attributes.' In the phrase of Fichte it 
 is a self-intuition (Sich-selbstanschaueri) an internal 
 reflection 'the subject before which its own image 
 floats as object.' In the 'primitive dualism of con- 
 sciousness,' the subject and object being inseparable, 
 either of them apart from the other must be an un- 
 known quantity ; the separation of either is the annihi- 
 lation of both. 1 ' The mental act in which self is known, 
 implies, like every other mental act, a perceiving sub- 
 ject and a perceived object. If then the object perceived 
 is self, what is the subject that perceives ? or if it is the 
 true self which thinks, what other self can it be that is 
 thought of?' 
 
 If then we can know nothing about the Ego, and 
 nothing about the Non-Ego, how can words reveal to us 
 either the nature of things or our own essence ? How can 
 they be a fjii/jytrts of either of two unknown quantities ? 
 And if it were conceivable that words could be, accord- 
 ing to Becker, the exact organic equivalent of our 
 notions, how would synonyms be possible ? The exist- 
 ence of many different terms for the same conception 
 is as valid against the theories of Becker as it was of 
 old against those of Heraclitus. 2 
 
 It is clear therefore that we cannot rest content with 
 the modern definition that ' words are the names of 
 things' any more than with the old one that they are 
 the 'pictures of ideas.' 3 Nothing more accurate can be 
 said of them than that they express the relations 4 of 
 
 1 Herbert Spencer, First Principles, p. 65. 
 
 * Steinthal, Gram. p. 165. 
 
 * For some ancient and imperfect definitions of words see Voss. de Arte 
 Gram. ii. 2, 9. 
 
 4 Garnett, Philol. Essays, pp. 82, 282.
 
 CH. xxin. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 293 
 
 things ; no better definition of them can be given than 
 that of Hobbes that they are ' signs of our conceptions,' 
 ' serving the double purpose of a mark to recall to our- 
 selves the likeness of a former thought, and a sign to 
 make it known to others.' 1 It is obvious, says Hobbes, 
 that they are not signs, of the things themselves ; for 
 that the sound of the word stone should be the sign of 
 a stone, cannot be understood in any sense but this, 
 that he that hears it collects that he that pronounces it 
 thinks of a stone. 
 
 And even as the signs of our conceptions, words are 
 at the best but very imperfect, inadequate signs in 
 themselves, touching the conception generally but at 
 one single point like a sphere lying on a plane. Lan- 
 guage, as we have said before, is but an asymptote 2 to 
 thought. It does not express the objective and ex- 
 ternal, but the inward as affected by it; we speak 
 rightly of ' expressing ourselves, not of expressing the 
 world. Words are but rude signs to represent ap- 
 proximately what we think about 3 the relations of 
 things. We say rude signs, because no word is any 
 way coordinate with the conception which it is taken to 
 represent. Seizing on some characteristic mark of the 
 conception it always expresses either too little or too 
 much. It is sometimes distantly metaphorical, some- 
 times indefinitely assertive ; sometimes too concrete, 
 sometimes too abstract. In estimating words we must 
 take them according to their etymological meaning, 
 
 1 J. S. Mill, Logic, i. 23. 
 
 2 Orig. of Lang. p. 117. 
 
 1 E. g. when we say ' Sugar is sweet,' our consciousness can tell us 
 nothing about the nature of sugar itself, but merely the relation which it 
 holds to our organs of taste. Steinthal, Gram. p. 305.
 
 294 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xxm. 
 
 and we shall then see how inadequate they are in 
 themselves to involve the mass of facts which they con- 
 note, as inadequate as is a thin and worthless bit of 
 paper which yet may represent a thousand pounds. 
 Take the name of an animal, and it may very likely 
 express some trivial and not invariable fact about its 
 tail, as in aiXovpos, or a vague and shadowy echo of its 
 cry, as in Ai-ai or cow. Take the Latin 'Homo;' 
 etymologically it means a creature made of earth, and 
 even this is but metaphorically true, yet for what an 
 infinite complex and aggregate of conceptions and rela- 
 tions does it stand ! Take such words as Virtue or 
 Tugend (from vir, and taugen), and what a world of 
 explanation is requisite before the words can be shown 
 to be even possibly coextensive with the concept! 1 
 Or again out of numberless instances take a word ex- 
 pressive of the smallest possible modification of matter, 
 a word invented in the most expressive language in 
 the world, and invented by no less eminent a philosopher 
 than Democritus, and that too with great applause 
 the word atom, meaning that which cannot be cut. 
 Yet simple as is the notion to be expressed, and great 
 as were the resources at command, what a failure the 
 mere word is ! ' It expresses too much and too little, 
 too much as being applicable to other things and con- 
 sequently, ambiguous ; too little, because it does not 
 
 1 The effectiveness of language is still more apparent when as in 
 Chinese there is an attempt to reach, by continuous analysis, nearer and 
 nearer to the expression of any conception ; when, for instance, they ex- 
 press virtue by Tsun-hyan-tsye-i, i. e. fidelity- reverence-temperance- 
 uprightness. The Sanskrit, as we have seen, has four names for elephant 
 from different slight characteristics of the animal. ' Were it to express 
 all these qualities by one word,' says Bopp, ' it would be obliged to join 
 all these names together, and to add a number of others.'
 
 CH. xxin. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 295 
 
 express all the properties even of an atom.' 1 Its in- 
 adequacy cannot be more forcibly illustrated than by 
 the fact that its precise Latin equivalent is by us con- 
 fined to the single acceptation * insect ! ' * Thought is 
 vast as the air ; it embraces far more than languages 
 can express, or rather languages express nothing; 
 they only make our thoughts leap out in electric sparks 
 from the speaker to the listener. A single word sug- 
 gests a crowd of ideas which the spirit combines and 
 collects with the rapidity of lightning.' 2 
 
 Words then must be dethroned from that exalted 
 apotheosis which they received at the hands of the 
 ancient Analogists. They are but the pyramidal point 
 from which our conceptions broaden down. 3 The 
 world of Ideas which seems in them to find its being, 
 is created, not by them but by the Intelligence which 
 uses them as the convenient notation by which its pro- 
 blems are worked out. They are the starting-point of 
 our higher Intelligence, not by any means the goal at 
 which it arrives. Their value and greatness consists 
 in the fact that without that starting-point no great 
 intellectual achievement would have been possible. 
 Yet if words are but the starting-point of the full- 
 grou'n Intelligence, they are nevertheless the goal of 
 its earlier development Although we believe that the 
 Genesis of Words may be distinctly traced, although 
 we see in them nothing intrinsically mystical or essen- 
 tially divine, we are well aware how enormous is the 
 importance of considering them carefully in the search 
 
 1 Garnett, Essays, p. 88. 
 
 * Du Ponceau, p 32. 
 
 * ' Catervatim irruunt cogitationei nostra.' See Dante, Inferno, cant, 
 xiiii. 10.
 
 296 ON LANGUAGE. CH. xxm. 
 
 whether for moral, for scientific, for historical, or for 
 religious truth. By earnestly studying them' we are 
 enabled historically to resuscitate the long-forgotten 
 history of bygone millenniums, and to catch some 
 glimpses into the past fortunes of nations whose very 
 name and memory have been obliterated for ages * from 
 every other record. Intellectually regarded, the study 
 of them initiates us into the profoundest mysteries of 
 the human understanding. It is the foundation of all 
 metaphysics. For it is by words alone that we can dis- 
 cover ' the manner in which ideas, born of perceptions, 
 present themselves all naked to the human intelligence, 
 while it is still engaged in their discovery and still 
 seeking to communicate them to others ; we follow the 
 labour which it undergoes to arrive at this result, and 
 in the want of uniformity in that labour we see the 
 influence of different intellects.' 2 Hence fresh lan- 
 guages wisely acquired may afford us a nearer ap- 
 proximation to many truths than would be otherwise 
 attainable, by suggesting thoughts and conclusions 
 which have evaporated from our native tongue. 3 For 
 
 1 For instances see Weber, Indische Skizzen, 9. ' A dead language is 
 full of all monumental remembrances of the people who spoke it. Their 
 swords and their shields are in it ; their faces are pictured on its walls ; 
 and their very voices ring still through its recesses.' Dwight, Mod. Phil. 
 i. 341. 
 
 2 Du Ponceau, p. 13. 
 
 3 Leibnitz showed less than his usual acumen in the remark that ' si 
 una lingua esset in mundo, accederet in effectu generi humano tertia 
 pars vitae, quippe quse linguis impenditur.' Opp. iii. 297, ed. Dutens. 
 If truth could be gained without an effort it would lose half its value, and 
 these studies are the best discipline to prepare us for the search after 
 truth. 'Studium linguarum,' says Valcknaer, 'in universis, in ipsis 
 primordiis triste est et ingratum ; sed primis difficultatibus labore improbo 
 et ardore nobili perruptis, postea . . . cumulatissime beamur.' See 
 Pott, Die Ungltichhtit, &c., p. 169.
 
 CH. xxiii. THE NATURE OF WORDS. 297 
 
 * language is the depositary of the accumulated body of 
 experience, to which all former ages have contributed 
 their part, and which is the inheritance of all yet to 
 come.' 1 It is ' like amber circulating the electric spirit 
 of truth, and preserving the relics of ancient wisdom.' 2 
 So important and indispensable is the right use of words 
 to the progress of Science that some have gone so far 
 as to call Science itself ' a well-constructed Language ; ' 
 and, although this is an exaggeration, it is certain 
 that in Scientific no less than in Keligious history an 
 ill-understood phrase, or an ambiguously-framed ex- 
 pression, has been sufficient to retard the progress, 
 and kindle the passions, of men during centuries of 
 warfare. 3 
 
 Lastly who shall overstate the moral bearing and im- 
 portance of words ? They stereotype our desires, they 
 mislead our consciences, they add intensity to our 
 temptations, they determine our bias, they decide our 
 destiny. Once spoken they are irrevocable, indelible 
 for ever. * Words, words, words, good and bad . . . 
 millions in the hour, innumerable in the day, unimagi- 
 nable in the year ; what then in the life ? what in 
 the history of a nation ? what in that of the world ? 
 And not one of them is ever forgotten. There is a book 
 where they are all set down. What a history, it has 
 been well said, is this earth's atmosphere, seeing that 
 all words spoken from Adam's first till now, are still 
 vibrating on its sensitive unresting medium ! ' 
 
 1 Mill, Logic, ii. 225. 
 
 2 Coleridge. 
 
 s How much were men's passions inflamed round the two words Homo- 
 oiision, and Homoiousion, and how many became in consequence the 
 ' martyrs of a diphthong ! '
 
 298 OX LANGUAGE. CH. xxin. 
 
 Be our scientific conclusions and our philological 
 studies what they may, it is well for every man to con- 
 sider solemnly such truths as these ; it is above all a 
 duty for one who writes a book, and that book a book 
 on words. And therefore, gentle reader, I will add 
 this word only about myself, that before writing I 
 have read diligently, and what I have written I have 
 striven to write honestly, loving the truth and aiming 
 at truth only, endeavouring not to forget even in the 
 midst of controversy that ' it is by a man's words 
 that he is justified and by a man's words that he is 
 condemned.'
 
 299 
 
 BOOKS CONSULTED. 
 
 IT may be a convenience to students of this subject, if I add 
 a list of those books which, among many others, I have ex- 
 pressly consulted in this work, and to which I have constantly 
 referred. The extent to which I am indebted to the various 
 authors will be indicated in the notes. I have never con- 
 sciously omitted my fullest acknowledgments when I am 
 indebted to others for any facts, thoughts, or expressions 
 which I have adopted. There is no book in the following list 
 which I have not myself read through, or frequently used ; 
 and I have omitted many to which more cursory reference 
 was made. 
 
 GREEK. 
 
 PLATO, Cratylus. (Ed. BEKXER.) 
 
 ARISTOTLE, Rhetoric and Poetics. 
 
 All the most important fragments of the ancient poets, philosophers, 
 
 and orators on this subject, and extracts from the most important 
 
 grammarians, may be found collected in 
 L. LERSCH. Die Sprachphilosophie der Alien. Bonn, 1838-41. 
 A. GRAFENHEIM, Geschichte der Klassischen Philologie im Alterthum. 
 
 Bonn, 1846. 
 
 LATIN. 
 
 VARRO, De lAngua Latino. 
 
 QUINCTILIAK, Institutiones Oratoria. (Ed. BURMAXN.) 
 P. RUTILIUS LUPUS, De Figuris. (Ed. KUHNKEN.) 
 SANCTIUS, Minerva. 
 Vossrus, De Arte Grammatica. 
 LOBECK, Afflaophamus. 
 BOCHART, Hierozoicon. 
 GLASSIUS, Philologia Sacra. 
 MICHAELER, De Origine Lingua. 
 PREMARE, Notitia Lingua Sinieie.
 
 300 BOOKS CONSULTED. 
 
 GERMAN. 
 
 GRIMM, Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache. 
 POTT, Etymologische Forschungen. Lemgo, 1833. 
 Die Ungleichheit menschlicher Bassen. Id. 1856. 
 Anti-Kaulen. Id. 1863. 
 Doppelung. Id. 1862. 
 STEINTHAL, Der Ursprung der Sprache. Berlin, 1858. 
 
 Grammatik, Logik, und Psychologie. Id. 1855. 
 
 ,, Charakteristik der hauptsdchlichsten Sprachbaues. Id. 1860. 
 
 Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft. Id. 1863. 
 
 Philologie, Geschichte und Psychologie. Id. 1864. 
 
 ATJG. SCHLEICHER, Vergleichende Grammatik. Weimar, 1861. 
 
 Die Darwinsche Theorie und die Sprachwissenschaft. 
 
 1863. 
 
 HEYSE, System der Sprachwissenschaft. Berlin, 1856. 
 BOPP. Comparative Grammar. (Engl. Tr.) 
 M. DRECHSLER, Grundlegung zur wissenschaftlichen Konstruction, 
 
 $c. Erlangen, 1830. 
 
 F. HITZIG, Die Erfindung des Alphabetes. Zurich, 1840. 
 HERDER, Der Ursprung der Sprache. 
 C. HERMANN, Das Problem der Sprache. Dresden, 1865. 
 C. VOIGTMAN, Die Bau-wau Theorie, $c. Leipzig, 1865. 
 F. WULLNER, Utber den Ursprung der Sprache. Miinster, 1838. 
 L. WIENBARG, Das Geheimniss des Wortes. Hamburg, 1852. 
 DIEZ, Gramm. d. roman. Sprachen. (Engl. Tr., CATLET, 1863.) 
 Etymologisches Worterbuch. (Engl. Tr., DONKIN, 1865.) 
 
 FRENCH. 
 
 E. ARNOULD, Essai de Theorie et a* Hist. Litteraire. 
 PICTET, Les Origines Indo-europeennes. Paris, 1859. 
 
 EGGER, Notions Elementaires de Grammaire Comparee. 5 s " ed. Paris, 
 
 1857. 
 ApoUonius Dyscole, Ess. sur THist. des Formes Grammaticales. 
 
 Paris, 1854. 
 
 MAURT, La Terre et tHomme. 
 
 EENAN, Hist, des Langues Semitiques. Paris. 1858. 
 De FOrigine du Langage. 2 me ed. Paris, 1858. 
 
 F. MICHEL, Etudes sur F Argot. Paris, 1856. 
 CHARMA, Essai sur le Langage. Paris, 1846. 
 C. NODIER, Notions de Linguistique. 
 
 Dictionnaire des Onomatopees. Paris, 1828.
 
 BOOKS CONSULTED. 301 
 
 VARINOT, Diet, des Metaphores. Paris, 1819. 
 
 SCHELER, Diet. d'Etymologie Francaise. Brussels, 1862. 
 
 NISARD, Curiosites rfEtymologie Francaise. Paris, 1863. 
 
 C. LENORMAN, Comment, surle Cratyle. Athens, 1861. 
 
 SALVERTB, Hist, of Names. (Engl. Tr., MOHDACQUE, London, 1864.) 
 
 ETIEXNE DU PONCEAU, Mem. sur le Systeme Grammatical des Languts 
 
 Indiennes. Paris, 1838. 
 L. BENLOEW, Sur quelques Caracteres des Langages Primitifs. Paris, 
 
 1863. 
 
 L. BENLOEW, SurFOrigine des Noms de Nomhre. Giessen, 1861. 
 CHAVEE, Les Langues et les Races. Paris, 1862. 
 LADEVI KOCHE, De FOrigine du Langage. Bordeaux, 1860. 
 F. BAUDRY, De la Science du Langage et de son Etat Actuel. Paris, 
 
 1864. 
 
 P. MERVOTER, Etudes sur F Association des Id&es. Paris, 1864. 
 MAIXE DE BIRAN, Origine du Langage : (Euvres Inedites, iii. 229 sq. 
 Bulletins de la Societe d* Anthropologie. Paris. 
 VENTURE DE PARADIS, Gram, et Diet, abrege de la Langue Berbere. 
 
 Paris, 1844. 
 LKOX PAGES, Essai de Gram. Japonaise. 
 
 ENGLISH. 
 
 BCNSEN, Philosophy of Universal History. London, 1854. 
 MAX MULLER, Survey of Languages. 2nd ed. London, 1855. 
 
 Lectures on the Science of Language. (First Series.) 
 
 London^ 1861. 
 Lectures on the Science of Language. (Second Series.) 
 
 London, 1864. 
 
 GARNETT, Philological Essays, edited by his Son. London, 1859. 
 Dr. DONALDSON, The New Cratylus. 2nd ed. London, 1850. 
 Varronianus. 2nd ed. London, 1852. 
 
 Maskil le Sopher. London, 1848. 
 
 HENSI.EIGH WEDGWOOD, Etymological Dictionary, i. ii. London, 1859. 
 Transactions of the Philological Society. London, 18441861. 
 LATHAM, The English Language. 4th ed. London, 1855. 
 
 Varieties of Man. 
 
 DWIGHT, Modern Philology. First Series. New York, 1859. 
 Second Series. 1864. 
 
 BOTES, Illustrations to the Greek Tragedians. 
 
 HORNE TOOKE, Diversions of Purley. (Ed. TAYLOR.) London, 1860. 
 HARRIS, Hermes. 
 CBOMBIE, English Etymology and Syntax. 8th ed. 1856.
 
 302 BOOKS CONSULTED. 
 
 LYELL, Antiquity of Man. London, 1863. 
 Dr. DAN. WILSON, Prehistoric Man. 1864. 
 Is. TAYLOR, Words and Places. London, 1864. 
 T. HEWITT KEY, The Alphabet. 
 
 Qi-ueritur: A Pamphlet. London, 1864. 
 
 MARSH, Manual of the English Language. (Ed. SMITH.) London, 1862. 
 Sir G. C. LEWIS, Essay on the Romance Languages. 2nd ed. London, 
 
 1862. 
 
 EWALD, Hebrew Grammar. (Engl. Tr., NICHOLSON, 1836.) 
 CRAWFURD, Malay Dictionary and Grammar. 
 APPLEYARD, Kafir Grammar. 
 MARSHMAN, Chinese Grammar. 
 CALDWELL, Grammar of the Dravidian Languages. 
 THRELKELD, Australian Grammar. Sydney, 1834. 
 C. M. S., A'cw Zealand Grammar and Vocabulary. London, 1820. 
 J. S. MILL, Systtm of Logic. London, 1851. 
 G. H. LEWES, Biographical History of Philosophy. 2nd edition. 
 
 London, 1862. 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER, First Principles. London, 1862. 
 CHALYBAUS, History of Speculative Philosophy. (Translated by A. 
 
 TULK.) London, 1854. 
 
 FERRIER, Institutes of Mt taphysics. Edinburgh, 1854. 
 FLEMING, Vocabulary of Philosophy. London, 1857. 
 
 ITALIAN. 
 
 BIONDELLI, Studii Linguistici. Milan, 1856.
 
 303 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ABS 
 
 A BSTRACTION, rare in savage 
 " languages, 53, 199, 200, 219, 
 
 note 
 Adam, his onomothesia, 10 note 
 
 theories about, 47 
 
 Cowper's lines on, id. 
 ^Egles, story of, 102 
 ..Elian, quoted, 74 
 Alphabet, origin of, 134 
 
 - Hebrew, 136 
 
 Greek, id. 
 
 analogy of its origin to that of 
 
 language, 137, 192-196 
 Analogists and Anomalists, 22, 
 184, 257-263 
 
 universality of Analogist views, 
 
 264 foil. 
 
 Analogy, the part it plays in lan- 
 guage, 204 
 
 the source of knowledge, 218 
 
 of sound and sight, 81 
 Animals, the earliest objects to re- 
 ceive names, 16 
 
 Animal names, classes of, 23 
 
 generally omomatopoetic, 24 
 in Australian, 25 
 
 in New Zealand, id. note 
 
 in Algonquin, id. 
 
 in Chinese, 26 
 
 in Sanskrit, 26-28 
 
 in Hebrew, 29 
 
 in Egyptian, id. 
 
 in American languages, 30 
 
 in various Argots, 31, note 
 
 from observed qualities, 30 
 
 formed by misapplication, 
 
 31-34 . 
 
 Anomalists. See Analogists 
 Anthropomorphism, 8 
 
 CLA 
 
 Antiphrasis, 254 
 
 Argots, their philological import- 
 ance, 35 
 
 abound in onomatopoeia, 36 
 
 their character, 35 
 
 various names for, 235 
 
 deal in metaphor, 236 
 
 Victor Hugo on, id., 283 note 
 Armenian merchants, 72 
 
 Art, a language addressed to the 
 
 eye, 72 
 
 Artificial languages, 37 
 Atbash, 270 note 
 Augustine, quoted, 8, 185 
 Aulus Gellius, quoted, 102 
 
 T3ACON, quoted, 210, 219 
 *-* Battus, story of, 102 
 Bekos, an onomatopoeia for the 
 
 bleat of goats, 14 
 Benfey, 174 
 Benloew, 225 
 
 Bow-wow theory, criticism of the 
 term, 19 
 
 iss 
 
 ^ Cassiodorus, quoted, 75 
 Cat, 146, 176 
 Catachresis, 213 
 Childhood of mankind, 13 
 Chinese writing, 192-196, 198 
 
 names for animals, 26 
 
 metaphors, 216 note 
 
 attempt at continuous analysis, 
 
 294 
 
 Clarion, 188 
 Claudius, his antisigma, 37
 
 304 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 COL 
 
 Colours, metaphors from, 223 
 
 Concepts, 66 
 
 Convention, 121 
 
 Cow, derived, 127, 142, 145 note 
 
 Crawfurd, quoted, 199 
 
 Cydippe, 114 
 
 DARWIN, his hypothesis, 49, 
 155 note 
 
 Deaf-mutes, their power of invent- 
 ing signs, 16 
 
 universally intelligible, 74 
 Democritus, 261 
 
 his anomalist arguments, 262 
 De Quincy, quoted, 173, 178 
 Dog, 147 
 
 barking not natural to, 148 
 
 names for, onomatopoetic, 149 
 Donaldson, quoted, 174 
 
 Dove, 145 
 Duck, 144 
 Du Ponceau, 199 
 
 EAGER, 185 
 Epicurus, 109, 261 
 Etymology, 172 
 
 its vagaries, 173 
 
 Varro's rule, 196 
 
 fictions of, 269 note 
 Euphemism, 278 
 
 Expression, by means of touch, 72 
 
 by gestures, 73 
 
 TpANCY, 183 
 
 -*- its influence on the devel- 
 opment of language, 113 
 Frederic II., 13 
 Foul, &e., etymology of, 174 
 
 ft ARNETT, quoted, 54, 197 
 ^-* Garrick, story of, 77 
 Gender, due to fancy, 212 
 Genesis, account of origin of Lan- 
 guage in, 17 
 Gesture, its power, 74 
 
 its defects, 77 
 
 its abuse, 78 
 
 INT 
 
 Goatsucker, onomatopoetic names 
 
 for, 142 
 Goose, 143 
 Gregory of Nyssa, quoted, 9 
 
 TT EARING, 79 
 
 Hebrew, paucity and vague- 
 ness of its words, 228- 
 230 
 
 Hen, 144 
 
 Heraclitus, 260 
 
 Herder, quoted, 11 
 
 Hieroglyphics, 135 
 Chseremon on, 222 
 
 Hog, 146 
 
 Homonyms, 234, 262 
 
 Hypocorisma, 281 
 
 its dangerous influence, 282 
 
 TDEAS, growth of, 7 
 
 various, how expressed, 201 
 Ideography, Egyptian, 135 
 
 Chinese, 192-195 
 Imagination, its influence on lan- 
 guage. 114 
 
 gender due to, 212 
 
 leads to personitica' ion and 
 
 mythology. 214 foil. 
 Imitation, instinct of, 72 
 
 its importance, 109 
 
 it is a kind of intellectual as- 
 
 similation, 110 
 
 reproduces impressions, 110 
 
 may be phonetically coincident 
 
 with words. 128 
 Interjections, their origin, 88 
 
 two classes of, 89 
 
 in different languages, 90 
 
 not adverbs, 91 
 
 Home Tooke on, 92 
 
 declinable in Basque, 93 
 
 their linguistic rank vindicated, 
 
 94, 98 
 
 the most immediate exponents 
 
 of passion, 99 
 
 their use in literature, id. 
 
 their naturalness, 100 
 
 their expressiveness, 101 
 
 contain the idea of speech, 103
 
 INDEX. 
 
 305 
 
 IVT 
 
 Intuitions, 65 
 
 correspond, in the parallel de- 
 velopment of language, to 
 roots, 119 
 
 Irony, 254 
 
 TAMES IV., 13 
 
 Juventinus, Albus Ovidius, his 
 Philomela, 128 note 
 
 K 
 
 EY, Prof. T. Hewitt, quoted, 
 127 note, 174 note, 200 note 
 
 T ACTANTIUS, quoted, 1 
 
 - 1 - 4 Lamb, 143 
 
 Language, not revealed, 2-12 
 
 its human origin asserted in 
 
 the Bible, 8 
 
 idea of, 19 
 
 not a dead matter, id. 
 
 stronger than Emperors, 37 
 
 tribes, 43 
 
 and among our own peasants, 59 
 
 in what sense a discovery, 54 
 
 reverts to its primary instincts, 
 
 58 
 
 tactile, 72 
 
 manual, 73 
 
 - its primitive freedom, 1 14 
 
 its unerring instinctive power, 
 
 117 
 
 becomes mechanical only by 
 
 corruption, 138 
 
 processes of, 255 
 
 belief in its revelation, 272 
 
 life of, 284 note 
 
 not coextensive with thought, 
 
 294, 295 
 Languages, number of, 5 
 
 of savage tribes, 50 
 
 their supposed perfection test- 
 
 ed, 52 
 
 their cumbrous synonyms, 53 
 
 their poverty of expression, 54 
 
 Mr. Garnett on, 54 
 
 Mr. Gallatin on, 55 
 
 eked out by signs, 73 
 rarely generalize, 199 
 
 MET 
 
 Languages, philosophical, 243 
 Lautgeborden, or vocal gestures, 
 18,87 
 
 may be represented by signs, 
 
 104 
 
 rise above other interjections, 
 
 105 
 
 are a stepping-stone to lan- 
 
 guage, 105 
 
 the origin of form-words, 124 
 Legends on the origin of language, 
 
 Esthonian, 118 
 
 Australian, 119 
 Leibnitz, quoted, 60, 296 note 
 Lersch, 259 note 
 
 Letters, their supposed symbolic 
 
 power, 263 
 
 Lingua Franca, 125 note 
 Lute, 188 
 Luther, 8 
 
 TV/TALAY, 199 
 
 Man, once without language, 
 39 
 
 on any theory, 41 
 
 his primitive degradation, 42 
 
 low races of, 43-45 
 
 in a state of nature, 45 
 
 in the image of God, 49 note 
 Metaphor, 204-246 
 
 confusion of, 209 note, 218 
 
 deliberate, 217 
 
 founded on analogy, 218 
 
 in numerals, 223-228 
 
 necessary, 241 
 
 and advantageous, 242-246 
 Metaphors, for the soul, &c., 219- 
 
 222 
 
 obscured by time, 227 
 
 among the Kalmucks, 228 . 
 
 in the Koran, id. 
 - in Hebrew, 230 
 
 in Greek tragedy, 231 
 
 characteristic of periods, 282 
 
 in Kafir, 233 
 
 in Malay, id. 
 
 in Chinese, id. 
 
 in various Argots, 236 
 
 gradually evanesce, 238
 
 306 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 MET 
 
 Metaphors, confusion of, in Shak- 
 speare, Milton, &c., 239-241 
 
 Minstrel, 188 
 
 Misapplication of words, 217 
 
 Miiller, Prof. Max, apparent modi- 
 fication of his views on onoma- 
 topoeia, 97 
 
 vagueness, on the origin of 
 
 roots, 107 
 
 his objections to onomatopoeia, 
 
 &c., criticised, 130-202, et 
 passim 
 Mythology, source of, 215 
 
 "VTAMES, their supposed mystic 
 V import. 269-271 
 
 plays on, in the Bible, 270 
 
 in the tragedians, 273-275 
 
 among the Komans, 275 
 
 in Shakspeare, &c., 276 
 
 changed in scorn, 277 
 
 euphemistically, 278 
 Natural sounds, 17 
 Negro jargon, 126 note 
 Newt, 188 
 
 Nodier, Charles, his Dictionnaire 
 
 des Onomatopees, 132 
 Nominalists, 4 
 Notions, 66 
 
 ONOMATOPOEIA defined, 122- 
 126 
 
 reverted to, when new words 
 
 have to be coined, 30 
 
 its instinctive use, 34 
 
 progress of, 126 
 
 used by the intellect to develope 
 
 language, 127 
 
 not an illusory principle, 171 
 
 nor unscientific, id., 173-177 
 
 imperiously demanded by in- 
 
 stinct, 178 
 
 not fanciful, 183 
 
 the only possible origin of lan- 
 
 guage, 184 
 
 in poetry, 186, 187 
 
 reflex tendency to, 187, 188 
 
 applicable to all kinds of con- 
 ceptions, 190-203 
 
 PSA 
 
 Onomatopoeia, can be used for 
 things which emit no sound, 
 204 
 
 Onomatopoeias, but few necessary, 
 18 
 
 their function, id. 
 
 used by wild children, 20 
 
 abound in savage languages, 
 
 20 
 
 reflex, 27 
 
 the widely various forms they 
 
 assume, 112114 
 
 are ideal reflections, 1 14 
 
 for thunder, 115 
 
 modified or rejected when they 
 
 have fulfilled their function, 
 128 
 
 suggested roots, 129 
 
 not few in number, 131 
 
 dictionaries of, 132 
 
 the only intelligible roots, 1 33 
 
 most animals' names are, 140 
 
 and birds, 141 note 
 
 are not sterile, 152 
 
 their variety, 153 
 
 are the sound-cells in which 
 
 speech can germinate, 155 
 
 found in numerals, 162 
 
 their dignity, 166 
 
 their use in poetry, 168 
 
 T>ALAMEDES, 136 
 - 1 - Paronomasia, 265 
 
 - in the Bible, 266, 272 
 Perception, its nature, 64 
 Perrault, quoted, 112 
 Personification, 214 
 Phsedrus, quoted, 111 
 Philoxenus, story of, 91 
 Phonetic types, a mystic term, 123 
 
 not conceivable, 154 
 
 Pictet, quoted, 26, 28 
 
 Pigeon English, 126 
 
 Plutarch, referred to, 19 
 
 Pott, 115, 117 
 
 Proclus. 255 
 
 Psammetichus, his experiment, 
 
 13-21 
 probably true, 14 
 
 conclusions from it, id.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 307 
 
 REA 
 
 IDEALISATION of the Ego, 62 
 *-' Relations, of things, are sub- 
 jective, 208 
 
 imaginary, 215, 216 
 Representation, 65 
 Revelations, plurality of, 2 
 Richter, J. P., 227 
 
 Roots, inexplicable theory of, 23, 
 58 and note 
 
 express all parts of speech at 
 
 once, 59, 197 
 
 a mere ' root ' offers no etymo- 
 
 logy, 95-97 
 
 what was their origin, 107 
 
 correspond to intuitions, 1 19 
 
 have no independent existence, 
 
 120 
 
 the root ma, 156 
 
 the root pa, 158 
 
 ta, da, ba, 159 
 
 other roots, 160-64 
 
 verbal or predicative roots not 
 
 the earliest, 196 
 
 primary and secondary, 198 
 
 their many-sidedness, 251 
 
 due to the economy of language, 
 
 253 
 Rossignol, 188 
 
 OANCTIUS, quoted, 100 
 ^ Science, martyrs of, 7 note 
 Sensation, nature of, 60 
 Senses, variety of, 206 
 
 one sensorium, 207 and note 
 
 interchange of, 208-210 
 
 analogy between, 211 
 Simonides, 136 
 
 Soul, 220 
 
 analogies for, 221 
 
 Sound, the best medium of expres- 
 sion, 79 
 
 elements of vocal, 86 
 
 must have had an original con- 
 
 nection with sense, 121-122, 
 286 
 
 symbolic power of, 186 
 
 its universality, 205 
 
 and light, 209 
 Sparrow, 145 
 
 WOR 
 
 Speech, its origin comprehensible, 
 
 69. See Language 
 Squirrel, 176 
 Substance, 207 
 Sugar, 184 
 Sumner, Archbishop, 2 
 
 rPALMA, story of, 76 
 -*- Tertullian, quoted, 57 
 Theology, its injurious opposition 
 
 to science, 7 
 Thought, steps of its development, 
 
 62-70 
 
 Thunder, etymology of, 177-182 
 Tryzus, story of, 74 
 
 TTMLAUT, 170 note 
 ""* Understanding, 6 
 
 TTATHEK, referred to, 116 
 
 Verbs, 197 
 Voice, 83 
 
 its mechanical production, 84 
 
 its influence, 83 note , 
 Voss, quoted, 75 
 
 T^TEDGWOOD, Hensleigh, his 
 * * Dictionary of English Ety- 
 mology, 132 
 
 Words, derived from misapplied 
 resemblances, 32-33 
 
 when now invented, are gene- 
 
 rally onomatopoetic, 37 
 
 correspond to ' representations,' 
 
 120 
 
 developed from natural sounds, 
 
 121, 127 
 
 not mere crude echoes, 132 
 
 blurred by time, 133 
 
 derived from sensational roots, 
 
 133 
 
 surfrappes, 138 
 
 dislike of needless words, 217 
 
 mystic importance attached to, 
 
 in the Bible, 265-272, 279 
 symbolic power of, 280 
 
 fatal force of, 284
 
 308 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 WOR 
 
 wni 
 
 284 
 
 Words reflect character, 
 note 
 
 steps in their history, 287 
 
 not copies or images of things, 
 
 288 
 
 derivation of, 288 
 
 teach us nothing about the 
 
 non-Ego, 289-291 
 
 Words teach us nothing about the 
 Ego, 291-292 
 
 are signs of our conceptions, 
 
 293 
 
 their inadequacy at the best, 
 
 294 
 
 - their importance, 296-298 
 Writing, 135, 192-196 
 
 tOlTDOIf 
 
 PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODK AND CO. 
 WEW-STRBET SQUARE
 
 [JULY 1865.] 
 
 &EOBJLL nST OF WORKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 MESSRS. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 
 Historical Works. 
 
 The HISTORY of ENGLAND from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death 
 of Elizabeth. By JAMES ANTHONY FEOUDE, M.A. late Fellow of Exeter 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 VOLS. I. to IV. the Reign of Henry VIII. Third Edition, 54s. 
 
 VOLS. V. and VI. the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary. Second Edition, 28s. 
 
 VOLS. VII. and VIII. the Reign of Elizabeth, VOLS. L and II. Third 
 Edition, 23*. 
 
 The HISTOEY of ENGLAND from the Accession of James II. By 
 Lord MACAULAT. Three Editions as follows. 
 LIBEABY EDITION, 5 vols. 8vo. 4. 
 CABINET EDITION, 8 vols. post 8vo. 48s. 
 PEOPLE'S EDITION, 4 vols. crown 8vo. 16s. 
 
 REVOLUTIONS in ENGLISH HISTORY. By ROBERT VAUGHAX, 
 D.D. 3 vols. 8vo. 45#. 
 VOL. I. Revolutions of Race, 15s. 
 VOL. II. Revolutions in Religion, 15s. 
 VOL. III. Revolutions in Government, 15s. 
 
 An ESSAY on the HISTORY of the ENGLISH GOVERNMENT and 
 Constitution, from the Reign of Henry VII. to the Present Time. Bi- 
 joux EARL RUSSELL. Third Edition, revised, with New Introductim. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 The HISTORY of ENGLAND during the Reign of George the Third. 
 By WILLIAM MASSET, M.P. 4 vols. Svo. 48s. 
 
 The CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY of ENGLAND, since the Acces- 
 sion of George III. 17601860. By THOMAS EBSK.IXE MAT, C.B. Second 
 Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 33s. 
 
 A
 
 NEW "WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 HISTORICAL STUDIES. I. On Some of the Precursors of the French 
 Revolution ; II. Studies from the History of the Seventeenth Century ; 
 III. Leisure Hours of a Tourist. By HERMAN MEEIVALE, M.A. 8vo. 
 12s. 6d. 
 
 LECTURES on the HISTORY of ENGLAND. By WILLIAM LONG- 
 MAN. VOL. I. from the earliest times to the Death of King Edward II. with 
 6 Maps, a coloured Plate, and 53 Woodcuts. Svo. 15s. 
 
 A CHRONICLE of ENGLAND, from B.C. 55 to A.D. 1485 ; written 
 and illustrated by J. E. DOYLE. With 81 Designs engraved on Wood and 
 printed in Colours by E. Evans. 4to. 42s. 
 
 HH3TORY of CIVILISATION. By HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE. 2 vols. 
 8vo. 1 17s. 
 
 VOL. I. England and France, Fourth Edition, 21s. 
 VOL. II. Spain and Scotland, -Second 'Edition, 16s. 
 
 DEMOCRACY in AMERICA. By ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE. Trans- 
 lated by HENEY REEYE, with an Introductory Notice by the Translator. 
 2 vols. 8vo. 21s. 
 
 The SPANISH CONQUEST in AMERICA, and its Relation to the 
 
 History of Slavery and to the Government of Colonies. By ARTHUR HELPS. 
 4 vols. 8vo. 3. VOLS. I. and II. 28s. VOLS. III. and IV. 16s. each. 
 
 HISTORY of the REFORMATION in EUROPE in the Time of 
 Calvin. By J. H. MEELE D'AUBIGNE, 'DJD. VOLS. I. and II. 8vo. 28s. and 
 VOL. III. 12s. 
 
 LIBRARY HISTORY of FRANCE, in 5 vols. 8vo. By EYEE EVANS 
 CROWE. VOL. 1. 14s. VOL. II. 15s. VOL. III. 18s. VOL. IV. nearly ready. 
 
 LECTURES on the HISTORY of FRANCE. By the late Sir JAMES 
 STEPHEN, LL.D. 2 vols. 8vo. 24s. 
 
 The HISTORY of GREECE. By C. THIKLWALL, D.D., Lord Bishop 
 of St. David's. 8 vols. 8vo. 3 ; or in 8 vols. fcp. 28s. 
 
 The TALE of the GREAT PERSIAN WAR, from the Histories of 
 Herodotus. By GEORGE W. Cox, MA. late Scholar of Trin. Coll. Oxon. 
 Pep. 7s. Gd. 
 
 ANCIENT HISTORY of EGYPT, ASSYRIA, and BABYLONIA. By 
 
 the Author of 'Amy Herbert.' Fcp. 6s. 
 
 CRITICAL HISTORY of the LANGUAGE and LITERATURE of 
 
 Ancient Greece. By WILLIAM MTJEE, of Caldwell. 5 vols. Svo. 3 9s. 
 
 HISTORY of the LITERATURE of ANCIENT GREECE. By Pro- 
 fessor K. O. 'MtiLLER. Translated by the Right Hon. Sir GEORGE CORNE- 
 WALL LEWIS, Bart, and by J. W. DONALDSON, D.D. 3 vols. Svo. 36s. 
 
 HISTORY of the ROMANS under the EMPIRE. By CHARLES 
 MBRIVALE, B.D. Chaplain to the Speaker. 
 CABINET EDITION, 8 vols. post Svo. 48s. 
 LIBRARY EDITION, 7 vols. Svo. 5 11s. 
 
 The FALL of the ROMAN REPUBLIC : a Short History of the Last 
 
 Century of the Commonwealth. By the same Author. 12mo. 7s. 6d.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 3 
 
 The CONVERSION of the ROMAN EMPIRE : the Boyle Lectures for 
 
 the year 1864, delivered at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall. By '.' IIA::I.I:S 
 MEEIVALE, B;D. Chaplain to the Speaker. Second Edition, 8vo. 8s. (id, 
 
 CEITICAL and HISTORICAL ESSAYS contributed to the Edinburgh 
 Eeview. By the Right Hon. LORD MACAUIAY. 
 LIBEAEY EDITION, 3 vols. 8vo, 36s. 
 TRAVELLER'S EDITION, in 1 vol. 21*. 
 In POCKET VOLUMES, 3 vols. fcp. 21s. 
 PEOPLE'S EDITION, 2 vols. crown 8vo. 8s. 
 
 HISTORICAL and PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS. By NASSAU W. 
 SENIOB. 2 vols. post 8vo. 16s. 
 
 HISTORY of the RISE and INFLUENCE of the SPIRIT of 
 RATIONALIS M in EUROPE. By W. E. H. LECKT, M.A. Second Edition, 
 revised. 2 vols. 8vo. 25s. 
 
 The BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY of PHILOSOPHY, from its Origin 
 in Greece to the Present Day. By GEOEGE HENRY LEWES. Revised and 
 enlarged Edition. 8vo. 16s. 
 
 HISTORY of the INDUCTIVE SCIENCES. By WILLIAM WHEWELL, 
 D.D. F.R.S. Master of Triu. Coll. Cantab. Third Edition. 3 vols. crown 
 8vo. 24s. 
 
 EGYPT'S PLACE in UNIVERSAL HISTORY ; an Historical Investi- 
 gation. By C. C. J. BUNSEN, D.D. Translated by C. H. COTTEELL, M.A. 
 With many Illustrations. 4 vols. 8vo. 5 8s. VOL. V. is nearly ready, com- 
 pleting the work. 
 
 MAUNDER' S HISTORICAL TREASURY ; comprising a General In- 
 troductory Outline of Universal History, and a series of Separate Histories. 
 Fcp. 10s. 
 
 HISTORICAL and CHRONOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, presenting 
 in a brief and convenient form Chronological Notices of all the Great Events 
 of Universal History. By B. B. WOODWAED, F.S.A. Librarian to the Queen. 
 
 [ In tlie press. 
 
 HISTORY of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH, from the Ascension of 
 Christ to the Conversion of Constantine. By E. BURTON, D.D. late 
 Regius Prof, of Divinity in the University of Oxford. Eighth Edition. 
 Fcp. 3s. Qd. 
 
 SKETCH of the HISTORY of the CHURCH of ENGLAND to the 
 
 Revolution of 1688. By the Right Rev. T. V. SHORT, DJ>. Lord Bishop, of 
 St. Asaph. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 HISTORY of the EARLY CHURCH, from the First Preaching of the 
 Gospel to the Council of Nicsea, A.D. 325. By the Author of 'Amy Herbert.' 
 Fcp. 4s. 6rf. 
 
 The ENGLISH REFORMATION. By F. C. MASSFNGBERD, M.A. 
 Chancellor of Lincoln and Rector of South Ormsby. Third Edition, revised 
 and enlarged. Fcp. 6s. 
 
 HISTORY of WESLEYAN METHODISM. By GEORGE SMITH, 
 F.A.S. Fourth Edition, with numerous Portraits. 3 vols. cr. 8vo. 7s. each.
 
 4 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 VILLABI'S HISTOEY of SAVONAEOLA and of HIS TIMES, 
 translated from the Italian by LEONARD HORNER, F.R.S. with the co- 
 operation of the Author. 2 vols. post Svo. with Medallion, 18*. 
 
 LECTURES on the HISTOEY of MODERN MUSIC, delivered at the 
 Royal Institution. By JOHN HULLAH, Professor of Vocal Music in 
 King's College and in Queen's College, London. FIRST COUESE, with Chro- 
 nological Tables, post Svo. 6s. 6d. SECOND COURSE, on the Transition 
 Period, with 40 Specimens, Svo. 16*. 
 
 Biography and Memoirs. 
 
 LETTEES and LIFE of FEANCIS BACON, including all his Occa- 
 sional Works. Collected and edited, with a Commentary, by J. SPEDDING, 
 Trin. Coll. Cantab. VOLS. I. and II. Svo. 24s. 
 
 PASSAGES from the LIFE of a PHILOSOPHEE. By CHARLES 
 BABBAGE, Esq. M.A. F.R.S. &c. Svo. 12s. 
 
 LIFE of EOBEET STEPHENSON, F.E.S. By J. C. JEAFFRESON, 
 Barrister-at-Law ; and WILLIAM POLE, P.R.S. Memb. Inst. Civ. Eng. 
 With 2 Portraits and 17 Illustrations. 2 vols. Svo. 32s. 
 
 LIFE of the DUKE of WELLINGTON. By the Rev. G. E. GLEIG, 
 M.A. Popular Edition, carefully revised ; with copious Additions. Crown 
 STO. with Portrait, 5s. 
 
 Brialmont and Gleig's Life of the Duke of Wellington. 4 vols. 
 8vo. with Illustrations, 2 14s. 
 
 Life of the Duke of Wellington, partly from the French of M. 
 BBIALMONT, partly from Original Documents. By the Rev. G. R. 
 GLEIG, M.A. Svo. with Portrait, 15s. 
 
 HISTOEY of MY EELIGIOUS OPINIONS. By J. H. NEWMAN, D.D. 
 Being the Substance of Apologia pro Vita Sua. Post Svo. 6s. 
 
 FATHEE MATHEW: a Biography. By JOHN FRANCIS MAGOIRE, 
 M.P. Popular Edition, with Portrait. Crown Svo. 3s. Qd. 
 
 Eome ; its Eulers and its Institutions. By the same Author. New 
 Edition in preparation. 
 
 MEMOIES, MISCELLANIES, and LETTEES of the late LUCY 
 Aikin : including those addressed to Dr. Channingfrom 183Ctol812. Edited 
 by P. H. LE BRETON. Post Svo. 8s. 6d. 
 
 LIFE of AMELIA WILHELMINA SIEVEKING, from the German. 
 Edited, with the Author's sanction, by CATHERINE WINKWORTH. Post Svo. 
 with Portrait, 12s. 
 
 LOUIS SPOHE'S AUTOBIOGEAPHY. Translated from the German. 
 
 Svo. 14s. 
 
 DIARIES of a LADY of QUALITY, from 1797 to 1844. Edited, with 
 Notes, by A. HATWARD, Q.C. Second Edition. Post Svo. 10s. d.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 5 
 
 FELIX MENDELSSOHN'S LETTEKS from Italy and Switzerland, 
 and Letters from 1833 to 1847, translated by Lady WALLACE. New Edition, 
 with Portrait. 2 vols. crown Svo. 5s. each. 
 
 LECOLLECTIONS of the late WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, M.P. 
 
 for the County of York during nearly 30 Years. By J. S. HAHFORD, F.R.S. 
 Second Edition. Post Svo. 7*. 
 
 MEMOIRS of SIR HENEY HAVELOCK, K.C.B. By JOHN CLARK 
 
 . Second Edition. Svo. with Portrait, 12*. 6d. 
 
 THOMAS MOOEE'S MEMOIRS, JOTTENAL, and COEEESPOND- 
 
 ENCE. Edited and abridged from the First Edition by Earl RUSSELL. 
 Square crown Svo. with 8 Portraits, 12s. 6rf. 
 
 MEMOIE of the Eev. SYDNEY SMITH. By his Daughter, Lady 
 HOLLAND. With a Selection from his Letters, edited by Mrs. AUSTIN. 
 2 vols. Svo. 2Ss. 
 
 VICISSITUDES of FAMILIES. By Sir BERNARD BURKE, Ulster 
 KinR of Arms. FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD SERIES. 3 vols. crown Svo. 
 12s. &d. each. 
 
 ESSAYS in ECCLESIASTICAL BIOGEAPHY. By the Right Hon. 
 Sir J. STEPHEN, LL.D. Fourth Edition. Svo. 14s. 
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. By NASSAU W. SENIOR. Post Svo. 
 price 10s. 6d. 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES of DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIFIC MEN. By 
 FRANCOIS ARAGO. Translated by Admiral W. H. SJIYTH, F.R.S. the Rev. 
 B. POWELL, M.A. and R. GRANT, M.A. Svo. 18s. 
 
 MAUNDEE'S BIOGRAPHICAL TREASURY : Memoirs, Sketches, and 
 Brief Notices of above 12,000 Eminent Persons of All Ages and Nations. 
 Fcp. 10s. 
 
 Criticism, Philosophy, Polity, fyc. 
 
 PAPINIAN : a Dialogue on State Affairs between a Constitutional 
 Lawyer and a Country Gentleman about to enter Public Life. By GHOEGK 
 ATKINSON, B.A. Oion. Serjeant-at-Law. Post Svo. 5*. 
 
 ELEMENTS of LOGIC. By R. WHATELT, D.D. late Archbishop of 
 Dublin. Ninth Edition. Svo. 10s. 6d. crown Svo. 4s. 6rf. 
 
 Elements of Rhetoric. By the same Author. Seventh Edition. 
 Svo. 10s. 6d. crown Svo. 4s. 6d. 
 
 English Synonymes. Edited by Archbishop WHATELT. 5th Edition. 
 Fcp. 3s. 
 
 BACON'S ESSAYS with ANNOTATIONS. By R. WDATELT, D.D. 
 late Archbishop of Dublin. Sixth Edition. Svo. 10s. Crf. 
 
 ' B
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 LOED BACON'S WORKS, collected and edited by R L. ELLIS, M.A. 
 J. SPBDDING, M.A. and D. D. HEATH. Vols. I. to V. Philosophical Works, 
 5 vols. 8vo. 4 6*. . VOLS. VI. and VII. Literary and Professional Works, 
 2 vols. 1 16s. 
 
 On REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. By JOHN STUART MILL. 
 Third Edition, 8vo. 9s. crown 8vo. 2s. 
 
 On Liberty. By the same Author. Third Edition. Post Svo. 7s. 6d. 
 crown Svo. Is. 4d. 
 
 Principles of Political Economy. By the same. Sixth Edition. 
 2 vols. Svo. 30s. or in 1 voL crown Svo. 5s. 
 
 A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive. By the same. 
 Fifth Edition. Two vols. Svo. 25s. 
 
 Utilitarianism. By the same. Second Edition. Svo. 5s. 
 
 Dissertations and Discussions. By the same Author. 2 vols. Svo. 
 price 24s. 
 
 Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's Philosophy, and of the Principal 
 Philosophical Question discussed in his Writings. By the same Author. 
 Second Edition. Svo. 14s. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS REMAINS from the Comtnon-place Book of 
 RICHAED WHATELT. D.I), late Archbishop of Dublin. Edited by Miss E. J. 
 WHATELY. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 ESSAYS on the ADMINISTRATIONS of GREAT BRITAIN from 
 1783 to 1830. By the Rijtht Hon. Sir G. C. LEWIS, Bart. Edited by the 
 Right Hon. Sir E. HEAD, Bart. Svo. with Portrait, 15s. 
 
 By the same Author. 
 A Dialogue on the Best Form of Government, 4s. 6d. 
 
 Essay on the Origin and Formation of the Romance Languages 
 price 7s. 6d. 
 
 Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients, 15*. 
 
 Inquiry into the Credibility of the Early Roman History, 2 vols. 
 price 30s. 
 
 On the Methods of Observation and Reasoning in Politics, 2 vols. 
 price 28s. 
 
 Irish Disturbances and Irish Church Question, 12s. 
 Remarks on the Use and Abuse of some Political Terms, 9. 
 On Foreign Jurisdiction and Extradition of Criminals, 2s. Cs. 
 
 The Fables of Babrius, Greek Text with Latin Notes, PART I. 
 5s. Gd. PAET II. 3s. &d. 
 
 Suggestions for the Application of the Egyptological Method to 
 Modern History, Is.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 7 
 
 An OUTLINE of the NECESSARY LAWS of THOUGHT : a Treatise 
 on Pure and Applied Logic. By the Most Rev. W. THOMSOH, DJ). Arch- 
 bishop of York. Crown 8vo. 5s. 6d. 
 
 The ELEMENTS of LOGIC. By THOMAS SHEDDEN, M.A. of St. 
 Peter's Coll. Cantab. 12mo. 4s. Gd. 
 
 ANALYSIS of Mr. MILL'S SYSTEM of LOGIC. By W. STEBBING, 
 M.A. Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. 12mo. 3. 6d. 
 
 The ELECTION of REPRESENTATIVES, Parliamentary and Muni- 
 cipal ; a Treatise. By THOMAS HARE, Barrister-at-Law. Third Edition, 
 with Additions. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 SPEECHES of the RIGHT HON. LORD MACAULAY, corrected by 
 Himself. 8vo. 12*. 
 
 LORD MACAULAY'S SPEECHES on PARLIAMENTARY REFORM 
 
 in 1831 and 1832. 16mo. Is. 
 
 A DICTIONARY of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By R G. LATHAX, 
 M.A. M.D. F.R.S. Founded on the Dictionary of Dr. S. JOHN sou, as edited 
 by the Rev. H. J. TODD, with numerous Emendations and Additions. 
 Publishing in 86 Parts, price 3*. 6d. each, to form 2 vols. 4to.. 
 
 THESAURUS of ENGLISH WORDS and PHRASES, classified and 
 arranged so as to facilitate the Expression of Ideas, and assist in Literary 
 Composition. By P. M. ROGEI, M.D. 14th Edition. Crown 8vo. 10*. 6d. 
 
 LECTURES on the SCIENCE of LANGUAGE, delivered at the Royal 
 Institution. By MAT MULLER, M.A . Taylorian Professor in the University 
 of Oxford. FIRST SERIES, Fourth Edition, 12*. SECOND SERIES, 18*. 
 
 The DEBATER ; a Series of Complete Debates, Outlines of Debates, 
 and Questions for Discussion. By F. ROWTON. Fcp. 6*. 
 
 A COURSE of ENGLISH READING, adapted to every taste and 
 capacity; or. How and What to Read. By the Rev. J. PTCBOCT, B.A. 
 Fourth Edition. Fcp. 5*. 
 
 MANUAL of ENGLISH LITERATURE, Historical and Critical: with 
 a Chapter on English Metres. By THOMAS AEHOLD, BA. Post 8ro. 10*. 6d. 
 
 SOUTHEY'S DOCTOR, complete in One Volume. Edited by the Rev. 
 J. W. WARTER, B.D. Square crown 8vo. 12*. 6d. 
 
 HISTORICAL and CRITICAL COMMENTARY on the OLD TESTA- 
 MENT; with a New Translation. By M. M. KALISCH, Ph.D. VOL. I. 
 Genesis, 8vo. 18*. or adapted for the General Reader, 12*. VOL. II. Exodus, 
 15*. or adapted for the General Reader, 12*. 
 
 A Hebrew Grammar, with Exercises. By the same. PART I. Out- 
 lines with Exercises, 8vo. 12*. 6d. KET, 5*. PAST II. Exceptional Fomu 
 and Constructions, 12*. Gd.
 
 8 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 A LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY. By J. T. WHITE, M.A. of 
 Corpus Christ! College, and J. E. RIDDLE, M.A. of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. 
 Imperial 8vo. pp. 2,128, price 42s. cloth. 
 
 A New Latin-English Dictionary, abridged from the larger work 
 of White and Riddle (as above), by J. T. WHITE, M.A. Joint-Author. 
 Medium 8vo. pp. 1,048, price 18s. doth. 
 
 A Diamond Latin-English Dictionary, or Guide to the Meaning, 
 Quality, and Accentuation of Latin Classical Words. By Rev. J. E. RIDDLE, 
 M.A. 32mo. Zs.&d. 
 
 An ENGLISH-GREEK LEXICON, containing all the Greek Words 
 used by Writers of good authority. By C. D. YOXGE, B.A. Fifth Edi- 
 tion. 4to. 21s. 
 
 Mr. YONGE'S NEW LEXICON, English and Greek, abridged from 
 his larger work (as above). Square 12mo. 8s. 6d. 
 
 A GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON. Compiled by H. G. LIDDELL, D.D. 
 Dean of Christ Church, and R. SCOTT, D.D. Master of Balliol. Fifth Edition. 
 Crown 4to. 31s. 6d. 
 
 A Lexicon, Greek and English, abridged from LIDDELL and SCOTT'S 
 Greek-English Lexicon. Eleventh Edition. Square 12mo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 A PRACTICAL DICTIONARY of the FRENCH and ENGLISH LAN- 
 GUAGES. By L. CoifTANSEAr. Ninth Edition. Post 8vo. 10s. &d. 
 
 Contanseau's Pocket Dictionary, French and English, abridged from 
 the above by the Author. Third Edition, 18mo. 5s. 
 
 NEW PRACTICAL DICTIONARY of the GERMAN LANGUAGE; 
 German-English and English-German. By the Rev. AY. L. BLACKLET, M.A. 
 and Dr. GAEL MAETIX FEIEDLANDEB. Post 8vo. [In the press. 
 
 Miscellaneous Works and Popular Metaphysics. 
 
 RECREATIONS of a COUNTRY PARSON : being a Selection of the 
 Contributions of A. K. H. B. to Fraser's Magazine. SECOND SEEIES. Crown 
 8vo. 3*. &d. 
 
 The Common-place Philosopher in Town and Country. By the same 
 Author. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 Leisure Hours in Town ; Essays Consolatory, .Ssthetical, Moral, 
 Social, and Domestic. By the same Author. Crown Svo. 3s. 6rf. 
 
 The Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson ; Essays contributed 
 to Fraser's Magazine and to Good Words. By the same. Crown Svo. 3s. Cd. 
 
 The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson. SECOND SERIES. By 
 the same Author. Crown Svo. 3s. Gd. 
 
 Critical Essays of a Country Parson. Selected from Essays con- 
 tributed to Fraser's Magazine. By the same Author. Post Svo. 9s.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BT LONGMANS AXD CO. 9 
 
 A CAMPAIGNER AT HOME. By SHIRLEY, Author of ' Thalatta' 
 and ' Nugae Griticae.' Post 8vo. with Vignette, 7s. 6A 
 
 FKIENDS in COUNCIL : a Series of Readings and Discourses thereon. 
 2 vols. fcp. 9s. 
 
 Friends in Council. SECOND SERIES. 2 vols. post 8vo. 14s. 
 Essays written in the Intervals of Business. Fcp. 2s. 6d. 
 
 LORD MACATTLAY'S MISCELLANEOUS WHITINGS: 
 LIBEARY EDITION. 2 vols. 8vo. Portrait, 21*. 
 PEOPLE'S EDITION. 1 voL croww 8vo. 4s. od. 
 
 The EEV. SYDNEY SMITH'S MISCELLANEOUS WOEKS ; includ- 
 ing his Contributions to the Edinburgh Review. 
 LIBBAET EDITION, 3 vols. 8vo. 36s. 
 TEAVELLEE'S EDITIOX, in 1 vol. 2ls. 
 In POCKBT VOLUMES, 3 vols. fcp. 21s. 
 PEOPLE'S EDITION, 2 vols. crown 8vo. 8s. 
 
 Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy, delivered at the Royal 
 Institution. By the same Author. Fcp. 7*. 
 
 The Wit and Wisdom of the Eev. Sydney Smith: a Selection of 
 the most memorable Passages in hia Writings and Conversation. 16uio. 7- 6d. 
 
 The HISTOEY of the SUPEENATUEAL in All Ages and Nations, 
 and in all Churches, Christian and Pagan ; demonstrating a Universal Faith. 
 By WILLIAM HOWITT. 2 vols. post 8vo. l&. 
 
 The SUPERSTITIONS of WITCHCEAFT. By HOWARD WILLIAMS, 
 MA. St. John's Coll. Camb, Post 8vo. 7. 6d. 
 
 CHAPTEES on MENTAL PHYSIOLOGY. By Sir HENRT HOLLAND, 
 Bart. M.D. F.R.S. Second Edition. Post 8vo. 8s. 6d. 
 
 ESSAYS selected from CONTEIBUTIONS to the Edinburgh Review. 
 By HENRT ROGERS. Second Edition. 3 vols. fcp. 2ls. 
 
 The Eclipse of Faith ; or, a Visit to a Eeligious Sceptic. By the 
 same Author. Tenth Edition. Fcp. 5*. 
 
 Defence of the Eclipse of Faith, by its Author ; a rejoinder to Dr. 
 Newman's Reply. Third Edition. Fcp. 8vo. 3s. 6rf. 
 
 Selections from the Correspondence of E. E. H. Greyson. By the 
 same Author. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Fulleriana, or the Wisdom and Wit of THOMAS FULLER, with Essay 
 on his Life and Genius. By the same Author. 16mo. 2s. Gd. 
 
 An INTEODUCTION to MENTAL PHILOSOPHY, on the Inductive 
 Method. By. J. D. MOEELL, M.A. LL.D. 8vo. 12s. 
 
 Elements of Psychology, containing the Analysis of the Intellectual 
 Powers. By the same Author. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 c
 
 10 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 The SECRET of HEGEL : being the Hegelian System in Origin, 
 Principle, Form, and Matter. By JAMJES HUTCHISON STIRLING. 2 vols. 
 
 S vo. 28s. 
 
 SIGHT and TOUCH : an Attempt to Disprove the Eeceived (or Berke- 
 leian) Theory of Vision. By THOMAS K. ABBOTT, M.A. Fellow and Tutor 
 of Trin. Coll. Dublin. 8vo. with 21 Woodcuts, 5s. 6d. 
 
 The SENSES and the INTELLECT. By ALEXANDER BAIN, M.A. 
 Professor of Logic in the "University of Aberdeen. Second Edition. 8vo. 
 price 15s. 
 
 The Emotions and the Will, by the same Author ; completing a 
 Systematic Exposition of the Human Mind. 8vo. 15s. 
 
 On the Study of Character, including an Estimate of Phrenology. 
 By the same Author. 8vo. 9s. 
 
 TIME and SPACE: a Metaphysical Essay. By SHADWORTH H. 
 HODGSON. 8vo. pp. 588, price 16s. 
 
 HOURS WITH THE MYSTICS : a Contribution to the History of 
 Religious Opinion. By ROBERT ALEEED VAUGHAN, B.A. Second Edition. 
 2 vols. crown 8vo. 12s. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRIES. By the late Sir BENJ. C. BROME, 
 Bart. 2 vols. or SERIES, fcp. 5s. each. 
 
 The PHILOSOPHY of NECESSITY ; or Natural Law as applicable to 
 Mental, Moral, and Social Science. By CHARLES BEAY. Second Edition. 
 8vo. 9s. 
 
 The Education of the Feelings and Affections. By the same Author. 
 Third Edition. 8vo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY and COMMON SENSE. By Sir WILLOUGHBY 
 JONES, Bart. M.A. Trin. Coll. Cantab. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Astronomy, Meteorology, Popular Geography, <fyc. 
 
 OUTLINES of ASTRONOMY. By Sir J. F. W, HERSCHEL, Bart. 
 M.A. Seventh Edition, revised ; with Plates and Woodcuts. 8vo. 18s. j 
 
 ARAGO'S POPULAR ASTRONOMY. Translated by Admiral W. H. 
 SMYTH, F.R.S. aud R. GRANT, M.A. With 25 Plates and 358 Woodcuts. 
 2 vols. 8vo. -1 5s. 
 
 Arago's Meteorological Essays, with Introduction by Baron Htnu- 
 BOLDT. Translated under the superintendence of Major-General E. SABINE, 
 R.A. 8vo. 18s. 
 
 SATURN and its SYSTEM. By RICHARD A. PROCTOR, B.A. late 
 
 Scholar of St John's Coll. Carnb. and King's Coll. London. 8vo. with 
 14 Plates, 14s.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AXD CO. 11 
 
 The WEATHER-BOOK; a Manual of Practical Meteorology. By 
 Rear-Admiral ROBERT FITZ ROT, R.N. F.R.S. Third Edition, with 16 
 Diagrams. 8vo. 15*. 
 
 SAXBY'S WEATHER SYSTEM, or Lunar Influence on Weather. 
 By S. M. SAXBY, R.X. Instructor of Naval Engineers. Second Edition. 
 Post 8vo. 4s. 
 
 DOVE'S LAW of STORMS considered in connexion with the ordi- 
 nary Movements of the Atmosphere. Translated by R. H. SCOTT, M.A. 
 T.CJ). 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 CELESTIAL OBJECTS for COMMON TELESCOPES. By the Eev. 
 T. W. WEBB, M.A. F.R.A.S. With Map of the Moon, and Woodcuts. 16mo. 7*. 
 
 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY for SCHOOLS and GENERAL READERS. 
 
 By M. F. MAUKT, LL.D. Fcp. with 2 Charts, 2s. 6d. 
 
 A DICTIONARY, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the 
 various Countries, Places, and Principal Natural Objects in the World. By 
 J. R. M'CULLOCH. With 6 Maps. 2 vols. 8vo. 63s. 
 
 A GENERAL DICTIONARY of GEOGRAPHY, Descriptive, Physical, 
 Statistical, and Historical : forming a complete Gazetteer of the World. By 
 A. KEITH JOHSSTON, F.R.S.E. 8vo. 31s. 6d. 
 
 A MANUAL of GEOGRAPHY, Physical, Industrial, and Political. 
 By W. HUGHES, F.R.G.S. Professor of Geography in King's College, and in 
 Queen's College, London. With 6 Maps. Fcp. 7s. 6d. 
 
 The Geography of British History ; a Geographical Description of 
 the British Islands at Successive Periods. By the same. With 6 Maps. 
 Fcp. 8s. 6d. 
 
 Abridged Text-Book of British Geography. By the same. Fcp. Is. Gd. 
 
 The BRITISH EMPIRE ; a Sketch of the Geography, Growth, Natural 
 and Political Features of the United Kingdom, its Colonies and Dependen- 
 cies. By CABOLINE BEAT. With 5 Maps. Fcp. 7s. Gd. 
 
 COLONISATION and COLONIES : a Series of Lectures delivered be- 
 fore the University of Oxford. By HEBMAN MEEIVALE, MA. Professor of 
 Political Economy. 8vo. 18s. 
 
 MAUNDER' S TREASURY of GEOGRAPHY, Physical, Historical, 
 Descriptive, and Political. Edited by W. HUGHES, F.R.G.S. With 7 Maps 
 and 16 Plates. Fcp. 10*. 
 
 Natural History and Popular Science. 
 
 The ELEMENTS of PHYSICS or NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. By 
 
 NEIL AENOTT, M.D. F.R.S. Physician Extraordinary to the Queen. Sixth 
 Edition. PAET I. Svo. 10*. Gd. 
 
 HEAT CONSIDERED as a MODE of MOTION. By Professor JOHN 
 TYNDALL, LL.D. F.R.S. Second Edition. Crown Svo. with Woodcuts, 12s. Gd.
 
 12 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 VOLCANOS, the Character of their Phenomena, their Share in the 
 Structure and Composition of the Surface of the Globe, &c. By G. PoutETT 
 SCEOPB, M.P. F.R.S. Second Edition. 8vo. with Illustrations, 15s. 
 
 A TEEATISE on ELECTRICITY, in Theory and Practice. By A. 
 DE LA RIVE, Prof, in the Academy of Geneva. Translated by C. V. WALKEE, 
 F.R.S. 3 vols. 8vo. with Woodcuts, 3 13s. 
 
 The CORRELATION of PHYSICAL FORCES. By W. E. GROVE, 
 Q.C. V.P.R.S. Fourth Edition. 8vo. 7s. &d. 
 
 The GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE; or, Monthly Journal of Geology. 
 Edited by HENRY WOODWARD, F.G.S. F.Z.S. British Museum ; assisted 
 by Professor J. MORRIS, F.G.S. and R. ETHEBIDGE, F.R.S.E. F.G.S. 8vo. 
 price Is. monthly. 
 
 A GUIDE to GEOLOGY. By J. PHILLIPS, M.A. Professor of Geology 
 in the University of Oxford. Fifth Edition ; with Plates and Diagrams. 
 Fcp. 4s. 
 
 A GLOSSARY of MINERALOGY. By H. W. BRISTOW, F.G.S. of 
 the Geological Survey of Great Britain. With 486 Figures. Crown 8vo. 12s. 
 
 PHILLIPS' S ELEMENTARY INTRODUCTION to MINERALOGY, 
 
 with extensive Alterations and Additions, by H. J. BEOOKE, F.R.S. and W. 
 H. MILLEK, F.G.S. Post 8vo. with Woodcuts, 18s. 
 
 VAN DER HOEVEN'S HANDBOOK of ZOOLOGY. Translated from 
 the Second Dutch Edition by the Rev. W. CLAEK, M.D. F.R.S. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 with 24 Plates of Figures, 60s. 
 
 The COMPARATIVE ANATOMY and PHYSIOLOGY of the VERTE- 
 
 brate Animals. By RICHAED OWEN, F.R.S. D.C.L. 2 vols. 8vo. with 
 upwards of 1,200 Woodcuts. [J the press. 
 
 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS : an Account of the Habitations con- 
 structed by various Animals, classed according to their Principles of Con- 
 struction. By Rev. J. G. WOOD, M.A. F.L.S. Illustrations on Wood by 
 G. Pearson, from Drawings by F. W. Keyl and E. A. Smith. In 20 Parts, 
 1*. each. 
 
 MANUAL of CORALS and SEA JELLIES. By J. R. GREENE, B.A. 
 Edited by the Rev. J. A. GALBEAITH, M.A. and the Rev. S. HAUGHTON, 
 M.D. Fcp. with 39 Woodcuts, 5s. 
 
 Manual of Sponges and Animalculae ; with a General Introduction 
 on the Principles of Zoology. By the same Author and Editors. Fcp. with 
 16 Woodcuts, 2s. 
 
 Manual of the Metalloids. By J. APJOHN, M.D. F.K.S. and the 
 
 same Editors. Fcp. with 38 Woodcuts, 7s. 6d. 
 
 The SEA and its LIVING WONDERS. By Dr. G. HAETWIG. 
 
 Second (English) 'Edition. 8vo. with many Illustrations. 18s. 
 
 The TROPICAL WORLD. By the same Author. With 8 Chromo- 
 xylographs and 172 Woodcuts. 8vo. 21s. 
 
 SKETCHES of the NATURAL HISTORY of CEYLON. By Sir J. 
 
 EMERSON TENNENT, K.C.S. LL.D. With 82 Wood Engravings. Post 8vo. 
 price 12s. 6d. 
 
 Ceylon. By the same Author. Fifth Edition ; with Maps, &c. and 90 
 Wood Engravings. 2 vols. 8vo. 2 10s
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 18 
 
 A FAMILIAR HISTORY of BIEDS. By E. STANLEY, D.D. F.R.S. 
 late Lord Bishop of Norwich. Seventh Edition, with Woodcuts. Fcp. 3s. 6d. 
 
 MAEVELS and MYSTERIES of INSTINCT ; or, Cariosities of Animal 
 Life. By G. GAERATT. Third Edition. Pep. 7s. 
 
 HOME WALKS and HOLIDAY RAMBLES. By the Eev. C. A. 
 JOHNS, B.A. F.L.S. Fcp. 8vo. with 10 Illustrations, 6*. 
 
 KIRBY and SPENCE'S INTRODUCTION to ENTOMOLOGY, or 
 
 Elements of the Natural History of Insects. Seventh Edition. Crowu 8vo. 
 price 6s. 
 
 MAUNDER'S TREASURY of NATURAL HISTORY, or Popular 
 Dictionary of Zoology. Revised and corrected by T. S. COBBOLD. M.D. 
 Fcp. with 900 Woodcuts, 10s. 
 
 The TREASURY of BOTANY, on the Plan of Maunder's Treasury. 
 By J. LINDLEY, M.D. and T. MOOEE, F.L.S. assisted by other Practical 
 Botanists. With 16 Plates, and many Woodcuts from designs by W. H. 
 Fitch. Fcp. [/ the press. 
 
 The ROSE AMATEUR'S GUIDE. By THOMAS EIVEES. 8th Edition. 
 Fcp. 4s. 
 
 The BRITISH FLORA; comprising the Phsenogamous or Flowering 
 Plants and the Ferns. By Sir W. J. HOOKER, K.H. and G. A. WALKEE- 
 AKMOTT, LL.IX 12mo. with 12 Plates, 14s. or coloured, 21s. 
 
 BRYOLOGIA BRITANNICA ; containing the Mosses of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, arranged and described. By W. WILSON. 8vo. with 61 Plates 
 42s. or coloured, J24 4s. 
 
 The INDOOR GARDENER. By Miss MALIKG. Fcp. with Frontis- 
 piece, printed in Colours, 5s. 
 
 LOUDON'S ENCYCLOPEDIA of PLANTS; comprising the Specific 
 Character, Description, Culture, History, Ac. of all the Plants found in 
 Great Britain. With upwards of 12,000 Woodcuts. 8vo. 3 13s. &d. 
 
 London's Encyclopaedia of Trees and Shrubs ; containing the Hardy 
 Trees and Shrubs of Great Britain scientifically and popularly described. 
 With 2,000 Woodcuts. 8vo. 60s. 
 
 MAUNDER'S SCIENTIFIC and LITERARY TREASURY ; a Popular 
 
 Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature, and Art. Fcp. 10s. 
 
 A DICTIONARY of SCIENCE, LITERATURE, and ART. Fourth 
 Edition. Edited by W. T. BBANDE, D.C.L. and GEOBGB W. Cox, M.A. 
 assisted by gentlemen of eminent Scientific and Literary Acquirements. 
 In 12 Parts, each containing 240 pages, price 5s. forming $ vols. medium 8vo. 
 price 21s. each. 
 
 ESSAYS on SCIENTIFIC and other SUBJECTS, contributed to 
 Reviews. By Sir H. HOLLAND, Bart. M.D. Second Edition. 8vo. 14. 
 
 ESSAYS from the EDINBURGH and QUARTERLY REVIEWS; 
 with Addresses and other Pieces. By Sir J. P. W. HKESCHBL, Bart. M.A. 
 8vo. 18s.
 
 14 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 Chemistry, Medicine, Surgery, and the Allied 
 
 Sciences. 
 
 A DICTIONARY of CHEMISTRY and the Allied Branches of other 
 Sciences ; founded on that of the late Dr. Tire. By HENRY WATTS, F.C.S. 
 assisted by eminent Contributors. 5 vols. medium 8vo. in course of publica- 
 tion in Parts. VOL. I. 31s. 6d. VOL. II. 26s. VOL. III. 31s. 6d. are now ready. 
 
 HANDBOOK of CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. Adapted to the Unitary 
 System of Notation. By F. T. CONINGTON, M.A. F.C.S. Post 8vo. 7s. Gd. 
 TABLES of QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS adapted to the same, 2s. 6d. 
 
 A HANDBOOK of VOLUMETEICAL ANALYSIS. By ROBERT H. 
 SCOTT, M.A. T.C.D. Post 8vo. 4s. Gd. 
 
 ELEMENTS of CHEMISTRY, Theoretical and Practical. By WILLIAM 
 A. MILLER, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S. F.G.S. Professor of Chemistry, King's 
 College, London. S vols. 8vo. 2 13s. PART I. CHEMICAL PHYSICS. 
 Third Edition, 12s. PART II. INORGANIC CHEMISTRY, 21s. PART III. 
 ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, Second Edition, 20s. 
 
 A MANUAL of CHEMISTRY, Descriptive and Theoretical. By 
 WILLIAM ODLING, M.B. F.R.S. Lecturer on Chemistry at St. Bartholo- 
 mew's Hospital. PART I. Svo. 9s. 
 
 A Course of Practical Chemistry, for the use of Medical Students. 
 By the same Author.' Second Edition, with 70 new Woodcuts. Crown Svo. 
 price 7s. Gd. 
 
 The DIAGNOSIS and TREATMENT of the DISEASES of WOMEN ; 
 including the Diagnosis of Pregnancy. By GRAILY HEWITT, M.D. Physician 
 to the British Lying-in Hospital. 8vo. 10s. 
 
 LECTURES on the DISEASES of INFANCY and CHILDHOOD. By 
 CHARLES WEST, M.D. &c. Fifth Edition, revised and enlarged. Svo. 16s. 
 
 EXPOSITION of the SIGNS and SYMPTOMS of PREGNANCY: 
 with other Papers on subjects connected with Midwifery. By W. F. 
 MONTGOMERY, M.A. M.D. M.R.I.A. Svo. with Illustrations, 25s. 
 
 A SYSTEM of SURGERY, Theoretical and Practical. In Treatises 
 by Various Authors. Edited by T. HOLMES, M.A. Cantab. Assistant-Surgeon 
 to St. George's Hospital. 4 vols. Svo. 1 13s. 
 
 Vol. I. General Pathology. 21s. 
 
 Vol. II. Local Injuries: Gunshot Wounds, Injuries of the Head, 
 Back, Face, Neck, Chest. Abdomen, Pelvis, of the Upper and Lower Ex- 
 tremities, and Diseases of the Eye. 21. 
 
 Vol. III. Operative Surgery Diseases of the Organs of Circula- 
 tion, Locomotion, Ac. 21s. 
 
 Vol. IV. Diseases of the Organs of Digestion, of the Genito- 
 urinary System, and of the Breast, Thyroid Gland, and Skin ; with 
 APPENDIX and GENERAL INDEX. 30s. 
 
 LECTURES on the PRINCIPLES and PRACTICE of PHYSIC. By 
 THOMAS WATSON, M.D. Physician-Extraordinary to the Queen. Fourth 
 Edition. 2 vols. Svo. 34s.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 15 
 
 LECTURES on SURGICAL PATHOLOGY. By J. PAGET, F.RS. Sur- 
 geon-Extraordinary to the Queen. Edited by W. TUESEB, M.B. 8vo. with 
 117 Woodcuts, 21s. 
 
 A TEEATISE on the CONTINUED FEVERS of GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 By C. MITKCHISOX, M.D. Senior Physician to the London Fever Hospital. 
 Svo. with coloured Plates, 18s. 
 
 ANATOMY, DESCRIPTIVE and SURGICAL. By HENRY GRAT, 
 
 F.R.S. With 410 Wood Engravings from Dissections. Third Edition, by 
 T. HOLMES, M.A. Cantab. Royal Svo. 28s. 
 
 The CYCLOPEDIA of ANATOMY and PHYSIOLOGY. Edited by 
 the late R. B. TODD, M.D. F.R.S. Assisted by nearly all the most eminent 
 cultivators of Physiological Science of the present age. 5 vols. Svo. with 
 2,853 Woodcuts, JE6 6s. 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL ANATOMY and PHYSIOLOGY of MAN. By the 
 late R. B. TODD, M.D. F.R.S. and W. BOWMAN, F.R.S. of King's College. 
 With numerous Illustrations. VOL. II. Svo. 25s. 
 
 A DICTIONARY of PRACTICAL MEDICINE. By J. COPLAND, M.D. 
 
 F.R.S. Abridged from the larger work by the Author, assisted by J. C. 
 COPLAND, M.R.C.S. 1 vol. Svo. \In the press. 
 
 Dr. Copland's Dictionary of Practical Medicine (the larger work). 
 3 vols. Svo. 5 11s. 
 
 The WORKS of SIR B. C. BRODIE, Bart, collected and arranged 
 by CHARLES HAWKIKS, F.R.C.S.E. 3 vols. Svo. with Medallion and Fac- 
 simile, 48s. 
 
 Autobiography of Sir B. C. Brodie, Bart. Printed from the Author's 
 materials left in MS. Fcp. 4s. 6d. 
 
 MEDICAL NOTES and REFLECTIONS. By Sir H. HOLLAND, Bart. 
 M.D. Third Edition. Svo. 18*. 
 
 A MANUAL of MATERIA MEDICA and THERAPEUTICS, abridged 
 from Dr. PEEEIEA'S Elements by F. J. FAERE, M.D. Cantab, assisted by 
 R. BEMLEY, M.R.C.S. and by R. WABIXGTOX, F.C.S. 1 vol. Svo. 
 
 [7 October. 
 
 Dr. Pereira's Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. Third 
 Edition. By A. S. TAYLOE, M.D. and G. O. REES, M.D. S vols. Svo. with 
 Woodcuts, 3 15s. 
 
 THOMSON'S CONSPECTUS of the BRITISH PHARMACOPOEIA. 
 
 Twenty-fourth Edition, corrected and made conformable throughout to the 
 New Pharmacopoeia of the General Council of Medical Education. By E. 
 LLOYD BIBKETT, M J). ISmo. 5s. 6d. 
 
 MANUAL of the DOMESTIC PRACTICE of MEDICINE. By W. B. 
 KESTEVEK, F.R.C.S.E. Second Edition, thoroughly revised, with Additions. 
 Fcp. 5s. 
 
 The Fine Arts, and Illustrated Editions. 
 
 The NEW TESTAMENT, illustrated with Wood Engravings after the 
 Early Masters, chiefly of the Italian School. Crown 4to. 63s. cloth, gilt top : 
 or 5 5s. elegantly bound in morocco.
 
 18 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 LYRA GERMANICA ; Hymns for the Sundays and Chief Festivals of 
 the Christian Year. Translated by CATHERINE WINKWOETH ; 125 Illus- 
 trations on Wood drawn by J. LEIGHTON, F.S.A. Fcp. 4to. 21s. 
 
 CATS' and FARLIE'S MORAL EMBLEMS ; with Aphorisms, Adages, 
 and Proverbs of all Nations : comprising 121 Illustrations on Wood by J. 
 LEIGHTON, F.S.A. with an appropriate Text by R. PIGOT. Imperial 8vo. 
 310. ii(/. 
 
 BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS : with 126 Illustrations on Steel 
 and Wood by C. BENNETT ; and a Preface by the Rev. C. KINGSLEY. Fcp. 
 HO. 2ls. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE'S SENTIMENTS and SIMILES, printed in Black and 
 . Gold, and Illuminated in the Missal Style by HENEY NOEL HUMPHREYS. 
 In massive covers, containing the Medallion and Cypher of Shakspeare. 
 Square post 8vo. 21s. 
 
 The HISTORY of OUR LORD, as exemplified in Works of Art : 
 with that of His Types in the Old and New Testament. By Mrs. JAMESON 
 and Lady EASTLAKE. Being the concluding SEEIES of ' Sacred and 
 Legendary Art;' with 13 Etchings and 281 Woodcuts. 2 vols. square 
 crown 8vo. 42s. 
 
 In the same Series, by Mrs. JAMESON. 
 
 Legends of the Saints and Martyrs. Fourth Edition, with 19 
 Etchings and 187 Woodcuts. 2 vols. 31s. &d. 
 
 Legends of the Monastic Orders. Third Edition, with 11 Etchings 
 and 88 Woodcuts. 1 vol. 21s. 
 
 Legends of the Madonna. Third Edition, with 27 Etchings and 165 
 Woodcuts. 1 vol. 21s. 
 
 Arts, Manufactures, 
 
 ENCYCLOPAEDIA of ARCHITECTURE, Historical, Theoretical, and 
 Practical. By JOSEPH GWILT. With more than 1,000 Woodcuts. 8vo. 42s. 
 
 TUSCAN SCULPTORS, their Lives, Works, and Times. With 45 
 Etchings and 28 Woodcuts from Original Drawings and Photographs. By 
 CHABLES C. PEEKINS. 2 vols. imperial 8vo. 63s. 
 
 The ENGINEER'S HANDBOOK; explaining the Principles which 
 should guide the voung Engineer in the Construction of Machinery. By 
 C. S. LOWNDES. Post 8vo. 5s. 
 
 The ELEMENTS of MECHANISM. By T. M. GOODEVE, M.A. 
 Professor of Mechanics at the R. M. Acad. Woolwich. Second Edition, 
 with 217 Woodcuts. Post Svo. 6s. 6d. 
 
 URE'S DICTIONARY of ARTS, MANUFACTURES, and MINES. 
 
 Re-written and enlarged by ROBEET HUNT, F.R.S. assisted by numerous 
 gentlemen eminent in Science and the Arts. With 2,000 Woodcuts. 3 vols. 
 Svo. 1. 
 
 ENCYCLOPEDIA of CIVIL ENGINEERING, Historical, Theoretical, 
 and Practical. By E. CEESY, C.E. With above 3,000 Woodcuts. Svo. 42s.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS ASTD CO. 17 
 
 TEEATISE on MILLS and MILLWOBK. By W. FAIRBAIRN, C.E. 
 F.R.S. With 18 Plates and 322 Woodcuts, 2 vols. 8vo. 32s. 
 
 Useful Information for Engineers. By the same Author. FIRST 
 and SECOND SEBIES, with many Plates and Woodcuts. 2 vols. crown 8vo. 
 10s. 6d. each. 
 
 The Application of Cast and Wrought Iron to Building Purposes. 
 
 By the same Author. ThirdEdition, with 6 Hates and 118 Woodcuts. 8vo. 16*. 
 
 The PBACTICAL MECHANIC'S JOTJBNAL: an Illustrated Record 
 of Mechanical and Engineering Science, and Epitome of Patent Inventions 
 4to. price Is. monthly. 
 
 The PBACTICAL DBAUGHTSMAN'S BOOK of INDUSTBIAL DE 
 
 SIGN. By W. JOHNSON, Assoc. Inst. C.E. With many hundred Illustrations 
 4to. 28s. 6d. 
 
 The PATENTEE'S MANUAL . a Treatise on the Law and Practice of 
 Letters Patent for the use of Patentees and Inventors. By J. aud J. H. 
 JOHNSON. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 The ABTISAN CLUB'S TREATISE on the STEAM ENGINE, in its 
 
 various Applications to Mines, Mills, Steam Navigation. Railways and Agri- 
 culture. By J. BOURNE, C.E. Sixth Edition ; with 37 Plates and 646 Wood- 
 cuts. Hi i. 42s. 
 
 Catechism of the Steam Engine, in its various Applications to 
 Mines, Mills, Steam Navigation, Railways, and Agriculture. By the same 
 Author. With 199 Woodcuts. Fcp. 9s. The INTRODUCTION of ' Recent 
 Improvements' may be had separately, with 110 Woodcuts, price 3s. 6d. 
 
 Handbook of the Steam Engine. By the same Author, forming a 
 KEY to the Catechism of the Steam Engine, with 67 Woodcuts. Pep. 9*. 
 
 The THEORY of WAR Illustrated by numerous Examples from 
 History. By Lieut.-Col. P. L. MAcDoUGALL. Third Edition, with 10 Plans. 
 Post 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 COLLIERIES and COLLIEBS; A Handbook of the Law and leading 
 Cases relating thereto. By J. C. FOWLER, Barrister-at-Law, Stipendiary 
 Magistrate. Fcp. 6s. 
 
 The ABT of PEBFUMERY ; the History and Theory of Odours, and 
 the Methods of Extracting the Aromas of Plants. By Dr. PiESSE, F.C.8. 
 .Third Edition, with 53 Woodcuts. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. ~. 
 
 Chemical, Natural, and Physical Magic, for Juveniles during the 
 Holidays. By the same Author. Third Edition, enlarged, with 38 Woodcuts. 
 Fcp. 6s. 
 
 The Laboratory of Chemical Wonders : a Scientific Melange for 
 Young People. By the same. Crown 8vo. 5s. 6d. 
 
 TALPA; or the Chronicles of a Clay Farm. By C. W. HOSKYNS, 
 
 Esq. With 21 Woodcuts from Designs by G. CHUIKSHANK. 16mo. 5s. 6d. 
 
 H.B.H the PBINCE CONSOBT'S FARMS : an Agricultural Memoir. 
 By JOHN CHALMERS MORTON. Dedicated by permission to Her Majesty 
 the QUBEN. With 4,0 Wood Engravings. 4to. 52s. M.
 
 18 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED ur LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 LOUDON'S ENCYCLOPEDIA of AGRICULTURE: comprising the 
 Laying-out, Improvement, and Management of Landed Property, and the 
 Cultivation and Economy of the Productions of Agriculture. With 1,100 
 Woodcuts. 8vo. 31s. &d. 
 
 London's Encylopjedia of Gardening : comprising the Theory and 
 Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape Gar- 
 dening. With 1,000 Woodcuts. 8vo. 31s. 6d. 
 
 London's Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture 
 and Furniture. With more than 2,000 Woodcuts. 8vo. 42s. 
 
 HISTORY of WINDSOR GREAT PARK and WINDSOR FOREST. 
 
 By WILLIAM MENZIES, Resident Deputy Surveyor. With 2 Maps and 20 
 Photographs. Imp. folio, 8 8s. 
 
 The Sanitary Management and Utilisation of Sewage : comprising 
 Details of a System applicable to Cottages, Dwelling-Houses, Public Build- 
 ings, and Towns ; Suggestions relating to the Arterial Drainaee of the 
 Country, and the Water Supply of Rivers. By the same Author. Imp. 8vo. 
 with 9 Illustrations, 12s. 6d. 
 
 BAYLDON'S ART of VALUING RENTS and TILLAGES, and Claims 
 of Tenants upon Quitting Farms, both at Michaelmas and Lady-Day. 
 Eighth Edition, revised by J. C. MOETON. Svo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 Religious and Moral Works. 
 
 An EXPOSITION of the 39 ARTICLES, Historical and Doctrinal. 
 By E. HABOLD BBOWNE, D.D. Lord Bishop of Ely. Sixth Edition, Svo. IGs. 
 
 The Pentateuch and the Elohistic Psalms, in Eeply to Bishop Colenso. 
 By the same. Second Edition. Svo. 2s. 
 
 Examination Questions on Bishop Browne's Exposition of the 
 Articles. By the Rev. J. GOELE, M.A. Fcp. 3s. Gd. 
 
 FIVE LECTURES on the CHARACTER of ST. PAUL; being the 
 Hulsean Lectures for 1862. By the Rev. J. S. HOWSON, D.D. Second 
 Edition. Svo. 9s. 
 
 The LIFE and EPISTLES of ST. PAUL. By W. J. CONYBEARE, 
 M.A. late Fellow of Trin. Coll. Cantab, and J. S. HOWSON, D.D. Principal of 
 Liverpool Coll. 
 
 LIBEAET EDITION, with all the Original Illustrations, Maps, Landscapes 
 on Steel, Woodcuts, &c. 2 vols. 4to. 48s. 
 
 INTEEMEDIATE EDITION, with a Selection of Maps, Plates, and Woodcuts. 
 2 vols. square crown Svo. 31*. 6d. 
 
 PEOPLE'S EDITION, revised and condensed, with 46 Illustrations and 
 Maps. 2 vols. crown Svo. 12. 
 
 The VOYAGE and SHIPWRECK of ST. PAUL; with Dissertations 
 on the Ships and Navigation of the Ancients. By JAMES SMITH, F.R.S. 
 Crown Svo. Charts, 8s. Qd.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 19 
 
 A CRITICAL and GRAMMATICAL COMMENTARY on ST. PAUL'S 
 
 Epistles. By C. J. ELLICOTT, D.D. Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. Svo. 
 
 Galatians, Third Edition, 8s. Gd. 
 
 Ephesians, Third Edition, 8s. 6d. 
 
 Pastoral Epistles, Third Edition, 10s. (jd. 
 
 Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, Third Edition, 10s. 6d. 
 
 Thessalonians, Second Edition, 7s. Gd. 
 
 Historical Lectures on the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ : being the 
 Hulsean Lectures for 1859. By tlio same Author. Fourth Edition. Svo 
 price 10s. 6d. 
 
 The Destiny of the Creature ; and other Sermons preached before 
 
 the University of Cambridge. By the same. Post Svo. 5s. 
 
 The Broad and the Narrow Way ; Two Sermons preached before 
 the University of Cambridge. By the same. Crown Svo. 2s. 
 
 Rev. T. H. HORNE'S INTRODUCTION to the CRITICAL STUDY 
 
 and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. Eleventh Edition, corrected and 
 extended under careful Editorial revision. With 4 Maps and 22 Woodcuts 
 and Facsimiles. 4 vols. Svo. 3 13*. Gd. 
 
 Eev. T. H. Home's Compendious Introduction to the Study of the 
 Bible, being an Analysis of the larger work by the same Author. Re-edited 
 by the Rev. JOHN AYEE, M.A. With Maps. &c. Post Svo. 9s. 
 
 The TREASURY of BIBLE KNOWLEDGE, on the Plan of Maunder's 
 Treasuries. By the Rev. JOHN ATEE, M.A. Fcp. Svo. with Maps and Illus- 
 trations. [In, the press. 
 
 The GREEK TESTAMENT; with Notes, Grammatical and Exegetical. 
 By the Rev. W. WEBSTEE, M.A. and the Rev. W. F. WILKINSON, MJV. 2 
 vols. Svo. JE2 4. 
 
 VOL. I. the Gospels and Acts, 20s. 
 
 VOL. II. the Epistles and Apocalypse, 24s. 
 
 The FOUR EXPERIMENTS in Church and State ; and the Conflicts 
 of Churches. By Lord ROBEET MONTAGU, M.P. Svo. 12s. 
 
 EVERY-DAY SCRIPTURE DIFFICULTIES explained and illustrated; 
 Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark. By J. E. PEESCOTT, M.A. Svo. 9s. 
 
 The PENTATEUCH and BOOK of JOSHUA CRITICALLY EXAMINED. 
 By the Right Rev. J. W. COLENSO, D.D. Lord Bishop of Natal. People's 
 Edition, in 1 vol. crown Svo. 6s. or in 5 Parts, Is. each. 
 
 The PENTATEUCH and BOOK of JOSHUA CRITICALLY EXAMINED. 
 By Prof. A. KCENEN, of Leyden. Translated from the Dutch, and edited 
 with Notes, by the Right Rev. J. W. COLBNSO, D.D. Bishop of Natal. Svo. 
 8s. Gd. 
 
 The FORMATION of CHRISTENDOM. PART I. By T. W. ALLIES, 
 
 8vo. 12s.
 
 90 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BT LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 CHRISTENDOM'S DIVISIONS: a Philosophical Sketch of the Divi- 
 sions of the Christian family in East and West. By EDMUND S. FFOULKES, 
 formerly Fellow and Tutor of Jesus Coll. Oxford. Post 8vo. 7s. &d. 
 
 The LIFE of CHRIST : an Eclectic Gospel, from the Old and New- 
 Testaments, arranged on a New Principle, with Analytical Tables, &c. By 
 CHABLES DE LA PETME, M.A. Triii. Coll. Camb. Revised Edition, 8vo. 5s, 
 
 The HIDDEN WISDOM of CHRIST and the KEY of KNOWLEDGE ; 
 
 or, History of the Apocrypha. By EBNEST DE BUNSEN. 2 vols. 8vo. 28s. 
 
 HIPPOLYTUS and his AGE ; or, the Beginnings and Prospects of 
 Christianity. By Baron BUNSBN, D.D. 2 vols. 8ro. 80s. 
 
 Outlines of the Philosophy of Universal History, applied to Lan- 
 guage and Religion : Containing an Account of the Alphabetical Conferences. 
 By the same Author. 2 vols. 8vo. 33s. 
 
 Analecta Ante-Nicaena. By the same Author. 3 vols. 8vo. 42s. 
 
 ESSAYS on RELIGION and LITERATURE. By various Writers. 
 Edited by H. E. MANNING, D.D. 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 ESSAYS and REVIEWS. By the Rev. W. TEMPLE, D.D. the Rev. 
 R. WILLIAMS, B.D. the Rev. B. POWELL, M.A. the Rev. H. B. WILSON, 
 B.D. C. W. GOODWIN, M.A. the Rev. M. PATTISON, B.D. and the Rev. B. 
 JOWETT, M.A. Twelfth Edition. Fcp. 8vo. 5*. 
 
 MOSHEIM'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. MURDOCH; and SOAMES'S 
 Translation and Notes, re-edited by the Rev. W. STUBBS, MA. 3 vols. 
 8vo. 45s. 
 
 BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR'S ENTIRE WORKS: With Life by 
 BISHOP HEBEE. Revised and corrected by the Rev. C. P. EDEN, 10 vols. 
 price 5 5s. 
 
 PASSING THOUGHTS on RELIGION. By the Author of 'Amy 
 Herbert.' Eighth Edition. Fcp. Svo. 5s. 
 
 Thoughts for the Holy Week, for Young Persons. By the same 
 Author. Third Edition. Fcp. Svo. 2s. 
 
 Night Lessons from Scripture. By the same Author. Second Edition. 
 32mo. 3s. 
 
 Self-Examination before Confirmation. By the same Author. 32mo. 
 price Is. 6d. 
 
 Readings for a Month Preparatory to Confirmation, from Writers 
 of the Early and English Church. By the same. Fcp. 4s. 
 
 Readings for Every Day in Lent, compiled from the "Writings of 
 Bishop JEEEMT TATLOE. By the same. Fcp. 5s. 
 
 Preparation for the Holy Communion; the Devotions chiefly from 
 the works of JEEEMT TATLOE. By the same. 32mo. 3s. 
 
 MORNING CLOUDS. Second Edition. Fcp. 5*. 
 
 Spring and Autumn. By the same Author. Post Svo. 6*.
 
 NEW WORKS pvuuSHBD BY LONGMANS AND CO. 21 
 
 The WIFE'S MANUAL; or, Prayers, Thoughts, and Songs on Several 
 Occasions of a Matron's Life. By the Rev. W. CALYEET, M.A. Crown Svo. 
 price 10s. 6d. 
 
 SPIRITUAL SONGS for the SUNDAYS and HOLIDAYS through- 
 out the Year. By J. S.B. MONSELL, LL.D. Vicar of Egham. Fourth Edition. 
 Pep. 4s. Gd. 
 
 The Beatitudes : Abasement before God ; Sorrow for Sin ; Meekness 
 of Spirit: Desire for Holiness; Gentleness; Purity of Heart; the Peace- 
 makers ; Sufferings for Christ. By the same. Second Edition, fcp. 3s. 6d. 
 
 HYMNOLOGIA CHRISTIANA; or, Psalms and Hymns selected and 
 arranged in the order of the Christian Seasons. By B. H. KENNEDY, DJ). 
 Prebeudary of Lichfield. Crown Svo. 7s. &d. 
 
 LYRA DOMESTICA; Christian Songs for Domestic Edification. 
 Translated from the Psaltery and Harp of C. J. P. SPITTA, and from other 
 sources, by RICHARD MASBIE. FIEST and SECOND SEETES, fcp. 4s. 6d. each. 
 
 LYKA SACRA; Hymns, Ancient and Modem, Odes and Fragments 
 of Sacred Poetry. Edited by the Rev. B. W. SAYHE, M.A. Fcp. 5*. 
 
 LYRA GERMANICA, translated from the German by Miss C. WINK- 
 WOETH. FIBST SERIES, Hymns for the Sundays and Chief Festivals ; 
 SECOND SEBIES, the Christian Life. Fcp. 5s. each SEEIEB. 
 
 Hymns from Lyra Germanica, 18mo. Is. 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTES to the 'LYRA GERMANICA:' containing 
 brief Memoirs of the Authors of the Hymns, and Notices of Remarkable 
 Occasions on which some of them have been used ; with Notices of other 
 German Hynin Writers. By THEODOEE KCBLEE. Fcp. 7s. M. 
 
 LYRA EUCHARISTICA ; Hymns and Verses on the Holy Communion, 
 Ancient and Modern : with other Poems. Edited by the Rev. OBEY SHIP- 
 LEY, MA. Second Edition. Fcp. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Lyra Messianica ; Hymns and Verses on the Life of Christ, Ancient 
 and Modern ; with other Poems. By the same Editor. Fcp. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Lyra Mystica ; Hymns and Verses on Sacred Subjects, Ancient and 
 Modern. By the same Editor. Fcp. 7s. &d. 
 
 The CHORALE BOOK for ENGLAND; a complete Hymn-Book in 
 accordance with the Services and Festivals of the Church of England: the 
 Hymns translated by Miss ID. WINKWOBTH; the tunes arranged by Prof. 
 W. S. BENNETT and OTTO GOLDSCHIUDT. Fcp. -ito. 12s. &d. 
 
 Congregational Edition. Fcp. 2s. 
 
 The CATHOLIC DOCTRINE of the ATONEMENT: an Historical 
 Inquiry into its Development in the Church ; with an Introduction on the 
 Principle of Theological Developments. By H. N. OXENHAM, MJL for- 
 merly Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford. Svo. 8. Qd. 
 
 FROM SUNDAY TO SUNDAY : an attempt to consider familiarly the 
 Weekday Life and Labours of a Country Clergyman. By R. GEE, M.A. 
 Vicar of Abbott's Langley and Rural Dean. Fcp. 5s. 
 
 FIRST SUNDAYS at CHURCH; or, Familiar Conversations on the 
 Morning and Evening Services of the Church of England. By J. E. RIDDLE, 
 M.A. Fcp. 2s. Gd.
 
 32 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BT LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 The JUDGMENT of CONSCIENCE, and other Sermons. By RICHARD 
 WHATELT, D.D. late Archbishop of Dublin. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. 
 
 PALEY'S MORAL PHILOSOPHY, with Annotations. By RICHARD 
 WHATELT, D.D. late Archbishop of Dublin. 8vo. 7s. 
 
 Travels, Voyages, 
 
 OUTLINE SKETCHES of the HIGH ALPS of DAUPHINE. By T. 
 G. BONNET, M.A. F.G.S. M.A.C. Fellow of St. John's Coll. Camb. With 13 
 Plates and a Coloured Map. Post 4to. 16s. 
 
 ICE-CAVES of FEANCE and SWITZERLAND ; a Narrative of Sub- 
 terranean Exploration. By the Rev. G. F. BKOWNE, M.A. Fellow and 
 Assistant-Tutor of St. Catherine's Coll. Cambridge, M.A.C. With 11 Illus- 
 trations on Wood. Square crown 8vo. 12*. 6d. 
 
 VILLAGE LIFE in SWITZERLAND. By SOPHIA D. DBLMARD. 
 Post Svo. 9*. &d. 
 
 HOW WE SPENT the SUMMER ; or, a Voyage en Zigzag in Switzer- 
 land and Tyrol with some Members of the ALPINE CLTJB. From the Sketch- 
 .Book of one of the Party. In oblong 4to. with about 300 Illustrations, 10s. &d. 
 
 MA? of the CHAIN of MONT BLANC, from an actual Survey in 
 18G3 1864. By A. ADAMS-REILLT, F.R.G.S. M.A.C. Published under the 
 Authority of the Alpine Club. In Chromolithography on extra stout 
 drawing-paper 28in. x 17in. price 10s. or mounted on canvas in a folding 
 case, 12s. 6d. 
 
 The HUNTING-GROUNDS of the OLD WORLD. FIRST SERIES, 
 ' Asia. By H. A. L. the Old Shekarry. Third Edition, with 7 Illustrations, 
 Svo. 18s. 
 
 CAMP and CANTONMENT ; a Journal of Life in India in 18571859, 
 with some Account of the Way thither. By Mrs. LEOPOLD PAGET. To 
 which is added a Short Narrative of the Pursuit of the Rebels in Central 
 India by Major PAGET, R.H.A. Post Svo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 EXPLORATIONS in SOUTH WEST AFRICA, from Walvisch Bay to 
 Lake Ngami and the Victoria Falls. By THOMAS BAINES, F.R.G.S. Svo. 
 with Map and Illustrations, 21s. 
 
 SOUTH AMERICAN SKETCHES ; or, a Visit to Rio Janeiro, the 
 Organ Mountains, La Plata, and the Parana. By THOMAS W. HINCHLIFF, 
 M.A. F.R.G.S. Post Svo. with Illustrations, 12s. 6d. 
 
 VANCOUVER ISLAND and BRITISH COLUMBIA; their History, 
 Resources, and Prospects. By MATTHEW MACFIE, F.R.G.S. With Maps 
 and Illustrations. Svo. 18s. 
 
 HISTORY of DISCOVERY in our AUSTRALASIAN COLONIES, 
 
 Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, from the Earliest Date to the 
 Present Day. By WILLIAM HOWITT. With 3 Maps of the Recent Explora- 
 tions from Official Sources. 2 vols. Svo. 28s.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BT LONGMANS AXD CO. 23 
 
 The CAPITAL of the TYCOON ; a Narrative of a Three Years' Resi- 
 dence in Japan. By Sir RUTHERFORD ALCOCK, K.C.B. 2 vols. 8vo. with 
 numerous Illustrations, 42*. 
 
 LAST WINTER in EOME. By C. R. WELD. With Portrait and 
 Engravings on Wood. Post Svo. 14*. 
 
 AUTUMN RAMBLES in NORTH AFRICA. By JOHN OKMSBT, 
 of the Middle Temple. With 16 Illustrations. Post Svo. S*. 6d. 
 
 The DOLOMITE MOUNTAINS. Excursions through Tyrol, Carintl.ia, 
 Carniola, and Friuli in 1861, 1862, and 1863. By J. GILBERT and G. C. 
 CHURCHILL, F.R.G.S. With numerous Illustrations. Square crov.-u 
 Svo. 21*. 
 
 A SUMMER TOUR in the GRISONS and ITALIAN VALLEYS of 
 the Bernina. By Mrs. HEKEY FRESHFIELD. With a Coloured Maps and 
 4 Views. Post Svo. 10*. 6d. 
 
 Alpine Byeways ; or, Light Leaves gathered in 1859 and 1860. By 
 the same Authoress. Post Svo. with Illustrations, 10s. 6d. 
 
 A LADY'S TOUR ROUND MONTE ROSA; including Visits to die 
 Italian Valleys. With Map and Illustrations. Post Svo. 14s. 
 
 GUIDE to the PYRENEES, for the use of Mountaineers. Dy 
 CHARLES PACKE. With Maps, &c. and Appendix. Fcp. 6s. 
 
 The ALPINE GUIDE. By JOHN BALL, M.R.I.A. late President of 
 the Alpine Club. Post Svo. with Maps and other Illustrations. 
 
 Guide to the Western Alps, including Mont Blanc, Monte Roia, 
 Zerrnatt, &c. Is. 6d. 
 
 Guide to the Oherland and all Switzerland, excepting the Neighbour- 
 hood of Monte Rosa and the Great St. Bernard ; with Lombard}- and the 
 adjoining portion of Tyrol. 7s. 6d. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS; his Life, Voyages, and Discoveries. 
 Revised Edition, with 4 Woodcuts. 18mo. 2s. Qd. 
 
 CAPTAIN JAMES COOK; his Life, Voyages, and Discoveries. Rcvi.-cd 
 Edition, with numerous Woodcuts. 18mo. 2*. 6c. 
 
 NARRATIVES of SHIPWRECKS of the ROYAL NAVY between 17:*3 
 and 1857, compiled from Official Documents in the Admiralty by W. O. S. 
 GILLT ; with a Preface by W. S. GILLT, D.D. Third Edition, fcp. 5s. 
 
 A WEEK at the LAND'S END. By J. T. BLIGHT ; assisted by E. 
 H. RODD, R. 0^ COUCH, and J. RALFS. With Map and 86 Woodcuts. * Ft-p. 
 price 6*. 6rf. 
 
 VISITS to REMARKABLE PLACES: Old Halls. Battle-Fields, and 
 Scenes Illustrative of Striking Passages in English History and Poetry. 
 By_ WILLIAK HOWITT. 2 vols. square crown Svo. with Wood Engravings, 
 price 25s. , 
 
 The RURAL LIFE of ENGLAND. By the same Author. With 
 Woodcuts by Bewick and Williams. Medium Svo. 12*. 6d.
 
 24 NEW WORKS FDBLiSHBD BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 Works of Fiction. 
 
 LATE LATJBELS : a Tale. By the Author of ' Wheat and Tares.' 2 
 vols. post 8vo. 15*. 
 
 A FIEST FRIENDSHIP. [Reprinted from Fraser's Magazine,'} 
 Crown 8vo. 7*. Gd. 
 
 ATHEBSTONE PBIOBY. By L. N. COMTN. 2 vols. post 8vo. 21*. 
 Ellice : a Tale. By the same. Post 8yo. 9s. 6d. 
 
 STOBIES and TALES by the Author of ' Amy Herbert,' uniform 
 Edition, each Tale or Story complete in a single Volume. 
 
 AMY HERBEBT, 2s. Gd. 
 
 GERTRUDE, 2s. Gd. 
 EARL'S DAUGHTEE, 2s. Gd. 
 EXPERIENCE OF LIFE, 2s. -Gd. 
 CLEVE HALL, 3s. 6d. 
 
 IVORS, 3s. fid. 
 
 KATHABINE ASHTOIT, 3s. Gd. 
 MARGARET PEECIVAL, 5s. 
 LANKTON PARSONAGE, 4s. 6d. 
 URSULA, 4s. Gd. 
 
 A Glimpse of the World. By the Author of 'Amy Herbert' Fcp. 7*. Gd. 
 
 ESSAYS on FICTION ; reprinted chiefly from Reviews, with Additions. 
 By NASSAU W. SENIOR. Post 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 ELIHTT JAN'S STOBY; or, the Private Life of an Eastern Queen. 
 By WILLIAM KNIGHTON, LL.D. Assistant-Commissioner in Oudh. Post 
 8vo. 7s. Gd. 
 
 THE SIX SISTEBS of the VALLEYS : an Historical Eomance. By 
 W. BRAMLEY-MOORE, M.A. Incumbent of Gerrard's Cross, Bucks. Third 
 Edition, with 14 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 5s. 
 
 The GLADIATORS : A Tale of Rome and Judsea. By G. J. WHTTB 
 MELVILLE. Crown 8vo. 5s. 
 
 Digby Grand, an Autobiography. By the same Author. 1 vol. 5s. 
 Kate Coventry, an Autobiography. By the same. 1 vol. 5s. 
 General Bounce, or the Lady and the Locusts. By the same. 1 vol. 5s. 
 Holmby House, a Tale of Old Northamptonshire. 1 vol. 5*. 
 Good for Nothing, or All Down Hill. By the same. 1 vol. 6s. 
 The Queen's Maries, a Romance of Holyrood. 1 voL 6s. 
 The Interpreter, a Tale of the "War. By the same. 1 vol. 5s. 
 
 TALES from GBEEK MYTHOLOGY. By George W. Cox, M.A. 
 late Scholar of Trin. Coll. Oxon. Second Edition. Square 16mo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 Tales of the Gods and Heroes. By the same Author. Second 
 Edition. Fcp. 5s. 
 
 Tales of Thebes and Argos. By the same Author. Fcp. 4s. 6c/.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 25 
 
 The WARDEN: a Novel. By ANTHONY TROLLOFE. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6rf. 
 
 Bar-Chester Towers : a Sequel to ' The Warden.' By the same 
 Author. Crown 8vo. 5*. 
 
 Poetry and the Drama. 
 
 SELECT WORKS of the BRITISH POETS; with Biographical and 
 Critical Prefaces by Dr. AIKIN ; wit" 
 by L0CY AIKIN. Medium 8vo. 18s. 
 
 Critical Prefaces by Dr. AIKIN ; with Supplement of more recent Selections 
 ' IKIN. Medii 
 
 GOETHE'S SECOND FAUST. Translated by JOHN ANSTER, LL.D. 
 M.R.I.A. Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Dublin. Post 
 8vo. 15*. 
 
 TASSO'S JERUSALEM DELIVERED. Translated into English Verse 
 by Sir J. KINGSTON JAMES, Kt. M.A. 2 vols. fcp. with Facsimile, 14s. 
 
 POETICAL WORKS of JOHN EDMUND READE ; with final Revision 
 and Additions. 3 vols. fcp. 18s. or each vol. separately, Cs. 
 
 MOORE'S POETICAL WORKS, Cheapest Editions complete in 1 vol. 
 including the Autobiographical Prefaces and Author's last Notes, which are 
 still copyright. Crown 8vo. ruby type, with Portrait, 7s. 6d. or People's 
 Edition, in larger type, 12s. 6d. 
 
 Moore's Poetical Works, as above, Library Edition, medium 8vo. 
 with Portrait and Vignette, 14s. or in 10 vols. fcp. 3s. (5rf. each. 
 
 TENNIEL'S EDITION of MOORE'S LALLA ROOKH, with 68 Wood 
 Engravings from original Drawings and other Illustrations. Fcp. 4to. 21s. 
 
 Moore's Lalla Rookh. 32mo. Plate, Is. 16mo. Vignette, 2s. 6d. 
 
 MACLISE'S EDITION of MOORE'S IRISH MELODIES, with 161 
 Steel Plates from Original Drawings. Super-royal 8vo. 31s. 6d. 
 
 Moore's Irish Melodies, 32mo. Portrait, 1*. 16mo. Vignette, 2s. Gd. 
 
 SOUTHEY'S POETICAL WORKS, with the Author's last Corrections 
 and copyright Additions. Library Edition, in 1 vol. medium 8vo. with 
 Portrait and Vignette, 14s. or in 10 vols. fcp. 3s. Gd. each. 
 
 LAYS of ANCIENT ROME ; with Ivry and the Armada. By the 
 Right Hon. LORD MACAULAY. 16mo. 4s. 6d. 
 
 Lord Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. With 90 Illustrations on 
 Wood, Original and from the Antique, from Drawings by G. ScHAHF. Fcp. 
 4to. 21s. 
 
 POEMS. By JEAN INGELOW. Ninth Edition. Fcp. 8vo. 5s.
 
 26 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 POETICAL WORKS of LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON (L.E.L.) 
 2 vols. 16mo, 10s. 
 
 PLAYTIME with the POETS : a Selection of the best English Poetry 
 for the use of Children. By a LADY. Crown 8vo. 5s. 
 
 BOWDLEB'S FAMILY SHAKSPEABE, cheaper Genuine Edition, 
 complete in 1 vol. large type, with 36 Woodcut Illustrations, price 14s. or 
 with the same ILLUSTBATIONS, in 6 pocket vols. 3s. Gd. each. 
 
 ARUNDINES CAMI, sive Musarum Cantabrigiensium Lusus canori. 
 Collegit atque edidit H. DRUBY, M.A. Editio Sexta, curavit H. J. HODGSON, 
 M.A. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Rural Sports, 
 
 ENCYCLOPAEDIA of BUBAL SPOBTS ; a complete Account, His- 
 torical, Practical, and Descriptive, of Hunting, Shooting, Fishing, Racing, 
 &c. By D. P. ELAINE. With above 600 Woodcuts (20 from Designs by 
 JOHN LEECH). 8vo. 42s. 
 
 NOTES on RIFLE SHOOTING. By Captain HEATON, Adjutant of 
 the Third Manchester Rifle Volunteer Corps. Fcp. 2s. 6d. 
 
 COL. HAWKER'S INSTRUCTIONS to YOUNG SPORTSMEN in all 
 
 that relates to Guns and Shooting. Revised by the Author's SON. Square 
 crown 8vo. with Illustrations, 18s. 
 
 The DEAD SHOT, or Sportsman's Complete Guide ; a Treatise on 
 the Use of the Gun, Dog-breaking, Pigeon- shooting, &c. By MABKSMAN. 
 Fcp. 8vo. with Plates, 5s. 
 
 The FLY-FISHER'S ENTOMOLOGY. By ALFRED KONALDS. With 
 coloured Representations of the Natural and Artificial Insect. Sixth 
 Edition ; witn 20 coloured Plates. 8vo. 14s. 
 
 HANDBOOK of ANGLING : Teaching Fly-fishing, Trolling, Bottom- 
 fishing, Salmon-fishing ; with the Natural History of River Fish, and the 
 best modes of Catching them. By EPHEMEBA. Fcp. Woodcuts, 5s. 
 
 The CRICKET FIELD; or, tbe History and the Science of the Game 
 of Cricket. By JAMES PYCROFT, B.A. Trin. Coll. Oxon. Fourth Edition. 
 Fcp. 5s. 
 
 The Cricket Tutor ; a Treatise exclusively Practical. By the same. 
 
 18mo. Is. 
 Cricketana. By the same Author. With 7 Portraits of Cricketers. 
 
 Fcp. 5s. 
 
 The HORSE'S FOOT, and HOW to KEEP IT SOUND. By W. 
 
 MILES, Esq. Ninth Edition, with Illustrations. Imp. 8vo. 12s. 6d, 
 A Plain Treatise on Horse-Shoeing. By the same Author. Post 
 
 8vo. with Illustrations, 2s. 6d. 
 Stables and Stable-Fittings. By the same. Imp. 8vo. with 13 
 
 Plates, 15s. 
 Remarks on Horses' Teeth, addressed to Purchasers. By the same. 
 
 Post 8vo. Is. 6d.
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS ASD CO. 27 
 
 On DEILL and MANOEUVRES of CA.VALRY, combined with Horse 
 Artillery. By Major-Gen. MICHAEL \V. SMITH, C.B. Commauding the 
 Poonah Division of the Bombay Aroiy. 8vo. 12*. 6d. 
 
 The HOUSE : with a Treatise on Draught. By WILLIAM YOUATT. 
 New Edition, revised and enlarged. 8vo. with numerous Woodcuts, 10s. 6d. 
 
 The Dog. By the same Author. 8vo. with numerous Woodcuts, 6s. 
 
 The DOO in HEALTH and DISEASE. By STOHEHENGE. With 70 
 Wood Engravings. Square crown 8vo. 15s. 
 
 The Greyhound in 1864. By the same Author. With 24 Portraits 
 of Greyhounds. Square crown 8vo. 21s. 
 
 The OX ; his Diseases and their Treatment: with an Essay on Parturi- 
 tion in the Cow. By J. R. DOBSON, M.R.C. V.S. Crown 8vo. with Illustrations 
 price 7s. Gd. 
 
 Commerce, Navigation, and Mercantile Affairs. 
 
 The LAW of NATIONS Considered as Independent Political Com- 
 munities. By TR AVERS Twiss, D.C.L. Regius Professor of Civil Law in the 
 University of Oxford. 2 vols, 8vo. 30*. or separately, PAET I. Peace, 12s. 
 PAST II. War, 18. 
 
 A NAUTICAL DICTIONARY, defining the Technical Language re- 
 lative to the Building and Equipment of Sailing Vessels and Steamers, &c. 
 By ABTHUB YOUNG. Second Edition ; with Plates and 150 Woodcuts. 
 8vo. 18s. 
 
 A DICTIONARY, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical, of Com- 
 merce and Commercial Navigation. By J. R. M'CULLOCH, Esq. Svo.with 
 Maps and Plans, 50s. 
 
 The STUDY of STEAM and the MARINE ENGINE, for Young 
 Sea Officers. By S. M. SAXBY, R.N. Post 8vo. with 87 Diagrams, 5s. 6d. 
 
 A MANUAL for NAVAL CADETS. By J. M'NEIL BOYD, late Cap- 
 tain R.N. Third Edition; with 240 Woodcuts and 11 coloured Plates. 
 Post 8vo. 12s. 6d. 
 
 Works of Utility and General Information. 
 
 MODERN COOKERY for PRIVATE FAMILIES, reduced to a System 
 of Easy Practice in a Series of carefully-tested Receipts. By ELIZA ACTON. 
 Newly revised and enlarged; with 8 Plates, Figures, and 150 Woodcuts. 
 Fcp. 7s. 6d. 
 
 The HANDBOOK of DINING ; or, Corpulency and Leanness scienti- 
 fically considered. By BRILLAT-SAVARIN. Author of 'Physiologic du Gout.' 
 Translated by L. F. SIMPSON. Revised Edition, with Additions. Fcp. 3s. 6d.
 
 23 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 On FOOD and its DIGESTION ; an Introduction to Dietetics. By 
 W. BKINTOX, M.D. Physician to St. Thomas's Hospital, &c. With 48 Wood- 
 cuts. Post 8vo. 12s. 
 
 WINE, the VINE, and the CELLAR. By THOMAS G. SHAW. Se- 
 cond Edition, revised and enlarged, with Frontispiece and 31 Illustrations 
 on Wood. 8vo. 16s. 
 
 A PRACTICAL TREATISE on BREWING ; with Formulas for Public 
 Brewers, and Instructions for Private Families. By W. BLACK. 8vo. 10s. Gd. 
 
 SHORT WHIST. By MAJOR A. Sixteenth Edition, revised, with an 
 Essay on the Theory of the Modern Scientific Game by PBOF. P. Fcp. 3s. Gd. 
 
 WHIST, WHAT TO LEAD. By CAM. Second Edition. 32mo. Is. 
 
 HINTS on ETIQUETTE and the USAGES of SOCIETY ; with a 
 Glance at Bad Habits. Revised, with Additions, by a LADY of RAUK. Fcp. 
 price 2s. 6d. 
 
 The CABINET LAWYER ; a Popular Digest of the Laws of England, 
 Civil and Criminal. Twentieth Edition, extended by the Author; including 
 the Acts of the Sessions 1863 and 1864. Fcp. 10s. 6d. 
 
 The PHILOSOPHY of HEALTH ; or, an Exposition of the Physio- 
 logical and Sanitary Conditions conducive to Human Longevity and 
 Happiness. By SOUTHWOOD SMITH, M.D. Eleventh Edition, revised and 
 enlarged : with 113 Woodcuts, 8vo. 15s. 
 
 HINTS to MOTHERS on the MANAGEMENT of their HEALTH 
 during the Period of Pregnancy and in the Lying-in Room. By T. BULL, 
 M.D. Fcp. 5s. 
 
 The Maternal Management of Children in Health and Disease. By 
 the same Author. Fcp. 5s. 
 
 NOTES on HOSPITALS. By FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. Third Edi- 
 tion, enlarged ; with 13 Plans. Post 4to. 18s. 
 
 C. M. WILLICH'S POPULAR TABLES for ascertaining the Value 
 of Lifehold, Leasehold, and Church Property, Renewal Fines, &c. ; the 
 Public Funds; Annual Average Price and Interest on Consols from 1731 to 
 1861; Chemical, Geographical, Astronomical, Trigonometrical Tables, <tc. 
 Post 8vo. 10s. 
 
 THOMSON'S TABLES of INTEREST, at Three, Four, Four and a 
 Half, and Five per Cent, from One Pound to Ten Thousand and from 1 to 
 365 Days. 12mo. 3s. Qd. 
 
 MAUNDER' S TREASURY of KNOWLEDGE and LIBRARY of 
 
 Reference: comprising an English Dictionary and Grammar, Universal 
 Gazetteer, Classical Dictionary, Chronology, Law Dictionary, a Synopsis 
 of the Peeragp, useful Tables, &o. Fcp. Ids.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 I AGE 
 
 ABBOTT on Sight and Touch 1C 
 
 ACTON'S Modem Cookery *7 
 
 AIKIN'S Select British Poets 2S 
 
 Memoirs and Remains 4 
 
 ALCOCK'S Residence in Japan 22 
 
 ALL i KS on Formation of Christianity 19 
 
 Alpine Guide (The) 28 
 
 APJOHN'S Manual of the Metalloids 12 
 
 A K AGO'S Biographies of Scientific Men .... S 
 
 Popular Astronomy 10 
 
 Meteorological Essays 10 
 
 ARNOLD'S Manual of Enelieh Literature 7 
 
 ARKOTT'S Elements of Physics 11 
 
 Arundines Cami 26 
 
 Atherstone Priory 4 
 
 ATKINSON 's Papinian ' 
 
 Autumn holidays of a Country Parson .. 8 
 
 AYE' Treasury of Bible Knowledge 19 
 
 BABBARE'S Life of a Philosopher 4 
 
 BACOJI'S Essays, by WHATBLT 5 
 
 Life and Letters, by SPEDDINO 4 
 
 Works, by ELMS, SPUDDING, and 
 
 HEATH 6 
 
 BAIN on the Emotions and Will 10 
 
 on the Senses and Intellect 10 
 
 on the Study of Character 10 
 
 BAINIS'S Explorations in S. W. Africa .... ZS 
 
 BAX.L' Guide to the Central Alps 13 
 
 Guide to the Western AJp 23 
 
 BATLDON'S Rents and Tillage) 18 
 
 BLACK'S Treatise on Brewing 28 
 
 BLACKI.ET and FRIEDLAJIDER'S German and 
 
 English Dictionary 8 
 
 ELAINE'S Rural Sports 26 
 
 BLISHT'S Week at the Land's End S3 
 
 BONNET'S Alps of Dauphini? 22 
 
 BOURNE'S Catechism of the Steam Engine.. 17 
 
 Handbook of Steam Engine 17 
 
 Treatise on the Steam Engine... 17 
 
 BOWDLER'S Family SHAKSFEARE 26 
 
 Bern's Manual for Naval Cadets n 
 
 BRAVLEY-MooRE'sSixSistersof the Valleys 24 
 BRANDE'S Dictionary of Science, Literature, 
 
 and Art 13 
 
 BRAT'S (C.) Education of the Feelinjs 10 
 
 - Philosophy of Necessity 10 
 
 -(Mrs.) British Empire. 
 
 n 
 
 KRINTON on food and Digestion ... ". . .'. '.. '. .. 28 
 
 BBISTOW'S < Glossary of Mineralogy 12 
 
 BRODIE'S (Sir C. B.) Psychological Inquiries 10 
 
 . Works 15 
 
 Autobiography 
 
 BROWNE'S Ice Caves of France and Switzer- 15 
 
 land 82 
 
 Exposition 39 Articles 18 
 
 Pentateuch 18 
 
 BUCKLE'S History of Civilization 
 
 BOLL'S Hints to Mothers 
 
 Maternal Management of Children. 
 
 BD.XSEN'S Analecta Ante-Nic.cna 
 
 Ancient Egypt 
 
 Hippolytus and his Age 
 
 Philosophy of Universal History 
 
 BUNSEN on Apocrypha 
 
 BIJNTAN'S Pilgrim's Progress, illustrated by 
 
 BCRKB'* Vicissitudes of 'FamUies'.' .'.'.'.'.'.'.'" 
 BCUTOM 's Christian Church 
 
 Cabinet Lawyer 
 
 CALTKRT'S Wife's Manual 
 
 Campaigner at Home 
 
 CAT. and FARLIB'S Moral Emblems 
 
 Chorale Book for England 
 
 COI.KNSO (Bishop) on Pentateuch and Book 
 of Joshua 
 
 COLUMIIUS'S Voyages 
 
 Commonplace .Philosopher in Town aud 
 Country 
 
 CONINOTON'I Handbook of Chemical Ana- 
 lysis 
 
 CONTAXSBAC'S Pocket French and Eiitflish 
 Dictionary 
 
 Practical ditto 
 
 CoNTBEARiand HOWSON'S Life anu EplltlM 
 of St. Paul 
 
 COOK'S Voyages 
 
 COPLAND'S Dictionary of Practical Mt<liciae 
 
 Abridgment of ditto 
 
 Cox's Talcs of the Great Persian War 
 
 Tales from Greek Mythology 
 
 Tales of the Gods and Heroes 
 
 Tales of Thebes and Argos 
 
 CHEST'S Encyclopaedia of Civil Enginetiing 
 
 Critical Essays of a Country Parson 
 
 CROWE'S History of France 
 
 D'AUBIONE'S History of the Reformation in 
 
 the time of CALVIN 
 
 Dead Shot (The), by MARKSMAN 
 
 DE LA RITE'S Treatise on Electricity 
 
 DILMARD'S Village Life in Switzerland .... 
 
 D LA PRTMB'S Life of Christ 
 
 DK TOCQOBTILLE'S Democracy in America.. 
 
 Diaries of a Lady of Quality 
 
 DOBSON on the Ox 
 
 DOTB'S Law of Storms 
 
 DOYLE'S Chronicle of England 
 
 Ellice,aTale 
 
 ELLICOTT'S Broad and Narrow Way 
 
 Commentary on Ephesians 
 
 Destiny of the Creature 
 
 Lectures on Life of Christ
 
 30 
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AWD CO. 
 
 I-AGB ! 
 
 Etticorr's Commentary on Galatians 19 
 
 Pastoral Epist... 19 
 
 Philippians, (fcc.. 19 
 
 The ssalonians ... 19 
 
 Essays and Reviews 20 
 
 on Religion and Literature, edited 
 
 by MANNING 20 
 
 written in the Intervals of Business 9 
 
 FATRBAIRN'S Application of Cast and 
 
 Wrought Iron to Buildine 17 
 
 Information for Engineers. .. 17 
 
 Treatise on Mills & Mill work 17 
 
 FrocLKEs's Christendom's Divisions 20 
 
 First Friendship 24 
 
 FITZ .ROT'S Weather Book 11 
 
 FOWLER'S Collieries and Colliers 17 
 
 FRESHHBLD'S Alpine Byways 23 
 
 Tour in the Orisons 23 
 
 Friends in Council 9 
 
 FHOODB'S History of England 1 
 
 GARRATT'S Marvels and Mysteries of 
 
 Instinct 13 
 
 GEE'S Sunday to Sunday. 21 
 
 Geological Magazine 12 
 
 GILBERT and CHC RCHILL'S Dolomite Moun- 
 tains 23 
 
 GILLY'S Shipwrecks of the Navy 23 
 
 GOETHE'S Second Faust, by Anster 25 
 
 GOODEVE'S Elements of Mechanism 16 
 
 GORLE'S Questions on BROWNE'S Exposition 
 
 ot the 39 Articles 18 
 
 Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson .... 8 
 
 GRAY'S Anatomy 15 
 
 GREENK'S Corals and Sea Jellies 12 
 
 Sponges and Animalculse 12 
 
 GROVE on Correlation of Physical Forces.. 12 
 
 GWILT'S Encyclopaedia of Architecture .... 16 
 
 Handbook ot Angling, by EPHEMIRA 26 
 
 HARE on Election of Representatives 7 
 
 HARTWIO'S Sea and its Living Wonders.... 12 
 
 Tropical World 12 
 
 HAWKER'S Instructions to Young Sportsmen 26 
 
 HE ATOM'S Notes on Rifle Shooting 26 
 
 HELPS'S Spanish Conquest in America. ..... 2 
 
 HERSCHEL'S Essays from the Edinburgh 
 
 and Quarterly Reviews 13 
 
 Outlines of Astronomy 10 
 
 HBWTTT on the Diseases of Women U 
 
 HIXCHLIFF'S South American Sketches 22 
 
 Hints on Etiquette 28 
 
 HODGSON'S Time and Space 10 
 
 HOLLAND'S Chapters on Mental Physiology 9 
 
 Essays on Scientific Subjects. . . . 13 
 
 Medical Notes and Reflections. . 15 
 
 HOLMF.S'S System of Surgery 14 
 
 HOOKER and WALKEH-ARNOTT'S British 
 
 Flora 13 
 
 HORNE'S Introduction to the Scripture* .... 19 
 
 Compendium of ditto 19 
 
 HOSKYNS'S Talna 17 
 
 How we Spent the Summer 22 
 
 HOWITT'S Australian Discovery 22 
 
 History of the Supernatural 9 
 
 Rural Life of En /land 23 
 
 Visits to Remarkable Places 23 
 
 Howsow's Hulaean Lectures on St. Paul.... 
 
 HCOHES'S (W.) Geography of British His- 
 tory 11 
 
 Manual of Geoeraphy 11 
 
 HL-LLAH'S History of Mode-n Music 4 
 
 Transition Musical Lectures 4 
 
 HUMPHREYS' Sentiments of Shakspeare .... 16 
 
 Hunting Grounds of the Old World 22 
 
 Hymns from Lyra Qermanica 21 
 
 INOELOTT'S Poems 25 
 
 JAMESON'S Legends of the Saints and Mar- 
 
 tyn 16 
 
 Legends of the Madonna 16 
 
 Legends of the Monastic Orders 16 
 
 JAMISON and EASTI.AKI'S History of Our 
 
 Lord 16 
 
 JOHNS'S Home Walks and Holiday Rambles 13 
 
 JOHNSON'S Patentee's Manual 17 
 
 Practical Draughtsman 17 
 
 toy 11 
 
 s Christianity and Common Sense. . . . 10 
 
 JOHNSTON'S Gazetteer, or Geographical Dic- 
 tion a: 
 
 JoMEs'l 
 
 KALISCH'S Commentary on the Old Testa- 
 ment 7 
 
 Hebrew Grammar 7 
 
 KENNEDY'S HymnologiaChristiana 21 
 
 KESTBVEN'S Domestic Medicine 15 
 
 KIRBY and SPBNCE'S Entomology IS 
 
 KMOHTON'S Story of Elihu Jan 24 
 
 KCJBLBH'S Notes to Lyra Germatiica 21 
 
 KCEAEN on Pentateuch and Joshua 19 
 
 Lady's Tour Round Monte Rosa 23 
 
 LANDox'sCL.E.L.) Poetical Works 86 
 
 Late Laurels 24 
 
 LATHAM'S English Dictionary 7 
 
 LECKY'S History of Rationalism 3 
 
 Leisure Hours in Town 8 
 
 LEWES'S Biographical History of Philosophy 3 
 
 LEWIS on the Astronomy of the Ancients ... 6 
 
 on the Credibility of Early Koman 
 
 History 6 
 
 Dialogue qn Government 6 
 
 on Egyptological Method., 6 
 
 Essays on Administrations 6 
 
 Fables of BABH ins 6 
 
 on Foreign Jurisdiction 6 
 
 on Irish Disturbances 6 
 
 on Observation and Reasoning in 
 
 Politics 6 
 
 on Political Terms 6 
 
 on the Romance Languages 6 
 
 LIDDBLL and Scorr'sGreek-English Lexicon 8 
 
 Abridged ditto 8 
 
 LINDLBY and MOORB'S Treasury of Botany 13 
 LONGMAN'S Lectures on the History of Eng- 
 land 2 
 
 LOCDON'S Encyclopaedia of Agriculture.... 18 
 -Cottage, Farm, 
 
 and Villa Architecture 18 
 
 G ardening. .... 18 
 
 -Plants 13 
 
 -Trees & Shrubs 13 
 
 LOWNDES'S Engineer's Handbook 16 
 
 Lyra Domesiica 21 
 
 Eucharistica 16 
 
 German ica 11 
 
 Messianica SI 
 
 Mystica 11 
 
 Sacra Jl 
 
 MACAULAY'S (Tx>rd1 Essays 3 
 
 History of England 1 
 
 l.aysof Ancient Rome 25 
 
 Miscellaneous Writings 9 
 
 Speeches 7 
 
 Speeches on Parliamentary 
 
 Reform 7 
 
 MACDODO ALL'S Theory of War 17 
 
 MARsaMA.Vi Life of llavelock i
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AWD CC 
 
 31 
 
 MM 
 
 McCuLLocn's Dictionary of Commerce 27 
 
 GeoKraphical Dictionary II 
 
 MACFIE'S Vancouver Island 12 
 
 MAuciKE'.Lifeof Father Mathew 4 
 
 Home and its Rulers 4 
 
 MALINO'S Indoor Gardener 13 
 
 MASSIT'S History of Englano 1 
 
 MASSINOBPRO'S Historr of the Reformation.. 3 
 
 MACNDBR'S Biographical Treasury 5 
 
 Geographical Treasury 11 
 
 Historical Treasury 3 
 
 Scientitic and Literary Treasury 13 
 
 Treasury of Knowledze 2S 
 
 Treasury of Natural History .. 13 
 
 MAURI'S I'hyiical Geography 11 
 
 HAT'S Constitutional History of England.. 1 
 
 MELVILLE'S Digby Grand 21 
 
 General Bounce 24 
 
 Gladiators 24 
 
 Good for Nothing 21 
 
 llolmhy House 24 
 
 Interpreter 2* 
 
 Kate Coventry i4 
 
 Queen's Maries 24 
 
 MENDELSSOHN'S Letters * 
 
 MBMIES' Windsor Great Park 1" 
 
 - on Sew&gc . 
 E'S (H.i Colonisation and Culonie 
 Historical Studies 
 
 . (C.)Fall of the Roman Republic 
 
 Romans under the Empire 
 
 on Conversion of Roman 
 
 PAOB 
 
 PACKB'I Guide to the Pyrenees 23 
 
 PAOET'S lectures on Sureical Pathology.. 15 
 
 Camp and Cantonment 21 
 
 PEREIHA'S Elements of Muteria Mediea 15 
 
 Manual of Materia Medica 16 
 
 PERKINS'S Tuscan Sculptors 16 
 
 PHILLIPS'S Guide tc Geology 12 
 
 Introduction to Mineralogy IS 
 
 PIKSSE'S Art of Perfumery 17 
 
 Chemical, Natural, and Physical 
 
 Magic 17 
 
 Laboratory of Chemical Wonderi 17 
 
 Playtime with Die Poets 
 
 Practical Mechanic'! Journal 17 
 
 PBKSCOTT'S Scripture Difficulties 19 
 
 PROCTOR'S Saturn 10 
 
 PYCROFT'S Course of English Reading 7 
 
 CricketField 26 
 
 Cricket Tutor 26 
 
 Cricketana 26 
 
 READE'S Poetical Works 15 
 
 Recreations of a Country Parson, SECOND 
 SERIES. 
 
 REILBRY'S Map of Mont Blanc 12 
 
 RIDDLE'S Diamond Latin-En?lieh Dictionary 9 
 First Sundays at Church 21 
 
 Empire 
 
 MILES on Horse's Foot ...................... -" 
 
 - On Howes' Teeth .................. 26 
 
 - on Horse Shoeing ..................... 26 
 
 - on Stables ............................ 26 
 
 WILL on Liberty ............................ 6 
 
 - on representative Government ...... t> 
 
 - on Utilitarianism ..................... 6 
 
 MILL'S Dissertations and Discussions ....... <j 
 
 - Political t'conrmy .................. 6 
 
 - System of Lottie .................... 6 
 
 - Hamilton's Philosophy .............. 6 
 
 MILLER'I Elements of Chemistry .......... 14 
 
 MONSBLL'S Spiritual Songi .................. 21 
 
 -- Beatitudes ...................... 21 
 
 MONTAGU'S Experiments in Church and 
 
 State ....................................... 19 
 
 MONTOOMSHY on the Signs and Symptoms 
 
 of Preirnancy .............................. 14 
 
 MOORE'S Irish Melodies ..................... 25 
 
 - LallaRookh ...................... 25 
 
 - Memoirs, Journal, and Correspon- 
 dence ...................................... 5 
 
 - Poetical Worki .................... 25 
 
 MORXLL'S Elements of Psychology ......... 9 
 
 - Mental Philosophy ............... 9 
 
 Morning Clouds ............................ 20 
 
 MORTON'S Prince Consort's Farms .......... 17 
 
 MOSHEIM'S Ecclesiastical History ........... 20 
 
 Mui.Lm'sl Max) Lectures on the Science of 
 
 Language ................................. 7 
 
 - (K. O.) Literature of Ancient 
 Greece .................................... 2 
 
 MURCHISON on Continued Fevers ............ 15 
 
 HuaE'sLanguage and Literature of Greece 2 
 
 New Testament, illustrated with Wood En- 1ft 
 eravinzs t'n>m the Old Masters ............ 
 
 NEWMAN'S History of his Religious Opinions 4 
 
 NIGHTINGALE'S Notes on Hospitals .......... 28 
 
 ODLINO'I Course of Practical Chemistry ---- 14 
 
 - Manual of Chemistry ............ 14 
 
 ORMSBT'S Rambles in Algeria and Tunis ____ 23 
 
 OWEN'E Comparative Anatomy and Physio- 
 
 logy of Vertebrate Animals .............. IS 
 
 OXEKHAM on Atonement .................... 21 
 
 RIVEKS'S Rose Amateur's Guide 13 
 
 ROOSRS'S Correspondence of Greyson 9 
 
 Eclipseof Faith 9 
 
 Defence of ditto 9 
 
 Essays from the Edinburgh Review 9 
 
 Fulleriana 9 
 
 ROOKT'S Thesaurus of English Words and 
 
 Phrases 7 
 
 RON A I.DS'S Fly-Fisher's Entomology 26 
 
 ROWTON'S Debater 7 
 
 RUSSELL on Government and Constitution .. 1 
 
 SATBT'S Study of Steam 27 
 
 Weather Syntem ; 1 1 
 
 SCOTT'S Handbook of Volumetrical Analysis 14 
 
 SCROPB on Volcanos \t 
 
 SENIOR'S Biographical Sketches 
 
 Historical and Philosophical 
 
 Essays 3 
 
 Essays on Fiction :... 24 
 
 SEWBLL'S Amy Herbert 24 
 
 Ancient History 2 
 
 Cleve Hall (4 
 
 Earl's Daughter 24 
 
 Experience of Life 24 
 
 Gertrude 24 
 
 Glimpse of the World 24 
 
 Hi.-tory of the Early Church 3 
 
 Ivors 24 
 
 Katharine Ashton 24 
 
 Laneton Parsonage 24 
 
 Manjaret Percival 24 
 
 Night Lessons from Scripture .... 20 
 
 Passing Thoughts on Religion.... 20 
 
 Preparation for Communion 20 
 
 Readings for Confirmation 20 
 
 Headings for Lent 20 
 
 Self-Examination before Confir- 
 mation 20 
 
 Stories and Tales 24 
 
 Thoughts for the Holy Week 20 
 
 Ursula u 
 
 SHAW'S Work on Wine 28 
 
 SREDDEN'S Elements of Logic 
 
 Short Whist .. 28 
 
 SHORT'S Church History 3 
 
 SiETEitNo'sl AMELIA) Life, by WINKWORTH 4 
 
 SIMPSON'S Handb ok of Dining 27 
 
 SMITH'S (SoDTRwoool Philosophy of Health 28 
 
 (J.) Voyage and Shipwreck of St. 
 
 Paul 18
 
 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS AND CO. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 SMITH'S (G.)Wesley an Methodism 3 
 
 (SYDNEV) Memoir and Letters 5 
 
 Miscellaneous Works 9 
 
 Sketches of Moral Philo- 
 sophy 9 
 
 Wit and Wisdom 9 
 
 SMITH on Cavalry Drill and Manoeuvres. . . . 27 
 
 SOUTHEY'S (Doctor") 7 
 
 Poetical Works :... 25 
 
 SPOHR'S Autobiography 4 
 
 Spring and Autumn 20 
 
 STANDBY'S History of British Birds 13 
 
 STEBBINO'S Analysis of MILL'S Logic 7 
 
 BnraKHKUr'l (.K.) Life by JBAFFRESOX and 
 
 POLK 4 
 
 STEPHEN'S Essays in Ecclesiastical Bio- 
 graphy 5 
 
 Lectures on the History of 
 
 France 2 
 
 STIRLING'S Secret of Hegel 10 
 
 STOXEHENGE 03 the Dog 2S 
 
 on the Greyhound. 25 
 
 TASSO'S Jerusalem, by JAMES 25 
 
 TAYLOR'S (Jeremy) Works, edited by EDEN 20 
 
 TENNENT'S Ceylon 12 
 
 Natural History of Ceylon 12 
 
 THIRLWALL'S History of Greece 2 
 
 THOMSON'S (Archbishop) Laws of Thought 7 
 
 '. J.> Tables of Interest 28 
 
 Conspectus, by BIRKETT 15 
 
 TODD'S Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Phy- 
 siology 15 
 
 and BOWMAN'S Anatomy and Phy- 
 siology of Man. 15 
 
 TBOLLOPE'S Barchester Towers J5 
 
 Warden 25 
 
 Twiss'sLawof Nations 27 
 
 TYNDAI.L'S Lectures on Heat 11 
 
 URK'S Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, 
 
 and Mines 16 
 
 VAXDER HOEVE.V'S Handbook of Zoology.. 12 
 
 YACOHAN'S (R.) Revolutions in English 
 
 History ] 
 
 (R. A.) Hours with the Mystics 10 
 
 YILLARI'S Savonarola 4 
 
 WATSON'S Principles and Practice of Physic 14 
 
 WATTS'S Dictionary of Chemistry 14 
 
 WEBB'S Celestial Objects for Common Tele- 
 scopes 11 
 
 WEBSTER & WILKINSON'! Greek Testament 19 
 
 WELD'S Lat Winter in Rome 23 
 
 WELLINGTON'S Life, by BRIALMONT and 
 
 GLEIO 4 
 
 by GL 
 
 WEST on the Diseases of Infancy and Child- 
 hood 14 
 
 WHATELY'S English Synonymes 5 
 
 Logic >, 
 
 Remains 6 
 
 Rhetoric 6 
 
 Sermons 24 
 
 Paley's Moral Philosophy 22 
 
 WHEWELL'S History of the Inductive Sci- 
 ences 3 
 
 Whist, what to lead, by CAM 28 
 
 WHITE and RIDDLE'S Latin-English Dic- 
 tionary 8 
 
 WILBERFORCE (W.) Recollections of, by 
 
 HARFORD. ................................. 5 
 
 WILLIAMS'S Superstitions of Witchcraft 9 
 
 WILLICH'S Popular Tables 28 
 
 WILSON'S Bryologia Britnnniea 13 
 
 WOOD'S Homes without Hands 12 
 
 WOODWARD'S Historical and Chronological 
 
 Encyclopaedia 3 
 
 YONOE'S English-Greek Lexicon 8 
 
 Abridge i ditto 8 
 
 YOUNG'S Nautical Dictionary 27 
 
 Yoc ATT on the Dog 27 
 
 on the Horse 27 
 
 SPOTTISTTOODE AJTD CO., PBIXTEB8, IfZW-aTBUBT SQCAEE, LOKDOX
 
 CENTRAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 University of California, San Diego 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 JUN 18 198 R 
 
 
 MAY 1 7 1988 
 
 
 IIIMI 
 
 <?FP ifl iqop 
 
 
 JUN ^3 1988 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 39 
 
 UCSD Libr.