1. =ROOTS; INFLUENCE OF IMITATION ON LANGUAGE.=--The question of the origin of language is an extremely interesting one, which has been long and keenly discussed. But it is one on which the opinions of the learned are not agreed, and we cannot dwell upon it here. There is an established fact, however, which is of the highest interest and importance: most of the words of the great family of Indo-European languages can be traced to a few hundred roots; and these roots are common to the whole family. It is the greatest achievement of philological science to have clearly established this fact. How these roots have originated, is a more uncertain inquiry: in fact, is just the question of the origin of language presented in another form. It is the theory of some that words have arisen from the imitation of natural sounds; the names of animals, for instance, being imitations of the sounds they utter. Though this has been ridiculed under the nickname of the _bow-wow_ theory, there seems to be some truth in it: at anyrate no one will deny that in the English, as in all other languages, a great many words exist which are imitative of natural sounds. Among such words the following may be mentioned: _Babble_, _boom_, _chatter_, _chirp_, _clang_, _clatter_, _clink_, _crash_, _croak_, _cuckoo_, _fizz_, _giggle_, _gurgle_, _hiss_, _howl_, _hum_, _hush_, _murmur_, _quack_, _scream_, _shriek_, _squeal_, _thud_, _thump_, _thwack_, _twang_, _whack_, _wheeze_, _whirr_, _whizz_. Of course these words were not all originally English. _Clang_ and _murmur_, for instance, are Latin words; but they also are of imitative origin.