THE AKGUMENTS FROM CLASSIFICAI'ION. 357 



or Iho jSTegro stock as a whole. Though these contrasts 

 are partially obscured by intermixtures ; yet they are not so 

 obscured as to hide the truths that the most-nearly-allied 

 varieties of man, are those which diverged from one ano- 

 ther at a comparatively-recent period ; that each group 

 of nearly-allied varieties, is more strongly contrasted wjth 

 other such groups that had a common origiu with it at a 

 remoter period ; and so on, until we come to the largest 

 groups, which are the most strongly contrasted, and of whose 

 divergence no trace is extant. 



The relations existing- among the classes and sub-classes 

 of languages, have been briefly referred to by Mr Darwin, in 

 illustration of his argument. We know that languages have 

 arisen by evolution. Let us then see what grouping of them 

 evolution has produced. On comparing the dialects of adja- 

 cent counties in England, we find that their differences are so 

 small as scarcely to distinguish them. Between the dialects 

 of the Northern coimties taken together, and those of the 

 Southern counties taken together, the contrast is stronger. 

 These clusters of dialects, together with those of Scotland and 

 Ireland, are nevertheless so similar, that we regard them as 

 one language. The several languages of Scandinavian Eu- 

 rope, including English, are much more unlike one ano- 

 ther, than are the several dialects which each of them in- 

 cludes ; in correspondence with the fact that they diverged 

 from one another at earlier periods than did their respective 

 dialects. The Scandinavian languages have nevertheless a 

 certain community of character, which distinguishes them as a 

 group from the languages of Southern Europe ; between 

 which there are general and special affinities that sunilarly 

 unite them into a group form.ed of sub-groups containing sub- 

 sub-groups. And this wider divergence between the order 

 of languages spoken in Northern Europe, and the order of 

 languages spoken in Southern Eurojje, answers to the longer 

 time that has elapsed since their differentiation conunenced. 

 Further, these two orders of modern European languages, a? 



