LANGUAGE AXD RACE. 393 



and men asserted that the speakers of these languages must 

 be all closely related by blood. 



The authority of Professor Max Miiller perhaps more than 

 that of any other writer led to the popular acceptance of 

 this theory, which the growth of knowledge has now proved 

 to be a mistake. Nevertheless, even now we find writers 

 of repute, such as Professor E-awlinson, quoting Max Mliller's 

 teachings of twenty to thirty years ago upon this very 

 question, and speaking of them as the " result of advanced 

 modern inductive science " which has " proved beyond all 

 reasonable doubt " a close blood-relationship of the nations 

 which speak Ar3^an languages. After the needle of scientific 

 teaching had thus deviated far from the pole of truth under 

 the influence of unbalanced philological theory, the anthro- 

 pologists began to assert themselves ; and at the present 

 time it seems as though the needle has swung back too far, 

 and has reached a point on the other side almost as far 

 from the line of truth as the position it previously occupied. 

 The French anthropologist, Broca, says: " The- ethnological 

 value of comparative philology is extremely small. Indeed, 

 it is apt to be misleading rather than otherwise." This is 

 going a little too far. 



The fact is, if we wish to advance our knowledge of truth 

 we must be content to learn slowly, patiently sifting the 

 evidence afforded by each branch of science, and controlling 

 the deductions of one by those of other branches, avoiding 

 positions of unstable equilibrium such as must result from 

 attaching undue importance to theories which promise sup- 

 port to opinions based, to a large extent perhaps, upon 

 individual mental bias. 



I propose to consider, in the first place, the evidence 

 afforded by the study of language ; and then, more briefly, 

 to touch upon certain anthropological facts. 



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