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any want of respect for Mr. Darwin. The results at which I have arrived by a life-long study of language and thought are incompatible with the results to which a minute study of the human body has led Mr. Darwin. One of us must be wrong, and it therefore seems to me mere cowardice to shrink from an open combat. It is true 'that Mr. Darwin has not paid special attention to the problem of language and thought, and that all he says about it may be contained in some six or eight largely-printed small octavo pages.' But I submit that six or eight pages from Mr. Darwin may have more weight than a volume from many other writers. Anyhow, if Mr. Darwin is right, then language is not what I hold it to be; it is not the embodiment of conceptual thought, it is not developed from roots, it is not based on concepts. If, on the contrary, language is what I hold it to be, then man cannot be the descendant of some lower animal, because no animal except man possesses the faculty, or the faintest germs of the faculty, of abstracting and generalising, and therefore no animal, except man, could ever have developed what we mean by language.

By

Gentlemen, it matters very little who is right and who is wrong, but it matters a great deal what is right and what is wrong. no one should I more gladly confess myself vanquished than by Mr. Darwin. I feel for him the most sincere admiration; nay, I have never concealed my strong sympathy with the general tendency of his speculations. His power of persuasion, no doubt, is great, but equally great is his honest love of truth; and when I find him again and again admitting that no intermediate links between the highest apes and man have yet been discovered, that the gap between ape and man, small as it is, can be filled with imaginary animals only, I ask myself

how it is possible, in the absence of all tangible evidence, that our matter-of-fact philosophers should have listened to such arguments. Unless there were, in fact, some important germs of truth in his philosophy, I cannot think that Mr. Darwin could ever have carried us along with him so powerfully and almost irresistibly.

If Mr. Darwin were more anxious for victory than for truth, I have no doubt he would have handled the argument of language, too, in a very different spirit. He feels the difficulty of language, he fully admits it; but not seeing how much is presupposed by language-looking upon language as a means for the communication rather than for the formation of thought, he thinks it might be in man a development of germs that may be discovered in animals.

Now a clever pleader-of whom we have too many, even in the courts of science might say, 'Why, does not the very theory you have propounded of the origin of roots prove that Mr. Darwin is right? Have you not shown that animals possess the materials of language in interjections; that they imitate the cries of other animals; that they communicate with each other, and give warning by shrill cries; that they know their own names, and understand the commands of their masters? Have you not "blessed us altogether," by showing how interjections and imitations can be filed down, lose their sharp corners, become general-become, in fact, roots? Surely, after this, Mr. Darwin will be justified more than ever in saying that the language of man is the result of mere development, and that there must have been one or several generations of men who had not yet generalised their intuitions, and not yet filed down the sharp corners of their interjections.'

I have no doubt that such plead

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mater my informant went on that the other clocks of Veke two first, and the pigeons nattention, but when St.

strikes, they all come. What hat prove? It proves that Do not count two, but that hungry stomach strikes two, that it is the peculiar sound of St. Mark's clock, even were it erike twelve, that brings them toher to their dinner.

Our own clock reminds me that is time to finish. It was not easy

say all I wanted to say in the ourse of three Lectures, and I am deeply conscious that some of the points on which I touched but lightly ought to have been treated far more fully. I hope to do this Con a future occasion, after I have se had time to examine carefully the objections which these Lectures or have elicited, and may still elicit. But I trust I have said enough to show you the Science of Language in a new light; and to make you see the its paramount importance for a truly wo, scientific study of Psychology, and as for the solution of problems which Teuice to hang like storm-clouds over our shere- heads, and make our very soul to This quiver.

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NUPPOSING us to study the laws
Dunder which the Political and Signs of a Religious War without
SUP

Moral World is governed as we study those under which the solar system, the Material World, is 'governedcould we arrive at something of the same certainty in predicting the future condition of human society? how it will be with Europe? how it will be with England? how it will be with any one of our homes or institutions on August 11, 1999, at ten o'clock in the morning? (for I would not be particular to a minute).1

One thing is certain, that none who now live will then be living here.

[Perhaps by that time we may have sufficiently mastered the laws of moral evidence to say with equal certainty that every one who now lives will then be living-Where?] Another thing is certain, that everything, down to the minutest particular, is so governed, 'by laws which can be seen in their effects,'2 that not the most trifling action or feeling is left to chance, and that any who could see into the mind of the 'All-Ordering Power,' as mani

Religion.

But there are not wanting signs that, before 1999, even it may be before 1899, great Revolutions may have occurred. And what would we not then give to have guided them in the right direction? Take only the state of religious-no, we mean ecclesiastical-things in France, Rome, and Germany: the deposition of the free-and-easy Voltairian, with all his unmatched services to his country, for the ultrà Roman Catholic Marshal, and the ultrissima Roman Catholic, his wife; the new Pilgrimages, Miraculous Madonnas, the Roman Catholic majority in the Théâtre Royal, Versailles. Have you not the elements of an awful future? awful not merely in the sense of terrible, but as big with the fate of awe-inspiring events?

Bismarck, the ultrissimo on the other side, ultor and ultrà indeed, Jupiter Ultor3 forced into a kind of conquest of Roman Catholic South Germany, the people all on his side, but not for any torrent of religious

'Castlereagh's estimate of 'human fore-sight' was in politics and in war,' for‘seven or ten years.'

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'Mr. Froude on Calvinism.

Jupiter, not Mars Ultor. Mars was K.C.B.'d Ultor for avenging the death of

Cesar by somebody after gaining Philippi. But that is not Bismarck's way now.

ing would seem plausible in many a court, nay, to judge from the remarks that have been addressed to me both by word of mouth and by letter, I should not be surprised if several members of the jury I am now addressing were to lean to the side of the animals. Some young ladies have assured me that, if I only knew their dog, I should have spoken very differently; that no one who has not been loved by a dog can know what true love and faithfulness are. Some elderly ladies have told me that I knew nothing about cats, and that their cats possess quite as much cleverness, quite as much intellect as they themselves. The very statement with which I concluded, and by which I wished to bring the whole question into the narrowest compass, when I said that no animal could form the lowest generalisation, could count two, or think and say Two, has been met by the pigeons at Venice. They, at all events, I was told, can count two; for every day, as soon as the clock of St. Mark's strikes two, neither sooner nor later, they assemble from all parts of Venice to be fed on the piazza. Surely, therefore, they can count two. seemed indeed unanswerable.

This

But

fortunately my informant went on to say that the other clocks of Venice strike two first, and the pigeons pay no attention, but when St. Mark's strikes, they all come. What does that prove? It proves that they do not count two, but that their hungry stomach strikes two, and that it is the peculiar sound of the St. Mark's clock, even were it to strike twelve, that brings them together to their dinner.

Our own clock reminds me that it is time to finish. It was not easy to say all I wanted to say in the course of three Lectures, and I am deeply conscious that some of the points on which I touched but lightly ought to have been treated far more fully. I hope to do this on a future occasion, after I have had time to examine carefully the objections which these Lectures have elicited, and may still elicit. But I trust I have said enough to show you the Science of Language in a new light; and to make you see its paramount importance for a truly scientific study of Psychology, and for the solution of problems which hang like storm-clouds over our heads, and make our very soul to quiver.

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The eclipse of the sun has begun. 7.36

The eclipse of the sun is at its full. 8.28 A.M.

The eclipse of the sun has ended. 9:24 A.M. After this a dearth of great eclipses of the sun visible in this country succeeds for years,

On August 11, 1999, at 12 minutes 20 seconds to 10 A.M., local time,' the next total solar eclipse in England is to occur, we are told.

NUPPOSING us to study the laws

SUPPO

fested by His laws or thoughts, could of course predict history.

All will be Order, not chance. But whether it be the Order of Disorder, so to speak, or the Order of Good Order, depends upon us.

And this is practically what we have to consider.

What will this world be on August II, 1999 ?

What we have made it.

under which the Political and Signs of a Religious War without

Moral World is governed as we study those under which the solar system, the Material World, is 'governedcould we arrive at something of the same certainty in predicting the future condition of human society? how it will be with Europe? how it will be with England? how it will be with any one of our homes or institutions on August 11, 1999, at ten o'clock in the morning? (for I would not be particular to a minute).1

One thing is certain, that none who now live will then be living here.

[Perhaps by that time we may have sufficiently mastered the laws of moral evidence to say with equal certainty that every one who now lives will then be living-Where?] Another thing is certain, that everything, down to the minutest particular, is so governed, 'by laws which can be seen in their effects," that not the most trifling action or feeling is left to chance, and that any who could see into the mind of the 'All-Ordering Power,' as mani

1

2

Religion.

But there are not wanting signs that, before 1999, even it may be before 1899, great Revolutions may have occurred. And what would we not then give to have guided them in the right direction? Take only the state of religious-no, we mean ecclesiastical-things in France, Rome, and Germany: the deposition of the free-and-easy Voltairian, with all his unmatched services to his country, for the ultrà Roman Catholic Marshal, and the ultrissima Roman Catholic, his wife; the new Pilgrimages, Miraculous Madonnas, the Roman Catholic majority in the Théâtre Royal, Versailles. Have you not the elements of an awful future? awful not merely in the sense of terrible, but as big with the fate of awe-inspiring events?

Bismarck, the ultrissimo on the other side, ultor and ultrà indeed, Jupiter Ultor3 forced into a kind of conquest of Roman Catholic South Germany, the people all on his side, but not for any torrent of religious

Castlereagh's estimate of 'human fore-sight' was in politics and in war,' for‘seven or ten years.'

'Mr. Froude on Calvinism.

Jupiter, not Mars Ultor. Mars was K.C.B.'d Ultor for avenging the death of Cesar by somebody after gaining Philippi. But that is not Bismarck's way now.

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