LANGUAGE. 367 



importance in the recognition of similarities or differences in 

 races. This importance is especially owing to the clue which 

 a community of descent affords in treading that mysterious 

 labyrinth in which the connection of physical powers, and intel- 

 lectual forces, manifests itself in a thousand different forms. 

 The brilliant progress made within the last half century, in 

 Germany, in philosophical philology, has greatly facilitated 

 our investigations into the national character* of languages, 

 and the influence exercised by descent. But here, as in all 

 domains of ideal speculation, the dangers of deception are 

 closely linked to the rich and certain profit to be derived. 



Positive ethnographical studies, based on a thorough know- 

 ledge of history, teach us that much caution should be 

 applied in entering into these comparisons of nations, and 

 of the languages employed by them at certain epochs. Subjec- 

 tion, long association, the influence of a foreign religion, the 

 blending of races, even when only including a small number 

 of the mere influential and cultivated of the immigrating 

 tribes, have produced, in both continents, similarly recur- 

 ring phenomena; as, for instance, in introducing totally dif- 

 ferent families of languages amongst one and the same race, 

 and idioms, having one common root, amongst nations of the 

 most different origin. Great Asiatic conquerors have exer- 

 cised the most powerful influence on phenomena of this kind. 



But language is a part and parcel of the history of the 

 development of mind; and, however happily the human 

 intellect, under the most dissimilar physical conditions, may 

 unfettered pursue a self- chosen track, and strive to free itself 

 from the dominion of terrestrial influences, this emancipation 

 is never perfect. There ever remains, in the natural capaci- 

 ties of the mind, a trace of something that has been derived 

 from the influences of race or of climate, whether they be 

 associated with a land gladdened by cloudless azure skies, 

 or with the vapoury atmosphere of an insular region. As, 

 therefore, richness and grace of language are unfolded from 

 the most luxuriant depths of thought, we have been unwilling 

 wholly to disregard the bond which so closely links together 

 the physical world with the, sphere of intellect and of the 



* Wilhelm von Humboldt, Ueber die Verschiedenlieit der mensch- 

 lichen Sprachbaues, in his great work Ueber die Kawi-Sprache auf 

 der Insel Java, bd. i. s. xxi. xlviii. and ccxiv. 



