“They form their plural like a child, either by repetition, as ‘Tree-tree’ (i.e. ‘Trees’), or by means of an additional word, as ‘Tree-many! Tree-other!’ When the great grown-up child is heard stammering ‘Be Heaven, I Other,[13] Father which,’ who but another child like him can guess that this means ‘Our Father which art in Heaven!’ ”
The imperfection of the Monosyllabic languages does not arise solely from their consisting of Monosyllables, but from the want of the more refined grammatical forms which are found in all other Tongues, even those of the wildest American Tribes. No nation, however uncivilized, that had once acquired [pg xxvi] a knowledge of these would ever fall back “to the speech of childhood!” Hence Adelung infers that the Chinese, &c. must have been completely separated at an early period from the other races of men. But it will be asked, Why is it that the Chinese have remained stationary in this respect, while nations far inferior to them in every other point of view have surpassed them in this one instance? There is, I conceive, no other mode of solving this problem than by regarding these opposite results in the light of vestiges, belonging to an early stage of society, of the same variableness and inequality in the efforts of the human mind, which are observable in the inventions of modern times! That this question admits of no other solution will be manifest from Chapter VI, in which it is shown that the Chinese is not fundamentally different from the tongues of Europe and Western Asia, but the same language in a different stage of its growth!
6. The Astronomical Theory of Bailly.
Bailly's theory is that the various nations of the ancient world were descendants of emigrants from a primæval community superior to them in knowledge and civilization, of which he places the locality in Central Asia. His views are founded on the fact that there existed a knowledge of the results of some of the most recondite Scientific principles among the Persians, Chaldeans, &c., (nations who were certainly unacquainted with the principles themselves,) as, for example, of the moon's course, of the Solar year, of the Zodiac, of the Planets, of the retrogression of the fixed Stars &c. Some of Bailly's opinions have been impugned in Cuvier's Theory of the Earth.
The question whether the different branches of the Human Race are descended from one Stock, has been discussed on [pg xxvii] Physiological grounds by Dr. Prichard,[14] in a work equally remarkable for profound Philosophical and extensive Literary research. After detailing a variety of facts with respect to the distribution of Plants and Animals, he thus expresses his conclusion: “The inference to be collected from the facts at present known, seems to be as follows. The various tribes of organized beings, were originally placed by the Creator in certain regions, for which they are by their nature peculiarly adapted. Each species had only one beginning in a single stock; probably a single pair, as Linnæus supposed, was first called into being in a particular spot, and their progeny left to disperse themselves to as great a distance as the locomotive powers, bestowed on each species, or its capability of bearing changes of climate and other physical circumstances may have enabled it to wander.”
According to this writer the varieties of colour, feature, &c. displayed by different races of Men, are the results partly of climate and other external agencies, and partly also of a natural tendency to the manifestation of varieties which may be viewed in the light of a characteristic quality of the Species. Of these propositions the numerous and diversified facts collected by Dr. Prichard appear to furnish perfectly conclusive evidence. Thus he has shown that the characteristic physiognomy of the Negro is found to occur and disappear by nice gradations in strict accordance with the differences of climate throughout the African Continent.
The tendency to variety is very manifest, even from facts under our daily observation. Individuals are common among European nations, who exhibit some one or more of the traits of the Negro, as, for example, his woolly hair, thick lips, &c. Among the Negro races have been born individuals of a perfectly white colour. Many of these specimens, according [pg xxviii] to Dr. Prichard, were not Albinos or diseased persons, but indisputable examples of his principle.
It is probable that in the infancy of the race, this extraordinary tendency may have served the important purpose of accelerating those physiological changes by which the constitution of Man was adapted to the different climates of the Globe, while, in subsequent ages, climate which determines the physiology of the majority, may be said thereby to neutralize the influence of these exceptions. Diversities of complexion, &c. occur in our own and in neighbouring countries within a very limited area. Thus the dark hair and features of the ancient Silures which were ascribed by the Romans to a Spanish origin, are still observable among their posterity, characteristics of which, I conceive, a satisfactory explanation may be found in the warm and equable temperature of the Southern counties of Wales, caused by the peculiar distribution of land and water.[15] In these countries many productions, both animal and vegetable, flourish, which are rarely found further North. The Nightingale is common, and the Vine is cultivated frequently. The contrast between the temperature of the coasts of South Wales and that of North Wales has not escaped the attention of the Welsh Bards. Davyth ap Gwilym, a Bard of the fourteenth Century, in a Poem of great beauty, in which he describes himself as writing from the land of “wild,” Gwynedh (North Wales), calls upon the Summer and the Sun to visit with their choicest blessings the genial region of “Morganwg,” (Glamorganshire,) of which he was a native, and alludes to its warm climate and its Vineyards, which seem to have been a conspicuous feature! For some very valuable illustrations of the same principle, I may refer to the account given by the Rev. Thomas Price in his Tour in [pg xxix] Brittany, published in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, of the varieties of complexion and stature observable in Upper and Lower Brittany.[16]
From the facts collected by Dr. Prichard, it appears to follow very distinctly, not only that Human Physiology is extremely mutable, but also that the transitions do not occupy a very long interval of time. Thus Jews are resident in the African Kingdom of Kongo, whose complexions are as black as those of the native Negro population. Again on the borders of Negro-land, different sections of the same tribe, speaking the same language, are, in many instances, found variously approaching to or diverging from the Negro standard of colour and physiognomy, according to the latitude or elevation, or other physical features of their respective locations; instances in which the separation—and therefore the physiological differences—must have been recent—for languages change too rapidly to preserve the features of identity or even of a close affinity for a period of long duration! The descendants of the Arabs who overran the North of Africa in comparatively modern times furnish another example; they do not differ in physiognomy from the Berbers, the original inhabitants of the same regions.
From these and similar facts it must be inferred—not only that the existing varieties of Human Physiology form no objection to the opinion that the different populations of the Globe are descended from one stock—the same facts lead also to the conclusion, that—with relation to the earliest eras in the History of our species—Physiological peculiarities must be entirely rejected as evidence, either of a specific connexion or of a specific difference between individual races of men, a principle admitting of many highly interesting applications, of which an example will now be offered.