in anything but a rational state; the great sections of the civilized
world are only approximatively intelligible to each other, and even that
only at the cost of long study; one word stands for many things, and many
words for one thing; the subtle shades of meaning, and still subtler
echoes of association, make language an instrument which scarcely
anything short of genius can wield with definiteness and certainty.
Suppose, then, that the effect which has been again and again made to
construct a universal language on a rational basis has at length
succeeded, and that you have a language which has no uncertainty, no
whims of idiom, no cumbrous forms, no fitful simmer of many-hued
significance, no hoary Archaisms "familiar with forgotten years"--a
patent deodorized and non-resonant language, which effects the purpose of
communication as perfectly and rapidly as algebraic signs. Your language
may be a perfect medium of expression to science, but will never express
_life_, which is a great deal more than science. With the anomalies and
inconveniences of historical language you will have parted with its music
and its passions, and its vital qualities as an expression of individual
character, with its subtle capabilities of wit, with everything that
gives it power over the imagination; and the next step in simplification
will be the invention of a talking watch, which will achieve the utmost
facility and despatch in the communication of ideas by a graduated
adjustment of ticks, to be represented in writing by a corresponding
arrangement of dots. A melancholy "language of the future!" The sensory
and motor nerves that run in the same sheath are scarcely bound together
by a more necessary and delicate union than that which binds men's
affections, imagination, wit and humor, with the subtle ramifications of
historical language. Language must be left to grow in precision,
completeness, and unity, as minds grow in clearness, comprehensiveness,
and sympathy. And there is an analogous relation between the moral
tendencies of men and the social conditions they have inherited. The
nature of European men has its roots intertwined with the past, and can
only be developed by allowing those roots to remain undisturbed while the
process of development is going on until that perfect ripeness of the
seed which carries with it a life independent of the root. This vital
connection with the past is much more vividly felt on the Continen