Preserving the Languages spoken by Uncivilized Nations. SI 



den, Grotefend, Crawford, &c, have done much to excite 

 an interest in this subject, not only in its elucidation, but 

 by extending the inquiry into new regions, yet it is still 

 very far from having obtained the estimation and encou- 

 ragement which it merits. If I am not greatly mistaken, the 

 thorough investigation of language, on this extensive scale, is 

 absolutely essential to the philologist and to the antiquary or 

 historian, to render theirs integral sciences. Without it their 

 deepest researches and most successfully rewarded exertions 

 only go to the production of a fragment, which, though mighty 

 and splendid, is but a fragment, failing to convey a just idea of 

 the whole. In this view of the subject, Philology and History 

 may be considered somewhat in the same state as the science 

 of Botany would be were it based solely upon the Flora of a 

 particular district ; and some of its cultivators may be com- 

 pared to the ingenious and successful florist who brings out 

 the varieties and beauties which a few species are capable of 

 producing, rather than to the Linna?uses, the Jussieus, the De- 

 candolles, and the Browns. It may perhaps be more correct 

 to compare the state of that branch of Philology which we are 

 now considering to Geology at the time of Buffon, when many 

 and valuable detached facts had been found out and recorded, 

 when the importance of the conclusions to which they might 

 lead were acknowledged, but when these conclusions could not 

 be drawn, and when that great man and some others trusted 

 to supply the deficiency by systems wrought out by their own 

 vigorous imaginations. 



If there be any value to be attached to Philology on the 

 comprehensive scale to which I have alluded, we must have a 

 great accession of numerical strength in the class of patient 

 and able observers who may be content to amass facts, both 

 in language and on collateral subjects, without any ruling bias 

 as to the result to which these observations may seem for a 

 time to tend. This is the course which has been successfully 

 pursued with respect to Geology, and which has made it perhaps 

 the most popular subject of investigation of the present day. 

 There is, however, an important difference between the pur- 

 suit of Geology and that of Philology to the extent which I 

 am pointing out. If the philological investigations are the 

 more difficult and laborious, and are further removed from 

 the reach of those who may feel an interest in the pursuit, and 

 if it be on this account a less inviting science, there are reasons 

 which do not exist in the case of Geology, or perhaps in any 

 other science, to urge to the prompt and zealous pursuit of it. 

 The geological facts which escape observation or record in this 

 year, or even in this century, may be investigated with equal or 

 greater success in centuries to come. The same may be said 



