may affect the prosperity and permanence of the 'Dissenting Interest'. O what should not congregational societies be!" exclaims the Author of the Tract on the Congregational System.

'What should not every member of them be! Most certainly far different from what we are! When shall we become such? Shall we ever cherish a spirit worthy of our principles? Shall we ever become the men who may be accounted worthy to convert the world?' p. 191.

If not, the work and the honour will be taken from us, and given to others. Changes are coming upon society, the precise nature of which no one can distinctly discern. The present season is at once a time of probationary discipline to the Church, and of preparation for the service or conflict which is fast approaching. The victory is secured to the Church of Christ; but who may fall, or what systems may be demolished in the contest, none can tell. We have pleaded, with a feeble voice, at this crisis, for a truce of God between the rival denominations of the religious world; and have willingly borne the penalty of all mediators, that of being suspected by one party, and traduced by another. It would have been far more agreeable to us, to be allowed to prosecute our humble labours in the green and quiet field of literature, without being thus compelled to mingle in the dusty affray. We are not ambitious of the military glory of partizans, being well content with those pleasures that love the shade. We have been called upon, however, to speak out; and we have done so; not, we hope, in the tone of dictation, for we are deeply conscious that the topics to which our desultory remarks relate, demand a much more close and profound discussion. We assume no other weight of authority for our observations, than can be claimed by the opinions of an individual. We have descended from our critical woolsack, to plead on the common floor. And now we have delivered our conscience, and pray God to give to our readers a wise and understanding heart, to discern their duty and the signs of the times.

Art. II. The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations proved by a Comparison of their Dialects with the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Teutonic Languages. Forming a Supplement to Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. By James Cowles Prichard, M.D. F.R.S. &c. 8vo. pp. 194. Price 7s. Oxford. 1831.

THE

HE work to which this volume is supplemental, is a highly valuable and comprehensive digest of our knowledge respecting the physical varieties of the human species; designed to vindicate and illustrate the fact of their derivation from a common parentage. The evidence collected in those volumes, is chiefly

VOL. VII.-N.S.

of a physiological kind; and little more could be introduced, than occasional and general statements bearing on the distinct series of philological facts, which, in proportion as the analysis of language is prosecuted, are found to furnish a mass of collateral evidence in support of the same conclusion.

The comparison of languages, Dr. Prichard remarks, is perhaps incapable of affording all the results which some persons have anticipated from it. It would be too much to expect to arrive, by this way, at a demonstration of the unity of race, or an original sameness of speech, in the whole human species. Many striking instances, however, may be cited, in which researches of this kind have thrown light on the origin and affinities of nations, when all historical resources have failed. And on a close and competent investigation of languages apparently quite unconnected, the most surprising coincidences have been discovered, either in their structure or in their vocabulary; affording a strong presumption of their being in some way related to a common source, or of early proximity and intercourse between nations now the most remote from each other. Hitherto, the results of philological researches have tended constantly and invariably in one direction; that of reducing the varieties of dialect and idiom to fewer classes, by multiplying the proofs of original affinity. And having ascertained this general fact, that languages, in proportion as they are known and investigated, are found to be less dissimilar than was previously supposed, and to develop relations and resemblances which it is impossible to regard as incidental, we ought to be satisfied, perhaps, with extorting from so prevaricating a witness as Philology, this strong admission, which puts at least an emphatic negative upon any contrary assumption. That what is unknown, will ever contradict what is known, becomes more and more improbable at every step we advance in our discoveries. But, if we expect too much from such researches, there is peculiar danger of being seduced by plausible appearances, to let our fancy outrun our knowledge, and to build up evidence with conjecture, till the superstructure becomes too heavy for the foundation, and the whole system is brought down in ruins at the first hostile blow, or remains only as a curious monument of misjudging learning and useless ingenuity.

A fondness for wild conjecture,' remarks the present Writer, and for building up systems upon the most inadequate and precarious foundations, has been supposed to belong to the whole class of writers on the history and affinities of languages; and it has certainly prevailed in no ordinary degree among them. Even some of the latest works on these subjects, though abounding with curious and valuable information, are in a particular manner liable to this censure. The treatise of Professor Murray on the European languages, though it displays extensive knowledge and diligent research, is scarcely men

tioned without ridicule; and in the Asia Polyglotta of M. Julius Klaproth, which has added very considerably to our acquaintance with the dialects and genealogy of the Asiatic races, we find the results of accurate investigation mixed up and blended with too much that is uncertain and hypothetical. It must, however, be allowed, that there are not a few writers in both earlier and later times, who are scarcely, if in any degree chargeable with the same faults, and whose acuteness and soundness of discernment are equal to their extensive and profound erudition. This may be truly said of Vossius and Edward Lhuyd among the philologists of former ages, and, in more recent times, of Professor Vater, the Schlegels, Bopp, and Professor Jacob Grimm.'-p. 4.

The cultivation of the Sanscrit language and literature has led to discoveries which have produced a new era in philological science. If, even under the reign of Louis XIV,' remarks a French writer, (M. Eichhoff,) referring to that period as the golden age of French literature, a voice had been raised, which said "There exists but one single language in Europe, of 'which all the spoken idioms are but varieties, and the innumer'able forms of these idioms, which you would in vain endeavour to collect, are almost all found reproduced, with the same com'binations and the same meaning, in a language spoken far from 'Europe," would not such an assertion have seemed a fable, and would any one have taken the trouble of verifying it? Nevertheless, this phenomenon exists; and thanks to the extent and accuracy of the discoveries of the present age, which, disengaging itself from prepossessions, scrupulously applies itself to 'the investigation of facts, the treasures of India are open to us, ' and the Sanscrit language is no longer a mystery." That the Greek, the Latin, the German, and the Slavonian dialects are all branches of the same primitive language as the Sanscrit, in which are found the roots of the various European dialects, is now admitted by all competent scholars. The more accurate the examination of these languages has been, the more extensive and deeply rooted their affinity has been discovered to be. Professor Jacob Grimm's lucid analysis of the Teutonic idioms, has shewn this with regard to the German, in which the affinity is, perhaps, the least obvious. The historical inference hence deduced is, that the European nations who speak dialects referrible to this class of languages, are of the same race with the Indians and other Asiatics to whom the same observation may be applied.'

Hitherto, however, many of the continental writers seem to have believed the Celtic to be a language of a distinct class, entirely unconnected with the other idioms of Europe. Pinkerton,

Nouveau Journal Asiatique, 1828, tom. i. p. 425.

whose ignorance is rendered only the more conspicuous by his offensive dogmatism, declares in the most positive terms, that the Celta were a people entirely distinct from the rest of mankind; and Vans Kennedy, whose rashness and singular talent for blundering mar his unquestionable scholarship, affirms not less confidently, that the British or Celtic' has no connexion or affinity whatever with the languages of the East, and that no genuine Celtic words exist in any one language of Europe. The boldness of this sweeping assertion is startling; but when it is ascertained to have proceeded either from sheer ignorance or obstinate opinionativeness, and to be at variance with the most notorious facts, it becomes contemptible. Both Adelung and Murray have regarded the Celtic as a branch of the Indo-European stock; but they appear to have had a very limited and imperfect acquaintance with the Celtic dialects; and the former has committed the error of supposing the Welsh to be derived from the language of the ancient Belga. M. Eichhoff, in a paper to which we have already referred, on the influence of a knowledge ' of Sanscrit on the study of the European languages,' has the following judicious observations.

Although every thing concurs in assigning one common source to the human race, and to language, that immediate gift ' of the Creator, a primitive perfection and identity, we are never'theless compelled to admit, antecedently to the records of his'tory, divisions of distinct races and tribes, who, detaching 'themselves and retiring successively from the central point of the human population, underwent modifications of manners, 'form, and language, which have been perpetuated through cen'turies. Among these races, the Indo-Germanic, or rather, IndoEuropean family is incontestably the most remarkable, and that 'which interests us the most nearly. Placed between two ancient systems of civilization, those of China and Arabia, it 'speedily equalled and surpassed them both in several respects. 'Whether we fix its centre at Mount Caucasus, or place it near 'the Himalaya, it is seen to divide itself at an early period into two principal branches, one of which covers the plains of India and Persia, and stretches as far as Armenia, while the other, 'taking a westerly direction, occupies the whole extent of Europe. Whatever was the primitive condition of the highly favoured continent which we inhabit, (and on this point we can have no certain data) every thing proves that its civilization and actual 'population entered it from the East.

6

The Celts themselves, long regarded as the European autochthones, furnish evidence, by what remains of their language, of an Indo-Germanic origin. They may be regarded as in some sort the forerunners of this great migration,-as the tribe which, being the first to separate from the common stock fixed in

Asia, penetrated to the most western extremity of Europe, 'where they found themselves in contact with the Cantabrian race, the Semitic origin of which appears to be proved by the 'Biscayan language, and which undoubtedly was introduced from 'Africa. The second migration, judging of it from the analogy of the Sanscrit, the successive development of which may serve ' us here as a scale of proportion, appears to have been that of 'the Scandinavians and Germans... The Slavonic and Sarma'tian nations must have separated more recently, and naturally range themselves on the third line.'*

It must, however, be confessed, that, at the earliest dawn of history, the different European races are found nearly in the same relative situations which they now occupy. The Teutonic nations inhabited the plains of Northern Europe at a period not long subsequent to the age of Herodotus; and if the Guttones be, as Dr. Prichard supposes, the same as the Goths †, we already discern, in the North of Europe, two of the most celebrated nations belonging to the Germanic family, in an age when the name of Rome had scarcely become known to the Greeks. The Finns and the Slavonians are generally supposed to have been the latest among the nations who entered Europe. But 'Finningia and the Fenni', the Author remarks, are men'tioned by Tacitus and Pliny, who place them beyond Germany, ' and towards the Vistula. The Sclavonians are not early dis'tinguished in Europe under that name; but, by the appellation ' of Wends, given to the Sclavonic race by the Germans, we re'cognise them in the geographical descriptions of Pliny and Tacitus, who mention the Venedi, and place them near the Finns, and on the borders of Finningia.'

If we may lay any stress upon the resemblance in the appellations, the Guttones might seem to be rather the Jutes or Ghetes, whose name Wachter derives from Gode, tall men; and who, though leagued with the Saxons, appear to have been of the Scandinavian family. With regard, however, to the Goths, Dr. P. remarks, the ample specimen of their language preserved in the version of Ulphilas, proves that, conformably to their own

* Journ. Asiat. tom. i. pp. 426, 7.

+ The Goths have been confounded, by ancient and modern writers, with the Thracian Geta. M. Pelloutier, in his History of the Celts, maintains this opinion, citing the authorities of Isidorus of Seville, Orosius, and Procopius; and according to this ingenious, but fanciful writer, these Getæ or Goths, the ancestors of the Dacians, were also Celts. Les noms des villes et cantons des Daces indiquent assez clairement, que la langue de ce peuple étoit l'ancient Celte ou Tudesque.' (Pelloutier, tom. i. p. 81.)