The species of affinity which the ancient Persian dialects display to the languages of the adjoining countries appears to point very distinctly to another highly important conclusion in relation to the early history of mankind, viz., that the diffusion of population over Persia and the contiguous countries must have been a comparatively recent event with reference to the earliest specimens of the Persian and Semetic dialects, &c. After the lapse of a long interval the languages even of contiguous countries lose the traces of original unity. But with regard to modern dialects it can be distinctly shown that those of intermediate districts are connecting links between those of the extremities. Thus the Savoyard connects the French and Italian dialects of the Latin, and those of the North of England are intermediate between the modern English and the Lowland Scotch; Du Ponceau has made a similar remark with regard to the North American Indian dialects spoken by kindred tribes. Septs placed in the centre continue to maintain a certain degree of intercourse with all the tribes by which they are surrounded, a consideration [pg xli] which will account for these results, which probably cannot, in many cases, be referred to different degrees of Genealogical affinity.
One of the most striking indications of the Original Unity of the different Races of Men is derivable from the uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features they display.
Though the mind in early infancy may be destitute of positive ideas, it seems to be evident, nevertheless, that our Species has been gifted with Intellectual Faculties, and with Moral Sentiments and Sympathies, which are in the strictest sense innate.[18] Of this conclusion a striking confirmation is derivable, from the extraordinary sameness which, on a close examination, will be found to prevail in the characters, sentiments, and sympathies of the various branches of the Human Species. Of this truth a few examples will now be noticed.
The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed. In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary [pg xlii] discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.)
It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel's Translation of Dr. Prichard's Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians is that of a “very noble race” of men. But it differs very widely from the characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous!
I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable in ancient Egyptian remains!
One of the most forcible examples of the susceptibility to [pg xliii] civilization[19] of nations once very barbarous may be found in a comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French. When Hannibal invaded Italy he confined his ravages to the possessions of the Romans and spared those of the Gauls; a partial distinction which won the favour of this simple people, who flocked in great numbers to his standard. The Gauls who were in his army at the battle of Cannæ are described as a fierce people, naked from the waist, carrying large round shields, with swords of an enormous size blunted at the point. Yet there cannot be a doubt that the French, one of the most refined and distinguished of modern nations, are lineally descended from this primitive race! (See p. [64].) The true answer to the reveries of Pinkerton, with respect to the imputed incapacity of the Celts, is to be found in the literature and science of the French, in whom, owing to the great extent of their country, the original Celtic blood is most probably less unmingled than it is in the Irish, the Welsh, or the Highland Scotch!
A comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French involves also an instructive example of the mode in which the tendency to progression in the Human species is often united with a stability of national character in some features that forms a singular contrast to that tendency. In comparing Cæsar's Commentaries on his Wars in Gaul with the volumes of General Napier, we are struck, in almost every page, with proofs of a coincidence of mental features so minute, that but for the opposite accompaniments on the one hand, of a primitive, and on the other of a modern age, we might imagine we had before us, in these relations, two narratives referring to the same wars, the same sieges, [pg xliv] and the same men! The mind is perplexed to conceive how a nation that has existed in conditions so contrasted, as regards Civilization, could have continued thus uniform in its social and moral features!
Striking as these and other proofs which may be adduced of the uniformity of character which has often been maintained by the same nation in different stages of society undoubtedly are, they must cease to excite surprise—though they may be said to acquire even a higher interest—when viewed through the medium of the closely analogous results which will be found to flow from a comparison with the civilized nations of Europe of contemporaneous Tribes still existing in the “Hunter State.”