MAN. 55 



most powerfully instrumental in tlie production of striking 

 phaenomena of this nature. 



But language is an integral part of the natural history of 

 the human mind; and^notwithstandiag the freedom with 

 which the mind pursues persevering!? in happy indepen- 

 dence its self-chosen direction under the most different 

 physical conditions notwithstanding the strong tendency cf 

 this freedom to withdraw the spiritual and intellectual part 

 of man's being from the power of terrestrial influences jet 

 is the disenthralment never completely achieved. There 

 ever remains a trace of the impression which the natural 

 disposition has received from climate, from the clear 

 azure of the heavens, or from the less serene aspect of a 

 vapour-loaded atmosphere. ! Such influences have their 

 place among those thousand subtle and evanescent links in 

 the electric chain of thought, from whence, as from the 

 perfume of a tender flower, language derives its richness 

 and its grace. Seeing, tlien,\how close is the bond which 

 unites the physical world with the world of the intellect and 

 of the feelings^ we are unwilling altogether to deprive this 

 general sketch of nature of those brighter lights and tints, 

 which might be imparted to it by considerations, however 

 lightly touched, on the mutual relations of races and of 

 languages. 



By maintaining the unity of the human species, we at the 

 same time repel the cheerless assumption ( 442 ) of superior 

 and interior races of men. There are families of nations 

 more readily susceptible of culture, more highly civilised, 

 more ennobled by mental cultivation than others ; but not in 

 themselves more noble. All are alike designed for freedom ; 



