CONCLUSION OF THE SUBJECT. 35 



ent. Thus deeply rooted in the innermost nature of man, ami 

 even enjoined upon him by his highest tendencies, the recog- 

 nition of the bond of humanity becomes one of the noblest 

 leading principles in the history of mankind. "=^ 



With these words, which draw their charm from the depths 

 of feeling, let a brother be permitted to close this general de- 

 scription of the natural phenomena of the universe. From the 

 remotest nebulae and from the revolving double stars, we have 

 descended to the minutest organisms of animal creation, wheth- 

 er manifested in the depths of ocean or on the surface of our 

 globe, and to the delicate vegetable germs which .clothe the 

 naked declivity of the ice-crowned mountain summit ; and 

 here we have been able to arrange these phenomena accord- 

 ing to partially known laws ; but other laws of a more mys- 

 terious nature rule the higher spheres of the organic world, in 

 which is comprised the human species in all its varied con- 

 formation, its creative intellectual power, and the languages 

 to which it has given existence. A physical delineation of 

 nature terminates at the point where the sphere of intellect 

 begins, and a new world of mind is opened to our view. It 

 marks the limit, but does not pass it. 



* Wilhelm vou HumholJt, Ueher die Kaicl-Sprache, bd. iii., s. 426. 

 I subjoin the following extract from this work: "The impetuous con- 

 quests of Alexander, the more politic and premeditated extension of 

 territory made by the Romans, the wild and cniel incursions of the 

 Mexicans, and the despotic acquisitions of the incas, have in both hemi 

 epheres contributed to put an end to the separate existence of many 

 tribes as independent nations, and tended at the same time to establish 

 more extended international amalgamation. Men of great and strong 

 minds, as well as whole nations, acted under the influence of one idea, 

 the purity of which was, however, utterly unknowai to them. It was 

 Christianity which first promulgated the truth of its exalted charity, 

 filthough the seed sown yielded but a, slow and scanty harvest. Before 

 the religion of Christ manifested its form, its existence was only re- 

 vealed by a faint foreshadowing presentiment. In recent times, the 

 idea of civilization has acquired additional intensity, and has given rise 

 to a desire of extending more widely the relations of national inter- 

 course and of intellectual cultivation ; even selfishness begins to learu 

 that by such a course its interests will be better served than by violent 

 find forced isolation. Language, more than any other attribute of man- 

 kind, binds together the whole human race. By its idiomatic proper- 

 ^.ies it certainly seems to separate nations, but the reciprocal under 

 standing of foreign languages connects men together, ct. the otbei hatiri. 

 without injuring individual national characteristics." 



