PRINCIPLES OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE. 105 



ppear, and sliiclcl. Boats were built and managed by oars. The political organi- 

 zation was probably that of petty tribes. The relations of the fomily were well 

 and distinctly established. Some of the stars were noticed and named ; the 

 moon Tvas the chief measurer of time. The religion was polytheistic — a worship 

 of the personified poAvers of nature, and its rites were practiced without a 

 priesthood. 



The present lecture is to be devoted to the further consideration of the Indo- 

 European family, to a brief exposition of its importance, and of the special 

 interest attaching to its language, and to some account of the history of the 

 latter. 



One source of the especial interest which we feel in Indo-European speech 

 is found in the fact that our own language is one of its branches. This would 

 call for and justify a particular attention to it on our part, even did it lack 

 claims to the same from men of other races. But it does, in fact, possess such 

 claims, and that partly by reason of the historical importance of the peoples 

 which sj3eak it, and their superior gifts, Avhich lend prominent value to inquiries 

 into a matter which illustrates both. Since the first rise of the Persian empire, 

 the various branches of this family have borne a leading part in the drama of 

 universal history. Greece, however, the bitter foe and final conqueror of Persia, 

 was the chief founder of Indo-European greatness, and the most brilliant ex- 

 ample of Indo-European genius ; in art and literature what the Hebrew race 

 has been in religion, and exerting an influence as unlimited in space and in 

 time. Rome next, inheriting the fruits of Greek culture, gained the empire of 

 the world, and impressed upon all nations a political and social unity. Chris- 

 tianity itself, rejected by the Semitic race among whom it appeared, was taken 

 up by Indo-Europcans, and added a new bond of unity, a religious one, to the 

 ties by which Rome bound the world together. The Germans were mainly 

 instrumental in overthrowing the power of Rome ; they gave monarchs to nearly 

 every throne in Europe, and infused new blood into the effete populations ; but 

 their devastations ushered in a period of darkness, during which it seemed for 

 a time as if the Semites, inspired with the fury of a new religion, (Moham- 

 medanism,) were to succeed to the empire of humanity. With their repulse and 

 downfall began the last and most glorious era of Indo-European supremacy, in 

 the midst of which we live; when the races of that family are the undisputed 

 leaders, the acknowledged guardians and propagators of civilization. The 

 establishment of the unity of this family, and the light thrown from language 

 upon its history, constitute the most brilliant achievement of the new science 

 of language, Avhich began Avith its recognition, and has developed along Avith 

 its investigation. Indo-European language furnished such a grand body of 

 related facts as the science needed for its sure foundation. Its dialects have a 

 range, in period and A'ariety of development, to which those of no other family 

 approach ; they illustj'ate the processes of linguistic groAvth upon an unrivalled 

 scale. The records of Chinese literature'go back, perhaps, to an antiquity as 

 great, or greater ; but the Chinese language is almost Avithout a history. There 

 are Egyptian Avrittcn documents Avhich -are older than anything else the world 

 has to show, but they are scanty and obscure, and the Egyptian tongue also 

 stands comparatively isolated. The Semitic languages come nearest to offering 

 a parallel ; but they, too, fall far short of it. While their age is nearly the same, 

 their variety is greatly inferior; they are a group of closely related dialects, not 

 presenting greater differences than some single branches of the Indo-European 

 family, as, for instance, the Germanic. And the other divisions of the human 

 race hardly cover, to any notable extent, time as Avell as space Avith their knoAA'n 

 dialects; they offer us only their extant forms of speech. Now, much may be 



