SECT. V.] LANGUAGES. 245 



between the chief types of the corporeal form; but such a 

 possibility of an original unity of languages is, as Pott 1 ob- 

 serves, far indeed from being proved. 



The idea of an original language of the whole human race, 

 so much discussed in the last century, is by science now con- 

 sidered as a chimera. 2 Neither would it amount to a proof of 

 the unity of mankind, if among languages of different gram- 

 matical structure, such as the Chinese and Sanscrit, there 

 were found a number of similar roots. 3 W. von Humboldt 

 has remarked, that though the three chief types of the known 

 languages may be considered as an ascending scale of the devel- 

 opment of language, it can neither be proved, nor is it probable, 

 that they have originated among themselves. Nevertheless, 

 Max Muller has recently advanced the latter theory. According 

 to him, the first stage of the development of language is a 

 juxtaposition of independent words (family stage) ; the second 

 is characterized by an incorporation of relations in the govern- 

 ing word (nomadic stage agglutination) ; the third changes 

 the governing word to designate the relations (political stage 

 amalgamation). This interesting scheme has not met with 

 approval among philologists, and has been especially opposed 

 by Pott, who assumes a plurality of originally distinct lan- 

 guages. Though philology may not be absolutely opposed to 

 the origin of the human race from one pair, 4 there is at pre- 

 sent no prospect of supporting it by proofs, as Bunsen and 

 Muller have attempted. 



One might be inclined to adopt this view on considering, 

 that the light which philology has hitherto thrown on the 

 affinity of peoples extends to but a small portion of the earth, 

 and in casting a glance at the summary of Balbi 5 of the lan- 

 guages of the globe. He assumes 860 languages, which he 

 thus classifies : 



i. Asia, with 153 languages in seventeen families : Indo- 

 Germans, Tamules, Semitics, Georgians, Caucasians, Tunguses 



l " Zeitschrift d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Ges.," p. 405, 1855. 



2 Martin, " Essai sur 1'origine du Lang./' p. 32, Paris, 1835. 



3 Scnleicher, " D. Sprachen Europas," p. 29, 1850. 



4 " Die Ungleickheit menschl. Rassen," pp. 202, 242, 272. 



5 " Atlas Ethnographique," Paris, 1826. 



