As I have been unable to find any reference to this important
factor in the origin of language, and as no competent writer has pointed
out any fallacy in it, I think I am justified in supposing it to be new
and important. Mr. Gladstone informed me that there were many thousands
of illustrations of my ideas in Homer."--A.R.W.
* * * * *
W.E. GLADSTONE TO A.R. WALLACE
_Hawarden Castle, Chester. October 18, 1895._
Dear Sir,--Your kindness in sending me your most interesting article
draws on you the inconvenience of an acknowledgment.
My pursuits in connection with Homer, especially, have made me a
confident advocate of the doctrine that there is, within limits, a
connection in language between sound and sense.
I would consent to take the issue simply on English words beginning with
_st_. You go upon a kindred class in _sn_. I do not remember a perfectly
_innocent_ word, a word habitually used _in bonam partem_, and beginning
with _sn_, except the word "snow," and "snow," as I gather from
_Schnee_, is one of the worn-down words.
May I beg to illustrate you once more on the ending in _p_. I take our
old schoolboy combinations: hop, skip and jump. Each motion an ending
motion; and to each word closed with _p_ compare the words _run, rennen,
courir, currere._
But I have now a new title to speak. It is deafness; and I know from
deafness that I run a worse chance with a man whose mouth is covered
with beard and moustache.
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