The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1881-04-28
THE DALLAS HERALD. THURSDAY MORNING.. APRIL "a, 1873,

this manner II may DO said that The homo
geneity ofeoneral thoughtln passing 10 tho
hoterogonoity Of individual thought, IL verg.
Ing toward q clearer and moro comprohen-
slve unity.
SO far as we know, mar then Is the only
one Of g DDS creations that can talk, as he Is
likewise the only one that can make q fire,
the only one that dresses, / 1yond the coats.
that mother nature furnishes direct, etc, but
when and where and how he first talked are
questions yet unsolved by the most diligent
of the p%hiiologists. We are told in the
scriptures that Adam gave names to tho
beasts and the fowls, ETC., and hence 1t is
commended by one class of Investigators, that
word language is as much Of divine origin
as is the faculty Of speech, that it is an in
strument for the conveyance OF thought and
feeling that camo perfect from the heads Of
the makers; but this Is the purest speculation.
It is quite generally assumed,
no viewer, that before the dispersion of those
who, while endssvoring to build the tower
of Babel, we're struck with a confusion of
tongues, there was but one language spoken,
but whether the subsequent dialects were
variously distinct or not, we are likewise
rsnorant. Yet this most writers are willing
10 concede, that the Chsldees, Sanscrit ant
the Hebrew are tho Oldest of which we have
any advice, the latter being the most ancient
e~xtant, though not prior in point of age,
being surpassed by the first named. The
Chinese claim an ultra antiquity. This last
and the Sanscrit may be taken as the two
styles of word language known, the Chinese
being what is termed monosyllabic, and the
other pollysyllabic, like that of the
American Indian. They are antipodal as it
were, the opposite directions of the one in
stinct of speech. Among the almond.eyedrace
each word contains a detached idea, and may
therefore be designated as topographic. So
too is it with the Egyptians who use their
hieroglyphics in a similar manner.
In the great multiplicity of languages, which
with the dialects number some 1000 or
more, the Anglo-Ssxon race have much to
congratulate themselves on, and from the
progress which is being made, as stated in
the opening of this article, the prospects
are hatteriug. 1t has sometimes
been commended that the language in
which the poor blind Homer sung, or that in
which Virgil penned his melliluous verses,o or
the divine Dante pictured heaven, hell and
purgstory,' were the most superior ever
known, but this is not SO; they would have
swept the chords of feeling in any. 1t was
not the instrument that gave forth the
sounds, it was the players. 1t was not solely
the richness of the soil, but the talent of the
immortal artists, the art of the gardener
that caused to spring up the queenly
rose, the imperial lilly and the perfume
spreading violet in the fower.land of song
which fourished wherever tended
by a Milton, a Shakespeare, a Pope. a
a Burns, a Dryden and a Byron.
originally from Asia. the Indo'
European language, by continued divergence
passed rs in its branching into, then the
Saxon, then the Roman, then the Anglic an
then the Gallo, until we have it what it is to-
day by innovation and domestication, with
its no. 900 words, surprising in exuberance
and richness, all the others. And yet of
this vast number it is computed that not
over 10000 are generally used in writing or
speaking, by well educated man,and 5000 to
!, 900 for ordinary conversation. How far the
new words introduced in these dictionaries
will aid US in departments of life where
clear, explicit, accurate language is required
remains to be seen. Certain it is that a
vast amount of tho errors, the difficulties,
The Misunderstanding of life grow out of
imperfect or the defective language en-
as witness the volumes oil legal
in statute books that therefore are
but magazines of guesses, witness the systems
of philosophy aud science, whose bitter
.antsgonisms are due solely to that cause,
witness the business q~uarrels eld disturb
snces of the day, and even the sadills taat
arise from social gossip. Let u' nope mat
to the linguistic study will now be given
more attention and care. through a higher
appreciation of its immense importance.
IT Is funny now people who don't know