own languages; yet wlio doubts that in a century or two the Indians
will be extinct, and the others swallowed up in the Anglo-Saxon
tongue and type ? Then, when the ethnographer shall undertake to
analyze the population, what can he learn of the' history of races
that first overspread this continent, or what light upon the origins of
lost or absorbed autocthones ban he draw.from the European'dialects
spoken by#'their destroyers ? What Will be the condition of this
country two or three thousand years hence, we may ask, when we
gee Europe pouring its population into it from the East and Asia from
the West ? We can reason on the things "of this world merely from
what we see and know; and we must infer that a succession of events
has been going on for ages, during ante-historic times,, similar to those
we encounter in the pages of written history. Human nature never
changes, else it would cease to be human nature.
How, how are we to explain these opposite intellectual and physical
characters in the two great families of America, except by primitive
cranial conformations, each aboriginally distinct? Certainly, no
known facts exist leading to the conclusion that any particular mode
of life can change the size or form of brain in man; while, on the'
contrary, we have abundant reason to be convinced that the size and
form of brain play a conspicuous part in the advancement and destiny
of races. The large heads, in many instances, having emerged from
barbarism (Teutons, Celts, for example), within historical times, have
reached the higher pinnacles of civilization, and everywhere outstripped
and dominated over the small-headed races of mankind.
It is interesting here to note that the ancient Egyptians and Hindoos,
who in very early times, reached a considerable degree of civilization,
had, like the Mexicans and Peruvians, much smaller heads
than the savage tribes around them.363 Each of these people give an
internal mean-capacity of eighty cubic inches, which is but one inch
above the average of American races. The Hegro races, exclusive
of Hottentots, yield an, average of eighty-three inches.
If the Jews have lived during 1500 years in Malabar, the Magyars
1000 in Hungary, the Parsees as many ages in India, the Basques or
Iberians in France and Spain for more than 3000, without-material
change — and, if the Anglo-Saxons and Spaniards have lived through
ten generations in America without approximating the aboriginal
type of the country, it is a reasonable inference that the intellectual
and physical differences of the Toltecan and Barbarous tribes are not
attributable to secondary causes, either moral or physical.
Mr. Squier makes the following philosophical remarks: —
“ The casual resemblance of certain words in the languages of America and those of the
Old World cannot be taken as evidence of a common origin. Such coincidences may be
easily accounted for as the result of accident, or, at most, of local infusions, which were
without any extended effect. The entire number of common words is said to be one hundred
and eighty-seven; of these, one hundred and four, coincide with words found in the
languages of Asia and Australia, forty-three with those of Europe, and forty with those .of
Africa. It can hardly be supposed that these facts are sufficient to'prove a connection,
between the four hundred dialects of America and the various languages tofj^the
other continent. It is not in accidental coincidences of sound or meaning, but in a
comparison of the general structure and character of the American languages with those
of other countries, that we can expect to find similitudes at all conclusive, or worthy of
remark, in determining’the question of a common origin. And it is precisely in these
respects that we discover the strongest evidences of the essential peculiarities of the American
languages: here they coincide with each other, and here exhibit the most striking
contrasts with all the others of the globe. The diversities which have sprung up, and
which have resulted in so many dialectical modifications, as shown in the numberless voca-.
bularies, furnish a wide field for investigation. Mr. Gallatin draws a conclusion from the
circumstance, which is quite as fatal to the popular hypothesis, respecting the origin of the
Indians, as the more sweeping conclusion of Dr. Morton. It is the length of time which
this prodigious subdivision of languages in America must have required, making every
allowance for the greater changes to which unwritten languages are liable, and for the
necessary breaking up of nations in a hunter-state into separate communities. For these
changes, Mr. Gallatin claims, we must have the very longest time which we are permitted
to assume; and, if it is considered necessary to derive the American races from the other
continent, that the migration must have taken place at the earliest assignable period.
“ The following conclusions were advanced by Mr. Duponceau, as early as 1819, in substantially
the following language: S | P
“ 1. That the American languages, in general, are rich in words and grammatical
forms; and, that in their complicated construction the greatest order, method, and regularity
prevail.
“ 2. That these complicated forms, which he calls polysynthetic, appear to exist in all
these languages, from Greenland to Cape Horn.
‘‘ 3. That these forms differ essentially from those of the ancient and modern languages
of the Old Hemisphere.” 364 .
The type of a race would never change, if kept from adulterations,
as .we bave sbown in the case of the Jews and other peoples. So
with languages: we have no reason to helieve that a race would
ever lose its language, if kept aloof from foreign influences. It is
a. fact that, in the little island of Great Britain, the Welch and the
Erse are still spoken, although for 2000 years pressed upon hy the
strongest influences tending to exterminate a tongue. So with the
Basque in France, which can he traced hack at least 3000 years, and
is -still spoken. Coptic was the^speech of Egypt for at least 5000
years, and still leaves its trace in the languages around. The Chinese
has existed equally as long, and is still undisturbed.
“ An effort has been made by Mr. Blackie, Professor of^Greek in the University of
Edinburgh, to reform the pronunciation of Greek in that University. He is teaching his
students to pronounce Greek as they do in Greece, insisting that it is not a dead, but a
living language — as any one. may see by looking at a Greek newspaper. Prof. Blackie
gives an extract from a newspaper printed last year, at Athens, giving an account of Kossuth’s
Visit tó America* from which it is evident that the language of Homer lives in a state
of purity to which, considering the extraordinary duration of its literary existence (2500