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Show fi74 TTIE UONOGF.NISTS AND Genesis, 27), and both Rai and Arpbaxad, or ArrapachWs, occur in the per oual genealogy of Heber (Rcu i Ragan in the ptnagint). It has bccJI ingeniously surmi cd that the rr ncalogy fl'om hem to Abraham is in part signi It cant of geographical localities, or successive stations occupied by the IIebrcws in the progress of n1igmtion fl'om somo point in the north-cast of Asia, front which tradition extended in a divergent circle as fi· m the mythi 'a] Ecri ya of the Zcnd-av sta (EwAr.v, Gescltichte Ist·ael, 31(), 333, 33G). In IT brew tradition, as in that of the Indians and Persians, this region was immemorially sacr d." No scholar at all acquainted with the biblical exegesis pretends any longer to r cognize, in the misspelled name Arpltaxad (copied by the English translators from the Greek version\ an individual p rsonagc, bnt mer ly a geogr·aphical name ARJ lta-Ka D. Thus Bunsen: 490 "A1palcltsltad (the men of Anapakhitis), after having gone in the person of Eber into Mesopotamia, pass in the person of Abraham into Palestine (Canaan). * * * Now, as to Arpakshad or ArrnpaHtitis, wo know from Ptolemy that their ountl'y was situated betwc n Armenia and Assyria, on tho southern slopes of the Gordyroan mountains, overhanging Assyria. This, thcrcfor.c, we may consider as one starting-point. * * * Why should such a geographical origin not bo expressed geographically, and why should it be misi nt rpretcd ?" But, although it may be still impossible to fix tho earliest cradles of other races with the same precision, and within an qually-small area, as the J owish, history onablcs us to eliminate a gr at many others from consideration when we treat of th zoologi al I rovincc they have latterly occupied as aliens through tmnsplantation. Thus, for example, every Gorman in America is immediately restor d to northern Europe ; every negro to A fi,ica; and if a hi nose, a Malay, or other typo of man, be encounter cl anywhere outsicl of the geographical boundary of his race, he is instantly plac d back in it by educated reason. llcnce, thronrrh this natural, almost instinctive process, in which history, philology and physiology,must co-operate, each tY})e of mankind can be restored to its original c ntre, if not pcl'l1aps stl·ictly of creation, at least to that of its carlicAt hiAtorical occupancy; beyond which point human knowledge stands at fault: but none of these sciences, by any possibility, carries back a negro to tho Caucasus, traces a Kelt to the Andes, refers a J ow to tho Altai', tmnsfers a Pawnee to the Alps, a Yukagir to tho mountains of the Moou, or an Australian to Mount Ararat, as the respective birth- " 16 Oltri8lianity rmd Mankind, their bcginni11(J and proapecl8, London, 8vo, 1864: III, p. 170, 180, 101. Cf. alao O&s~NH Tlteaaurua, Lipsiro, 1829; I, p. 163; voce 9'1N· THE POLYGENJSTS. G7G places of these p01·sons. Thaumaturgy alone claims to perform such miracles; ethnology ignor s them altorrcthct'. Wlt n ca ·h type of man is thus replaced in the natural province of his origin, we can, by taking a map ofthc earth, indicate in colors scvcml centres, within and around each of which the gr·oup of humanity traced to it seems-tho thcologicaJ point of view beinrr, in this discussion, loft aside as obsolete-aboriginally to have clust~·cd. Their numbet' I do not pretend to gue s at; there may be 3, 5, 7, or 8, though 1 sa, I think, than a dozen primitive centres; bnt, under such aspects, which limited space now precludes my justifying by argument ot· exampl s, it will probably be found (by those who for their own instruction may choose to to t the problem as patiently as curiosity has led me to do for mine), that history, comparativ physiology and pliilology, will harmonize completely with tho zoological theory of several c ntres, and prove Prof. Agassiz's view to be irrefragable, viz: that mankind and certain mammalia were originally subject to the sam laws of distribution. To apply this cloctl'inc to languag s: A given number of such natural pl'Ovinccs being experimentally c1 tcrmined throngh induction, aud then marked off' by colored Apots, each representing a typical rrroup of homog noons languarres, upon a Mercator's chart ;4!17 if cacl1 one of these groups be taken sepal'atcly as a point of departure in the ccccntri ·al radiations of its own mast r-tonguc, it will then be recognized, with the ingenious traveller Wuldcck,498 that languages may be compared to circles; the primitive, m· aboriginal, speeclt jo1·ming in eaclt tlte cent1·e. The farther such tono·ne advances towards the circumference, the more it loses in originality; the tangent, that is to say, the point at which it encotmtcr·s another language (radiating likewise from its own circle) is tho place where it begins to undergo alterations, and commenc s the formation of a mixed idiom. y and by, a third language, also in process of spiral giration outwards upon its own axis, intersects either one of the two preceding or tLc point of union ])ctwixt l;oth. U ndcr such circumstances, it will be seo11 (and rnight be r pr s ntecl on the Map iu shades of color) that tl10 "copia vcl'bonnn" always, and the grammatical construction frequ ntly, of m Among o.ttomplH umdc lit o.n "Ethnogmphico.l Mttp of tho World," o.ccordiug to religious belief, occupo.tions, &c., I would pttl·ticulnrly commend RAVJ·:NS'l'NIN's largo shoot (Reynolds, Stro.nd, London); but o.ll those represent tho distribution of mttukind o.t tho present day; whorcas my conception refers to tho.t of difl'orent humtm types at the oarlicst ltistoriCI\1 point of view (IJILl'(lliel with Egyplio.n pyramids 6000 years o.go). Such tt mo.p htts not boon published yet; owing chiefly, I think, to o. provo.lont dogmtt, tho.t, inasmuch llR ttll humttnity commenced upon Mount Ararat., o.ny other system would be too profane for rom unorttti vo sales. m Voy1tge Pittor. et ArcMol. in Yucatan, Po.ris, folio, 1887; p. 24. |