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which they are quite as familiar as with French. I have sent my son to a town where nothing but German is spoken, in order that he may be forced to speak it." In such preferences you must not look for the causes in sentiment or fancy. When a man has choice of two roadsone straight and open, the other crooked and difficult to find—he is sure to take, almost without reflection, the shorter and more convenient one. I have also observed families where the two languages known in the same degree were English and French. In this case the English maintained supremacy, even in a French-speaking land. It is handed down. from one generation to another. It is employed by those who are in haste, or who want to say something in as few words as possible. The tenacity of French or English families established in Germany in speaking their own language, and the rapid disappearance of German in the German families established in French or English countries, may be explained by the nature of the languages rather than by the influence of fashion or education.

The general rule is this: In the conflict of two languages, everything else being equal, it is the most concise and the most simple that conquers. French beats Italian and German. English beats the other languages. In short, it need only be said that the more simple a language is, the more easy it is to be learned, and the more quickly can it be made available for profitable employment.

The English language has another advantage in family use-its literature is the one most suitable to feminine tastes; and every one knows how great is the influence of mothers on the language of children. Not only do they teach what is called "the mother tongue," but often, when well educated, they feel pleasure in speaking a foreign language to their children. They do so gayly, gracefully. The young lad who finds his language-master heavy, his grammar tiresome, thiuks very differently when his mother, his sister, or his sister's friend addresses herself to him in some foreign tongue. This will often be English, and for the best of reasons: there is no language so rich in works (written in a spirit of true morality) upon subjects which are interesting to women-religion, education, fiction, biography, poetry, &c.

The future preponderance of the language spoken by English, Australians, and Americans thus appears to me assured. The force of circumstances leads to this result; and the nature of the language itself must accelerate the movement.

The nations who speak the English tongue are thus burdened with a responsibility which it is well they should recognize at once. It is a moral responsibility toward the civilized world of the coming centuries. Their duty, as it is also their interest, is to maintain the present unity of the language, at the same time admitting the necessary or convenient modifications which may arise under the influence of eminent writers, or be arranged by common consent. The danger to be feared is that the English language may, before another century has passed,

be broken up into three languages, which would be in the same relation to each other as are Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, or as Swedish and Danish.

Some English authors have a mania for making new words. Dickens has invented several. Yet the English language already possesses many more words than the French, and the history of its literature shows that there is greater need to suppress than to add to the vocabulary. No writer for three centuries past has employed nearly so many different words as Shakespeare; therefore there must have been many unnecessary ones. Probably every idea and every object had formerly a term of Saxon origin, and one of Latin or French origin, without counting Celtic or Danish words. The very logical operation of time has been to suppress the double or triple words. Why re-establish them? A people so economical in its use of words does not require more than one term for each thing.*

The Americans, on the other hand, make innovations of accent or orthography, (they almost always spell labour "labor," and harbour 66 harbor.") The Australians will do the same if they do not take care. Why should not all possess the noble ambition of giving to the world one uniform concise language, supported by an immense literature, and spoken in the next century by eight hundred or one thousand millions of civilized men? To other languages it would be as a vast mirror, in which each would become reflected, thanks to newspapers and translations, and all the friends of intellectual culture would have a convenient medium for the interchange of ideas. It would be rendering an immense service to future races, and at the same time the authors and men of science of English-speaking race would give a strong impulsion to their own ideas. The Americans, above all, are interested in this stability, since their country is to be the most important of those of English tongue. How can they acquire a greater influence over Old England than by speaking her language with exactness ?

The liberty of action permitted among people of English race adds to the danger of a division in the language. Happily, however, certain causes which broke up the Latin language do not exist for English nations. The Romans conquered nations the idioms of which were maintained or re-appeared here and there in spite of administrative unity. The Americans and Australians, on the contrary, have before them only savages, who disappear without leaving any trace. The Romans were conquered and dismembered in their turn by the barbarians. Of their ancient civilization no evidence of unity remained, unless it was in the Church, which has itself felt the influence of the universal decline. The Americans and Australians possess many flourishing schools; they have the literature of England as well as their own. If they choose,

A clever English writer has just published a volume on the institutions of the people called Swiss in English. He names them Switzers. For what reason? Will there soon be Deutschers?

they can wield their influence by means of maintaining the unity of the language. Certain circumstances make it possible for them to do so; thus the teachers and professors mostly come from the States of New England. If these influential men truly comprehend the destiny of their country, they will use every effort to transmit the language in its purity; they will follow classic authors, and discard local innovations and expressions. In this question of language, real patriotism (or, if you will, the patriotism of Americans really ambitious for their country) ought to be, to speak the English of Old England, to imitate the pronunciation of the English, and to follow their whimsical orthography until changed by themselves. Should they obtain this of their countrymen, they would render to all nations and to their own an unquestionable benefit for futurity.

The example of England proves the influence of education upon the unity of a language. It is the habitual contact of educated people and the perusal of the same books which, little by little, is causing the disappearance of Scotch words and accent. A few years more, and the language will be uniform throughout Great Britain. The principal newspapers, edited by able men, also exercise a happy influence in preserving unity. Whole columns of the "Times" are written in the lan. guage of Macaulay and Bulwer, and are read by millions of people. The result is an impression which maintains the public mind in a proper literary attitude.

In America the newspaper articles are not so well written; but the schools are accessible to all classes, and the universities count among their professors men especially accomplished in their use of the English tongue. If ever there should arise a doubt in the opinions of the two countries as to the advisability of modifying the orthography, or even making changes in the language, it would be an excellent plan to organize a meeting of delegates from the principal universities of the Three Kingdoms, of America, and Australia, to propose and discuss such changes. Doubtless they would have the good sense to make as few innovations as possible; and, thanks to common consent, the advice would probably be followed. A few modifications in the orthography alone would render the English language more easy to strangers, and would contribute toward the maintenance of unity in pronunciation throughout Anglo-American countries.

NOTES BY DR. JOHN EDWARD GRAY, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. It may be observed, in addition, that the people who use the English language in different parts of the world are a reading and a book-buying people, and especially given to the study of quasi-scientific books, as is proved by the fact of the extensive sale which they command.

In support of this assertion, I may quote the Baron Férussac's review of Wood's "Index Testaceologicus," in the Bull. Sci. Nat., Paris, 1829, p. 375. He remarks:

"We observe with interest the number of subscribers that exist in England for an octavo volume on shells, costing 186 francs. It is a curious fact, which booksellers and authors will appreciate, as it will afford them the means of seeing how a return is obtained for their outlay on such works in England, compared with other countries. The number of subscribers is 280, of which 34 are females and 6 foreigners. Certainly all the rest of Europe could not produce as many, nor per haps even the half of that number."

How much more astonished would M. Férussac have been, if informed that these were only the subscribers before publication, and that 1,000 copies were sold! Since 1829 the sale of scientific books has much increased, as is shown, for example, by the many editions of the works of Lyell and other naturalists, each edition being of 1,000 copies. Most scientific books in France and other continental countries can only be published when the government furnishes the cost; and they are chiefly published in an expensive form as a national display, and are almost confined to their public libraries, except the sale of copies that are bought by English collectors.

In England such works are generally published by individual enterprise, and depend on the general public for their support, and are published in a style to suit the different classes. Thus there are works of luxury for the rich, often published by individuals who confine themselves to the production of that class of books; very cheap works for. the student and mechanic; and books of all intermediate grades, produced by the regular publishers. The females of all grades are extensive readers of this class of books, which, I believe, is chiefly the case with English-speaking races.

Some of the scientific Swedes and Russians have published their papers in the English language, or appended an abstract in English to them, as Thorell on European Spiders; Professor Lilljeborg on Lysianassa, and Professor Wackerbarth on the Planet Leda, &c. The Danes and Dutch often publish their scientific papers in French, as Temminck, Reinhardt, and the late Professor Van der Hoeven, who themselves read and write English; but it appears they regard French as the polite language of courts, and forget that courtiers, generally, have a contempt for science, and that they should look among the people for their readers.

It is to be observed that Professor de Candolle himself uses the French language with a very English construction; but we believe that his work would have commanded the greatest number of readers if written in the English language, which he reads and writes so fluently.

See, also, Mr. Galton's interesting article on the Causes which create Scientific Men, in the "Fortnightly Review" for March, 1873, p. 346, which contains some interesting observations on M. de Candolle's work.

ON UNDERGROUND TEMPERATURE,

Prepared for the Smithsonian Institution by CHARLES A. SCHOTT, of the U. S. Coast Survey.

The earth's solid crust being hotter than the mean temperature of the lower atmosphere resting on its surface, heat is constantly and very slowly passing outward, and strata of equal depth would have very nearly uniform temperatures but for the influence of the daily, the annual, and the irregular variations of the atmospheric temperature, received by conduction. The solar heat then acts as a disturbance of the thermal equilibrium, and the depth of the stratum of the so-called "invariable temperature," i. e., when the changes escape ordinary observation or become less than 0°. 01 C., as generally defined, is found about 6 meters below the surface in the tropics, and about 30 meters below the surface in the middle latitudes. The corresponding depths at which the daily variations become imperceptible are 0.3 meter and 1.3 meter very nearly. These numbers, however, depend greatly on the kind of soil or rock, and will differ considerably for loose soil of greater or less porosity and for solid rock. Our records of observations are very scanty and deficient in range, and barely afford the necessary data to form a basis of calculation, on account of the many conditions which enter into the problem.

It would appear from experience that the mean temperature of the air, as ordinarily observed, say at an elevation of 1 or 2 meters above ground, is slightly higher than the mean temperature of the surface of the soil. The mean temperature of the earth's crust increases from the surface, with increasing depth, and with a nearly uniform rate for moderate depths, with an average amount of about 28 meters for each degree of the centigrade scale, and the temperature at the depth of invariable heat nearly equals the mean annual atmospheric temperature of the place, but slightly exceeds it in amount. For greater depths the descent to produce an increase of 1° C. is greater than the amount given above. With increase of depth the amplitude of change is rapidly diminishing, and for a depth increasing arithmetically the amplitudes diminish in geometrical ratio; also the depth at which the daily and annual variations, respectively, disappear is in proportion of the square root of the length of these periods, or about 1 to 19. The amplitude 4 p has been represented in the form, log 4 p= A-Bp, where A and B are constants to be determined at the place, and p the depth. Observations by Quetelet at Brussels, for instance, give the following result: log 4p

1.15108-0.04149 p, (amplitude in degrees centigrade and p in

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