294 
REPORT- 1847 . 
because this want of perfection shows itself in a tendency to deyclopeoK 
part of the system out of proportion witli the rest, and thus cover and bkfc, 
as it were, the ancient stock under the luxuriance of one-sided forma^oB. 
The perfection of an organic language lies not only in what it expresses, bs 
also in what it does not express, by special foniis. 
Thus in jihysiology man apjjears as the centre and end of all organic lonw- 
tions, uniting Imruumionsly the relatively highest perfection of all syUtn. 
whereas the others, in tending towards one of them only, go out of the v? 
of steady and perfect development, and fail to arrive at the goal. 
Colonies may either preserve the ancient form, or become the occ^ 
of a groat change. The ancient language of Tibet, which is in the (1^ 
traditions the land of their curlicMt recollections, way have been preservw if 
the colonists who formed the Chinese empire, while Jibet went fwtbni 
its development, 
Such will be, according to our Inquiry, the general march of develojmf®' 
whether the one or the other supposition be the true one. 
Now, if the lirat supposition be true, the ditferent tribes or ^ 
languages, however analogous they may be, (as being tl*c produce o| 
working of tlie same hnimui mind upon the same outward world bj' 
same organic means), w-ill nevertheless offer scarcely any aftuiity W 
other in the skill displayed in their fornmfion, and in the mode ol it- ^ 
their very roots, full or empty ones, nnd all their words, whether uionsy 
blc or polysyllabic, must needs bo entirely ditferviit. There may be soJ 
similar expressions in those inarticulate bursts of feeling, not reactefl''P 
by the miful, which the grmmnariaos call intcijections. There are b* 
some graphic imitations of oxtm nal sounds, called onomatopoctica- 
the furumtion of wliich indientes the relatively greatest passivity of 
There niay be besides some casual coincidenees in real words; but toi 
of coinhinatioii applied to the olcniGnts of sound gives a itiatlieroatica' 
that, with all allowances, that chance is less tliau ono in a inilh®^ ^ 
same combination of sounds signifying the same precise object. ” 
. shall have to say hereafter about tho affixing of words to objects, will 
that this chance is still cotisiderably diminished, if the very strict acu p— 
live laws are considered which govern the application of a word to a 
object. Uut the ordinary crude method suffices to prove, 
entirely difTerent beginnings of speech, a& philosophical inquiry i« 
^uine, and us the great philosojjhers of antiquity have assumed, 
be uonn but stray coincidences between wonis of a different origin* • 
referring to what wc havo already stated as the result of the most aW 
linguistic inquiries, such a coincidence docs exist between three great 
lies, spreading from the north of Europe to tha tropic lands of 
Africa. It there exists, not only in radical words, but even in what lou • 
pear as the work of an exclusively peculiar coinage, the formative wot'* 
inflexions whicli pervade the whole structure of ccitain families 
and are interwoven, as it were, with every sentence pronounced it* 
of their branches. All the nations which from the dawn of bistoiy 
uays have been the leaders of civilisation in Asia, Europe and Afnta. 
consi'jjucutly iiavo had one beglmiing. This is the chief lesson vh'r 
know edge of the Egyptian language teaches. , . ..i, 
imt the researches of our days have very coiwiderablv enlarged tW f 
ot such lai^uages of liUtorical nations, as are united by the Tsta^ 
researches have made it more than probable that 
aa wpH belong to one great stock; that the ^ . 
as the rshudes Fins, Laplanders and Magyars (Hunganan^)? 
ikr." 
