THE BTHNOLQiiY OF THE INDIAN ABCHtPBLAOO. 



45 



barriers do not exist If it has not extended far, it is either 

 young or not so strong as the older civilisations, which can 

 hardly ever happen, because in its origin, it is, in roost 

 cases, an advance on one of these, or a" reanimation of it. The 

 Chinese civilisation mast have early exerted a predominating 

 influence to the southward and westward, and repressed all ten- 

 dencies to new developments of ideas and language within the 

 range of its power* Amongst the many ruder tribes that saw in it 

 the acme of intellectual and constructive power, no idea could arise 

 capable of generating' a higher or even a different civilisation. 

 As the lower African tribes speak of the higher as gods, as every 

 nation has at one time cherished the belief that its governing class, 

 royal, noble or sacerdotal, is diviw, ami remained intellectually 

 paralysed the while, so the moral atmosphere of tin t'kramdian 

 nations bos continued to be loaded with the idea of China and its 

 greatness. On the evidence of language we may n elude that 

 the present more western monosyllabic tribes or their prototypes 

 wrre in existence when Chinese civilisation arose. Insuperable 

 difficulties oppose the hypothesis of their having been derived from 

 any of the languages of China after the dawn of its civilisation.* 

 Whether they were founded about that time or had long previously 

 existed contemporaneously with the Chinese tribes, as is most 

 probable, the subsequent subsistence of their languages for some 

 thousands of years in a similar organism to the Chinese, however 

 it may be attributed in some measure to the influence of the latter, 

 mast be taken mainly as a conclusive proof that neither the Chinese 

 letters, as Neumann maintains, nor even the Chinese civilisation, 

 were directly the cause of the preservation of monosyllabic lan- 

 guages in the world. 



While the Chinese civilisation protected a primitive lmgubtfc 

 organism, a succession of new developments took place beyond its 

 vast mountainous boundaries,! each of which had an important 

 place in the history of mankind. One of the most widely extended 

 of these connects itself with the prevalent barbaric development 

 which we have been considering. Nearly all the languages spoken 



Chinese intellect and lanptage ultimately induwd it* distinctive dTlbsa» ion when 

 f-l-v.TiL- rimim^My* urn*.-, hut t..» prru* chtmn U-r nf tJn Chh-.«. -ethnic 

 development at the lime when tlio Ktryptian Hngtditic prototype arose, cannot be 

 drterminpfl. _ v . 



* TU-n is ftorar evidence that the roost prevalent (-ltraindmn ronno^Uabte 

 Mta iaaoawfed tan Turn, as we Asfl lea ta h ■unwo.n.'nt paper. 



* It I* jriiprn I'tlr at pTf«>iit **«.rfam wli>-!hvr *-he fw tier «r H..-** « *-.vir>pinenta 

 took platx before or niter the Chinese civilisation. I think the evidence isinmvour 

 of thHr ameriar origin, or al h-ast of thatof their ajnth«r-trir>cs. A v-n- lout I'^M 

 mil have elapsed after human fumllits wn: planted in. China before the prewtire 

 of nnpuljition mdnced an abandonment of nomadic habit*, a fixed aarlcultnra, anda 

 ■low discovery of diflerent arts. Allbough therefore a tint Impetu* and direr : ton 

 was doubtless (riven to the Chinese mind before the ninre ad vanned ianguatfw aiv*;. 

 it may have long retain rd a s tlU cruder Urifrulstic form before it.* hhrher arttitJc and 

 VMrieaJ dnetepraent Wan. During this normal era gwatayBMutotifladvawsca 

 saayliave been made by human tribes in other regions Neither the language ncn 



