ART. PAGE The Turkish Empire in its Relations with Chris- tianity and Civilization. By RICHARD ROBERT MADDEN, Fel. R.C.S. Eng., M.R.I.A., Author of 'Travels in Turkey,' 'Infirmities of Genius,' &c. 179 IX. 1. Synopsis of the Contents of the International Ex- hibition of 1862. By ROBERT HUNT, F.R.S., 255 The Life of Mahomet. With Introductory Chapters on the Original Sources for the Biography of Mahomet, and on the Pre-Islamite History of Arabia. By WILLIAM MUIR, Esq., Bengal Civil Letters from Italy and Switzerland. By FELIX MEN- DELSSOHN BARTHOLDY. Translated from the Ger- man by LADY WALLACE. Second Edition . . 293 Gedichte von Ernst Moritz Arndt. Letzte Ausgabe. (The Poems of Ernst Moritz Arndt. Last Edition) 309 The History of Gibraltar, and of its Political Relation to Events in Europe, from the Commencement of the Moorish Dynasty in Spain to the Last Morocco 2. Les Deux Théologies Nouvelles. Par J. F. ASTIÉ. 6. Essais de Critique Religieuse. Par A. RÉVILLE. 7. Du Protestantisme en France. Par SAM. VINCENT. Nouvelle Edition avec une Introduction de M. PRÉVOST PARADOL English Metrical Homilies from MSS. of the Four- teenth Century. With an Introduction and Notes, by JOHN SMALL, M.A., Librarian, University, VII. 1. Des Hallucinations; ou, Histoire Raisonnée des Apparitions, des Visions, des Songes, de l'Extase, du Magnetisme, et du Somnambulisme. Par A. 2. Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites; including an Account ART. VIII. 1. Dr. Lushington's Judgment in the Cases of the Bishop of Salisbury v. Williams, and Fendall v. 2. Examination of Dr. Lushington's Judgment in the Cases of the Bishop of Salisbury v. Williams, and Fendall v. Wilson. By JOHN GROTE, B.D., Pro- PAGE THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW. JULY 1, 1862. ART. I.-Lectures on the Science of Language. By MAX MÜLLER, M.A., Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, Corresponding Member of the Imperial Institute of France. Third Edition. London: Longman & Co. THE above Lectures, which the author informs us are only a short abstract of several courses delivered in Oxford, are a healthy sign of the times. The subject deserves more attention than it has hitherto received in this country. The Science of Language could not, any more than other sciences, become established in popular favour without first passing through the ordeal of adverse criticism. The circle of the sciences regards every new comer as exceedingly presumptuous. It desires to be very select, and gives every fresh aspirant to a share of its honours more trouble to establish his claims than a novus homo had in Rome. The Science of Language, however, has successfully combated many of the prejudices which it at first awakened, and exhibits such credentials as have secured a respectful consideration from a numerous public. Professor Max Müller shows that every physical science has had to pass through three stages. It first applies itself to the common wants of life. It appeals to the lower interests of society, and endears itself by performing menial services. It is simply practical. It then stirs the feeling of curiosity, and gratifies a love of order. It arranges its stores, and points out the resemblances, contrasts, gradations, by which this arrangement is facilitated and distinguished. And finally it assumes a loftier function. It reasons from the known to the unknown. It endeavours to explain what before it only inspected and put in order. NO. LXXI. B These three stages in the progress of science the author denominates the Empirical, the Classificatory, and the Theoretical. He adopts the following illustrations. Botany (the Greek word botané means 'fodder') first busied itself about food for cattle. Geometry began with measuring a garden or a field. The term is derived from the Greek words gé land,' and metron 'a measure.' The first observations upon the stars were made by the sailor to aid him in navigation, and by the farmer to guide him in the successive labours of agriculture. But the great variety of herbs and plants, the multitudinous forms and proportions in which land may be divided, the number of the stars and the changes to which they are subject, led to arrangement and classification, and ultimately to the third stage in the sciences of botany, of geometry, and of astronomy, in which are developed the laws of vegetable growth, the necessary properties of geometrical figures, and the principles by which the motion of the heavenly bodies is determined. The Science of Language passes through the same phases. In the Empirical stage every one is a linguist. It is not possible to live a human life without speech, and it is equally impossible to speak without learning how. Besides, there are many who require to know more languages than one, in order to travel in foreign lands, or to carry on business with foreign merchants, or to read books in other tongues than their own. The study of languages is also by many considered as a necessary part of a good education. In all these cases the Science of Language is only in the Empirical stage. It is pursued on account of the profit which it yields. Now and then, even in early times, a student of more than common reflectiveness examined the resemblances in the words of a language, or even noted down how far two or more languages had the same forms, and in what particulars they differed from one another. Such works as the Mithridates' of Vater and Adelung appeared at the beginning of this century, and at length the introduction of Sanskrit literature gave a strong impulse to the Science of Language in the second or Classificatory stage, and made it possible with safety and success to enter upon the third or Theoretical stage. Jacob Grimm's 'German Grammar' began to appear in 1819, and his 'History of 'the German Language' in 1848, both of which embrace the entire range of the Teutonic languages. Franz Bopp's 'Comparative 'Grammar' applied to the principal Indo-European languages, and August Friedrich Pott's 'Etymological Investigations' began to appear in 1833. Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt's work on the Kawi language was posthumously published in 1836. These |