255 
ON ETHNOLO 
I know that in saying thus much I assiMlf^ a great fact. I take it for 
granted that the facts to tvhicli I allude, bear out the conser|uence I deduce 
from them: I mean, the assertion that the affitiity of the Egyptian forms and 
roots with those of the Semitic and Indo-fJerinanic languages is one which 
can no more be explained by the general similarity, existing or supposed to 
exist, betweea different languages, than that helivcHii German and Scandina- 
Yian, between Greek and Roman, between Gothic ami Sanscrit, which is dis¬ 
puted or doubted by nobody who has a right to speak on these subjects. I 
glory in belonging to a school which rejects altogether those etymological 
drcaats and conjectures, tiiose luase uom{>ansons of single words without 
priucijile or analogy, and generally without any sr.tHcieni or critical know¬ 
ledge of the idioms, in short, that unscientific comparison of languages, or 
rather of words caught at random, which made the etymologies of the seven- 
iceuth century the laughing-stock of the eighteenth. By its very principle 
die critical school admits of no claim to historical athnity between ditferent 
languages, unless this affinity be shown to rest upon dehnice laws, upon sub¬ 
stantial analogy, established by a complete cxamhmtion of the materials. 
Tliat school demauds the strictest proof that those affinities are neither acci¬ 
dental nor merely ideal, but e^eniial ; that they arc not the work of extra¬ 
neous intrusion, but indigenous, as running tUroagh the whole original tex- 
tnro of the lariguagei compared, according to a traceable gcuenil rule of ana¬ 
logy. Tlie very method of tliis critical school excludes the possibility of 
accidental or mere ideal analogies being taken for proof* of a conjmon 
historical descent of different tribes and nations. It is on uceuunt of this 
method, employed by Grimm, Bopp, Humboldt and other acknowledged 
masters of that school, that 1 elHiiu in this t^cicntitic assembly a place, and a 
distiuguUhcd one, for linguistic uthuology as roiutitufiiig a principal branch 
of general science. Science implies method and a Guiuciunsne** of the prin¬ 
ciples of investigation. Now 1 believe I may boldly say, the fact W which I 
illude, viz. tliat the Egyptian language betrays a strictly historical connexion 
mill Asia, or, to speak more precisely, with the Semitic and Iranian tribes, 
u among those who have studied them according to the principles of the 
critical school of comparative philology, uo longer an object, of controversy, 
allliough the origin and primeval -iourceof that connexion may bo explained 
ultimately in very diflerent ways, according to the diderent systems of the 
philosophy of the history of mankind. I hope I have contributed something 
towards making it easy fora generul scholar to judge of those primeval facts 
of Egyptian history, and to contemplate them as monuments of the primitive 
art and science of mankind. Nor shall I in the confimiation of my work 
thriuk from following out boldly its ultimate consequence*. As soon as I 
diall have establishetl the reality of aucieut Egy ptian history and chronology, 
Mid reconstructed by its help ilie primeval amiaU of the historical age, I in¬ 
tend to treat the great fact aliudi*<l to, a'< a part of the Orufines of mankind, 
lodeed it is fur this uhject that f iiuilcrumk the work. In the mean time, 
having been called upon to lay before the British Association for the Advanee- 
uieiit of Science a succinct statement of the general results of my Egyjitian 
researches as to the origin ami hUtory of language, witJi a particular refer¬ 
ence to Asiatic and African ethnology, I Khali endeavour to indicate the ele¬ 
mentary parts of my system, and submit to your candid anti scieulitic exaiui- 
naiion some of the results which I believe we are enabled to deduce already 
from the facts of Egyptology. 
There offer at the very outset two ciitiridy tlivergenl systems for cxplain- 
Ing the general fact alluded to. Either the Egyptian language is a primi¬ 
tive one, from which those Asiatic and European languages derive their 
