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European group, are the Slavonian, to which belong the 

 Eussians, Bohemians, Poles, &c., the old Prussian race of 

 Lithuania ; also, the tribes inhabiting Ancient Italy, Thrace, 

 and Greece. The Asiatic nations, which belong to the 

 same great group, are the Persians, whose ancient language 

 was the Zend ; the Afghans, the Armenians, and the Hin- 

 doos, who are believed to have come into Hindustan at an 

 early period from some part west of the Indus, and whose 

 language was the Sanskrit. 



The principal ground on winch Dr. Pritchard considers 

 a common origin between the Indo-European nations esta- 

 blished, is the near and essential affinity of their languages, 

 which extends to all the dialects spoken in the countries 

 which lie between the mouth of the Ganges and the extreme 

 parts of Norway and Sweden. " The era of their dispersion 

 must have preceded by many ages the commencement of 

 European history, and of all history preserved by nearly 

 contemporary records. The period, for instance, must have 

 been very remote, when the idioms of the Hindoos, the 

 Medes and Persians, the Greeks and Latins, the Letts 

 and Slaves, the Goths and Germans, the Britons and the 

 Gael, began to assume their peculiar characters, or were 

 first developed from common elements. The original seat 

 of the whole race may be conjectured with a probability of 

 near approximation to the truth. The primitive position 

 of the Indo-European tribes must have been some country 

 between the extreme points of their dispersion. It is gene- 

 rally imagined to have been within the ancient Iranian em- 

 pire." 



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