in general or earth; _mrid_, to weaken, to soften, to melt; thus, fluid mass. This idea in English takes the form _malt_, grain soaked and softened; then the Greek _meldo_, and the Gothic _mulda_, soft ground or morass, and that which is softened by use or the action of time. The Latin _sordes_ and _sordidus_ are connected herewith, as the same root may be found in _smarna_, Gothic, and the Greek _mélas_ and _moros_, black, and in _murus_, brown-black; in the Russian _smola_, wax and resin. “Colour was conceived originally as the result of the act of covering or extending a fluid over a surface; it was not till the art of painting, in its most primitive form, was discovered and named, that there could have been a name for colour.”[40] The name of colour in Sanscrit is _varna_, from _var_, to cover. The idea conveyed by the words, to smooth, to flatter, to soften, to mollify, to melt a hard substance, to polish a rough surface by constant rubbing, led to the same terms being used for expressing the softening influence which man exercised on man, by looks, gestures, words or prayers, and these expressions were especially used by men in their relations to the gods, when they strove to propitiate them by supplications and sacrifices: thus the prayer which we now translate by “Be gracious unto us, O God,” meant originally, “Melt to us; be softened, ye gods.” Language grew and made offshoots, but without confusion; disorder had no place in the progress of thought (still less chance), which was simple and rational. This was not the development of the conscious effort towards some goal. At this period there was no such thing as reflection properly so called; for instance, man did not ponder how best to express a feeling of fear, since fear, like so many other impressions, received vague expression before the concept of fear acquired shape; but our ancestors had a root to express shaking (in Sanscrit _kap_, _kamp_, to shake): they used it to describe fear, which manifested itself in the trembling of voice or limbs. Thus, “I shake” might mean, “I shake a tree,” or “I am shaken,” “I am shaken by him” (by my horse), but also “I am trembling”; from it we have in Greek _karnos_, smoke, not what shakes, or is shaken, but what is in a shaking state, that which moves; _kup_, which is probably a modification of _kamp_, means to shake inwardly, to be angry.