30 JOHN READE ON LANGUAGE AND CONQUEST. 
of human progress. Our own literature stands apart from both, and yet is connected with 
both. It also owes much to the Celts, though our language owes little.* Nor, in this 
resumé, are the languages and literatures of the Gael and the Cymry unworthy, if cireum- 
stances permitted, of more than passing mention. And then, there is the Slavonic group, 
fast assuming prominence. A Russian writer has been honoured by Oxford’s D.C.L.+ The 
poets of Bohemia have a place beside those of Italy, France and England, and the intel- 
lectual movement of the whole Slavonic race, seems to be assured of a glorious future, 
which, for some portions of it, may be a near one. 
CONCLUSION. 
To sum up, what do we gather from our survey of the earth’s languages as to the 
contributions of the different races to human progress ? We find that of the large hetero- 
geneous group to which has been given the name of Allophylian, only the Chinese and 
those akin to it have made any appreciable contribution to civilization. Judged by the 
numbers of those who use it and its kindred dialects, the conquest of the Chinese tongue 
is far in excess of that of the Semitic and Aryan languages, taken together. Judged by its 
literary outcome, and the influence which it has exercised on mankind, its place among the 
agents of human progress is an honourable one. But, when we look for the force which 
has penetrated and transformed the millions of China and the surrounding nations, it is to 
an Aryan, one of that Indo-European stock to which we pride ourselves on belonging, that 
we find them indebted. { Still there must have been some previous fitness in the soil or 
the seed of truth, which Buddhism in its purity certainly contains, would not have taken 
root, and brought forth such abundant fruit. Even before its introduction, the Chinese 
had a native civilization, comparable, at least, with that of ancient Egypt or Babylonia, 
and, as has already been shown, there is reason to believe that some of its benefits may, at 
a remote period, have been imparted to the nations of the west. Its adaptability to Chinese 
needs has been proved by its permanence. “Had the Chinese,’ * * says Dr. Farrar, 
never existed, “the life of man would have been the life of the savage, without govern- 
ment, without inventions, without literature, without art, absorbed in- procuring the 
means to satisfy his daily wants.” 
On the interesting question whether the native American civilization would have 
gone on fructifying and spreading, until this continent had been placed on a par in intel- 
lectual and moral advancement, science, literature, art, commerce and industry, with some 
of the nations of Europe, it is useless to dwell. But we cannot help thinking with regret 

* “ Tn the fusion of the two races,” says Mr. Morley, “* * * the gift of genius was the contribution of the 
Celt.” Again he says: “The pure Gael—now represented by the Irish and Scotch Celts—was, at his best, an 
artist. He had a sense of literature, he had active and bold imagination, joy in bright colour, skill in music, 
touches of a keen sense of honour in most savage times, and in religion feryent and self-sacrificing zeal. In the 
Cymry—now represented by the Celts of Wales—there was the same artist nature.” (A First Sketch of English 
Literature, pp. 8-9.) 
7 Ivan Tourgueneff, whose death adds another to the many losses that literature, science and art have recently 
sustained. 
f Of course, if the effort in which some persons have engaged to trace Buddha to a Scythian origin proved 
successful, we should have to modify our racial distribution of credit for whatever boons that great preacher of 
morality conferred on mankind. (See The Indian Empire, of Hunter, chap. VII.) 
