4X6 LANGUAGE AND RACE. 



Nicaragua, Costa Rica, etc., have exchanged their own tongues 

 for Spanish ; the inhabitants of Rio Janeiro for Portuguese. 

 The negroes of Hayti have adopted French. 



"The ancient agglutinative Accadian of Chaldea, in which 

 a large and influential literature was written, and the first 

 elements of Asiatic civilisation were comprised, was so com- 

 pletely rooted out by the conquering Semites, that the very 

 existence of the language was unknown until the last few 

 years." 



These facts are more than sufficient to show that language 

 is a test of social contact, and not of race. Where there 

 are traces of two or more languages in one and the same 

 spoken tongue, or where two distinct races have the same 

 tongue, we can infer with absolute certainty that there has 

 been social contact ; but where such traces are not to be 

 found, we are not justified in inferring that there has been 

 no social contact. 



Doubtless, also, identity of social relations in different 

 communities may imply, and often does imply, racial affinity ; 

 but to learn this we must go elsewhere than to language. 

 We must combine and compare the evidence derived from 

 all available sources — Physiology, Philology, Anthropology, 

 Archseology, History, Mythology, etc. — if we are to advance 

 our knowledge of the truth. 



In conclusion, I feel bound to say that there is no justi- 

 fication whatever in the ascertained facts of science for the 

 rejection of the Biblical account of the peopling of the 

 whole world from a single centre ; nor is there any proof 

 that we are racially Japhetic or Hamitic rather than 

 Shemitic. 



Finally, there is abundant evidence in these days, plain 

 to all who do not wilfully refuse to see it, that one language 

 alone (which is most certainly not Volapiik), is destined to 



