Chapter I: Introduction: On the Connexion of the Conclusions of This Work with (1)

HISTORY, SACRED AND PROFANE, AND WITH THE RESULTS OF SCIENCE.

_Interpretation of the Passage commented on by Grotius. Mr. Lyell’s Geological Proofs of the Recent Origin of Man. Grounds of Adelung’s Opinion that Central Asia was the Birthplace of the Human Race. Its Central Position and High Elevation. Its Climate. It is the native Country of Domestic Animals. This View consistent with the Scriptural Narrative, and supported by ancient Indian Accounts. __“__Ararat__”__ of Scripture not in Armenia. Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic Languages. Dr. Prichard on the Origin of different Races. The Dispersion of Mankind probably very rapid. Routes of Diffusion. Basques and Celts. Connexion of the Welsh with Negro Dialects. The Peopling of Islands. The Unity of the Human Species deduced from the Uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features of civilized and uncivilized Races. Egyptians and Negroes. Ancient Gauls and Modern French. Tendencies to Progression among Races yet uncivilized. The N. A. Indian Tribe the Mandans. Imperfection of Modern Civilization. The Siege of Genoa. The Hottentot Race._

In commenting on a celebrated passage of Scripture, Grotius has adopted, with regard to the primitive language of mankind, the conclusion expressed on the title-page.

“That Language the Hebrews say is the same as theirs—the Syrians say it is the same as theirs. It may be asserted, with more truth, that the Primitive Language is not extant in a pure state anywhere, but that its _remains exist in all languages_!”

Of the conclusion thus expressed by this celebrated writer—a conclusion dictated by the intuitive sagacity of a great mind—the facts developed in the following pages will be shown to be confirmatory. All existing languages, when viewed separately, are _fragmentary and irregular_. But when a wide and extensive comparison is instituted, the “disjecta membra” are found to reunite, and the irregularities to disappear!

Assuming the various languages of the Globe to have been derived from one Original Speech, it will be established that the formation of numerous distinct languages from that one Primitive Tongue admits of a complete explanation, by means of causes of which the agency can be traced within the range of the Historical era. The influence of those causes will be shown within a limited period of time to have produced dialects which display—not a _destruction_—but a _dispersion_ of the elements of the Parent languages from which _they are known to have arisen_. In other words, these dialects manifest the _same relative features_ as are exhibited by those languages which were formed _anterior to the period of History_. The only distinction is, that in the latter case the differences are more numerous and extensive—a result which is obviously a necessary consequence of a longer period of time.

Agreeably to an interpretation which has received very high sanction, the event described in the passage referred to in the title-page cannot be pronounced to have had any considerable share in the production of Human Languages, for, according to eminent authorities,(1) the changes thereby caused probably consisted in mere Dialectic differences, not materially affecting the Words or Structure of Language. Moreover (it is inferred) the influence of that event did not extend to the whole Human Race, but merely to that small portion of it who were the ancestors of the Semetic or Syro-Phœnician nations.

In these pages are embodied proofs, from Language, of the two following propositions:—1. That the various nations of our Globe are descended from one Parent Tribe. 2. That the introduction of the Human Species into the system to which it belongs, cannot be referred to an epoch more ancient than the era indicated as the date of that event by our received systems of chronology.

These propositions, of which the Philological evidence is developed in this volume, are supported not only by the testimony of History, Sacred and Profane, but also by the highest Scientific authorities.

In Cuvier’s theory of the Earth the date of the origin of our species is discussed, not only on Geological but also on Historical grounds, in a disquisition embracing an immense mass of learning on the subject of the supposed antiquity of the Chinese, Egyptians, and other nations who have laid claim to a very remote origin. These pretensions are rejected, and the date usually assigned to the origin of Man is adopted in this celebrated work.

The same views have been expressed by Mr. Lyell; views which he espouses, not merely as the result of his own reasonings, but of the prevalent conclusions of the highest geological authorities.

“I need not dwell,” he observes, “on the proofs of the low antiquity of our species, for it is not controverted by any experienced geologist; indeed the real difficulty consists in tracing back the signs of man’s existence on the earth to that comparatively modern period when species, now his contemporaries, began to predominate. If there be a difference of opinion respecting the occurrence in certain deposits of the Remains of Man, and his works, it is always in reference to strata confessedly of the most modern order, and it is never pretended that our race co-existed with assemblages of Animals and Plants, of which all or even a great part of the species are extinct. From the concurrent testimony of history and tradition we learn that parts of Europe now the most fertile, and most completely subjected to the dominion of Man, were, less than three thousand years ago, covered with forests, and the abode of wild beasts. The archives of nature are in accordance with historical records, and when we lay bare the most superficial covering of peat we sometimes find therein the canoes of the savage, together with huge antlers of the wild stag, or horns of the wild bull. In caves now open to the day, in various parts of Europe, the bones of large beasts of prey occur in abundance, and they indicate that at periods comparatively modern in the history of the globe the ascendancy of man, if he existed at all, had scarcely been felt by the brutes.”(2)

(See an analogous argument of Berkeley for the Recent Origin of Man, quoted with approbation by Mr. Lyell, vol. iii. p. 203.)

In what part of the Globe was the Human species first introduced? On this interesting question various opinions have existed, and very opposite theories have been propounded. Sir Humphry Davy(3) surmised that this locality must have been somewhere in or near the Tropics, in a climate suited to the tender childhood of the Race. Sir William Jones fixed upon Persia or Iran.(4) Adelung has concluded in favour of a contiguous locality; viz., the regions of the Indus, the borders of Cashmire and Tibet. It may be observed also that his grounds, in some respects, coincide with those adopted by Sir William Jones, who, after alluding to the extensive and, as he conceives, fundamental differences between the Languages of—1, The Persians and Indians, Romans and Greeks, &c.; 2, The Jews, Arabs, &c.; 3, The people of China and Japan; and 4, The Tartars—nations whom, nevertheless, he conceives to have descended from one pair—observes, “If, then, you consider the seats of all the migrating nations as points in a surrounding figure, you will perceive that the several rays, diverging from _Iran_, may be drawn to them without any intersection; but this will not happen, if you assume as a centre, _Arabia_ or _Egypt_; _India_, _Tartary_, or _China_: it follows that _Iran_, or _Persia_ (I contend for the _meaning, not the name_,) was the central country which we sought.”

Adelung’s(5) Dissertation on this subject, which, as he states, contains “the only hypothesis in which he has permitted himself to indulge,” is characterized by profound reasoning and graceful illustration. Considering their variety and extent, his proofs seem to be conclusive, especially when dissociated from the opinion which was entertained both by himself and Sir William Jones, viz., that the languages of the nations forming the diverging radii of migration are fundamentally different. Of these languages the original unity will be apparent, from the facts embodied in this work. Adelung’s grounds for selecting the Central Asiatic regions of Cashmire and Tibet are—1. Their Geographical position and high elevation, and the direction of their mountains and rivers, which render these countries a natural source for the diffusion of Population over the Globe. 2. Their Climate and Natural productions. 3. The Ancient Indian accounts which are corroborated by the Scriptural narrative. 4. In these regions is the line which separates from other Asiatic races the nations who exhibit the Mongol or Tartar Physiognomy. 5. The same line separates the Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic Languages. 6. The Astronomical reasonings of Bailly.

1. Geographically.

Central Asia forms a natural centre for the diffusion of population over the Globe, as will appear from the following passages from an authority by whom Adelung’s views have been adopted:(6)

“Asia, exhibiting such characteristics in its outline, is no less remarkable for the form of its surface, on which the climate, and consequently the vegetation and animal kingdom, of its different parts must chiefly depend. In examining the other divisions of the globe, we find that Australia exhibits level and comparatively low countries without many high mountain-ranges, as far as we yet know. Africa is divided into two nearly equal parts, the southern of which forms an almost uniform table-land, whilst the northern, with the exception of the Atlas region, may be considered as a lowland. Europe contains plains of small extent lying between dispersed mountain-groups and ridges; but these plains are not confined to any particular parts. In America the highest land lies on one side, occupying its western coast from the extreme north to the south; it forms the most extensive system of mountain-chains on the globe, which inclose within their arms elevated plateaus, but of comparatively small extent. _Asia exhibits different features. The whole mass of the interior continent rises to a considerable __ elevation above the sea, and this elevated mass, of which the high table-lands occupy by far the greatest extent, is not placed at one of the extremities of the whole mass, but occupies its centre._

“From these table-lands, which occupy the centre of Asia, the surface descends in gradual and diversified terraces and slopes to the lowlands which surround them.”

After stating that these table-lands consist of two terraces, (viz. an Eastern system, composed of Tibet and the Great Desert, called Gobi, and a Western terrace, including Iran or Persia,) which unite where the ranges of the Himalaya, Hindu-Kuh, Thsungling, and Belur Tagh meet, the same writer thus alludes to the regions which form the point of junction:

“Such a juxta-position of all the great features which nature exhibits on the surface of the globe, on such a colossal scale, and in so limited a space, makes this one of the most remarkable spots on the face of our planet. This maximum of the contrasts of natural features, placed in the centre of the continent, is the principal characteristic which distinguishes Asia. By drawing a circle with a radius of a few hundred miles round this common centre, we comprehend in it the countries of Cashmere, Sogdiana, and Cabulistan, the ancient empires of Bactria, Delhi, and Samarcand, the cold table-lands of Tibet, of Khotan, and of Kashgar, up to the ancient Seres and Paropamisadæ.”

Further, the same writer, after describing the immense variety of climate that occurs within this limited space, adds:

“From the extremity of these table-lands, especially on the _south-east and north-east, south-west and north-west_, there issue several separate mountain-chains, not connected with one another, but which form more or less a part of the table-lands themselves.

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“_The valleys, which are produced by this indentation on the borders of the table-lands, offer peculiar advantages for the progress of civilization._ For, as we have already observed, the highland of Asia does not sink on _one side only_, but on _all sides_ and towards every point of the compass; it also sinks towards _different_ oceans, which are separated from the highland by extensive plains, varying greatly in magnitude and form. This circumstance, added to the valleys formed by the indentations in the exterior margins of the highlands, has given rise to numerous and most extensive _river systems_, which, descending through the intervening terraces, direct their winding course _towards the north, south, west, and east_, and thus give to _the distant internal countries of this continent the advantage of an easy communication with the ocean_.”

2. The Climate and Natural productions of Cashmire and Tibet.

Influenced solely by its high elevation, De Pauw, Zimmerman, and Pallas concluded that Central Asia must have been the birthplace of the human race. To this conclusion the rigorous climate of those parts of it which were best known to them appeared to present an insuperable objection. But as Adelung observes, those regions of Central Asia which border upon the Indus have been shown by the accounts of travellers to fulfil all the requisite conditions in this respect. Had these celebrated writers been possessed of the information these accounts contain, they might have discovered in Cashmire a suitable locality for the first abode of man, in Tibet a fitting school of discipline to prepare him for the various climes and countries he was destined to inhabit!

CASHMIRE. Adelung’s description of this enchanting country calls to mind in many of its features the “Happy Valley” in Rasselas!

The faculties with which man has been endowed enable him to contend with the most unfavorable climes: but not until these faculties have been ripened by Time and experience! At his first creation he required an abode where nature’s free bounty would supply all his wants; in fine he needed, with reference even to his mere physical necessities, a Paradise! To this appellation no country in Asia can assert a better claim than the lovely land of Cashmire, which is, in fact, a mere Valley, separated by inaccessible mountains from India, Persia, and Tibet! Owing to its high elevation, the heat of the South is tempered into a perpetual Spring, and nature here puts forth all her powers to bring all her works, Plants, Animals, and Man, to the highest state of perfection! Cashmire is a region of fruitful hills, countless fountains and streams, which unite in the River Behut, that, like the Pison of Paradise, “compasseth the whole land!”

Bernier found here all Asiatic and European fruits in perfection. The Pisang, undoubtedly the same tree as the fig tree of the Book of Genesis,(7) grows no where so large or so beautiful as in Cashmire!

Even the men of this country are distinguished among Asiatics by superior natural endowments, mental and physical. They have none of the Tartar physiognomy, but exhibit the finest features of the European race; while in genius and intelligence they surpass most other Oriental nations! Cashmire was at one time governed by kings of its own; it was afterwards subject to the Moguls of India, who ruled it with gentleness on account of its beauty! On their downfall it fell under the sway of the rude Affghans.

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TIBET. This contiguous country unites within itself the temperatures and products of the most opposite of those climes in which man was intended to dwell, combining mountains crowned with perpetual snow and icebergs, with valleys in which never-ending Summer blooms. Tibet also presents, in a native or indigenous state, the various Plants and Animals which have been domesticated by Man! Here are found in a wild state the Vine, the Rice-plant, the Pea, the Ox, the Horse, the Ass, the Sheep, the Goat, the Camel, the Pig, the Cat, and even the Reindeer, “his only friend and companion in the polar wastes.”(8)

3. The Scriptural and Indian Accounts.

It is extremely remarkable that the Indian accounts, of which the antiquity is believed to be equal to that of the Scriptural narrative, (see p. 132,) actually fix the first abode of Man on Mount Meru, on the borders of Tibet and Cashmire! Blended though they are with fable, it is impossible to see how we can refuse to attach some weight to these venerable remains, harmonising, so completely as they do, with the conclusions formed on other grounds by some of the greatest men of modern times, as regards the date and the locality of the first introduction of our species; for if, on the one hand, the received date of the origin of the human race be authentic according to the views of Cuvier, and if, on the other, the date of the Indian Vedas be such as accords with the opinions of Sir William Jones and other eminent authorities, the intervening period must have been too brief to efface a traditionary reminiscence of the early history of our species, (see p. 132.) The correspondence of the Indian with the Scriptural narrative is in many features very extraordinary. We have a similar account of the creation of the world, of the early history of man, of a primitive state of virtue and happiness, of the fall of man, of a tree of life and death.(9) We have also a Serpent that poisons the water, which is the source of life!

Adelung notices a feature in which the locality fixed upon as the birthplace of man by the Indian traditions corresponds with the Paradise of Scripture. From Mount Meru spring four Rivers, the Ganges, the Buramputur, the Indus, and another stream that flows into Tibet. “Now Michaelis,” he observes, “translates Genesis, ii. 10, ‘Four rivers flowed out of Eden, and they _separated continually more and more widely from each other_!’ ”

Cashmire is considered by the Hindoos in the light of a Holy Land, the cradle of their race, their civilization, and their religion!

The Scriptural narrative, in describing the Creation of our species, does not define the first abode of man any further than by fixing it in “the East,” (Genesis, ii. 8,) an expression corroborative, as Adelung observes, of the Indian traditions, for in the time of Moses this expression was applicable to the regions of the Indus. On the other hand, the common interpretation of Genesis, viii. 4, which assumes that Ararat in Armenia was the centre of diffusion of population after the Flood, is irreconcilable with those accounts, this locality being not to the East but to the North of all the Syro-Phœnician or Scriptural regions. But according to Bohlen,(10) the impression that Ararat in this verse means the mountain of that name in Armenia, which is inaccessible, crowned with perpetual snow,(11) and _anciently had a different name_, is erroneous. Ararat, he observes, does not mean a mountain but a country in this verse and elsewhere in Scripture. Thus the sons of Sennacherib escaped into the land of Ararat, (II. Kings, xix. 37,) and the Prophet Jeremiah calls upon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz to rise up together with the Medes against Babylon, (Jerem. li, 27-8) Ararat in these passages, it may be suggested, may naturally be interpreted to apply generally to the kingdoms and regions of the unexplored(12) table-land of Central Asia, which commences on the Persian borders, immediately to the East of Assyria. Moreover the supposition that the Ararat of Scripture was in Armenia may be regarded as irreconcilable with another important passage, Gen., xi. 2, which distinctly implies that the emigrants who reached the plain of Shinar, and who, it may be inferred, were the first colonists of South Western Asia, had journeyed thither from some region far to the “East” of all the Semetic countries, of which Shinar or Mesopotamia forms the Eastern border!

It is remarkable that the expressions of this passage—“And it came to pass, as they journeyed from _the East_, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there”—harmonise in the most perfect manner not only with the Indian remains, but also with the passages first referred to from the Scriptural narrative itself with respect to the first abode of the human race, for it will be seen by the map that 1, Cashmire lies in _a direct line_ to “the East” of Shinar or Mesopotamia! 2, The whole intervening territory is occupied by the Central-Asiatic table-land of Persia or Iran, which, as previously noticed, forms one _continual descent_ from its highest elevation on the borders of Cashmire to its termination near the plain of Shinar! Ar-ar-at may reasonably be inferred to be nothing else than a term commonly applied in the East to “a country of lofty mountains,” (see p. 83,) an expression highly appropriate to the Persian table-land both at its centre, and at its junction with the Semetic regions, near the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates! (See Ritter.)

4. Physiognomy.

As before observed, in these regions are found in juxtaposition nations which exhibit the very opposite Physiological characteristics of the Mongol and Western Asiatic races. The people of Tibet display the former, those of Cashmire the latter.

5. Philology.

Here the Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic languages branch off from a common centre. The former begin in Tibet, the latter in Cashmire.

The Monosyllabic languages which prevail in Tibet, China, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tonquin, and Cochin China, countries which contain a population of 180 millions, betray all the rudeness of human speech in its infancy. They have no compound words and no grammar. “The same sound,” says Adelung, “which means _Joy_, means also _Joyful_ and _To rejoice_ through all persons, numbers, and tenses!”

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“They form their plural like a child, either by repetition, as ‘_Tree-tree_’ (i.e. ‘Trees’), or by means of an additional word, as ‘_Tree-many! Tree-other!_’ When the great grown-up child is heard stammering ‘_Be Heaven, I Other,_(13) _Father which_,’ who but another child like him can guess that this means ‘_Our Father which art in Heaven!_’ ”

The imperfection of the Monosyllabic languages does not arise solely from their consisting of Monosyllables, but from the want of the more refined grammatical forms which are found in all other Tongues, even those of the wildest American Tribes. No nation, however uncivilized, that had once acquired a knowledge of these would ever fall back “to the speech of childhood!” Hence Adelung infers that the Chinese, &c. must have been completely separated at an early period from the other races of men. But it will be asked, Why is it that the Chinese have remained stationary in this respect, while nations far inferior to them in every other point of view have surpassed them in this one instance? There is, I conceive, no other mode of solving this problem than by regarding these opposite results in the light of vestiges, belonging to an early stage of society, of the same variableness and inequality in the efforts of the human mind, which are observable in the inventions of modern times! That this question admits of no other solution will be manifest from Chapter VI, in which it is shown that the Chinese is not fundamentally different from the tongues of Europe and Western Asia, but the _same language in a different stage of its growth_!

6. The Astronomical Theory of Bailly.

Bailly’s theory is that the various nations of the ancient world were descendants of emigrants from a primæval community superior to them in knowledge and civilization, of which he places the locality in Central Asia. His views are founded on the fact that there existed a knowledge of the results of some of the most recondite Scientific principles among the Persians, Chaldeans, &c., (nations who were certainly unacquainted with the principles themselves,) as, for example, of the moon’s course, of the Solar year, of the Zodiac, of the Planets, of the retrogression of the fixed Stars &c. Some of Bailly’s opinions have been impugned in Cuvier’s Theory of the Earth.

The question whether the different branches of the Human Race are descended from one Stock, has been discussed on Physiological grounds by Dr. Prichard,(14) in a work equally remarkable for profound Philosophical and extensive Literary research. After detailing a variety of facts with respect to the distribution of Plants and Animals, he thus expresses his conclusion: “The inference to be collected from the facts at present known, seems to be as follows. The various tribes of organized beings, were originally placed by the Creator in certain regions, for which they are by their nature peculiarly adapted. Each species had only one beginning in a single stock; probably a single pair, as Linnæus supposed, was first called into being in a particular spot, and their progeny left to disperse themselves to as great a distance as the locomotive powers, bestowed on each species, or its capability of bearing changes of climate and other physical circumstances may have enabled it to wander.”

According to this writer the varieties of colour, feature, &c. displayed by different races of Men, are the results partly of climate and other external agencies, and partly also of a natural tendency to the manifestation of varieties which may be viewed in the light of a characteristic quality of the Species. Of these propositions the numerous and diversified facts collected by Dr. Prichard appear to furnish perfectly conclusive evidence. Thus he has shown that the characteristic physiognomy of the Negro is found to occur and disappear by nice gradations in strict accordance with the differences of climate throughout the African Continent.

The tendency to variety is very manifest, even from facts under our daily observation. Individuals are common among European nations, who exhibit some one or more of the traits of the Negro, as, for example, his woolly hair, thick lips, &c. Among the Negro races have been born individuals of a perfectly white colour. Many of these specimens, according to Dr. Prichard, were not Albinos or diseased persons, but indisputable examples of his principle.

It is probable that in the infancy of the race, this extraordinary tendency may have served the important purpose of accelerating those physiological changes by which the constitution of Man was adapted to the different climates of the Globe, while, in subsequent ages, climate which determines the physiology of the majority, may be said thereby to neutralize the influence of these exceptions. Diversities of complexion, &c. occur in our own and in neighbouring countries within a very limited area. Thus the dark hair and features of the ancient Silures which were ascribed by the Romans to a Spanish origin, are still observable among their posterity, characteristics of which, I conceive, a satisfactory explanation may be found in the warm and equable temperature of the Southern counties of Wales, caused by the peculiar distribution of land and water.(15) In these countries many productions, both animal and vegetable, flourish, which are rarely found further North. The Nightingale is common, and the Vine is cultivated frequently. The contrast between the temperature of the coasts of South Wales and that of North Wales has not escaped the attention of the Welsh Bards. Davyth ap Gwilym, a Bard of the fourteenth Century, in a Poem of great beauty, in which he describes himself as writing from the land of “wild,” Gwynedh (North Wales), calls upon the Summer and the Sun to visit with their choicest blessings the genial region of “Morganwg,” (Glamorganshire,) of which he was a native, and alludes to its warm climate and its Vineyards, which seem to have been a conspicuous feature! For some very valuable illustrations of the same principle, I may refer to the account given by the Rev. Thomas Price in his Tour in Brittany, published in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, of the varieties of complexion and stature observable in Upper and Lower Brittany.(16)

From the facts collected by Dr. Prichard, it appears to follow very distinctly, not only that Human Physiology is extremely mutable, but also that the transitions do not occupy a very long interval of time. Thus Jews are resident in the African Kingdom of Kongo, whose complexions are as black as those of the native Negro population. Again on the borders of Negro-land, different sections of the same tribe, speaking the same language, are, in many instances, found variously approaching to or diverging from the Negro standard of colour and physiognomy, according to the latitude or elevation, or other physical features of their respective locations; instances in which the separation—and therefore the physiological differences—must have been recent—for languages change too rapidly to preserve the features of identity or even of a close affinity for a period of long duration! The descendants of the Arabs who overran the North of Africa in comparatively modern times furnish another example; they do not differ in physiognomy from the Berbers, the original inhabitants of the same regions.

From these and similar facts it must be inferred—not only that the existing varieties of Human Physiology form no objection to the opinion that the different populations of the Globe are descended from one stock—the same facts lead also to the conclusion, that—with relation to the earliest eras in the History of our species—Physiological peculiarities must be entirely rejected as evidence, either of a specific connexion or of a specific difference between individual races of men, a principle admitting of many highly interesting applications, of which an example will now be offered.

By what road did the first Colonists of Europe reach their final destination? Adelung has inferred that Europe was peopled exclusively from the Steppes of Northern Asia. But for this opinion, it does not seem that any valid reason can be assigned. If we assume Central Asia to have been the focus of migration, it will be observed that there are three routes by which the forefathers of the European nations may have arrived in their final abodes, viz. 1, The Steppes of Northern Asia; 2, Asia Minor and the Hellespont; and 3, The Isthmus of Suez, the North of Africa, and the Straits of Gibraltar. For concluding that either of these three routes was used, to the exclusion of the other two, it would not be easy to point out any strong argument based on Geographical grounds. Now if the third was employed at all it may be inferred that some of the European nations may be even more nearly allied to those of Africa than they are to the Asiatic populations. To this conclusion, however, a formidable objection occurs in the strikingly contrasted Physiology of Africa and Europe, for—even though it should be conceded that these opposite features do not serve to prove an aboriginal difference of race—the question still arises whether they do not, nevertheless, furnish evidence that the nations of these two continents are more remotely related than any other branches of the Human Family; whether they do not point to the inference that the inhabitants of the South and West of Asia—who certainly occupy an intermediate place Physiologically—must not also be regarded as forming a connecting link between those of Europe and Africa in a Genealogical and Historical sense? To these inquiries it will be obvious that the facts just adverted to furnish a very distinct answer, for from those facts it directly follows—not only that climate and other existing causes are sufficient to account for the different Physical peculiarities of the inhabitants of Africa and Europe—but it also follows from the same evidence, that a period of time far short of that during which the European and African nations are known to have occupied their present abodes, would have sufficed to superinduce the opposite characteristics they now display! Perhaps it may be inferred, though probably the subject does not admit of a precise conclusion on this head, that in a suitable climate the lapse of 500 or 600 years might be more than adequate to engraft on the physiognomy of Southern Asia all the distinctive peculiarities of the Negro. That these peculiarities had been fully developed in an early era of the History of the World, is manifest from the Egyptian Paintings, in many of which we have individuals of this ill-fated race very vividly depicted, appearing sometimes as tributaries, and on other occasions as captives, leashed together like hounds!

Infirm health, and final extirpation, have often attended colonies from the North of Europe settled in tropical climes, incidents that seem to have had great weight with Dr. Prichard himself, as constituting an objection to his views. To this objection, however—independent of the numerous facts of an opposite nature—the following consideration, I conceive, suggests a satisfactory answer. Nature may have provided for gradual transitions of climate such as must have been encountered by a population progressively diffused over the Globe; and that she has done so appears to be distinctly established. But it does not follow that she has made any provision for abrupt changes. These are probably a violation of her dictates, and may have the same tendency to produce disease and death as we know to be incident to sudden and extensive variations of temperature in the same climate and country.

The foregoing deductions will be found to have a highly interesting application in relation to the origin of two ancient European races, the Basques and the Celts. If Physiological grounds are dismissed from our consideration, it will probably be found that the balance of evidence is in favour of the conclusion that these races have sprung, not from Asiatic colonists, but from emigrants from the coasts of the continent of Africa!

This conclusion is strongly favoured by the geographical position in which we find these races placed at the dawn of History. In the earliest ages the Celts and Basques were in possession of all the most western countries of Europe. The Spanish Peninsula, the South of France, and the North of Italy, were divided between them; the remainder of France, the whole of Belgium, Switzerland, and the British Isles, were held by the Celts, while of Sicily and Italy the Basques appear to have been the first inhabitants. (See Dr. Prichard’s Works.) Now in connexion with these facts two considerations deserve to be noticed, which, by a reference to the map will be seen to acquire especial force. 1. It will be observed that the original regions of the Celts and Basques are more closely contiguous to Africa than the Eastern countries of Europe are; both Spain, and Sicily (which may be considered a part of Italy,) approaching at certain points very closely to the African coast. 2. If we assume Central Asia to have been the original focus of migration—it will be evident—that nomade septs issuing thence through the Syro-Phœnician countries, and along the North of Africa—would have found a shorter route to the Italian and to the Spanish Peninsulas—than those emigrants who may be supposed to have passed over the Hellespont, or through Northern Asia! Further it may be added, that the regions originally held by the Basques and Celts are precisely those which would have been occupied by the descendants of Colonists who had arrived in Europe from the South-west of Africa if opposed—as we may infer them to have been—by rival Septs impeding their progress towards the East. To the East of the Basque and Celtic regions we find the rest of Europe possessed by the Teutons or Germans, the Finns, the Sclavonians, and the Greeks, nations all located in countries closely contiguous to Asia, to the inhabitants of which continent the evidence of language indisputably proves them all to have been closely related.(17) That these nations were also the primitive inhabitants of the territories which they still occupy has been pointed out by Dr. Prichard.

The conclusion above suggested appears to be supported by the evidence of history. With respect to the Basques, or Iberians, Dr. Prichard has referred to the testimony of classical authorities, which distinctly confirms the opinion that they were an African race. But with regard to the Celts, the same learned writer assumes that they must originally have come from the East. It is remarkable, however, that this conclusion is directly at variance with the current opinions of the Ancients, to which he has referred in the following passage:

“The earlier history of the Celtic people is a subject of great interest, but of difficult investigation. Were they the aborigines of Gaul or Germany? According to all the testimony of history, or rather of ancient tradition collected by the writers of the Roman Empire, the _migrations of the Gauls were_ always _from West to East_; the Celtic nations in _Germany as well as in Italy_ and in _the East_, were supposed to have been colonies _from Gaul_, and the Celtæ have been considered as the immemorial inhabitants of _Western Europe_!” (Ethnography of the Celtic Race, in Prichard on Man.)

In assuming that the Celts migrated to Europe direct from Asia, Dr. Prichard’s views were very naturally influenced by the valuable evidence he has himself adduced of the connexion of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, &c. This evidence, however, has been shown (see p. 19) to be quite consistent with the conclusion suggested above, viz. that the Celts may have sprung from emigrants who penetrated into Spain from the opposite coast of Africa.

The interesting researches of Humboldt, which have served by the evidence of local names to show that the language of the ancient Iberians was the same as the Basque, have also established, by means of the same evidence, that the Peninsula of Spain, at the time of its subjugation by the Romans, was divided in a very irregular manner between Basque and Celtic tribes. “The Celts,” observes Dr. Prichard, “possessed a considerable part of Spain, comprehending not only the central provinces, but also extensive territories in both of the western corners of the Peninsula, where a population either wholly or partly of Celtic descent remained at the period of the Roman Conquest.” The remainder of Spain was held by Basques or by Celt-Iberian tribes, a mixture of both races.

This singular intermingling of the Basques and Celts in the Spanish Peninsula has been a source of many conflicting opinions among the learned, on the question which of these two races were the first inhabitants, and which were the invaders of Spain? The enigma, I conceive, will be most satisfactorily solved by the rejection of the opinion that that country was in the first instance wholly occupied by either! Both may have arrived almost simultaneously, too weak in numbers wholly to engross the new territory on which they thus entered. Each may have thrown out into the most distant provinces weak colonies, consisting of a few nomade families, which afterwards became the foci of powerful Septs. This explanation completely harmonises with the instructive facts which have been developed relative to the North American Indian Tribes, who are still in the “hunter state,” as the first colonists of Europe must have been. The languages of a great portion of the North American Indian Tribes have been shown to consist of mere dialects of a few Parent Tongues. But the Septs thus proved to be nearly related are not always contiguous, but often separated by tribes speaking dialects of a different class, a necessary consequence of the roving habits and the imperfect occupation of territory incident to the “hunter state.” An interesting example of the influence of the causes which lead to these results occurs in Mr. Catlin’s allusion to a North American Indian Tribe, the Assinneboins, of whom he says: “The Assinneboins are a part of the Dahcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for their personal appearance, as well as their language, is very similar.

“At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war, are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy, and being prevented from returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their residence and establish themselves as a nation.” (Catlin on the North American Indians, p. 53.)

The evidence furnished by their languages is not unfavorable to the supposition that the Basques and Celts may have been of African origin.

Though by Humboldt, and some other eminent writers, the Basque has been regarded as distinct from other languages, the examples which occur at the close of this Introduction must, I conceive, serve to remove all doubt as to the identity of the Basques or Iberians with the other branches of the Human Race. Of these examples grammatical differences cannot serve to diminish the force. (See p. 89 and the chapter on the Chinese Language.) The Basque also shows some traces of a peculiar connexion with the African tongues. Thus its numerals are nearly identical with those of the North African nations, and the formative particle Er is used for similar purposes in the Basque and Egyptian, and in both is placed before the word, a characteristic which distinguishes the African from the European languages. (See p. 142.) Thus we have Juan, “To go,” Er-uan, “To cause to go,” (_Basque._) Ouini, “Light,” Er-ouini, “To cause Light,” or “To enlighten,” (_Egyptian._) Instances of words formed in the same manner, which are common to the Egyptian and the Celtic, will be found at p. 38, Appendix A.

A striking example of the connexion of the Celtic languages with those of Africa occurs in the region where the respective Physiological peculiarities of North Africa and Negro-land meet. In the vicinity of the river Senegal the line of separation may be said to divide the Iolofs, a Negro nation, from the Fulahs and Phellatahs, whose physical characteristics are of an intermediate nature. Now it is remarkable, that by comparing and as it were uniting the dialects of the Iolofs, the Fulahs, and the Phellatahs, some of the most common Welsh words are obtained essentially unchanged, as in Le oure, “The Moon,” (_Fulahs_,) Gour, and Gourgne, “A Man,” (_Iolofs_,) Gourko, “A Man,” (_Phellatahs_,) Loho, “The Hand,” (_Iolofs_,) Bourou, “Bread,” (_Iolofs_,) Bouron, “Bread,” (_Fulahs_.)

Consistently with the principles on which the origin of languages is hereafter explained in this work, I cannot suggest that these coincidences, striking as they are, afford any proof of a specific connexion between the Celtic and African races. But they tend to prove, nevertheless, that language furnishes no positive ground for inferring that the Celts are more nearly allied to the Asiatic than they are to the African races. Hence, since the evidence of Physiology on this subject is also of a negative character, it may be affirmed, with regard both to this race and the Basques, that the opinion that they are of Asiatic descent—opposed as it is by the evidence of history in one, if not in both cases—and by the inferences which Geographical considerations, in both instances, appear to suggest—requires reconsideration.

In this place I may observe, that in the course of the following inquiries it will be found true as a general principle, that in direct proportion as the proofs of the General Unity of the different races of the Globe are observed to become more distinct, the evidence which has frequently been relied upon as demonstrative of a specific connexion between particular races will also be observed to become more doubtful, for both the affinities and differences which exist between the languages of contiguous—and those of the most distant—nations, are for the most part so nearly alike in character, and so nearly equal in degree, as to favour the inference that the dispersion of the Human Race must have been exceedingly rapid, and that many ancient nations, such as the Basques and Celts, who in subsequent times were found closely contiguous, must, in the first eras of the world, have been isolated from each other by incessant war and nomade habits, almost as early as the most distant nations were! It is certain that the language of the Welsh does not present either to the Basque or to the Teutonic—dialects of nations located contiguously to their Celtic forefathers—examples of affinity more striking than those just adverted to. Nor are the examples above noticed of the connexion between the Welsh and the African dialects by any means more remarkable than the instances of resemblance between the former tongue and the dialect of the Mandans, a North American Indian Tribe, which have been pointed out by Mr. Catlin! In both cases the same observation applies—an observation based on a principle that will be more fully understood hereafter—viz., that these coincidences are unequivocal proofs of a generic, but not of that kind of specific relation, which implies that these nations were at one time united more intimately than the other families of mankind.

Various miscellaneous considerations connected with the primitive migrations of mankind may now he adverted to.

Neither the extent nor the physical features of our Globe are such as imply that the spread of population over its surface must necessarily have been the work of many ages. To traverse the habitable earth from the Southern extremity of Africa to the North of Asia, and thence to the extreme Southern point of the American continent, is a task which would require only a small fraction of one man’s life! And in the first ages of the Race, Man was probably a Nomade, a Wanderer! It may be inferred, therefore, that in the early ages of the world the diffusion of population was very rapid in the warmer latitudes, while towards the North it was obstructed rather by climate than by any other cause. As population became more dense in the more favoured regions, weaker tribes, it may be surmised, were gradually driven into the steppes of Asia and the wilds of Siberia, whence they may be supposed to have penetrated into Europe on the one hand, and across Behring’s Straits into America on the other. With the exception of America, all the great Continents are connected together by districts easily traversed by Man; and Behring’s Strait, which is interposed between America and the North-east of Asia, might be passed in the canoes of some of the most barbarous tribes with which we are acquainted.

The peopling of Islands is a subject that has been discussed very satisfactorily by Dr. Prichard, and after him by Mr. Lyell. Their conclusion is, that the occasional drifting of canoes by storms and currents, is sufficient to account for the existence of Human population in the most remote islands, as is proved by facts related by Kotzebue and others. Several reasons have however been suggested in the following pages, for the conclusion that Australia is a recently peopled country.

The geographical distribution of the various languages of the globe seems to render Adelung’s arguments for regarding Central Asia as the birth-place of our species eminently convincing. The languages of China and the South-east of Asia are either Monosyllabic, or Tongues that partake of that character; Languages having the same features are spoken through the long chain of islands in the Pacific as far as New Zealand. All the other Tongues of the Globe are Polysyllabic. Now if the birth-place of Man and the focus of migration was in Central Asia, on the borders of Cashmire and Tibet, this division of Languages would necessarily have followed, for it will be observed that Tibet, which is the source of the rivers of the regions to the South-east, would in that case have given inhabitants to the countries of South-eastern Asia, countries which are isolated from all others, for not only are they cut off from Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, by the system of Table-lands and its Mountains, they are also separated from Northern Asia and therefore from America by the Great Desert of Gobi or Shamo. To the Steppes of Northern Asia, and consequently to America as well as to Europe and Africa, the territory of Persia or Iran, which, as has been seen, forms the opposite slope of the system of Table-lands, is the natural route.

The relations which the Parsian, the Pehlwi, and the Zend, the ancient dialects of Persia, bear to those of the surrounding countries, seem to be in a highly interesting manner confirmatory of Adelung’s views. The Parsian, which was spoken in the South of Persia in the provinces near to India, approaches so closely to the Sanscrit, the ancient language of that country, that Sir William Jones considered the Parsian to have been the parent of the Sanscrit. The Pehlwi, the language of the Parthians who occupied the centre of Persia, a territory that adjoins the Semetic countries, appears very decidedly to be a connecting link between the Semetic languages on the one hand and the Parsian and Zend and the Indo-European tongues, viewed as a class, on the other. The Zend, the dialect of ancient Media, or North Persia, is supposed to be closely allied to the Armenian. The Parsian, Pehlwi, and Zend, respectively bearing these relations to the languages of the neighbouring countries, are closely connected as sister dialects among themselves. These facts tend to show—from the summit of the Western Table-land viewed as a centre, through Persia viewed as a medium—a radiation of language from which a radiation of population may reasonably be presumed.

The species of affinity which the ancient Persian dialects display to the languages of the adjoining countries appears to point very distinctly to another highly important conclusion in relation to the early history of mankind, viz., that the diffusion of population over Persia and the contiguous countries must have been a comparatively recent event with reference to the earliest specimens of the Persian and Semetic dialects, &c. After the lapse of a long interval the languages even of contiguous countries lose the traces of original unity. But with regard to modern dialects it can be distinctly shown that those of intermediate districts are connecting links between those of the extremities. Thus the Savoyard connects the French and Italian dialects of the Latin, and those of the North of England are intermediate between the modern English and the Lowland Scotch; Du Ponceau has made a similar remark with regard to the North American Indian dialects spoken by kindred tribes. Septs placed in the centre continue to maintain a certain degree of intercourse with all the tribes by which they are surrounded, a consideration which will account for these results, which probably cannot, in many cases, be referred to different degrees of Genealogical affinity.

One of the most striking indications of the Original Unity of the different Races of Men is derivable from the uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features they display.

Though the mind in early infancy may be destitute of positive ideas, it seems to be evident, nevertheless, that our Species has been gifted with Intellectual Faculties, and with Moral Sentiments and Sympathies, which are in the strictest sense innate.(18) Of this conclusion a striking confirmation is derivable, from the extraordinary sameness which, on a close examination, will be found to prevail in the characters, sentiments, and sympathies of the various branches of the Human Species. Of this truth a few examples will now be noticed.

The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed. In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.)

It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel’s Translation of Dr. Prichard’s Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians is that of a “very noble race” of men. But it differs very widely from the characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous!

I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable in ancient Egyptian remains!

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