LECTURE THE FOURTH;

ON

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE

HUMAN RACE.

PART II.

RESULTS.-Application of Linguistic Ethnography to this Study. Proof that nations shown to be of a common stock by their languages, have deviated from the family type: in the Mongul race, and in the Caucasian.Origin of the Negro race: Climate an insufficient cause. -Collection of facts to prove a change to the black colour possible: the Abyssinians, Souakin Arabs, Congoese, Foulahs, &c.-Apparent example of actual transition. Objections answered.-Effects of Civilization: Selluks, Monguls, Germans.-Modification and suspension of causes formerly in action.-Connexions of the different races: internal division into graduated shades of difference in each; Polynesians, Malays, inhabitants of Italy. On the type of national art. Reflections applicable to the Christian Evidences, in reference to the authenticity of the Gospel, and the perfection of our Saviour's character.

VOL. I.

P

LECTURE THE FOURTH.

In my last lecture, I contented myself with the analogies which seemed to bear upon the subject of our enquiry, and endeavoured to prove, both from parallel phenomena in the lower departments of organized creation, and from the deviations occasionally observed in our own species, that a strong probability existed in favour of the varieties found in the human race having all sprung up from the same stock; and I promised on our next meeting forthwith to close with the question, and treat of it more directly. I wish, therefore, to prove, that a transition must, some time or other, have taken place in entire nations, from one family to another. And, to effect this purpose, I must call in the assistance of a new test, for which our two first conferences will have prepared you-the comparative study of languages.

I suppose no one has yet doubted, or is likely to doubt, that nations speaking languages with a strong affinity between them, must originally have been united somehow together. Even those who deny the common origin of the human race, allow that identity or similarity, and, particularly, strong grammatical affinity, of language, between nations however distant, cannot be the result of

chance, but proves some real connexion of origin, or early relationship. This, even if it had not been mathematically proved by Dr. Young, as, on a former occasion, I showed you, is self-evident ; for the relationship which I exposed to you between some languages, the Sanskrit, for instance, and Greek, cannot possibly have been the result of accident. Hence, if two nations speak, and have spoken, as far as history can reach, dialects of the same tongue, we must conclude them to have had a common origin; unless one of them, at least, can be shown to have changed its language, a hypothesis always requiring the strongest evidence. For, experience proves the extraordinary tenacity with which even small communities keep hold of their original language. The Sette Comuni, a small German colony established, beyond the reach of historical documents, in the north of Italy, the Greeks of Piana dei Greci, near Palermo, the Flemish clothiers in Wales, settled there for many centuries, all retain dialects, more or less impure, of their mother tongue, and afford some of the many proofs which might be brought, how difficult it is to root out any language.

Having thus established one fixed and unalterable element, it affords a certain test whether the other has remained unchanged; or, to speak more plainly, if identity of speech infallibly proves two nations to have been originally one, and yet

they differ from one another in physical characteristics, to such an extent, as to be now classified in different races, these characteristics must thereby be proved liable to change, for one of the nations must have lost its original type. Now, I think it can be proved, that the boundaries of the twofold classification of men, according to language, and according to form and feature, no longer coincide; and as they must have once run together, and as that of language has remained unvaried, we must conclude that the other has undergone a change. Nay, I think we shall be able to go even farther; for while no instance has yet been brought, nor ever will, nor can be, of any people, either by gradual transition, or by voluntary impulse, transferring its language from one family to another, we may perhaps surprise nature in her other order of classification, at the moment of effecting a transition from one family to another, by discovering examples of an intermediate state between any two, or of the processes whereby it has sometimes been produced.

In treating of the affinity of languages, I pointed out a remarkable connexion, solidly demonstrated, between Hungarian and the languages of northern Europe, the Finnish, Lapponian, and Esthonian; and an inspection of the ethnographic map will show you how it is placed, like what geologists call outliers of peculiar strata, as a mass detached from the group to which it really belongs. But