position to be the source of all the modifications of words, and attributes declension, conjugation, &c. to this sole principle; but he has not resolved the problem, how some languages originally monosyllabic, for such he supposes all to have been, have in the sequel entirely changed their character, and have become capable of combinations.

This account of the invention of speech, though it contains little that is altogether new, appears to us on the whole well imagined and ingeniously illustrated. With respect to its truth, which is the most important question, we are disposed to take a middle course. That the language spoken by the first created of mankind originated in the mode marked out by Mr. Adelung, we are very little disposed to maintain; but we think it evident that the dialects of barbarous tribes were generally formed, and are continually renewed on a similar principle; and this idea by no means precludes the descent of all mankind from a common origin. New additions are every day made to the fluctuating jargons of savages, and those parts of their idioms which cease to be in conformity with their habits, speedily fall into disuse and are lost. The language of the Mantshures and Tungusians contains such a multitude of words which have no mutual relations, but are evidently formed by imitation and onomatopœia, that in merely casting our eyes over the vocabulary we easily trace the origin of the greater part of it. A similar opinion may be formed of the monosyllabic dialects of Eastern Asia; but with respect to the polysyllabic languages, which are the most important in literature and in the history of the world, we are obliged to come to a different conclusion. In the German and Celtic there are very few of these natural words when compared with the idioms above mentioned; and though the whole collective number be somewhat considerable, it bears but a small proportion to those parts of the language which have a totally different aspect. In the Persian, words of the same origin are to be found, which may be accounted for by the intermixture of northern nations with the people of Iran. But in the Greek, and still more in the Latin, they diminish to a very small number, and in the Sanscrit, which of all the above mentioned, and perhaps of all existing languages, has the highest pretensions to antiquity, scarcely any vestige of such a beginning can be discovered.

With respect also to the connections and modifications of words, it appears to us that Mr. Adelung has generalized too much in referring them universally to combination. The method of expressing the relations of ideas seems to depend on totally distinct principles in different languages. We have mentioned that the monosyllabic dialects are the most imperfect in this respect. In another class of languages words are capable of coalescing, and thus supply, by combination, the place of a proper inflection. The modern dialects of Europe are modified, more or less, in this manner, and the declensions and conjugations of the Hebrew are contrived on a similar principle; but the Slavonian, the Greek, and Latin, and still more the Sanscrit, have a far more refined and artificial structure; the shades of ideas and the relations of words to each other are expressed in all these idioms by variations in the roots, either by prefixing augments, or by altering the middle vowels according to certain rules, or by modifying the terminations. On this subject we shall add some further remarks in their appropriate place. We only remark at present, that whether we consider the materia prima of which these languages are composed, or the complicated system on which they are constructed, we can scarcely imagine them to have taken their rise from the rude exclamations of barbarous hunters.

Having explained very much to his own satisfaction the origin of language, our author endeavours to discover what part of the earth is the native seat of the human race, and he contrives to establish a coincidence between his conclusions on this subject, and the results we have already noticed. The structure of the earth points clearly to a period when our continents, and even the highest mountains, were covered by the ocean, and Moses has given us the same testimony in his account of the creation. When the waters subsided and the dry land appeared, the most elevated mountain plains first afforded a habitable dwelling to terrestrial animals and to the human species. Hence, as the slowly diminishing ocean gave up progressively the lower regions to be the abode of life, they descended and spread themselves over their new acquisitions. The central plain of Asia, between the 90th and 110th degree of East longitude, and the 30th and 50th of North latitude, was the tract which first emerged from the deep. The desert of Kobi, which is the summit of this mountainous region, is the most elevated ridge in the globe. From its vicinity the great rivers of Asia take their rise, and flow down towards the four cardinal points. The Selinga, the Ob, the Irtish, the Lena, and the Jenisey, carry their waters to the Frozen Ocean; the Jaik, the Oxus, flow towards the setting sun; the Amur and the Hoaugho, or the Yellow River, towards the East; the Indus, the Ganges, and the Burampooter, terminate in the Southern Sea. On the declivities of these highlands are the plains of Tibet, lower than the frozen region of Kobi, where many fertile tracts are well fitted to become the early seat of animated nature. In the valleys of Kashmire to the southward the verdure of perpetual spring reigns, and the rich stores of esculent vegetables which there abound mark this region as well adapted to become the abode of the first men, fresh from the hand of Nature,

1

and destitute as yet of the arts of life. "Here are found not only the vine, the olive, rice, the legumina, and other plants on which man has in all ages depended, in a great measure, for his sustenance; but all those animals run wild upon these mountains, which he has tamed and led with him over the whole earth, as the ox, the horse, the ass, the sheep, the goat, the camel, the hog, the dog, the cat, and even the gentle rein-deer, his constant friend, who accompanies and consoles him even in the icy polar tracts. In Kashmire, plants, animals, and men, exist in their greatest physical perfection." Mr. Adelung accordingly places here the seat of Eden, the primitive abode of man; and he is so delighted with this conceit, that he indulges himself in a long digression on the imaginary beauties of his Indian paradise, which seems to be somewhat whimsically introduced into an Essay on Languages.

It must be confessed, that there is something very specious in this conjecture. Without adverting to the fact, that the high steppe of central Asia is the most elevated tract as yet known, and consequently must have been abandoned by the ocean at a much earlier period than most other parts of the earth; it is a very curious circumstance that the cereal gramina, and other esculent plants, which in all ages have furnished the chief food of the human species, have here their native seat, and that nearly all our races of domestic animals run wild in the same region. This consideration induced the Swiss Müller, the most learned and philosophical of modern historians, to place the original seat of mankind in Tibet.

A number of historical arguments also suggest themselves in favour of this opinion. The traditions of the ancient world refer all nations to an Eastern origin, and we shall hereafter see reason to attach some credit to them in this particular. We shall find proof that most of the nations of Northern Europe are nearly allied in kindred to the Eastern Asiatics. Africa, as well as the opposite shores of the Mediterranean, is well known to have been early occupied by colonies from Asia. The fictions of the Greek and Italian mythology are full of oriental imagery, and contain other proofs of Asiatic origin. Dr. Shuckford, from considering the passages in Genesis, which relate to the events immediately subsequent to the deluge, was convinced that they refer to a high mountainous region, far to the Eastward of Mesopotamia, towards which the colony which laid the foundations of Babel is said to have journeyed from East to West. Such is the situation of Tibet. It is worthy of notice, that the ancient books of the Hindoos, which describe the primitive condition of man in a manner very similar to that of Moses, fix the cradle of our race in the same quarter. "The Hindoo Paradise lies on Mount

Meru, which is on the confines of Kashmire and Tibet. Out of it they describe four rivers as flowing towards the four quarters of the earth. In this Paradise are mentioned not only the tree of life and death (the Chiampa, well known in India, which is said to bear both a wholesome and a deleterious fruit), but also the tree of immortality, and the serpent which poisons the water, the source of life." It is impossible to mistake the connection of these representations with those of Genesis.

Those who have investigated mosť diligently the traces of arts and knowledge in early times, have arrived by a very different track at the same point. They discover the existence of a nation which, prior to the age of all history, occupied the higher region of Asia, and there cultivated the sciences. To them are attributed the invention of astronomy, the arrangement and naming of the constellations, and of the oldest Zodiac in the world, consisting of the 24 lunar mansions, and the discovery of the planets. Some great catastrophe of nature, according to Bailley, overturned this primitive empire, and scattered the remnants of its people over distant regions, whither they carried with them fragments of their sciences, and the memory of the great event which dispersed them. That event Bailly supposes to be the same which is described in our Scriptures as the deluge of Noah.

Mr. Adelung eagerly adopts the hypothesis of this primeval empire, and is ready to fix upon the same locality for his Eden and Ararat; but luckily recollects, in good time, that the ground is already appropriated. Dante has chosen this very spot for the situation of his Hell. It would ill accord with the methodical proceeding of a German Aulic Counsellor to dispute the right of prior occupancy, and to attempt to dislodge the poet from his quarters. Our author quietly takes up a more southerly position. In the vicinity of this region, which so many physical and historical probabilities point out as the cradle of mankind, and of the arts and sciences, we find many nations, comprising some hundred millions of men, whose manners still preserve the simple character of ancient times, and whose languages, entirely monosyllabic, and constructed in the rudest manner, seem to refer us to the earliest ages of human society. Such are the Tibetans or Tanguts, the Chinese, the natives of Ava, Pegu, Siam, and the whole of India beyond the Ganges. To the northward of these wander the celebrated hordes of the Mongoles, Mandshurs, and Tartars, distinct from each other, but all holding an intermediate place in their character and languages between the above mentioned races and the rest of mankind.

Much ingenuity is certainly displayed in this method of reducing the history of mankind to one simple beginning. As there is nothing in the hypothesis that seems to be at variance with the Scriptural records, or with the tenour of ancient history, we shall not start any objections to it at present, though we think there are some which might be urged with considerable force; and that other parts of the earth, particularly the submerged Atlantic Isle might offer claims scarcely less specious to be considered as the seat of the antediluvean world. But it is time to proceed to the proper subject of the work before us.

Our author's geographical arrangement of languages is ill adapted to the purpose of a connected essay. We shall, therefore, present our readers with a Table, in which they are distributed according to their affinities, taking care to avoid the pedantry of applying a technical classification to what admits of endless subdivisions.

MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES.

1. Chinese Languages.

2. Tangut or Tibetan.

3. Barma or Birman.

5. T'hay or Siamese.

T'hay-j'hay or old Siamese.

Lão or Laos.

Rukheng or Dialect of Ara-6. Khòmen or Cambojan.

kan.

4. Mòn or Peguan.

7. Anam or Cochin-Chinese.

8. Corean languages ?

The Bali is not properly the parent of any living dialect, but has contributed to modify many of the monosyllabic languages and the polysyllabic idioms of