Mr. Judge published in the October 1894 issue of The Path (Vol. IX, p. 226) an article by S. Kademal entitled "Would Universal Language Aid Universal Brotherhood?" In it, the writer put up a strong plea for a universal language, saying, among other things, that it would help men to progress to brotherhood, and that the Theosophical Society ought to have a "common medium of intercommunication." He then advocated an invented international language called Volapuk.

Volapuk (corrupted from English "world-speak") was invented in 1879 by Johann M. Schleyer, a priest of constance, Baden. This language is partly original and partly made up of words of European origin, mainly English. It had a great vogue, and by its tenth year about one million people were using it. At its third Congress in 1889, held in Paris, everyone, including the waiters, spoke it. After this triumph, it began to decline rapidly, for reasons into which it is not necessary to go here, but chiefly through internal dissensions. So much for Volapuk.

The history of international languages is an interesting one. The Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us what a difficult task it is to construct one. The first attempt was made by Dalgarno in 1661 and was called "Ars Signorum." The next was by Wilkins in 1668, and called "Real Character." Neither of these was a success because the ground for such a language had not been prepared, but it is interesting to note that Wilkins's sketch of phonetics is still considered valuable. There seems to be a hiatus in further attempts; at least one is mentioned in the Encyclopaedia Britannica until we come Volapuk.

After this came Esperanto, widely known by 1907—an artificial language designed as a medium for persons of all nations, its vocabulary enriched by new words as they were needed.

There may have been other attempts to create a universal language, but now we might consider Mr. Judge's reaction as expressed in his "Note" to Kademal's article. It was republished in The Heart Doctrine ("Would Universal Language Aid Universal Brotherhood?", p. 202).

He points out in this Note that, as "violations of universal brotherhood grow out of the character and not the language would prevent the violation. We see that peoples who have one language are at war and kill one another." Mr. Judge remarks that both sides spoke English in the American revolution, and that "it has character, idea, rule, regulation, and the like that made the occasion for conduct opposed to brotherhood." He goes on to point out that when a race "is entirely raised up to a right level of morals, conduct, character, aspiration and ideal," then, and then only, will it be profitable to have a universal language.

Mr. Judge ends his Note by saying that before one can use the universal, symbolic method of writing known in the Occult Lodges, one's whole character, conduct and ideal have to undergo a change. Such a language is in use today, Mr. Judge asserts, and a still older system was used in the very ancient records to some of which H.P.B. had access, but this could not be known by the average man of today.

Now let us see what Theosophy has to say on the subject of language in general.

First of all we have to understand the importance of sound; and language is, of course, a collection of sounds. H.P.B. tells us that, in the Sanskrit, as also in the Hebrew and all other alphabets, "every letter has its occult meaning and its rationale; it is a cause and an effect of a preceding cause and a combination of these very often produces the most magical effect. The vowels, especially, contain the most occult and formidable potencies" (The Secret Doctrine, I, 94). Further we read that:

Sound, for one thing, is a tremendous Occult power; it is a stupendous force, of which the electricity generated by a million of Niagaras could never counteract the smallest potentiality when directed with occult knowledge. Sound may be produced of such a nature that the pyramid of Cheops would be raised in the air, or that a dying man, nay, one at his last breath, would be revived and filled with new energy and vigour.

For Sound generates, or rather attracts together, the elements that produce an ozone, the fabrication of which is beyond chemistry, but within the limits of Alchemy. (S.D., I, 555)

This last statement leads us into deep waters, and much study and reflection on Sound and Language will be needed if we want to understand the relationship between the two.

Mantras are an example of the potency of sound, and in The Theosophical Glossary H.P.B. defines Mantrika Shakti as "the power, or occult potency of mystic words, sounds, numbers or letters" in the Vedic Mantras. She says that "the influence of melody is one of its ordinary manifestations" (S.D., I, 293). Further, "the spoken word has a potency unknown to, unsuspected and disbelieved in, by the modern 'sages'." Why? "Because sound and rhythm are closely related to the four Elements of the Ancients"; and because "such or another vibration in the air is sure to awaken corresponding powers, union with which produces good or bad results, as the case may be." (S.D., I, 307)

What about language itself? Languages "have their phases of growth, etc., like all else in nature" (S.D., II, 662). They "have their cyclic evolution, their childhood, purity, growth, fall into matter, admixture with other languages, maturity, decay and finally death" (S.D., II, 199). In a footnote on the same page, H.P.B. says that "Language is certainly coeval with reason, and could never have been developed before men became one with the informing principles in them—those who fructified and awoke to life the manasic element dormant in primitive man." And elsewhere she states that the whole human race was at one time of one language, taught to it by Divine Instructors.

H.P.B. tells us that "it is almost certain that the great linguistic families pass through three stages" (S.D., II, 662). And she enumerates these stages.

In the first stage, all words are roots and merely placed in juxta-position, creating what are called radical languages.

Next, we reach the stage when one root defines another and becomes what is called a "determinative element." This is the stage of agglutinative languages.

Finally, this determinative element (the determining meaning of which has long lapsed) unites into a whole with the formative element, and we have inflected speech.

So far this agrees with what science teaches about the origin of language, but here it stops, for it has no idea where the original roots come from. Therefore we have to see what Theosophy has to say about the potentiality of forming roots.

Monosyllabic speech, we are told, was used by

the first approximately fully developed human beings at the close of the Third Root-race...after their separation into sexes, and the full awakening of their minds. Before that, they communicated through what would now be called "thought-transference," though, with the exception of the Race called the "Sons of Will and Yoga"...thought was but very little developed in nascent physical man, and never soared above a low terrestrial level....Language could not be well developed before the full acquisition and development of their reasoning faculties. This monosyllabic speech was the vowel parent, so to speak, of the monosyllabic languages mixed with hard consonants, still in use amongst the yellow races which are known to the anthropologists. (S.D., II, 198-99)

It is necessary to know a little more about the early races, for a study of language cannot be properly undertaken without taking into consideration the evolution of man and of the races.

The agglutinative languages were spoken by the Fourth (the Atlantean) Race. In time they, too, decayed and are now used only by a few aboriginal tribes.

The next stage is that of the inflectional, highly developed languages by the Fifth, our Race. The root of Sanskrit, the mystery tongue of the Initiates of the Fifth Race, was the first inflectional language. The Semitic languages are "the bastard descendants of the first phonetic corruptions of the eldest children of the early Sanskrit" (S.D., II, 200). This brings us down to the present day, and we can trace, if we take the trouble, the source of our modern European languages, through Latin and Greek, to Sanskrit.

We can summarize thus the stages of the development of speech:

1. The First Race was speechless.
2. The Second Root Race communicated by chant-like sounds composed of vowels only.
3. During the second half of the Third Race, after the sexes had separated and mind was awakened, speech developed. This speech was, at first, monosyllabic.
4. The Fourth Race developed what is known as "Rakshasi Bhasha."
5. In the Fifth Root Race our modern languages were developed.

What of the future language, then? Mr. Judge, in a short article entitled "Another Theosophical Prophecy" (reprinted in part in The Heart Doctrine, p. 204, from The Path for May 1886), asserts that "the Sanskrit language will one day be again the language used by man upon this earth, first in science and in metaphysics, and later on in common life." Sanskrit words have for some time been appearing in the literature and the press of the day, as we can see for ourselves. Sanskrit, H.P.B. says, is "the language of the Gods because it can convey metaphysical ideas and early cosmogonical ones."

Should we, then, rush out to learn Sanskrit? It would not do any harm, but until such time as there is more knowledge of the Ancient Philosophy, and more students of Theosophy to become familiar with such Sanskrit terms as are to be found in their books, it might be better to be more careful in the use of words in our own, languages, to use them accurately, to be quite sure of their meaning, and to see that the ones we do use are helpful, not harmful, full of kindlines and good will, "Words are things," said Mr. Judge. It is not easy to realize this fact, but thought along the line of potency of sound, especially, will be of inestimable value.