to other Branches of Knowledge. 331 



in a mythical sense. But this subject, though it involves the 

 earliest history of our ancestors, is still involved in doubts 

 which nobody has yet made any serious attempt to dispel, 

 though it is within the reach of historical research. 



On the present occasion, I have no opportunity of going 

 fully into the ethnological results which present themselves 

 on considering the history of the Ugro-Tartarian nations. I 

 may just observe, that this survey brings together, and re- 

 presents as branches of one stock, great tribes of people who 

 differ physically from each other, as the Mongolians with 

 broad lozenge-faced heads, flat noses, and projecting cheek- 

 bones, the various Turkish races, some of whom, as the Kir- 

 ghises and other eastern tribes, resemble the Mongoles, while 

 the Turks of Stamboul and Roum have a very different phy- 

 siognomy; the little black-haired reindeer-feeding Lappes, 

 and the phlegmatic fair-haired Finns ; and lastly, the proud 

 and lordly Magyars, who have almost a Grecian physiog- 

 nomy. 



3. The third family of nations reckoned among the princi- 

 pal races of the great Continent, are the Chinese and Indo- 

 Chinese nations. They are brought into one department by 

 the resemblance of their languages, all of which consist of 

 monosyllabic words, incapable of grammatical inflection, and 

 likewise by their great physical resemblance and geographi- 

 cal proximity, 



4. The fourth great family of nations before alluded to are 

 the Syro-Arabian, or, as German writers term them, the 

 Semitic nations, to which stock the ancient Hebrews and 

 Assyrians, and Syrians and Arabs belonged. The Arabian 

 branch has spread its language over all the countries for- 

 merly occupied by these nations. Late researches into the 

 languages of Northern Africa indicate, that the Syro-Arabian 

 stock extended originally much farther into that part of the 

 world than was formerly supposed. 



I shall not now attempt to enumerate all the great families 

 of languages or of nations in the world, and perhaps I have 

 already trespassed too long on the time and patience of the 

 Society. I shall sum up what remains to be said in a few 



