254 
REPORT— 1847. 
On the results of thereccnt EyyptianrestarcheiinrefermtiQJiNiit 
and African Elknoiogaj, arid the Classtficaim of Laoguagtt. i 
Discourse read before the Ethnoloyical Section of the Briluh ^ 
ciafion for the Advancement of Science, at Oxford, on the Mi 
June, 1847, C. C. J. Bunsen, D.CX., Ph.D. 
I HAVE Wguii to lay before the public in the first two volumesrfr 
‘ fiicts which the discovery of hieroglyphics has enahWEi: 
('wtublish as to the language, writing and mytliolopy of tlte priwiti« 
tians. I have utleniptcd to explain thoin as the three documents or ^ 
tions of tluM»e periods which precede the historical age, or the begiMiif'l 
tin* chronological history of Egypt under Mcnes. 
In the first volume I Imve endeavoured in particular to show, lioviii 
possible and necifwary to treat the forms and roots of a language as uk-' 
torierd monument, exhibiting a series of mental develfipmenls. «hia v 
thougli it cannot be meaxurtjd uccunvtflv as to time, consCitiin^ a cw- 
succession of facts, and thus marks the cpoclis of the prinieval jif ^' 
people. In carrying out this plan, I hare attempted to repre»nU“*'^ 
intelligible to every general scholar, all the facts of Egyptian 
all the forms, formative words and inllexions of the language in 
onler and connexion ; and secoiidlj', to eollcct the Egyptian rootswlnr'' ^ 
be proved to have formed the heir-loom of that nation, as they 
inonumrnU not more recent than the time of Muses, and in 
rior to him hy a thousand years and more. It is impossible ^ 
forum ntul on these roots with even a su{ierficial knowledge of ^ 
and Inilo-ficrmaiiic languages, ami not to perceive that t!ie , 
giiage is no more a Hebrew tliati a Sanscrit dialect, but that it 
ofTmity with each of them, such as compels us to ask the questwD.'^*^ 
it is a more ancient formation than either or no? , 
This (|ut>stton becomes the more interesting aud importatil, wnr"' 
he considereil os demonstrated, that such an affinity cannot be 
mere internal analogy; that, on the contrary, it U historical . 
sense of the* word, viz. jjhysicat or original. 1 mean that the fj- 
to cannot rationally be explained by a real or supposed general . 
guages, os tlie expressions of Iiuinan thought and feeling, nor bj 
mieuc<» of other nations and tongues. Now the Egyptian name W 
C/tfmi, the land of C/tam, which in Egyptian means black. Eanwe ^ ^ 
reality found in Egypt the scientide ami historical meaning of ^ 
of the tripartite divisions of post'dil avian biniianitv? The 
gunge attests an unity of blood with the great Aramaic tribes o* 
language* have been comprised bv schohirs under the 
^mitic, or the languages of the family of Shera. It is 
identity of origin with those atill mon- nuiucrous and il!ustriou> to ^ 
occupy now the greatest part of Europe, and may perhaps, alone or* 
families, have a right to be called the family ohlapliet. I 
fainily to which the Germanic nations bclonc. as well as the Gree * 
mans, the Indians and Persiaiisi. the .Slavonic and the Celtic tril^ . .. 
are now generally called hy some the lndo»Gcnnanic, 
Eurvipean nations. The njost ancient traditions of j,Ji <- 
of .luphet : Air .lapetos is, according to the Greeks, the fathero 
Jitun or benevolent nian-gnd who brought the celestial fire 
rethren on j-artli, and was doomed for such daring to 
o (. uucusus until aiiotlier divine hero should set him free, and 
o tho younger gods, who govern the world of mankind. 
