EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. 215 



variety of mankind which generally shows a fair complexion, 

 called the Caucasian variety. It may be said to commence 

 in India, and thence to stretch through Persia into Europe, 

 the whole of which it occupies, excepting Hungary, the 

 Basque provinces of Spain, and Finland. Its sub-families 

 are the Sanskrit, or ancient language of India, the Per- 

 sian, the Slavonic, Celtic, Gothic, and Pelasgian. The Sla- 

 vonic includes the modern languages of Russia and Poland. 

 Under the Gothic, are (1) the Scandinavian tongues, the 

 Norske, Swedish, and Danish ; and (2) the Teutonic, to 

 which belong the modern German, the Dutch, and our own 

 Anglo-Saxon. I give the name of Pelagian to the group 

 scattered along the north shores of the Mediterranean, the 

 Greek and Latin, including the modifications of the latter 

 under the names of Italian, Spanish, &c. The Celtic was, 

 from two to three thousand years ago, the speech of a con- 

 siderable tribe dwelling in Western Europe ; but these have 

 since been driven before superior nations into a few corners, 

 and are now only to be found in the highlands of Scotland, 

 Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, and certain parts of France. The 

 Gaelic of Scotland, Erse of Ireland, and the Welsh, are the 

 only living branches of this sub-family of languages. 



The resemblances amongst languages are of two kinds, 

 identity of words, and identity of grammatical forms ; the 

 latter being now generally considered as the most important 

 towards the argument. When we inquire into the first kind 

 of affinity among the languages of the Indo-European family, 

 we are surprised at the great number of common terms which 

 exist among them, and these referring to such primary ideas 

 as to leave no doubt of their having all been derived from 

 a common source. Colonel Vans Kennedy presents nine 

 hundred words common to the Sanskrit and other languages 

 of the same family. In the Sanskrit and Persian, we find 

 several which require no sort of translation to an English 

 reader, as pader, mader, sunu, dokhter, brader, mand, vidhava; 

 likewise asthi, a bone, (Greek, osteon ;) denta, a tooth, (Latin, 

 dens, dentis ,) eyeumen, the eye ; brouwa, the eye-brow, 



