246 EARLY HISTORY )F MANKIM 



black children in the valley ol the Jordan, ancf tne com 

 paratively frequent birth of red-haired children amongst 

 not only Mongolian and Malayan families, but amongst 

 the Negroes. We are ignorant of the laws of variety-pro- 

 duction ; but we see it going on as a principle in nature, 

 and it is obviously favorable to the supposition that all the 

 great families of men are of one stock. 



The tendency of the modern study of the languages of 

 nations is to the same point. The last fifty years have 

 seen this study elevated to the character of a science, and 

 the light which it throws upon the history of mankind is 

 of a most remarkable nature. 



Following a natural analogy, philologists have thrown 

 the earth's languages into a kind of classification : a num- 

 ber bearing a considerable resemblance to each other, and 

 in general geographically near, are styled zgrotip, or sub- 

 family ; several groups, again, are associated as a family, 

 with regard to more general features of resemblance. 

 Six families are spoken of. 



The Indo-European family nearly coincides in geo- 

 graphical limits with those which have been assigned to 

 that variety of mankind which generally shows a fair com- 

 plexion, 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 Sanscrit, or ancient language of 

 India, the Persian, the Slavonic, Celtic, Gothic, and 

 Pelasgian. The Slavonic 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 Ger- 

 man, the Dutch, and our own Anglo-Saxon. I give the 

 name of Pelasgian to the group scattered along the north 

 shores of the Mediterranean, the Greek and Latin, includ- 

 ing 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 considerable 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 ot 

 Scotland, Erse of Iueland, and the Welsh, are the only 

 living branches of this sub-fair ; ly of languages. 



