Die aufschliesst unbekannt gewesene Weltempfindung.
Ein alter Dichter, der nur dreier Sprachen Gaben
Besessen, rühmte sich der Seelen drei zu haben,
Und wirklich hätt’ in sich alle Menschengeister
Der Geist vereint, der recht wär’ alle Sprachen Meister.”
The Emperor Charles V. went still further, and declared that “in proportion[275] to the number of languages which a man knew, in that proportion was he more of a man.” There may have been exaggeration in this expression, but at any rate it arose from the conviction of an important truth. And we may add with Göthe the undoubted certainty, “Wer fremde sprache nicht kennt, weiss nichts von seiner eigenen.” Perhaps in this sentence we may find the reasons why so few know their own language in half its richness and power.
3. A universal language could not, in the present state of human intelligence, last for any long period. New circumstances of life, new discoveries of thought, new conquests of art and science, would require new forms of expression. The influences of climate and history would produce fresh revolutions in the character of nations, and the change of character would necessitate modifications of the prevalent idiom, which in the course of time would diverge so widely from the parent language, as to be unintelligible unless separately acquired. There is in language, as we have seen repeatedly, an organic life; it is an incessant act of creation, ever progressing, ever developing. To reduce it to one stereotyped[276] and universal form would be to contradict the very law of its being, by substituting an eternal immobility for that power of growth and alteration which constitutes its very existence.
If all men be hereafter of one speech, it can only be after they have arrived at a condition when knowledge has superseded the necessity of inquiry, when intuition supplies the place of discovery, and certainty has been substituted for faith. As far as the science of philology can pronounce an opinion, we must infer, that the familiar line will remain true henceforth as heretofore—
Πολλαὶ μὲν Θνητοῖς γλῶτται, μία δ’ Ἀθανάτοισι.
Mortals have many languages, the Immortals one alone.