Indigenous Races of the Earth

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84 ON TIIE DISTRIBUTION AND governed the idioms spoken by such supposititious emigrants. Simi­litndo between the two groups shows us merely, that the native abo­rigines of Mri •a and of America possessed an analogous faculty of lauguag ; and that neither could rise above a certain level, which, at first sight, may have been taken for a common characteristic, and as a sign of filiation. SECTION ill. Tho sketch we have just given of the families of tongues spread over the glol o's surface has led us to observe, that the linguistic families coincide (with tolerable exactitude) with tho more trenched divisions of mankind. Each superior race of man is represented l>y two families of lan­guages corresponding to their largest branches, viz: the Wnrt•Ju race, or Oauca.~ic, by tho Indo-European and Semitic tongues;-the YELLOW race by the monosyllabic and the Ougro-Tartar tongues, otherwise called "Finno-Japonic." To the llLAOK race COI'respond the tono-ues of Mrica ;-to tho RED race, tho tongue of America ;-to the MAL~ YO­POLYNESIAN races, tho tongues of that name ;-to the AusntALIAN race, the idioms of Australasia. No more of homogeneity is beheld, however, amongst the languages spoken by those inferior races inha­biting Afri a, America, Oceanica, or Australia. 'l'ho multifarious crossings of these primitive races,-crossings that. m~~ be called those of the secondary race-floor-are represented by fam1hes that possess characteristics less demarcated and which participate ~onoral~y of the two families of idioms sp~keu by the races whoso mtermiXturo gave birth to them. Tho ])1·a~idian languages partake of the Ougro-Tartar and the monosyllable tongues. 'rhe Hamitic languao-os are intermediate between tl10 Semitic and tho African tongue~. The Hottentot lan­guages hold to tho African and tho Polynesian tongues· certain lan­guages .of tho Soo_clan oftcring, also, tho same characto;·, but with a predorrnnance of Polynesian clements; whereas it is the Mrican element that preponderates in llotLentot idioms. Tho. apparition of those grand linguistical formations is, therefore, as. anctont as that of tho races themselves. And, in fact, speech is With ~an a~ spontaneous as locomotion,-as the instinct of clothing an~ of arm1~g o~os~lf. This is what tho Bible shows us in the abndgod roc1tal 1t g1ves o~· Creation. God causes to pass before A-DaM, tlte-Man, all the ammals and all the objects of tho earth (as CLASSIFICATION OF TONGUES. 85 it wore, in a cosmorama), and the-Man gives to each a namo.31 It is impossible to declare more manifestly that speech (language) is an innate and primitive gift. From the instant that man was cr atcd, he must have spoken, by virtue of tho faculty he had received from God. Tho use of this faculty has also been as dilforcnt among tho diverse races of mankind as that of all other faculties. And, in the same manner that there have been races pastoral, agt·icultuml, pisca.­tory and hunting,-that there are populations grave, and populations volatile; adroit and cunning tribes, as well as tribes stupid and shal­low- so there have been races with language develop u au l powerful, populations that have attained a high degree of perfection in spoccl1; whereas others have very quickly found their development arrested, -just, indeed, as there have been, and over will bo, races pro­gressive and races stationary. We are unable to pierce tho mystery of the origins of humanity. We are ignorant as to a process by wl1ich God formed roan, and tho Bible itself is route in this respect. It neither resolv s, nor indicates tho diiftculties inherent in, the first advent of our spc ies. But, it is very evident that, in speaking of mankind in g neral,-that is to say, of A-DaM; for such is the sense of the wol'd-it designates, according to Oriental habits, tho race by an individual: in pr cisoly tho same method that, in the ethnic geography of the children of N OAII (Genesis x), it represents an entire people by a single name. Thus, Genesis speaks to us only of tho genus homo, which it personifies in an individual to whom it attributes tho supposed iustincLs of the first men. This being at present settled, it cannot be concluded from biblical testimony that all human beings spol e one and the same tongue at the beginning,- any more than we can conclude that there had been but one primitive couple. From tho origin there wore difioront languages, as there wore like­wise different tribes; and from out of those primitive families issued all tho idioms subsequently spread over tho earth. Because, the faculty of speech was, at its origin, cootaneous with tho birth of man­kind; and linguistic types are not now formed, any more than now races of men, or new animals, are being created. Existing typos be­become altered, modified. They cross amongst each other within certain limits,-and with the more facility according as they may 81 Gme&i8, II, 19 :-" J.t:novAu-ELOlllM formn. do terre tous los n.nimo.ux des chn.mps, tous lea oisco.ux du ciel, ct los fit venir vera l'lwmme pour qu'il vi:t il. lee nommor; ot commo l'llomme nommero.it une cr6o.turo o.nim<!e, tel devo.it lltre son nom."-(CAUEN'B ilcbrew text, I, p. 8.)