e deaf and dumb, from the jabbering of animals,
from the analysis of sounds in relation to the organs of speech. The
phonograph affords a visible evidence of the nature and divisions of
sound; we may be truly said to know what we can manufacture. Artificial
languages, such as that of Bishop Wilkins, are chiefly useful in showing
what language is not. The study of any foreign language may be made also
a study of Comparative Philology. There are several points, such as
the nature of irregular verbs, of indeclinable parts of speech, the
influence of euphony, the decay or loss of inflections, the elements of
syntax, which may be examined as well in the history of our own language
as of any other. A few well-selected questions may lead the student at
once into the heart of the mystery: such as, Why are the pronouns and
the verb of existence generally more irregular than any other parts of
speech? Why is the number of words so small in which the sound is an
echo of the sense? Why does the meaning of words depart so widely from
their etymology? Why do substantives often differ in meaning from the
verbs to which they are related, adverbs from adjectives? Why do words
differing in origin coalesce in the same sound though retaining their
differences of meaning? Why are some verbs impersonal? Why are there
only so many parts of speech, and on what principle are they divided?
These are a few crucial questions which give us an insight from
different points of view into the true nature of language.

(6) Thus far we have been endeavouring to strip off from language the
false appearances in which grammar and philology, or the love of system
generally, have clothed it. We have also sought to indicate the sources
of our knowledge of it and the spirit in which we should approach it, we
may now proceed to consider some of the principles or natural laws which
have created or modified it.

i. The first and simplest of all the principles of language, common
also to the animals, is imitation. The lion roars, the wolf howls in the
solitude of the forest: they are answered by similar cries heard from
a distance. The bird, too, mimics the voice of man and makes answer to
him. Man tells to man the secret place in which he is hiding himself;
he remembers and repeats the sound which he has heard. The love of
imitation becomes a passion and an instinct to him. Primitive men learnt
to speak from one another, like a child from its mother or nurse. They