of the Human Species. 811 



much information was collected by Hervas, the result of his 

 own personal researches, and those of other Jesuits. Baron 

 Alexander Von Humboldt brought back with him from America 

 a large collection of vocabularies, dictionaries, and devotional 

 offices, and other books, prepared by the Catholic instructors, in 

 different parts of that Continent, for the use of the native tribes 

 who came under their spiritual jurisdiction. These were put into 

 the hands of Professor Vater, the continuator of the Mithridates. 

 Since the publication of that work, the Historical Committee of 

 the Philosophical Society of the United States have devoted 

 their attention to the languages and history of the aborigines of 

 the Western Continent. The names of Hecklwelder and Zeis- 

 berger, and that of Mr Duponceau, the learned Secretary of 

 the Committee, stand highly distinguished among tl^ose^of^coa-^ 

 tributors to this department of human knowledge." Hit pry m'^fp?^^ 

 The author then states the most important results in reference 

 to the history of languages, which he considers as established 

 by these inquiries. 



: •* 1. It appears that the number of human idioms, widely 

 differing from each other, is very great — much greater than 

 many persons supposed. Mr Jefferson, President of the United 

 States, used to argue, from the great number of distinct lan- 

 guages found in America, and the comparatively small number 

 existing, as he supposed, in the Old Continent, that America 

 was the most anciently peopled. Most persons will be of opinion 

 that this conclusion requires further proof ; but the fact is un- 

 doubted, that a great variety of languages are spoken in America. 

 According to Hervas, who relied on the information given him 

 by Lopez, 1500 languages, which are said to be ' iiotabUmente 

 diverse^"* are spoken in different parts of America. According to 

 Dr Seetzen, the number of distinct languages in Africa amount 

 to 100 or 150. If these calculations are nearly correct, we may, 

 without much danger of exceeding the truth, consider the pro- 

 bable number of languages spoken in all the world to be not 

 less than 2000. 



" 2. We may observe, in the second place, that a comparison 

 of various languages displays two different relations subsisting 

 between them. These relations may be termed those of Affinity 

 and of Analogy. I shall give a few examples of each. 



