Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/131

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Orderly Relationships

all these phenomena have been analysed, in a sense, both subjectively and objectively.

Furthermore, the geographical distribution of tongues, and the laws which permit one to flourish beside the other, or to amalgamate with another; the principles governing the language of literature and those which condition the local current idioms; the laws of dialect; the soul of slang; the strong laws making for precision, and those that are weaker tending toward looseness and inaccuracy; the various lines of energy hitched to the chariot of spiritual unity—of linguistic harmony—dragging the car to its destiny, have all been discussed within reasonable limits; and they have been explained at reasonable length; so that the differentiation of tongues and the bonds uniting all may, at least, be partly comprehended.

Finally, the consideration of all these laws, and many others, has directed research back to the era of primitive speech. Ethnological questions have been answered in part by race,

107