2 14 VESTIGES OF THE 



better? Certainly not in its positive, good, nor in the 

 Teutonic dialects in which the same anomaly exists. 

 But in the Persian we have precisely the same com- 

 parative, hehter, with exactty the same signification, 

 regularly formed from its positive heh^ good." * 



The second great family of languages is the Syro- 

 Phoenician, comprising the Hebrew, Syro-Chaldaic, 

 Arabic, and Gheez or Abyssinian, being localised prin- 

 cipally in the countries to the west and south of the 

 Mediterranean. Beyond them, again, is the African 

 family, which, as far as research has gone, seems to be 

 in like manner marked by common features, both verbal 

 and grammatical. The fourth is the Polynesian family, 

 extending from Madagascar on the west, through all the 

 Indian Archipelago, besides taking in the Malayan 

 dialect from the continent of India, and comprehending 



* Wisemtin's " Lectures on the Connexion between Science and 

 Revealed lieligion," i. 44. The Celtic lias been established as a 

 member or group of the Indo-European family, by the work of Dr. 

 Pnchard, "On the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations." " First," 

 says Dr. Wiseman, "he has examined the lexicon resemblances, and 

 shown that the primary and most simple words are the same in both 

 as well as the numerals and elementary verbal roots. Then follows 

 a minute analysis of the verb, directed to show its analu^i-^s with 

 other languages, and they are such as manifest no casnal coincicloncc, 

 but an internal structure radically the same. The verb substantive, 

 which is minutely analysed, presents more striking analogies to the 

 Persian verb than perhaps any other language of the family. But 

 Celtic is not thus become a mere member of this confederacy, but 

 has brought to it most important aid ; for, from it alone can be satis- 

 factorily explained some of the conjugational endings in the other 

 languages. For instance, the third person plural of the Latin, 

 Persian, Greek, and Sanskrit ends in nt, nd, vtl, vto, nti, or nt. 

 Now, supposing, with most grammarians, that the inflections arose 

 from the pronouns of the respective persons, it is only in ( 'eltic that 

 we find a pronoun that can explain this termination ; for there, too, 

 the same person ends in nt, and thus corresponds exactly, as do the 

 others, with its pronoun, hwynt or ynt.'^ 



