OP LANGUAGES. 535 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS 



ERNEST ADAMS, ESQ. 



THE peculiar discovery of our own age, that comparative philology 

 must ever constitute an important agent in any investigation 

 into the ancient history of a nation, must shortly test its value 

 and accuracy by an analysis of the scattered dialects of the 

 East, and a careful comparison with the oriental branches of the 

 Indo-European family of languages ; and whoever contributes, in 

 however limited a degree, to the prosecution of these researches, 

 is entitled to the thanks of all who are interested in historical 

 speculations. The collection and publication of vocabularies by 

 those, whose peculiar position and pursuits have afforded them 

 facilities for the acquisition of such information, are always valu- 

 able. It should be the especial care of gentlemen commissioned 

 to explore regions comparatively unknown, not merely to accumu- 

 late the beautiful forms of organic life, and information of a 

 commercial and political value, but to secure, by a copious collec- 

 tion of vocabularies, and a careful examination of the physical 

 characteristics of the people, materials for tracing their social and 

 political existence in ages of which the recording monuments 

 have long been lost. When the usual beacons of the historical 

 explorer are extinguished and the land-marks destroyed, Compa- 

 rative Philology discovers in the mystic thread of language, a 

 guide through the perplexing labyrinth; the darkness becomes 

 less palpable ; the forgotten and unrecorded actions of tribes and 

 nations, mighty and enterprising when the world was young, 

 emerge, life-like, from the obscurity of ages. Comparative Philo- 

 logy is to the Ethnographic explorer what Comparative Anatomy 

 is to the Geologist. If a few scattered fragments are given, the 

 lost marvel of a former epoch may be re-produced. 



