502 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



speculation, are willing to leave the question in the obscurity 

 where probably it must ever remain. 



We have now completed the outline of this enquiry, as far 

 as the physiological argument is concerned. It may, we 

 think, be considered as proved that Man is one in species, 

 and as highly probable that all the varieties of this species 

 are derived from one stock, and a single locality on the 

 earth. There are no difficulties attending these conclusions 

 so great as those which other theories involve. And it is a 

 further indication of their truth, that, in proportion as our 

 knowledge in the collateral sciences has become larger and 

 more exact, in the same proportion have these difficulties 

 diminished or disappeared. Armed then with this strong pre- 

 sumption, derived from one source, we might now approach 

 the second part of the argument ; viz. that which regards 

 the history of human languages under the various forms in 

 which they are spread over the globe. But this subject is 

 much too extensive to be made subsidiary only ; and we can 

 enter upon it only so far as to notice its bearing on our 

 argument, and the general conclusion it involves. 



That language should exist at all, and that it should exist 

 among every people and community of the earth, even those 

 lowest in the scale of civilisation, is in itself a cogent argu- 

 ment for the unity of Man as a species. As is the case with 

 so many other wonders amidst which we live, its very 

 familiarity disguises to us the marvellous nature of this great 

 faculty of speech, confided to Man and to Man alone as 

 the exponent of his intellectual and moral nature. The more 

 deeply we look into the structure and diversities of language, 

 the more does this wonder augment upon us ; blended with 

 great perplexity, in regarding the multitude and variety of 

 its different forms, which though hitherto reckoned only by 

 approximation, certainly exceed some hundreds in number. 



