SECT. V.] CLASSIFICATION. 231 



sification are frequently in conflict; and so it often happens 

 that one of these arguments is considered as of inferior import- 

 ance, a partiality which is frequently exhibited by naturalists 

 who were, and still are, the principal expounders of the theories 

 of human races. 



A classification of mankind according to affinity, may be 

 said to rest on a sure basis, if inferences from authenticated 

 historical data warrant it j but these do not reach so far back in 

 time as the inferences which may be drawn from linguistic and 

 anatomical data, and moreover, the former extend only to a 

 small portion of the globe. The historical stand-point, there- 

 fore, occupies the background ; though it acquires a secondary 

 value where we find a conformity in manners, traditions, archi- 

 tecture, works of art, etc., which conformity could not easily 

 have been accidental. 



The study of languages may afford more certain indications. 

 If the grammatical structure, the speech-sounds, and a large 

 number of radicals, agree in the languages of two or several 

 peoples, their relationship may be considered as proved. There 

 only remains against this assumption, the possible and some- 

 what rare circumstance of a people losing their own lan- 

 guage and changing it for another, a case which must not be 

 assumed without positive proofs. Though a difference in lan- 

 guage does not necessarily lead to the inference of a distinct 

 origin of the respective peoples, still their assumed affinity is 

 thereby reduced to an incalculably remote period. 



Although the anatomical arguments may without difficulty be 

 applied to the classification of the whole human species, they 

 can scarcely claim more than a general grouping according to 

 external resemblance. The proofs, as regards affinities of hu- 

 man races on anatomical grounds are, as we have shown, un- 

 certain, partly because the methods of cranial measurement 

 have not yet reached the desirable degree of perfection, and 

 chiefly because it is as yet very doubtful whether there are 

 constant anatomical differences, not merely between the large 

 groups of peoples, but also within individual nations. 



We shall now enter upon the special consideration of the 

 above mentioned three principal points of view. 



