This, I say, we should guess even from an examination of our own language alone. For the process is still going on. Take the word _even_, as used in the sentence which we have just written: ‘Even from an examination.’ Here _even_ is an adverb, quite meaningless when used alone, at least as an adverb; but if we see it alone it becomes another word, an adjective, a meaning word, bringing before us the idea of two things hanging level. ‘Even from’ is nonsense as an _idea_ with nothing to follow it, but ‘even weights’ is a perfectly clear and definite notion, and each of the separate words _even_ and _weights_ give us clear and definite notions too. It is the same with _just_, which is both adverb and adjective. ‘Just as’ brings no thought into the mind, but ‘just man’ and _just_ and _man_, separately or together, do. _While_ or _whilst_ are meaningless; but, ‘a while,’ or ‘to while’--to loiter--are full of meaning. In each case the meaningless word came from the meaning word, and was first used as a sort of metaphor, and then the metaphorical part was lost sight of. _Ago_ is a meaningless word by itself, but it is really only a changed form of the obsolete word _agone_, which was an old past participle of the verb ‘to go.’ And we might find many instances of words in the same process of transformation in other languages. The English word _not_ is meaningless, and just as much so are the French _pas_ and _point_ in the sense of _not_; but in the sense of _footstep_, or _point_, they have meaning enough. Originally _Il ne veut pas_ meant, metaphorically, ‘He does not wish a step of your wishes,’ ‘He does not go a footstep with you in your wish;’ _Il ne veut point_, ‘He does not go a point with you in your wish.’ Nowadays all this metaphorical meaning is gone, except to the eye of the grammarian. People recognize that _Il ne veut point_ is rather stronger than _Il ne veut pas_, but it never occurs to them to ask why.