Page:Nature and Origin of the Noun Genders of the Indo-European Languages.djvu/42

32 the primitive language largely on subjective theories. Forces and tendencies were ascribed to the primitive tongue and to the prehistoric period which have no analogy in historical times, and pro-ethnic antiquity was thus surrounded with a fantastic and mystical glamour. The later investigation regards more the present. It considers it of the chief importance to understand that which is now before us, and that which belongs to the immediate past, investigating its growth and development. Its principle is this: to take as the starting-point what is known by experience, and to apply this to the unknown of the past, to the conditions of prehistoric times; to use it not without discretion, but yet as the main criterion for recognizing ancient conditions. In this way we may hope to throw some light even upon those most remote periods in the history of our language. Your own countryman Whitney was one of the first to insist on these principles of investigation. It is my hope that this spirit of genuine historical induction, which has prevailed but a single score of years in linguistic science, may never again be lost to Indo-European philology.