292 Mr Beke on the Classification of Lmi^uages, 



their physical conformation, and as regards their moral and 

 intellectual character. This is remarkably exemplified in the 

 separate existence of the Hottentots of the south of Africa, and 

 of the Papuans or Asiatic Negroes ; which two races — in spite 

 even of the authority of Cuvier himself — cannot, without vio- 

 lating the most obvious principles of science and of history, be 

 referred to the same class, but must be regarded as " deviations 

 from the type of the species by different routes, in parallel ex- 

 treme states of degradation," 



I will now attempt briefly to trace the outline of a classifica- 

 tion of the various races of mankind, in accordance with the 

 principles which have thus been enunciated. In doing so, I shall 

 avail myself of the aid afforded by the numerous additions 

 which, during the last iev/ years, have been made to our philo- 

 logical knowledge, arising principally and more especially from 

 the improvements which have taken place in the science of phi- 

 lology itself. It may indeed be asserted, that, in the present 

 condition of physiology and of the natural history of man, 

 the affinities of languages, if they be not the sole guides which 

 we possess for enabling us to arrange the varieties of the hu- 

 man species in an order at all approximating to the truth, 

 must at least be regarded as the only one upon which any real 

 dependence is to be placed.* 



With the assistance, then, of this guide, we may divide the 

 races of mankind into the following principal classes. The first 

 is that which is composed of the nations to whom belong the 

 various languages of cognate origin, distinguished by the com- 

 mon designation of Indo-Germanic, or Indo-European. These 

 consist of the Sanscrit, the Zend or ancient Persic, the Phrygian, 

 the Lydian, the Greek, the Latin and its derivations, the lan- 



• The importance of this guide has recently been most ably exemplified 

 by two distinguished ethnographers, namely, Dr Prichard and M. A. W. de 

 Schlegel : by the fonner in a " Comparative Review of Philological and Phy. 

 sical Researches, as applied to the History of the Human Species," read before 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at the meeting at 

 Oxford in 1832, an abstract of which is printed in the Report of the First 

 and Second INIeetings of the Association, pp. 529-544 ; and by the latter in a 

 paper entitled, " De I'Origine des Hindous," read before the Royal Society 

 of Literature on the 20th November 1833, and published in the Transactions 

 of that Society, vol. ii. pp. 405-446. 



