All that can be said upon this matter is, that no branch of the subject was earlier studied than that which dealt with the manners and customs of strange nations; whilst no branch of it both was and is half so defective as that which teaches us their value as characteristics. With ten writers familiar with the same facts there shall be ten different ways of appreciating them:—
“Manserunt hodieque manent vestigia ruris.”
In the year 1851, this is the weakest part of the science.
With one exception, however—indefinite and inappreciable as may be the ethnological value of such differences as those which exist between the superstitions, moral feelings, natural affections, or industrial habits of different families, there is one great intellectual phænomenon which in definitude yields to no characteristic whatever—I mean Language. Whatever may be said against certain over-statements as to constancy, it is an undoubted fact that identity of language is primâ facie evidence of identity of origin.
No reasonable man has denied this. It is not conclusive, but primâ facie it undoubtedly is. More cannot be said of colour, skin, hair, and skeleton. Possibly, not so much.
Again, language without being identical may be similar; just as individuals without being brothers or sisters may be first or second cousins. Similarity, then, is primâ facie evidence of relationship.
Lastly, this similarity may be weighed, measured, and expressed numerically; an important item in its value. Out of 100 words in two allied languages, a per-centage of any amount between 1 and 99 may coincide. Language then is a definite test, if it be nothing else. It has another recommendation; or perhaps I should say convenience. It can be studied in the closet: so that for one traveller who describes what he sees in some far-distant country, there may be twenty scholars at work in the libraries of Europe. This is only partially the case with the osteologist.
Philological ethnology began betimes; long before ethnology, or even anthropology—which arose earlier—had either a conscious separate existence or a name. It began even before the physical researches of Buffon.
“There is more in language than in any of its productions”—Many who by no means undervalue the great productions of literature join in this: indeed it is only saying that the Greek language is a more wonderful fact than the Homeric poems, or the Æschylean drama. This, however, is only an expression of admiration at the construction of so marvellous an instrument as human speech.
“When history is silent, language is evidence”—This is an explicit avowal of its value as an instrument of investigation.