Babel, or the Past, Present and Future of Human Speech,
by Sir Richard Paget (Kegan Paul, 2s. 6d.) is a plea for the abandonment of laissez-faire in the development of the English language and for basing its development upon certain laws of speech which Sir Richard Paget explains. Of course, the author cannot do justice in such a small compass to his theories, and many ordinary readers will wonder, and perhaps smile, on being told that in pronouncing certain words they are imitating with their tongues the action described by the words. In any case, it might be rather difficult to add to an already complex language on this basis, since, as the author himself perceives, one tongue movement may correspond to an almost infinite number of meanings, and very few writers would agree with him in wishing to eliminate the pronunciation of ` s," which is said, possibly truly, by a distinguished modern writer, to be the salt of poetry.
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