le likely to be
improved by the meddling of those who have not taken the trouble to
master the principles of its action.

In conclusion, I am sure that I make myself the mouthpiece of all
present in offering to the venerable founder of the institution, which
now commences its beneficent career, our congratulations on the
completion of his work; and in expressing the conviction that the
remotest posterity will point to it as a crucial instance of the wisdom
which natural piety leads all men to ascribe to their ancestors.

[1] Originally delivered as an address, in 1880, at the opening of
Mason College, Birmingham, England, now the University of Birmingham.

[2] The advocacy of the introduction of physical science into general
education by George Combe and others commenced a good deal earlier; but
the movement had acquired hardly any practical force before the time to
which I refer.

RACE AND LANGUAGE

BY

EDWARD AUGUSTUS FREEMAN

_INTRODUCTORY NOTE_

_Edward Augustus Freeman (1823-92), one of the most distinguished of
recent English historians, was born at Harborne, in Staffordshire, and
educated at Oxford, where he was a Fellow of Trinity College, and later
Regius Professor of Modern History. His earlier writings show great
interest in architecture, and it was one of his distinctions to be the
first historian to make extensive use in his subject of the evidences
and illustrations supplied by the study of that art. His most famous
and most elaborate work was his "History of the Norman Conquest"
(1867-79), a monument which is likely long to remain the great
authority on its period._

_Freeman believed in the unity of the study of history, and in the wide
range of his own writings he went far toward realising the universality
he preached. Outside of the field just mentioned he wrote on ancient
Greece, on Sicily, on the Ottoman Empire, on the United States, on the
methods of historical study, and on many other subjects. His interests
were primarily political, and he took an active part in the politics of
his own day, writing for many years for the "Saturday Review." As a
teacher he influenced profoundly the scientific study of history in
England._

_Of few terms in general use has the average man a less exact or less
accurate comprehension than of the word "race." The speculative
philologists of last century, with their attempts to classify the
peoples of the earth according to linguist