investigation to perceive the connection of languages, nations, and ages of great antiquity, and to rescue them from the thick veil under which their history is enveloped, that hitherto the faculties of man have been in a manner unprofitably employed in the pursuit. But, as a celebrated philologist observes, * "How useful to ethic science, and indeed to knowledge in general, a grammatical disquisition into the etymology and meaning of words was esteemed by the chief and ablest philosophers, may be seen by consulting Plato, Xenophon, Arion, and Epictetus."

The language first spoken. by man may be termed primitive. If, in examining the essential words in the living and dead languages, we can discover that, in all times and every where, elementary words had and have the same sound, have preserved the same meaning, and that such alterations, as they have received among different nations, are founded on the genius of the compounded languages spoken, will it not be evident, that the primitive language has always existed, and that it exists at this day, although diffused among the languages of different nations, and separated into various dialects? As every modern language presents vestiges of an ancient language, which seems to have prevailed universally in all countries, and as each have words common to all others, it may be inferred that the languages now spoken are all derived from the same parent stock. It may be said, that the primi* Harris's Hermes, or Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal Grammar.

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tive language exists nowhere; but still every where are its fragments to be found. All the Oriental tongues are perfectly alike in their roots to the languages of the north of Europe and Asia, not excepting the Chinese language. The Phenician, Syriac, and Greek, are only dialects of a general language diffused formerly in Asia and Africa. It cannot be doubted, that the first language was extremely simple, and without any compound terms. These qualities peculiarly belong to the Hebrew and Celtic for the radical words had never more than three letters, forming monosyllables, and sometimes dissyllables; there is indeed every appearance that originally there were many more monosyllables, than are now to be found in those languages.

Were we to separate all the compound words and derivatives in any language from the general mass, we would find very few roots remaining composed of monosyllables; and those few are be regarded as the elements of languages, and as the source from which all other words are compounded. These elements must have been given to man by nature, consequently, in their origin represented natural objects, and could not represent artificial or moral objects, unless by analogy with natural ones; because artificial or moral objects cannot be described of themselves, but by relation or in opposition to natural and positive elements. Thus the natural objects, man, horse, cow, water, &c. would be the first elementary words of a language, and the artificial objects, house, ship, cradle, stable, &c. would be of our own making; and, by a more refined operation of the mind alone,

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we have what philologers call the moral qualities, or abstract substances of goodness, convenience, swiftness, whiteness, &c.

These are the distinguishing characteristics of radical words, and which every etymologist will naturally attend to; for, if we place between the radical words other words of more than one syllable, and words which only represent a figurative, or negative sense, there will be much difficulty in tracing the roots common to all languages.*

The names of animals peculiar to a country, material elements, parts of the body, natural objects and relations, strong affections of the mind, and other ideas common to the whole race of man, are the surest criterion for comparing the affinity of radical words in different languages. Ancient languages have their words less altered than modern, which renders it much easier to compare the ancient languages together than the modern. If, in analyzing the Celtic, or Gaelic language, we abstract from it all the compound words of two or three syllables, there will remain very few roots, or words of one syllable; and these few are what ought to be regarded as the elements of the language. The same observation is applicable to the Chinese, Sanscrit, and Arabic languages; and, notwithstanding the multiplicity of compound words in the Chinese language, it is rather singular to remark that the roots, or monosyllables, do not exceed three hundred and fifty. The Arabic language yields to none in the

* Le Monde Primitif par Monsieur Gebellin, Vol. I.

+ Barrow's Travels, p. 449.

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number of its words and the precision of its phrases, yet it bears not the least resemblance, either in words or in the structure of them, to the Sanscrit, the greater parent of the Indian dialects. Like the Greek, Persian, and German, the Sanscrit delights in compounds, but in a much higher degree; and indeed to such an excess, that words of more than twenty syllables can be produced: while the Arabic, on the other hand, and all its sister-dialects, abhor the composition of words, and invariably express every complex idea by circumlocution. Sir William Jones tells us,† that "the Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either; yet bearing to both a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed that no philologer could examine them all without believing them to have come from one common source, which perhaps no longer exists. There is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same

* Asiatic Researches, Vol. II. p. 6.

↑ Ibid. Vol. I. p. 423. The word Sanscrit seems to be of Celtic origin, and is compounded of sean, old, and scribhadh, writing. The word khan is derived from the original Celtic word cean or kean, head; and it "pervades Asia and Europe from the Ganges to the Garonne.” Cean is compounded of the Celtic root ce, globular or round, and an the mascular termination for small. Griann, the sun, is compounded of gri, heat, and ann, a circle or body revolving, from which we have, in Gaelic, grisach, hot burning embers, and other derivatives.

origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family."

Mr. Marsden, in his History of Sumatra, tells us, "that one general language prevailed (however mutilated and changed in the course of time) throughout all the portion of the world, from Madagascar to the most distant discoveries eastward, of which the Malay is a dialect much corrupted or refined by a mixture of other tongues. This very extensive similarity of language, indicates a common origin of the inhabitants; but the circumstance and progress of their separation are wrapped in the darkest veil of obscurity."

What Mr. Barrow says of the Chinese language, is truly applicable to the living remnants of the Celtic. "It has not undergone any material alteration for more than two thousand years, nor has it ever borrowed a character or a syllable from any other language which now exists. As a proof of this, it may be mentioned, that every new article that has found its way in China, since its discovery to Europeans, has acquired a Chinese name, and entirely sunk that which is borne by the nation who introduces it. The proper names even of countries, nations, individuals, are changed, and assume new ones in their language. Thus Europe is called See Yang, the western country. The English are dignified by the name of Hung mow, or red heads; and the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and all others who visit China, have each a name in the language in the country, wholly distinct from that they bear in Europe." This inflexibility in retaining the words in their own language, has led Mr. Barrow