ABSTRACT
The philologists conceptions are similarly controlled by the nature of his evidence: he sees men only in terms of language as Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic, Gallo-Brittonic, Goedelic, English-speaking, Welsh-speaking, Danish-speaking and so on. If the final synthesis, the results of co-ordination, is commonly called a historical synthesis this is a usage which reflects the wider range of ideas embraced by historical evidence; it does not mean that archaeological and linguistic conceptions can be transmuted into historical conceptions. Race, language, nation and culture represent quite different conceptions, and it would be absurd to expect political boundaries always to coincide with ethnological boundaries, linguistic boundaries and cultural boundaries. Evidence, conclusions and conceptions can often be coordinated or brought into close association with other kinds of evidence, conclusions and conceptions. All human activity in its several dimensions is inextricably complicated, and each of one conceptions offers at best only a faint reflection of one aspect of it.
