11 
I will not insist upon the fact that all our present European 
languages, with the exception of a few, are cognate with the 
ancient Sanscrit, the richest and most polished of all languages : 
a fact which proves that # the farther we go back chronologically 
in that direction, the more scholarly and scientific were the 
modes of speech then in use. I say, I will not insist upon 
this ; for, in the first place, it is too well known to need com- 
ment ; and, in the next place, it does not recede far enough 
chronologically to meet the full conditions of the problem to 
be solved. Europe appears to have been covered by a race, 
preceding the invasion of it by the Kelts ; a race, which finds 
one of its clearest exponents in the Biscayans of the north of 
Spain. It will be more to the point, therefore, if we examine 
the Basque language, with a view to test ethnologically the 
condition of, perhaps, the earliest inhabitants of Europe. This 
language, says M. de Ponceau, — 
stands single and alone of its kind, surrounded by idioms whose modem 
construction bears no kind of analogy to it. Like the bones of the mammoth, 
and the relics of unknown races which have perished, it remains a monument 
of the destruction produced by a succession of ages. 
What, then, is its character ? There are some languages 
like the Greek, and its sister Sanskrit, which bear internal 
evidences of having been perfected, if not originated, among 
races in a high state of civilization; — languages, I mean, 
which are not only rich in their vocabulary, but flexible, 
powerful, and scientific in their grammatical constructions. 
How different those just named, for example, when compared 
with the Tartar family of languages, which evidently originated 
in a low state of civilization ; being simple in structure, defi- 
cient in inflexions, scanty in conjunctions and conjugations, 
and without auxiliary verbs.* 
Hot such was the old Iberian, as represented to us now by 
the modern Basque. Of this language, M. de Ponceau says. 
It is highly artificial in its forms, and so compounded as to 
express many ideas at the same time.” The two auxiliary 
verbs, “ I am 33 and (( I have 33 are thrown into such a pro- 
fusion of forms, that every relative idea connected with a verb 
can be expressed together. It abounds also in inflexions of 
infinite variety. f 
Reverting, then, to the metaphor before used, we put 
together these linguistic bones of an extinct age, and dis- 
covering in them strength combined with grace — and sim- 
* Prichard’s Researches, &c., vol. iv. pp. 404, 405. 
t Idem, vol. iii. pp. 23-25. 
