tic, the science of language, is a natural
science; its method is in general the same as that of the other natural
sciences." ("Die Darwinische Theorie", page 6 f.) In accordance with
this view he declared (op. cit. page 23.) that the root in language
might be compared with the simple cell in physiology, the linguistic
simple cell or root being as yet not differentiated into special organs
for the function of noun, verb, etc.

In this probably all recent philologists admit that Schleicher went too
far. One of the most fertile theories in the modern science of language
originated with him, and was further developed by his pupil, August
Leskien ("Die Declination im Slavisch-litanischen und Germanischen",
Leipzig, 1876; Osthoff and Brugmann, "Morphologische Untersuchungen",
I. (Introduction), 1878. The general principles of this school were
formulated (1880) in a fuller form in H. Paul's "Prinzipien der
Sprachgeschichte", Halle (3rd edition, 1898). Paul and Wundt (in his
"Volkerpsychologie") deal largely with the same matter, but begin their
investigations from different points of view, Paul being a philologist
with leanings to philosophy and Wundt a philosopher interested in
language.), and by Leskien's colleagues and friends, Brugmann and
Osthoff. This was the principle that phonetic laws have no exceptions.
Under the influence of this generalisation much greater precision in
etymology was insisted upon, and a new and remarkably active period in
the study of language began. Stated broadly in the fashion given above
the principle is not true. A more accurate statement would be that an
original sound is represented in a given dialect at a given time and in
a given environment only in one way; provided that the development of
the original sound into its representation in the given dialect has not
been influenced by the working of analogy.

It is this proviso that is most important for the characterisation of
the science of language. As I have said elsewhere, it is at this point
that this science parts company with the natural sciences. "If the
chemist compounds two pure simple elements, there can be but one result,
and no power of the chemist can prevent it. But the minds of men do
act upon the sounds which they produce. The result is that, when this
happens, the phonetic law which would have acted in the case is stopped,
and this particular form enters on the same course of development as
other forms to which it does not