350 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY. 



and physical changes caused by these wanderings and mixtures, and by 

 climate, soil, food, manner of life, and all other influences. And 

 finally, from ascertaining what has been, it will seek to determine what 

 is to come, and to show us something of the future which the human 

 species, in its various divisions, may expect to attain. 



And this brings us to the important question of the practical value 

 of the science. However highly we may think of the pursuit of 

 knowledge for its own sake, the common judgment of mankind will 

 require that every science which claims its attention and regard shall 

 justify the claim by results, or, in the Baconian phrase, by its " fruit." 

 "What, then, have been the fruits of this science of what may be termed 

 *•' linguistic ethnology," even in its present condition of imperfect devel- 

 opment ? We may take two notable examples : the one of the benefit 

 it has yielded, the other of the penalty which has followed its neglect. 



When the people of Hindostan, in the last century, came under the 

 British power, they were regarded as a debased and alien race. Their 

 complexion reminded their conquerors of Africa. Their divinities were 

 hideous monsters. Their social system was anti-human and detestable. 

 Suttee, thuggee, Juggernaut, all sorts of cruel and shocking abomina- 

 tions, seemed to characterize and degrade them. The proudest Indian 

 prince was, in the sight and ordinary speech of the rawest white sub- 

 altern, only a " nigger." This universal contempt was retorted with 

 a hatred as universal, and threatening in the future most disastrous 

 consequences to the British rule. Then came an unexpected and won- 

 derful discovery. European philologists, studying the language of the 

 conquered race, discovered that the classic mother-tongue of Xorthern 

 Hindostan was the elder sister of the Greek, the Latin, the German, 

 and the Celtic languages. At the same time a splendid literature was 

 unearthed, which filled the scholars of Europe with astonishment and 

 delight. The despised Asiatics became not only the blood-relations, 

 but the teachers and exemplars, of their conquerors. The revulsion of 

 feeling on both sides was immense. Mutual esteem and confidence, to 

 a large extent, took the place of repulsion and distrust. Even in the 

 mutiny which occurred while the change was yet in progress, a very 

 large proportion of the native princes and people refused to take part 

 in the outbreak. Since that time the good-will has steadily grown 

 with the fellowship of common studies and aims. It may fairly be 

 afiirmed, at this day, that the discovery of the Sanskrit language and 

 literature has been of more value to England, in the retention and in- 

 crease of her Indian Empire, than an army of a hundred thousand men. 



In an opposite quarter the teachings of ethnology have been un- 

 happily misunderstood and disregarded. The Celtic language is 

 known to be, in the main, an Aryan speech, one of the sisters, as has 

 just been said, of the Sanskrit, the Greek, and the German. But poli- 

 ticians have failed to heed the warning which philologists have given 

 them, that the Celts themselves are a mixed race. Their language 



