University of Virginia Library

"He discourses in a truly learned and lively manner upon the original unity of language,
and the origin, derivation and history of words, with their morality and separate
spheres of meaning."

"This is a noble tribute to the divine faculty of speech. Popularly written, for use
as lectures, exact in its learning, and poetic in its vision, it is a book at once for the
scholar and the general reader."

"It is one of the most striking and original publications of the day, with nothing of
hardness, dullness, or dryness about it, but altogether fresh, lively, and entertaining."