ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. Classical philologists, carrying this conception into the study of language, have imagined that there was a climax of perfection, attained at the cost of long effort, in the history of Greek and Latin, beyond which these languages had only declined. Certainly modern languages such as English and French rejoice in an extreme suppleness, ease, and flexibility. The aesthetic or utilitarian value of a language must not be taken into account in estimating the progress of language. The talent of its writers, in a period of intense literary activity, national prosperity, and political hegemony, may confer upon a language a sort of semi-absolute perfection, and hence a world-wide prestige. Some languages are more harmonious and fluent than others, and some are easier than others to pronounce; phonetic modifications are in no wise determined by the desire to give pronunciation certain qualities it may lack.
