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An Essay on the Relationship of 



[Jan. 



m, and the numerals ein or kv that the Tamul pronoun ni, and the 

 Japanese numeral m, have any connexion together. Many similarities 

 in this list may he accidental, but the general analogy of the numeral 

 and the pronoim is very curious. Should we not nearly be led to form 

 the hypothesis, that the two or three most ancient languages had had 

 each only one identical word for the numeral one, and for the pronoun, /, 

 — and another word for the numeral two, and for the pronoun thou — but 

 that in a subsequent revolution these words were confounded, just as the 

 fossil bones and shells of widely different creatures, have been thrown 

 together confusedly at Montmartre ? The Sanscrit egam or eham, a nu- 

 meral, has in Greek, Latin and German been employed not as a nume- 

 ral, but only as a pronoun. The same is the case with the Greek It? and 

 *v and the Hungarian and Bohemian c?i and es ; an is the root 

 of unus, ei?, ein and one ; but it looks as if indeed the Arabians and 

 Abyssinians had employed it for their pronoun, and as if the Hebrews 

 had joined it to the root of their own numeral abad, and formed anohi. 



2. If it is true that human language is a faithful mirror of the 

 human mind, and that scholars well acquainted with different nations, 

 can trace the characters of a nation in their language, and draw often 

 striking parallels between the idiom of a language and the peculiarities of 

 the nation, it must be acknowledged also, that the above list exhibits an 

 intuitive exemplification of the humiliating truth that man, in all ages 

 and climes, considers his dear self, fhis ego) as Number one (or egam), 

 and the neighbour with whom he has to deal ( tjuj as Number two ? Even 

 the best of men, the most noble-minded and most genevous, will catch 

 his heart frequently at the attempt (although a hidden and refined and 

 disguised one), to exalt ego over tu, and to transgress the great law of 

 Him, greater than Solomon, who said, " love thy neighbour as thyself ; " 

 " do to others as thou wouldst be done by or " look not every man 

 on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." 



3. Gellius has a pretty remark on the pronoun (L. X. Ch. 3) : " Nomi- 

 na verbaque non positu fortuito, sed quadam vi et ratione naturae facta 

 esse P.Nigidius in grammaticis commentariis docet, rem sane in philo- 

 sophise dissertationibus celebrem. Queeri enim soli turn apud philoso- 

 phos,0t/<re/ ra opo/uLara rj Oeaei. In earn rem multa argumenta dicit, cur 

 videri possint verba naturalia magis quam arbitraria ; ex quibus hoc 

 visum est lepidum et festivum : VOS, inquit quum dicimus, motu quo- 

 dam oris conveniente cum istius verbi, demonstratione utimur et labias 

 sensim primores emovemus ac spiritum atque animam porro versum et 

 ad eos quibuscum sermocinamur intendimus. At contra quum dicimus : 

 NOS, neque profuso inten toque flatu vocis, neque projectis labiis pro- 

 nunciamus, sed et spiritum et labias, quasi intra nosmetipsos coercemus. 

 Hoc idem fit et in eo, quod dicimus Tu, et Ego, et Tibi, et Mihi. Nam 



