56 ILLUSTRATION OF TYPICAL AND CONNECTING FORMS. 



one is characterised by possessing a dialect peculiar to itself. We 

 will further imagine, that the principal residence of each tribe is 

 in the centre of the district ; and It will, of course, be there, that 

 we should expect to find the peculiar dialect of the tribe in the 

 greatest perfection. For those members of the tribe, which live 

 near the borders of the territory, naturally acquire, from inter- 

 mixture with the borderers of the several other tribes which sur- 

 round them, some combination of other dialects, whilst their own 

 is spoken with less purity ; so that, however easy it might be to 

 recognise, by their difference of speech, the inhabitants of the 

 central portions of the respective districts, those that reside near 

 the line which divides one from another, do not present the dis- 

 tinctive peculiarity of either, in a sufficient degree to enable us to 

 determine to which they belong. 



37. Further, all these tribes may agree in the possession of a 

 common language^ although they speak different dialects of it ; 

 and may be united, by this and by other characters, into a nation, 

 to which a certain territory belongs. Other nations, each in like 

 manner composed of several tribes, may inhabit the countries on 

 its borders ; and every one may have its capital city in the centre 

 of the region it occupies, where the national characters are most 

 fully displayed, and the language spoken in the greatest perfection. 

 Now the tribes which live near the boundaries that divide one 

 nation from another, will have just the same tendency to acquire 

 each other's national peculiarities, as the individuals, that live near 

 the borders which separate the tribes (provided there be no ob- 

 stacle interposed by the nature of the country), have to acquire 

 each other's minor peculiarities ; so that, in travelling from one 

 capital to another, we should not find ourselves suddenly trans- 

 ferred from a people marked by one set of characters, to another 

 presenting a different series ; but should be able to trace, as we 

 travel from the capital towards the borders of one kingdom, a 

 gradual shado wing-off of its characters, so that we may enter the 

 other without being aware of any decided change, until we 

 approach the capital in which its national peculiarities are fully 

 displayed. This is very much the case in regard to the division 



