194 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 



• specilically different, unless it enn be shown, in the particular 

 case, that the whole machinery of the human voice, is specifically 

 and mechanically different from that which distinguishes the 

 human race. It is in this sense that all languages have an af- 

 finity for each other, whilst that affinity, at the same time, by 

 no means either proves or disproves the unity of the human race, 

 any further than comparative anatomy is concerned. There, it 

 is true, we find proofs of unity of design, with occasional modifi- 

 cations of structure. Hence philologists, in examining remote lan- 

 guages, have occasionally found affinities in the speech of barba- 

 rous people, with those oriental tongues, which are supposed by 

 many to be the first languages spoken, even in cases where there 

 are no grounds to suppose any ancient connection of the races. 

 Thus affinities have been found in the languages of the Red men 

 of this continent, with the ancient Hebrew. It is true, however, 

 that language materially enables us to trace the connection of 

 races : the modern English tongue can be shown both by etymo- 

 logy, and by records, to have for its basis the Anglo Saxon tongue; 

 this last, the Teutonic, which again may be referred to the Celto- 

 Scythian. Without entering at present into the origin of the 

 Celts, they may be considered, as far as the languages of Chris- 

 tendom are concerned, as a primitive people, who issued upon 

 Europe from the western parts of Asia, and pushed on by succes- 

 sive colonies, soon spread themselves to the extreme borders of 

 the Mediterranean, and northward, to the Baltic ocean, including 

 the islands on the coast. At remote periods new adventurers from 

 Africa and Greece, mingled themselves with these first people, 

 and distinct nations and people grew up amongst them. It was 

 probably in this manner the ancient Latin people arose from an 

 admixture of the old Celtic stock, with adventurers from Greece 

 and Phenicia. When a cultivated race subdues a barbarous one, 

 it usually occurs that the language and its forms, of the first, is 

 imposed upon the last ; whilst a barbarous people, when it pre- 

 vails against a civilized nation, cannot substitute its own tongue, 

 although by mingling itself with, it can effectually corrupt and 

 destroy the other. This took place when the Celts were subse- 

 quently subdued in every part of Europe by the Roman arms, 

 when the Latin tongue prevailed over the Celtic, in Gaul and 

 Spain ; whilst, when the Roman empire was finally subdued by 

 the Goths, the Roman tongue became subsequently a dead Ian 



