‘ 
Retrospect of French Literature—M iscellanies. 
att itself, is the sole end and aim of my 
labours, I shall conclude with remarking, 
that it is a great misfortune when an_ir- 
resistible bias towards novelty, produces 
an estrangement from true philosophy, 
which -can alone restrain any science 
within its just and proper limits.” 
“ Mithridate, ou Histoire de Science 
Generale des Langues,” &c. Mithri- 
dates, ora History of the General Science 
of Languages, with the Lord’s Prayer, in 
nearly five hundred different idioms. 
The author, J. C. ADELUNG; the editor, 
Doctor Jean Severin VaTER, professor 
in, and librarian to, the University of 
Halle. Berlin, 1 vol. in 8vo. Part II. 
A general-knowledge of languages is 
supposed to comprehend the examination 
of the origin and nature of all the known 
idioms, together with their classification, 
the history, and criticism, oftheir written 
characters, their lexicons, and their 
grammars. This science, which is cal- 
culated to throw great light on the annals 
of the human race, is nut to be found in 
any of our Encyclopedias, and has 
scarcely begun to be cultivated at all, in 
its collective capacity. Of the writers 
on the continent, Signor Ilewaz, a Spa- 
niard, was the first who obtained any 
laurels in this career, and he was pre- 
ceded by Count de Gebelin, who did not 
acquire any reputation on the occasion. 
After these followed the Germans, who 
have given a name to the study, (Al/ge- 
meine Sprachenkunde,) and possess what 
is termed a dinguistical journal. M. 
Adelung, in contemplation of the great 
benefits to bederived froin sucha source, 
‘began his Mithridates; M. Vater has 
continued it, while M. de Murr has pub- 
lished the prospectus of a Library of 
Languages, which is eagerly looked for 
by the learned. 
The first volume of Adelang’s works 
treats of the languages of Asia, particu. 
Jaily the Chinese, to which he has de- 
dicated much time and attention. On 
his death, professor Vater, one of the 
most celebrated philologists of Europe, 
and already advantageously known by 
his excellent Arabian, Hebrew, and 
Russian, grammars, as well as by a 
manual of general giammar, and a 
German translation of the grammar of 
M. dilyestre de Lacy, and undertook the 
continuation, and has now published the 
second volume, which is consecrated to 
the languages of Europe. He tells us in 
his Preface, that he has strictly followed 
the plan, the method, and the ideas, of 
his predecessor, who had obtained a me= 
Montury Mac, No. 215, 
- 
685 
moir on the Sclavonic idiom, from the 
Abbé Dobrowsky; another on the Scla- 
vonic-Germanic idiom by the late M. 
Henning, and a third for the Hungarian, 
by professor Remi. s 
‘In Asia, there are no fewer than one 
hundred and sixty languages, or principal 
dialects, while the present volume assigns 
only about fifty to all Europe, without. 
comprehending the Turkish, which is 
considered as an eastern tongue. These 
fifth idioms are all supposed to be sprung 
from six, viz. 
1. The Baske. 
2. The Celtic. 
3. The German. 
4. The Greek or Thracian. 
5. The Sclavonian. . 
And 6. The Finnick. 
There are two languages, however, 
which the editor has been unable to class, 
viz. those of the Albanians and Epirots, 
the origin of which is not well known, 
As to the Hungarian, it is pronounced 
to be composed of the Finnick, Sclavo- 
nian, Tartar, Turkish, German, Woygoul, 
Wotiac, Tchouwasse, Ostiac, Permic, 
Sirjanic, Mordouanic, Tcheremisse, Per- ° 
sian, and Arabian, languages. Scaliger, 
in his ** Diatriba de Jinguis Europzeis,” 
reckons up eleven motlicr languages in — 
Europe, which are five more than Messrs. 
Adelung and Vater are here disposed to 
allow of; he however co .nts the Turkish 
as one, and also includes the Latin, 
Trish, and Erse, as so many others, 
which at present, the Latin is considered 
to be a branch of the Greek, and 
the Erse and Irish pass generally for 
remnants of the Celtic, more or less 
mixed, 
-All the six principal languages of Eu- 
rope, alluded to above, came succes. 
sively from Asia, with the various 
tribes who spoke them. The descendants 
of these, at this day, constitute the com. 
mon population of that portion of the 
world, and the fifty idioms are nothing 
more than the remains of the six original 
languages. All of these idioms possess 
common roots, which sometimes mani- 
fest those mixtures arising out of wars, 
conquests, alliances, different kinds of 
commerce, and sometimes the Asiatic 
origin of nations, who have once spoken, 
or do now speak, the idioms jn question, 
The first people known in Europe 
were the Iberians or Cantabrians, who 
established themselves iu the south of 
Gaul, in a portion of Italy, and partie 
cularly ina portion of ‘the two Spgins, 
The Basque, which is @ mixture of Latin 
4T and 
