232 
the consideration of the question,— Is it possible that *11 
snoken languages can have sprung from a single root tan 
they possibly be all but so many corruptions or modifications 
investigation of *e 
dissimilar the various dialects, they a from p; s 
derived from one primeval language. ( q xtttt \ This 
Lectures on the Science °f Language, Lecture VIII ) ibis 
conclusion has been also reached and confirmed by the Lev 
Dr Thornton, and the results of observation which justify it 
S^e placed before you, in this Society, in that gentleman s 
recent paper on Comparative Philology. , -i • 
Still P the important question remains— Whence came this 
i i Was it of human invention, or was it 
supernaturahy communicated to our first parents ? Here,— 
putting revelation aside, as^ “ ^enotbl J?to guide^s except 
SorabTe 6 co^ectme^nd'th^balance of probabilities { and 
therefore at whatever result under this guidance we may 
arrive we can never pronounce our conclusion to be md.s- 
PU S 7 tHs d ^charMter^o^^ndisputable truth u ^ 
directed. In every such inquiry it behoves ns ^ proceed, 
Xlf ii£t’ enteTangTof hJman .search is arrived 
at otherwise than by *%%£%£££ 7 
trary,’ miaht be other than what they are Such are the 
obiects with which strict science has alone to do. And it 1 
1 i-nlv to he deplored for its own sake, that m recent tim 
the P dfgnity of science has been usurped, by speculative con. 
elusions based upon neither demonstration, nor observation, 
no”periment,but upon the unsubstantial foundation of 
pure fancy, -the appeal being, not to our convictions, but 
precept universally admitted in theory, however 
* Journ. of Trans, of Viet. Instil, vol. I. p. 148, ef seq. 
