173 
mutation, in form stze and 
complexion as well as manners 
and improvements. Whence 
we ought to love each other 
whatever be our shape, bulk and 
hue, as brothers of a single 
great family. — 
Each Genus of Animals and 
Plants is also a similar family, 
with few or many old devia- 
tions which we call species, 
and varieties, at random ! It is 
so with the dogs and cats, 
goats and mice, hawks and 
sparrows, ducks and gulls,— 
frogs and turtles, — herrings 
and carps, — flies and moths, 
&c. among animals. — -And 
oaks, vines, apples, cherries, 
roses, lilies, rice, barley, wheat, 
gentian, spunges, &c. among 
trees, shrubs, flowers, and 
plants. 
Whence genera are of more 
importance than species, and 
ought to be closely studied or 
accurately fixed; but we are 
far from this as yet ; species 
have been too much attended 
in preference. But genera are 
not few, many thousands of 
new ones exist as yet, since 
almost every genuine or prim- 
itive species will be found to 
constitute a peculiar genus. 
132. Affinities of the English 
Language with the African 
Languages and Dialects of 
Egypt, &c. 
Extract from my Philosophy of 
the English Language . 
In x\frica a great obscurity 
prevails on the subject of Phi- 
lological and ethnological clas- 
sification, nearly equal to the 
American perplexity. We 
know but few of the primitive 
languages of that continent; 
but among the modern we find 
dialects of several languages 
widely spread across the whole 
of Africa, and each offering 
striking analogies with the 
English, evan among the Ne- 
gro nations. 
I shall enumerate the Afri- 
can languages under 3 classes. 
1 Ancient African languages. 
2 Languages of the Brown 
nations. 3 Of the Black or 
Negro nations. 
1. Ancient Languages of Af- 
rica. 
Those of which I can offer 
comparative tables are inertly 
1 Coptic 2 Ammo man. 3 Ly- 
bian, and 4 Guanche. 
1 Lang. Egyptian or Coptic . 
This w r as the language of 
ancient Egypt, already spoken 
4500 years ago, and which be- 
came extinct only towards 
1620. But we have many books, 
inscriptions, and manuscripts 
in that language. It has con- 
siderable analogies with the 
Pelagian, Scythian, Sanscrit, 
and primitive dialects of Asia 
and Europe. It extended to 
Nubia, Abyssinia, and part of 
Lybia, in many dialects, 3 of 
which prevailed in Egypt. 1 
The Theban, 2 the Memphitic 
or Northern, which changed P 
into PH or F, and K into Eh 
or X, 3 the Bashuric, chang- 
ing R into L. 
The primitive Phonology of 
Coptic, was very simple. It 
had only 12 letters, which 
were often diphonous or poly- 
phonous— 3 vowels, A, 0 or U, 
E or I, the simple consonants 
