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 ilHEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.! j 
 
 Princeton, N. J. -c/j^^T /|V 
 
 BL 240 .W57 1837 
 
 Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick, 
 
 1802-1865. 
 Twelve lectures on the 
 
 rnnnPYinn hpt.ween science 
 Copy 1 
 
,iij),i A- ><>m-man Piiblithe 
 
) 6 
 TWELVE LECTURES 
 
 CONNEXION BETWEEN SCIENCE 
 
 REVEALED RELIGION. 
 
 DELIVERED IN ROME 
 
 BY 
 
 NICHOLAS^ISEMAN, D. D. 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF THE ENGLISH COLLEGE,, AND PROFESSOR IN THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF ROME. 
 
 (^■*«J0J^^3 (^JO i-4-^ ^\ Ac\c 
 
 " Science should be dedicated to the service of religion." 
 
 GuLisTAN, viii. 4. 
 
 FIRST AMERICAN FROM THE FIRST LONDON EDITION. 
 
 ANDOVER: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY GOULD AND NEWMAN. 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 GOULD AND NEWMAN, 116 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1837. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 There are several schools, or colleges, for theological educa- 
 tion at Rome, established for the benefit of students from various 
 foreign countries ; as the German, the English, the Scotch, the 
 Irish colleges, etc. These have all been founded by donations 
 from pious individuals. They have in general a Principal, who 
 is of the same nation respectively ; they stand under the super- 
 vision of a cardinal, and receive the special attention of the head 
 of the Romish church. The students pursue a complete course 
 of instruction in theology ; and not unfrequently are young men 
 of intelligence and cultivated minds. Converts from foreign 
 countries, who are distinguished for talents, are here sure of a 
 good reception ; and such persons are constantly to be met with 
 in these institutions. 
 
 At the head of the English college is Dr. Wiseman, the au- 
 thor of the Lectures herewith presented to the American public. 
 He was born in Spain of English parents. He is about forty 
 years of age, distinguished for his modesty, civility, and tolerance ; 
 and has inspired his pupils with such interest for the study of the 
 German, that the greater part of them learn it. In 1830, he had 
 charge of from twenty to thirty young Englishmen, who were 
 preparing for the service of the Enghsh Catholic church. Dr. 
 Wiseman published in 1828, at Rome, a learned work of 
 which the following is the title : •' Horae Syriacac, seu commen- 
 
IV ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 tationes et anecdota res vel literas Syiiacas spectantia." " This 
 work," says Professor Tholuck, " clearly shows a thorough ac- 
 quaintance of tlie author with the writings of Hug, Bertholdt, 
 Kuinoel, Paulus, Eichhorn, etc. which the papal library Minerva 
 willingly offers to all who have received the 'licenza.' It cannot 
 indeed be said, that the learning of the author has been here ap- 
 plied in the most important way, nor that his contributions from 
 unprinted sources are adapted to attract attention in any high de- 
 gree. In the meantime, tlie second part of this work will con- 
 tain, it is said, subjects of much higher interest, — an astrological 
 document of the Zabians or Christians of St. John, extracts from 
 the Palestine-Syriac version of the Vatican Codex used by 
 Adler, etc." 
 
 During the last year, Dr. Wiseman delivered lectures in 
 London on some of the points of controversy between the Ro- 
 manists and the Protestants, which, it is said, attracted much at- 
 tention. 
 
 In the Lectures contained in the present volume, the allu- 
 sions to tlie peculiar theological or ecclesiastical tenets of the au- 
 thor are very few, and comparatively unimportant. The Protes- 
 tant reader may peruse entire Lectures without entertaining the 
 suspicion that the writer of them is a member of the ' mother 
 church.' In the few passages where his partialities do appear, no 
 candid person need find fault or pronounce a harsh judgment. 
 The censure v* hich Dr. Wiseman pronounces on some protestant 
 authors, and the high commendation which he bestows on certain 
 members of his own church, will, doubtless, be received with 
 some grains of allowance. We are not certain but that the Papal 
 church in Italy has received at his hands an inordinate share of 
 commendation for licr liberality towards learning and learned men. 
 Of the general excellcncr of these Lectures, there can be but 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 one opinion. They show great candor, learning, judgment, and 
 regard for the authenticity of the Christian revelation. The 
 writer has here concentrated a great amount of facts and argu- 
 ments, which demonstrate that the Author of nature is the same 
 with the Author of Revelation, that Science and Revelation will 
 never be found ultimately at variance with each other, and 
 that the latter has nothing to fear, but every thing to hope from 
 the progress of the former. The reader who is familiar with the 
 labors of Humboldt, Young, Klaproth, the Schlegels, Prichard, 
 Champollion, Bopp, Wilkinson, Rosellini, and others, will find 
 little which is new in these Lectures. But to the great mass of 
 the educated community they will be full of interest and novelty. 
 They shed no incqjsj.derablenl^lTt on the path pf the student 
 of nature and the studient of revllp:tioa A Tfe^slibw how utterly 
 futile are all the labors and 'expectations of the infidel. God will 
 be glorified, as his intelligent creatures behold the wonderful har- 
 mony between his Works and his Word. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the following Lectures, the reader will hardly fail to ob- 
 serve a certain want of harmony between the different parts ; 
 and I know not how I can better apologize for it, than by briefly 
 stating the manner and occasion of their composition. They 
 were first drawn up for private instruction, and read by me in the 
 English College at Rome, over which I have the happiness of 
 presiding ; being intended for an introductory course to the study 
 of theology. At the request of several friends, I was induced to 
 deliver them to a public audience ; and during the Lent of 1835, 
 they were read to a large and select attendance in the apartments 
 of His Eminence Cardinal Weld. 
 
 It will be easily understood, how many modifications were 
 requisite for the second delivery ; particularly as I pledged my- 
 self in my prospectus to simpHfy my subjects, so far as to make 
 them intelligible to persons who had no previous acquaintance 
 with them. Accordingly many topics were but lightly touched, 
 which in the original draught, had been more fully developed, 
 while others were extended to a length unnecessary for an aca- 
 demical audience possessed of preliminary scientific knowledge. 
 In fact, the greater part of the Lectures were written over again 
 for the occasion. 
 
 Among my audience I counted men, whose reputation, in 
 their respective departments of literature and science, might have 
 made me shrink from my complicated task ; yet I found them 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 assiduous in their attendance, and encouraging in their judgment. 
 They joined in a wish repeatedly expressed by most of my hear- 
 ers, that these Lectures should be communicated to the public : 
 and I came over to England, chiefly to carry this desire into exe- 
 cution. But then a further change appeared necessary to pre- 
 pare them for the press. 
 
 In the first place, many of the parts which had been sup- 
 pressed in the second delivery, have been restored ; while seve- 
 ral elementary details, which were then introduced, have not 
 been withdrawn. I wished to make the work interesting to dif- 
 ferent classes of readers ; and hoped that the intermixture of some 
 few topics, more exclusively addressed to the learned, would not 
 detract from the interest which the general plan might possess for 
 the ordinary reader. Still, a certain incongruity must thence 
 result ; as some passages will appear addressed to a different au- 
 dience from the greater part of the course. 
 
 The second cause of change is, perhaps, more satisfactory. 
 My long residence abroad had debarred me from the consultation 
 of several modern works, treating on the subjects of these Lec- 
 tures, so that in regard to English books, I might say with the 
 poet — 
 
 " duod SI scriptorum non magna est copia apud me 
 Hoc fit quod Romse vivimiis, ilia domus."* 
 
 Now the perusal of these caused occasional modifications in the 
 opinions which I had previously adopted. But even when a work 
 has appeared since the delivery of the Lectures, I have thought it 
 advisable to introduce the mention of it into the text, rather than 
 omit it to avoid an anachronism. On the whole, I am sensible 
 that I have had neither leisure nor opportunity to improve them 
 
 * Catullus ad Manliiun, 33. 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 as might be expected, and that many more works might have 
 been perused or consuhed by me to great advantage. 
 
 The form, therefore, in which my humble kicubrations ap- 
 pear before the public, is that of a third modification ; and if the 
 observation be true, that second thoughts are not the best, but 
 third thoughts, which correct the second, and bring them back in 
 part to the more vivid and natural impressions exhibited in the 
 first,* I may appear to present this little narrative of what I have 
 done, rather in the form of a recommendation, than of an 
 apology. 
 
 But from my heart, I can say, that no reader's eye, however 
 keen, will be more sensible than mine is, to the imperfections of 
 my work. The subjects of which it treats are varied, and have 
 rather formed a relaxation from severer pursuits, than objects of 
 professed research. That its numerous faults will be observed, 
 and perhaps severely criticised, I must naturally expect. Still I 
 shall always feel, that the cause which I plead, may well throw 
 some of its protection over its least worthy advocates, and con- 
 ciliate the benevolence of all that revere and love it. To suc- 
 ceed in its behalf, would, indeed, be glorious ; but the attempt — 
 the labor of which, in this case, has not been small — cannot sure- 
 ly be divested of all merit ; and I shall gladly hail the augury of 
 the indulgent reader, if, at the conclusion of this my proeme, he 
 address me in the words of the poet — 
 
 Miyctg uywv /.ifyaku S fnivosig sXnv 
 Mamgioc ys [xr\v xvQrjaag east, ' 
 nONO:S /fETKAEHS. 
 
 EuRip. Rhes. Act. i. V. 195.t 
 
 * " Guesses at Truth." 
 
 i Great is the cause, and great thine aim ; 
 
 Thrice happy, if success shall claim 
 Its due reward : yet honored still 
 
 May be the labor and the will. 
 
 b 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 On the Comparative Study of Languages 9 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 The same subject continued ..... 47 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 On the Natural History of the Human Race . 91 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 The same subject continued 129 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 On the Natural Sciences 157 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 The same subject continued 193 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 On Early History 221 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 The .same subject continued 251 
 
Xn CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 On ARCHiEOLOGY ........ 281 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 On Oriental Literature 309 
 
 LECTURE XI. 
 The same subject continued 349 
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 Conclusion 377 
 
LECTURE THE FIRST; 
 
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Relation of these Lectures to tlie Christian Evidences Method to be 
 
 therein followed. — Resuhs to he anticipated. 
 
 ETHNOGRAPHY, 
 
 Or comparative study of languages. — History — First period ; Search 
 after the jirimary language ; defects in the object and methods. — 
 Second period ; Collection of materials ; lists of words, and series 
 of Our fathers. — Third period ; Attempts at arrangement and classifi- 
 cation ; Leibnitz, Hervas, Catherine II, and Pallas, Adelung and 
 Vater. — Dangerous apjiearaiice of the study at this period, from the 
 apparent multi|jlicntion of independent languages. — Results — First; 
 Formation of families, or large groups of languages in close affinity 
 by words and granimatical forms — Exemplification in the Indo- 
 European, Semitic, and Malayan, families. — Second ; Progressive 
 reduction of supposed independent languages into coimexion with 
 the great families ; Ossete, Armenian, Celtic. — Review of Sir W. 
 Betham's System ; Dr. Prichard. — Recapitulation ; Concluding 
 Remarks. 
 
 Were it given unto us to contenhplate God's works in the visible 
 and in the moral world, not as we now see them, in shreds and little 
 fragments, but as woven together into the great web of universal har- 
 mony ; could our minds take in each part thereof, with its general and 
 particular connexions, relations, and appliances, — there can be no 
 doubt but religion, as established by Him, would appear to enter, and 
 fit so completely and so necessarily into the general plan, as that all 
 would be unravelled and destroyed, if by any means it should be 
 withdrawn. And such a view of its interweaving with the whole 
 2 
 
10 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 economy and fabric of nature, would doubtless be the highest order 
 of evidence which could be given us of its truth. But this is the 
 great difference between Nature's and man's operation, that she fash- 
 ioneth and moulds all the parts of her works at once, while he can 
 apply himself only to the elaboration of one single part at a time ;* 
 and hence it comes, that in all our researches, the successive and 
 partial attention which we are obliged to give to separate evidences 
 or proofs, doth greatly weaken their collective force. For as the 
 illustrious Bacon hath well remarked, " the harmony of the sciences, 
 that is, when each part supports the other, is, and ought to be the 
 true and brief way of confutation and suppression of all the smaller 
 sort of objections ; but on the other hand, if you draw out every axiom, 
 like the sticks of a faggot, one by one, you may easily quarrel with 
 them, and bend and break them at your pleasure. "t 
 
 To the difficulties thus thrown in our way by the limitation of our 
 faculties, prejudices of venerable standing have added much. For 
 ages it has been considered, by many, useless and almost profane, 
 to attempt any marriage between theology and the other sciences. 
 Some men in their writings, and many in their discourse, go so far 
 as to suppose that they may enjoy a dualism of opinions, holding one 
 set which they believe as Christians, and another whereof they are 
 convinced as philosophers. Such a one will say, that he believes the 
 Scriptures, and all that they contain ; but will yet uphold some system 
 of chronology or history, which can nowise be reconciled therewith. 
 One does not see how it is possible to make accordance between the 
 Mosaic creation and Cuvier's discoveries; another thinks the history 
 of the dispersion incompatible with the number of dissimilar lan- 
 guages now existing ; a third considers it extremely difficult to ex- 
 plain the origin of all mankind from one common parentage. So far, 
 therefore, from considering religion, or its science theology, as enti- 
 tled to sisterhood with other sciences, it is supposed to move on a 
 distinct plane, and preserve a perpetual parallelism with thera, which 
 prevents them all from clashing, as it deprives them of mutual sup- 
 port. Hence too it is no wonder that theology should be always con- 
 
 * "For as when a carver cuts and graves an image, he shapes only 
 that part whereupon he works, and not tiie rest; but contrariwise, 
 when Nature makes a flower or living creature, she engenders and 
 brings forth rudiments of all the parts at once." — Bacon, De Augm. 
 Sclent. I. vii. p. 360, Trans. Oxf. 1640. 
 
 f Bacon, De Augm. Scient. I. vii. p. 330. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 11 
 
 sidered a Study purely professional, and devoid of general interest; 
 and that it should be deemed impossible to invest its researches with 
 those varied charms that attract us to other scientific inquiries.* 
 
 Reflections such as these have led me to the attempt whereupon 
 I enter to-day ; the attempt, that is to bring theology somehow into 
 the circle of the other sciences, by showing how beautifully it is illus- 
 trated, supported, and adorned by them all ; to prove how justly the 
 philosopher should bow to her decisions, with the assurance that his 
 researches will only confirm them ; to demonstrate the convergence 
 of truths revealed with truths discovered ; and, however imperfectly, 
 to present you with some such picture as Homer hath described upon 
 his hero's shield ; of things and movements heavenly, that appertain 
 unto a higher sphere, hemmed round and embellished by the repre- 
 sentations of earthlier and homelier pursuits. 
 
 My purpose, therefore, in the course of lectures to which I have 
 invited you, is to show the correspondence between the progress of 
 science, and the development of the Christian evidences ; and 
 before proceeding further, I must be allowed to explain the terms 
 and limits of my inquiries. By the simple statement of my theme, 
 it will be seen that I do not intend to enter upon the well-occupied 
 field of natural theology, or to apply the progress of science to the 
 increasing proof thereby gained, of a wise all-ruling Providence. It 
 is of revealed religion alone that I mean to treat — of the evidences 
 which Christianity has received in its numberless connexions with 
 the order of nature, or the course of human events. And when I use 
 the word evidences, I must be understood in a very wide and general 
 signification. I consider that whatever tends to prove the truth of 
 any narrative in the sacred volume, especially if that narrative, to 
 merely human eyes, appears improbable, or irreconcilable with other 
 facts, tends also essentially to increase the sum of evidence which 
 Christianity possesses, resting, as it essentially does, upon the authen- 
 ticity of that book. Any discovery, for instance, that a trifling date, 
 till lately inexplicable, is quite correct, besides the satisfaction it gives 
 upon an individual point, has a far greater moral weight in the 
 assurance it affords of security in other matters. And hence a long 
 
 * For a view of the unsatisfactory method by which the French 
 eclectic school attempts at ouce to separate and reconcile science and 
 revelation, see Dainiron, Essai sur VHisloire de la Pldlosophie en 
 France ; BruxeUes, 1829, pp. 471 — 474 ; or, Carove, Der Saint Simon- 
 iamus und die neuere Philosophic ; Leips. 1831, p. 42. 
 
12 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 research, which will lead to a discovery of apparently mean impor- 
 tance, must be measured according to this general influence, rather 
 than by its immediate results. 
 
 But while, as has been observed, it is the interest of those who 
 search after truth, to generalize their proofs as much as possible, and 
 take their stand upon the broadest ground, those who attack it will 
 ever find their greatest advantage in particular objections, and piece- 
 meal destruction. And such, on their part, has been the policy pur- 
 sued. Each science has been individually ransacked, and many 
 partial results of each separately urged, as sufficient to overthrow the 
 defences of Christianity. These repeated attempts must form an 
 additional motive for inquiry into the real results of modern science. 
 It is true that the Christian revelation rests upon general arguments, 
 not easily shaken by particular objections. It is true that its evi- 
 dence, external and internal, consists of numerous and various con- 
 siderations, dove-tailed and rivetted so strongly together, that a par- 
 tial attack upon one point, is borne by the rest ; so that we incur 
 greater difficulties by supposing the whole system of Christianity false 
 in consequence of a particular objection, than we do by confessing 
 our inability to answer, and adhering nevertheless to the cause which 
 it impugns. 
 
 But although the less instructed Christian may thus preserve his 
 conviction undisturbed by difficulties whereunto he sees not the 
 immediate answer, there is another method of proceeding more satis- 
 factory, more interesting, and to those who have the power, almost 
 of obligation ; that is, boldly and patiently to examine the objections, 
 and solve them individually ; and for this purpose, to neglect no 
 means within their reach, of procuring the necessary information. 
 Of our ultimate and complete success, we cannot allow ourselves to 
 entertain a doubt. 
 
 Causa jubet uielior superos sfjerare socundos. 
 
 If we are firmly convinced that God is as much the author of our 
 religion, as he is of nature, we must be also thoroughly assured, that 
 the comparison of his works, in both these orders, must necessarily 
 give a uniforifl result. An essential part of my task will therefore 
 be, to show how the very sciences, whence objections have been 
 drawn against religion, have themselves, in their progress, entirely 
 removed them; and hence my method of treating each science, with 
 one or two e.\ccptions, will neccbourily be historical. I shall thus 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 13 
 
 avoid an important difficulty — tliat of supposing all tny hearers fur- 
 nished with an accurate knowledge of so many difterent pursuits. 
 Instead of this, I flatter myself, that while I show the signal service 
 rendered to religion by the progress of each science, 1 shall present 
 a short and simple introduction to its history and principles. 
 
 We shall see how the early stage of each furnished objections to 
 religion, to the joy of the infidel and the dismay of the believer ; how 
 many discouraged these studies as dangerous ; and then how, in their 
 advance, they first removed the difficulties drawn from their imper- 
 fect state, and then even replaced them by solid arguments in favor 
 of religion. And hence we shall feel warranted in concluding, that 
 it is essentially the interest of religion to encourage the pursuit of 
 science and literature, in their various departments. 
 
 In the arrangement of my subjects, while I pay attention to a 
 certain natural order of connexion, I shall also be anxious to give 
 them an increasing interest ; and I almost fear I have been guilty of 
 an error in tactics, by placing in my front the science whereupon I 
 now enter, as it can hardly possess the general interest of most that 
 will follow it, though I trust it will fully justify all I have advanced 
 in these preliminary remarks. I mean Ethnography, or the classifi- 
 cation of nations from the comparative study of languages, a science 
 born, I may say, almost within our memory. 
 
 This science has also been properly called by the French Lin- 
 guistique, or the study of language ; and is also known by the name 
 of comparative philology. These names will sufficiently declare the 
 objects and methods of the study ; and I will not premise any other 
 definition, as I trust you will gradually, as my subject unfolds, become 
 acquainted with its entire range. 
 
 I enter upon it with the full consciousness of the difficulties which 
 surround it ; it is a science which has yet found no historian, and 
 hardly possesses any elementary works ; and I have had to collect 
 from many writers the materials for the sketch which I shall endea- 
 vor to present to you ; it is indeed by the simple history of this 
 science, that we shall see the Mosaic account of the dispersion of 
 mankind most pleasingly confirmed. 
 
 I need hardly recal to your memories this remnant of early 
 history. That mankind descended from one family, spoke but one 
 language ; that, in consequence of their being united in a design 
 which accorded not with the views of Providence, the Almighty con- 
 founded their speech, and introduced among them a variety of 
 
14 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 (bngues, which produced a general dispersion ; sucli in brief are the 
 outlines of this venerable history, recorded in the eleventh chapter 
 of Genesis. 
 
 Commentators upon this passage have generally considered that 
 this confusion consisted, not so much in the abolition of the common 
 tongue, as in the introduction of such a variety of modifications in it, 
 as would suffice to effect the dispersion of the human race. In fact, 
 it was, only on this hypothesis, that the long and useless search after 
 the original language could have been conducted. 
 
 But the whole of this narrative is of course treated by the adver- 
 saries of revelation as a fable, or a mythus* We may allow philoso- 
 phers, indeed, to discuss such abstract questions, as whether speech 
 could have been the gradual invention of the human species, or must 
 have been the free gift of God, as Dr. Johnson, Anton, and Bonald, 
 maintain ;t or neither a pure gift nor an invention, but, according to 
 the later theory of the lamented Humboldt, a necessary and sponta- 
 neous result of man's organization.^ We might even allow them the 
 innocent amusement of discussing whether such an invention would 
 have begun by substantives, as Dr. Smith is of opinion, § or by inter- 
 
 * "The book of Genesis veiled, in a significant expressive 7nythus,a. 
 problem which no philosophy has satisfactorily solved." Gesenius, 
 Geschichte der hebrdischen Sprachc und Schrift. Leip. 1815, p. 13. See 
 Geddes's Preface to his Translation of the Pentateuch, 1792, p. 11. 
 
 f Boswell's Life, first ed. vol, ii. p. 447. R. G. Anton, Ueber 
 Sprache, in Riicksicht auf Geschichte der Menschen. Goiiitz, 1799, p. 31. 
 — Beattie's Theory of Language ; London, 1788, p. 95. Tills position 
 is the basis of Bonald's system, and is warmly attacked by Datniron, 
 uhi sup. p. 224, Cousin, Preface to Maine de Biran's JVouvelles Conside- 
 rations, Paris, 1834, p. 15 ; and many others. 
 
 J "Speech, according to my fullest conviction, must really be con- 
 sidered as inherent in man ; since as the work of his intellect in its 
 simple knowledge, it is absolutely inexplicable. This hypothesis is 
 facilitated by supposing thousands and thousands of years ; language 
 could not have been invented without its type jireexisting in man." 
 After several highly interesting remarks, he proceeds to observe, that 
 still language must not be considered as a gift bestowed ready formed 
 to tnan, (etwas fertig gegebenes) but as something corning from himself. 
 " Ueber das vergleichendes Sprachstudium, in Beziehung auf die ver- 
 schiedenen E[)ochcn der Sprachentwickelung." In the Acts of the 
 R. Academy of Sciences of Berlin ; historical and philosophical class, 
 1820—21. Berlin, 1822, p. 247. 
 
 § Theory of Moral sentiments : Edinb, 1813, vol. ii. p. 364. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 15 
 
 jections, as the president De Brosses and Herder conjecture.* So 
 long as an imaginary theatre is supposed for the actors in such a dis- 
 covery, so long as we speak with the president,'of children abandoned 
 to the tuition of nature, or with Soave, of two insulated savages, the 
 field is open, and the disquisition without danger. 
 
 But other writers hfive transferred their speculations upon this 
 subject to the dominion of history ; Maupertuis, for instance, supposes 
 the human race to have been originally without speech, till its dif- 
 ferent divisions gradually invented separate dialects.t Rousseau 
 and Volney represent man as the " mutum et turpe pecus" of the 
 ancients, " thrown, according to the words of the latter, as it were by 
 chance, on a confused and savage land, an orphan, abandoned by 
 the unknown hand that had produced him,"| and left to discover the 
 first elements of social life, much on the principle, and by the process 
 described in the Epicurean poet : 
 
 " Ergo si variei sensus animalia cogunt 
 Mutii tatnen quom sint, varias emittere voces ; 
 Qiianto inortaleis magis fequimi est turn potuisse 
 Dissimileis alia atque alia res voce notare."§ 
 
 This view of the origin of language is not unfrequently repeated 
 at the present day. Charles Nodier published a series of articles, 
 entitled Notions elementaires de Linguistique, in the Temps paper 
 for September and October, 1833, wherein he maintains that lan- 
 guages were the handywork of human powers acting by themselves. 
 Even writers, who were never suspected of having entertained opin- 
 ions at variance with the inspired narrative, appear sometimes to 
 indulge in the same imagination. |1 
 
 The Marquis de Fortia d'Urban goes further, and denies at once 
 
 * De Brosses, Trait6 de la Formation M^chanique des Langues, 
 (anonym.) : Paris, 1765, torn. ii. p. 220. — Herder Nouveaux M6moires 
 de I'Academie R. des Sciences: Berlin, 1783, p. 382. 
 
 f Dissertation sin* les differens moyens dont les hommes se sont 
 servis pour exprinier leurs idees. — Hist, de I'Academie Roy. Berlin, 
 1756, p. 335. 
 
 I Ruines : Paris, 1825, p. 37. — Causes de l'In6galite entre les 
 Hommes, CEuvres completes : Paris, 1826, p. 40. 
 
 § Lucret. /. v. 1086. 
 
 II For instance, Dr. Murray, in his History of European Languages : 
 Edinb. 1823, vol. i. p. 28. 
 
16 
 
 LECTIRE THF. FIRST. 
 
 the history of the dispersion as given by Moses, and indeed the in- 
 spiration of the historical narratives of Scripture.* 
 
 The inquiry, when thus considered, seems to involve the authen- 
 ticity of the Mosaic documents touching the early history of man. 
 It then becomes our duty to investigate the very study which gave 
 birth or strength to such objections : and we shall soon perceive that 
 the nearer it has advanced towards perfection, the more it has con- 
 firmed the veracity of the Jewish historian. 
 
 The history of the comparative study of languages presents the 
 same features in the moral sciences, which chemistry does among 
 physical pursuits. While the latter was engaged in a fruitless chase 
 of the philosopher's stone, or a remedy for every disease, the linguists 
 were occupied in the equally fruitless search after the primary lan- 
 guage. In the course of both inquiries, many important and unex- 
 pected discoveries were doubtless made ; but it was not till a princi- 
 ple of analytical investigation was introduced in both, that the real 
 nature of their objects was ascertained, and results obtained, far more 
 valuable than had first caused and encouraged so much toilsome 
 application. 
 
 The desire of verifying the Mosaic history, or the ambition of 
 knowing the language first communicated by divine inspiration, was 
 the motive or impulse of the old linguists' chimerical research. For, 
 it was argued, if it can only be shown that there exists some lan- 
 guage, which contains, as it were, the germ of all the rest, and forms 
 a centre whence all others visibly diverge, then the confusion of 
 Babel receives a striking confirmation ; for that language must have 
 been once the common speech of mankind. 
 
 But here such a host of rivals entered the lists, and their conflict- 
 ing pretensions were advanced with such assurance, or such plausi- 
 bility, as rendered a satisfactory decision perfectly beyond hope. 
 
 The Celtic language found a zealous patron in the learned 
 Pezron ;t the claims of the Chinese were warmly advocated by 
 Webb, and several other writers. | Even in our own times — 
 for the race of such visionaries is not yet extinct — Don Pedro 
 
 * Essai sur I'Ongine do I'Ecriture: Paris, 1832, p. 10. 
 
 t Antiquit6 de la Nation et de la Langue des Celtes, Paris, 1704. 
 
 I Essay on the probability that the Languajre of China is the primi- 
 tive Language ; Lotid. 1669. The antiquity of China ; or, an Histori- 
 cal Essay endeavoring a probability that the Language of China is the 
 primitive Language. Ibid. 1678. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 17 
 
 de Astarloa,* Don Thomas de Sorreguieta,! and the Abbe d'Uiarce- 
 Bidassouet-d'Aroztegai,t have taken the field as champions of the 
 Biscayan, with equal success as in former times, the very erudite and 
 unwieldy' Goropius Becanus brought up his native Low Dutch as the 
 language of the terrestrial paradise.§ 
 
 Notwithstanding these ambitious pretensions, the Semitic lan- 
 guages, as they are" called, that is, the languages of Western Asia, 
 seemed to be the favored claimants ; but alas! even here there was 
 rivalry among the sisters. The Abyssinians boasted their language 
 to be the mother stock, from which even Hebrew had sprung ;|1 a 
 host of Syriac authors traced the lineal descent of their speech through 
 Heber, from Noah and Adam .^ but Hebrew was the pretender that 
 collected the most numerous suffrages in its favor. From the 
 Antiquities of Josephus, and the Targums, or Chaldee paraphrases 
 of Onkelos and of Jerusalem,** down to Anton in I800,tt Christians 
 and Jews considered its pretensions as almost definitely decided ; 
 and names of the highest rank in literature, Lipsius, Scahger, 
 Bochart, and Vossius, have trusted the truth of many of their theories 
 to the certainty of this opinion. 
 
 The learned and judicious Molitor, however, who has brought an 
 immense store of Rabbinical literature to bear upon the demonstra- 
 tion of the Catholic religion, which he has embraced, acknowledges 
 that " the Jewish tradition which makes Hebrew the language of the 
 
 * Apolocria de la Lengua^Bascongada, o Ensayo critico-filosofico de 
 su perfeccion y antiguedad sobre todas las que se conocen. Madrid, 
 1803. 
 
 I Semana HisiJaHa-Bascongada la uuica de la Europa, y la mas 
 aiuigua del orbe. Ibid. 1804. 
 
 I See his prospectus published in the French Journals, 1824. His 
 work has, 1 believe, since appeared. 
 
 § Origines Antuerpianae ; Antiih 1569, pp. 534, seq. 
 
 II See the Advertisement to the Ed. Princ. of the New Testament ; 
 Rome, 1548. 
 
 H See llieir authority, given in Assemani's Bibliotheca Orientalis, 
 torn. m. part. i. p. 314. Ibn Kaledoon, Massoudi, Haider Razi, and 
 other Arabic authors, maintain the same opinion. See Quatremeres 
 learned Essay, in the JVouveau Journal Asiatique, March, 1835. 
 
 ** Josephus, Archsolog. I. i. c. i. torn. i. p. 6 ed. Haverc. Targumin 
 on Gen. 11: 1. 
 
 ft De Lingua Primaeva ; Witlenb. 1800. 
 3 
 
18 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 first patriarchs, and even of Adam, is, in its literal sense, inadmissi- 
 ble ;" though, he adds very judiciously, that it is sufficient to 
 acknowledge the inspiration of the Bible, for us to be obliged to con- 
 fess that the language in which it is written is a faithful, though 
 earthly, image of the speech of paradise; even as fallen man preserves 
 some traces of his original greatness.* 
 
 Such was the object towards which the comparative study of 
 languages in general first directed its attention ; and two essential 
 faults may be observed in the manner of conducting it, both of which 
 arose from the limited views of its cultivators. 
 
 The first was, that hardly any affinity seems to have been admit- 
 ted between languages, save that of filiation. Parallel descent from 
 a common parent was hardly ever imagined : the moment two lan- 
 guages bore a resemblance, it was concluded that one must be the 
 oflfspring of the other. t This mode of reasoning is most visible 
 among the writers upon the Semitic dialects ; but there are curious 
 instances of it also in others. 
 
 Thus an affinity between the Persian and German languages had 
 been early perceived by Lipsius and Salmasius ;t but no solution 
 could be devised of this phenomenon, except that one must have 
 borrowed from the other. " Hodierna (lingua Persica)," says the 
 learned David Wilkins, " ex multis Eitropa; ct Orienfis vocibus com- 
 posita est, Latinis sc. Germanicis, Graecis.''^ Walton had before 
 
 * Philosophie der Geschichte, oder ilber die Tralition. Nut having, 
 at this moment, the original at hand, I must refer to tlie French al)iidg- 
 ment, Philosophie de la Tradition, par X. Cruris, p. 1 1 ; Paris, 1834. 
 
 t The following passage, from an author with whose opinions on 
 most points I do not coincide, may explain this position. " II ne fatit 
 pas se representer les [)euples ct les langues en lignes jjerpeiidiculaires 
 ... II n'y a entre elles ni droit d'ainesse iii primogeniture. Cette ques- 
 tion qu'on entend faire, la langue A est-elle plus ancienne que la langue 
 B est puerile, et tout uussi deniiee de sens que le sont ordinairement les 
 controverses scholastiques toucliant les langues meres." — Principes de 
 VEtude compai'alive des Langues, par le Baron de Merian, p. 12 ; Paris, 
 1828. 
 
 I Lipsius Eplst. ad Belgas ; Antw. 1G02 — 4 : Salmasius de Lingua 
 Hellanist. p. 378. Scaligcr is often quoted as having observed this 
 resemblance (viile JVilkiiis, inf. cil.) ; hut in his 228tli letter to Poiitanus, 
 he says : — " Nihil tarn dissiniile alii rei qiiem Teutonisinus lingua) 
 Persicae." 
 
 § Preface to Chaniberlayne's Oratio Dominica, p. 7 ; Amstel. 1715. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 19 
 
 expressed the same opinion as quite certain. " Ut gens Persica ipsa 
 Gra3Corum, Italorum, Arabum, Tartarorumque coUuvies est, ita lin- 
 gua quoque ejus ex horum Unguis est conflata !"* 
 
 This principle led the acute and learned Reland into a different, 
 but still more curious error upon the same subject. He had collected 
 the Indian words preserved in ancient authors, and found that many 
 of them could be illustrated from the Persian. Yet this did not lead 
 him to suspect an affinity between the Indian and the Persian lan- 
 guages But as he knew no grounds on which to resort to the usual 
 expedient of supposing that one had given birth to the other, he was 
 unable, upon any principle then known, to solve this problem; and 
 therefore concluded that the words so collected were not Indian but 
 Persian, and that the ancients had been mistaken in giving them as 
 Indian.t Even in more modern times, the Abate Denina could 
 devise no explanation ofthe affinity between Teutonic and Greek,! 
 other than supposing the ancient Germans to have been a colony 
 from Asia Minor ; so that truly we might exclaim with the poet— 
 
 "Hie quoqne sunt igiuir Graine, quis crederet, urbes 
 
 Inter inhuinaiice noniina barbaria? ; 
 Hue qufeque Mileto inissi veiiere coloni, 
 
 Inque Getis Graias constituere (l()iiins."§ 
 
 The second error in the method of this study, was that it was 
 conducted almost entirely by etymology, and not by comparison. As 
 the authors whom I have mentioned wished to prove the derivation of 
 other languacres from the one whose cause they espoused, they were 
 necessarily ddven to this expedient. Similarity of words or forms, 
 could have only established an affinity between the languages in 
 which it occurred, and therefore it was preferable to find in the 
 favorite language a supposed original word which contained in itself 
 the germ, as it were, or meaning of the term examined, rather than 
 trace the affinities through sister languages, or even condescend to 
 derive it from obvious elements in its own native language^ JThus^ 
 
 * Prolegom. xvi, § 2. 
 
 + De Veteri Lma;ua Indica Dissertat. Miscellan. torn. i. p. 209 ; 
 Traiect. ad Rhen. 1713. See Professor Tychsen's correct.on of them 
 qppend. iv. to Heeren's Researches, vol. ii. p. 376 ; Oxford, loS-s. 
 
 X Sur les Causes de la Difference des Langues. Muvelles Mimoires, 
 de V Academic Royale, 1783, p. .'i42 ; Berlin, 173d. 
 
 § Ovid, Trist. lib. iii. EL Jx. 
 
20 LKCTITRK THF. FIRST. 
 
 if I remember riirlit, Jennings, somewhere in iiis Jewisli Antiquities, 
 derives the Greek unv).oi> asylum, from the Hebrew b^N eskel, an 
 oak or grove, in s|)iteof the simple etymology given it by the ancients, 
 a, priv. and a I'ldo), forming together the signitication of z;?j)/(;Z«6/(3. 
 With equal propriety might we derive the English verb to ait off, 
 from the Syriac verb '.■'Zk'^c: cataf, which signifies the same thing. 
 These extraordinary etymologies swarm, even to this day, in popular 
 writers advocating the pretended rights of the Hebrew language. 
 Nor did other authors neglect this method. Becanus, for instance, 
 explains from Dutch, every name found in the early history of Gene- 
 sis; and discovering in his own language a possible analysis of them, 
 concludes triumphantly that those names were given in that tongue. 
 Who can for an instant doubt that Adam and Eve spoke Low Dutch, 
 when he learns that the name of the first man clearly resolves itself 
 into Hat, (hate) and dam, because he was as a dam opposed to the 
 serpent's hatred; und that of his consort into .E, (oath) and z;a^, 
 she being the receptacle of the oath, or promise of a Redeemer.* 
 
 But to return. The defects I have pointed out in the early history 
 of our science, were the natural consequence of the objects it pur- 
 sued. It was necessary to enlarge at once the view, as well as the 
 field, of the philologer, before any good results could be expected. 
 It was necessary to begin upon a new method, and without the mis- 
 chievous spirit of system ; and the collection of facts was the neces- 
 sary basis to such improvements. " Ici comnie ailleurs," says Abel- 
 Remusat, " on a commence par batir des systemes, au lieuV de se 
 borner a I'observation de faits."+ 
 
 Had the moderns been obliged to begin their studies at this first 
 point, many years must have elapsed before they could have reached 
 maturity ; for the collection of materials would have occupied a con- 
 siderable time. Fortunately, however, the older writers had done 
 something in this way, though with no very definite purpose. Trav- 
 ellers, among other curiosities, had brought lists of words from coun- 
 tries which they had visited ; missionaries, with more exalted views, 
 learned the languages of nations whom they converted, and wrote 
 elementary books for their in.struction. These two sources produced 
 the collections necessary for prosecuting the comparative study of 
 languages. 
 
 * Ubi sup. ji. .539. 
 
 \ Rccherchcf sur Ics Langucs Taiiurcs : Paris, \8'i0, |>. IS. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 21 
 
 The first traveller who thought of enriching his narrative with 
 lists of foreign words, was the amusing and credulous Pigafetta, who 
 accompanied Magelhaens, in the first voyage round the globe. At 
 the conclusion of his journal, he presents us with three very meagre 
 vocabularies ; the first whereof is of the Brazilian language ; the 
 second, collected from his Patagonian giant, who makes so con- 
 spyiuous a figure in his book, is of the Tehuel ; the third is from 
 Tidore, one of the Moluccas.* His example was followed by later 
 navigators ; almost every traveller who explored new lands, or glean- 
 ed fuller information upon those already known, collected specimens 
 of this nature, though often injudiciously, — almost always inaccurate- 
 ly.! Many of these collections were deposited in libraries, and used 
 at subsequent periods by learned men. The judicious Reland, 
 vvhose labors in this department of literature have been very much 
 overlooked, published from manuscripts of this sort, preserved in the 
 Leyden library, vocabularies of the Malayalim, Cingalese, Mala- 
 baric, Japanese, and Javanese. He also took particular pains to 
 collect from travellers, specimens of American languages. J: In like 
 manner, the collections of Messerschmidt, made during his seven 
 tj cvtm years' residence in Siberia, and deposited in the Imperial 
 Library at St. Petersburg, were of signal service to Klaproth, in 
 compiling his Asia Polyglotta.§ 
 
 Books of devotion were naturally the first printed by missionaries, 
 for the use of those nations whom they converted to Christianity, and 
 these were sure to contain the Lord's Prayer. This was therefore 
 the example most easy to be procured of a variety of languages, so as 
 to have a uniform specimen for their comparison. Smaller collec- 
 tions of it had been made by Schildberger, Postel, and Bibliander ; 
 
 * Pririio volume, 3a editione, delle jYavigationi et viaggi raccoUi gia 
 da M. Gio.B'il. Rainusio ; Vcn, 15li3, p. 370. — Tlie words relating to 
 religion in the vocalmlary o{ Tidore, are Arabic. 
 
 f Si;e Balbi's Introduction a V Atlas Ethnograpfiique du Globe ; Paris, 
 1826, pp. 27, seqq. and p. c. of the Disc. Prelim. 
 
 I De Linguis Insidonim quorundam Orieiilnliuia Dissert. Miscell. 
 parso; Traject. 1708, p. .')7. He adds short lists of words used in 
 Solomon's Island, Cocas, N. Guinea, Moses Islan<i, Moo, and Madagas- 
 car, and conchides, p. 137, that Malay is the basis of them all. This 
 we shall see has been substantially verified. De Lingids Americanis ; 
 Ibid. 
 
 § Paris, I82d,p. 8. 
 
2-2 
 
 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 but the naturalist, Gesner, first conceived the idea of uniting it as a 
 sample to a catalogue of known languages ; and he published in 
 1555, his Mithridatcs, better known in the extended, but less ac- 
 curate, edition of Waser.* The merit of this little work is that it 
 formed a nucleus to later acquisitions, and though we must smile to 
 see it standing beside its bulky namesake by Adelung, and Vater, it 
 is pleasing to trace this noble monument of human industry to the 
 little dictionary of Gesner. Here the languages are arranged in 
 alphabetical order, one half thereof being erroneously entitled or de- 
 scribed ; and when I tell you that the language of the gods has a 
 place there, because Homer has indulged in such a fiction, you will 
 easily judge what critical merit it possesses. This, and the subse- 
 quent collections by Miiller, Ludeke, Stark, and others, were com- 
 pletely eclipsed and superseded by the more extensive series of 
 Wilkins and Chamberlayne, published at Amsterdam, after the be- 
 ginning'of the last century. t 
 
 This date brings us to a period when the science, however im- 
 perfect its principles may have remained for a long time after, took 
 at least a most extended field into cultivation, and varied the charac- 
 ter of its observations and experiments, so as to prepare the way for 
 more important discoveries. It is perhaps its critical moment both 
 for ethnography and for religion. 
 
 The name of Leibnitz is the connecting link between the sci- 
 ences at the period we have now reached. Had we to define in one 
 word, the pursuits of this great man, we could only do so by saying 
 ihey were philosophi/ . But this would be an injustice to his fame ; 
 for many claim, and obtain an equal credit, by casting some addition- 
 al light upon some individual branch of science. The genius of 
 Leibnitz was like the prism of his great rival ; this one ray, on pas- 
 sing through it, was refracted into a thousand variegated hues, all 
 clear, all brilliant, and connected in almost imperceptible gradations, 
 
 * Mithridales Gesneri, Gaspar Waserus receusuit et libello coni- 
 nieiitario illustravit ; Tigur. KilO. Between these two editions it was 
 published in Rome, without any acknowledgment, as an Appendix to 
 F. Angela RocccCs Bibliothcca Vaticana lllustrala; Rome, 1591, pp. 291 
 — 376. The author pretends to have collected the materials himself, 
 pp. 310 — 364, yet has transcribed the whole of Gesner's work, with its 
 typographical mistakes, and lias only made a few trifling additions. 
 
 f Oratio Dominica in diversis omnium fere Gentium liiiguis versa, 
 Editore J. Chamberlaynio ; Ams. 1751. It is followed by Letters from 
 Dr. Nicholson, Leibnitz, and Wotton. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 23 
 
 not of shadow, but of light. In his writings we follow the changeful 
 beam, playing through the whole range of science ; traced to his 
 mind we discover all its varieties diverging from one single principle, 
 a bright and vivid current of philosophic thought. In him, mathe- 
 matics and moral philosophy, history, and philology, for the first time 
 found a common seat ; and persons even deeply versed in any one 
 of these studies, bowed to the authority of the man who possessed 
 sufficient genius to embrace them all, and make them contribute to 
 their mutual advantage. 
 
 From such a man we might expect essential improvements in 
 any science, where this combination of varied acquirements was 
 singularly necessary. Such was Ethnography, and to Leibnitz, 
 therefore, does it owe those principles which first allowed it to claim 
 a place among the sciences. Though from some passages in his 
 works, he is supposed to have patronized the rights of Hebrew to be 
 the primary language, in his letter to Tenzel he clearly rejects those 
 claims.* Be this as it may, so far as the mere comparison of words 
 can go, he must be admitted to have proposed the first sound princi- 
 ples ; nay, there is hardly an analogy announced by the followers of 
 that comparative system in modern times, which he has not some- 
 where anticipated ; several of his hopes have been fulfilled, many of 
 his conjectures verified. 
 
 Instead of confining the study of languages to the useless object 
 pursued by the earlier philologers, he saw and pointed out its useful- 
 ness for the advancement of history, for tracing the migrations of 
 early nations, and penetrating even beyond the mist of their earliest 
 and most unauthentic records. f This enlargement of view neces- 
 sarily produced a variation of method. However'he^might'occasion- 
 ally indulge in trifling etymologies for a pastime, Leibnitz well saw, 
 that to extend the sphere of usefulness which he wished to give this 
 
 * G. Leibnitii Opera omnia, Edit. Dut. torn. 6. part 2. p. 232. A 
 similar opinion is exi)ressed in a letter to him from Hermann von der 
 Hardt, p. 235. 
 
 t " Je trouve que rien ne sert davantage a juger des connexions des 
 penples que les langues. Par example, la langue des Abyssins nous 
 fait connaitre qu'ils sont une colonie d' Arabes." — Letlre auT. Veijus, 
 ib. p. 227. "Quum nihil majorem ad antiquas populonnn origines 
 jndagandas lucein prasbeat quam collatio linguarnm," etc.— Desiderata 
 circa Linguas Populorum, ib. p. 228. Lacroze. (Commerc. Epistol. torn. 
 3. p. 79 ; Lips. 1742J and Reland (ubi sup. p. 78) take the same'viewof 
 this studv. 
 
24 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 science, a comparison must be instituted between idioms most separa- 
 ted in geographical position. He complains that travellers were not 
 sufficiently diligent in collecting specimens of languages,* and his 
 sagacity led him to suggest that they should be formed upon a uni- 
 form list, containing the most elementary and simple objects.! He 
 exhorted his friends to collect words into comparative tables, to in- 
 vestigate the Georgian, and to confront the Armenian with the Cop- 
 tic, and the Albanese with German and Latin. t His attention to 
 these pursuits, and the peculiar sagacity of his mind, led him to con- 
 jectures which have been curiously verified by modern research. 
 For instance, he suspected there might be an affinity in words be- 
 tween the Biscayan and the Coptic, the languages of Spain and 
 Egypt, § a conjecture which you will see has been put to the test of 
 mathematical calculus by the late Dr. Young. 
 
 I remarked just now, that this was the critical moment of the 
 study, in regard to religion as well as to Ethnography ; and the rea- 
 son is plain. The old tie which had hitherto held all languages in a 
 supposed affinity, their assumed derivation from Hebrew, was now 
 broken or loosened, and no other substituted for it. The materials 
 of the study, whence the modern science had to issue in fair propor- 
 tions, were now in a state of fusion, without form or connexion. In 
 the search for new materials, each day seemed to discover a new 
 language, independent of all previously known, and consequently to 
 increase the difficulty of reconciling appearances with the narrative 
 of Moses. II 
 
 It was not now sufficient to find a few words bearing some re- 
 
 * Cast un grand d<^fautque ceux quefont des descriptions des pays, 
 et qui donnent des relations des voyages, oubiieiU d'ajouterdes essaisdes 
 langues des peuples, car cela servirait pour en faire connaitre les 
 origines." — Monumenta varia intdita, ex Muscbo J. Feller, tmn. 9. p. 595 ; 
 Jeiia, 1717. 
 
 f Desiderata (uhi sup.) 
 
 i Tom. v. p. 494. 
 
 § " S'ii y avail beaucoup de mots Basques dans le Coplithe, cela 
 confirmerait une conjecture que j'ai touche, que I'ancien Espagnol et 
 Aqnitauique pouvait etre venu d'Afriqtie. Vous m'obiigerez, en mar- 
 quant un nombre de ces mots Coplitho-Basques." — lb. p. .'lOo ; also 
 torn. 2. p. 219, 
 
 Ij It was generally siq)posed, that the number of primary languages 
 could only be about seventy. See Hervas, Origine Meccanismo ed 
 Armonia degV Tdiomi, p. 172; Cesena, 1785. 
 
STTDY OF LANGUAGES. '^^ 
 
 semblance in three or four languages, and hence conclude the com- 
 mon origin of all. As an instance of this older practice, I will quote 
 the word sack, as one of the favorite breathing points of the old ety- 
 molocrists. Goropius Becanus, whom I must once more quote as 
 repre'sentative of the ancient school, accounts for this word being 
 found in so many languages, upon the ingenious ground, that no one 
 at Babel would have forgotten his wallet, whatever else he might leave 
 behind. This valuable psychological surmise he confirms from his 
 own observation. Our learned doctor was once on a time called m 
 to attend a German in a brain fever, who had stabbed himself durmg 
 a paroxysm of his complaint; but though suffering dreadful pain 
 the patient would not allow him or any of his brethren to approach 
 him " The wretched man," says he, " did not remember that we 
 were physicians, ready to put his disorder to flight.'^ Yet in spite of 
 this manifest exhibition of madness and delirium, there was one ob- 
 iect which he never forgot, and about which his reason seemed per- 
 fectly unclouded-a bag of dollars, which he kept under his pillow. 
 - No wonder, therefore," exclaims our philosopher, cunningly trans- 
 ferring his argument from the contents to the container, and from 
 the object to its name.-" no wonder, that at Babel none should for- 
 get the term for so interesting an article."* Yet the numerous ex- 
 amples collected of this word, will be hardly found to go out of tvvo 
 families only of languages, the Semitic and the Indo-European. In 
 like manner, Count de Gebelin, who made the last stand upon the 
 old system, often draws the most sweeping conclusions of universa 
 affinity, after comparing, among themselves, words from the different 
 Semitic or Teutonic dialects.t 
 
 This method of reasoning was now however to be exploded, and 
 in the meantime no general principle was to be substituted m its 
 place Only an analytical method could be admitted, whereby the 
 grammatical elements of language were to be minutely decomposed 
 and compared as well as their words, and no affinity admitted be- 
 tween two languages which would not stand a very rigid test It 
 would therefore appear that the further the search proceeded, the 
 more dangerously it would trespass upon the forbidden ground of in- 
 spired history. 
 
 * Uli Sup. p. 578. 
 
 t Monde Prinntif; vol. 3. pp.30, seq. Paris, 1775-81, '" the lUus^a- 
 nonofhis "Pien.ier Principe: Les langnes i.e sent que des dialectes 
 d'uiie senle." Also pp. 290, seqq. 
 4 
 
26 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 An uneasiness on this head is clearly discernible in the works of 
 an author, who, towards the close of last century, went far beyond all 
 his forerunners, in laborious research, and in amassing materials for 
 this interestiii:^ science. This was the indefatigable and learned 
 Jesuit, Don Lorenzo Hervas y Pandura, who in a series of works, 
 mostly forming part of his Idea dcW Universo, laid before the public 
 vast additions to the stores already described. He had indeed the 
 advantage of belonging to a religious society, possessing within its 
 own circle, men who had travelled and preached in every district of 
 the globe. Not only did he thus receive personal information on lan- 
 guages little known, but he was able to procure many grammars, 
 vocabularies, and writings, which had scarcely been seen in Europe. 
 With these materials at command, he published year after year at 
 Cesena,* his numerous quartos upon languages, which were transla- 
 ted and republished by his friends in Spain. f 
 
 The great merit of Hervas is his indefatigable zeal and diligence 
 in collecting ; there is hardly an attempt at systematic arrangement 
 in his works, but rather a degree of confusion and want of judgment 
 are perceptible in his remarks. Mistakes must indeed be naturally 
 expected in one who wandered over so wide a field, and who had 
 generally to make his own path ; yet so assiduous was he in collect- 
 ing materials, that in spite of the caution wherewith his results must 
 be adopted, the ethnographer is even at this day obliged to explore 
 his pages, for information which further researches have not been 
 able to procure or enlarge. At every step, however, beseems to fear 
 that the study he is pursuing may be turned to the prejudice of reve- 
 lation. He evidently labors under a great anxiety to prove the con- 
 trary ; he opens some of his works, 'and concludes others, with long 
 
 * Tiie following are liis princi[);il works: — Catnlos:o dtUe Hague 
 conosciulc, e notizia dtlla loro nff'inita e diversita, 1784. Origine, forma- 
 zionc, meccanismo cd armonin dcgV Idiomi, 1785. Aritmetic.a dclle 
 A''azion{, e Divisione del Tempo fra VOrientali, 1785. This is one of 
 the most interesrinj;f juitl valiiiible among Hervas's works, and there is a 
 supplement to it nt tlie (311(1 of the 20th vohime of his works. Vocabo- 
 lario PoligloUo con Prolegomtni sopra pm di 150 Lingue, 1787. Saggio 
 prallico dclle Lingnc, 1787. Tliis contains the Lord's prayer in more 
 than 300 languages and dialects, witli grammatical analyses and notes. 
 
 t See Vot/age en Espagnc, par C. A. Fischer ; Paris, 1801, torn. 2 
 p. 52. The Spanish edition oC Hervas is much the more complete. 
 The Calalogo de las Lenguas de las .Yacioncs conocidas, Madrid, 1800-5, 
 IS in six large 8vo. volumes. 
 
27 
 
 STUDY OF LANGUAGES, 
 
 and elaborate dissertations on this subject.* But his manner of treat- 
 ing it is long and abstract, and his conclusions do not seem to follow 
 easily from the facts which he quotes m evidence. So unsatisfactory 
 indeed, are the comparisons of words from difterent languages which 
 he makes on these occasions, that the existence of one letter m co- 
 mon, is sufficient, with him, to form an argument of identity m an 
 
 entire word.t . , . ^ *, ^r 
 
 While the south of Europe was thus promoting the interests of 
 this science by means of this modest and learned clergyman in the 
 noX was more brilliantly encouraged by the personal application 
 L patronage of an empress. Among the --y ^f ^^ "^^"^^ ,f 
 Catherine II, that of havmg planned, conducted, and afterward^^^^^^^ 
 rected a large comparative work on language, though no u here 
 Mentioned by her English biographer, is far f-- ^-"S/^; ^fj 
 Ample justice has however been done to her claims by Frederick 
 Adelung, in a small treatise on this subject. We there learn, upon 
 fheautLtvofher letter to Dr. Zimmerman that ^''^ 'J -- 
 hst of one hundred Russian words, and ^ad them translatd into as 
 many languages as possible. She soon discovered unexpected affin - 
 L,'and;ith her own hand began to ^^ ^ ^^^^T^'^Z 
 The Doctor's book on Solitude superseded this dry task , and ac 
 cordingly sending for the naturalist Pallas, she --—f^^^;^ 
 to complete her undertaking, and prepare it for publication.§ fh 
 commission was no ways suited to his taste or previous Pursuits ; it 
 was imposed upon him against his will, and consequentb^came forth 
 very imperfect.H Under the wled^Lm5^ 
 
 t See examples in his "Origiue," ec. pp. 2/, 29, 118, Ub, 134, and 
 
 are there enumerated. a^.o^u 
 
 & " Catherine der jfrossen Verdienste un. die vergleichende fepracb- 
 UunL,'s;:Tt:;sh.l815. This was -t the first attempt n.a^^ 
 Russia to promote this stu.ly. Bacme.ster, m 1//3, published 
 prospectus of a similar work. 
 
28 LECTURE tuf: first. 
 
 ularia roiiiparativa, Avgustissima; cum collctta, the first two vol- 
 umes appeared at St. Petersburgli, in 1787 and 1789. These con- 
 tain only the European and Asiatic LanEruages : the tliird was never 
 published, but in a second edition by Jnnkiewitsch, (1790 — 91) the 
 African dialects were added. 
 
 Europe, thus occupied at its two extremities, received considera- 
 ble succor from the furthest East. In the year 1784, the Asiatic 
 Society was instituted at Calcutta; through the encouragement 
 whereof the languages of eastern and southern Asia began to be 
 cultivated, and Grammars and Dictionaries were published of lan- 
 guages and dialects till then almost unknown. The term Oriental 
 languages, hitherto confined to the Semitic dialects, now received a 
 far more extensive meaning ; Chinese, before considered an almost 
 unconquerable language, began to be studied, till later it was stripped 
 of its difficulties by the sagacity and diligence of the French oriental- 
 ists ; and Sanskrit, peculiarly the province of our countrymen, was 
 cultivated by them with great success, and from them passed into the 
 hands of continental scholars. 
 
 But in justice I am bound to say that Rome has the merit of hav- 
 ing first seriously attended to the study of Indian literature. John 
 Werdin, better known under the name of Father Paulinus a Sancto 
 Bartholomaeo, published under the auspices of Propaganda, a series 
 of works upon Sanskrit grammar, and upon the history, mythology, 
 and religion of the Hindoos. He was even during his life severely 
 handled by Anquetil du Perron and other French critics, but strenu- 
 ously defended by his countrymen the Adeiungs.* Abel Remusat 
 has later still done justice to his reputation, and remarks that his 
 misfortune has been to have his unaided labors eclipsed by the com- 
 bined exertions of the English society of Calcutta! It is, further, 
 just to remark, that so far from any alarm being felt among learned 
 members of the Church in Italy at the new and then highly mysteri- 
 ous class of literature thus opening before them, they hailed it as the 
 
 vor ihr gesanimelten urn! bestellten Hiilfsmitteh), eiligst zum Druck 
 berdnlele, oiitlialt zwar scliatzbare Miircrialien, die aber oline alle 
 Kritik zusauiineiigeslellt .'^iiid." — Kiajjiotli, Asi;i rolygiotta, I'aris, 1823, 
 p. 7. 
 
 * Miihridates, vol. i. j). 134, and vol. iv. p. oG. 
 
 t In tlie " IJio;irapliic UnivcrsHlle," vol. xiii. p. 342, ed. Yen. 1828, 
 printed also in liis '"Nouveaux iiK-langcs asialiqiics," ton). 2. Par. 1829, 
 
 p. 305, 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. '29 
 
 |)rospect of fresh and important accessions to the proofs of early tra- 
 dition. This feeling is expressed with peculiar earnestness in a 
 letter from F. Angelo Cortenoris, long a missionary in Ava, to the 
 munificent Cardinal Borgia.* 
 
 I shall now mention only one work more, and so pass from this 
 chronological part of my subject to lay before you some of its results. 
 I ought perhaps to have already mentioned, that from the time of 
 Chamberlayne, there had been continually a series of publications 
 containing collections of the Lord's Prayer ; the most important of 
 which was the one given by Hervas. Something new was perhaps 
 given in each, but then each copied the errors of its predecessors. 
 The plan was essentially defective as intended to show the character 
 of different languages; because a translation of a prayer so peculiar 
 in its form, must be more or less constrained in many languages, nor 
 could ever form such a fair specimen as an original composition by a 
 native would present. Then these collections were generally arran- 
 ged in alphabetical order, and were unaccompanied with any 
 philological or ethnographical illustrations. In fact, instead of im- 
 proving, the system rather became worse, till, in the hands of Fry, 
 Marcel, andBodoni, these publications degenerated into a mere piece 
 of typographical luxury, and became only specimens of their skill in 
 making and printing foreign alphabets. One work, however, con- 
 taining such a collection, forms a most honorable exception, and 
 must be reckoned, in spite of its imperfections, among the most 
 valuable and splendid ethnographic works. I allude to the Mithri- 
 dates, begun by John Christopher Adelung, in 1800. He died 
 before publishing the second volume, which appeared in 1809, under 
 the care of Dr. J. Severinus Vater. Its materials were chiefly 
 drawn from Adelung's papers, and extended to the European lan- 
 guages the researches confined in the first volume to Asia ; the third 
 volume upon the African and American languages was entirely con- 
 tributed by Vater, and came out in parts from the year 1812 to 1816. 
 In 1817, this valuable compilation was completed by a supplementary 
 volume, containing much additional matter, by Vater and the young- 
 er Adelung, besides a most interesting essay on the Cantaber, or 
 Biscayan, by Baron W. von Humboldt, t 
 
 * On the perusal of F. Paulinns's " Amarasiiilia," dated Udine, June 
 0, 1791). Borgia Papers, in the Museum of Propaganda, C. 
 
 t Dr. Vater died March 28, 182(5, at the age of fifty-five. Though 
 he resided at Konigsberg and Halle, the " Mithridates" was all publish- 
 ed at Berlin. 
 
30 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 In this work, the alphabetical classification is abandoned, and 
 the languages are distributed into groups, or larger divisions, with a 
 minute description and history of each. Lists of works useful for 
 acquiring or examining them are likewise given, together with speci- 
 mens consisting principally of the Lord's Prayer. Adelung's views 
 on the origin of languages, seem to be that mankind may have in- 
 vented them in different countries.* Noah's ark, or the tower of 
 Babel, no way enters into his consideration, for he has no favorite 
 hypothesis to maintain ;t and it would appear that the Paradise 
 whence the human race issued, was in his opinion, the seat of the 
 present generation ; thus e.xcluding all interruption, by any great 
 catastrophe, of the earliest history of man.| With such opinions we 
 have nothing to do at present; they are not given by Adelung as re- 
 sulting from his valuable researches. 
 
 Hitherto we have been occupied with the historical part of our 
 subject, and this has now brought us fairly into our own times. You 
 have therefore a right to expect that according to my engagement, I 
 lay before you the present state of this science, and show the con- 
 firmation which its latest developments have afforded to the scrip- 
 tural history of man's dispersion. 
 
 You have seen then how, at the close of the last century, the 
 numberless languages gradually discovered seemed to render the 
 probabilities of mankind having originally possessed a common 
 tongue, much smaller than before ; while the dissolution of certain 
 admitted connexions and analogies among those previously known, 
 seemed to deny all proof from comparative philology of their having 
 separated from a common stock. Every new discovery only served 
 to increase this perplexity ; and our science must at that time have 
 presented to a religious observer, the appearance of a study daily re- 
 ceding from sound doctrine, and giving encouragement to rash spe- 
 culations and dangerous conjecture. But even at that period, a ray 
 of light was penetrating into the chaos of materials thrown together 
 by collectors, and the first great step towards a new organization, 
 was even then taken by the division of those materials into distinct 
 
 * Erst. lb. Einleitung. Fragmente, u. s. w. p. 11. 
 
 t "Ich liabe keine Lieblingsnieiiiung keine Hypothese zum Grunde 
 zu legen. Ich leite uicht alle Sprachen von Einer her. Noah's Arche 
 isimireinc verschlossene Burg, und Babylon's Scliutt bleibt vor mir 
 vbllig in seiner Ruhe." — lb. Vorrede, p. 9. 
 
 I lb. Einleit. p. 6, comparing pp. 14, 17. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 31 
 
 homogeneous masses, into continents as it were, and oceans ; the 
 stable and circumscribed, and the moveable and varying elements, 
 whereof this science is now composed. 
 
 The affinities which formerly had been but vaguely seen between 
 languages separated in their origin by history and geography, began 
 now to appear definite and certain. It was now found that new and 
 most important connexions existed among languages, so as to com- 
 bine in large provinces or groups, the idioms of nations whom no 
 other research would have shown to be mutually related. It was 
 found that the Teutonic dialects received considerable light from the 
 language of Persia, that Latin had remarkable points of contact with 
 Russian and the other Slavonian idioms, and that the theory of the 
 Greek verbs in ,««, could not well be understood without recourse to 
 their parallels in Sanskrit or Indian Grammar. In short, it was 
 clearly demonstrated that one speech, essentially so called, pervaded 
 a considerable portion of Europe and Asia, and stretching across in 
 a broad sweep from Ceylon to Iceland, united, in a bond of union, 
 nations professing the most irreconcilable religions, possessing the 
 most dissimilar institutions, and bearing but a slight resemblance in 
 physiognomy and color. The language, or rather family of languages, 
 I have thus lightly sketched, has received the name of Indo-Ger- 
 manic, or Indo-European. As this group is necessarily to us the 
 most interesting, and has received most cultivation, I v/ill describe it 
 more at length; confining myself to a few passing observations upon 
 other families. But in tracing the history of this one, you will be 
 fully enabled to see how every new investigation tends still further to 
 correct the dangerous tendencies of the earlier periods of our science. 
 
 The great members of this family are the Sanskrit, or ancient 
 and sacred language of India, the Persian, ancient and modern, 
 formerly considered a Tartar dialect :* Teutonic, with its 
 various dialects, Slavonian, Greek, and Latin, accompanied by its 
 numerous derivatives. To these, as we shall later see, must be now 
 added the Celtic dialects; the enumeration I have made being in- 
 tended to embrace only the languages early admitted into this species 
 of confederation. By casting your eyes over the ethnographic map 
 
 * Pauw, for instance, mentions the affinity between German and 
 Persian, "qui est un dialecte du Tartare." — Recherches Philos. sur les 
 Americairis, vol. 2. p. 303; Berlin, 1770. "La lingua Persiana moder- 
 na e un dialetto corrotto della Tartaro-Mongola."— Hervas Catalogo, p. 
 124. 
 
32 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 which I present you, you will at once see the territory thus occupied ; 
 that is, the whole of Europe, excepting only the small tracts held by 
 the Biscayan, and by the Finnish family, which includes Hungarian; 
 thence it extends over a great part of southern Asia, here and there 
 interrupted by insulated groups. It were tedious indeed to enume- 
 rate the writers who have proved the affinity between the languages 
 I have named,* or between two or more members thereof: it will be 
 sufficient for our purpose if I explain rather the methods they have 
 pursued and the results they have obtained. 
 
 The first and most obvious mode of proceeding, and the one 
 which first led to these interesting conclusions, was that of which I 
 have often spoken; the comparison of words in these different lan- 
 guages. Many works have presented comparative tables to a very 
 great extent : that of Col. Vans Kennedy comprises nine hundred 
 words common to Sanskrit and other languages.! The words found 
 thus to resemble one another in different idioms, are by no means 
 such as could have been communicated by subsequent intercourse, 
 but express the first and simplest elements of language, primary ideas 
 such as must have existed from the beginning, and scarcely ever 
 change their denominations. Not to cite the numerals, which would 
 require many accompanying observations ; while I pronounce the 
 following words, ijader, mader, sunu, dokhfer, bradtr, tnand, vidhava, 
 or juvan, you might easily suppose that I was repeating words from 
 some European language ; yet every one of these terms is either 
 Sanskrit or Persian. Again, to choose another class of simple words, 
 in such words as asthi, (Gr. oaroup) a bone ; denta, a tooth ; eyumen, 
 the eye, in Zend ; brouiva, (Germ, braue) eye-brow ; nasa, the nose ; 
 lib, a lip ; karu, (Gr. yflg) a hand; genu, the knee; ped, the foot ; 
 hrii, the heart ; jccur, the liver : or again, stara, a star ; gela, cold ; 
 aghni, (Lat. ignis) fire ; dhara, (terra) the earth ; arrivi, a river ; 
 nau, (Gr. vavg) a ship ; ghau, a cow ; sarpam, a serpent ; you 
 might easily fancy that you heard dialects of languages much nearer 
 home : and yet they all belong to the Asiatic languages I have 
 already mentioned. So far indeed may this comparison be carried. 
 
 * See a copious list of tlie authors who liavf; written in favor of 
 tiie.se affinities, in Dr. Dorn, " Ueber die Vorvvandschafi rles [)cirsisclien 
 germaniticiien, und griechiscli-lateiiiischen Spniclistainnies," p. i)l-l20 ; 
 Hamb. 1827 ; and of those who have opposed them, p. 120 — 135. 
 
 t " Researches into the origin and affinity of the principal languages 
 of Asia and Europe," London, 1828, at the end of the work. 
 
iSTUDY OF LANGUAGES. 3'i 
 
 that fanciful etymologists like Von Hammer, will derive such pure 
 English words as bed-room, from the Persian.* 
 
 But this verbal coincidence would have proved by no means sat- 
 isfactory to a large body of philologers, had it not in due course been 
 followed by a still more important conformity in the grammatical 
 structure of these languages. Bopp, in 1816, was the first to exam- 
 ine this subject with any degree of accuracy ; and by a minute and 
 sagacious analysis of the Sanskrit verb, compared with the conjuga- 
 tional system of the other members of this family, left no further doubt 
 of their intimate and primitive affinity ;t since which time he has 
 pushed his re?earches much further, and commenced the publication 
 of a more extensive work. J 
 
 By the analysis of the Sanskrit pronouns, the elements of those 
 existing in all the other languages are cleared of their anomalies ; the 
 verb substantive, which in Latin is composed of fragments referable 
 to two distinct roots, here finds both existing in regular form ; the 
 Greek conjugations, with all their complicated machinery of middle 
 voice, augments and reduplications, are here found and illustrated 
 in a variety of ways, which a few years ago would have appeared 
 chimerical. Even our own language may sometimes receive light 
 from the study of distant members of our family. Where for instance, 
 are we to seek the root of our comparative better 7 Certainly not in 
 its positive good, nor in the Teutonic dialects in which the same 
 anomaly exists. But in the Persian, we have precisely the same 
 comparative r^^^ behtcr, with exactly the same signification, regu- 
 larly formed from its positive ^^ belt, good, just as we have in the 
 same language r^^^ badtcr, worse, from '^•^ bad. 
 
 Having brought these two languages into contact, I cannot for- 
 bear expressing some surprise at several observations upon the sub- 
 ject contained in the valuable work by Colonel Kennedy, to which I 
 have already referred. He says, for instance, that " the slightest 
 examination of Persian grammar must show it radically different from 
 
 * See his comparative tables in almost every number of the '' Wie- 
 ner Jahrhiicher," for several years past. 
 
 f "Franz Bopp, liber das Corijiigazionssystem der Sanskritsprache, 
 in Vergleicliung mit jenem der greich. latein, persich. und germanischen 
 Sprache," Fran^/. 18 1 G. 
 
 X " Vergleichende Grammatik des Sanskrit, Zend, Griechischen, 
 Lateinischen, Littauischen, Gothisch. und Deutschen," Berlin, 1833. 
 .5 
 
34 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 that of German. In neither words, therefore, nor in grammatical 
 structure, do the German and Persian languages possess any affinity."* 
 I cannot conceive how any one who has perused Bopp's work, and 
 still less how any one who has read a hundred pages in the two lan- 
 guages, could deny the marked affinity between their respective 
 grammars. I must at the same time observe, that to institute a fair 
 comparison between them we must not merely take the German as 
 at present existing, but examine its older forms as given and proved 
 in Grimm's splendid grammar. We shall there discover, for instance, 
 forms of the verb-substantive bearing the closest relation to the Per- 
 sian conjugation. But of one part of his assertion the learned author, 
 sixty pages later, affords sufficient confutation, when he tells us that 
 " it must be further remarked that the only languages in which San- 
 skrit words exist, are the Greek, Latin, Persian, and Gothic, and the 
 vernacular dialects of India."! Surely this acknowledged affinity 
 of the two languages to a third, whereby they are as it were admitted 
 into the family whereof it is the head, as in strict relationship with 
 it, must imply a mutual connexion between them. In another place 
 too, he seems to deny all affinity between the Sanskrit and Persian 
 grammars ;| and, in the passage I have quoted, as well as elsewhere, 
 he clearly excludes the Slavonian from this family, though its rights 
 to enter it are now universally acknowledged. Throughout the 
 course of his interesting work, it is certainly painful to see the author 
 so unwilling to do justice to his predecessor's merits ; and the severe 
 censure which he has bestowed upon others, has been naturally 
 enough the measure of consideration shown him in domestic, but still 
 more in foreign, reviews. 
 
 You see at once, and I shall have to return again to this subject, 
 how the formation of this vast family greatly diminishes the number 
 of independent original languages ; and other great genera, if I may 
 so call them, have been equally well defined. Of the Semitic lan- 
 guages I need not speak ; for the intimate relationship between the 
 dialects which form them, the Hebrew, Syro-Chaldaic, Arabic, and 
 Gheez or Abyssinian, has long been acknowledged, and applied to 
 another science so important as to deserve later a particular dis- 
 course. § But the Malay, as it has been generally called, presents a 
 similar result in modern ethnography to that of our former investiga- 
 
 * P. 157. f P. 206, also p. 9. | F. 187. 
 
 "5 See the " Lecture on Sacred Oriental Studies." 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 35 
 
 tion. According to both Marsden and Crawfurd, this language or 
 family should rather be called the Polynesian, as the Malay properly 
 so called is only one dialect of it, and may be called the lingua franca 
 of the Indian archipelago. In all the languages composing this 
 group, there is a great tendency to the monosyllabic form and to the 
 rejection of all inflexion, thus approximating to the neighboring 
 group of Transgangetic languages, with which indeed Dr. Leyden 
 seems to unite them. " The vernacular Indo-Chinese languages on 
 the continent," he writes, " seem to be in their original structure 
 either purely monosyllabic, like the spoken languages of China, or 
 they incline so much to this class, that it may be strongly suspected 
 that the kw original polysyllables they contain, have either been im- 
 mediately derived from the Pali, or formed of coalescing monosylla- 
 bles. These languages are all prodigiously varied by accentuation, 
 like the spoken language of China."* Now, among these languages 
 he reckons the Bugis, Javanese, Malayu, Tagala, Batta, and others, 
 which are allied not only in words but in grammatical construction. t 
 Crawfurd, confining his observation within rather narrower limits, 
 comes to the same conclusion. Javanese he considers as presenting 
 most elements of the language which forms the basis of all in this 
 class; and it is peculiarly deficient in grammatical forms,| which 
 may be said no less of the Malayan dialect.§ Indeed, he too has 
 recognised so strong a resemblance, not only of words but of struc- 
 ture, in the languages spoken all through the Indian Archipelago, as 
 to warrant their being classed in one family. || Marsden is still more 
 explicit, and extends the limits of the group a good deal further. 
 "Besides the Malayan," says he, " there are a variety of languages 
 spoken in Sumatra, which however have not only a manifest affinity 
 among themselves, but also to that general language which is found 
 to prevail in, and be indigenous to, all the islands of the eastern sea, 
 from Madagascar to the remotest of Captain Cook's discoveries ; 
 comprehending a wider extent than the Roman or any other tongue 
 has yet boasted. Indisputable examples of this connexion and simi- 
 
 * "Ou the Language and Literature of the Indo-Chinese Nations." 
 Asiat. Res. vol. x. p. 1G2. 
 
 t P. 200. 
 
 X " History of the Indian Archipelago." Edin. 1820, vol. ii. p. 5, 
 seqq. 72, 78, 92, etc. 
 
 § P. 41. \ P. 78. 
 
36 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 larity 1 liavc exhibited in a paper whicii the Society of Antiquaries 
 
 have done me the honor to publish in their Archmologia, vol. vii. In 
 
 different places it has been more or less mixed and corrupted, but 
 
 between the most dissimdar branches an evident sameness of many 
 
 radical words is apparent, and in some, very distant from each other 
 
 in point of situation, as for instance the Phillipines and Madagascar, 
 
 the deviation of the words is scarcely more than is observed in the 
 
 dialects of neiijhboring provinces in the same kingdom."* Thus, 
 
 again we have an immense family stretching over a vast portion of 
 
 • I the globe, and comprising many languages which a few years ago 
 
 i,l were considered independent ; and though I have in my map pre- 
 
 ^ 1 served the two perfectly distinct, it would almost appear as if some 
 
 ^j i 1 affinity might be allowed between the Transgangetic and Malayan 
 
 ^ I groups. 
 
 This first great step of modern ethnographic science, you will, 
 I am sure, acknowledge to be of great interest and importance, when 
 viewed in reference to the early history of man. Instead of being 
 perplexed with a multiplicity of languages, we have now reduced 
 them to certain very large groups, each comprising a great variety of 
 languages formerly thought to be unconnected, and thus repre^en.,- 
 jng, as it were, only one human family originally possessing a single 
 idiom. Now every succeeding step has clearly added to this advan- 
 tage, and diminished still further any apparent hostility between the 
 number of languages and the history of the dispersion. For I have 
 now to show you how further research has deprived new idioms of 
 their supposedjindependence, and brought them into classes already 
 discovered, or, at least, into connexion with distant languages. For 
 example, the march of the Indo-European family was supposed by 
 Malte-Brun, in 1812, to be completely arrested in the region of the 
 Caucasus by the languages there spoken, as the Georgian and Arme- 
 nian ; which, to use his own words, " formed there a family or group 
 apart. "t But Klaproth, by his journey to the Caucasus, has made 
 it necessary to modify this assertion to a great extent. For he has 
 proved, or at least rendered it highly probable, that the language of 
 one great tribe, the Ossetes or Alans, belongs to the great family I 
 have mentioned.^ Again, Armenian, which Frederick Schlegel had 
 
 * " History of Siunatra," Land. 1811, p. 200. 
 
 f " Precis dc la Gt'ograjjliie Uni verse! !e," totno ii. p. 580. 
 
 \ " L'analyse de la Langue dcs Ossetes fera voir qu'elle aj)parlicnt 
 
STUDY OK LANGUAGES. 37 
 
 formerly considered a species of intermediate langupge, rather hang- 
 ing on the skirts of the same group than incorporated tlierewith,* has 
 been by Klaproth, upon grammatical as well as lexical examination, 
 proved fairly to belong to it.t The Afghan or Pushtoo has shared 
 the same fate.^ 
 
 But the greatest accession which this family has received by 
 means of a diligent and judicious study of the analogies of languages, 
 is undoubtedly that of the entire Celtic family, which, with its nume- 
 rous dialects, must now be content to form only a province of the 
 Indo-European. Balbi, in his Ethnographic Atlas, which I will de- 
 scribe to you later, has placed the Biscayan and Celtic languages in 
 one Tableau ; not, of course, because he considers them as having 
 any thing in common, but because they were apparently out of the 
 pale of those idioms by which they are surrounded. Colonel Ken- 
 nedy boldly asserts, " that the Celtic has no connexion with the lan- 
 guages of the East, either in words or phrases, or the construction 
 of sentences."*^ But a still later writer has discussed the question 
 with all the forms of the exploded school, and endeavored to examine 
 the origin of the Celtic nations, by processes which on the continent 
 are almost forgotten. I allude to the work entitled, " The Gael and 
 the Cymbri."|| To deny it the praise of ingenuity and curious re- 
 search would assuredly be unjust ; but the two great ethnographic 
 points therein treated, the radical difference between the Welsh and 
 Irish languages, and the Phenician or Semitic origin of the latter, 
 are certainly managed with all that unsatisfactory display of etymology 
 which has been long since rejected from this study. If we wish to 
 establish the Irish language as a Phenician dialect, the process is 
 very simple. We know from the most undoubted sources that the 
 Phenician and the Hebrew were two sister dialects : compare, there- 
 fore, the grammatical structure of this language and Irish, and the 
 result will solve the problem. Now, instead of this simple method, 
 see how our author proceeds. The names of places on the Spanish 
 and other coasts were given by the Phenicians ; now these names 
 
 a la souche Medo-Persane." — Voyage au Mont Caucase, at en Georgia, 
 Paris, 1823, vol. ii. p. 448. see p. 470, seqq. 
 
 * "Ueber die Spraclie und Weisheit der Indier," Htidtlb. 1808, 
 p. 77. 
 
 t Asia Polyglotta, p. 99. | lb. p. 57. § Ubi sup. p. 85. 
 
 D By Sir W. Bethani, Dublin, 1834. 
 
38 LECmiE THK FIRST. 
 
 can all be explained in Irisli, therefore the Irish and Phenician lan- 
 guages are identical. A kw years ago an eminent geographer pub- 
 lished an essay in a French journal,* wherein he, by a similar pro- 
 cess, derived many African names of places from Hebrew, so to es- 
 tablish their Phenician origin. Klaproth, in a letter under the Danish 
 name of Kierulf, confuted these etymologies by proposing two new 
 ones for each name, the one from Turkish, the other from Russian.! 
 This may suffice to show how unsatisfactory such processes are. 
 For the author never takes the pains to prove that the character of 
 the places corresponds to the Irish interpretation of their names. To 
 examine his etymologies in detail would be indeed tedious ; but I 
 cannot refrain from taking a few examples at random. Some names 
 which we know to be Phenician, and which correspond in that lan- 
 guage to the exact character of the places they represent, must go to 
 Irish to receive new ones, which will do as well for any other. Thus 
 Tyre, in Phenician ITir Tziir, a rock, a meaning to which allusion 
 is repeatedly made in Scripture, is derived, according to him, from 
 Tir, a land or city ; when we might just as well derive it from the 
 Chaldaic T^U Ti?^ a palace. Palmyra and Tadmor, which are exact 
 translations of one another, meaning the city of palms, must be de- 
 rived from Irish words : the one meaning the palace of pleasure ;| 
 the other, the great house : and Cadiz, or Gadir, as it was originally 
 called, must no longer signify, as the word does graphically in Phe- 
 nician, the island or peninsula; but after the Irish word cadaz, which 
 only resembles the modern corruption of the name, must signify 
 glory. ^ Again, taking a set of names, not of places but of people, 
 ending by a common adjective termination in tani ; these are cut in 
 two, and the termination is made to be the Irish word tana, country. 
 I might just as well go to the Malayan for their interpretation ; for 
 there also tanah means a country, as Tanah Papuah, the country of 
 the Papuas.|| But just let us take one example: Lacetani means, 
 
 * " Nouvelles Annales des Voyages," Feb. 1824. 
 f In an appendix to his " Beleiichtung imd Widerlegung dor For- 
 schungen, u. s. w. dcs Herrn J. J. Schmidt," Paris, 1824. 
 
 I Tlio word palas is manifestly identical with palace, palalium, the 
 Palatine liill, then the residence of the Caesars, and so a palace. How 
 did the Phenicians possess it ? 
 
 § Pp. 100, 104. 
 
 II Seo " Trans, of R. A. S." vol. iii. p. 1. 1831. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 39 
 
 according to our author, the country of milk. Why not, therefore, 
 from lac, milk, by a regular formation, derive lacetum like spinetum 
 or rosetum, a place abounding in milk ; and so again, in regular 
 order, Lacctani, the inhabitants of such a country. Surely, if we 
 are to make such etymologies, is not this more regular than the Irish 
 one, lait milk, o of, tana country ?* But suffice it to say, that Latin, 
 Biscayan, and even Spanish words suffer strange changes into Irish 
 to work out this untenable hypothesis.! Then, as to the grammati- 
 cal analysis proposed in this work, to prove that Welsh and Irish 
 have nought in common, I must say, that, in spite of its obscurities, 
 it produced on my mind exactly a contrary impression, and seemed 
 to me to prove, before I had seen the valuable work to which I shall 
 just now refer, that both belonged to the same family, and that the 
 Indo-European. 
 
 I may have appeared to you more full and severe in my remarks 
 upon this work than my subject required ; but I will own that more 
 than once I have been exposed to the mortification of hearing our 
 English ethnographers blamed, as falling far below the advanced 
 position of foreign philologers ; and assuredly, when, after perusing 
 the learned, judicious, and satisfactory inquiries of Baron Humboldt, 
 from the Biscayan, into the very names so disfigured in this book, 
 and admiring the sound philosophical and philological principles 
 which guide him at every step,! we take up a work published since 
 his, and going over the same ground, upon a system of fanciful ety- 
 mologies derided to scorn by continental linguists, it is hard to for- 
 bear feeling a lively regret, that we should be subject to the re- 
 proaches of our neighbors, and that what they have already done 
 should be apparently overlooked amongst us. When we are obliged 
 
 * P. 104. 
 
 f For instance, we are told that Llanes comes from lean, a swampy 
 plain ; while llano in Spanish is the strict re[)resentation of planus, and 
 means precisely the saiue. Puenta Rio de la (Rio de la Piienta), from 
 puinte, a point, (again of Indo-Germanic origin), and not from the 
 Spanish pucnte, a bridge. Cantabri means heads high above ! etc. 
 pp. 107, 109, 111. 
 
 \ In his interesting " Prliftmg der Untersnchung iiher die Urbe- 
 wohner HisiJaniens," Berlin, 1821. Compare Sir W. Betham's deriva- 
 tion of Asturias from as, a torrent, and sir, a country, (p. ]06,) with the 
 learned German's disquisition on thai name as found in Spain and 
 Italy, p. 114. 
 
40 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 to put forward as our greatest ethnographer, one who, like Dr. Mur- 
 ray blends the rarest erudition with the most ridiculous theories, — 
 who with a profound knowledge of many languages, maintains that 
 all those of Europe have their origin from nine absurd monosyllables, 
 expressive of different sorts of strokes :* when a philosopher held 
 greatly in respect by his school, so late as 1827, speaks of the affinity 
 between Greek and Sanskrit as something new and strange : refers 
 to " a German publication of Francis Bopp," and an " Essay on the 
 Language and Philosophy of the Indians, by the celebrated Mr. F, 
 Schlegel," as works yet unknown to us except through the quota- 
 tions of a review ; mentions Gebelin, De Brosses, and Leibnitz, as 
 the best authorities upon these studies ; and occupies many pages in 
 attempting to prove that Sanskrit is a jargon made up from Greek 
 and Latin, and illustrates his position from kitchen-Latin and maca- 
 ronic verses :f when a learned linguist professes to prove the confor- 
 mity of the European with Oriental languages, and for that purpose 
 confuses together primary and derivative, ancient and modern, Semi- 
 tic and Lido-European words ; giving such terms from the Arabic as 
 astrolabe and melancholy , which it, as well as we, received from the 
 Greeks :t when, in short, in the very last year, we have a divine, I 
 believe of some celebrity, bringing this very study to bear upon the 
 Mosaic history, by completely overlooking all its modern results, and 
 considering the Teutonic, Greek, and Semitic as forming the three 
 principal ethnographic reigns ; telling us that " the construction of 
 the three great families of language, the oriental, the western, and 
 the northern, is actually so distinct that a new wonder arises from 
 the perfect adequacy of each to perform all the purposes of human 
 communication :"§ when we see so many others amongst us, whom 
 
 * These are : — \. ag, wag, hivag. 2. bag or bwag. 3. dwag. 
 4. civag. 5. lag. (3. mag. 7. nag. 8. rag. 9. swag. " History," 
 etc. id sup. p. 31. "By the help of tliese nine words and their com- 
 pounds, all the European languages have been formed !" p. 39. 
 
 t These observations will all be found in DugaJd Stewart's " Ele- 
 ments of the philosophy of the Human Mind," vol. iii. Lond. 1827, 
 p. 100—137. 
 
 X See "A Specimen of the Conformity of the European Languages, 
 j)articularly the English with the Oriental Languages." By Stephen 
 Weston, B. D. Lond. 1802. 
 
 § "Divine Providence: or, the Three Cycles of Revelation," by 
 the Rev G. Croly, LL.D. Lond. 1834. c. xxii. p. 301. Nothing can 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 41 
 
 it would be long to enumerate, pertinaciously clinging to the old 
 dreams of Hebrew etymologies, 
 
 " Trattando I'ornbre come cosa salda;" 
 
 we cannot but feel that the reproach made against us is but too well 
 grounded, that we have neglected to keep pace with the progress of 
 this science upon the continent ; and be keenly mortified when we 
 meet, instead of amendment, another repetition of what has hereto- 
 fore justified the charge. 
 
 But from this unpleasant and unwilling censure, which I trust 
 will not be often called for in the course of our meetings, I am 
 agreeably recalled by a work to which I am happy to say I can give 
 unqualified praise : 
 
 XalfiOi Si nqoacfOQOV 
 
 ' Ev fisv SQyu) y.6[j,nov idg ;* 
 
 and which leads us back to the matter whence we have so long di- 
 gressed. For you may perhaps have almost forgotten that we were 
 discussing the propriety of uniting the Celtic dialects to the Indo- 
 European family. This question may be now considered as fairly 
 set at rest, by the valuable and interesting work of Dr. Prichard, On 
 the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations.^ In an earlier publica- 
 tion to which I shall, on a future occasion, have to refer very frequent- 
 ly, he had entered into a partial analysis of the Welsh numerals and 
 verbs, and concluded that the admission of this language into the 
 family so often named, " would have been allowed, if it had under- 
 gone a similar investigation to the others, from persons competent to 
 form an opinion on its analogies."! Bat in the present work he has 
 put the affinity of the Celtic with the Indo-European languages 
 above all doubt. First he has examined the lexical resemblances, 
 and shown that the primary and most simple words are the same in 
 both, as well as the numerals, and elementary verbal roots.§ Then 
 
 be more incorrect than the description wliich follows this passage of 
 the characteristics of each family so formed. 
 
 * Pindar, Nem. 8. 82. f Oxford, 1831. 
 
 J "Researches into the Physical History of Man ;" London, 1826, 
 vol. 2. p. 168, comp. p. 622. 
 
 § p. 3G — 88. It may however be worth while observing that Jakei 
 has shown all the words given by the ancients as Celtic, to be German. 
 "Der germanische Ursprung der lateinischen Sprache ;" Bresl. 1830, p. 
 
 6 
 
42 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 follows a minute analysis of the verb, directed to show its analogies 
 with other languages, and they are such as manifest no casual coin- 
 cidence, but an internal structure radically the same. The verb- 
 substantive, which is minutely analyzed, presents more striking 
 analogies to the Persian verb than perhaps any other language of the 
 family.^ But Celtic is not thus become a mere member of this con- 
 federacy, but has brought its most important aid. For from it alone 
 can be satisfactorily explained some of the coujugational endings in 
 the other languages. For instance, the third person plural of the 
 Latin, Persian, Greek, and Sanskrit, ends in nt, nd, vii ino, and nti 
 I or nt. Now supposing, with most grammarians, that the inflexions 
 arose from the pronouns of the respective persons, it is only in Celtic 
 that we find a pronoun that can explain this termination. For there 
 too the same person ends in nt, and thus corresponds exactly, as do 
 the otliers, with its pronoun hwynt, or i/nf.j 
 
 This circumstance certainly gives Welsh an important place 
 among the languages composing this great family. It must not, how- 
 ever, thereby receive any undue advantage over the others, or be 
 considered as approaching nearer to the original stock. For this is 
 yet an important problem to be solved, that is, to ascertain, the order 
 of filiation, if it exist, or the rights of primogeniture, among its mem- 
 bers. Sanskrit, instead of the made-up-jargon it was supposed to be 
 by Stewart, is considered by most ethnographers the oldest and 
 purest form ; Latin resembles it in many respects more than Greek, 
 and yet Jakel has lately endeavored to prove that it is derived 
 through Teutoiiic. Ke has indeed brought many examples of Latin 
 words which want their signification unless we recur to German, as 
 fenestra, v,-hich through the cognate word fensfcr is explained from 
 Jinster, dark, having originally signified, according to him, the shut- 
 ters or lattice; and of others v/hich have no roots except there, such 
 as prcBsagire and sagus, which find in German the verb sagen, 
 whence wahrsagen, for sufficient root.t Such speculations must not, 
 however, be indulged in too much; for a root once common to both 
 languages may have been lost in one, and preserved in another, 
 though both are independent in descent. Thus we are every mo- 
 ment obliged to recur to the Arabic for roots now wanting in 
 
 11. Does this arise tiitirely fiotii family afiiiiity, or from confusion in 
 the ancients, who took little pains to study whut lijpy deemed barbarous 
 languages ? 
 
 • Sue p. 171, seqq. f P. 130—138. \ Ubi sup. p. 13. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 43 
 
 Hebrew ; yet no one would thence conclude the Arabic origin of the 
 Hebrew tongue. Minute grammatical analysis will alone put us in 
 possession of correct conclusions upon this subject. 
 
 While the Indo-European family is thus gradually more rounded, 
 as well as increased in its territorial limits, and the number of its 
 members daily increases, other languages, the connexions whereof 
 were not formerly known, have been found allied to others separated 
 by considerable tracts of country, so nearly as to form with them a 
 common family. I will content myself with one instance in Europe. 
 Towards the close of the last century, Sainovic, followed by Gyar- 
 mathi, proved that Hungarian, which lies like an island surrounded 
 by Indo-European languages, belongs essentially to the Finnish or 
 Uralian family,* which stretches downwards, as it were, through the 
 Esthonian and Livonian, to join it.f In Africa too, the dialects 
 whereof have been comparatively but little studied, every new re- 
 search displays connexions between tribes extended over vast tracts, 
 and often separated by intermediate nations; in the north between 
 the languages spoken by the Berbers and Tuariks, from the Canaries 
 to the Oasis of Siwa ; in central Africa, between the dialects of the 
 Felatahs and Foulas, who occupy nearly the whole interior ; in the 
 south, among the tribes across the whole continent, from Caffraria 
 and Mozambique to the Atlantic Ocean. | 
 
 But it is time that we should pause ; first looking back upon what 
 we have hitherto gained, thence to take augury for those more inter- 
 esting results which will occupy our next meeting. We have seen 
 then, the learned world slumbering contented with the hypothesis 
 that the few languages known might be all resolved into one, and 
 that one probably the Hebrew. Aroused by new discoveries which 
 defied this easy vindication of the Mosaic history, they saw the neces- 
 sity of a totally new science which should dedicate its attention to 
 the classification of languages. At first it seemed as though the in- 
 fant science was impatient of control, and its earliest progress seem- 
 ed directly at variance with the soundest truths. Gradually, how- 
 ever, masses which seemed floating in uncertainty, came together, 
 and like the garden islands of the Mexican lake, combined into 
 
 * Sainovii Demonstratio Idioma Uii<,'arornm et Lapponum idem 
 esse ;" Copenhag. 1770. " GyarmatI)), Affinitas Linguae Hungaricse cum 
 Linguis Fenuicse originis, graminatice demonstrata," Golling. 1799. 
 
 t See the " Ethnographic Map," prefixed to this volume. 
 
 X See Prichard, uhi sup. p. 7. 
 
44 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 compact and extensive territories, capable and worthy of the finest 
 cultivation. The languages, in other words, grouped themselves 
 into various large and well-connected families, and thus greatly re- 
 duced the number of primary idioms from which others have sprung. 
 And after this, we have seen, how every succeeding research, so far 
 from weakening this simplifying result, has on the contrary still 
 further strengthened it, by ever bringing new tongues, thought be- 
 fore to be independent, into the limits of established families, or 
 uniting into new ones such as promised little or no affinity. Such 
 are the first two results of this science, and I will reserve for another 
 day its further advance. 
 
 But before closing this lecture, I may not withhold a few reflec- 
 tions suggested to me by looking back on the sort of inquiry I have 
 therein followed. For, when I consider how many different men 
 have labored almost unwittingly to produce the results I have laid 
 before you, — one for no sensible purpose hunting out the analogies 
 of this speech, another, that knew not wherefore, noting the dialects 
 of barbarous tribes, a third comparing together, for pastime, the 
 words of diverse countries; — when I see them thus, all like emmets 
 bearing their small particular loads, or removing some little obstruc- 
 tion, and crossing and recrossing one to the other, as though in total 
 confusion, and to the utter derangement of each other's projects; 
 and yet when I discover that from all this there results a plan of ex- 
 ceeding regularity, order, and beauty ; it doth seem to me as though 
 I read therein signs of a higher instinct, and of a directing influence 
 over the thoughtless counsels of men, which can bring them unto 
 great and useful purposes. And such methinks is to be found in the 
 the history of all sound learning. For, as a day appearing now and 
 then of brighter and warmer sunshine doth foreshow that the full 
 burst of summer's glory is about to break upon the earth, so do cer- 
 tain privileged minds, by some mysterious communication, ever 
 foresee, as it were, or rather feel sometime beforehand, and announce 
 the ayjproach of, some great and new system of truth ; as did Bacon, 
 of philosophy ; and Leibnitz, of our science ; and Plato, of a holier 
 manifestation. Then arise, and come in from all sides, we know not 
 how, v/orkmen and patient laborers, like those who cast down fag- 
 gots under a foundation, or raise stones thereon ; whom no one takes 
 for the architects or builders of the house, for they know and compre- 
 hend nought of its plans or objects ; and yet every stone which they 
 place fitteth aright, and adds to the usefulness and beauty of its parts. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. ^^ 
 
 And so, after this fashion, by the work of many conjoined, though 
 not combined in any plan, a science is builded up ui fair propor- 
 tions, and seemeth to stand well and in its proper place among the 
 others already raised; and so at length cometh to be a jomt, as i 
 were in the general fitness of things, and a maxim m the universal 
 truth' and a tone or accord in the harmony of nature. 
 
 Now T cannot persuade myself that there is not an overseeing 
 eye in this ordering of things dissimilar to one great end, when I see 
 that this great end is the confirmation of Gods holy word ; but 
 rather of ?his seeming human industry I would say with the divine 
 
 poet ; — 
 
 " Lo Motor primo a lui si volge lieto, 
 Sovra tant' arte di natura, e spira 
 Spirito nuovo di virtu repleto 
 Che ci6 che truova attivo quivi, lira 
 In sua sustanzia e fassi un' alma sola 
 Che vive e sente, e se in s6 rigira."* 
 
 Dante, " Purgat:' xxv. 
 
 Not that He partaketh in the errors and follies of such as labor in 
 these pursuits, but, as He useth the evils of this world for the most 
 holy purposes, and unfolds often therefrom the most magnificent 
 passages of His blessed providence, so may He here overrule and 
 guide even the ill-intended labors of many, and so dispose thereof, as 
 that a new and beautiful light may come forth upon His truths, 
 when such is most truly needed. 
 
 Thus would I consider the rise and development of any new 
 science, as entering essentially into the established order of God's^ 
 moral government; just as the appearance, from time to time, ot 
 new stars in the firmanent, according to what astronomers tell us, 
 must be a pre-ordained event in the annals of creation. And if you 
 agree with me in these reflections.^ou^will alsomethrnks feel as 1 
 
 * " Then turns 
 
 The primal mover with a smile of joy 
 On such great work of nature ; and imbreathes 
 New spirit replete with virtue, that what here 
 Active it finds, to its own substance draws ; 
 And forms an individual soul that lives, 
 And feels, and bends reflective on itself."— 
 
 Gary's Translation. 
 
46 LECTURE THE FIRST. 
 
 do, that in tracing the history of any pursuit, we are not so much in- 
 dulging a fond curiosity, or following the progress of man's ingenuity, 
 as watching the beautiful courses whereby God hath gradually re- 
 moved the veil from before some hidden knowledge, first lifting up 
 one corner thereof, then another, till the whole is rolled away ; and 
 you will with me delight in studying the purposes and applications 
 thereby intended, both towards our humble instruction and His in- 
 creasing glory. 
 
LECTURE THE SECOND; 
 
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 SuMiMARY OK RESULTS exposGcl ill the preceding Lecture. — Conlinua- 
 lion. — Third; Relatioiisljjp between tlie different families. — Present 
 state of tiie study ; its two principal Sciiools, founded on the com- 
 parison of words, and of grammatical forms. — Remarks directed 
 towards reconciling them. — Errors regarding the siipposed power 
 of development in Languages ; opinion of Humboldt. — Power of 
 external circumstances to alter the grammatical structure of a lan- 
 guage. — Proposed rule for the comparison of words. — Dr. Young's 
 application of the calculus of probabihlies to the discovery of the 
 conunon origin of two languages, by a comparison of words. — Lep- 
 sius on the affinities between Hebrew and Sanskrit. — His further 
 and inedited researches into the connexion between Hebrew and 
 ancient Egyptian. — Pro[)osed comparison of Semitic and Indo- 
 European grammatical forms (referred to a note.) — Cottclusions of 
 modern Ethnographers. — First ; That all language was originally 
 one; Ale.x. von Humboldt, Academy of St. Petersburgh, Merian, 
 Klaprotli, Fred. Schlegel. — SzcondUj ; That the separation was by 
 a violent and sudden cause ; Herder, Turner, Abel-Remusat, Nie- 
 bidir, Balbi. 
 
 American Languages. — Difficulties arising from their multiplicity. — 
 ~ Attempts of Vater, Smith-Barton, and Malte-Brun, to trace them to 
 Asiatic lang\iages. — Unity of family proved by siniilarity of gram- 
 mar ; subdivision into groups. — Their uutnl)er accounted for by 
 the experience of the science ; confirmation of their Asiatic origin 
 from other coincidences. — General remarks on the providential con- 
 
 -* nexion of the different states of religion with different families of lan- 
 guages. 
 
 Albeit, in my last Discourse, after leading you through a com- 
 pendious history of philological Ethnography in ages past, I brought 
 
48 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 you into our own times, and endeavored to make you acquainted 
 with the labors of many who yet live ; nevertheless, I may be said to 
 have there only given you the proeme, as it were, or introduction to 
 the modern study, and to the principles whereon it is conducted. 
 For, such was the abundance of matter furnished by my theme, that, 
 after all convenient abridgement used, I saw myself compelled either 
 to abuse your patience by too long a discourse, or divide my subject 
 to the disparagement of its better understanding. And so, choosing 
 this part, which threw the difficulties upon myself rather than upon 
 those who so courteously attend me : — 
 
 " Contro il placer mio per piacerli, 
 Trassi dell' acqua non sazia la s[)tigna."* 
 
 In requital for this, I must request you to summon back to your 
 recollection, the chiefest points whereof we seemed to have gained 
 sufficient evidence; and these are, 'that the comparative study of 
 languages has brought into certain relationship many which hereto- 
 fore had seemed divided asunder, forming thereof great groups or 
 families, so that nations and tribes covering vast tracts of territory are 
 in this study accounted as only one people ; and that its subsequent 
 researches teiid in every instance to diminish the number of inde- 
 pendent languages, to widen the pale of these larger provinces, and 
 to bring the number of original stocks much nearer to what might be 
 supposed to have arisen on a sudden, among the few inhabitants of 
 the earlier world. 
 
 The next important point to be ascertained is, whether any rela- 
 tionship can be discovered between languages of different families, 
 so as to deduce that they have once been in closer connexion than 
 at present ; in other words, that they descend from a common stock. 
 Now, the inquiries which have been carried on to ascertain this deli- 
 cate and important point, are so intimately connected with the present 
 state of the study, and the schools into which it is divided, that it 
 becomes absolutely necessary for us to interrupt our course, and ex- 
 amine this actual condition of philological ethnography; if, indeed, 
 we are to call an interruption what essentially enters into the design 
 
 [* " Against my own pleasure, for the sake of pleasing them, I 
 drew back the sponge, not satiated with water." A poetical sentence, 
 the first part of which presents a sentiment analogous to the writer's 
 determination 1 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 49 
 
 of our original plan. As one of the schools sets hut little value upon 
 the methods pursued by the other, and consequently upon the results 
 thence gained, it would be unjust to receive them as undisputed ; and 
 I should be deceiving you were I to lay before you these results as 
 the uncontested discoveries of the science, or without explaining how 
 far they may be considered satisfactory. Two things I will premise ; 
 first, that so far as we have proceeded, all agree; so that the results 
 I have laid before you may be considered as quite placed out of 
 doubt ; secondly, that you will find we have suffered nothing, or 
 rather have gained, by the severer principles which one school has 
 adopted. 
 
 The principal ethnographers of modern times may be divided 
 into two classes ; one whereof seeks the affinity of languages in their 
 words, the other in their grammar; their methods may be respec- 
 tively called, lexical and grammaticnl comparison. The chief sup- 
 porters of the first method are principally to be found in France, Eng- 
 land, and Russia ; such as Klaproth, Balbi, Abel-Remusat, Whiter, 
 Vans Kennedy, Gaulianoff, the younger Adelung, and Merian. In 
 Germany, Von Hammer, and perhaps Frederick Schlegel, might be 
 considered as of the same school. The principle followed by these 
 writers may be perhaps summed up in the observation made some- 
 where by Klaproth, that, " words are the stuff or matter of language, 
 and grammar its fashioning or form." And in a work by the late 
 Baron Merian, which Klaproth edited, we have all the principles 
 whereon he and his school conduct the study clearly and systemati- 
 cally laid down, with all the results they have thence deduced.* 
 The other class is confined in a great measure to Germany, and 
 reckons W. A. von Schlegel and the lamented Baron W. von Hum- 
 boldt among its most distinguished chiefs. No one has been more 
 explicit or more energetic in denouncing the principles of the other 
 school than the first of these two writers. " Viri docti," says he, " in 
 eo praecipue peccare mihi videntur, quod ad similitudinem nonnulla- 
 rum dictionum qualemcumque animum advertant, diversitatem ra- 
 tionis grammaticae et universse indolis plane non curant. In origine 
 ignota linguaruni exploranda, ante omnia respici debet ratio gram- 
 matica. Haec enim a majoribus ad posteros propagatur ; separari 
 autem a lingua cui ingenita est nequit, aut seorsum populis ita tradi 
 ut verba linguae vernaculaB retineant, formulas loquendi peregrinas 
 
 * " Principps de I'^tnde comparative des lansrues," Paris, 1828. 
 7 
 
50 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 recipiant."* Here you see that we have two most important asser- 
 tions ; that grammar is an essential inborn element of a lar>guage : 
 and that a new grammar cannot be separately imposed upon a peo- 
 ple ; but that if they accept the forms, they must adopt also the mat- 
 ter of a language. 
 
 Having thus stated the opinions, or rather the principles of these 
 two schools, I will proceed to lay before you such reflections and 
 conclusions as I have been led to in the prosecution of this study ; 
 hoping, that as they are presented with all becoming diffidence, they 
 may be still somewhat useful, towards narrowing the difference be- 
 tween the schools I have described. 
 
 First then I will say, that authors are often mistaken when they 
 attempt to analyze a language, with a view of ascertaining its primi- 
 tive form. Nothing is more common than to find, in very judicious 
 writers, the idea that there is in languages a tendency to develope 
 and improve themselves ; like Home Tooke or his adversary, they 
 lead us back to periods when every auxiliary verb had its real mean- 
 ing,t and when every conjunction was an imperative. Murray, in 
 like manner, speaks of the stage of languages when compounds and 
 pronouns were first invented ;| and indeed pretends, as I mentioned 
 at our last meeting, to trace all languages to a few absurd and jing- 
 ling monosyllables. I will give an example which will fully e.vplain 
 my meaning. If we analyze the Semitic languages, especially the 
 Hebrew, we can easily resolve all their conjugational system into 
 mere additions of pronouns, made to the simple elementary form of 
 the verb ; and you may discover in their words, the traces of mono- 
 syllabic, instead of dissyllabic roots, which they now present. We 
 should thus have a simple language composed of the shortest words, 
 totally devoid of inflexion, and determining the value of its ele- 
 ments by position in a sentence ; in other words, a language, in 
 structure, closely resembling the Chinese. This, certainly, consid- 
 ered in reference to the actual state of the family, would be a more 
 simple, or a primary state, from which the present might be thought 
 to have arisen by the gradual development of many ages ; and, in 
 
 * " Indische Bii)liothek," 1 Band, 3 Heft. Bonn, 1822, pp. 28.=>, 287. 
 In the first number, (1820) he expresses himself in still stronger terms. 
 
 f See for instance, Fearn's " Anti-Tooke," vol. i. ; London, 1824, 
 p. 244. 
 
 J "History, etc.," vol. i. p. 41, 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 51 
 
 fact, learned men have not been wanting who so thought.* Now 
 from this opinion, which 1 confess I once held, I nmst totally dissent : 
 for hitherto the experience of several thousand years does not afford 
 us a single example of spontaneous development in any speech. At 
 whatever period we meet a language, we find it complete as to its 
 essential and characteristic qualities ; it may receive a finer polish, a 
 greater copiousness, a more varied construction; but its specific dis- 
 tinctives, its vital principle, its soul, if I may so call it, appears fully 
 formed, and can change no more. If an alteration does take place 
 it is only by the springing up of a new language, phoenix-like, from 
 the ashes of another ; and even where this succession has happened, 
 as in that of Italian to Latin, and of English to Anglo-Saxon, there 
 is a veil of secrecy thrown over the change, the language seems to 
 spin a web of mystery around itself, and enter into the chrysalis state ; 
 and we see it no more till it emerges, sometimes more, sometimes 
 less beautiful, but always hilly fashioned, and no further mutable. 
 And even there, we shall see tiiat the former condition held already 
 within itself the parts and organs ready moulded, which were one 
 day to give shape and life to the succeeding state. t 
 
 The two languages which I have just mentioned, as to their 
 essential features, or rather their personality and principle of identity, 
 are as perfect in the oldest as in the latest writers. Of Dante, or 
 the Guidos, I need not sf)eak; but our Chaucer too, assuredly found 
 in his native tongue, as fully-stringed and as sweetly-attuned an in- 
 strument whereon to sing his lay, <vs Wordsworth himself could de- 
 sire. So it is with the Hebrew ; in the writings of Moses, and in 
 the earlier fragments incorporated into Genesis, the essential struc- 
 
 * The reasoning whereon this theory rests is so obvious to all that 
 are acquainted witli these languages, that it is only a woiuler that more 
 authors have not pursued it. See Adelung's " Mithridates." torn, i. p. 
 301. Klaproth, "Observations sur les racines des Langues S6iiiiti- 
 ques," at the end of " Merian's Principes," p. 209. To these I might 
 add the authority of professed Hebrew scholars, as Michaelis, Gesenius, 
 Oberleitner, etc, 
 
 f Thus a very slight study of the decline of Latin, will show us the 
 words now piu'e Italian becoiriing common, as pensare, to think, in the 
 writings of St. Gregory, or the preposition f/e, for the genitive. Such 
 forms were all doubtless common long before among the vulgar. In 
 rude sepulchral inscriptions, we have the SS for the X, as BISSIT for 
 ViXIT ; nay, I remember one instance where this verb is written as. 
 in Italian, (excepting the change of V into B) BISSE. 
 
52 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 ture of the language is complete, and apparently incapable, in spite 
 of its manifest imperfection, of any further improvement. The 
 ancient Egyptian, as written in hieroglyphics upon the oldest monu- 
 ments, and in the Coptic of the liturgy, after an interval of three 
 thousand years, you will see established by Lepsius to be identical. 
 The same will be observed upon comparing the oldest with the latest 
 Greek or Latin writers. The case of the last is particularly striking, 
 if we consider tlie opportunity of improvement afforded it by coming 
 in contact with the former. But though the conquest of Greece 
 brought into rude Latium, sculpture and painting, poesy and history, 
 art and science ; though it rounded the forms of its periods, and 
 gave new suppleness and energy to its language, yet did it not add a 
 tense or declension to its grammar, a particle to its lexicon, or a let- 
 ter to its alphabet. 
 
 For in sooth we may lay it down as a principle, that no nation, 
 from a sense of defect in its present language, will, under ordinary 
 circumstances, borrow from another, or produce any new germs 
 within itself How comes it else, that Chinese, so devoid of gram- 
 matical construction, that it seems the very copy of the forms of 
 thought expressed in signs by the deaf and dumb,* has never con- 
 trived to frame, what we consider indispensable to the understanding 
 of speech ? Why have the Semitic languages, after thousands of 
 years' neighborhood with languages of other families, never generated 
 a present tense, or compound and conditional tenses and moods, the 
 want whereof so much perplexes their discourse and writing ; or in- 
 vented some new conjunctions, to relieve the copulative van from the 
 burthen of expressing all possible relation between the parts of a dis- 
 course ? Nay, how comes it, that after ages of contact with more 
 perfect alphabets, and fully owning the immense difficulties of one 
 without vowels, those who speak them have never succeeded in 
 
 * The (leaf and dumb cannot l)e hroiiglit to use tiie granimalical 
 gestures invented for thorn by the Al)!)6 Sicanl, but content tlioinselves 
 with the simple signs of ideas, leaving the structure undetermined l>y 
 any but the natural order of connexion. See Degtrando, " De I'Efhica- 
 tion dos Sourds-inuets," Paris, 18'27, torn. i. j). 580, 588. The follow- 
 ing is the literal translation into words of the Our Father, as expressed 
 by them in signs. 1. Our, 2. Fallier, 3. heaven, 4. in, (sign of insertion) 
 5. tcish, (sign of (h-awing or attraeling) C>. your, (you) 7. name, 8. respect ; 
 9. wish, 10. your, 11. (over) soitls, Vi. kins;^lom, 1.3. (that \^) providence, 
 14. arrive; 15. rvish, 10. your, 17. ivill, 18. do, U>. heaven, 20. cnrlh, 21. 
 equality, (in like maimer as) p. 589. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 53 
 
 introducing them here, but resort, to this day, to the chimsy expedi- 
 ent of troublesome points? And the one which has attempted a 
 change, the Abyssinian, has only produced a more unnatural and 
 complicated syllabic alphabet, full of trouble, and liable to innumer- 
 able mistakes. Were there such a thing as natural development in 
 languages, surely so many ages must have produced it in these in- 
 stances. But so far from this being the case, the earlier stages of a 
 language are often the most perfect ; and the late researches I have 
 so often referred to, made by Grimm into the primitive forms of 
 German grammar, are far from establishing the tendency of a lan- 
 guage to improve ; for many valuable forms have been therein lost. 
 
 To speak therefore of the secondary stages of a language, or to 
 suppose it must have required centuries for it to arrive at any given 
 point of grammatical development, is perfectly against experience. 
 Languages grow not up from a seed or a sprout; they are, by some 
 mysterious process of nature, cast in a living mould, whence they 
 come out in all their fair proportions ; and that mould is the mind of' 
 man, variously modified by the circumstances of his outward rela- 
 tions. Here again I cannot but regret our inability to comprehend 
 in one glance the bearings and connexions of different sciences; for, 
 if it appears that ages must have been required to buing languages to 
 the state wherein we first find them, other researches would show us 
 that these ages never existed ; and we should thus be driven to dis- 
 cover some shaping power, some ever-ruling influence which could 
 do at once what nature would take centuries to effect; and the book 
 of Genesis has alone solved this problem. 
 
 Although I may have already appeared to you diffuse upon this 
 subject, I must not leave it without giving what I consider the strong- 
 est confirmation of my opinions, the judgment of the truly lamented 
 William von Humboldt. This profound linguist, perhaps beyond 
 any other, brought a spirit of analytical inquiry in contact with a 
 vast store of practical ethnographic knowledge, and used the study 
 of languages in a way that few have done besides, as a means to ar- 
 rive at a better acquaintance with the forms of thought, and with the 
 processes of mental improvement. And if to valiant knights it has 
 been a praise that they loved to die with their harness buckled on, 
 and if it has been a glory to some orators that their eloquence burnt 
 with a brighter flame just before it was quenched forever ; assuredly 
 his is a fairer commendation, to have given the best proof of the 
 calm power of thought over the infirmities of our nature, and shown, 
 
64 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 almost in death, the concentrating hold which genius may keep upon 
 the elements of a long and meditative life. For long ago he had 
 announced to his friends his intention of drawing up, as his last 
 legacy, a very compendious treatise upon the philosophy of language ; 
 and so, within these few months, the last of his life, reduced by 
 illness to such a state of miserable weakness, as that he could now 
 no longer hold in his hand either pen or book ; bending over his 
 table as one bowed down by years, he seemed to gather inward those 
 varied energies which in earlier days had qualified him alike for a 
 philosopher or a statesman ; and dictated a profound work upon 
 that most difficult subject, which, when published, will give to the 
 world a noble instance, not of the ruling passion, but of the govern- 
 ing intellect, strong in death. 
 
 When, upon the advice of Abel-Remusat, he had made himself 
 acquainted in a short period with the Chinese language, he lost no 
 time in requiting him by a most interesting letter upon grammatical 
 forms. Not having met with this work till long after I had written 
 down the reflections I have just made, T have been highly gratified 
 by finding in it precisely the same views, though far more philoso- 
 phically expressed. " Je ne regarde pas les formes grammaticales," 
 he says, "comme les fruits des progres qu'une nation fait dans 
 I'analyse de la pensee, mais plutot comme un resultat de la maniere 
 dont une nation considere et traite sa langue."* He observes, that 
 in the Maya and Betoi, two American languages, there are two 
 forms of the verb, one that marks time, the other simply the relation 
 between the attribute and the subject. This appears highly philoso- 
 phical, yet he well observes, " ces rapprochemens peuvent, ce me 
 semble, servir a prouver que, lorsqu'on trouve de pareilles particular- 
 ites dans les langues, il ne faut pas les attribuer a un esprit eminem- 
 ment philosophique dans leurs inventeurs."t I will take the liberty 
 of reading one more extract, as admirably expressing what I have 
 wished to inculcate. " Je suis penetre de la conviction qu'il ne faut 
 pas meconnaitre cette force vraiment divine que recelent les facul- 
 tes humaines, ce genie createur des nations, surtout dans I'etat 
 primitif, ou toutes les idees, et meme les facultes de I'ame, emprun- 
 tent une force plus vive de la nouveaute des impressions, oij I'homme 
 pent pressentir des combinaisons auxquelles il ne serait jamais arrive 
 par la marche lente et progressive de I'experience. Ce genie 
 
 * "Lettre a M. Abel-R^irnisat, sur la nature des formes grammati- 
 cales," etc. par JM. Guill. de IJuniholdt, Paris, 1827. p. 13. 
 t P. 15. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 55 
 
 createur peut franchir les limites qui semblenl prescrites an reste des 
 mortels, et s'il est impossible de retracer sa marche, sa presence 
 vivifiante n'en est pas moins manifeste. Plutot que de renoncer 
 dans I'explication de I'origine des langues, a I'influence de cette 
 cause puissante et premiere, et de leur assigner a toutes une marche 
 uniforme et mecanique, qui les trainerait pas a pas depuis le com- 
 mencement le plus grossier jusqu'a leur perfectionnement, j'embras- 
 serais I'opinion de ceux qui rapportent I'origine des langues a une 
 revelation immediate de la divinite. lis reconnaissent aux moins 
 I'etincelle divine qui luit a travers tons les idiomes, meme les plus 
 imparfaits, et les moins cultives."* Thus, therefore, does this dis- 
 tinguished ethnographer agree, that languages do not reach their 
 peculiar development, as it is erroneously called, by slow degrees, 
 but receive it from some unknown energy of the human mind ; un- 
 less, like the first speech, we suppose them to have been communica- 
 ted from above. 
 
 Having thus denied the power of languages to produce of them- 
 selves, and, under ordinary circumstances, even to alter their 
 grammatical structure; and considering this not merely as the 
 outward form of a language, but as its most essential element, we 
 may well inquire how far Schlegel is correct, in assuming that under 
 no circumstances can such a modification or change take place ; 
 and I will take the liberty of saying, that some instances seem to 
 warrant us in maintaining, that under the pressure of peculiar in- 
 fluences, a language may undergo such alterations, as that its 
 words shall belong to one class, and its grammar to another. It is 
 true, that in that case, a new language will be formed, different 
 from either of its parents, but still it will depart from the one which 
 preceded it, by the adoption of new grammatical forms. Thus 
 Schlegel himself allows, that Anglo-Saxon lost its grammar by the 
 Norman conquest.t And may we not say, that Italian has sprung 
 out of the Latin, more by the adoption of a new grammatical system, 
 than by any change in words? For if you will compare any works 
 in the two languages, you will hardly perceive any difference in the 
 verbs and nouns : but you find articles borrowed from the pronouns, 
 a total loss of case, and consequently of all declension : and the verbs 
 
 * P. 55, compare p. 51. See also the quotation in Lect. i. p. 10, 
 note. 
 
 t De studio Etym. ubi sup. p. 284. 
 
56 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 conjugated almost entirely by auxiliaries in the active voice, and 
 totally deprived of a passive properly so called. These, in fact, are 
 the alterations which entitle it to be considered a new language. It 
 is true, that in this case, the language has not gone out of its own 
 family for the types of its variations ; for these peculiarities are all to 
 be found in other languages of the Indo-European class, as German 
 and Persian ; but it is no less true, that the change is very great, and 
 allies the new language to another subdivision, which forms one ex- 
 treme, while the Latin is almost the other, of the family. 
 
 The ancient Pehlwi or Pahlavi, has been supposed by some lin- 
 guists to present a similar example : for Sir W. Jones observed that 
 the words are Semitic, but the grammar Indo-European ;* and 
 hence Balbi has placed it in his Tableau of the Semitic languages. 
 The fact is partly admitted, but the consequences denied by Dr. 
 Dorn, who supposes the Semitic words to have crept into the lan- 
 guage, by intercourse with the surrounding Aramean nations.f 
 Another curious example of a similar phenomenon may be taken 
 from the Kawi, a language of the Indian Archipelago; of which Mr. 
 Crawfurd thus writes : " Were I to offer an opinion respecting the 
 history of the Kawi, I should say that it is Sanskrit deprived of its 
 inflexions, and having in their room the prepositions and auxiliary 
 verbs of the vernacular dialects of Java. We may readily suppose 
 the native Brahmans of that island, separated from the country of 
 their ancestors, through carelessness or ignorance, endeavoringtoget 
 rid of the difficult and complex inflexion of the Sanskrit, for the 
 same reasons that the barbarians altered the Greek and Latin lan- 
 guages to the formation of the modern Romaic or Italian." \ 
 
 Perhaps, too, another instance may be found in the Tartar lan- 
 guages, — in which a profound scholar finds traces of similar de- 
 parture from the original type of their grammatical construction. 
 " Depuis I'extremite de 1' Asie," says Abel-Remusat, " on ignore 
 
 # « 
 
 ' Asiatic Researches," vol. ii. ed. Calcutta, p. 52. 
 
 ■j- "Ueber die Verwandschaft," etc. p. 44. 
 
 J "On the Existence of the Hindu Religion in the Island of Bali." 
 — Asiat. Res. vol. xiii, Calcutta, 18'i0, p. 101. In another work Mr. 
 Crawfiu'd expresses his opinion in a rather modified form: "The 
 opinion I am inclined to form of this singular language is, that it is no 
 foreign tongue introduced into the island, but the written language of 
 the priesthood." — History of the Indian Archipelago, Edinb. 1820, vol. 
 iLp. 18. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 57 
 
 entierement I'art de conjuguer les verbes : on du moinsles participes 
 et les gerondifs jouent le principal role dans les idionies Tongous et 
 Mongols : ou la distinction de personnes est inconnue. Les Turcs 
 orientaux en offrent les premiers quelques traces ; mais le peu 
 d'nsage cpi'ils en font senible attester la pre-existence d'lin systeme 
 plus simple. Enfin ceux des Turcs t[ui touchaient autrefois la race 
 Gothique dans les contrees qui separent I'lrticli et le Jiilk, qui I'ont 
 repoussee ensuite, et bientot poursuivie jusqu'en Europe, ont de plus 
 que les Turcs quelque chose qui leur est commune avec les nations 
 Gothiques ; le conjugaison par le moyen des verbes auxiliaries ; et 
 malgre cette addition qui semble etrangere a leur langue, celle-ci 
 conserve quelque chose du mecanisme gene des idiomes sans conju- 
 gaison."* 
 
 Finally, another example may be drawn from the Amharic; and 
 I will state it in the words of an able writer, in a new periodical, de- 
 serving of every encouragement : — " So much has been stated 
 merely to show that the question needs to be considered thoroughly, 
 whether languages may not borrow each others' pronouns and in- 
 flexions, while the whole material remains incongruous . . . Indeed, 
 the Amharic language, which at first was supposed to be a dialect of 
 the Gheez (Abyssinian,) and then to be Semitic, is now alleged by 
 the most recent inquirers to be of African pedigree, and only to have 
 imitated Semitic inflexions."! 
 
 These are instances of languages clearly going even out of their 
 own families to find grammatical forms and structure. Languages at 
 the greatest distance display sometimes the most extraordinary coinci- 
 dence of grammar, yet are not therefore supposed to stand in any 
 affinity. For instance, the Biscayan presents many curious analo- 
 gies with several American languages, — such as the want of precisely 
 the same letters, the tendency to combine the same consonants, and 
 a similar complication of the conjugational system, formed by the in- 
 sertion of syllables expressing different modifications of the simple 
 verb ; and, in the latter point, it resembles also the dialects of South- 
 west Africa.^ Yet Humboldt, at the very moment he denies that 
 similar words are sufficient to establish a common origin for different 
 
 * " Recherches sur les Langues Tartares," Par. 18:20, torn. i. p. 
 30G. 
 
 I " On Comparative Philology," in the West of England Journal, 
 No. 3, July, 183.5, p. 94. 
 
 \ See '' Balbi's Tableau des langues de rAfriqiie." 
 8 
 
58 LECTURK THE SECOND. 
 
 languages, and mentions tlie ])oints of resemblance I have just stated, 
 is far from concluding that any afiinity is to be admitted between 
 these different idioms; but, on tlie contrary, says : — "grammatical 
 peculiarities of this sort have always appeared to me demonstrations 
 rather of degrees in civilization, tlian of affinity between languages."* 
 
 But, to come to some conclusion upon this matter; it appears to 
 me, that while on the one hand the con)parers of words have carried 
 their conclusions a great deal too far, the learned Von Schlegel has 
 also been borne away by his indignation against their excesses, when 
 he tells us, that the common use of « jmvativiim , proves more for the 
 affinity of Greek and Sanskrit, than some hundreds of words.t 
 Humboldt, no less a supporter of the superior deference due to 
 grammatical resemblance, in a brief but able exposition of his views 
 upon our study, allows proper weight to verbal affinities.^ 
 
 I should therefore propose a rule for examining verbal affinities, 
 and concluding therefrom, relationship between languages, which 
 may prevent the arbitrary methods followed by the lexical, and come 
 nearer the severer wishes of the other school. This is, not to take 
 words belonging to one or two languages in different families, and, 
 from their resemblance, which may be accidental or communicated, 
 draw inferences referable to the entire families to which they res- 
 pectively belong ; but to compare together words of simple import 
 and primary necessity, which run through the entire families, and 
 consequently are, if I may so express myself, aboriginal therein. 
 For instance, the numeral six is in Sanskrit ^^ shush, in Persian 
 
 (^J^*^ shcsh, in Latin sex, in German sechs. This is consequently a 
 word strictly belonging to the entire family ; yet it belongs as much 
 to the entire Semitic family ; for in Hebrew, its purest type, we have 
 no less sD'i: shesh, and in the other dialects this is modified according 
 to the laws that always regulate the change of letters. Again, seven 
 
 is in Sanskrit ^M*1 sa/j^aw, in old German si6?m ; comparing these 
 with the Semitic languages, we have 5>5iiJ shevang, in Hebrew, and 
 
 * "Prlifung der Untersuchung iiber die Urbewohner Hispanien;--," 
 p. 175, of. p. 109. 
 
 f Ubi sup. 
 
 t "An Essay on the best means of ascertaining the affinities of 
 Oriental Languages," by Baron W. Humboldt. In the " Transaction;* 
 of the Royal Asiatic Society," vol. ii. 1830, pp. 214, 21.5. 
 
 v^'f: 
 
- STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 59 
 
 «^Jt.J^vi sheba't in Arabic. O/ic likewise is in Sanskrit CToK aiha 
 in Persian l^j i/ak ; in Hebrew inx echad, and so in the other 
 dialects. The word xi'yug, if found only in Greek, might be sup- 
 posed a derivative from the Hebrew or Phenician inp kertn ; but 
 this opinion seems excluded by finding it pervade members of the 
 family which could not have so borrowed it ; as the Latin cornu, and 
 the German horn. Nor can even the Latin be derived from the 
 Greek, for the insertion of the N, which brings it nearer to the 
 Semitic, can hardly be accidental ; particularly as it is found in the 
 German, which cannot be suspected of communication either with 
 Hebrew or Greek. Yet the word thus found in so many members of 
 this family, is as universal in the Semitic, where the Syriac is ij-jo 
 karno, and the Arabic (o/^' ^"^''t'"- I'l the same manner there seems 
 no reason for doubting the pure San.skrit origin of the word ama^ 
 mother ; and yet it is essentially Semitic ; CN em in Hebrew, and 
 
 _,) omnia in Arabic, which have the same meaning ; as well as ama 
 
 in Biscayan, now used in Spanish for a nurse. These examples are 
 sufficient to illustrate my rule. They present cases wherein words 
 pervade all or most of the members of two families, so that we may 
 consider them primary or es.sential to both. And only in such cases 
 as these would T easily admit a comparison of words, as sufficient to 
 demonstrate affinity between languages. When, therefore, a lexicon, ' 
 such as Park hurst's, derives an English word from a Hebrew root, I 
 at once reject it as ungrounded : when a Greek one is derived from 
 it, I admit it as possible, because it may have been communicated by 
 intercourse with the Phenicians, but it proves nothing as to deriva- 
 tion. If, as in the foregoing examples, two or more of these langua- 
 ges have the same primary word, and this again recurs in several of 
 the Semitic languages, I admit it as of weight towards framing the 
 mysterious connexion of all languages at some primeval period. 
 
 This leads us to another important inquiry, — what number of 
 words found to resemble one another in different languages, will 
 warrant our concluding these to be of common origin. This point 
 has been made, by the late Dr. Young, the subject of a curious 
 mathematical calculation, which has not, to my knowledge, found its 
 way into any ethnographic work ; probably from its occurring in an 
 essay upon subjects in no way connected with this study. After 
 
60 I-ECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 giving his various formulas, he thus concludes: " It appears, there- 
 fore, that nothing whatever could be inferred with respect to the 
 relation of two languages, from the coincidence of the sense of any 
 single word in both of them ; and that the odds would be three to 
 one against the agreement of two words ; but if three words appear to 
 be identical, it would be then more than ten to one that they must be 
 derived in both cases from some parent language, or introduced in 
 some other manner; six words would give more than 1700 chances 
 to one, and eight, near 100,000 ; so that, in these cases, the evidence 
 would be little short of absolute certainty. In the Biscayan, for ex- 
 ample, or the ancient language of Spain, we find in the vocabulary 
 accompanying the elegant Essay of Baron W. von Humboldt, the 
 words heria, new ; ora, a dog ; gachi, little ; oguia, bread ; otzoa, a 
 w^olf, whence the Spanish onza; and zazpi, (or as Lacroze writes it, 
 shashpi) seven. Now, in the ancient Egyptian, new is beri ; a dog, 
 whor ; YiWXe, kudchi ; bread, oz'A;,- a wolf, OMWs/t; and seven, sAas/j/"; 
 and if we consider these words as sufficiently identical to admit of 
 our calculating upon them, the chances will be more than a thousand 
 to one, that at some very remote period, an Egyptian colony estab- 
 lished itself in Spain : for none of the languages of the neighboring 
 nations retain any traces of having been the medium through which 
 these words have been conveyed."* 
 
 This conclusion is undoubtedly too definite and bold ; for these re- 
 semblances, if real, may be sufficiently explained by the supposition 
 that both languages had the same original point of departure, and 
 have both preserved in lhem.selves some fragments of a common pri- 
 mary language. Still, to those who pursue this system of compari- 
 son, the general results of this mathematical calculation must be ex- 
 ceedingly interesting ; inasmuch as it seems to prove, that a very lim- 
 ited number of words, if really alike and of such a character as could 
 not have been communicated by later intercourse, are sufficient to 
 establish an affinity between two languages. 
 
 Coming, therefore, at last, to the consetjuences of this' long dis- 
 quisition, which was necessary for understanding the respective value 
 of the results I am going to lay before you ; I need hardly inform you 
 that the followers of the lexical system, or of verbal comparison, more 
 readily find analogies between languages at a great di.^tance one 
 from the other, and possessing no historical connexion. Thus the 
 
 * Ileiiiaiks on the Reduction of Experiments on ilie reiichiluin. — 
 Plillosopliical Trans, vol. cix. for 1819, p. 70, 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 61 
 
 Biscayan, which we have seen by Dr. Young compared with the 
 Egyptian, has been in like manner confronted by Klaproth with the 
 Semitic languages, and a number of words, really or apparently simi- 
 lar, brought together from the two.* In like manner he addressed 
 a letter to the late M. Champollion, in which he pointed out curious 
 verbal coincidences between the Coptic and very distant languages, 
 particularly such as have their seat between the Oby and the Wolga.t 
 But of his assiduous labor in this department, I shall have to speak 
 again. 
 
 The two families which afford the greatest facilities for examining 
 the connexion between languages of totally different characters, are 
 doubtless those you have so often heard mentioned — the Indo-Euro- 
 pean and Semitic : for we are better acquainted with their various 
 members than with those of any other family. Hence it is that most 
 attempts have been made to bring these into contact : but too often, 
 from neglecting the rule I have proposed, of ascertaing the original- 
 ity of the words, so compared, in both the families, by seeing if they 
 pervade all or many of their branches, the result is not always satis- 
 factory. For instance, Dr. Prichard, in a comparative list which he 
 has given, J does not appear to me sufficiently to have attended either 
 to the primary character of the words, or to their being common to 
 the entire family. Thus, he compares the Hebrew word ]"'■' — yain 
 with the Latin vinum, and we might add the Greek o'lfov ; and the 
 comparison is probably correct. But, as it is more than probable 
 that the cultivation of the grape, and the manufacture of wine, pro- 
 ceeded from east to west, and belonged in earliest time to Semitic 
 nations, so may we likewise suppose that the name accompanied it ; 
 and thus it is a borrowed word. Again, he compares the Latin lin- 
 gua — tongue, with the Hebrew ^'ib — hang, to swallow. Not to 
 say that the connexion of these two ideas is not a probable one in 
 etymology, the word lingua is peculiar to Latin in the Indo-Euro- 
 pean family. But it becomes a family-word, if we observe what 
 Marius Victorinus says — " that the ancients said dingua for lingua."^ 
 
 * "M6inoires r61atifs a I'Asie," Paris, 1824, toin. i. p. 214. 
 
 t Republislied, lb. p. 205. 
 
 \ At tlie end of hi.s " Eastern Origin of tlie Celtic Nations," p. 192. 
 
 § " Novensiles sive per /, sive per d, scribenduin ; cominunionem 
 eniin liabueruiit literfe bse apud antiques, ut dinguam et linguam, et 
 dacrimis et laci-imis." Marii Victorini gramraatici et rhetoris de ortho- 
 graphia. — Ap. Pet. Saiictand. Lugd. 1584, p. 32. Comp. p. 14. 
 
62 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 The word, thus restored to its primitive form, enters into affinity with 
 the German zunge, and loses all resemblance to the Semitic verb. 
 
 I have already given a few instances of what I consider more 
 satisfactory verbal comparisons between the two families, when I laid 
 down the rule for such inquiries ; but I would further suggest, that 
 there arc points in the grammatical character of the two families, 
 which will admit of a minuter comparison than has been hitherto 
 attempted. I should find it difficult to explain my sentiments upon 
 this head, without going into a minute and complicated comparative 
 analysis, hardly intelligible without some acquaintance with the lan- 
 guages, and not interesting to a great portion of my audience.* I 
 will therefore only say, that I am convinced a closer grammatical 
 affinity will be found between the families than we are at first in- 
 clined to suspect : and it is with pleasure that I mention a work 
 which seems likely to open a field to new researches, and point out 
 new elements of affinity between these and other families. I allude 
 to Dr. Lepsius's " Palaeography, as a means of inquiry into languages, 
 exemplified in the Sanskrit," published last year, and full of the most 
 curious and original researches. By means of this new element, he 
 has established several very ingenious and striking resemblances 
 between Sanskrit and Hebrew, so as to leave no doubt, according to 
 his own .expression, of the existence of a common, though unde- 
 veloped germ, in both.t 
 
 Encouraged by his success in this instance, he was advised to 
 apply himself to the study of Coptic, with a view to discover, if possi- 
 ble, its relations with other languages ; seeing that hitherto it has 
 been considered an isolated and independent tongue. By the gene- 
 rosity which characterizes the German governments, whenever the 
 interests of literature are concerned, he has been enabled to pursue 
 his researches ; and they have been crowned with complete success. 
 Through the kindness of the distinguished and learned individual, 
 at whose suggestion he undertook them, I am enabled to lay before 
 
 * I have added a note upon tliis subject nt the end of the volume. 
 
 f " Paliiograpliie als Mittel fiir die SiiniciirorscliuDg, zunaclist am 
 Sanskrit nachjii;ewiesfm," Bnvlin, 1834, p. 23. A remarkaliie coinci- 
 dence between the two, is tlie way in wliicli n Rtsch is evidently con- 
 sidered as a vowel, in the rules regarding the Hebrew points, precisely 
 as in Sanskrit the letter R. Not having any longer Lepsius's work at 
 hand, I do not remember whether he dwells upon lliis resemblance. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 63 
 
 you their interesting results, down to a very late period, The first 
 letter, whereof I have translated the following extracts is dated Paris, 
 Jan. 20, of the present year (1835), and is addressed to the Chev. 
 Bunsen. 
 
 " My Egyptian and Coptic studies are going on well. They 
 have brought me to results, by which I have been myself most agree- 
 ably surprised ; and whose more universal interest for the history of 
 languages becomes every day more striking. What alarmed me a 
 little at first, was the complete linguistic solitude in which the Cop- 
 tic language appeared to be placed, and the little prospect I had of 
 ever being able to use it as a help in my researches into Egyptian 
 antiquities. At the same time I must confess, that the historical 
 demonstrations of Q,uatreinere, on the origin of the Egyptian lan- 
 guage, (which, indeed, are wholly independent of the language itself,) 
 had left in my mind many doubts unsolved, as to the identity of the 
 Egyptian and Coptic tongues. I have now discovered, in the essence 
 of the language itself, not only that there is no appearance whatever 
 of any grammatical change, and that it possesses, perhaps in a higher 
 degree, that principle of stability so peculiar to the Semitic dialects, 
 but also that it has preserved in its formation traces of a higher anti- 
 quity than any Indo-Germanic or Semitic language wherewith I am 
 acquainted, which traces will therefore be most unexpectedly impor- 
 tant even to these two families. At the same time the Coptic can- 
 not be termed either Semitic or Indo-Germanic ; it has its own pecu- 
 liar formation, though, at the same time, its fundamental relationship 
 with these two families is not to be mistaken. Its degree of cultiva- 
 tion is about the same as that of the Semitic languages, and therefore 
 the relationship is here more manifest. The progress pointed out by 
 you from syllabic to alphabetic language, is also a most important 
 element for the Coptic. 
 
 " The roots of the pronouns are a part of speech which seems to 
 have worked the earliest in the formation of language, and to have 
 influenced it in a very considerable degree. On these roots, and 
 their comparisons with the Semitic and Indo-Germanic pronominal 
 formations, I lay great stress. Let us, for example, compare for a 
 moment the affixes of the personal pronoun in Coptic and Hebrew, in 
 order to see the relationship between the formation of both. 
 
64 
 
 LECTURE THE SECOND, 
 
 
 my sea, 
 
 our sea 
 
 thy sea, rn. 
 
 thy sea, f. 
 
 Heb. 
 
 jaiDmi-rnl 
 
 jam-nu 
 
 jaiii-ka 
 
 jam-k (i) 
 
 Copt. 
 
 jom-i 
 
 jom-n 
 
 join-k 
 
 joni-ti 
 
 
 your sea 
 
 his sea 
 
 her sea 
 
 their sea 
 
 Hee. 
 
 jani-kcm (ken) 
 
 jairi-o-hii 
 
 jam-ha (t) 
 
 jam-iii-u 
 
 Copt. 
 
 join-ten 
 
 join-f 
 
 jom-s 
 
 join-u.* 
 
 " I am at present occupied with the task of laying before the 
 public a specimen of a Coptic grammar, so to account for the new 
 direction given to my studies. I will, however, premise a compara- 
 tive part, which will be founded principally upon the pronominal 
 roots, and will secure to the Coptic language the ground on which it 
 has arisen, and point out its place among the other better-known lan- 
 guages. The new and particular part of its formation, that part 
 which gives to every language its proper individuality, will thus be 
 linked in a more convenient manner, both for the writer and for the 
 reader, with the older part, whereby it is connected with other dia- 
 lects. Some important parts of my Coptic grammar are in substance 
 finished already, and it is not, after all, so difficult a task to shed a 
 little light upon that, which before was in such utter darkness. 
 
 " I have been induced to pay particular attention to the names 
 of the numerals, which I found bore a remarkable likeness to the 
 figures which signify their respective numbers. What has struck me 
 still more, is that the Indo-Germanic and Semitic numerals agree 
 exactly, even in details, with the Egyptian system ; that further, the 
 Sanskrit ciphers are essentially Egyptian ; and that all this is found 
 much more clearly, and in a greater degree of nearness to its natural 
 origin in the Egyptian. The numeral figures decidedly appear to 
 me to have gone from Egypt to India, thence they were transported 
 
 * I will take the iil>erty of adding a few remarks. 1. The resem- 
 blance in the first |)erson singular is complete, because the reduplica- 
 tion of the C — m, in the example chosen, is accidental, in consequence 
 of its being supposed to be derived from the obsolete word 'CT21 — 
 yamam ; so that the suffix is simply i, as in Coptic. 2. The difference 
 in the second person feminine singular is also more apparent than real ; 
 inasmuch as the Hebrew in the second persons departs from the suffix 
 suggested by analogy, ta, ti or /, tern, ten, and assumes a k instead of 
 the t. The Coptic throws light upon this circumstance, by preserving 
 here the regular suffixes, while in llie masculine it accompanies the 
 Hebrew in its change. 3. This remark, it is evident, comprises the 
 second person plural. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 65 
 
 by the Arabs, who even now call them Indian, even as we now term 
 them Arabic, because we received them from the Arabs. The re- 
 markable agreement of the numerals in the Coptic, Semitic, and 
 Indo-Germaliic, and the demonstrable derivation of them, principally | 
 in Egyptian, from the three pronominal roots, and, from their cipher- 
 like connexion with one another, will lead me to bestow a more ex- 
 tensive discussion upon this important subject. 
 
 " Finally, one of the principal points which have occupied me, 
 is the undeniable connection between the Semitic alphabet and the 
 Demotic, and, consequently, the hieroglyphic alphabets of the Egyp-j 
 tians. What obstructs in great measure all research into the pro- ; 
 nunciation of the Coptic, is the Greek character, which was adopted 
 in the second or third century ; when many of the nicer distinctions, 
 which no doubt existed in the original domestic paleography, were 
 necessarily abandoned. At the same time, the pronunciation of the 
 Coptic tongue, which at first, owing to its extraordinary accumula- 
 tion of vowels and other peculiarities to me quite chaotic, is become 
 quite clear to me ; especially since I have made more minute re- 
 searches into the accents, which in the grammars are considered as 
 quite unessential, and are generally, in published works, given very 
 incorrectly. But I have now by me some manuscripts from the 
 library, which have furnished me with a completely new light upon 
 the subject." 
 
 The second extract which I will lay before you, is from a letter 
 dated the 14th of last month, (February.) 
 
 " .... I have thought it would perhaps be better if I drew up 
 and sent to the Academy my essay on the names and signs of the 
 numerals, to which, as well as to their interesting relations, I believe 
 I have unquestionably discovered the key in the Egyptian ciphers, 
 and in the Coptic names of the numerals. It will be ready, at latest, 
 in a week, and the results appear to me perfectly clear and satisfac- 
 tory, inasmuch as they solve the riddle so often, but so remotely, 
 attempted, respecting the meaning of these ancient numeral roots, 
 and that not only as regards the Coptic, but also for the Semitic and 
 Indo-Germanic languages ; and they will place this whole cycle of 
 dialects in a very remarkable harmony with one another, which, m 
 my mind, may be of great importance for all the higher departments 
 of comparative linguistics." 
 
 The conclusions to be drawn from these interesting documents 
 must be obvious to every mind. We have it ascertained, that the 
 9 
 
66 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 ancient Egyptian, now fully identified with the Coptic, is no longer 
 to be considered an insulated language, void of connexion with those 
 around it, but presents very extraordinary points of contact with the 
 two great families so often mentioned; not, indeed, sufficiently dis- 
 tinct to make it enter into either class, but yet sufficiently definite 
 and rooted in the essential constitution of the language, to prevent 
 their being considered accidental or a later engrafting thereupon. 
 The effects of this intermediate character, according to Lepsius's 
 expression, is to group together in a very remarkable harmony this 
 cycle of languages; so that, instead of any longer considering the 
 Indo-European and Semitic as completely insulated families, or 
 being compelled to find a few verbal coincidences between them, we 
 may now consider them as linked together, both by points of actual 
 contact, and by the interposition of the Coptic, in a mysterious affinity, 
 grounded on the essential structure and most necessary forms of the 
 three. 
 
 Now let us consider the further inquiries to which these researches 
 must lead a thinking mind ; how, for example, can such interme- 
 diate languages have arisen ? Is it from both these great groups 
 having been originally one, so that, as they separated, like masses 
 cleft asunder by some natural convulsion, smaller fragments splin- 
 tered away between and from both, partaking of the peculiar grain 
 and qualities of both, so as to mark their points of former union ? 
 Or are the whole to be considered as equally derivatives of a common 
 stock, modified into such varieties by circumstances now unknown, 
 and dependent upon laws now probably abolished ? Take any hy- 
 pothesis, or rather, anticipate any result you please, likely to result 
 from these discoveries and their further extension, and you come 
 necessarily to a union and community of the great groups or families, 
 partly by themselves, partly, like the polygonar structures of the 
 ancients, through the medium of smaller connecting fragments, which 
 nature or Providence has allowed to remain between them. 
 
 And this is fiirther worthy of notice, that the severer school, the 
 one which seemed to require a demonstration of affinity too rigid to 
 be ever practical out of the limits of one family, has, in fact, discov- 
 ered that affmity between the families themselves, and left no cavil 
 tenable against this important fact. For, this must close all that can 
 be expected from this study, as far as pjinciples are concerned ; all 
 that now remains, is to desire their further application, and to have 
 the same processes extended to other groups, apparently separated 
 from the rest. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 67 
 
 And here let us look back for a moment at tlie connexion be- 
 tween our study and the sacred records. From the simple historical 
 outline which I have laid before you, it appears that its first rise 
 seemed fitter to inspire alarm than confidence ; insomuch as it broke 
 asunder the great bond anciently supposed to hold them all together; 
 then for a time it went on, still further severing and dismembering ; 
 consequently, to all appearance, ever widening the breach between 
 itself and sacred history. In its further progress, it began to discover 
 new affinities where least expected ; till, by degrees, many languages 
 began to be grouped and classified in large families, acknowledged 
 to have a common origin. Then, new inquiries gradually diminished 
 the number of independent languages, and extended, in consequence, 
 the dominion of the larger masses. At length, when this field 
 seemed almost exhausted, a new class of researches has succeeded, 
 so far as it has been tried, in proving the extraordinary affinities be- 
 tween these families, — afiinities existing in the very character and 
 essence of each language, so that none of them could iiave ever ex- 
 isted, without those elements wherein the resemblances consist. 
 Now, as this excludes all idea of one having borrowed them from the 
 other, as they could not have arisen in each by independent pro- 
 cesses ; and as the radical difference among the languages forbids 
 their being considered dialects or off-shoots from one another, we are 
 driven to the conclusion, that, on the one hand, these languages must 
 have been originally united in one, whence they drew these common 
 elements essential to them all ; and, on the other, that the separation 
 between them, which destroyed other no less important elements of 
 resemblance, could not have been caused by any gradual departure 
 or individual development, — for these we have long since excluded, 
 — but by some violent, unusual, and active force, sufficient alone to 
 reconcile these conflicting appearances, and to account at once for 
 the resemblances and the differences. It would be difficult, 
 methinks, to say what further step the most insatiable or unreason- 
 able skeptic could require, to bring the results of this science into 
 close accordance with the scriptural account. 
 
 But to complete the history of this study, I must not omit the 
 writings and opinions of several authors who have not entered into 
 the line of demonstration I have till now followed, although their 
 names have been occasionally introduced. I will lay before you, 
 therefore, their positive conclusions ; thus showing you how far they 
 bear me out in the consequences I have drawn from their researches. 
 
68 LEcruni: thj: sf.cond. 
 
 I will divide tliem into two classes, the lirst uiiereof shall contain 
 such as agree in acknowledging the original unity of all language. 
 
 The learned Alexander von Humboldt, to whom we owe so much 
 valuable information regarding the languages and monuments of 
 America, thus expresses himself upon this interesting point : — 
 " However insulated certain languages may at first appear, however 
 singular their caprices and their idioms, all have an analogy among 
 them, and their numerous relations will be more perceived, in pro- 
 portion as the philosophical history of nations, and the study of lan- 
 guages, shall be brought to perfection."* 
 
 Upon this important subject a most decisive testimony was given 
 by the Academy of St. Petersburgh, in the fifth volume of its Me- 
 moirs.! This learned body was, probably, in this part of its labors, 
 very much under the influence of Count GoulianotF, who was an 
 enthusiast for the unity of languages, as demonstrated simply by simi- 
 larity of w^ords, without sufficient attention, often, to real identity, 
 much less to the essential construction of the languages. He him- 
 self has sufficiently declared his views in his Discourse on the funda- 
 mental study of languages, from which I will extract one passage : — 
 " La succession des faits anterieurs a I'histoire en s'effacant avec les 
 siecles, semble nuire a I'evidence du fait essentiel, savoir, celui de la 
 fi-aternite des peuples. Or ce fait, le plus interessant pour I'homme 
 qui pense, s'etablirait imjjlicitement par le rapprochment des langues 
 an^-iennes et modernes, considerees sous leur aspect originaire. Et, 
 si jamais quelque conception philosophique venait multiplier encore 
 les berceaux du genre humain, I'identite des langues serait toujours 
 la, pour detruire le prestige ; et cette autorite ramenerait, je pense, 
 I'esprit le plus prevenu."t A year later than this publication, he 
 sent forth a prospectus of a work which was to prove the unity of 
 languages. § f know not vrhether it appeared, for the character of 
 his researches is not such as to have induced me to inquire after it; 
 but I fear there was too much promised in that prospectus, for the 
 ))romises to have been kept. The decision of the Academy was, 
 
 * A]). Kiaptotli, " Asia Polyglotta," p. (j. 
 
 t See the " Bulletin Univer.^cl," 7o section, vol. i, p. 380. 
 
 \ " Discours siir I'Rtude Fomlamentale des Langues," Pam, 1822, 
 p.3L 
 
 § The title of the work was lo be : '"Etude de I'Homme dans la 
 manifestation de ses facult^s." 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. (39 
 
 however, quite unreserved upon this point ; for it maintains its con- 
 viction, after a long research, that all languages are to be considered 
 as dialects of one now lost. 
 
 And in the same class of writers must be reckoned the late State- 
 councillor Merian, who has adopted the same conclusion, though not 
 perhaps positively stated in his great work the Tripartitum. This 
 consists of four folio volumes, published at Vienna between 1820 
 and 1823, and contains comparative tables principally of German 
 and Russian words, but with an additional mass of incongruous ma- 
 terials from all other languages. For lexical comparison the work 
 no doubt has considerable value ; but it must be owned that page 
 after page has to be turned over, before any thing like a tolerable re- 
 semblance can be discovered, in languages of different families. Be 
 this as it may, the conclusion of his first Continuation, or second vol- 
 ume, sufficiently declares his sentiments upon the point now under 
 consideration ; for he thus writes : " Those who doubt of the unity 
 of language, after perusing Whiter, may read Goulianoff."* 
 
 Of the same school, but far superior in merit to the authors yet 
 mentioned, is Julius Klaproth, whose name I have already more than 
 once introduced. To few aulliors are we more indebted for curious 
 information regarding the languages and literature of most Asiatic 
 nations, and the geography of countries, else but little known. It 
 must however be owned, that he is a bold writer, whose assertions 
 should be received with some degree of caution : it would, indeed, 
 have been diihcult to unite perfect accuracy with the varied charac- 
 ter of his researches. His great work on the affinity of languages, 
 the Asia Polyglotta, published at Paris in 1823, consists of a large 
 quarto of text, with a folio of comparative tables. In it he makes no 
 secret of his complete disbelief in the Mosaic history of the disper- 
 sion ; it is, he tells us, like many other things in the writings of 
 Western Asia, a mere story founded upon the significant name of 
 Babylon. t He supposes mankind to have escaped from the deluge 
 
 * "Trif)art. sen de Analogia Linguaruin Lilieilus, Contiimatio, Vien. 
 J62"<?, p. 585. Whiter's work here aihided to is the " Etymoingicum 
 Universale." 
 
 f '"Die andere (Spracliverwandschaft) i^x. posldilnvianisch, und ihre 
 Ursachen .sind niclit so verborgen, so dass wir nicht nothig hahen den 
 Thurni von Babel zu hiilfe zu nehmen, das, wie nianches in den 
 Schriften den Westasiaten, nur eine Erzahluug zu seyn scheint, die zu 
 einem Bedeutung habenden Namen erfunden ist." S. 40, corap. S. 41. 
 
70 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 at different points, by climbing the highest mountains ; and hence 
 considers the various families of the human race as propagated after- 
 wards from so many centres, — in the Caucasus, the Himalaya, and 
 the Altai mountains. Notwithstanding these inauspicious opinions, 
 his resuhs are in strict accordance with sacred history. He flatters 
 himself that in his works, " the universal affinity of languages is 
 placed in so strong a light, that it must be considered by all as com- 
 pletely demonstrated. This," he adds, " does not appear explicable 
 on any other hypothesis, than that of admitting fragments of a pri- 
 mary language yet to exist, through all the languages of the old and 
 new worlds."* And I think it must be owned that in the numerous 
 comparative lists given after his account of each language, though 
 many examples may be slight and fanciful, abundance of resem- 
 blances may be discovered, sufficiently marked to justify the success- 
 ful application of Dr. Young's calculus, if his theorem is to be allow- 
 ed any value. 
 
 With greater pleasure still, I proceed to record the sentiments of 
 the lamented Frederick Schlegel, a man to whom our age owes more 
 than our children's children can repay — new and purer feelings upon 
 art and its holiest applications ; the attempt at least, to turn philoso- 
 phy's eye inward upon the soul, and to compound the most sacred ele- 
 ments of its spiritual powers with the ingredients of human knowledge; 
 above all, the successful discovery of a richer India than Vasco de 
 Gama opened unto Europe, whose value is not in its spices, and its 
 pearls, and its barbaric gold, but in tracts of science unexplored, in 
 mines long unwrought of native wisdom, in treasures deeply buried 
 of symbolic learning, and in monuments long hidden of primeval and 
 venerable traditions. 
 
 In the work which first turned the eyes of Europe to these impor- 
 tant objects, (his little treatise published in 1808 upon the language 
 and wisdom of the Indians), he clearly lays down his opinion touching 
 the original unity of all language. He rejects with indignation the 
 idea that language was the invention of man in a savage and untutored 
 
 * "Die allgemeine Spracliverwanschaft, niit der icli niicli bei der 
 Ausarbeiiung dieses Werkes weit mehr lieschaftigl habo, als f^s aufan- 
 glich inein Vorsatz war, ist durch dasselbe in ein so iielles Licht 
 getracht worrlen, dass man sie als erwieser auzuiiohrnen gezwungen ist. 
 Sic scheint niclit anders erkiiirbar als (lurch die Ueberblt^ii)sol einer 
 Urspraclie, die sich in alien Mundaiten der alteu und neuen Welt wie- 
 der fioden." — Vorrede, S. ix. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 71 
 
 State, brought to gradual perfection by the toil or experience of suc- 
 cessive generations. He considers it, on the contrary, as a whole, 
 with its roots and structure, its pronunciation and written character,* 
 which was not hieroglyphic, but consisted of signs exactly expressive 
 of the sounds that composed that early speech. He speaks not, in- 
 deed, of language as given to man by superior communication ; but 
 he considers the mind of man so to have been organized as necessa- 
 rily to produce, on his first appearance, this well-ordered and beau- 
 tiful structure, and thereby supposes its oneness and indivisibility.t 
 
 Nor did he alter his opinion by further study ; on the contrary, 
 in his last beautiful work, his cycnea vox et oratio, which, as has 
 been beautifully observed, closed his philosophical speculations withi; 
 an expression of doubt,| — for death found him watching by his I 
 night-lamp over the best interests of virtue, and, like the slayer of 
 Archimedes, refused him time to work out his problem ; — in hisj 
 Philosophy of Speech he considers language as an individual gift to 
 man, and, consequently, in its origin only one. I cannot forbear 
 making one quotation. 
 
 * The idea of writing haviiifr been a primeval art, and an essential 
 part of lan^tiiige, taken in its comijletest sense, is not l)yany means con- 
 fined to Scli!ei;el. Not to mention the attempt of Court de (Jehelin to 
 prove the unity of all alpliabets, {" Monde primiiif," end of vol. iii.) or 
 the still more learned and ingenious comparisons given i>y Paiavey, 
 ("Essai snr I'Origine iniifpie et hieroglyphiqne des chitl^'res et des lettres 
 de tons les peuplpp," Paris, 18^6) 1 will only niention two authors who 
 agree in this opinion. Herder observes: "The alphabets of nations 
 present nn analogy still more striking. It is such, that a [nofonnd un- 
 derstanding of things will lead to the contrlusion that there is but one 
 aljihahet." — Noiiveaiix Memoires de TAeademie Royale, an. 1781, 
 Berlin, 1783, p. 413. Baron W. Hinnholdt seems to adtnit the same 
 opinion, at the ronchision of his essay, "Ueber das Entstehen der gram- 
 nialischeii Formen," Berlin, 18'23. 
 
 f "Sprarhe nnd VVeislieit der Indier," Ites Biich. 5tes Kap. S. 64, 
 conip. S. 60. These sentiments, expressed with the fervid eloqnence 
 which distinguishes all the philosophical spondations of their author, 
 have heen severely commented on by F. Wiillner, in his interesting 
 work, " Ueiter Ursprung nnd Urbedeutimg der sprachiichen Formen," 
 Miinstir, 1831, p. 27. This author deduces all language from interjec- 
 tional forms, [). 4. 
 
 I " rhilosophische Vorlesmigen inshesondere iiher Philosophie der 
 Si)iache und des Wortes," JVien. 1830. The author expired while 
 writing the tenth lecture; the last word of his manuscript was aber, but. 
 
72 \ LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 " With our present senses and organs, it is as impossible for us 
 to form the remotest idea of that speech, which the first man posses- 
 sed, before he lost his original power, perfection, and worth, as it 
 would be to reason of that mysterious discourse vvhereb)' immortal 
 spirits send their thoughts across the wide space of heaven, upon 
 wings of light ; or of those words, by created beings unutterable, 
 which in the unsearchable interior of the Deity are spoken, where, 
 as is in holy song expressed, depth calleth upon depth, that is, the 
 fulness of endless love upon eternal majesty. When, from this 
 unattainable height, we descend again unto ourselves, and to the first 
 man, such as really he was, the simple unaffected narrative of that 
 book which contains our earliest records, that God taught man to 
 speak, even if we go no further than this simple unaffected sense, 
 will be in accordance with our natural feelings. For how could it 
 be otherwise, or how could any other impression be made, when we 
 consider the relation which God therein holds — of a parent, as it 
 were, teaching her child the first rudiments of speech. But 
 under this simple sense there lieth, as does through all that book of 
 twofold import, another, and a far deeper signification. The name 
 of any thing or living being, even as it is called in God, and designa- 
 ted from eternity, holds in itself the essential idea of its innermost 
 being, the key of its existence, the deciding power of its being or 
 not being ; and so it is used in sacred speech, where it is, moreover, 
 in a holier or higher sense, united to the idea of the Word. Ac- 
 cording to this deeper sense and understanding, it is in that narra- 
 tion shown and signified, according as I have before briefly remark- 
 ed, that, together with speech, entrusted, communicated, and 
 delivered, immediately by God to man, and through it, he was in- 
 stalled as the ruler and the king of nature, yea, more rightly, as the 
 deputed of God over this earthly creation, unto which office was his 
 original destination."* 
 
 Such, then, is our first conclusion drawn from the writings of 
 modern ethnographers, that the language of men was originally one ; 
 come we, therefore, to the second, which will much confirm it. How 
 was this one language separated into so many, strangely different ? 
 
 I will first give you the authority of Herder, and, that he may not 
 
 * P. 70. Porliaps this idea is Ijorrowed from Herder, " Pliilosopliy 
 of History," Lond. ISOO, p. 89, though there only the capacity of speech, 
 and not language is mentioned. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 73 
 
 be suspected as a partial witness, I will premise that, in tlie very 
 page I am about to quote, he is careful to inform us, that he con- 
 siders the History of Babel as a "poetical fragment in the oriental 
 style." First, then, he tells us, that " as the human race is a pro- 
 gressive whole, the parts whereof are intimately connected, so must 
 language form, also, a united whole, dependent upon a common 
 origin. . , Having laid this down," he continues, " there is a great 
 probability that the human race, and language therewith, go back to 
 one common stock, to a first man, and not to several, disjjersed in 
 different parts of the world." This position he then proceeds to 
 illustrate, by an inquiry into the grammatical structure of languages. 
 His conclusions, however, do not stop here : he confidently asserts, 
 that, from the examination of languages, the separation among man- 
 kind is shown to have been violent ; not indeed that they voluntarily 
 changed their language, but that they were rudely and suddenly 
 (hrusquemmt) divided from one another.* 
 
 To demonstrate the same conclusion, was the object of a series 
 of papers read in 1824 and 1825 to the Royal Society of Literature, 
 by Mr. Sharon Turner. The learned author went into a minute 
 analysis of the primary elements of speech ; and concluded that the 
 numerous evidences of attraction and repulsion between languages, 
 left no alternative in explaining them, save the adoption of some 
 hypothesis similar to the event recorded in Genesis. But I will not 
 insist further on his testimony, the only one I have referred to, in 
 tliis science, of an author expressly defending the Scripture narra- 
 tive. t 
 
 More than once I have had occasion to quote the opinions of the 
 learned Abel-Remusat, a man who may justly be considered the re- 
 viver and great facilitator of Chinese literature, and who possessed 
 at once a profound knowledge of the languages of Eastern Asia, and 
 
 * IJhi sup. " Memoirs of the Royal Academy," jBerZin, pp. 411—413. 
 
 t These papers are printed in the "Transactions of the Royal 
 Society of Literature," vol. I, part 1, Lond. 1827, pp. 17— lOG. There 
 are many inaccuracies in the examples given in these elaborate papers; 
 and a system of philological principles is employed, which will not 
 stand the tests universally admitted by continental linguists. No notice 
 whatsoever is taken of the acknowledged division of families: the 
 same word, s|)elt differently, perhaps by writers of different countries, 
 is repeated again and again, and some given which do not exist in the 
 languages quoted. 
 
 10 
 
74 LECTiTRS TliF, SF.COXD. 
 
 a reflective philosophic mind. To me his memory must ever be 
 joined in close association with the interest I feel in this science ; 
 for when youno-, I had the pleasure of hearing his instructive conver- 
 sation thereon with others as learned as himself, but, like him, now 
 no more : 
 
 E quale il cicognin che leva I'ala 
 Per voglia di volar, e non s'atteiita 
 D'abbandonar lo nido, e giu la caia ; 
 Tal era io con voglia accessa e S|)enta 
 Di dirwander, venendo iiifinoall' atlo 
 C!ie fa colui cii' a dicor .s'argouieiita * 
 
 His work on the Tartar languages, though unfinished, is a mine of 
 rare information upon many points besides its immediate subject ; 
 and is distinguished throughout by that power of simplification and 
 analytical resolution, which seems to have been one of his peculiar 
 faculties. In the long and diversified preliminary discourse, we 
 have his sentiments clearly stated, touching the accordance of 
 philological ethnography with the sacred narrative. For, after hav- 
 ing expatiated on the manner in which linguistic pursuits may be 
 brought to bear upon history, he thus concludes : — " It is then we 
 should be able to pronounce with precision, what, according to the 
 language of a people, was its origin, what the nations with which it 
 has stood in relation, what the character of that relation was, to what 
 stock it belongs ; at least, until that epoch when profane histories 
 cease, and where we should find among languages that confusion 
 ^ which gave rise to them all, and which such vain attempts have been 
 made to explain."! 
 
 * Dante, " Purgal." xxv. 
 
 Even as the young stork lifteth up his wing 
 Tlirough wish to fly, yet ventures not to quit 
 The nest, and drops it ; so in nie desire 
 Of questioning my guide arose, and fell. 
 Arriving even to the act that marks 
 A man prepared for si)ecoli. 
 
 Gary's Translation. 
 
 f "Rccherches sur les Langues Tartares," vol. i. p. xxix. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 75 
 
 But in fact, if once we admit the original unity of language, we 
 can hardly account for its subsequent divisions without some such 
 phenomenon. This has been observed by the sagacious and learned 
 historian Niebuhr, in one of those occasional excursions which we 
 meet in his work, always indicative of the marvellous diversity of his 
 pursuits, among which our science was particularly one. And I 
 quote the following passage the more willingly, because in the first 
 edition, (I believe the best known in England, through the able 
 translation made of it shortly after its appearance), a very different 
 sentiment occupies its place. " This fallacy," he writes in his third 
 edition, "escaped detection among the ancients, probably because 
 they admitted several primitive races of mankind. They who deny 
 these, and go back to a single pair, must, to account for the existence 
 of idioms different in structure, suppose a miracle: and for those 
 languages which differ in roots and essential qualities, adhere to that 
 of the confusion of tongues. The admission of such a miracleoffends 
 not reason ; since, as the remains of the ancient world clearly show, 
 that, before the present, another order of life existed, so it is certainly 
 credible that this lasted entire after its commencement, and under- 
 went at some period an essential change. "t And to this remark we 
 may add, that if to account for different languages we must have 
 recourse to so many independent races, we shall be driven to 
 the necessity of admitting, not a few in distant quarters of the 
 globe, but as many as there are idioms at present to all appearance 
 unconnected, — that is, many hundreds; a consequence unphiloso- 
 phical in its principle, for it goes at once to the extremest solution of 
 a constant phenomenon, and still more unphilosophical in its applica- 
 tion, for we must multiply the races almost in the inverse ratio of the 
 numbers that compose them ; for the smallest tribes and the most 
 sub-divided savage populations, exhibit, in the most marked manner, 
 remarkable differences of language. Hence the interior of Africa or 
 the unexplored tracts of Australia, may contain more races than the 
 entire of Europe and Asia. But on this subject more will shortly 
 have to be said. 
 
 I will conclude the testimonies of ethnographers by that of Balbi, 
 the diligent and learned^ author of the "Atlas Ethnographique du 
 
 f Nielinhr's Roniische Ge.«;ohiclite, 3 Ansg. Inr Th. S. 60. Com- 
 pare the English translation, 1828, j). 44. It is jjleasing to see these 
 changes in spite of the author's declaration, p. xii. 
 
76 T.ECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 Globe." This work consists of charts classifying languages accord- 
 ing to ethnographic kingdoms, as he calls them ; which are followed 
 by comparative tables of elementary words in every known language. 
 The accompanying volume of introduction contains a vast collection 
 of valuable and interesting information on the general principles of 
 the science. In compiling this work, Balbi not only had access to 
 every class of information actually before the public, but received 
 most important assistance from the ablest ethnographers in Paris, 
 It must be therefore interesting to know what has been the impres- 
 sion produced upon the mind of one who has thus gone over the 
 entire field of ethnographic science, and has heard the opinion of 
 those who have devoted their lives to its cultivation. From my per- 
 sonal intercourse with him I can say, that he is lar from thinking that 
 the researches of linguists have in the least tended to impeach the 
 veracity of the sacred historian. Nor is this opinion unrecorded in 
 his work ; for in his first chart he thus expresses it : — " The books 
 of Moses no monument either historical or astronomical, has yet 
 been able to prove false ; but w ith them, on the contrary, agree, in 
 the most remarkable manner, the results obtained by the m.ost learn- 
 ed philologers, and the profoundest geometricians." * 
 
 Such then appears to be the two-fold result of this study, once 
 perhaps a dangerous pursuit, now lending a valuable and ever-grow- 
 ing evidence to the narrative of Scripture. Languages gradually 
 forming themselves into groups, and those groups daily tending to 
 approximate and claim mutual relationship, assuredly afford the best 
 proof of a former point of departure, and serve to divide the human 
 race into certain great characteristic families, whose further subdi- 
 vision enters into the province of history. Like those grouped but 
 disunited masses, which geologists consider as the ruins of former 
 mountains, we see in the various dialects of the globe the wrecks of 
 a vast monument belonging to the ancient world.t The nice exact- 
 ness of their tallies in many parts, the veins of similar appearance 
 which may be traced from one to the other, show that they have been 
 once connected so as to form a whole ; while the boldness and rough- 
 
 * "Atlas Ethnograpliique du Globe," par Adrien Balbi. Par. 1826. 
 Mappemonde Ethiiog. i. 
 
 t See D'Aubuisson, " Trait6 de Geogiiosie." Slras. 1827, tome i. 
 p. 227. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. i i 
 
 ness of outline at the points of separation prove that it is no gradual 
 devolution, no silent action which has divided, but some violent con- 
 vulsion which has riven them asunder. And even such positive 
 conclusions you have seen drawn by the most learned ethnographers. 
 There is still one branch of our science which seems without the 
 pale of all that has been hitherto expounded ; and it would be unjust 
 to pass it over in silence. All the history of this study, so far as I 
 have given it, appears to apply almost exclusively to the old world, 
 where civilization must have done much towards assimilating forms 
 and amalgamating dialects; whereas in the interior of Africa, and 
 still more strikingly in the western hemisphere, the theory of language 
 seems to refuse submission to the principles we have established, and 
 the endless variety of tongues involves in painful mystery the origin 
 of the population. 
 
 The number of dialects spoken by the natives of America is in- 
 deed almost incredible. Choose any tract of the old world where 
 you think most languages spoken, then select an equal space at ran- 
 dom in any district of America peopled by native tribes, and the lat- 
 ter will assuredly give a greater number of various tongues.* I have 
 been myself a witness to such anxiety on this subject, in persons of 
 great learning and good understanding, that they refused credit to 
 Humboldt's assertions regarding the number of American languages, 
 rather than admit what they deemed an almost insuperable objection 
 to the Scripture narrative. For we cannot suppose each of these 
 tribes, speaking a language totally unintelligible to its neighbors, to 
 be lineally descended from one formed at the dispersion, without 
 allowing the strange anomaly, that, of the human families then formed, 
 such countless, yet such insignificant tribes should have wandered to 
 that distance. No wonder, therefore, that the unbelievers of the last 
 century should have taken a shorter method to solve this problem, 
 by asserting that America had its own population, independent of 
 that in the older continent.t Here too the friends of religion came 
 early forward, and, as too often has happened, with crude hypotheses 
 and groundless theories as to the source of the American population, 
 and the means whereby it was transported into that country. Cam- 
 pomanes patronized the Carthaginians, Kircher and Huet the Egyp- 
 
 * See Hinnboldt's " Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espange." 
 Paris, 1825, tome ii. p. 352. 
 
 f See Ballet's " Reponses Critiques." BesanQon, 1819, vol. ii. p. 51. 
 
78 LECTUHE THK SECOND. 
 
 tians, De Giiignes the Huns, Sir William Jones tlie Indians, and 
 many American antiquaries the ten tribes of Israel, ^.,f.. joaX ^^^oUo^r-i 
 
 We have now only to examine what light ethnography has been 
 able to throw upon this question, and how far the solutions it presents 
 accord with the gratifying results obtained in other quarters of the 
 globe. The first step towards establishing a "connexion between the 
 inhabitants of the two continents, was attempted by the followers of 
 what we have named the lexical school, and consisted of the com- 
 parison of words in American dialects with terms found among the 
 nations of northern and eastern Asia. Smith-Barton was the first 
 who made any progress in this attempt, and his labors were incorpo- 
 rated in a very extended form in an essay by Vater, first published 
 in 1810, and afterwards republished in his Mithridates* The re- 
 sults of their labors I will give in the words of a competent judge : — 
 " Investigations made with the most scrupulous exactness, in follow- 
 ing a method till then not used in the study of etymologies, have 
 proved the existence of a few words common to the vocabularies of 
 the two continents. In eighty-three American languages examined 
 by Messrs. Barton and Vater, one hundred and seventy words have 
 been found, the roots of which appear to be the same ; and it is easy 
 to perceive that this analogy is not accidental, since it does not rest 
 merely upon imitative harmony, or on that conformity of organs which 
 produces almost a perfect identity in the first sounds articulated by 
 children. Of these one hundred and seventy words which have this 
 connexion, three-fifths resemble the Mantchou, the Tongouse, the 
 Mongul, and the Samoyed ; and two-fifths the Celtic and Tchoud, 
 the Biscayan, the Coptic, and the Congo languages. These words 
 have been found by comparing the whole of the American languages 
 with the whole of those of the old world ; for hitherto we are ac- 
 quainted with no American idiom which seems to have an exclusive 
 correspondence with any of the Asiatic, African, or European 
 tongues.'" I" 
 
 Malte-Brun endeavored to advance a step farther, and to estab- 
 lish what he calls a geographical connexion between the American 
 and Asiatic languages. After a minute investigation, his conclu- 
 
 * " Untersncl/mg liber Am(M'ikas Bevolkerung^^^aus dem alten Con- 
 tiuente." Ldpz. 1810. " Miihrid." 3 Th. 2 Abth. p. 340. 
 
 f Alex, von Humboldt, "Views of the Cordilleras," Eng. trnns. 
 vol. i. p. 19. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 79 
 
 sions are these : — that tribes connected with the Finnish, Ostiack, 
 Permian, and Caucasian families, passing along the|borders of the 
 Frozen ocean, and crossing over Behring's Straits, spread themselves 
 in very different directions towards Greenland and Chili : that others, 
 allied to the Japanese, Chinese, and Kourilians, proceeding along the 
 coast, penetrated to Mexico ;* and that another colony, related to 
 the Tungooses, Mantcheous, and Mongols, passed along the moun- 
 tain tracts of both continents, and reached the same destination. 
 Besides these, he supposes several smaller emigrations to have borne 
 over a certain number of Malay, Javanese, and African words. t 
 However limited the comparisons thus made may appear, it has been 
 admitted, as you have seen, by the sagacious traveller I have quoted, 
 and also by Balbi, as sufficient to prove a resemblance between the 
 languages of the two continents, too marked to be the result of 
 accident. 
 
 Still I will own that I consider these results as but little worth ; 
 both because the resemblances are very slight, and too anomalous to 
 be of much service, and because the very authors who give them, 
 consider these migrations as simple additions to a population already 
 existing, and merely as modifying agents in the formation or altera- 
 tion of the indigenous languages.^ They have therefore, if satisfactory, 
 only this value — that they authorize us to conjecture that the original 
 population reached the western hemisphere by the same road which 
 subsequent emigrations held. Hence I am not surprised that a simi- 
 lar attempt, made still later by Siebold, to connect, through their 
 respective vocabularies, the Japanese and the Moscas, or Muyscas, 
 a large American nation between Macarai'bo and Rio de la Hacha, 
 should have been pronounced unsuccessful, by the committee appoint- 
 ed in 1829 to examine it on behalf of the Paris Asiatic Society. § 
 
 * Humboldt thinks the Tolteks, or Azteks, who colonized Mexico, 
 
 were the Hiongnoos, who are said in the Chinese annals to have emi- 
 grated under Piino ; and to have been lost in the north of Siberia, 
 "Essai Folit." p. 350. See also Paravey, "IMefuoire sur rorigine Japn- 
 naise, Arabe, et Basque des peuples du plateau de Bogota." Paris, 
 18oi5. 
 
 I Tableau de I'enchainement geographique des langues Americaines 
 et Asiaticpies, " Geographic Univ." Paris, 182J, tome v. p. 227, seqq. 
 comp. p. 211. 
 
 t Vater, p. 338. Malte-Brun, p. 212. 
 
 § Memoire relatif a I'origine des Japonais, " Nouvcnii Journal 
 Asiatique," Juin, 1829, p. 400. 
 
80 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 But there are conclusions drawn by ethnographic science, iVom 
 the observation both of local and general phenomena, which bear 
 most materially upon this point, and have completely removed all 
 the difficulties arising from the multiplicity of American languages. 
 And first, the examination of the structure pervading all the Ameri- 
 can languages has left no room to doubt that they all form one indi- 
 vidual family, closely knitted together in all its parts by the most 
 essential of all ties — grammatical analogy. This analogy is not of a 
 vague, indefinite kind, but complex in the extreme, and affecting the 
 most necessary and elementary parts of grammar ; for it consists 
 chiefly in the peculiar methods of modifying conjugationally the 
 meanings and relations of verbs, by the insertion of syllables ; and 
 this form led the late W. von Humboldt to give the American lan- 
 guages a family name, as forming their conjugation by what he 
 termed agglutination. Nor is this analogy partial, but it extends 
 over both great divisions of the new world, and gives a family air to 
 languages spoken, under the torrid and arctic zones, by the wildest 
 and by the more civilized tribes. " This wonderful uniformity," 
 says one writer, " in the peculiar manner of firming the conjugation 
 of verbs from one extremity of America to the other, favors in a 
 singular manner the supposition of a primitive people, which formed 
 the common stock of the Americn indigenous nations."* Another 
 remarks, that the most natural conclusion to which we can come, 
 upon seeing such an extraordinary affinity between languages so 
 many hundreds of miles asunder, is, " that there is a divergence 
 from one common centre of civilization in all."f 
 
 Secondly, the more attention is paid to the study of the American 
 languages, the more they are found subject to the laws of other 
 families, inasmuch as this one great family tends every day to sub- 
 divide itself into larger groups, having closer affinities with them- 
 selves than with the great division of which, in their turn, they form 
 a part. Thus, it had been early observed by the missionaries, that 
 certain languages were considered keys to other dialects, so that 
 whoever possessed them, easily made themselves masters of the 
 others. This remark is, I remember, somewhere made by Hervas, 
 and subsequent researches have amply confirmed it. Hence Baibi, 
 in his Tableau of the American languages, has been able to divide 
 
 * Malte-Brun, p. 217, comp. p. 213. t Vater, p. 329. 
 
STL'DY OF LANGUAGES. 81 
 
 them into certain great provinces, holding within them ninnerous 
 dependencies. 
 
 Thus, therefore, is tlie objection to the unity of the American 
 nations, drawn from the multiplicity of their languages, satisfactorily 
 removed, by the very study within which it had arisen : and with it 
 the difficulty of their belonging to a common stock with the inhabi- 
 tants of the older world. But the collection and comparison of facts 
 connected with linguistic researches, have led to a further, and 
 equally satisfactory, result ; for you will see that we yet have to ac- 
 count for the dissimilarity of dialects spoken by nations or tribes 
 bordering on each other, and composed of trifling numbers. Now, 
 it has been observed, that this is a phenomenon noways peculiar to 
 America, but common to all uncivilized countries. Had we no 
 other criterion of unity of origin but language, we should perhaps be 
 under difficulties in examining this point. But another science, where- 
 of we shall treat in the next lecture, and which will greatly confirm the 
 conclusions I am drawing, is able to fix characteristics, whereby the 
 connexions of tribes in unity of race may be easily determined. And 
 yet it is found, that in instances, where no doubt can exist of savage 
 hordes having been originally united, there has sprung among them 
 so endless and so complete a variety of dialect, that little or no 
 affinity can be therein discovered. And hence we have, as it were, 
 a rule, that the savage state, by insulating families and tribes, and 
 raising the arm of each one ever against its neighbors, has essentially 
 the contrary influence to the aggregating, unifying, tendencies of 
 social civilization ; and necessarily introduces a jealous diversity, 
 and unintelligible idioms, into the jargons which hedge round the 
 independence of different hordes. 
 
 Nowhere has this disuniting power been more attentively exam- 
 ined than among the tribes of Polynesia. " The Papuans or Oriental 
 negroes," says Dr. Leyden, " seem to be all divided into very small 
 States, or rather societies, very little connected with each other. 
 Hence their language is broken into a multitude of dialects, which, 
 in process of time, by separation, accident, or oral corruption, have 
 nearly lost all resemblance."* " Languages," says Mr. Crawfurd, 
 " follow the same progress. In the savage state they are great in 
 number, in improved society few. The state of languages on the 
 American continent affords a convincing illustration of this fact ; and 
 
 * " Asiatic Researches," vol. x. p. 162. 
 11 
 
82 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 It is not less satisfactorily explained in that of the Indian islands. 
 The negro races, who inhabit the mountains of the Malaya peninsula, 
 in the lowest and most abject state of social existence, though nu- 
 merically few, are divided into a great many distinct tribes, speaking 
 as many different languages. Among the rude and scattered popu- 
 lation of the island of Timor, it is believed that not less than forty 
 languages are spoken. On Ende and Flores we have also a multi- 
 plicity of languages ; and among the cannibal population of Borneo, 
 it is not improbable that many hundreds are spoken."* The same 
 facts may be observed in relation to the tribes of Australia, who be- 
 long to the same race, by examining the list of words peculiar to 
 different tribes, which Captain King has given us.t The greatest 
 dissimilarity exists among them ; some, however, as the equivalents 
 for eye, pervade them all, and occasionally, as in the terms for hair, 
 tribes immediately in contact differ essentially, and yet are found 
 respectively to agree with other islands far removed. Now, if these 
 causes so act elsewhere, they must be far more powerful in America ; 
 for there, as Humboldt has well observed, " the configuration of the 
 soil, the strength of vegetation, the apprehensions of the mountain- 
 eers, under the tropics, of exposing themselves to the burning heat 
 of the plains, are obstacles to communication, and contribute to the 
 amazing variety of American dialects. This variety, it is observed, 
 is more restrained in the savannas and forests of the North, which 
 are easily traversed by the hunter, on the banks of great rivers, along 
 the coast of the ocean, and in every country where the Incas had es- 
 tablished their theocracy by force of arms.' | 
 
 Thus, then, I think, that in this department of its researches, 
 ethnography will be found to have done its duty, by first reducing 
 the immense number of American dialects into one family, and then 
 accounting by analogy, for their extraordinary multiplicity. But, as 
 the course of lectures I have sketched out, will not bring us again 
 into this interesting quarter of the globe, I will draw a little further 
 on your kind indulgence, while I touch upon a i^w evidences of the 
 connexion between the inhabitants of the two worlds, so to supply 
 the defects of our ethnographic acquaintance with their idioms. 
 
 * "History of the Indian Archipelago," vol. ii. p. 79. 
 
 f "Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts 
 of Australia," London, 182G, vol. ii. Append. 
 
 J " Views of the Cordilleras," vol. i. p. 17. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES 83 
 
 First, we have the traditions of the Americans themselves, which 
 describe them as a migratory people, proceeding southward from the 
 northwest. The Tolteks, then the seven tribes as they are called, 
 the Checkeneks, and the Azteks, are all represented in Mexican 
 history, as successive nations arriving in Anahuac or Mexico. In 
 the hieroglyphic picture exhibiting the migrations of this last people, 
 they are "represented, according to Borturini, as crossing the sea, 
 probably the Gulf of California, a circumstance which can leave no 
 doubt respecting the course they held. These traditions further re- 
 cord the arrival of later settlers, who greatly advanced the civilization 
 of those countries. Manco Capac is the most celebrated among 
 them, as being the founder of the dynasty and religion of the Incas. 
 A fanciful writer has seized upon this circumstance, and built upon 
 it a complete history of a conquest^of Peru and Mexico by the Mon- 
 guls.* He supposes Mungo Capac to have been the son of Kublai, 
 the Mongul emperor, grandson of Genghis Khan, who was sent by 
 his father with a great fleet against Japan. A storm dispersed the 
 fleet, so that it returned not home any more, and this author imagines 
 it to'have been driven on the coast of America, where the command- 
 er made himself a chief Ingenious as this may be, and even proba- 
 ble the evidence brought to establish it, appears very unsatisfactory. 
 Many analogies may doubtless be found between the Peruvians and 
 Monguls, bu" they may easily be explained from other sources. 
 However, chronological data, the nature of the religion they establish- 
 ed, and the monuments they erected, leave no room to doubt, that 
 Thibet or Tartary was the original country of Mungo Capac's emi- 
 gration, j 
 
 Secondly, the computation of time among the Americans, affords 
 too marked a coincidence, in matters of mere caprice, with that of 
 eastern Asia, to be purely accidental. The division of time into 
 greater cycles of years, again subdivided into smaller portions, each 
 whereof bears a certain name, is, with trifling diff"erence, the plan 
 followed among the Chinese, Japanese, Kalmucks, Monguls, and 
 
 * Rankino's Historical Researches on the Conquest of Pern and 
 Mexico, etc. in the ISth century, by the Mongols, accon.panied w,th 
 eienhants, Lond. 1827. The spirit of system occasionally betrays the 
 ingenious author into a mistake. Thus, p. 419, he refers to Humboldt 
 as an authority for a Tartar inscription said to have been found in 
 Narraganse- Bay, whereas Humboldt, in the very place, rejects the 
 story as more than doubtful. 
 
84 T.KCTURK THE SKCOND. 
 
 Mantcheoiis, as well as amoiiif the Tolteks, Azteks, aii(J other 
 American nations; and the character of their respective methods is 
 precisely the same, particnhirly if those of the Mexicans and Japan- 
 ese be compared. But a comparison of the zodiac, as existincr 
 among the Tibetans, Monguls, and Japanese, with the names given 
 by this American nation to the days of the month, will, I think, 
 satisfy the most incredulous. The identical signs are, t'le tiger, 
 hare, serpent, ape, dog, and bird, in all which, it is plain there is no 
 natural aptitude tiuit could have suggested their adoption in both 
 continents. This strange coincidence is still further enhanced by 
 the curious fact, that several of the Mexican signs, wanting in the 
 Tartar zodiac, are found in the Hindoo Shastras, exactly in corres- 
 ponding positions. These are no less arbitrary than the former; 
 being a house, a cane, a knife, and three foot-prints. But to do 
 justice to this subject, it would be necessary to enter into much 
 minuter details.* 
 
 Lastly, were every thing else wanting, the clear traditions so 
 vividly preserved among the Americans of man's early history, of the 
 flood and the dispersion, so exactly conformable to those of the old 
 world, must remove every hesitation regarding their origin. The 
 Azteks, Mitteks, Flascalteks, and other nations, had innumerable 
 paintings of these latter events. Tezpi or Coxcox, as the American 
 Noah is called, is seen floating in an ark upon the waters, and with 
 him his uife, children, many animals, and several species of grain. 
 When the waters withdrew, Tezpi sent out a vulture, which, being 
 able to feed on the carcases of the drowned, returned no more. 
 After the experiment had failed with several others, the humming- 
 bird at length came back, bearing a green branch in its little beak. 
 In the same hieroglyphic painting, the dispersion of mankind is thus 
 represented. The first men after the deluge were dumb ; and a 
 dove is seen perched upon a tree, giving to each a tongue, the conse- 
 quence whereof is, that the families, fifteen in number, disperse in 
 different directions. f This coincidence, which reminds me that I 
 am still indulging in digression, would alone be sufficient to establish 
 a link of close connexion between the nations of the two continents. 
 But, in fact, so numerous, so extraordinary, and so minute, are the 
 resemblances between them, that in a [)ublication of which I must 
 
 * See the comparative plates, etc. in the 3nd vol. of tlio Views of 
 the Cordillera?. 
 
 f Humhoklt, ib. pp. 65, G6. 
 
STtlDV OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 85 
 
 say a few words, two long and elaborate dissertations have been in- 
 serted, to prove that Jews first, and then Christians, colonized 
 America.* 
 
 The work to which I allude, is the truly royal collection of Mexi- 
 can monuments, published by Lord Kingsborough, a treasure of ma- 
 terials for such as dedicate themselves to their study. It seems im- 
 possible to look through these splendid volumes without being struck 
 with the varied character of art therein exhibited. The hieroglyphic 
 figures representing the human form in squat and distorted propor- 
 tions, have nothing in common with the sculptured reliefs. Here 
 we have tall figures standing in warlike attitudes ; there, females sit- 
 ting cross-legged upon double-headed monsters, with children in 
 their arms, their necks surrounded by strings of pearls, their heads 
 crowned with conical and fretted head-dresses, sometimes formed of 
 animals ; in another place we meet the tortoise, the sacred emblem 
 of India ; in another we see the serpent winding round the tree, or 
 men threatened to be swallowed by misshapen monsters ; so that we 
 imagine ourselves to be examining the sculptures of some Indian 
 cavern, or ancient pagoda.t And I would add, that the type of 
 countenance in these sculptures is no way American, but strongly 
 recals to mind the early Indian manner. Then we have another 
 class of monuments, equally distinct, and seeming to harmonize with 
 Egyptian art. We have pyramids constructed upon the same model, 
 and apparently for the same purposes ; we have figures closely 
 wrapped up, so that only the feet below, and the hands at either side, 
 appear, as in Egyptian statues ; while the head-dress surrounds the 
 head and drops down at each side, pushing forward enormous ears : 
 besides other kneeling figures, where this attire is still more marked, 
 so that, as Enea duirino Visconti observed, they might have been 
 copied from the portico at Dendara, whose capitals they exactly re- 
 semble. In figures, too, of this class, the physiognomy is by no 
 means the same as in the former, but of a character more suiting the 
 style of art.| 
 
 * The antiquities of Mexico, pubiislied by A. Aglio, vol. vi. p. 232 — 
 409, and 409—420. 
 
 t See vol. iv. part. i. Fig. 20, 36 ; 27, 28, 32 : Specimens of Mexi- 
 can sculpture, in possession of M. Latour Allard at Paris, fig. 15, part 
 iii. fig. 8. 
 
 I See ii). p. i. fig. l,seqq. : 48. Latour's mon. figg. 8, 14, elo. 
 
86 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 Who shall solve this riddle for us, and say whetlier these resem- 
 blances are accidental, or produced by some actual communication 1 
 Assuredly this is yet a land of mystery and clouds, and much study 
 is yet requisite, to clear up anomalies, to reconcile contradictions, 
 and place our knowledge upon a stabler footing. We cannot even 
 remove difficulties of this nature nearer our own time ; we cannot, 
 for instance, explain how, as Muratori has proved, Brazil wood should 
 be entered among the taxable commodities, at the gates of Modena, 
 in 1306 : or how Andrea Bianco's map, preserved in St. Mark's Li- 
 brary at Venice, and constructed in 1436, should place an island in 
 the Atlantic, with the very name Brasile. How much more must 
 we be involved in difficulties, when we attempt to unravel the intri- 
 cacies of primeval records, or reconstruct an early history from a 
 few fragmentary monuments. 
 
 And in conclusion, I would remark, that many other problems 
 there are, in the history of languages, which enter into the mysteries 
 of nature, and have their solution involved in those hidden laws of 
 her constitution, that form her links with the moral ordinance of the 
 world. For, it might be asked, how is it that languages so easily 
 sprung up in early ages, which till now have remained unchanged ; 
 or rather, how were their first fiimilies so soon divided into dialects, 
 essentially fixed and independent, while in the progress of time man- 
 kind have formed little more than dialects of these, provincial idioms 
 or manifest derivations, hardly any further prolific ? For, within a 
 very short period after the dispersion, must the Sanskrit, the Greek, 
 and the Latin, or, at least, its parent-tongue, have separated from 
 one another, and received their marked characteristic forms : and in 
 the Semitic family the separation must have been equally early. 
 Now, as well might we ask, why the oak, only near its roots, sends 
 forth huge gigantic branches, each whereof shall of itself seem large 
 enough to form another tree, and have its own dominion of boughs, 
 and its own crown of yearly shoots, while later it can only put forth 
 a punier and less vigorous offspring, wherein the generating virtue 
 seems almost exhausted. And truly there is a sap in nations as well 
 as in trees, a vigorous inward power, ever tending upwards, draw- 
 ing its freshest energies from the simplest institutions, and the purest 
 virtues, and the healthiest moral action. While these form the soil 
 wherein a people is, as it were, deeply rooted, its powers are almost 
 boundless ; and, as these alter and become exhausted, it likewise 
 will be weakened, and decay. Assuredly, there was a vigpr in the 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 0< 
 
 human mind, as compared with ours, gigantic, when the Homeric 
 songs were the poetry of the wandering minstrel, when shepherd- 
 chiefs, like Abraham, could travel from nation to nation, und even 
 associate with their kings, and when an infant people cou J imagine 
 and execute monuments like the Egyptian pyramids. 
 
 And if of nations we so may speak, what shall we say of the en- 
 tire human race, when all its energies were, in a manner, pent up in 
 its early and few progenitors ; when the children of Noah, removed 
 but a few generations from the recollections and lessons of Eden, and 
 possessing the accumulated wisdom of long-lived patriarchs, were 
 marvellously fitted to receive those strange and novel impressions, 
 which a world, just burst forth in all its newness, was calculated to 
 make ; yea, when they, themselves an infant race, struggling on one 
 side against the ravages of the late disaster, and on another, against 
 the luxuriancy of its renovating influence, must have felt within 
 themselves a boundless energy in thought and action, a quickness of 
 apprehension, a richness of contrivance, and a might in execution 
 equal to the crisis, and such as later generations could never want. 
 And from minds thus subject to such peculiar impressions, alive to 
 such unmodified feelings, and so strongly compelled to note their 
 action, the first coinage of language must have received an impress 
 and an image, bolder and more indelible than after times could 
 have communicated, when the early springs of vigorous action had 
 been impaired, or had ceased to act. 
 
 But we are not, I think, to imagine, that Divine Providence, in 
 distributing to different human families this holy gift of speech, had 
 no further purpose than the material dispersion of the human race, 
 or the bestowing on them varied forms of utterance ; there was doubt- 
 less therein a deeper and more important end — the sharing out 
 among them of the intellectual powers. For language is so mani- 
 festly the embodying power, the incarnation, so to speak, of thought, 
 that we can almost as easily imagine to ourselves a soul without a 
 body, as our thoughts unclothed by the forms of their outward ex- 
 pression. And hence these organs of the spirit's conceptions must, 
 in their turn, mould, control, and modify, its peculiar character, so 
 that the mind of a nation must necessarily correspond to the language 
 it possesses. 
 
 The Semitic family, destitute of particles and grammatical forms 
 suited to express the relations of things, stiffened by an unyielding 
 construction, and confined by the dependence of words upon verbal 
 
88 LECTURE THE SECOND. 
 
 .roots to ideas of outward action, could not lead the mind to abstract 
 I or abstruse ideas ; and hence its dialects have been ever adapted for 
 j the simplest historical narratives, and for the most exquisite poetry, 
 where mere impressions or sensations are felt and described in the 
 most rapid succession; while not a school of native philosophy has 
 arisen within their pale, not an element of metaphysical thought oc- 
 curs in their sublimest compositions. Hence are the deepest revela- 
 I tions of religion, the most awful denunciations of prophecy, the wisest 
 lessons of virtue, clothed, in Hebrew, under imagery drawn from 
 [ outward nature. And in this respect, the author of the Koran neces- 
 sarily followed the same course. 
 
 But to tiie Indo-European was given a wonderful suppleness in 
 I expressing the inward and outward relations of things, by flexion in 
 I its nouns, by conditional and indefinite tenses in its verbs, by the 
 ; tendency to make or adapt innumerable particles, but principally by 
 the powerful and almost unlimited faculty of compounding words : 
 joined whereunto is the facility of varying, inverting, and involving 
 the construction, and the power of immediately and completely trans- 
 ferring the force of words, from a material to a purely mental repre- 
 sentation. Hence, while it is a fit instrument for effecting the lof- 
 tiest designs of genius, it is no less powerful in the hands of the phi- 
 losopher ; and in it, and by it, have arisen those varied systems, 
 which, in ancient India, and in later Greece, and in modern Ger- 
 many, have attempted to fathom the human understanding, and 
 analyze to their primitive elements the forms of our ideas.* 
 
 And do you not see in all this, a subserviency to still nobler de- 
 signs, when in conjunction with these reflections, you look back at 
 the order observed by God in the manifestation of his religion? For 
 so long as his revelations were rather to be preserved than propaga- 
 ted, while his truths regarded principally the history of man and his 
 simplest duties towards God, when his law consisted of precepts 
 rather of outward observance than of inward constraint, while the 
 
 * As an illustration of these remarks, I may say that, in our times, 
 the transcendental philosophy could hardly have risen in any country 
 except Germany, whose language possesses the characteristics cf the 
 family more than any other, and could tnost easily permit or suggest 
 the using of the first pronoun objectively, a violence too great, in other 
 European languages, for them to have first devised it. In Latin, for 
 instance, where there is no article, it is almost impossible to express it ; 
 nor could one using that language have conceived such an idea. 
 
STUDY OF LANGUAGES. 89 
 
 direction of men was uiaiuiged rather by the iiiv'i^terious agency of 
 seers into futurity, than by the steady rule of unalterablej law, the 
 entire system of religion was deposited in the hands of that human 
 family whose intellectual character and language were admirably 
 framed for clinging with tenacity to simple traditions of early days, 
 and for describing all that was on the outside of man, and lent them- 
 selves most effectually to the awful ministry of the prophet's mission 
 But no sooner is a mighty change introduced into the grojnd- 
 work of his revelation, and the faculties unto which it is addressed, 
 than a corresponding transfer manifestly takes place in the family, 
 whereunto its ministration and principal direction are obviously com- 
 mitted. The religion now intended for the whole world, and for 
 each individual of the human race, requiring in consequence a more 
 varied evidence to meet the wants and satisfy the longings of every 
 tribe and every country, and every age, is handed over " to other 
 husbandmen," whose deeper power of thoi'i^ht, whose ever eager im- 
 pulse to investigate would more easily discover and bring to light its 
 inexhaustible beauties ; who would search out its connexions with 
 every other order of truth, every other system of God's dispensation; 
 thus ever bringing forth new motives of conviction, and new themes 
 of praise. And in this manner Divine Wisdom, while it hath made 
 the substance of religion one and immutable, hath yet in a manner 
 tied its evidences to the restless wheel of man's endeavor, and min- 
 gled them with the other motives of his impelling desires : that so 
 every step made in the prosecution of sound study and humble in- 
 quiry, may give them also a new advance, and a varied position ; on 
 which the reflecting mind may dwell with surpassing admiration. 
 And how this has happened with the science of Ethnography, I 
 trust you have now sufficiently seen. 
 
 12 
 
LECTURE THE THIRD; 
 
 ON 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 History of this Science. — Division of Human Families among the 
 Greeks. — Aristotle's Classification. — Who are his Eiryptians ? — 
 Proofs that they represent the Negro race ; the Scythians and the 
 Thracians are Germanic and Moiigul tribes. — Later writers. — Sys- 
 tem of Camper explained ; its difficulties. — Blumenhach's System of 
 Classification. — Division into three primary, and two secon(hu-y, 
 families; first, by the form of the skull ; secondly, by the color, hair 
 and iris. — Geographical distribution of families. — Distinction between 
 Tartars and Monguls. — Labors of Dr. I'richard. — Opposers of the 
 unity of the human race ; Virey, Desmoulins, Bory de Saint-Vincent; 
 Theory of Lamarck. Results. — L Remote examination of the 
 subject by analogy of plants, and animals. — Examples of varieties in 
 these of a similar character to those observable in man. H. Direct 
 examination of phenomena on a small scale. — Tendency of one 
 family to produce varieties possessing the characteristics of another. 
 — Examples of more extraordinary peculiarities springing U[) among 
 men. — Reflections on the identity of moral feelings in all races, as 
 applicable to the proc-if of their common origin. 
 
 If St Paul warns us to avoid perplexing ourselves with vain and 
 endless genealogies, it might be thought that the study whereon we 
 are now entering, belongs to the forbidden class. For, assuredly, 
 the attempt to trace out the course and origin of each variety in the 
 human species, back to one common progenitor, must seem nn al- 
 most hopeless task ; when we consider how the investigation it re- 
 quires has been involved in numerous and complicated questions, by 
 the contradictory statements of writers, and by the conflicting prin- 
 ciples on which it has been conducted. Still, the successful results 
 of the science last discussed, may well encourage us to undertake 
 the examination of this its sister science — the history of the human 
 
92 r.EOTORK THK 'DriRD. 
 
 race. It maj', indeed, he said, that their objects are very nearly the 
 same, even so far that a coninioii name might perhaps be given them, 
 descriptive of their object, with a distinctive epithet to mark the pro- 
 cesses whereby they seek to attain it. And if the former was rightly 
 called philological, this miglit be not unaptly styled physiognoinical 
 Ethiiograplii/. 
 
 The former lias already bronglit ns to the .satisfactory conclusion, 
 that so far as languages in their comparative bearings, may be heard 
 in evidence on the subject, the entire huma:n race formed originally 
 one family, or, in the words of the sacred penman, " were of one lip 
 and one speech." But if great difficulties had to be overcome for 
 the vindication of this scrij)tural assertion, arising from the great va- 
 riety of idioms which now divide tlse tribes of earth, a stronger and 
 more couij)licated one yet remains, striking more directly at the unity 
 of the huniui race, and its origin from one stock. This consists in 
 the consideration of tiiose physical differences tliat distinguish the 
 human form, in various regions of the globe. 
 
 The Word of God has always considered mankind as descended 
 from one parent, and the great mystery of redemption rests upon the 
 belief that all men sinned in their common father. Suppose different 
 and unconnected creations of men, and the deep mystery of original 
 sin, and the glorious mystery of redemption, are blotted out from re- 
 ligion's book. Is it not then important to answer their reasoning, 
 who maintain, it is impossibk^ to reduce the many varieties of human 
 families into one species, or trace them to one common progenitor; 
 who assert that natural history doth show such deeply-entrenched 
 divisions between tl)*? physical characteriptics of different nations, as 
 that one could never have been derived froiii the other ; and that no 
 conceivable action ofcauses, either instantaneous or progressive, could 
 have ever altered the European's shape and color into the negro's, or 
 caused " the Ethiopean to change his skin," and produce the Asiatic 
 race ? And how shall this confutation be obtained ? Assuredly by no 
 other means than I have already suggested to you, and intend often 
 yet to inculcate and exemplify — by the deeper study of that very 
 science which has engendered the objection — by the collection of 
 yet better evidence tlian has already been produced — and by a well 
 digested classification of phenomena, whence satisfactory conclusions 
 may be drawn. 
 
 This task, pursuant to my engagements, I enter upon this morn- 
 ing. .1 will premise a historical view of this ?f ionce, dwelling, per- 
 
NATURAI. HISTORY OF MAN. 93 
 
 haps more fully than may appear consistent with my plan, upon the 
 earliest stages of its history, for motives which will easily be seen ; I 
 will then endeavor to classify and arrange the conclusions which the 
 study in its present state may justly warrant us to draw, supporting 
 them with such additional illustrations as I have been able to col- 
 lect, and then will leave you to compare these conclusions with the 
 history of the human race delivered to us in Genesis. 
 
 The mention of this sacred record brings before my mind, with 
 regret, a passage, which being, as it were, preliminary to the very 
 subject I am going to handle, and presenting a direct contradiction 
 to what I have just asserted, I may not in silence pass over. " The 
 Mosaic account," says a learned writer, " does not make it quite 
 clear that the inhabitants of the world descended from Adam and 
 Eve. Moreover, the entire or even partial inspiration of the various 
 writings comprehended in the Old Testament, has been, and is 
 doubted by many persons, including learned divines and distinguished 
 oriental and biblical scholars. . . . To the grotmds of doubt respect- 
 ing inspiration, which arise from the examination of various narra- 
 tives, from knowledge of the original and other oriental languages, 
 and from the irreconcilable opposition between the passions and sen- 
 timents ascribed to the Deity by Moses, and that religion of peace 
 and love unfolded by the Evangelists, I have only to add, that the 
 representations of all the animals being brought before Adam in the 
 first instance, and subsecjuently, of their being all collected in the 
 ark, if we are to understand them as being applied to the living in- 
 habitants of the whole world, are zoologically impossible." The first 
 assertion in this quotation is supported in a note, by citing the passa- 
 ges where it is said, "God created man, male and female," and 
 again, (chap, v.) " in the day that God created man, male and fe- 
 male he created them." These passages its author supposes to 
 refer to a different creation from that of Eve.* I am sorry to offer 
 any comment upon this passage, because the author, I am sure, no 
 longer holds the opinions he here incautiously expressed. But the 
 value of the work itself, as a great collection of important facts, con- 
 nected together by very learned observations, will continue to give it 
 weight, and ensure it the perusal of the young. And therefore I will 
 venture to make a few remarks upon the theological portion of the 
 
 * Lectures on Physiologv, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man. 
 Lond. J 819, y. 248. 
 
94 LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 argument. The author's conclusions from the investigation of the 
 science are perfectly in accordance with the inspired narrative, and 
 therefore it is doubly a pity that he should have gone out of his way 
 to show that the contrary opinion might be held, for any thing which 
 the Scriptures teach. It was not, perhaps, to be expected from him, 
 that he should be acquainted with the labors of theologians, but the 
 appeal to them warrants us in looking into their opinions. Now, 
 taking one of the rashest and boldest interpreters that modern Ger- 
 many has produced, we should find even him vindicating the differ- 
 ent texts quoted by our author from all charge of contradiction. I 
 allude to Eichhorn, who, upon grounds solely philological, seems to 
 have satisfactorily proved, what Astruc had conjectured in the last 
 century, that the book of Genesis is composed of several distinct 
 documents, which Moses has plainly incorporated into his work, 
 clearly distinguishable, not only by their definite and complete form, 
 but by the use of peculiar words, as, for instance, the word Jehovah, 
 which is totally absent from one, and invariably found in another. 
 Thus the first chapter, where we are told that " God created man, 
 male and female," without giving the details of this creation, always 
 calls the Almighty by the name Elohim, or simply God. But the 
 fourth verse of the second chapter begins, manifestly, anew narrative 
 or document, having a particular title : " These are the generations 
 of the heavens and the earth," in other words, " this is the history of 
 the creation of heaven and earth,"* entering into the details of para- 
 dise and man's creation, and distinguishable throughout by the con- 
 stant use of the title Jehovah, till its end with the fourth chapter. 
 In the fifth, we have the return of the same document given in the 
 first, or else another, in which Jehovah is not used, and where again 
 man is said to have been created male and female. Now, this being 
 the hypothesis or system of the most " learned divine," who rejects 
 inspiration, this divine thereby no less overthrows the scriptural de- 
 duction of a second creation of man, besides that of Adam. For the 
 texts quoted are shown to be only different descriptions of the same 
 event. With the other objections drawn against inspiration, from 
 the " examination of the various narratives, from the knowledge of 
 the original and other oriental languages, and from the irreconcilable 
 
 * All who are conversant in scriptnr.il science, are aware of the 
 correspondence of tliese two expressions, — histories being called gene- 
 alogies, from their being prefaced by such documents. See Gen. 6: 9, 
 and Matt. 6:1. 
 
 i 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 95 
 
 opposition" between the God of Moses and the christian religion, it 
 would be out of place now to engage ; and it is not, perhaps, very 
 clear in what sense the learned writer's words are to be taken. 
 Having been at some pains to make myself acquainted with " the 
 original and other oriental languages," any ways applicablejo the 
 study of Scripture, I have not discovered that any " grounds of doubt 
 respecting inspiration," have arisen from this knowledge. But pass 
 we on to more pleasant occupation. 
 
 The more marked divisions of the human race are so striking to 
 the eye, that it was impossible for them to escape the notice of the 
 ancients. No one, for instance, could avoid being struck with the 
 difference in features, color, and hair, between the European and the 
 negro. Aristotle appears to have recorded the classification preva- 
 lent in earlier and in his own times, when he tells us, that the older 
 physiognomists decided of a person's character by the resemblance 
 of his features to " those nations who differ in appearance and man- 
 ners, as the Egyptians, Thracians, and Scythians."* As these races, 
 or rather, their characteristics, must be considered as compared to 
 another, from which, as from a type or standard, they variously differ, 
 which doubtless was the Grecian form, we have here a division of 
 mankind into four distinct classes, or races, as we now call them. 
 No attempt, as far as I am aware, has been made to investigate this 
 point more minutely, and yet it is not without its importance. For 
 besides thus giving the very foundation or first step in the history of 
 a science, every day growing in interest and importance, we may, 
 perhaps, gather some facts useful toward examining the changes 
 which time has introduced into the nations now occupying particular 
 tracts of country ; and for these reasons, even at the risk of devi- 
 ating, for a moment, from the popular form I wish to preserve in 
 these lectures, I will enter at some length into the discussion. 
 
 The first race, or distinctly characterized class of men, which 
 Aristotle, after the older physiognomists, here mentions, is the Egyp- 
 tian. By this there can be no doubt that he means the negro race ; 
 for, besides the impossibility of his omitting this in speaking of the 
 varieties of the human species, in another place he clearly confounds 
 the two ; saying, " that persons who are very dark are also timid, 
 
 * JidofifvoL xara la I'&vr], oaa Sticps^s tctg oifjug, xal xa i/^r], oioy 
 Aiyvmoi, xal Oguxeg, xal ^xv^ai. — Physiognomic, cap. i. Opp Par 
 1619, torn. i. p. 1169. 
 
96 LKCTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 being referred to the Egyptian and Ethiopian race."* Again, on 
 another occasion, he asks the question, why the Egyptians and Ethi- 
 opians have crooked legs, and distorted feet ? to which he answers, 
 that this arises probably from the same cause as gives them both 
 woolly hair, — that is, the heat of their climate.f 
 
 Here then arises a complicated and interesting inquiry; were 
 the ancient Egyptians really so formed on the negro type, that the 
 two could be confounded together ? The testimony of Aristotle is 
 undoubtedly strong in favor of the affirmative, and becomes doubly 
 so from the agreement of almost all the classics, especially that of the 
 sagacious and accurate Herodotus. For, speaking of the Colchi, he 
 says they are proved to be descendants of the Egyptians, vie fAfkuy- 
 yi^QOtg ilol nul ov).6i(^i'j[ic,\ "because they are black and woolly- 
 headed." Here, as in the philosopher, we have the two most definite 
 characteristics of the negro race attributed to the Egyptians. • 
 
 Blumenbach, whose name I shall often have to mention with 
 praise, has manifestly a favorite theory regarding the physiognomy of 
 the Egyptians. In his invaluable " Decads of Skulls," he first hint- 
 ed that it is impossible to suppose, during so many ages of embalm- 
 ing, no variety in the national type § In 1808, he more clearly ex- 
 pressed his opinion, that monuments prove the existence of three dis- 
 tinct forms or physiognomies among the ancient inhabitants of 
 EgyP'^-ll Three years later he entered more fully into this inquiry, 
 and gave the monuments which, he thought, bore him out in his hy- 
 pothesis. The first of these he considers to approach to the negro 
 model, the second to the Hindoo, the third to the Berber, or ordina- 
 ry Egyptian head.^ But I think an unprejudiced observer will not 
 easily follow him so far. The first head has nothing in common with 
 
 * Ol ixyav fisXavig deiXol' avoKpionuL inl toi'c Aiyvmlovg, y.ul Al&i- 
 onag. — lb. cap. vi. p. 1180. 
 
 f /liu tI ol Alr&ioTifg x«» ol Aiyvmiot pXaudiol tlorlv ; . . . Stjloixn di 
 xnl ai r^lx^g ' ovXoTfQug yctg txovaiv. — rrolilem. Sec. .\iv. 4, torn. ii. 
 p. 750. 
 
 \ Lih. ii. § civ. torn. i. |i. 157, cd. Lond. 1824. 
 
 § Decas collectioiiis siise cr.iDioriim diversoruin gontiutn illiistrata. 
 — GiJtling. 1790, p. 14. 
 
 II Specimen liistoriie uaturalis iuiliqiiao arils r);)erihiis illustratae. — 
 Ih. 1808. p. 11. 
 
 H Beitrjij^o zur Nalurgocirnlite. liter Th. /ft. 181], Dreyerley 
 National physioiiomie unier deii alien ^Egyptern, p. 130. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 97 
 
 the black race, but is only a coarser tepreseutation of the Egyptian 
 type ; the second is but its mythological or ideal purification. To 
 make out this system Iroin monuments, two things appear wanting ; 
 first, that instead of single representations, which may be called only 
 sporadic or casual, classes of monuments should have been pointed 
 out, wherein the different characters are preserved ; for occasional 
 deviations from the ordinary course are to be found in every law ; 
 secondly, that some chronological relation be established between the 
 different classes, so to prove that the change which he supposes, oc- 
 curred at different epochs in the national features. Neither of these 
 points, however, has been attempted. 
 
 All the remains of the Egyptians oppose the statements of the 
 classics I have quoted. For as to their color and hair, nothing can 
 be more clearly represented than they are on their monuments. We 
 always see the bodies of the natives painted of a red or tawny color, 
 with long flowing hair, where the head-dress allows it to be seen ; 
 while we often see the negroes represented beside them, by a jet 
 black color, frizzled hair, and perfect negro features, precisely as 
 they really are at the present day.* But we have still more precious 
 monuments than these painted representations, in the very mummies 
 themselves, the skulls of which, as Mr. Lawrence observes, invariably 
 have the European form, without a trace of the negro shape. t And 
 as to the hair, we may give, for a general description, the account 
 given by M. Villoteau of the hair of a mummy opened under his di- 
 rection : " Les cheveux etaient noirs .... bien plantes, longs, et 
 divises en nattes retrousses sur la tete."J 
 
 It is not easy to reconcile the conflicting results thus obtained 
 from writers and from monuments, and it is no wonder that learned 
 men should have differed widely in opinion on the subject. I should 
 think the best solution is, that Egypt was the country where the 
 Greeks most easily saw the inhabitants of interior Africa, many of 
 whom doubtless flocked thither and were settled there, or served in 
 the army as tributaries or provincials, as they have done in later 
 times ; and thus, they came to be confounded by writers with the 
 country where alone they knew them, and were considered a part of 
 the indigenous population. Some such hypothesis mu.st be adopted 
 
 * See the colored plaies in Hoskitis's Travels in Ethiopia. 
 
 t Lectures, p. 345. 
 
 I Ap. De Sacv, Rpl;ilion de I'E^fyple, fiar Ahd- Allatif. — Pam, 
 
 1810, p. ytjy. 
 
 13 
 
98 LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 to reconcile writers among themselves : for Ammianus Marcellinus 
 writes that the Egyptians were only dark and blackish, " homines 
 iEgyptii plerumque subfusculi sunt et atrati."* Thus much, how- 
 ever, is perfectly certain, that by the Egyptian variety which he 
 places first among those of the human species, Aristotle means the 
 black or negro race. 
 
 The next upon his list are the Scythians ; and Hippocrates in 
 like manner mentions them as possessing characteristics common to 
 all their tribes except one, no less marked and distinctive on the one 
 side, than those of the Egyptians on the other.t Though ancient 
 Scythia occupied the country now in great measure peopled by 
 tribes belonging to what is called the Mongul race, whom the ancient 
 Scythians greatly resembled in the nomadic form of their lives, we 
 cannot for a moment suppose that a tawny or olive-colored race 
 would be placed by writers like Aristotle and Hippocrates, as the 
 variety contrasting with the Greek in an opposite direction from the 
 negro. There can be no doubt but the Scythians mentioned by 
 Aristotle, in his classification of the human races, were the Germanic 
 tribes, which were found scattered over the whole of Scythia. This 
 country as described by Herodotus, is not like the Scythia of Ptolemy, 
 confined to northern Asia, but also comprehended Dacia, Moesia, 
 and all the country north of Thrace. | Now there can be no ques- 
 tion but the inhabitants of these regions were Germanic ; for besides 
 their representation on monuments, the descriptions given of them 
 by Ovid in his exile, present all the traits of the ancient Germans. 
 Thus their hair is described as yellow or light-colored : 
 
 " Hie mea cui recitem nisi flavis scripta Corallis, 
 Quas que alias gentes barbarus Ister habet."§ 
 
 And as always unshorn : 
 
 "Mixta sit hsec (gens) quamvis inter Graiosque Getasque, 
 A male pacatis plus trahit ora Getis, 
 
 * Lib. xxii. in fine. In Scriptor. Hist. Rom. ; Heidelb. 1743, toitj. ii. 
 p. 518. 
 
 f On nolv anrjXXdxrai tmv Ioitimv avd^qanav to Sxv&lkov yivog, xat 
 toixiv avio etovisM, wcttkq to Alyi'nxiov. — De Aere, Locis, et Aquis, 
 ed. Genev. 1657, torn. i. p. 291. 
 
 I See Lib. iv. § xcix. p. 327. 
 
 § Epist. de Ponto. lib. iv. ep. ii. 37. The Coralli seem to be con- 
 founded with the Getae, on comparing Ep. viii. 83 with x. 2. A fanci- 
 ful etymologist might consider them as the ancestors of the Kourilians. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 99 
 
 V'ox fera, trux vultus, vorissima Martis itiiago, 
 Not! cotna, noii ulla barba resecta nianu."* 
 
 Ovid, too, it need scarcely be noted, speaks in almost every page of 
 his place of exile as Scythia. 
 
 But thus far we hardly needed proof. It is far more important to 
 note that Herodotus, with his usual accuracy, has clearly distin- 
 guished two races as occupying the wide regions of Asiatic Scythia, 
 — the Germanic, according to the ancient classification, and the 
 Mongul. For, he tells us, that above the Sarmatians, and conse- 
 quently, as Breiger well observes, about the territory of Astrakan, on 
 the Jaik,t there lived a tribe called the Budini, " a great and nume- 
 rous nation, with eyes exceedingly blue, and led hair."| Here, then, 
 we have a Scythian tribe, with all the characteristics attributed by 
 the ancients to the Germanic nations. § But, in another place, 
 Herodotus describes the Agrippaei, no less a Scythian people, with 
 very different traits. " They are said," he writes, " to be bald from 
 their birth, both males and females, with flat noses and large chins." |1 
 Their manners, he adds, are perfectly harmless and innocent. Now 
 compare these marks with the characteristics of the Mongul race, 
 and you will at once see how accurate Herodotus is, and how cer- 
 tainly the same race of nomads, as now, partly occupied the northern 
 tracts of Asia in his time. Blumenbach gives us the following dis- 
 tinctives of the Mongul family : — a flat nose, Jiasus simus, corres- 
 ponding to the aif.toi of Herodotus, and a rather prominent chin, 
 mentum prominulum, yiviiov neyuXov.^ But what are we to say to 
 the baldness from birth ? Is it to be accounted a fable ; seeing that 
 
 * Trist. lib. v. eleg. vii. 11. Lucan (lib. i.) speaking of a German 
 tribe, says 
 
 " Et vos crinigeros bellis arcere Chaycos." 
 
 t Cominentatio de Difficilioribus quibusdam Asise Herodoteas. Pre- 
 fixed to the cited edition, p. 184. 
 
 I Bovdhoi 8s tifvog iov fxiya nal nolXov, yXavxov ts lcr%vgojg iail xal 
 nvQ^ov. — LMelpoiii. § 108. toni,4. p. 337. Cf. ^ 21. p. 292. 
 
 § See then) collected by Corringiu.s, " De habitus ror[)orum Ger- 
 manorum aiitiqui et novi causis, liber singularis." — Frankfort, 1727, 
 with a voluminous commentary by Burggraff, p. 29 — 100. 
 
 II "Av&Qb)7ioi Xfy6[itvoi iivai navrfq cpaXaxgol sx ysveijg yivo^ivoi, x«t 
 iQdsvfg xttl S^^ksai ofioLojg, xal cnficu, xat yiveia l];|foi'T£S fieyaXa. — lb, 
 § 33. p. 293. 
 
 II De generu? humani varietale nativa. — Gotting. 1795, p. 179. 
 
100 LECTURE THE TI1IR1>. 
 
 the judicious father of profane history, whose correctness every new 
 research confirms, is careful to qualify his assertion by an expression 
 of doubt ? XfyoLiivoi, he says, ihui navng cfalwAgot, — they are 
 s'lid to be all bald. I might answer, that Blumenbach, in another 
 place, describing the hair of different races, gives that of the Mon- 
 guls as ra7-us — thin, or, as Virey expresses it, clair seme* But I 
 think this difficulty is still better removed by what Pallas relates of 
 the Calmucks : — " ils rasent la tete a leurs enfans males, des la 
 plus tendre enfance," and again, " les hommes ont tous la tete rasee."t 
 By this striking custom we may explain how Herodotus, speaking of 
 the Agrippaei, should often call them by no other name than the bald 
 people — cpukaxQoi tovioh'^ 
 
 This mixture of tribes probably gave rise to the confusion some- 
 times observable in ancient writers, when they characterize the 
 Scythians ; for they blend together features which could not well 
 have belonged to one race, but appear taken from both parts of the 
 population. Such, at least, appears to be the case in the two princi- 
 pal physiognomical writers of antiquity, Adamantius and Polemon. 
 I will confine myself to the former, as the latter is nothing more than 
 his transcriber. Adamantius, therefore, who professes to follow 
 Aristotle, like him, speaks of the Scythians and Ethiopians as of the 
 extremes of the human race.§ Now, in another place, he gives us 
 the characteristics of nations near the north, and of those under the 
 torrid zone, meaning therefore, probably, those whom he had before 
 designated as Scythians and Ethiopians. Of the former he says : 
 " Generally speaking, the inhabitants of the north are well-formed, 
 xanthous, fair, with soft hair, blue eyes, and flat noses, have thick 
 legs, loose flesh, and large paunches." || It is evident that this 
 description in great part applies to some Germanic nation, with the 
 
 * lb. p, 166. Virey, Histoire naturelle dii genre hnmaiti. Bruxell. 
 1827, vol. i. p. 41 J. 
 
 f Voyages en difFerentes piovince.-; de i'Empire dc Rtissie, Paris, 
 1788, toin. i. pp. 502, 503. 
 
 \ Ul)i Slip. §§ 24, 25. p. 293, seqq. 
 
 § " riiysiopn." I. i. " Scri[)trirfs Physiognoin. Veteres," „iUenb. 
 1780, p.318. "Poleinon," il). 173. Adamanriiis, however, there clearly 
 distinguishes the Egyptian from tiie Eiliiopeaii leatiires. 
 
 II Slg 8b nokii ol (Atv inu tji tifjxTM olxoivift;, iv^n,y.iiq nal, ^uvOol, 
 Xivnol itxq xofiag, uTiukoTQi/fg, yluvy.ot, (Tifiot, iKtyvaKhhlg, nsQiJihj&ug 
 auQxl layaqu, nQoyt'taiogti;. — L. ii. § 23. p. 109. In my translation, I 
 have inserted a comma after Itvaol, and erased it after xoixaq ; first, 
 
NATURAL HISTORV OF MAN. 
 
 101 
 
 exception of the flat nose, loose flesh, and obesity, which seem to 
 have been borrowed from the description of some Mongul tribe ; 
 though the last of these characteristics could only apply to a few, as 
 the Kirghis or Bashkirs.* 
 
 This dispersion of Germanic tribes over the whole of Scythia, 
 appears to me a very interesting fact ; and after having thus endea- 
 vored to trace them by the aid of Greek writers, it was a great satis- 
 faction to me to find the fact confirmed by a lamented orientalist, 
 from sources of a different class. " How much soever this assertion 
 may appear a paradox," says Abel-Remusat, " I think it will be 
 proved that the family of the Gothic nations once occupied large 
 tracts of Tartary, that some of its branches inhabited Transoxana, 
 and even reached the Altai mountains ; and that they were well 
 known to the people of eastern Asia, who could not fail to be struck 
 with the singularity of their languages, their light hair, blue eyes, 
 and white complexions ; traits particularly remarkable in the midst 
 of men dark-colored, and with brown eyes and dark hair, who have 
 in the end occupied their place. When 1 shall have given the proofs 
 I have collected, it will be seen whether my assertion is too rash."t 
 These proofs he did not, I believe, live to publish ; but the learned 
 and sagacious Ritter has most satisfactorily unravelled the complica- 
 ted history of the population of central Asia, so entangled by the 
 confusion of names transferred from one nation to another. He 
 considers tribes of the Indo-European or Indo-Germanic race, to 
 have been the first inhabitants of the central plateau of Asia, who 
 are represented by all Chinese writers as having red hair and blue 
 eyes. In the second century before Christ, some remains, which 
 had been driven westward by the Hiong-nu, were still in force on 
 the shores of Lake Bhalkush, and the river Hi, under the name of 
 Ui-siun, or U-siun ; but being afterwards weakened, they were driven 
 to the west in the fourth century, and probably fell into the stream 
 of northern inundation, then beginning to move towards the south. | 
 
 because otherwise there is either a useless repetition or a contradiction 
 as to the color of the h.'iir, ah'eady expressed by the epithet ^uv&ol ; 
 secondly, because in the corresponding passage of Poieinon, the entire 
 inemLier xa? — ;A«rxoi is omitted, as he say.*, Afvxof, atfiol, etc. Lib. i. 
 § 3. p. 181. 
 
 * Pallas, ii!ti sup. [>. 4:16. 
 
 f Recherches siir les Laniruos Tartares, p. 45, 
 
 I Die Erdkiinde in VerhaUniss zur Natur, und zur Gescfiichte des 
 Menschen. — 2 Th. ii. Buch. Asion, I Band, Bed. 183-3, p. 431—435. 
 
102 LECTURE THE THIRO. 
 
 But what I wish principally to conclude from this long '-dis- 
 c|uiaition is, that with this mixture of tribes among the Scythians, we 
 cannot doubt but that it was the Germanic family which Aristotle 
 and Hippocrates had in view, when they described the Scythians as 
 differing by their fairness from the Greeks, as much as did the Ethi- 
 opians by their dusky hue. And in fact, the Latin writers, to whom 
 the Germans were more familiarly known than to the Greeks, con- 
 trast them with the Ethiopians, as though they formed the two oppo- 
 site extremes of the human family. " The color of the Ethiopian," 
 says Seneca, " is not singular among his countrymen, nor is red hair 
 tied up in a knot a peculiarity among the Germans."* Martial says, 
 in like manner, 
 
 " Crinibus in nodum toriis venere Sicambri, 
 Aique aliter tortis crinibus JEthiopes."! 
 
 The third race of men enumerated by Aristotle, consists of the 
 Thracians. It is, I think, still more difficult to decide whom he means 
 to characterize by this name ; though it is evident that he must mean 
 a nation having peculiar distinctives in color and feature, sufficient 
 to mark them when mixed with the other races he has described. 
 This would naturally lead us to conjecture, that in his classification 
 they correspond to the olive or Mongul race, the only one wherewith 
 he must have been acquainted, that finds no place in his enumera- 
 tion. In this conjecture I feel confirmed by the following consider- 
 ations. 
 
 First, as Aristotle is guided chiefly by color, in his distribution of 
 mankind into races, and the two classes which we have examined 
 give us the extremes, this must represent an intermediate color, dif- 
 fering however from the Grecian complexion. But there is a passage 
 in Julius Firmicus, overlooked by the commentators of Aristotle, 
 which gives us the same ternary division, with the colors of each 
 race. " In the first place, " he writes, " speaking of the characters 
 and colors of men, they agree in saying : if by the mixed influence 
 of the stars the characters and complexions of men are distributed ; 
 and if the course of the heavenly bodies, by a certain kind of artful 
 painting, form the lineaments of mortal bodies ; that is, if the moon 
 makes men white, Mars red, and Saturn black, how comes it that in 
 
 * De Ira, L. iii. c. xxvi. f Spectacul. lib. Epig. ill. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 103 
 
 Ethiopia all are born black, in Germany white, and in Thrace red!"* 
 By this it would appear that the copper or olive color was the char- 
 acteristic of the Thracian family, and consequently that it corres- 
 ponded to what we now should call the Mongul race. 
 
 Secondly, Homer has described the Thracians as u}(()6y.oi.ioi, for 
 as having their hair only on the crown of the head. This seems op- 
 posed to the description given us of the Grecian or Germanic fashion 
 which rather cherished an abundant growth of hair, but is a very 
 striking characteristic of the Kalmuck costume, wherein, as in that 
 of many other Mongul nations, the head is shaved, and only a tuft or 
 tress of hair is left on the crown. | 
 
 Thirdly, we may strengthen this conjecture from another passage 
 in Aristotle, where he observes that one nation among the Thracians 
 is so rude, as not to go, in their arithmetic, beyond the number 
 four.§ Upon this assertion, besides deducing therefrom that the 
 Thracians were not one nation, but a collection of tribes, I will re- 
 mark, that a similar ignorance is said to have been discovered among 
 people of the Mongul race, as for example the Kamstchatkadales. 
 Indeed it is difficult to suppose that Pelasgic or Germanic tribes, 
 who are proved by the conformity of their numerals with those of 
 southern Asia, to have separated from them after that system had 
 been framed, and a certain civilization prevailed, should have fallen 
 into such a state of miserable barbarism. 
 
 I might add other reflections, such as the prevalence of shamanism 
 in the religion of Thessaly, and the origin of horsemanship, attri- 
 buted in fable to the same country, both points indicating a relation- 
 ship between the race now occupying northern and central Asia. 
 Nor need I observe that the boundaries with that country and 
 Thrace are so badly defined, as often to be neglected or overlooked 
 by ancient writers. Probably, therefore mixed with the population 
 
 * Primum itaque de moribus hominum coloribusque conveiiiunt, 
 dicentes; Si stellarum mixturis mores hominibus, coloresque distribun- 
 tur, et quasi quodam picturse genera, atque artificio, stellarum cursus 
 mortalium corporum lineamenta componuiit; hoc est si J) fecit candi- 
 dos, S' rubros, hnigros; cur omnes in ^Ethiopia nigri, in Germania 
 candid), in Thracia rubri procreantur. — Astronomicou. lib. i. c. i. ed. 
 Basil, 1551, p. 3. 
 
 f Iliad. J. 533. I Pallas, ubi sup. p. 502. 
 
 § Problem, sec. xv. 3, torn. ii. p. 753. 
 
104 LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 of Thrace, were wandering tribes of the olive or copper colored race, 
 whom Aristotle and Julius Firinicas justly placed in a distinct class. 
 • But assuredly I have dwelt two long upon this early period in the 
 history of our science, led away by the unfrecjuented state of the path 
 T have pursued. Nor dare I tiatter myself that, in this instance at 
 least, I have verified the poet's opinion : 
 
 T« (xny.Qu TcSv a/Aiy.Qwv loycuv 
 
 For many ages the same obvious classification of mankind, formed 
 upon the prevalent complexion in different parts of the world, was 
 followed without much discrimination, so that the human race might 
 be considered as divided, like the earth which it inhabited, into three 
 classes or zones : the very white occupying the colder regions, the 
 black possessing the torrid, and the fair the temperate region. Such, 
 for instance, is the division adopted by the Arabic historian Abul- 
 pharaj.f In the last century, this simple arrangement was modified 
 till it assumed the form of a complicated system, in consequence of 
 the discovery of many intermediate shades in the color of nations, 
 not easily to be introduced into that threefold division. Leibnitz, 
 Linnaeus, Buffon, Kant, Hunter, Zimmerman, Meiners, Kliigel and 
 others, proposed different classifications based upon the same princi- 
 ple, which, as this is now universally rejected, possess but little inter- 
 est, and are not easy to remember. 
 
 The first who proposed a new basis for this important study, was 
 Governor Pownall, who, though he adopted color as the ground of 
 his classification, yet suggested the propriety of attending to the form 
 of the skull in the various families of mankind. J But Camper has 
 the merit of having first devLsed a rule by which the heads of different 
 nations might be mutually compared, so as to give definite and char- 
 acteristic results. 
 
 Camper enjoyed peculiar advantages for this undertaking, from 
 having united two sciences not often pursued by the same individual, 
 — a perfect and practical knowledge of art, and an extensive ac- 
 quaintance with physiology and comparative anatomy. It was see- 
 
 * Eurip. Orest. 640. f Historia Dynastianim, Ofx. 1663, p 3. 
 
 \ New collection of Voyages, Lond. 17(37, vol. ii. p. 273. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 105 
 
 ing how imperfectly the best artists, whom he copied, had caught the 
 features and form of the negro, that led him to examine the essential 
 peculiarities of his configuration.* He then extended his researches 
 to the heads of other nations, and discovered, as he supposed, a ca- 
 non or rule by which they might be measured, with certain and regular 
 results. This rule consists in what he calls the facial line, and is 
 applied as follows. The skull is viewed in profile, and first a line is 
 drawn from the entrance of the ear (the meatus auditorius) to the 
 base of the nostrils ; then a second, from the most prominent point of 
 the forehead to the extreme border of the upper jaw, where the teeth 
 are rooted (the alveolar process of the superior maxillary bone.) It 
 is evident that an angle will be formed at the intersection of these 
 two lines, and the measure of that angle, or, in other words, the in- 
 clination of the line from the brow to the jaw, gives what is called 
 the facial line, and forms in Camper's system the specific character- 
 istic of each human family. t By inspecting the drawings (PI. 1) 
 you will easily perceive the application of this rule. From them it 
 appears that the facial angle, in the baboon nearest approaching the 
 human shape, is of about 58 degrees (fig. 1) ; that in the negro and 
 Kalmuck it measures 70°, (fig. 2) ; and in the European 80°, (fig. 3); 
 The ancients, who doubtless perceived the increase of the angle in 
 proportion to the advance in the intellectual scale, went beyond the 
 line found in nature, and in their sublimer works have ventured to 
 give an overhanging swelling prominence to the forehead, which in- 
 creases the facial angle to 95° or even 100°. | This fact Blumen- 
 bach has very positively denied, saying that all those representations 
 of ancient art which give such an angle, are not correct copies. § 
 But I think whoever will examine the heads of Jupiter in the Vati- 
 can Museum, particularly the bust in the large circular hall, or the 
 more defaced heads of the Elgin marbles, will be satisfied that Cam- 
 per is accurate in this respect. 
 
 * "Dissertation physique de M. Pierre Camper sur les Differences 
 reelles que presentent les traits du visage chez les hommes de difT^r- 
 eiis pays," etc. — Ulrecht, 1791, p. 3. 
 
 t lb. p. 35. 
 
 I See Catnper's second plate, figures 3 and 4, and pp. 42 and 45. 
 Roman art has the smaller, Grecian the larger of these two angles. 
 
 § Specimen historite naturalis anticjuje artis operibus illustratse. 
 GiiUivg. 1808, p. 13. 
 
 14 
 
lOG I.FXTURK THE THIRD. 
 
 To the system of ineasurement proposed by him, Blumenbach 
 has brought more serious objections. He observes that even Cam- 
 per himself admits a great vagueness in fixing the origin of his lines : 
 but principally he objects that it is a measurement totally inapplica- 
 ble to those races or families whose most marked distinctive consists 
 in the breadth of the skull rather than in the projection of its upper 
 portion.* 
 
 It is to this sagacious and assiduous physiologist that we owe the 
 system of classification now almost universally followed, and the prin- 
 ciples by which it is conducted. His museum contains the most 
 complete collection in existence of skulls belonging to members of 
 almost every nation on the globe. Not content with the results given 
 him by their study, he has collected from every branch of natural 
 science, and from every department of literature, whatever can throw 
 light upon ihe history of the human race, and account for the varie- 
 ties it contains. His works are, in fact, a store-house from which all 
 must draw, and the most voluminous works upon this study which 
 have appeared since his time, have done, and can do, little more 
 than confirm by additional evidence, what he had already proved. 
 
 Blumenbach's classification is determined primarily by the form 
 of the cranium, and secondarily, by the color of the hair, skin and 
 iris. 
 
 It may at first appear to you that an acquaintance with the anat- 
 omy or construction of the skull is necessary for rightly comprehend- 
 ing his system. This however is not the case ; for a very few ob- 
 servations with a drawing before us, will soon convey all the infor- 
 mation necessary on this subject. You have only to pay attention to 
 the following particulars. The head or skull, when viewed from 
 above, presents more or less an oval form, smoothly rounded at the 
 back, but rough and less regular in front, in consequence of the 
 bones of the face. If we examine these, we shall see that they pro- 
 ject in different degrees, and may be divided into three portions ; 
 first, the forehead, which may be more or less depressed, then the 
 bones of the nose, and below these the jaws with their respective 
 teeth. Particular attention, too, must be paid to the manner in which 
 the malar, or cheek-bones, are connected with the temporal, or bones 
 at the ears, by means of an arch called the zygoma, so formed as to 
 
 * "De generis humani varietate nativa," — GiilL 1795, p. 200. 
 
NATUKAL HISTORY Of MAN. 107 
 
 allow Strong muscles to pass under it, and to be fixed to the lower 
 jaw. (See fig. 5.) 
 
 Now BJumenbach's rule consists precisely in viewing th.e skull as 
 I have described it, and attending to the particulars I have men- 
 tioned. He places it in its natural position upon a table, and then 
 looks upon it ft-om above and behind, and the relative forms and pro- 
 portions of the parts thus visible, give him what he calls the vertical 
 rule, or norma verticalis. Following this, he divides the entire hu- 
 man race into three principal families, with two intermediate ones. 
 The three leading divisions he calls the Caucasian, or central ; sec- 
 ondly, the Ethiopian ; and thirdly, the Mongul, or two extreme vari- 
 eties. By inspecting the drawings made from his works, you will in- 
 stantly perceive their characteristic differences. In the Caucasian, 
 or, as others have called it, the Circassian variety, (fig. 4) the gen- 
 eral form of the skull is more symmetrical, and the zygomatic arches 
 enter into the general outline, and the cheek and jaw-liones are con- 
 cealed entirely by the greater prominence of the forehead. From 
 this type the other two depart in opposite directions, the negro by its 
 greater length and narrowness, the Mongul by its e.xcessive breadth. 
 In the negro's skull, (fig. 5) you see the remarkable lateral compres- 
 sion of the fore part of the skull, by which the arches aforesaid, 
 though themselves much flattened, yet come to protrude much beyond 
 it ; and you will observe that the lower part of the face comes for- 
 ward so much beyond the upper, that not only the cheek bones, but 
 the whole of the jaw, and even the teeth, are visible from above. 
 The general surface of the skull is also remarkably elongated and 
 compressed. 
 
 The Mongul cranium is distinguished by the extraordinary 
 breadth of its front, in which the zygomatic arch is completely de- 
 tached from the general circumference ; not so mucli as in the ne- 
 gro, on account of any depression in this, as from the enormous lat- 
 eral prominence of the cheek-bones ; which, being at the same time 
 flat, give the peculiar expression of the Mongul face. The forehead, 
 too, is much depressed, and the upper jaw protuberant, so as to be 
 visible when viewed in the vertical direction. (Fig. 6.) 
 
 Between the Caucasian variety and each of the two others, is an 
 intermediate class, possessing, to a certain degree, the distinctives 
 of the extremes, and forming a transition from the centre to them. 
 That between the Caucasian and negro families is the Malay ; the 
 link between the former and the Mongul is the American variety. 
 
lOB LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 Besides this great and primary characteristic, there are otliers of 
 a secondary, though not less distinguishable, nature : they consist in 
 the complexion, hair and eyes, of the different races. The three 
 principal families are distinguished by as many different colors : the 
 Caucasian by white, the negro by black, and the Mongul by the 
 olive or yellow complexion : the intermediate races have also inter- 
 mediate hues, the Americans being copper-colored, and the Malays 
 tawny. 
 
 The color of the hair and of the iris follows that of the skin in a 
 sufficiently obvious manner. Even in the fair or Caucasian race, to 
 which we belong, persons with very fair or ruddy complexions have 
 always the hair red, or light-colored, and the eyes blue or of a light 
 shade ; and this has been called the zanthous variety of the white 
 race. In persons with a brown skin, the hair is invariably black, 
 and the eye darker, and these are called the mdanic variety. This 
 conformity of color in these different parts was well known to the an- 
 cients, who observed it strictly in their personal descriptions. Thus 
 Ausonius in his Idyll on Bissula, who belonged to the first class, says 
 of her : 
 
 -Gerniana maneret 
 
 Ut facies, oculos cserula, flava comis." 
 
 And in another fragment he gives her the corresponding complex- 
 ion : 
 
 Pumiceas confunde rosas, et lilia njisce, 
 Qiiique erit ex iliis color aeris ipse sit oris."* 
 
 So Horace describes a youth of the second variety, — 
 
 " Et Lycuni nigrisoculis, nij,M'0(jLio 
 Crine decorum. "f 
 
 From these remarks you will easily understand, that in both the 
 negro and Mongul races, in which the skin is dark, the hair will be 
 black and the eye dark. The hair, too, besides its color, has a pe- 
 culiar character in each race ; in the white race it is flexible, flowing, 
 moderately thick, and soft ; in the negro, very thick-set, strong, 
 short and curly ; in the Mongul, stiff', thin, and straight. 
 
 * Idyll, vii, 'J, et Fragiii. annex. \ Od. lib. i. 33. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 109 
 
 In every one of these races, there springs up occasionkally a varie- 
 ty which ought to be mentioned, and which appears, in the human 
 species at le"ast, to bear a morbid character. I allude to aUrinos, or 
 persons in whom the skin is of a dazzling whiteness, with hair ex- 
 cessively light, and almost colorless, and red eyes. These, too, are 
 peculiarly sensitive, and can bear but little light, so that albinos are 
 vulgarly supposed to see in the dark ; they are, also, generally very 
 feeble in health and intellect. They are to be found in every coun- 
 try ; in a village a few miles distant from this city (Rome) is a highly 
 respectable family, in which several of the children belong to this 
 class. The sagacious Arabic physician AbdoUatiph, mentions one 
 whom he saw among the Copts, as a natural curiosity.* Mr. Craw- 
 furd throws discredit on Sonnerat's description of the Papuans of 
 New Guinea, because he says that their hair is of a brilliant black, or 
 fiery red.t Sonnerat, however, seems to have had in view some 
 albinos, whose hair, among the blacks, assumes a sandy or reddish 
 color. Even in Africa, among the darkest race, they are far from 
 uncommon, and form, of course, a much stronger contrast, by their 
 snowy whiteness, with the ebony hue of their neighbors.^ 
 
 I pass over many other minor distinctives of these human races, 
 such as the direction of the teeth, the stature and form of the body : 
 and proceed to trace for you the geographical limitations of each 
 
 great family. 
 
 The Caucasian comprehends all the nations of Europe, excepting 
 the Laplanders, Finlanders, and Hungarians ; the inhabitants of 
 Western Asia, including Arabia, Persia, and upwards as far as the 
 river Oby, the Caspian Sea, and the Ganges ; and those of Northern 
 
 Africa. 
 
 The negro race comprises all the remaining inhabitants of this 
 
 last-named quarter of the globe. 
 
 The Mongul race embraces all the nations of Asia not included 
 in the Caucasian or Malayan varieties, and takes in the European 
 
 ^^A.nong the wonders of nature of this time, is to be reckoned 
 that a child was bom with white hair ; which did not resemble the 
 srreyness of old ape, but rather approached to a red. -De Mu'abil. 
 ^gypii, Oron. 1800, p. 278. 
 
 f Ubi sup. p. 27. 
 
 I See a minute description of a white negro from Senegal, in the 
 ^'Description de la Nigritie, par M. P. D. P." Amst. 1789, p. 60. 
 
110 LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 tribes excluded by the former, as well as the Esquimaux in North 
 America. 
 
 The Malayan embraces the natives of the peninsula of Malacca, 
 and of Australia and Polynesia, distinguished in Ethnography by the 
 name of the Papuan tribes. 
 
 Finally, the American includes all the aborigines of the new 
 world, excepting the Esquimaux. 
 
 I must observe that considerable confusion and perplexity exists 
 regarding the name and extent of what, after Blumenbach, I have 
 called the ' Mongul race.' Blumenbach gives several reasons for re- 
 jecting the old name of ' Tartar,' which is, however, still retained by 
 many writers on the subject. It is not easy, indeed, to unravel the 
 genealogy of the tribes which have been confusedly called by the 
 two names, nor to establish the limitations of the different races into 
 which they run. I will, however, try to explain it as far as possible. 
 The Turks are often called Tartars, and the invaders of Western 
 Asia under Tschingis Khan, are sometimes called Tartars, and 
 sometimes Monguls. The Mantchous are equally subject to vague 
 classifications. 
 
 Historically, the Turks, Tartars, and Monguls, are perfectly dis- 
 tinct nations. According to Ritter, who has, certainly, most pro- 
 foundly examined all questions of geographical histoiy, the first of 
 these, under the name of Hiong-nu, occupied all the north of China ; 
 they separated into two kingdoms in the first century, disappeared 
 from history in the fourth, recovered their dominion in the following, 
 and later, were swept away by the irresistible power of Tschingis 
 Khan, and so received the name of Tartars,' which they consider a 
 reproach. The Tartars, or Ta-ta, as they are called by Chinese 
 historians, and Monguls, were also distinct nations, or rather, per- 
 haps, tribes of one nation ; their own origin being, according to 
 Abulghazi,* from two brothers, who bore those names. In the 
 eleventh century they formed two of four tribes settled in the Inschan 
 mountains, near the Hoang-ho river. Tschingis Khan, being born 
 of a Mongul father, and a Tata mother, united the two, and gave the 
 united nation the name of ' Monguls ;' but his chief officers and 
 nobles being Tartars, they were more generally known by this name, 
 which is commonly used in popular history. t 
 
 * " History of the Monguls," p. 27. 
 
 t Kilter, "Erdkunde in Vcrhaltniss zur Natur und zur Gescliichte 
 dcs Menschen,"2 Th. ii. Buch, Asicn, 1 Band, pp. 241— 2S3. Dr. 
 
NATURAI, HISTORY OF MAN. Ill 
 
 Philologically considered, they are classified together by Abel- 
 Remusat, who devoted a great portion of his life to the study of their 
 languages. In his classical work upon them, he comprises under 
 this name the Turks, Tartars, JMantchous, and Monguls, whom he 
 considers only a branch of the Tartars.* In like manner, Klaproth 
 and Balbi classify the language of these nations in one general di- 
 vision, t 
 
 Phy siognomically viewed, there is, as I before observed, con- 
 siderable difference of opinion. What we now call Turks, or the 
 Osmanlis, undoubtedly belong to the Caucasian race, as do the 
 Turcomans, or wandering tribes north of Persia. According to 
 Virey, the Tartars, upon physiognomical grounds, belong to the 
 same family as the Monguls, of which they form only a subdivision. | 
 Lacepede is extremely confused in his account, and first unites the 
 Turks and Laplanders in one family, with the greater part of the 
 Tartars, as members of the Caucasian race, then throws into the 
 other, " the Tartars properly called the Monguls. "§ Blumenbach 
 clearly distinguishes the two, referring the Tartars to the Caucasian 
 family, although he acknowleges, that through the Kirghis they run 
 insensibly into the Mongul variety. Dr. Prichard makes the same 
 distinction, but supposes that this resemblance never occurs without 
 an intermixture of blood. |) The same seems to be the opinion of 
 Pallas, who observes, that " the Monguls have nothing in common 
 with the Tartars, except their nomadic or wandering life, and some 
 resemblance of language. The " Monguls," he continues, " differ 
 as much from the Tartars, as the negroes from the Moors, in customs, 
 political institutions, and features." But he likewise acknowledges 
 that the Monguls have, by their emigrations and wars, communicated 
 their features to the above-named, and other Tartar tribes. ft This 
 explanatory digression, concerning these nations, will not be without 
 its use in what I have later to discuss : I shall, on the contrary, have 
 occasion to refer to it for very important conclusions. 
 
 Prichard considers the Turks and Tartars as historically one race. 
 " Researches," vol. ii. p. 283. 
 
 * Recherches," etc. Discours prelim, p. xxxvii. 
 
 f Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta, p. 2.55. Balbi, Atlas Ethiio^. No. viii. 
 
 I Ubisup. p. 413. 
 
 § Dictionnaire des Sciences natu relies," to. xxi. Art. Homme, p. 385. 
 
 II ''De gener. humani variet." p. 306. Researches ibid. 
 tt TIbi sup. p. 486. 
 
112 LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 Before quitting this historical portion of my subject, it would be 
 unjust not to mention a national writer, who has most ably and learn- 
 edly collected into one work all the historical and physical facts 
 which can any way throw light upon the natural history of mankind. 
 He examines each nation, or family of nations, distinctly, and, from 
 the observations of travellers and historians, endeavors to trace them 
 from their original seats, and connect them with their cognate tribes. 
 He is perhaps, too, the first writer who attempted to connect this 
 science with the philological researches which formed the subject of 
 our last lectures. If I had to find any fault, it would be, that the 
 learned author does not draw consequences sufficiently definite and 
 decisive from the mass of facts wliich he has collected : that the pre- 
 liminary or introductory portion of the work is so far separated from 
 the particular data to which its principles are to be applied, that a 
 reader, giving only ordinary attention to the book, will not easily 
 seize the important conclusions which it has a right to suggest. It 
 will, however be difficult for any one in future to treat of this theme, 
 without being indebted to Dr. Prichard for a great portion of his ma- 
 terials. 
 
 Having thus enumerated the authors, and explained the systems, 
 which appear most deserving of our notice, as ranged on the side of 
 truth, it is fair to state who are our opponents, and what are their 
 views of this science. They are to be found chiefly among French 
 naturalists, who unfortunately are yet, in part at least, unreclaimed 
 from the skeptical theories of the last century. Voltaire in fact was 
 one of the first to observe, that " none but a blind man can doubt, that 
 the whites, negroes, albinos, Hottentots, Laplanders, Chinese and 
 Americans, are entirely distinct races."* Desmoulins, in an Essay 
 which, to the credit of the Academic des Sciences, was rejected by 
 that learned body, asserts the existence of eleven independent fami- 
 lies of the human race.t Mons. Bory de Saint-Vincent goes further 
 still, and increases the number to fifteen, which are again consider- 
 ably subdivided. Thus the Adamic family, or the descendants of 
 Adam, constitute only the second division of the Arabic species of 
 man, the hmno Arahicus ; while we, the English, belong to the 
 Teutonic variety of the Germanic race, which is again but the fourth 
 fraction of the gens hraccata, or small-clothes wearing family of the 
 Japhetic species, the homo Japhcticus, who is divided into the above- 
 
 * " Historie de Russia sous Pierre le Grand," c. i. 
 f Historie naturelle des races huniaines." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAX. 1 13 
 
 mentioned class and another, somewhat more elegantly cognizanced, 
 namely, the gens togata, or cloaked family.* 
 
 Virey belongs to the same school ; though his works are even 
 more revolting, from the light and wanton manner in which the 
 most delicate points of morals and religion are handled throughout. 
 Not content with attributing to the negro a different origin from the 
 European, he goes so far as almost to suspect a certain fraternity be- 
 tween the Hottentot and the baboon. t But on this subject Lamarck 
 has gone much further, and attempted to point out the steps whereby 
 nature proceeds, or in former times did proceed, towards gradually 
 developing one class of beings from another, so as to establish a 
 graduated chain, not of simultaneous, but of successive, links ; and 
 thus produced in the end the human species, by a metamorphosis, 
 the inverse indeed, but not for that the less marvellous, of what we 
 read in ancient fable. The two volumes of his Philosophie zoologi- 
 que, are entirely directed to support this degrading theory ; the first, 
 to prove how man's bodily organization sprung from a casual though 
 natural modification of the ape; the second, to show that the spiritual 
 prerogatives of the human mind are but the extension of the faculties 
 enjoyed by brutes, and only differ in quantity from their reasoning 
 powers.f Lamarck assumes, upon slight and ill-supported grounds, 
 that because we see in nature an existing gradation of organized 
 beings, there must also have been a successive development, where- 
 by animals of one class might rise into another ; inasmuch as any 
 animal, being driven, by its wants, to new or peculiar habits, thereby 
 acquires the variation of organization necessary for them, although 
 
 * "Dictionnaire classiqne d'liistorie naturelle," torn. viii. Par. 1825, 
 pp. 293 and 287. The Japhetic man is liimself only a division of the 
 Leiotrie or close-haired race. The unity of origin of the fifteen races 
 is denied, p. 331. 
 
 t Op. cit. torn. ii. p. 157. 
 
 t " Philosophie zoologiqiie ; on, exposition des considerations rela- 
 tives a I'histoire naturelle des aniinaux, par. J. B. Lamarck," Paris, 
 1830. See for this point particularly torn. ii. p. 445. I may here ob- 
 serve that Steffens denies altogether tiie existence of a graduated scale 
 of beings, inasmuch as to support it, according to him, the lowest ani- 
 mals should come next to the most perfect plants, whereas the links be- 
 tween the two orders possess the lowest qualities of each, as polypi, 
 infusaria, algae, etc. ; the organization of all which, whether in reference 
 to the vegetable or animal kingdoms, is of the lowest kind. — Anthro- 
 pologie, ii. Buch, p. 6. 
 
 15 
 
114 LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 generations must persevere in their exercise before the effect is per- 
 ceptible. Thus, for instance, a bird is driven by its wants to take to 
 the water, and either swim or wade ; its successors do the same ; in 
 the course of many generations, tlie outstretching of its claws pro- 
 duces a web between them, and it becomes a regular waterfowl ; or 
 it extends its limbs to walk in deeper places, and gradually its legs 
 are prolonged to the length of the crane's or the flamingo's.* These 
 two agencies combined, new wants, and the tendency of nature to 
 meet them, conspired to make man out of the baboon. One race of 
 these, probably the Angola Orang, from some unrecorded reason 
 lost the habit of climbing trees, or holding by their hind as well as by 
 their fore limbs. After thus walking on the ground for many 
 generations, the former changed into a shape more suited to their 
 habits, and became feet, and they gradually acquired the habit of 
 walking erect. They now no longer needed their jaws for cropping 
 fruit or for fighting with one another, having their fore feet or hands 
 now disposable for these purposes ; and hence by degrees, their 
 snouts shortened, and their face became more vertical. Advancing 
 still further in this road to humanization, their grin subsided into a 
 courtly smile, and their jabbering resolved itself into articulate sounds. 
 " Such," he concludes, " would be the reflections which might be 
 made, if man were distinguished from animals only by the character 
 of his organization, and if his origin were not different from theirs. "t 
 Unfortunately, however, his second volume disposes of any other 
 proof that man had a different origin. I hardly need detain you to 
 confute this scheme ; I will content myself with remarking that the 
 experience of thousands of years has abundantly disproved it. How 
 comes it that we can discover no instance of any such developments 
 as Lamarck assumes, during this long period of observation ? The 
 bee has been striving without intermission in the art of making its 
 sweet confection, since the days of Aristotle ; the ant has been con- 
 structing its labyrinths, since Solomon recommended its example ; 
 but from the time they were described by the philosopher and the 
 sage, till the beautiful researches of the Hubers, we are certain that 
 
 * Tom, i. p. 249. If some birds, he says, (p. 251) which swim, 
 have loiii,^ necks, as the swan and s^oose, it is from tiieir custom of 
 plunging llicir heads in the water, to lisli. ^V^Ily then, we may ask, lias 
 not tlie same habit produced a like effect in the duck or teal .' 
 
 t Page ;J57. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAX. 115 
 
 they have not acquired a new perception, or a new organ for these 
 purposes. Egypt, which, as the learned commission of French natu- 
 ralists well observed, has preserved for us a museum of natural history 
 not only in its paintings, but in the mummies of its animals, presents 
 us every species, after three thousand years, perfectly unchanged. 
 What striving has there not been in man, and is there not particular- 
 ly now, after new resources, after new powers, and after a greater 
 range in the use of his senses! and yet, alas ! not the sprouting of a 
 new limb, not the expansion of a single organ, not the opening of a 
 single new channel of perception, begins as yet to give us hope, after 
 many thousands of years, that we shall yet reach a higher step in the 
 scale of progressive improvement, or recede somewhat further from 
 our consanguinity with the chattering ape.* s 
 
 It is now time to proceed, from the history and principles of this 
 study, to its discoveries and results. In making you acquainted with 
 these, and with their bearing upon what religion teaches regarding 
 the origin of mankind, I will follow what appears to me the simplest 
 and most satisfactory method. I will condense these results into a 
 compendious essay upon the subject, bringing together the observa- 
 tions and discoveries of modern authors, interspersed with such facts 
 as I have myself collected, and freely communicating my own reflec- 
 tions. By this means, I hope to put you in possession of all that can 
 interest you on this important, but yet not perfectly elucidated, sub- 
 ject. 
 
 The great problem to be solved is, how could such varieties as 
 we have seen, have taken their rise in the human species ? Was it 
 by a'sudden change, which altered some portion of one great family 
 into another ; or are we to suppose a gradual degradation, as natu- 
 ralists call it, whereby some nations or families passed gradually 
 through successive shades, from one extreme to the other ? And, in 
 either case, which is to be considered the original stock ? It must be 
 owned, that the present state of this science does not warrant us in 
 expressly deciding in favor of either hypothesis, nor, consequently, 
 in even discussing the last consequence. But, independently of this, 
 it has arrived so far as to leave no reasonable room, to doubt the 
 common origin of every race. 
 
 * See a very full confutation of Lamarck's system in Lyell's "Prin- 
 ciples of Geology," vol. ii. p. 18. Lond. 1830. Lamarck, however, 
 denies that his theory is at all affected by the animals foimd in Egypt, 
 loni. i. p. 70. 
 
I 16 LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 For, I think we may say, after looking through all that has been 
 done in this yet infant science, that the following points, embracing 
 all the elements of the problem, have been satisfactorily solved. 
 First, that accidental, or, as they are called, sporadic varieties, may 
 arise in one race, tending to produce in it the characteristics of 
 another ; secondly, that these varieties may be perpetuated ; thirdly, 
 that climate, food, civilization, etc. may strongly influence the pro- 
 duction of such varieties, or, at least, render them fixed, characteris- 
 tic, and perpetual. I say that these points, if proved, embrace all the 
 elements of the proposed problem, which is, " could such varieties as 
 we now sec in the human race, have sprung up from one stock ?" 
 For if this is demonstrated, we have removed the grounds whereon 
 the adversaries of revelation deny the unity of origin which it teaches. 
 And, moreover, every sound philosopher will, if unobjectionable, pre- 
 fer the simpler to the more complex hypothesis. In treating these 
 points, it will be almost impossible to keep them completely unmixed, 
 especially the two first : but no inconvenience will, I trust, result 
 from their running into one another. 
 
 The ground, before closing directly with the inquiry, is in gener- 
 al prepared, by writers on this science, by examining the laws which 
 nature has followed in regard to the lower orders of creation. To 
 begin, for instance, with plants, every observation leads us more and 
 more to the conclusion, that each species takes its rise from some 
 common centre, whence it has gradually been propagated. The 
 observations made by Humboldt and Bonpland in South America, by 
 Pursh in the United States, and by Brown in New Holland, have 
 furnished Decandolle with sufficient materials to attempt with success 
 a geographical distribution of plants, showing-tfie centre whence each 
 probably succeeded. He has enumerated twenty botanical provin- 
 ces, as he calls them, inhabited by indigenous or aboriginal plants. 
 It is not, therefore, wonderful, that when America was first discover- 
 ed, not a single plant should have been there found which was known 
 in the old world, except such as could have had their seeds trans- 
 mitted through the waters of the ocean. In the United States, out of 
 2,891 species of plants, only 385 are found in Northern Europe ; and 
 out of 4,lt}0 species discovered in New Holland, only lOG are com- 
 mon to our countries ; and of these many have been planted by the 
 settlers.* This shows at once, the tendency of nature to simplicity 
 
 * See Lyell's able chapter on this subject, vol. ii. \k 66; and 
 Prichard, vol. i. c. 2, sec. 2, p. 23. For the points of resemblance 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 117 
 
 and unity in its origin of things ; while the varieties that spring up 
 in the vegetable world, under the influence of outward circumstan- 
 ces, demonstrate the existence of a modifying influence in constant 
 action. 
 
 But the analogy between animals and man is closer and more ap- 
 plicable. The physical organization of both classes of animated be- 
 ings, is so similar, the laws whereby their individuals and their races 
 are preserved, are so identical, their subjection to the laws of morbid 
 influences, to the operation of natural causes, and, under the differ- 
 ent names of domestication and civilization, to the agency of artificial 
 combinations, is so analogous, that we have almost a right to argue 
 from one's actual, to the other's possible modifications. 
 
 Now, it is certain and obvious that animals, acknowledged to 
 form one species, under peculiar circumstances, divide into varieties 
 as distinct as those observable in the human species. For instance, 
 as to the shape of the skull, those of the mastiflfand Italian grey- 
 hound differ from one another far more than those of the European 
 and negro ; and yet, every criterion which can be given of species, 
 will comprehend the two extremes, between which a train of inter- 
 mediate gradations can be clearly established. The skull, too, of 
 the wild boar, as Blumenbach has observed, does not differ less from 
 the tame swine's, its undoubted descendant, than those of any two 
 human races from one another.* In every species of domestic cat- 
 tle, varieties as striking will be found. 
 
 Changes in the structure and color of the hair are no less ordina- 
 ry and remarkable. All the fowls in Guinea, and the dogs too, ac- 
 cording to Beckman, are as black as the inhabitants.! The ox of 
 the Roman campagna is invariably grey, while, in some other parts 
 of Italy, the breed is mostly red ; swine and sheep are also here chiefly 
 black, while in England white is their prevailing hue. In Corsica, 
 horses, dogs and other animals, become beautifully spotted, and the 
 carriage-dog, as it is called, belongs to that country. Many writers 
 have attributed to particular rivers the quality of giving color to the 
 cattle on their banks. Thus Vitruvius observes that the rivers of 
 
 in the organization of plants and animals, see Camper's dissertation 
 on that subject, "Oratio de Analogia inter Animalia et Stirpes," Gron- 
 ing, 1764. 
 
 * Op. cit. p. 80. 
 
 f " Voyage to and from Borneo," London, 1718, p. 14. 
 
118 LECTT'RE THK THIRD. 
 
 BcRotia, and the Xanllius near Troy, gave a yellow color to their 
 herds, whence the river Xanthus took its name.* Mr. Steward Rose, 
 in his Letters from the North of Italy, says, that a similar quality is 
 attributed to the Po, at the present day.t And many of you will 
 here probably remember the white herds of the beautiful Clitumnus, 
 as described by the poet : — 
 
 "Hinc albi Clitumne greges, et maxima taurus 
 Victima sfepe, tuo perfusi flumine sacro 
 Romanes ad tenipla Deum duxere triumphos."| 
 
 The texture of the hair undergoes similar changes. Every attempt 
 to produce wool in the West Indies, has I believe, failed, because 
 sheep if transported thither, entirely lose their wool, and become 
 covered with hair.^ This is the same in other hot climates. " The 
 sheep in Guinea," says Smith, " have so little resemblance to those 
 in Europe, that a stranger, unless he heard them bleat, could hardly 
 tell what animals they were, being covered only with light brown and 
 black hair like a dog :" so that a fanciful writer observes ; " here the 
 world seems inverted, for the sheep are hairy, and the men woolly." || 
 A similar phenomenon occurs in the country around Angora, where 
 almost every animal, sheep, goats, rabbits, and cats, are covered with 
 a beautiful, long, silken hair, so celebrated in oriental manufactures. 
 Other animals are subject to this change, for Bishop Heber informs 
 
 * " Sunt enim Bseotia tlumina Cephysus, et Meias, Leucanise, Cra- 
 this, Trojoe Xanthus, etc. . . . cnin pecora suis teniporibusanni paran- 
 tur ad conceptionem partus, per id tenipus adiguntur eo quotidie po- 
 tum, ex eoque, quamvis sint alba, procreant aliis locis leucophsea, alliis 
 pulla, aliis coracitio collore. Jgitur quoniani in Trojanis proxitne flu- 
 men armenta rufa, et pecora leucophfea nascunmr ; idee id flumen lii- 
 enses Xanthum appellavisse dicuntur." — "Architect." I. viii. c. iii.)). 162, 
 edit. De Laet. Amst. 1G49. In the notes to this passage are added con- 
 firmatory authorities from Pliny, Theopiirastus, Strabo, etc. ; some ev- 
 idently run into fable. Aristotle," Dc Historia Animal," 1. iii. gives the 
 same etymology of the river Xanthus. 
 
 t " Letters from the North of Italy," Lonrf. 1819, vol. i. p. 23. The 
 idea of the natives is, " that not only the indigenous beasts are white, 
 (or, to speak more precisely, cream-colored,) but that even foreign 
 beeves put on the same livery, on drinking the Po." 
 
 \ Virgil, "Gcorg." ii. 146. § Prichard, ib. p. 226. 
 
 II Smith, " New Voyage to Guinea," Lond. 1745, p. 147. " New 
 General Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. ii. Lond. 1745, j). 71 i. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 
 
 119 
 
 US, that " dogs and horses carried into the hills from India, are soon 
 covered with wool, like the shawl-goats of that climate."* 
 
 And if we look to the general form and structure of animals, we 
 shall find them subject to the greatest variations. None shows this 
 more clearly than the ox, simply because on none, have art and do- 
 mestication been tried to a greater extent. What a contrast there is 
 between the slow, massive, long-horned animal, which traverses the 
 Roman streets, and the small-headed, clean-limbed breed which an 
 English farmer most prizes. According to Bosman, " European 
 dogs soon degenerate to a strange degree on the Gold-coast : their 
 ears grow long and stiff like a fox's, to the color of which animal they 
 also incline ; so that they grow very ugly in three or four years, and 
 in as many broods their barking turns to a howl or yelp." Burbot 
 says, in like manner, that the native " dogs are very ugly, being 
 much like our foxes, with long upright ears ; their tails long, small, 
 and sharp at the end, without any hair, having only a naked, bare 
 skin, either plain or spotted, and never bark, but only howl. The 
 blacks call them cabre de matto, which in Portuguese signifies a wild 
 goat, because they eat them, and value their flesh beyond rautton."+ 
 Thus it appears that climate or other local circumstances, have the 
 effect, in this instance, of reducing, in a few generations, a breed of 
 animals brought from another country, to the same condition as the 
 native race, so as to be quite distinct, and hardly traceable to its 
 original stock. The camel likewise presents an example of extraor- 
 dinary modifications. " In some caravans which we passed," says a 
 late traveller, " were camels of a much larger kind than any I had 
 ever seen before, and as different in their forms and proportions from 
 the camel of Arabia, as a mastiff is from a greyhound. These cam- 
 els had large heads and thick necks, from the under edge of which 
 depended a long, shaggy, dark-brown hair ; their legs were short, 
 their joints thick, and their carcasses and haunches round and fleshy, 
 though they stood at least a foot higher from the ground than the 
 common camels of the Arabian desert."t And, speaking of this an- 
 imal, I may observe, that its great characteristic, the hump upon its 
 
 * "Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India," 
 2d edit. Lond. 1828, vol. ii. p. 219. 
 
 t "New Collection of Voyages, etc." p. 712. 
 
 \ " Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia," by J. S. Buckingham, 
 2d edit. Lond. 1830, vol. i. p. 241. 
 
120 LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 back, which in the Bactrian variety is doubled, is supposed by some 
 naturalists to be an accidental deviation from the original type, aris- 
 ing from a sebaceous or fatty deposit in the cellular tissue of the 
 back, in consequence of exposure to heat; just like the haunch on 
 the zebu or Indian ox, or the tail of the Barbary and Syrian sheep, 
 or the similar formation on the loins of the Bosjman Hottentots.* 
 
 These examples, in which I have rather sought to add to those ad- 
 duced by others, than to repeat what have been already collected, 
 prove that sporadic or accidental varieties, may not only be produced, 
 but what is more to our purpose, be propagated among animals. 
 Nor would it be difficult to multiply instances of this last fact ; for 
 the great dissemination of albino animals, as white rabbits, or cream- 
 colored horses, which probably arose originally from disease, proves 
 how well such casual varieties may be reproduced. But Dr. Prichard 
 gives one example which is very remarkable, that of a breed of sheep 
 reared, within a few years in England, and known by the name of 
 the ancon or otter breed. It sprung up from an accidental variety, 
 or we may say, deformity in one animal, which communicated its 
 peculiarities so completely to its progeny, that the breed is complete- 
 ly established, and promises to be perpetual ; indeed, it is highly val- 
 ued on account of the shortness of its legs, which does not allow it 
 easily to get through fences.t It is well known, also, that the breed 
 of cattle which produced the enormous Durham ox, was artificially 
 produced, by crossing it with such as seemed to present fine points 
 of every sort, the basis being the kyloe, or small Highland breed ; 
 and all the cattle that arrive at any extraordinary dimensions, are 
 connected with this race. 
 
 The reasonings sanctioned by these facts, present a strong ground 
 of analogy, applicable to the human species; nor is it easy to see 
 why varieties as great may not have been produced, and transmitted 
 by descent, among men, as among inferior animals. For it thus ap- 
 pears certain, that diversities, equally affecting the form of the skull, 
 the color and texture of the hair, and the general form of the body, 
 do arise among animals of one stock ; further, it seems proved that 
 such differences may originally spring from some casual variety, 
 which, owing to peculiar circumstances, becomes fixed and charac- 
 teristic, and transmissible by descent. May we not, then, consider 
 
 * Levailiant, " Second Voyage," torn. ii. p. 207. Vh'ey, torn. i. ji. 218. 
 t Vol. ii. p. 550. 
 
NATl.RAl. HISTOKY OK MAN. 121 
 
 it as highly probable, that, in the hiiinaii :^pecies, the same causes 
 may similarly operate, and produce no less lasting effects ? And 
 that such variations as appear within it, being no more asunder from 
 one another, than such as in the brute creation have been noted, re- 
 quire no more violent or extraordinary agency to account for them ? 
 But let us now come nearer the point, and take the matter more 
 closely in hand. 
 
 It seems then to me clear, that in each family, or race of the hu- 
 man species, there are occasionally produced varieties tending to 
 establish within it the characteristics of some other. For example, 
 red hair is considered almost exclusively confined to the Caucasian 
 family ; yet individuals exist in almost every known variety with this 
 peculiarity. Charlevoix observed it among the Esquimaux, Son- 
 nerat among the Papuans, Wallis among the Tahitians, and Lopes 
 among the negroes.* This is no more surprising than that among 
 us individuals should be found with frizzled hair ; and, I think, 
 those who have paid attention to such things, will have often observed 
 in such persons a tendency towards some other characteristics of the 
 Ethiopian family, as a dark complexion and thick lips. In the speci- 
 mens of craniums published by Blumenbach, from hi.s museum, there 
 is one of a Lithuanian, which, viewed in profile, might well be mis- 
 taken for a negro's.f But the most curious example which I have 
 met of this sporadic tendency to produce in one human race the 
 characteristics of another, is in a recent traveller, almost the first 
 who explored the Hauran or district beyond the Jordan. He writes 
 as follows : "The family residing here (at Abu-el-Beady) in charge 
 of the sanctuary, were remarkable for having, with the exception of 
 the father only, negro features, a deep black color, and crisped hair. 
 My own opinion was, that this must have been occasioned by their 
 being born of a negress mother, as such persons are sometimes found 
 among the Arabs, in the relation of wives or concubines, but while I 
 could entertain no doubt from my own observation, that the present 
 head of the family was a pure Arab of unmixed blood, I was also as- 
 sured, that both the males and females of the present and former 
 generations, were all pure Arabs by descent and marriage, and that 
 a negress had never been known, either as a wife or slave, in the 
 history of the family. It is certainly a very marked peculiarity of the 
 
 * Blumenbach, p. 169. 
 
 f "Decades Cranionim," dec. 3a, pi. xxii. p. (J. 
 16 
 
12"2 LFXTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 Arabs that inliabit the valley of the Jordan, that they have flatter 
 features, darker skins, and coarser hair, than any other tribes ; a 
 peculiarity rather attributable, I conceive, to the constant and intense 
 heat of that region, than to any other cause."* If all the facts and 
 circumstances here given can be considered sufficiently verified, we 
 have certainly a very striking instance of approximation in individuals 
 of one family, to the distinctives of another, and of these distinctives 
 being transmitted by descent. 
 
 There are indeed examples of much more decided and stranger 
 varieties arising among men, than what constitute the specific char- 
 acteristics of any race, and of such being continued from father to 
 son ; — such varieties as would have made the problem in hand far 
 more difficult to solve than at present it is, had they sprung up in a 
 distant quarter of the globe, and been extended to any considerable 
 population. The most remarkable of these is doubtless what has 
 been traced through three generations in the family of Lambert, com- 
 monly known by the name of the porcupine-man. The founder of 
 this extraordinary race was first exhibited as a boy by his father, in 
 1731, and came from the neighborhood of Euston Hall in Suffolk. 
 Mr. Machin in that year described him in the Philosophical Trans- 
 actions, as having his body covered with warts as thick as pack- 
 thread and half an inch long : the name however is not given.t In 
 1755 he was again exhibited, with the forenamed title, and was de- 
 scribed by Mr. Baker, in a paper purporting to be a supplement to 
 the former. But what is important is, that, being now forty years of 
 acre, he had had six children, every one of whom, at the same period, 
 nine weeks after birth, had presented the same peculiarity ; and the 
 only surviving one, a boy eight years old, was exhibited with his 
 father. Mr. Baker gives a drawing of the boy's hand, as Mr. Machin 
 had before of his father's.! In 1802, the children of this boy were 
 exhibited in Germany, by a Mons. and Mad. Joanny, who pretended 
 that they belonged to a race found in New-Holland or some other 
 very remote place. Dr. Tilesius, however, examined them most mi- 
 nutely, and published the most accurate account we have of this sin- 
 
 * Buckingliarn's " Travels among the Arab Tril)e.s," London, 1825, 
 p. 14. 
 
 \ " On an uncommon case of a distempered skin," by Jolin Machin, 
 Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxxvii. for 1731 — 2, p. 29!'. 
 
 X Ih. voL xlix. p. 21. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF 5IAN. 123 
 
 gular family, with full length figures of the two brothers, John, who 
 was 21, and Richard, who was 13 years of age.* Their father, the 
 boy of Mr. Baker's narrative, was still alive, and was gamekeeper to 
 Lord Huntingfield, at Heaveningham Hall in Suffolk. Upon being 
 shown the drawing of his hand in the Philosophical Transactions, 
 they both instantly recognized it by the peculiar button at the wrist.t 
 Tilesius's description from page 30 to the end of his work is most 
 minute, and corresponds exactly with that given of their progenitors. 
 The whole of the body, excepting the palms of the hands, the soles of 
 the feet, and the face, was covered with a series of horny excrescen- 
 ces of a reddish brown, hard, elastic, and about half an inch long, 
 which rustled against one another, when rubbed with the hand. I 
 do not know to what 1 can compare the appearance of this singular 
 integument, as given in Tilesius's plates, better than to a colleclion 
 of basaltic prisms, some longer, some shorter, as they are generally 
 grouped in nature. Once a year this horny clothing was shed, and 
 its falling off was accompanied with some degree of uneasiness ; it 
 yielded also to the action of mercury, which was tried for the pur- 
 pose ; but in both cases, it gradually returned after a very short pe- 
 riod.;}: The conclusions, which Mr. Baker draws from this extraor- 
 dinary phenomenon, are very just, and have still greater weight now, 
 that it has been reproduced in another generation, and in two dis- 
 tinct instances. " It appears therefore," says he, " past all doubt, 
 that a race of people may be propagated by this man, having such 
 rugged coats or coverings as himself; and if this should happen, and 
 the accidental origin be forgotten, 'tis not impossible they might be 
 deemed a different species of mankind : a consideration which 
 would almost lead one to imagine, that if mankind were produced 
 from one and the same stock, the black skin of the negroes and 
 many other differences of a like kind, might possibly have been 
 originally owing to some such accidental cause. "§ 
 
 Another more common variety which runs in entire families, 
 consists of supernumerary fingers. In ancient Rome it was designa- 
 ted by a peculiar name ; and the Sedigiti are mentioned by Pliny 
 
 * " Ausfiilirliche Beschreibung und Abl)ildung dei* beiden so ge- 
 iiannten Stachelschweinmenschen, aus den bekannten engelisben Fam- 
 ilie Laml)ert," Altenburg, 1802, foi. 
 
 t Page 4. 
 
 J " Philosophical Traiisactious," vol. xlix. [). 22. 
 
 § Ibid. 
 
1'24 LECTrRF, TI!F, THIRD. 
 
 and otlicr eminent authors. Sir A. Carlisle has carefully traced the 
 history of one such family through four generations. Its name was 
 Colburn, and the peculiarity was brought into the family by the great- 
 grandmothor ol'the youngest examined : it was not regular, but only 
 attached to some children in each generation. Maupertuis has men- 
 tioned other instances in Germany ; and a celebrated surgeon at 
 Berlin, Jacob Rulie, belonged to a family with this peculiarity by the 
 mother's side.* 
 
 Thus far then we have proved, both from analogy and from direct 
 examples : first, that there is a perpetual tendency, I might say a 
 striving, in nature, to raise up in our species varieties, often of a very 
 extraordinary character, sometimes approximating, in a marked man- 
 ner, to the peculiar and specific distinctives of a race ditVerent to 
 that in which they arise ; and secondly, that these peculiarities may 
 be communicated through successive generations, from lather to son. 
 A strong presumptive evidence is thus obtained, that the difterent 
 families or races ariiong men, may owe their origin to some similar 
 occurrence; to the casual rise of a variety which, under the influ- 
 ence of favorable circumstances — the isolation, for instance, of the 
 family in which it began, and its consequent intermarriages — be- 
 came fixed and indelible in succeeding generations. 
 
 But you will ask, have we any instance of whole nations having 
 been so changed ; or, in other words, have we any example of these 
 two deductions in operation on a large scale ? To answ er this ques- 
 tion you will allow will be closing at once with all the difiiculties of 
 the subject ; and I know not where I shall better be able to interrupt 
 the handling of tliis matter, than at tlie point we have now reached. 
 
 In treating of this science, we are unfortunately ])recluded from 
 using a series of arguments, which greatly affects its results, — those 
 moral resemblances between men of every race, which could hardly 
 be found among creatures of independent stock. I have entirely 
 omitted, as unnecessary, the usual discussions of zoologists and 
 physiologists, as to what is sufiicient or necessary to constitute dis- 
 tinctness of race. For I think that, passing over the technicality of 
 such an inquiry as unfit for our purpose, ue are safe in considering 
 animals of different species, when we discover in them habits and 
 characters, if I may use the expression, of a totally different nature. 
 The wolf and the lamb are not more distinouished from one another 
 
 t " Piiiiosophical Tran-saclions," vol. civ. 1814, parti, p. 91. I'ri- 
 chard, vol. ii. p. 537. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 125 
 
 by their outward covering, and their different features, than by the 
 contrast between their dispositions. And if this should appear to 
 you like a comparison of extremes, f will say that the rude ferocity of 
 the wolf, and the prowling cunning of the fox, — the gregarious and 
 tumultuary aggression of the one, and the solitary pilfering of the other, 
 — more clearly serve to classify them to our minds, than the differ- 
 ence of their forms. Now if we look at man in the most dissimilar 
 states of social life, however brutalized or however cultivated, we 
 shall certainly find that there is an approximation of feeling, a simi- 
 larity of affections, and a facility of adaptation, which clearly shows 
 that the faculty corresponding to the instinct of animals, is identical 
 through the entire race. The Mohawks and Osages,the inhabitants 
 of the Sandwich or the Pelew Islands, by short intercourse with 
 Europeans, especially when brought into our countries, have learnt to 
 adapt themselves to all the proprieties of life as understood by us, and 
 formed attachments and friendships of the most affectionate nature, 
 with men of another race. The difference of organization in ani- 
 mals is always connected with their difference of character ; the 
 groove which any single muscle makes upon the bones of the lion, 
 shows its habits and nature ; the smallest bone in the antelope ex- 
 hibits a reference to its timid and fugitive disposition. But in man, 
 whether for generations he has dozed away his days, like a listless 
 Asiatic, on the corner of his divan, or, like an American hunter, has 
 for ages tired the wild deer in the trackless forest, by his restless 
 chase, there is nothing in his organization to show, that, through 
 custom or education, he might not have exchanged one occupation 
 for another, — nothing to prove that nature intended him for either 
 state. 
 
 On the contrary, the similarity of moral attributes, the enduring 
 power of domestic affections, the disposition to establish and maintain 
 mutual interests, the common feelings regarding property and the 
 methods of jjrotecting it, notwithstanding occasional deviation, the 
 accordance upon the leading points of the moral code, and, more 
 than all, the holy gift of speech, which secures the perpetuation of all 
 other human characteristics, prove that men, wherever situated, how- 
 ever degraded they may now appear, were certainly destined for the 
 same state, and consequently originally therein placed. And this 
 consideration ought surely to possess great weight towards establish- 
 ing in man, as its parallel one does in other animals, an identity of 
 origin. 
 
126 LECTURE THE THIRD. 
 
 This reasoning is of course opposed to the popular theory of or- 
 dinary philosopliers ; that the natural progress of men is from barbar- 
 ism to civilization, and that the savage must be considered the 
 original type of human nature, from which we have departed by 
 gradual efforts. But the reasoning I have pursued, the reflection 
 that nature, or rather its Author, will place his creatures in the state 
 for which he intended them, that, if man were formed in body, and 
 endowed in spirit, for a social and domestic life, he can have been no 
 more cast originally into a desert or a forest, savage and untutored, 
 than the sea-shell can have been first produced on the mountain's top, 
 or the elephant been created amidst the icebergs of the pole ; this 
 reflection must exclude the idea that the savnge state is any but a 
 degradation, a departure from the original destiny and position of 
 man. Such is the view taken by the learned Frederick Schlegel, 
 in a valuable work, which I am glad to see a respected and learned 
 friend of mine has at length presented to our countrymen in their 
 own tongue : and I hope he will receive such encouragement in his 
 undertaking as may lead him to complete the task, by translating the 
 later works of that philosopher. 
 
 "When man," says he, " had once fallen from virtue, no deter- 
 minable limit could be assigned to his degradation, nor how far he 
 might descend by degrees, and approximate even to the level of the 
 brute ; for as from his origin he was a being essentially free, he was 
 in consequence capable of change, and even in his organic powers 
 most flexible. We must adopt this principle, as the only clue to 
 guide us in our inquiries, from the negro, who as well from his 
 bodily strength and agility, as from his docile and, in general, excel- 
 lent character, is far from occupying the lowest grade in the scale of 
 humanity, down to the monstrous Patagonian, the almost imbecile 
 Peshwerais, and the horrible cannibal of New Zealand, whose very 
 portrait excites a shudder in the beholder. So far from seeking, with 
 Rousseau and his disciples, for the true origin of mankind, and the 
 proper foundations of the social compact, in the condition even of the 
 best and noblest savages, we regard it, on the contrary, as a state of 
 degeneracy and degradation."* 
 
 This, assuredly, is more consoling to humanity than the degrading 
 theories of Virey or Lamarck ; and yet there is intermixed therewith 
 some slight bitternesss of humiliation. For, if it was revolting to 
 
 * " Philosophy of History," translated by J. B. Robertson, Esq. 
 Londov, 1835, vol. i. p. 48, 49. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 1'27 
 
 think that our noble nature should be nothing more than the perfec- 
 ting of the ape's maliciousness, yet it is not without some shame and 
 sorrow, that we see that nature anywhere sunk and degraded from 
 its original beauty, till men should have been able plausibly to sus- 
 tain that odious affinity. Yet may this be of " sweet use" to us, in 
 checking that pride which the superiority of our civilization too often 
 excites, by recalling to our minds, that, if we and the lowest savage 
 are but brethren of one family, we are, even asthey, of a lowly origin, 
 and they, as we, have the sublimest destiny ; that, in the words of 
 the divine poet, we are all equally 
 
 " worms, yet made at last to form 
 
 The winged insect imped with angel plumes 
 That to heaven's justice unobstructed soars."* 
 
 And some such composition, some such scheme of being, where- 
 by the two-fold alliance of man to a superior and inferior world, 
 should be shown, some such variety of state, as might prove the ex- 
 istence of conflicting powers, of one which calls him upwards by 
 the expansion of his faculties, and of one which weighs him towards 
 the enjoyment of the mere animal life, seems natural and necessary 
 for his complex being. For thus, to conclude with the eloquent 
 words of a truly Christian philosopher, " man stands as a living 
 individuality, composed of nature and spirit, of outward and inward 
 being, of necessity and freedom ; to himself a mystery, to the world 
 of spirits an object of deep thought, of God's almightiness, wisdom, 
 and love, the perfectest witness. Veiled round by his corporeal na- 
 ture, he sees God as at a distance, and is as certain of his existence 
 as the heavenly spirit,— the son of revelation, and the hero of faith, 
 who is weak and yet strong, poor, and yet possessor of the highest 
 empire of love divine !" t 
 
 * "O superbi cristiani, miseri lassi 
 
 Che della virtu della mente infermi 
 Fidanza avete ne' ritrosi pass! ; 
 Non vi accorgete vol che noi siam verrai 
 Nati a formar I'angelica forfalia, 
 Che vela alia giustizia senza sherrai ?"—Purgat. x. 
 t Pabst, "Der Mensch imd seine Gesehichte," Vienna, 1830, p. 50. 
 
LECTURE THE FOURTH; 
 
 ON 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Resdlts. — Application of Linguistic Ethnography to this Study. Proof 
 that nations shown to be of a common stock from their languages, 
 have rleviatod from the family type : in the Mongul race, anrl in the 
 Caucasian. — Origin of the Negro race : Climate an insufficient cause. 
 — Collection of facts to prove a change to tlie black color possible: 
 the Abyssinians, Souakin Arabs, (yoiigoese, Foulahs, etc. — Apparent 
 example of actual transition. Olijections answered. — Effects of 
 Civilization : Seliuks, IMonguls, Germans. — Modification and suspen- 
 sion of causes formerly in action. — Connexions of the different races: 
 internal division into graduated shades of difference in each ; Poly- 
 nesians, Malays, inhabitants of Italy. — On the type of national art. 
 Reflections applicable to the Christian evidences, in reference to 
 the authenticity of the Gospel, and the perfection of our Saviour's 
 character. 
 
 In my last lecture, I contented myself with the analogies which 
 seemed to bear upon the subject of our inquiry, and endeavored to 
 prove, both from parallel phenomena in the lower departments of or- 
 ganized creation, and from the deviations occasionally observed in 
 our own species, that a strong probability existed in favor of the va- 
 rieties found in the hmnan race having all sprung up from the same 
 stock ; and I protnised on our next meeting forthwith to close with 
 the question, and treat of it more directly. I wish, therefore, to 
 prove, that a transition must, some time or other, have taken place 
 in entire nations, from one family to another. And, to effect this 
 purpose, I must call in the assistance of a new test, for which our 
 two first conferences will have prepared you — the comparative study 
 of languages. 
 
 I suppose no one has yet doubted, or is likely to doubt, that na- 
 tions speaking languages with a strong affinity between them, must 
 17 
 
130 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 originally have been united somehow together. Even those who de- 
 ny the common origin of the human race, allow that identity or simi- 
 larity, and particularly, strong grammatical affinity of language, be- 
 tween nations however distant, cannot be the result of chance, but 
 proves some real connexion of origin, or early relationship. This, 
 even if it had not been mathematically proved by Dr. Young, as, on a 
 former occasion, I showed you, is self-evident ; for the relationship 
 which I exposed to you between some languages, the Sanskrit, for in- 
 stance, and Greek, cannot possibly have been the result of accident. 
 Hence, if two nations speak, and have spoken, as far as history can 
 reach, dialects of the same tongue, we must conclude them to have 
 had a common origin ; unless one of them, at least, can be shown to 
 have changed its language, a hypothesis always requiring the strong- 
 est evidence. For, experience proves the extraordinary tenacity 
 with which even small communities keep hold of their original lan- 
 guage. The Sette Comuni, a small German colony established, be- 
 1 yond the reach of historical documents, in the north of Italy, the 
 Greeks of Plana dei Greci, near Palermo, the Flemish clothiers in 
 Wales, settled there for many centuries, all retain dialects, more or 
 less impure, of their mother tongue, and afford some of the many 
 proofs which might be brought, how difficult it is to root out any lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Having thus established one fixed and unalterable element, it af- 
 fords a certain test whether the oilier has remained unchanged ; or, 
 to speak more plainly, if identity of .speech infallibly proves two na- 
 tions to have been originally one, and yet they differ from one anoth- 
 er in physical characteristics, to such an extent, as to be now classi- 
 fied in different races, these characteristics must thereby be proved 
 liable to change, for one of the nations must have lost its original 
 type. Now, I think it can be proved, that the boundaries of the 
 two-fold classification of men, according to the language, and ac- 
 cording to form and feature, no longer coincide ; and as they must 
 have once run together, and as that of language has remained unva- 
 ried, we must conclude that the other has undergone a change. Nay, 
 I think we shall be able to go even further ; for while no instance 
 has yet been brought, nor ever will, nor can be, of any people, either 
 by gradual traTisition, or by voluntary impulse, transferring its lan- 
 guage from one family to another, we may perhaps surprise nature in 
 her other order of classification, at the moment of effecting a transi- 
 tion from one family to another, by discovering examples of an inter- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 131 
 
 mediate state between any two, or of the processes whereby it has 
 sometimes been produced. 
 
 In treating of the athnity of languacres, I pointed out a remarka- 
 ble connexion, solidly demonstrated, between Hungarian and the 
 languages of northern Europe, the Finnish, Lapponian, and Estho- 
 nian ; and an inspection of the ethnographic map will show you how 
 it is placed, like what geologists call outliers of peculiar strata, as 
 a mass detached from the gioup to which it really belongs. But 
 this relationship is still more extensive, and includes the Tchermisses, 
 Votiaks, Ostiaks, more properly called As-jachs, and Permians, tribes 
 now inhabiting the banks of the Oby, or even more eastern parts of 
 Siberia.* But while no one doubts that all these tribes compose on- 
 ly one family, their physical traits are singularly distinct. They are 
 all, indeed, remarkable for very low stature ; but while several of 
 these Uralian and Tschudish tribes, as the Laplanders, Tchermisses, 
 Woguls, and Hungarians, have black hair and brown eyes, others, 
 as the Finns, Permians, and As-jacht^, have all, according to Do- 
 browsky, red hair and blue eyes.t And this, too, appears worthy of 
 observation, that all these tribes i)elong to Blumenbach's Mongul 
 family, so do we find the characteristics of this less plainly marked, 
 as we recede from its great seat, and those of the Germanic branch 
 of the Caucasian family become prevalent, as we approach its geo- 
 graphical centre. Here then, assuredly, one portion, or the other, 
 of the family must have varied from its primitive type, so as to over- 
 step, to a certain degree, the boundary of the race to which it may 
 be supposed to have belonged. 
 
 Another change may be, perhaps, traced in the same family. 
 You doubtless remember, that, at our last meeting, I entered into 
 rather a detailed explanation of the relation in wliich the Tartars 
 and Monguls stand to each other, and I observed, that the best and 
 most modern writers on the classification of languages, Abel-Remu- 
 sat, Balbi, Klaproth, and Pallas, place the two languages in the same 
 family. I observed, also, that their own traditions represent them as 
 descended from two brothers, and that in the eleventh century, they 
 formed two of a community of four cognate tribes. All this would 
 surely seem to indicate a common origin, as far as it is traceable by 
 
 * These lanjruages form the Uralian family, in Balbi's ethno- 
 graphy, " Atlas Ethnogr." No. xv. See the ethnographic chart pre- 
 fixed to this work. 
 
 t Prichard, vol. ii. p. 266. 
 
132 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 historical, traditionary and philological arguments. And yet it can- 
 not be doubted, but that the extremes of the two nations or families, 
 are as dissimilar as possible, and that the Tartars belong to the Cau- 
 casian race.* It has been sometimes said, that the Turks owe their 
 fine forms and heads to their great mixture of Circassian blood, in- 
 troduced by their captive wives from that country. But this theory 
 which has been applied to other similar cases, can hardly be sup- 
 ported, if we consider that such an infusion of foreign blood could 
 never reach the great mass of the nation, but must be confined to the 
 rich, who alone could well be subject to the operation of its cause. 
 I will show you later, that ages and ages of iniermarriages have not 
 been able to obliterate the characteristic traits of the two nations an- 
 ciently occupying Italy. But besides this, we may observe, that the 
 Osmanlis or Turks presented the same features, before the luxurious 
 reason assigned could well have been in very active operation. f 
 
 But further, I before observed that some Tartar tribes, as 
 the Kirghis, approach so nearly to the Mongul type, as to form a sort 
 of intermediate step between them. This, again. Dr. Prichard at- 
 tributes to intermarriages; but it would, I think, be difficult to 
 establish the existence of this cause. 
 
 In Blumenbach's collection of skulls, we have one of a Yakut 
 Tartar, which has all the characters of the Mongul race.t This 
 may be only an individual case ; but Dobell seems to allow that this 
 tribe of Tartars approximate somewhat to the Monguls. For he ob- 
 serves, " there are credible proofs to adduce of their being descend- 
 ed from the Monguls, but their most probable origin is Tartar. ... A 
 Yakut's features, and the expression of his countenance, partake 
 more of the Tartar than of the Mongul race."§ 
 
 * See p. J 79. 
 
 f At least if we suppose the custom to Iiave begun only after the 
 consolidation of Turkish f)Ovver. An old historian thus desciihes Mo- 
 hammed the Great, first etnpeior of the Turks: " His complexion was 
 Tartar-like, sallow, juui melancholy, as were most of his predecessors, 
 the Olhoman kings; his looke iind countenance stenn", with his eyes 
 j)iercing, hollow, and a little sunk into his head, and his nose so high 
 and crooked, that it almost touched his upper lip." — Knolles, " Histo- 
 ry of the Turks," rnh edit. p. 433. 
 
 X " Decad. i. Cranior." pi. xv. \). JO. 
 
 § "Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia." Loml. 1830, vol. ii. pp. 
 13. 14. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 133 
 
 The race to which we belong presents a similar phenomenon. 
 Whatever hypothesis we may choose to adopt, the prevalence of a 
 language, essentially the same, from India to Iceland, proves the in- 
 termediate nations to be of common origin. Yet the inhabitants of 
 the Indian peninsula differ from us in color and shape, so materially as 
 to be classified in another race. Klaproth, to account for this cir- 
 cumstance, imagines that the Indo-Germanic nations were saved 
 from the Deluge on two chains of mountains, the Himalaya and the 
 Caucasus. From the former, according to him, descended the In- 
 dians to the south, and the Gotjjs to the north ; from the other came 
 the Medes, Persians, and the Pelasgians. He then supposes the 
 dark complexion of the Hindoos to have been produced by intermix- 
 ture with a dusky race, who were there before them, having been 
 saved from the same scourge upon the mountains of Malabar.* But 
 all this is pure conjecture, without the slightest foundation either in 
 history or in local tradition ; and has been devised simply to escape 
 from the difficulty, which is more easily met by allowing that a na- 
 tion may change its characteristics, so as to pass into a different 
 family from what its language proves was its original stock. 
 
 These examples will, however, by no means satisfy you that the 
 two extremes, the black and the white race, can never have been 
 one ; for the red or tawny cannot be considered an intermediate 
 step, and we must look for examples of direct transition from one 
 extreme to the other ; and this assuredly is the hardest knot we have 
 to untie in this inquiry. I will not speak of the great discussions 
 held by many authors as to the original color of the human race ; 
 many, as Labat, considering it to have been red :t either because 
 the name of the first man signifies, in Hebrew, that color, or, as 
 Bishop Heber conjectures, because undomesticated animals tend 
 towards it.| Blumenbach supposes the original color was white ; 
 and if I might venture to give an argument in favor of this opinion, I 
 should say that every departure from this hue, bears the mark of an 
 
 * "In Indien hat sich derselbe ganz niit friiheren dunkelfarl)igen 
 Bewohern verriiisclit, und seine S))rache herschend gemaclit, dabei aber 
 seine charakteristischen physischen Kennzeichen eingebiisst. Die 
 brauen oder negeratigen Urbewoliner von Indien retteten sich wahr- 
 scheinlich, zur Zeit der Noahischen Fhith, auf die hohen Gebirgen von 
 Malabar, und den Ghauts." — Asia Polygi. p. 48. 
 
 I See Labat, "Nonvelle Relation de I'Afrique," Paris, 1728, tom.ii. 
 ]). 257. 
 
 t Ubi sup. vol. i. p. 69. 
 
134 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 excess, or of a morbid affection. Alpinus has proved that the seat 
 of the negro's color is not in the outward skin, which is, in him, as 
 colorless as in us, but in the fine tissue situated under it, and known 
 in anatomy by the name of the tissue or net of Malpighi.* This tis- 
 sue in the black is the seat of a dark pigment, and in the albino is 
 said to be filled with cysts or small bags, containing a white sub- 
 stance which gives their peculiar color : though Buzzi in his ac- 
 count of the examination of an albino after death, says he could find 
 no trace of the tissue at all.t It would appear, therefore, that the 
 white, placed between two contrary deviations, should be the natural 
 or normal state. 
 
 The ancients took the simple expedient of attributing the negro's 
 color to the action of the sun. That climate taken in reference to 
 its progressive degrees of heat, has an influence on the tint of the 
 skin, is so far true, that we see a certain ratio exist between the two. 
 Generally speaking, the whitest races are nearer the pole, and the 
 darkest are more under the influence of tropical heal : and between 
 these two extremes we may trace many intermediate steps, as from 
 the Dane to the Frenchman ; after whom may come the Spaniard or 
 Italian, then the Moor, and so the negro. | But this endeavor to 
 establish a chain of gradations in color has to encounter two serious 
 difficulties. First, in all these degrees, the tint is too evidently the 
 result of an outward action upon the skin, the effects whereof can be 
 moderated or suspended by precautions against heat. The Moorish 
 females who keep the house, are almost perfectly white ; but the ne- 
 gro child begins to become black when ten days old, however it may 
 be sheltered from the heat ; the action therefore in the first case, is 
 merely from without, while in the other it consists in the development 
 of some internal principle. Secondly, directly opposed to this theo- 
 ry of considering different degrees of darkness a series of transitions 
 from the white to the black, are the startling facts, that the same 
 race preserves its hue without sensible variation under the most dis- 
 tant latitudes, and that, under the same latitude, the most singular 
 varieties occur apparently in the same race. Of the first, the Amer- 
 icans afford a most singular example. Whether on the frozen banks 
 
 * "De Sede et Causa Coloris iEthiopum," Leyd. ]73S. 
 
 f " Opera Scelte," Milan, 1784, torn. vii. p. 11. 
 
 \ Such seems to be the opinion maintained by Dr. Hunter, " Dis- 
 putatio inau^uralis qua>daiii de hominum varietatibus, et harum causis 
 exponens," Edinh. 1775, [). 26. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 135 
 
 of the Canadian lakes, or on the burning Pampas of the southern 
 peninsula, hardly a shade of difference can be discovered in the 
 complexion of the native Indians: the same copper-color distinguish- 
 es all the tribes. Of the second we have a no less striking exempli- 
 fication in the east. 
 
 " The great difference in color between different native^,' says 
 Bishop Heber, describing his first arrival at Calcutta, " striii^k me 
 much; of the crowd by whom we were surrounded, some were black 
 as negroes, others merely copper-colored, and others little darker 
 than the Tunisians whom I have seen at Liverpool. Mr. Mill, the 
 principal of Bishop's College, who had come down to meet me, and 
 who has seen more of India than most men, tells me that he cannot 
 account for this difference, which is general throughout the country, 
 and every where striking. It is not merely the difference of ex- 
 posure, since this variety of tint is visible in the fishermen who are 
 all naked alike. Nor does it depend on caste, since very high caste 
 Brahmins are sometimes black, while Pariahs are comparatively 
 white."* This last observation, if it can be completely depended 
 upon, is of great importance. For, as we shall see on a future oc- 
 casion, Heeren and others, guided by the division into castes, have 
 imagined that India was peopled by tvvodistinct nations, oneof whom, 
 having conquered the other, reduced it to a state of inferiority and 
 dependence ; which hypothesis would be completely demonstrated, if 
 a difference of complexion were distinguishable between the high 
 and low castes. 
 
 Thus far, you see, I have only thrown doubts on the processes im- 
 agined to explain the black color of the negro : for though I think it 
 depends upon climate, certainly no theory has been yet discovered to 
 account for its origin. Our science is yet young, and we must con- 
 tent ourselves with collecting facts and drawing their natural infer- 
 ences. It is therefore to these we must appeal ; and they will suffice 
 to prove that such a change may have taken place, though whether 
 by accident or gradual deviation, we know not- I will submit such 
 as I have noticed to your consideration. 
 
 The natives of Abyssinia are perfectly black, and yet certainly 
 belong by origin to the Semitic family, and, consequently to a white 
 race. Their language is but a dialect of that class, and its very 
 name intimates its having come across the Red Sea. Hence, in 
 Scripture, the term Cash applies equally to them and to the inhabi- 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 9. 
 
136 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 tants of the other side ; and neither in features, nor in the form of the 
 skull, do they any way resemble the negro. You may easily satisfy 
 yourselves, either from portraits, or from living individuals, that, save 
 in color, their faces are perfectly European. Here, then, a change 
 has taken place, though we know not how. 
 
 Another and more striking example we have in the intelligent 
 and accurate traveller, Burckhardt. The town of Souakin, situated 
 on the African coast of the Red Sea, lower down than Mecca, con- 
 tains a mixed population, formed, first of Bedouins or Arabs, includ- 
 ing the descendants of the ancient Turks, and secondly of the town's- 
 people, who are either Arabs from the opposite coast, or Turks of 
 modern origin.* The following is his account of the two classes. 
 Of the first he says : The Hadherebe or Bedouins of Souakin have 
 exactly the same features, language, and dress, as the Nubian Be- 
 douins. In general they have handsome and expressive features, 
 with thin and very short beards. Their color is of the darkest brown, 
 approaching to black ; but they have nothing of the negro character 
 of countenance. "t The others, who are descended entirely from 
 settlers from Mosul, Hadramout, etc. and from Turks sent thither by 
 Selim, upon his conquest of Egypt, have undergone the same change. 
 "The present race," says Burckhardt, " have the African features 
 and manners, and are in no way to be distinguished from the Had- 
 herebe. "| Here then we have two distinct nations, Arabs and 
 Turks, in the course of a few centuries, becoming black in Africa, 
 though originally white. 
 
 Captain Tuckey, speaking of the natives of Congo, says that they 
 " are evidently a mixed nation, having no national physiognomy, and 
 many of them perfectly south European in their features. This, one 
 would naturally conjecture, arises from the Portuguese having inter- 
 married with them, and yet there are very few mulattoes among 
 them."§ This observation completely overthrows that conjecture, 
 even if admissible on other grounds; for an entire nation's physiog- 
 nomy could never have been entirely changed by a few settlers. In 
 
 * " Travels in Nubia," 2d edit. p. 391. 
 
 t Page 395. 
 
 I Page 391. As the Hadherebe have not, according to the first 
 quotiUioi), the negro countenance, I suppose by features we must under- 
 stand only color. 
 
 § " Narrative of an Expedition to explore the River Zaire," Lond. 
 1818, p. 196. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 137 
 
 the general observations on Captain Tuckey's voyage, collected from 
 the scientific men and officers who accompanied him, we are inform- 
 ed that " their features, though nearest to those of the negro tribe, 
 are neither so strongly marked nor so black as the Africans in gener- 
 al. They are not only represented as being more pleasing, but also 
 as wearing the appearance of great simplicity and innocence."* 
 
 There are many nations, not only along the coast, but in the 
 very heart of central Africa, who are perfectly of a glossy black, with- 
 out a sign of negro features. Among them are the Foulahs, whom 
 Park describes as " not black, but of a tawny color, which is lighter 
 and yellower in some States than in otiiers. They have small fea- 
 tures, soft silky hair, without either the thick lips or crisp wool which 
 are common to other tribes."t Jobson describes them as " of a 
 tawny color, with long black hair, not near so much frizzled as that 
 of the negroes."! Of the YolofFs Mr. Moore writes, that they are 
 much blacker and handsomer than either the Mandingos or Flups, 
 not having the broad noses and thick lips peculiar to those nations, 
 and that none of the inhabitants of those countries come up to the 
 Yoloffs for blackness of skin and beauty of features." The writer, 
 from whom I quote, adds, that travellers do not always distinguish the 
 Yoloffs, with the same accuracy as Mr. Moore, from the Mandingos 
 and other flat-nosed blacks among whom they are mixed ; and, in 
 another place, describing the Mandingos, he says, " that they are as 
 remarkable for thick lips and flat noses, as the Yoloffs and Foulahs, 
 are for handsome features. "§ Now this is quite contrary to the ac- 
 count given by later travellers ; for Caillie thus describes the inhabi- 
 tants of Timbuctoo: — "They are of the ordinary size, well-made, 
 upright, and walk with a firm step. Their color is of a fine deep 
 black ; their noses are a little more aquiline than those of the Man- 
 dingos, and, like them, they have thin lips and dark eyes."|| This 
 contradiction is, however, of small moment : for any way, it^is evi- 
 dent that the black color has no necessary connexion with the negro 
 feature, but that two races or varieties exist, equally black, but be- 
 longing, by the more important characteristic of the shape of the 
 skull and features, to different tamilies. Blumenbach has, indeed, 
 
 * Ibid. p. 374. 
 
 t Sumner's "Records of Creation," 2d. edit. vol. i. j>. 380. 
 X "New General Collection of Voyages," ut sup. p. 262. 
 § Ibid. pp. 255, 266. 
 
 II "Travels through Central Africa," Lond. 1830, vol. ii. p. 61. 
 18 
 
138 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 remarked, in vague terms, the existence of tliese two classes in 
 Africa, the one negro in every respect, the other black, but with 
 l)andsome and perfectly European features ; but he calls them all 
 indiscriminately Ethiopians, and has made no provision for a distinct 
 classification.* 
 
 This difference will perhaps appear more remarkable, if I am 
 correct in another observation. I think we shall in general find, that 
 those tribes which are described as not having the negro features, 
 but only the black color, are raised a degree in civilization above 
 their neighbors, and profess some religion claiming a revelation, — as 
 the Abyssinians a very corrupt Christianity, the natives of Congo 
 some remnants of it, and all others the Mohammedan religion ; 
 whereas, those that have the negro characteristics to their fullest ex- 
 tent, as the Dahometans, Caffres, or Hottentots, are in the lowest 
 state of moral and physical degradation, and profess some miserable 
 system of fetichism or idolatry. Now, if craniology have any foun- 
 dation — and even its warmest opponents must, 1 think, allow regard- 
 ing it, Bossuet's axiom, that " every error is a truth abused," — the 
 depression of forehead, and compression of temples, which is the 
 negro distinctive in Blumenbach's system, would be precisely indica- 
 tive of that degraded condition. And thus we should have two dis- 
 tinct causes : features would depend upon civilization, and color 
 mainly upon climate. 
 
 For, regarding the influence of the latter, this extraordinary cir- 
 cumstance, that ever-y nation, however various, that is found in the 
 torrid climate of Africa — taking climate in its widest sense, as in- 
 cluding the character of the tracts inhabited — should have put on the 
 sun's dusky livery, seems to warrant the conclusion, that this charac- 
 teristic is attributable to the region which they all inhabit. The 
 effect may not proceed from the direct outward action of the sun's 
 rays; but, as it has been proved by Le Cat, Camper, and Lawrence,! 
 that the skin of the fairest European may, under certain circumstan- 
 ces, become as black as a negro's over the whole, or a great part, of 
 the body, so may we suppose that the principle which causes this 
 change, and which is evidently inherent in the white, may, under 
 
 * " Deeas, Craii." i. \i. 23. 
 
 f Le Cat, " Tniite de la couieur de la peau hinnainr," Amsl. \}. 
 130; Camper, " Dissertat, physique," p. ]G ; Lawrence, "liPClureson 
 Physioloiry, etc." p. 5'2"2. It is a phenoinenoii oi)s;'rved mostly in fe- 
 males duriiig gestation. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 139 
 
 the influence of peculiar climate, be brought into activity, and ren- 
 dered perpetual by descent. 
 
 And, before Jaaving the soil of Africa, I will give an example of 
 what may be, perhaps, considered a state of transition. Burckhardt 
 has described the savage population of Mahass, as having character- 
 istics intermediate between those of the negroes and the Nubians : — 
 " In color they are perfectly black, their lips are like those of the 
 negro, but not the nose or cheek-bone."* 
 
 Opposed to these facts, others may indeed be brought, which are 
 often popularly cited. It is observed, that the descendants of French, 
 English, and Portuguese settlers, on the coast of Africa, have re- 
 mained unchanged after many generations, while the negroes in 
 North America, after several centuries, are still negroes. t And, to 
 add a new example, Burckhardt twice mentions the descendants of 
 Bosnian soldiers, left by Selim in Nubia, who yet retain the features, 
 though they have forgotten the language of their native country. 
 
 Much of this, or all, may be true, but what does it prove, when 
 placed by the side of the facts I have quoted? Why, only, that the 
 operation of causes is yet unknown to us ; that we cannot discover 
 the law whereby nature acts ; that there are two series of fiicts, each 
 true, but neither confuting the other. I wish only to show that the 
 observation of modern philosophers tends to demonstrate that such a 
 a change ma]/ have taken place, not that it must take place. One 
 instance is sufficient to prove the first assertion, whereas it might re- 
 quire some thousands to damonstrate the second. 
 
 But let us enter more minutely into the objection. We are cred- 
 ibly informed, that in some parts of India, the descendants of Euro- 
 peans long ago settled there, have totally changed their color, though 
 of course, not their features. " It is remarkable, however, to ob- 
 serve," says an author whom I have already often quoted, " how 
 surely all these classes of men" (Persians, Greeks, Tartars, Turks, 
 and Arabs,) "in a few p uerations, even without any intermarriage 
 with the Hindoos, assume the deep olive tint, little less dark than 
 the negro, which seems natural to the climate. The Portuguese na- 
 tives form unions among themselves alone, or, if they can, with Eu- 
 ropeans. Yet the Portuguese have, during a three hundred years' 
 residence in India, become as black as Caffres. Surely this goes 
 
 * Ubi sup. p. 53. 
 
 t " Description de la Nigritie," ut sup. p. 56. Labot, torn ii. p. 255. 
 
^l 
 
 140 LECTURK THE FOURTH. 
 
 far to disprove the assertion which is sometimes made, that climate 
 alone is insufficient to account for the difference between the negro 
 and the European. It is true tliat in the negro are other peculiari- 
 ties, which the Indians have not, and to which the Portuguese colo- 
 nist shows no system (symptoms 7) of approximation. . . . But, if 
 heat produces one change, other peculiarities of climate may pro- 
 duce other and additional changes ; and when such peculiarities 
 have three or four thousand years to operate in, it is not easy to fix 
 any limits to their power."* This reasoning is, indeed, defective, 
 inasmuch as the negro features were fixed as early as the days of 
 Herodotus or Homer, or even much earlier, as appears from Egyp- 
 tian monuments ; and climate will not account for the cases I have 
 given of tribes, under the same latitude, and on the same soil, hav- 
 ing totally different characteristics. But still the fact contained in 
 this passage is valuable, as it shows that transition may take place 
 from the white to the black color. 
 
 In like manner, Long, in his history of Jamaica, and Edwards, 
 in his history of the West Indies, have both remarked that the skulls 
 of the white settlers in those countries differ sensibly in shape from 
 those of Europe, and approach to the original American configura- 
 tion. Dr. Prichard likewise asserts upon good authority, that the 
 third generation of those slaves in the United States who live in 
 houses, have little left of the depressed nose, and their mouth and 
 lips become more moderate ; while their hair grows longer at each 
 succeeding generation. The field slaves, on the contrary, retain 
 much longer their original form.t Caldani has given an instance of 
 a black shoe-maker, who having been brought very young to Venice, 
 had so far changed his color, as to be no darker than a European af- 
 fected with a slight jaundice ; and in this case he speaks from person- 
 al observation.! 
 
 The important remark I just quoted from Dr. Piichard is highly 
 interesting ; and will, I doubt not, be much further confirmed by ac- 
 curate observation. It brings me back to the consideration of the 
 influence exercised by civilization upon the characteristics of a race. 
 Cuvier has noticed that servitude or domestication is the most pow- 
 erful agent yet discovered for producing modifications in animals, 
 
 * " Heber's Narrative," vol. i. p. G8. f Vol. ii. p. 565. 
 
 I " Inslitutiones i)hysio]ogii'tc, auctore L. M. Caldanio," Ven. 1786, 
 p. 151. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 141 
 
 and the greatest variety yet obtained was procured by its means.* 
 Civilization comes nearest to this agent in man, and must be even 
 stronger, from its moral influence. There is no doubt but the mode 
 of life, the food and comforts, and the degree of mental culture en- 
 joyed, produce a strong and permanent effect on different nations. 
 A late traveller in Syria has noted the great difference observable 
 between the Bedouins and the Fellahs of the Hauran. The first, or 
 wandering Arabs, ever exposed to hardships, and the fatigues of a 
 roaming, active life, are slightly shaped, and have a small face and 
 thin beard. The latter, or sedentary Arabs, are stout and large, 
 have a strong beard, but want the keen looks of their brethren of 
 the desert. Yet there can be no question but that these two classes 
 are in reality only one nation, speaking the same language, and in- 
 habiting the same climate. What then causes the difference be- 
 tween them ? No doubt their different modes of life ; for this accu- 
 rate observer adds, that till the age of sixteen no difference can be 
 perceived between them.t In another work he says that equal dif- 
 ference is to be seen in their dispositions.! 
 
 Mr. Jackson notes the same difference between the Arabs who 
 inhabit towns in Morocco, and the Bedouins who dwell in tents. 
 " The Selluks of Haha," says he, " are physiognomically distin- 
 guishable from the Arabs of the plains, and even from the Selluks of 
 Susa, though in their language, manners, and mode of living, they 
 resemble the latter. "§ Nay, even among the Bedouins themselves, 
 Volney has observed that a marked difference is discernible between 
 the people and their sheikhs or princes, who being better fed, are 
 taller, stouter, and better-favored than their poorer subjects, who 
 subsist on six ounces of food a day.|| Forster has remarked a simi- 
 lar distinction in Tahiti. " The common people," says he, " who 
 are most exposed to the air and sun, exert their strength in agricul- 
 ture, fishing, paddling, building houses and canoes, and are stinted 
 
 * In his " Discours pr61iminaire." See likewise BUimenbach, in 
 his chapter entitled " Ansartung des volkominensten aller Hausthiere, 
 des Menschen," in his "Beytrage zur Naturgeschichte," i. Th. Gotting. 
 1790, p. 47. 
 
 f Burckhardt's Travels in Syria. Not having at hand the English 
 edition, I translate from the German version, Weimar, 1823, i. Th. p. 456. 
 
 \ "Notes on the Bedouins and Wababees," Lond. 1830, p. 104. 
 
 § "An account of the Empire of Morocco," Lond. 1811, p. 18. 
 
 II " Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie," Par. 1787, torn. i. p. 359, 
 
H-^ l,ECTUnE THE FOURTH. 
 
 in their food, are blacker, their hair more woolly and crisp, their 
 bodies low and slender. But their chiefs and arees have a dif- 
 ferent appearance. The color of their skins is less tawny than that 
 of the Spaniard, and not so coppery as that of an American ; it is of 
 a lighter tint than the fairest complexion of an inhabitant of the East 
 India islands. From this complexion we find all the intermediate 
 hues, down to a lively brown, bordering upon the black. A few 
 have yellowish, brown, or sandy hair."* Kotzebue, and other later 
 navigators, have made the same observation ; but it seems clear that 
 the Yeris or noble race of the Sandwich and other Polynesian isl- 
 ands, are really a distinct tribe from the common people. t 
 
 Both Pallas and Klaproth have expressed an opinion, that the Mon- 
 gul complexion seems to depend much upon the habits of that race. 
 The children and women are remarkably white : smoke and expos- 
 ure to the sun give the men their yellow tint.| Though much might 
 be urged against this hypothesis, it may serve to draw more atten- 
 tion to the bearing which habits and civilization may have upon the 
 characteristics of different races. With the same view I would no- 
 lice the remarkable alteration which has occurred in the Germanic 
 family. For we have seen that its traits were once so marked, that 
 it was made to constitute one of the great and most strongly char- 
 acterized divisions of the human species, forming to the eye of the 
 Greek, a perfect contrast with the swarthy hue of the Ethiopian. 
 Yet these distinctives, if not totally effaced, are now become so faint, 
 as to be hardly traceable ; doubtless through the influence of civili- 
 zation, and the assimilation of that nation's manners to those of oth- 
 ers belonging to the same family. 
 
 Perhaps the most extraordinary illustration of the permanent influ- 
 fluence of habits upon the different races, may be drawn from the teeth. 
 Blumenbach has observed that the teeth of man show him manifest- 
 ly to be an omnivorous animal. But in some nations, probably from 
 the use of food requiring great mastication, the incisors become blunt 
 and rounded, and the canine teeth are undistinguishable from the 
 grinders. This is the case with many, perhaps most, Egyptian 
 
 * "Observations made durinc; a Voyage round the world," Lond. 
 1 1778, p. 229. See also Anson's Voyage round the World, 1777, vol. i. 
 p. 305. 
 
 f Kotzebue's "New Voyage round the World," Lond. 1830, vol. ii. 
 p. 58. 
 
 i Pallas, ubi sup. Klaproth, " Voyage au Caucase," torn. i. p. 73. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 143 
 
 mummies, and with the Greenlanders and Esquimaux, who eat their 
 meat uncooked, with most extraordinary contortions of jaw.* 
 
 These examples may suffice, instead of many, to show what an 
 important element, difference of habit is ; for nature, always tending 
 to adapt her laws to particular circumstances, where the general 
 harmony will not be disturbed, seems, after a time, to perpetuate va- 
 rieties produced by this accidental cause. 
 
 There are many other physiological observations and objections 
 connected with the unity and origin of the negro and white races, 
 which I pass over, as they are hardly of a nature to be interesting to 
 you.t I will therefore at once proceed to sum up the results of this 
 study as briefly as possible. I have endeavored to connect and lay 
 
 * "De generis huinaui varietate," pp. 27,224. 
 
 f I will simply mention in a note one argument, both as a sample 
 of the strange expedients to which recourse has been had by writers 
 on these subjects, and because I am not aware that any one has taken 
 the troul)]e to answer it. I allude to Virey's objection to unity of race, 
 drawn iVoui Fabricius's accurate observations on the pediculus nigrila- 
 ruin, as the parasite insect of the negro has been scientifically called, 
 as specifically distinct from all others ; so that, according to him, the 
 black race which it accompanies, must have been also distinct from the 
 beginning. (Tom. i. p. 391.) In re[)ly to this, I will content myself 
 with saying, that there are other instances of a parallel nature, where 
 we cannot account for the existence of the smaller tribes of animals be- 
 fore their present seats and nourishment existed. For instance, the 
 tinea, or moth which attacks dressed wool, never touches it when it is 
 unwashed ; where did it exist before the wool was washed and combed .' 
 Are we to consider washed and unwashed wool two different species, be- 
 cause the same animal will not live in hoth .' The \arv a. o£ the oinopota cel- 
 laris will live nowfiere but in wine or beer; another insect described by 
 Reaimiin-, now disdains ail food but 4i|tt chocolate. (See Kirby and 
 Spence's " Introd. to Entomology," 4th edit. vol. i. |)p. 384,888.) How 
 or where did these little creatures live, before what is now their exclu- 
 sive nourishment was tnanufactured ; for no one will suppose that these 
 substances were ever found, ready made i)ythe hand of nature. These 
 cases are exactly parallel to the one objected ; but there is an instance 
 perfectly similar, of an insect which produces disease in tame swine, 
 but is never found in the wild, though acknowledged to be the original 
 Slock. " Der Finenwurm in Schweinfieisch" says Blumenhach, " ist, 
 in seiner Art, ein eben so vollkommenes Thier als der Mensch. Nun 
 aber findet sich, so viel bekannt, dieses Thier bios beym zahmen Hau- 
 schwein, und niemablen hingegen bey der wilden San, von der doch 
 jenes abstammt." (Beytrage zur Naturgeschichte, i. Th. p. 30.) See 
 also some curious remarks on this subject liy Tilesius, in the " M6- 
 moires de I'Academie de St. Petersbourg, tom. v. 1815, p. 452. 
 
144 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 before you, what I think may be considered its admitted results, 
 imperfect as it yet remains. We have seen it well established : 
 first, that among animals acknowledged to be of one species, there 
 have arisen varieties similar to those in the human race, and not less 
 diverse from one another. Secondly, that nature tends, in the hu- 
 man species, to produce varieties in one race approaching to the 
 characteristics of the others. Thirdly, that sporadic varieties of the 
 most extraordinary sort, may be propagated by descent. Fourthly, 
 that we can find sufficient proofs in the languages and in the charac- 
 teristics of larger bodies, or entire nations compared, of their transi- 
 tion from one race to another. Fifthly, that though the origin of the 
 black race is yet involved in mystery, yet are there sufficient facts col- 
 lected to prove the possibility of its having arisen from another, par- 
 ticularly if, in addition to the action of heat, we admit that of moral 
 causes acting upon the physical organization. 
 
 And here I will remark that we are often precipitate and unjust, 
 in judging of the past by causes now in action. It is indeed true 
 that nature is constant and regular in her operations ; but, if in the 
 short course of our experience, or that of past observers, no variation 
 may have been noted in the uniformity of her workings, it is that the 
 little segment of our duration's cycle over which we and they have 
 travelled, is but as a straight line, an infinitesimal element, whose 
 curvature can only appear, when referred to a much larger portion of 
 her circumference. That besides the partial laws with which we are 
 acquainted, there have been others once most active, whose agency 
 is now either suspended or concealed, the study of the world must 
 easily convince us. There were times, within the verge of mytho- 
 thological history, when volcanoes raged in almost every chain of 
 mountains, when lakes dried up, or suddenly appeared, in many val- 
 leys, when seas burst over their boundaries and created new islands, 
 or retired from their beds and increased old continents ; when, in 
 fine, there was a power of production and arrangement on a great, 
 magnificent scale, when nature seemed employed not merely in the 
 yearly renovation of plants and insects, but in the procreation from 
 age to age of the vaster and more massive elements of ^her sphere ; 
 when her task was not confined to the embroidering the meadows in 
 the spring, or to the paring away of shores by the slow eating action of 
 tides and currents, but when she toiled in the great laboratories of the 
 earth, upheaving mountains, and displacing seas, and thus giving to 
 the world its great indelible features. And how are we to account 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 145 
 
 for this, but by supposing in nature a two-fold action, one regular 
 from the beginning, and uniform to the end, the other a mysterious 
 slow-moving power, which though revolving on the same plane, trav- 
 els over it with an imperceptible motion, proportioned to the wants 
 of the entire system. And in other cases, and on a smaller scale, 
 such should seem to be the course of nature. In the child, the cir- 
 culation of the blood, the absorbing and digestive operations, all the 
 functions of life, are the same as in man ; with variations only as to 
 degree of activity, they commence with being, and are regular 
 through its duration. But in its earlier stages there is, besides, a 
 plastic virtue at work within us, traceable to no law of necessity, hav- 
 ing no clear dependence on the general course of the ordinary vital 
 powers, which gives growth and solidity to the limbs, characteristic 
 shape to the features, gradual development and strength to the 
 muscles ; then to all appearance sinks into inertness and ceases to 
 act, till age seems once more to call the extraordinary laws into activity, 
 to efface the impression, and undo the work, of their earlier opera- 
 tions. And in like manner, we must allow that in the world's infan- 
 cy, besides the regular ordinances of constant and daily course, 
 causes necessary to produce great and permanent effects may have 
 had a power, now no longer wanted, and consequently no longer ex- 
 ercised ; that there was a tendency to stamp more marked features 
 upon the earth and its inhabitants, to produce countries as well as 
 their vegetation, races as much as individuals. 
 
 There are instances certainly as yet discoverable, of a two-fold 
 action of one cause, upon a smaller and a greater scale. An epi- 
 demic disease, for instance, besides its particular action upon individ- 
 uals, runs a similar course, only referable to large communities or ag- 
 gregations of men, or even to the entire human race; is first slight 
 in its public infliction, then increases, and so by contrary gradations 
 yields to nature or art, and wears itself away ; even in such sort, that 
 at the period or crisis of greater fatality, the lot of each patient shall 
 seem rather to depend upon some mysterious law, which connects him 
 with the infected community, than upon the individual circumstan- 
 ces of his peculiar case. And, in a somewhat similar manner, we 
 may say, that the daily and yearly courses of nature, which appear 
 so identical throughout, are yet but components of a much longer pe- 
 riod, at the end of which an action, now so small as to be invisible 
 will, by the aggregation of its effects, appear great and importan 
 19 
 
146 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 and seem to have been ])roduced by laws, now hidden in the com- 
 plex machinery of the universe. 
 
 And, to apply still further the illustration I before gave ; when 
 any part of the human system has been so far altered, that the power 
 which acted in its infancy again is needed, though apparently sus- 
 pended, there are hidden resources which recall it into action ; so 
 that, when any portion of the bony structure has been removed, there 
 is again wrought to reproduce it, that marvellous weaving which 
 shoots its threads, like a crystallization, from point to point, and then 
 stretches across it a firm and solid texture, just as occurred many 
 years before in childhood. And just so do we see, that when, by 
 accidental circumstances, nature can be brought back to her primi- 
 tive position, she resumes her primitive action, and renews the laws 
 she had held suspended. The production of coral reefs, and, from 
 them islands, in the South Sea, which soon receive a population 
 from distant points, shows us in that last corner to which she seems to 
 have withdrawn her creative powers, how she once prepared new 
 habitations for man ; the incredible scale on which the inhabitants 
 increase on such occasions, far beyond the calculations of modern 
 statistics, proves what powerful energies she exerted when wanted to 
 propagate the human race. An island first occupied by a few ship- 
 wrecked English in 1589, and discovered by a Dutch vessel in 
 1667, is said to have been found peopled, after eighty years, by 
 12,000 souls, all the descendants of four mothers.* Acosta, wri- 
 ting the natural history of New Spain, within a hundred years of its 
 discovery, tells us, that there were even earlier, " men who had 
 70,000 or 100,000 sheep, and that, even then, were many who had 
 as many ; which in Europe would be considered great riches, but 
 there, is only moderate wealth." And yet, not one of these animals 
 existed in the country before its discovery, and the breed was propa- 
 gated entirely from those imported by the Spaniards. The same is 
 to be said of horned cattle ; yet such vvas their increase, that, in his 
 time, they went roaming in herds of thousands over the plains and 
 mountains of Hispaniola, and were the property of whoever chose to 
 hunt them down with houghing-knives, ( desjarrctoderas,) and cut 
 them down ; and so profitable was this chase, that, in 1585, the fleet 
 
 * Bullet, " Rt-iionses critiques," Bcsanc. 1819. vol. ill. p. 45. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 147 
 
 brought over from that island 35,444 hides, and from New Spain 
 64,350, showing an increase quite beyond all ordinary calculation* 
 
 Such examples, to which I might add many others, seem to show 
 the existence of hidden resources in nature, never called forth, save 
 in her infant state. And it surely cannot be unphilosophical to sup- 
 pose, that impressions, meant to be characteristic and permanent, 
 were then more easily communicated, and more indelibly stamped. 
 We need not, with Carove, have recourse to the hypothesis that the 
 black color of the negro was the mark set upon Cain, and that it was 
 continued after the Deluge in the family of Japhet, whom he sup- 
 poses to have married into that stock. t The admission of such a 
 hypothesis gains us but little, for we have still the color of the Ameri- 
 cans and Malays to account for. But it is much more simple to al- 
 low, that one individual, or one family, placed in favorable circum- 
 stances, may have given rise to peculiarities, which, in consequence 
 of intermarriages, and the continued operation of the same circum- 
 stances, may have become enduring. 
 
 But we too indulge here in conjecture. I am willing to own it ; 
 for though sufficient has been said, to prove that our science already 
 can refute all solid objection to the unity of race in the human spe- 
 cies, although the admitted facts which I have laid before you, may 
 show that there is no impossibility of one family having sprung up 
 from theother, yet we must own that the methods whereby nature 
 has proceeded, are yet a mystery ; so that the philosopher must be 
 content with conjecture, and honestly confess : 
 
 Ol'x oiS' uxQi^wg, tlxaaat, ds/jsv 7tu(jci.I 
 
 Nor can such conjecture be refused as rash and unwarrantable, so 
 long as the fact which they are directed to account for, is certain and 
 incontestable. 
 
 And I will conclude the evidence upon this subject, by once 
 more recapitulating the connexions of the different races, and the 
 insensible shades whereby they seem to blend one into another. 
 
 * Acosta, " Historia natural y moral de las Indias," Barcelona, 
 1591, fol. 180. 
 
 f •' Kosmorama, eine Reihe von Studien zur orientirung in Natur," 
 etc. Frank/. ]8fil, p, 65. He does indeed suppose them to be of a 
 mixed race, between the Sethites, represented by Sliem, and the Cain- 
 ites, continued in Japhet. 
 
 t " Eurip. Rhes." Act. ii. 280. 
 
148 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 The white race, which of course I consider the central one, con- 
 nects itself with the Mongul through the Finns and Asjachs, who 
 have its complexion, hair, and iris ; likewise through the Tartars, 
 who insensibly pass through the Kirghis and Yakuts into the Mongul 
 race ; and thirdly, through the Hindoos, who communicate with us 
 through the Sanskrit language. With the negro race it is connected 
 through the Abyssinians, who have a Semitic language and Europe- 
 an features, and through the Arabs of Suakin, who resemble the 
 Noubas; then come the natives of Mahass, then the Foulahs and 
 Mandingos, and so forward to the Congoese, the complete negroes, 
 and the Hottentots. These last are again closely allied to the moun- 
 taineers of Madagascar, they to those of Cochin-China, the Moluccas, 
 and Philippine islands, in all which are a race of black woolly-headed 
 mountaineers, differing in language from the other natives. These 
 again join the New Hollanders, and the natives of New Caledonia 
 and the New Hebrides, who are further connected by similarity of 
 customs, religion, and partly by physical traits, with the New Zeal- 
 anders, and other natives of Polynesia, and so in fading tints, till we 
 almost return to the Asiatic families. 
 
 The population of these islands deserves a more particular atten- 
 tion. I have observed, that through the innumerable islands of 
 Polynesia, there are two distinct tribes or families. Forster, in* fact, 
 proves this point incontestably. While the inhabitants of Tahiti, and 
 New Zealand, the Marquesas, Friendly, and Society Islands, speak 
 but dialects of the same language, as is proved by his comparative 
 tables, those of the New Hebrides, especially Mallicollo, New^^^Cale- 
 donia, and Tanna, speak barbarous dialects, quite distinct, and, to 
 all appearance, unconnected. Their physical characteristics are 
 likewise very different, approaching, as I have intimated, to the ne- 
 groes of the more western islands. But what I wish principally to 
 remark is, how the tribes belonging to the first race, the unity of 
 which no one will deny, have varied, on one side, in form and com- 
 plexion, to such an immense extent, and how those of the other have 
 likewise departed so much from their original type, that the two have 
 blended together, so as to be hardly distinguishable, excepting by 
 their languages. " Each of the above two races," says Dr. Forster, 
 " is again divided into several varieties, which form the gradations 
 towards the other race ; so that we find some of the first race almost 
 as black and slender as some of the second ; and in this second race 
 
14Q 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 
 
 are Bome strong athletic figures, which may almost vie with the first."* 
 Thus in the same race, while some are hardly distinguishable from 
 a negro tribe, allied through inseparable links to the negroes of 
 Africa, others depart so far from it, as to approximate m symmetry 
 of form in the body and skull, as well as in color, to the natives of 
 Europe. And in these gradations we trace a corresponding scale oi 
 civilization " The natives of some of the islands in the South feea, 
 says Mr. Lawrence, speaking of the form of the skull, " are hardly 
 to be distinguished, in countenance and head, from Europeans. 
 And again : " The inhabitants of these islands, from New Zealand 
 on the west to Easter island, contain a race of much better organiza- 
 tion and qualities. In color and features, many of them approach to 
 the Caucasian variety ; while they are surpassed by none in^symme- 
 try size and strength."! Dr. Prichard reasons very forcibly upon 
 this gradation within the race or family. " If," says he, " we view 
 these races (the Papuan and Polynesian) together, they appear to 
 furnish sufficient proof, that the utmost physical diversities presented 
 by the human frame in different nations, may and do arise from a 
 uniform stock. They enable us to produce actual facts, as examples 
 of this deviation. We cannot indeed go back all the steps at once, 
 but we can go the whole of the way by degrees. If a few of the fair- 
 est New Hollanders were separated from the community, and placed 
 on an island by themselves, they would form a race of lighter color 
 than the New Zealanders. Under favorable circumstances, would 
 not this stock deviate into still lighter shades, as the race of New 
 Zealand, or its kindred in the Society Isles has done V't I must not j 
 pass over the singular custom prevalent, not only throughout these t, 
 islands, but among the Hottentots in Afi-ica, the Guaranos of Para- ^ 
 guay, and the Californians in America— that of amputating the little : 
 finger of one or both hands, in token of mourning for the death ; 
 of a relation ,§ a custom so singular, that we can hardly conceive it 
 to have sprung up spontaneously in such distant parts. 
 
 The existence of such gradations, almost from one extreme to the 
 other in the same race, is not peculiar to these tribes. The Malays 
 
 *« Observations, etc." p. 228. See the comparative table, p. 284. 
 There are severalimportant coincidences, however, between the dialects 
 of the two families, as well as of both with Malay. 
 
 f " Lectures on Physiology," pp. 382, 57L 
 
 I Vol. i. p. 488. 
 
 § Forster (G.) " Voyage round the world," vol. i. p. 435. 
 
150 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 exhibit a similar variety. " The complexion ;" says Mr. Crawfurd, 
 " is generally brown, but varies a little in different tribes. Neither 
 climate nor the habits of the people seem to have any thing to do 
 with it. The fairest races are generally towards the west, but some 
 of them, as the Batteeks of Sumatra, upon the very Equator. The 
 Javanese, who live most comfortably, are among the darkest people 
 of the Archipelago ; the wretched Dayaks or cannibals of Borneo 
 among the fairest."* This difficulty of accounting for such diversi- 
 ties is rather favorable than opposed to the consequences we have 
 been drawing ; for the fact being thus established, that in a race ac- 
 knowledged to be one, such varieties have sprung up, the difficulties 
 of tracing them to a uniform cause, only show that there are agencies 
 which we have not yet discovered, or a complication of causes whose 
 elements we have not yet mixed in the prescribed proportions, so as 
 to understand its action. And the more we extend the potency of 
 nature, beyond our comprehension, the more easily we justify the pro- 
 duction of inexplicable phenomena. 
 
 In the family to which we belong, the same series of modifications 
 exists ; we have therein varieties which, if not so strongly marked, 
 appear just as indelible ; yet no one would maintain that each sprung 
 from an independent stock. The Jew is at this day perfectly distin- 
 guishable from the Europeans that surround him, though West and 
 other eminent artists have found it impossible to characterize him by 
 any particular distinctive traits.t The Gypsies I may here likewise 
 mention, as an instance of a tribe, which, proved by its language to 
 be of Indian origin, has lost much of its original configuration, and 
 particularly the olive color of its country, by living in other climates. 
 But, the Germanic tribes may yet be distinguished by feature from 
 the Greeks, and these again from 
 
 " The Celtic race 
 
 Of different language, fonn and face, 
 A various race of man," 
 
 as their own northern bard has somewhere called them. It is in 
 vain for these subdivisions to blend by every civil and moral union ; 
 they will continue, like the united waters of the Rhone and Saone, 
 to flow together in one stream, but with distinguishable currents. 
 
 * "History of the Indian Archipelago," vol. p. 19. 
 f See "Camper, Dissert, physique," p. 21. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAK. 151 
 
 Thus are even the smallest varieties once produced, never again 
 obliterated; and yet not therefore are they marks of independent 
 origin Even families may transmit them, and the Imperial house 
 of Hapsbur<T has its characteristic feature. And whence arises this 
 indelibility.'by natural processes, of varieties by natural processes 
 introduced '' This should seem to be one of the mysteries of nature, 
 that we may on anything compel her to place her signet; but we 
 know not how again to force it off. Man, like the magician s half- 
 skilled scholar, so beautifully described by the German poet, posses- 
 ses often the spell whereby to compel her to work, but has not yet 
 learnt that which may oblige her to desist. 
 
 The country and city where we now are, suggests an application 
 of what we have just discussed, to researches both useful and amus- 
 ina Dr Edwards, in a French work, on the Physiological Charac- 
 ters of the Human Races, considered in their relation to History, 
 has given a very interesting hint for the prosecution of this study.* 
 He was struck, at some market in the south of France, by observing 
 two distinct characters in the heads of the country people, each re- 
 ferable to an individual type ; and he paid particular attention to the 
 prevalence of either, in his tour through Italy, and every where ob- 
 served the one to predominate over the other. The one he consider- 
 ed the Gaulish type, the other the Roman. As the model of the for- 
 mer he proposes the features of Dante, too well known to all my 
 hearers to require any description. I am sure no one can pay atten- 
 tion to the countenance prevalent in different parts of Italy, without 
 noticing how often this form recurs in Tuscany and in Upper Italy, 
 while in Rome and the southern provinces it is of very rare occur- 
 rence He gives, however, no type of the Roman face and head. 
 To find this, we must not allow ourselves to be led away by popular 
 representations. There are some quarters of Rome where the des- 
 cendants of the ancient inhabitants are supposed yet to remam ; and 
 travellers have often written, that the countenance of the population 
 beyond the Tiber exactly resembles that of the Roman soldiers, upon 
 the column ofTrajan, and other ancient monuments. 
 
 Supposing these to be sufficiently distinct, or sufficient y well 
 copied, to allow the making of such a comparison, I should say it 
 was one of the worst criterions possible. For, a slight acquaintance 
 with Roman art will satisfy any one, that, on historical monuments, 
 
 * Paris, 1829. 
 
152 LECTURK THK FOURTH. 
 
 where no portrait is intended, all the figures are formed upon the 
 Grecian model, and can give no clue towards ascertaining the physi- 
 ognomy of the ancient inhabitants. But look at the sarcophagi on 
 which the busts of the deceased are carved in relief, or raised from 
 their reclining statues on the lid, or even examine the series of im- 
 perial busts in the Capitol, and you cannot fail to discover a striking 
 type, essentially the same, from the wreathed image of Scipio's tomb, 
 to Trajan or Vespasian, consisting in a large and flat head, a low 
 and wide forehead, a face, in childhood, heavy and round, later, 
 broad and square, a short and thick neck, and a stout and broad 
 figure ; a type totally at variance with what we find generally con- 
 sidered as the Roman countenance. Nor need we go far to find 
 their descendants ; they are to be met every day in the streets, 
 principally among the burgesses or middle class, the most invariable 
 portion of every population. The contrast between the true features 
 of the Romans, and their ideal type in art, is no where, perhaps, so 
 clearly observable as in the sculptures of Titus's arch. The vari- 
 ous soldiers represented on each side, are so exactly like one another, 
 that, were they not sculptured in stone, we might suppose them to 
 have been all cast in one mould. The entire profile, particularly in 
 the half-open mouth and lips, shows the existence of a rule or model, 
 from which the artist might not depart. But with these the emperor 
 in his chariot contrasts in the strongest manner : his whole shape is 
 formed on another type, and though the features are quite effaced, 
 sufficient remains of the outline to show the full heavy face and bulky 
 head of a true Roman. 
 
 These remarks may lead us to great caution, in judging of 
 characteristic forms, from works belonging to the higher departments 
 of art. No nation long possesses the art of representation, without 
 forming to itself an ideal, abstractive type ; and the caution to be 
 used should, necessarily, be doubled, where the arts and their types 
 were borrowed. Even the Egyptians had their ideal beauty, as well 
 as the Greeks ; and Champollion, to the horror of pure classical 
 artists, used to descant in raptures on the elegance of feature and 
 form in some Egyptian statues. And he must have seemed right to 
 those, who would consider them as the perfection of those principles 
 which guided the genius of one people, necessarily keeping within 
 the national type of living forms, and led to one of the earliest mani- 
 festations of art. It was by not sufficiently attending to these con- 
 siderations, that Blumenbach, as I observed in my last lecture, im- 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 153 
 
 agined, that in Egypt there must have been different races of men ; 
 whereas the solitary specimens he brings of various physiognomies, 
 only seem to mark the difference between a ruder and more ideal 
 period of style. On another occasion, he seems to fall into a similar 
 error. The heads on the Athenian tetradrachmas have nothing in 
 common, according to him, with works of the age of Pericles, and 
 approach in features to the Egyptian model.* But if, on the other 
 hand, we compare them with the /Egina marbles,t we shall discover 
 a striking similarity of character ; they have all the leer, or laughing 
 expression, so peculiar to those early works. Yet will no one sus- 
 pect them of being anything but purely Grecian. Indeed, far as 
 they are removed from the perfect works of a later period, they show 
 how soon a uniform rule or model is introduced into art, and becomes 
 its necessary principle. Cockerell has remarked that, in the vEgina 
 marbles," a canon of proportion, and a system of anatomical expres- 
 sion, are observable throughout :"4: and Thiersch has approved of 
 Wagner's observation, that though art in other respects improved, 
 and every grace of form was introduced into that school, the counte- 
 nances remained unchanged. § And so, in fact, not only in the 
 school of vEgina, but in every other Grecian school, from the hasty 
 etchings on the Grecian, or, as they are called, Etruscan vases, to 
 the sculptures of the Parthenon, there is manifestly one rule or ideal 
 principal of the beautiful, which never can be mistaken ; and there 
 can be no doubt but that the abstract form was derived from the 
 national features, of which it may be considered the purified repre- 
 sentation. And thus, in some respects, where art is indigenous and 
 national, it may be indirectly of use towards representing to us, even 
 in its heroic or mythological figures, the character of the people. 
 
 * Specimen Historise naturalis antiqiife artis operibus illustratas, 
 Gottlng. \SOS,]}. 11. 
 
 f Tlie collection of statues which adorned the Temple of Jupiter 
 Panhelienius, in the island of ^Egina ; and whicii, having been restored * 
 in a most masterly manner by Tliorwaidsen, at Rome, form the princi- j 
 pal ornament of the splendid Glypiotlieca at Munich. / 
 
 J In the " Jonrnal of Science and the Arts," vol. vi. 1819, p. 338. 
 
 § "Von der Minerva an bis zum letzten der Kriegern sehen sich 
 alle iihnlicli, und scheinen insge.^anmit leililiclie Brlider und Scliwestern 
 zu seyn, oline den geiingsten Ansdnick von Leidenschnft. Zwischen 
 Siegern iind liesiegten, zwi.schen Gottheit mid Menscldieit, ist nicht 
 i\ev geringste Untersohied zu benjerken." — Ueber die E])ochen der 
 bildenden Kunst nnter den Griechen, 2e Abhandlung, Munich, 1819, 
 p. 59. 
 
 20 
 
154 LECTURE THE FOURTH. 
 
 And, having wandered thus lar, step by step, from the subject of 
 our inquiry, allow me to proceed a little further, in pursuit of a moral 
 application which these remarks have suggested, and which may 
 perchance lead us back once more unto our theme. As no nation or 
 race of men could ever have gone out of their own physical character- 
 istics for their type of ideal perfection, in the beauty of form ; as the 
 Egyptian never could, by any abstraction, have generated a style of 
 art, in which the color, shape, and features, of his divinity should be 
 purely European ; nor the Greek have given to his hero the tawny 
 hue, narrow eyes, and protruding lips of the Egyptian — for each to 
 the other must have seemed deformity — so could neither they, nor 
 the men of any other nation, have framed to themselves an ideal type 
 or canon of moral perfection in character, which arose not from what, 
 to them, seemed most beautiful and perfect. A Hindoo cannot con- 
 ceive his Brahmin saint, other than as possessing in perfection the 
 abstemiousness, the silence, the austerity, and the minute exact- 
 ness in every trifling duty, which he admires, in different degrees, in 
 his living models. Plato's Socrates, the perfection of the philosophi- 
 cal character, is composed of elements perfectly Greek, being a com- 
 pound of all those virtues which the doctrines of his school deemed 
 necessary to adorn a sage. 
 
 Now this has often appeared to me the strongest internal proof 
 of a superior authority stamped upon the Gospel history, that the holy 
 and perfect character it portrays, not only differs from, but expressly 
 opposes, every type of moral perfection which they who wrote it could 
 possibly have conceived. We have, in the writings of the Rabbins, 
 ample materials wherewith to construct the model of a perfect Jew- 
 ish teacher ; we have the sayings and the actions of Hillel and Ga- 
 maliel, and Rabbi Samuel, all perhaps in great part imaginary, but 
 all bearing the impress of national ideas, all formed upon one rule of 
 imaginary perfection. Yet nothing can be more widely apart, than 
 their thoughts, and principles, and actions, and character, and those 
 of our Redeemer. Lovers of wrangling controversy, proposers of 
 captious paradoxes, jealous upholders of their nation's exclusive 
 privileges, zealous uncompromising sticklers for the least comma of 
 the law, and most sophistical departers from its spirit, such mostly 
 are these great men, — the exact counterpart and reflection of those 
 scribes and pharisees, who are so uncompromisingly reproved, as the 
 very contradiction of Gospel principles. 
 
 How comes it that men, not even learned, rontrivcd to represent 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 155 
 
 a character every way departing from their natural type, — at vari- 
 ance with all those features which custom, and education, and patri- 
 otism, and religion, and nature, seemed to have consecrated as of all 
 most beautiful ? And the ditficulty of considering such a character 
 the invention of man, as some have impiously imagined, is still fur- 
 ther increased, by observing how writers, recording different facts, as 
 St. Matthew and St. John, do lead us, nevertheless, to the same 
 representation and conception. Yet herein methinks we have a key 
 to the solution of every difficulty. For, if two artists were comman- 
 ded to produce a form embodying their ideas of perfect beauty ; and 
 both e.xhibited figures, equally shaped upon types and models most 
 different from all ever before seen in their country, and, at the same 
 time, each perfectly resembling the other, I am sure such a fact, if 
 recorded, would appear almost incredible, except on the supposition 
 that both had copied the same original. 
 
 Such, then, must be the case hero : the Evangelists, too, must 
 have copied the living model which they represent, and the accord- 
 ance of the moral features which they give him, can only proceed 
 from the accuracy with which they have respectively drawn them. 
 But this only increases our mysterious wonder. For, assuredly he 
 was not as the rest of men, who could thus separate himself in char- 
 acter from whatever was held most perfect and most admirable by all 
 who surrounded him, and by all who had taught him ; who, while he 
 set himself far above all national ideas of moral perfection, yet bor- 
 rowed nothing from Greek, or Indian, or Egyptian, or Roman ; who 
 while he thus had nothing in common with any known standard of 
 character, any established law of perfection, should seem to every 
 one the type of his peculiarly beloved excellence."* And truly, when 
 we see how he can have been followed by the Greek, though a foun- 
 der of none among his sects, — revered by the Brahmin, though 
 preached unto him by men of the fisherman's caste, — worshipped by 
 the red man of Canada, though belonging to the hated pale race, — 
 we cannot but consider him as destined to break down all distinction 
 of color, and shape, and countenance, and habits ; to form in himself 
 the type of unity, to which are referable all the sons of Adam, and 
 give us, in the possibility of this moral convergence, the strongest 
 proof that the human species, however varied, is essentially one. 
 
 */littq>OQOi 8s q)V<T^ig (jooimv 
 
 zlicccpoQoi, 8s TQOTroig' 6 S'vQ&og 
 
 ' Ea&lov (Tftcpsq aUl. — Euripid. Iphigen. 559. 
 
LECTURE THE FIFTH 
 
 ON 
 
 THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Connexion of the Natural Sciences with the preceding topics. Medi- 
 cine. — Applied in Germany to the denial of oiir Saviour's resurrec- 
 tion. General remarks upon the utility of discussing such objections. 
 — The reality of our Redeemer's death, and consequently the truth 
 of his resurrection, vindicated by physicians, upon medical grounds: 
 Richter, Eschenbach, the Gruners. — Translation of an Arabic narra- 
 tive ofa crucifixion. 
 
 Geology. — Classification of systems. First, systems professedly framed 
 to defend Scripture. — Older theories of the earth : Penu, Fairholme, 
 Croly. — Defects of such systems. Secondly, systems opposed to 
 ScrijJture : Buffon, and other French writers. Thirdly, purely sci- 
 entific researches. — Example of objection from a particular case ; 
 Brydone on the lavas of Jaci Reale : confuted by the observations of 
 Smyth, Dolomieu, and Hamilton. — Points of contact between Geolo- 
 gy and the Sacred Narrative. The Creation. — Pre-existence of a 
 chaotic state ; doctrine of successive revolutions : found in all an- 
 cient cosmogonies, and in the Fathers of the Church. Fossils ; 
 early speculations regarding their origin: Cuvier's discoveries. — 
 Constancy and regularity of the cause em[)loyed in such revolutions. 
 Elie de Beaumont's theory of the elevation of mountains : its accord- 
 ance with Scripture. — Theory of the days of the creation being i)e- 
 riods. — Opinions of modern foreign geologists on the harmony be- 
 tween the Mosaic creation and geological observations. 
 
 " In all pursuits," says the amiable philosopher Pronto, " I think 
 it better to be wholly ignorant and unskilled, than half-learned and 
 half-expert. Philosophy, too, they say, it is better never to have 
 touched, than to have but partially tasted ; inasmuch as those be- 
 come most malicious, who pausing in the porch of science, turn away 
 
158 LECTURE THK FIFTH. 
 
 without proceeding furtlier."* Nothing has proved the accuracy of 
 these observations so well as the connexion between the natural sci- 
 ences and revealed religion. It has been the malice of superficial 
 men, who had not patience or courage to penetrate into the sanctua- 
 ry of nature, that has suggested objections from her laws, against 
 truths revealed. Had they boldly advanced, they would have dis- 
 covered, as in the cavern-temples of India and Idumea, that the 
 depths which serve to conceal her darkest mysteries, may the soonest 
 be changed into fittest places for profound adoration. 
 
 The natural sciences, of which we have now to treat, are usually 
 connected with religion, by forming the basis of what is called, " nat- 
 ural theology," that is, by giving strong demonstration of the wisdom 
 of God, in the works of creation, and thus showing the existence of a 
 regulating Providence in the construction and direction of the uni- 
 verse. The very character of the course of lectures which I have 
 undertaken to deliver, forbids me to enter upon the consideration of 
 this connexion : and, even if want of abundant materials for my de- 
 finite undertaking, had inclined me to wander into this ground, I 
 should have felt myself deterred by the detailed and interesting, as 
 well as learned and able manner, in which that branch of religious 
 science has of late been treated in the Bridgewater publications. If, 
 therefore, we confine ourselves, according to our engagement, to the 
 connexion between science and revealed religion, we shall find that 
 the study of which I last discoursed, may appear very naturally to 
 lead us into the consideration of the alliance if any exists, between 
 philosophical pursuits and the facts communicated in the inspired 
 pages. For we may truly say, that in attempting to establish the 
 unity of the human race, we found ourselves involved in a variety of 
 physiological speculations, and had to unravel the action of natural 
 causes upon the physical organization of man. This would seem to 
 conduct us into the department of medicine ; and, however strange 
 it may appear to you, it is through this study that I mean to lead you 
 into the natural sciences. 
 
 You will probably ask, what light the progress of medicine can 
 
 * "Omnium artium, ut ego arbitror, imperitum el indoctum esse 
 prsestat quam seniipcritura et seniidoctum. Philosophite quoque dis- 
 ciplinas ajunt satius esse nunquam attigisse quam leviter et prinioribiis 
 ut dicitur iabiis delibasse ; eosque provenire nialitiosissimos, qui in ves- 
 tibule artis observati, prius inde averterint quam intraverint."— Ad M. 
 Caes. lib. iv. ep. 3, Rovm, 1823, p. 94. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 159 
 
 throw upon the truths of religion. Not much, perhaps, if we con- 
 sider it as an aggregate of principles, varying in different schools, as 
 a succession of theories, most conflicting among themselves, and not 
 often referred to any illustration of sacred doctrines. But, in partic- 
 ular cases, in the examination of individual facts, where science has 
 been first invoked by the adversaries of revelation, a fuller and more 
 learned discussion, based exclusively upon scientific principles, has 
 done the work of confutation much more effectually, and much more 
 satisfactorily, than mere theology could have achieved it. I will se- 
 lect one example, in which superficial medical observation has been 
 applied lo the denial — and afterwards, more solid learning to the 
 complete vindication of an important portion of the Christian evi- 
 dences. 
 
 I must, however, premise some observations, which may apply to 
 other cases, in future lectures, as well as to the one in hand. Is it 
 useful, it may be asked, or is it wholesome, to bring before you ob- 
 jections against sacred and solemn truths, which have never been 
 proposed to you, and of which you, perhaps, are ignorant ? Would 
 it not be better to waive illustrations of my theme, that tend to make 
 you acquainted with irreligious discussions, or free-thinking asser- 
 tions, broached in foreign countries, but totally excluded from your 
 own? Were I addressing an illiterate assembly, or were these lec- 
 tures directed to the instruction of those who have not travelled — I 
 vvill not say, out of their own country, but — out of their own litera- 
 ture, I own I might be inclined to avoid the mooting of such danger- 
 ous inquiries. Or, were the rationalist philosophy of the Continent 
 of that seductive kind, which ensnares the dallying imagination, or 
 catches the unwary or casual inquirer, I should feel it a duty to close 
 rather than to open, any avenue, which could lead into its enchanted 
 gardens. But the case is far otherwise in both regards. For, in the 
 first place, all know in general, that many such strange opinions, and 
 fond objections have been made by the pretended philosophers of 
 France or Germany ; and any one, however superficially acquainted 
 with the history of literature in these two countries, during the last 
 fifty years, is familiar with the names of those who have labored in 
 the unholy work. Now, I apprehend that there is more danger in 
 the vague impression, that learned and able men have rejected Chris- 
 tianity, as irreconcilable with their scientific discoveries or medita- 
 tions, than in the particular examination of the grounds on which 
 they specifically based their rejection. An able critic has observed, 
 
160 LECTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 that it was a pity the writings of Julian the apostate were lost, as it 
 would have been interesting to see what so learned and ingenious a 
 man could object to Christianity. This species of conjecture, and of 
 longing regret, is a thousand times more mischievous than the works 
 themselves could possibly have been : for, from the specimens of Ju- 
 lian's reasoning, preserved by St. Cyril, it clearly appears that his objec- 
 tions must have been of the most flimsy description. Thus, then, when 
 I lay before you objections of free-thinkers, wherewith you were pre- 
 viously unacquainted, and, with them, the satisfactory answers where- 
 by they have been met, and repelled, I trust I shall be much dimin- 
 ishing, rather than increasing the uneasiness, which ill-defined and 
 shadowy apprehension of danger must often produce. Nor can I fear 
 that any one will be easily led, by what I shall say, to any danger- 
 ous prying into forbidden pursuits ; for the authors with whom I 
 shall mostly deal, are such as require a very determined scholar to 
 grapple with them, and a sterner motive, whether good or evil, than 
 curiosity, to ensure perseverance in their perusal. 
 
 Thus much premised, I return to observe, that the point to which 
 I alluded as attacked, by superficial inquirers, upon medical grounds 
 is no other than the truth of our Saviour's resurrection. You are 
 of course aware, that, as St. Paul holds this, for one of the principal 
 grounds of our faith, without which his preaching would be vain, so 
 have the enemies of Christianity, in ancient and modern times, left 
 no art untried to shake this foundation-stone of our belief Every 
 apparent contradiction in the narrative of the apostles has been eager- 
 ly seized upon to disprove it; but the most direct way in which it 
 has been attacked, of old, and in later ages, is by endeavoring to 
 throw doubts upon the reality of our Saviour's death. From the ear- 
 nestness with which St. John seems to dwell upon the last events of 
 his life, and the strong asseverations wherewith he declares himself 
 to have witnessed the piercing of his side,* it would clearly appear, 
 that, already in his time, this solemn and important event had been 
 called in question. I will not for a moment dwell on the coarse and 
 revolting blasphemies of some writers in the last century, who unfeel- 
 ingly and impiously charged our Blessed Redeemer with feigning 
 death upon the cross,t such monstrous impiety carries confutation in 
 
 * J<»l)ii 19:34, 35, coll. 1 John 5:8. See the Bisliop of Salisbury's 
 letter to the Rev. T. Beiiyon, 1829, p. 26. 
 
 t For a confiilation of this impiety, see Suskind's " Magaziu fiir 
 Christliches Dogmatik," 9 Heft. \>. 158. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 161 
 
 its own absurdity. But modern unbelievers who will not venture to 
 deny the virtue and holiness of Christ, while they reduce his miracles 
 to mere natural events, have chosen a more artful way of accounting 
 for his resurrection, by imagining, that upon medical grounds, he 
 could not have died upon the cross, but must have been taken down 
 while in a state of asphyxia or trance. Paulus, Damm, and others, 
 adopt this opinion, and support it by much specious reasoning. It is 
 certain, they say, that, according to the testimony of Josephus and 
 other ancient writers, persons crucified lived for three, or even nine 
 days upon the cross ; and hence we find that the two who shared our 
 Saviour's sentence were not dead at evening, and that Pilate would 
 not believe he could have so soon expired, without the centurion's 
 express testin)ony.* But, on the other hand, nothing is more proba- 
 ble than that fatigue, mental anguish, and loss of blood, should have 
 produced exhaustion, syncope or trance ; in which state our Blessed 
 Redeemer is placed at the disposal of his faithful friends, who medi- 
 cate his wounds with spices, and leave him to repose in a quiet and 
 well-sheltered sepulchral chamber. There he soon recovers from 
 the state of suspended animation, and returns to his friends. As to 
 the vigilance of his eager enemies, it is said that there are other in- 
 stances of that being eluded : as in St. Paul, who was left for dead ; 
 or St. Sebastian, who was cured by the Christians, after he had been 
 shot with arrows. The piercing of our Saviour's side with a lance is 
 got rid of, by saying that the verb used in the Greek (vvrxflv,) signi- 
 fies rather to prick, or superficially wound, than to pierce the body ! 
 And thus according to them, nothing occurs in the history of his 
 passion, to account for death. 
 
 Had theologians been left to themselves to answer this specious 
 and superficial reasoning, no doubt their own science would have 
 been fully equal to the task. They could have i)ointed out sufficient 
 errors in the statements, and an abundant liberty in the assumptions 
 of these writers, to confute them most satisfactorily. But it was 
 much more fitting that the very science which had been enlisted in 
 opposition to religion, should be brought in to throw off" from itself 
 the odious imputation, and take the charge of finally confuting the 
 objections pretended to be brought from its own principles. 
 
 Several eminent writers had occupied themselves with the physi- 
 
 * See Justius Lipsius, "De Cruce," lib. ii. c. 12. Josephus "Cent. 
 Apiun."p. 10;3I. 
 
 21 
 
16'3 LECTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 ology of our Saviour's passion, if we may so express ourselves, before 
 this method of attacking it had been resorted to ; such were 
 Scheuchzer, Mead, Barthoiinus, Vogler, Triller, Richter, and Es- 
 chenbach. But a much fuller and more scientific investigation has 
 been made by the two Gruners, father and son ; the latter of whom 
 first wrote under the direction and by the advice of ihe former. 
 These different authors have collected all that medical analogies 
 could furnish towards establishing the character of our Saviour's suf- 
 ferings, and the reality of his death. 
 
 They have shown that the torments of crucifixion in themselves 
 were fearful, not merely from the outward wounds inflicted, and from 
 the painful posture of the body, or even from the gangrene which 
 must have ensued from exposure to the sun or heat, but also from the 
 effects of this position upon the circulation, and other ordinary func- 
 tions of life. The pressure upon the main artery or aorta, must, ac- 
 cording to Richter, have impeded the free course of the blood ; and, 
 by disabling it from receiving all which was furnished by the left ven- 
 tricle of the heart, must have prevented the blood from the lungs be- 
 ing returned. By these circumstances, a congestion and effort must 
 have been produced in the right ventricle, " more intolerable than 
 any pain, and than death itself" " The pulmonary, and other veins 
 and arteries about the heart and chest," he adds, " by the abundance 
 of blood flowing thither, and there accumulating, must have added 
 frightful bodily suffering to the anguish of mind, produced by the 
 overpowering burthen of our sins."* But this general suffering must 
 have made a relative impression upon different individuals ; and, as 
 Charles Gruner well observes, the effect it produced upon two hardy 
 and hardened thieves, brought out fresh from prison, must naturally 
 have been very different from that on our Saviour, whose frame and 
 temperament were of a very opposite character ; who had been pre- 
 viously sufl'ering a night of tortures and restless fatigue ; who had 
 been wrestling with mental agony till one of the rarest phenomena 
 had been caused — a bloody sweat ; who must have felt to the most 
 acute degree of intensity all the mental aggravation of his punishment, 
 its shame and ignominy, and the distress of his holy mother, and few 
 faithful friends.t And to these he might have added other reflec- 
 
 * Georgii G. Richteri " Dissertationes Qiiatuor Medicee," Galling. 
 1775, p. 57. 
 
 t Caroli Frid. Gruncri " Cornrrieiitatio Aiuiqiifiria Medica do Jesu 
 Cbristi morte vera non simulaia" Hal's,, 1805, p[). 30 — 36. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 
 
 163 
 
 lions ; as that our Saviour was evidently weakened beyond other 
 persons in similar circumstances, seeing he was not strong enough 
 to carry his cross, as criminals led to execution were always able to 
 do; and, if the men whom we are answering suppose our Lord to 
 have only fallen into a trance from exhaustion, they have manifestly 
 no right to judge from other cases, for in them even this did not oc- 
 cur. The younger Gruner goes minutely into all the smallest cir- 
 cumstances of the passion, examining them as objects of medical ju- 
 risprudence, and particularly takes cognizance of the stroke inflicted 
 by the soldier's lance. He shows the great probability of the wound 
 having been inflicted on the left side, and from below, transversely 
 upwards ; he demonstrates that such a stroke, inflicted by the robust 
 arm of a Roman soldier, with a short lance, for the cross was not 
 raised much from the ground, must, in any hypothesis, have occa- 
 sioned a deadly wound.* Up to this moment, he supposes our Sa- 
 viour may have been still faintly alive ; because otherwise, the blood 
 would not have flowed, and because the loud cry which he uttered, 
 is a symptom of a syncope from too great a congestion of blood about 
 the heart. But this wound, which from the flowing of blood and wa- 
 ter he supposes to have been in the cavity of the chest, must, accord- 
 ing to him, have been necessarily fatal.t His father. Christian Gru- 
 ner, goes over the same ground, and answers, step by step, the addi- 
 tional objections of an anonymous impugner. He shows that the 
 words used by St. John, to express the wound inflicted by the lance, 
 are often used to denote a mortal one,$ he proves that, even s uppos- 
 
 * Pages 40—45. 
 
 + Page 37 Tirinus and other commentators, as well as many 
 physicians, Gruner Banholinus, Trilier, at.d Eschenbach suppose this 
 water to have been lymph from the pericardium. Vogler Phys.o- 
 logia Historic Passionis," Hdmst. 1693, p. 44, supposes it to have been 
 serum separated from the blood. But from the manner n. which St 
 John mentions this mvstical flow, and from the concurrent sentiment o 
 all antiquity, we musl admit sometliing more than a mere physical 
 event Richter observes, that the abundant gush of the blood and wa- 
 ter, «non ut in mortuis fieri solet, lentum et gruinosum, sed calentum 
 adhucetflexilem,tamquamex calentissimo misericordi^ fonte, must 
 be considered preternatural, and deeply symbolical, (p. 5^.) 
 
 t « VindiciEe Mortis Jesu Christi verse," Ibid. p. 77, seqq. A con- 
 sidetation not noticed by any of these authors, seems to rne to decide 
 the point of the depth of the wound, and place beyond doubt that it 
 could not be superficial, but must have entered the cavity Our Sa- 
 viour distinguishes the wounds in his hands from that of his side, by 
 
164 LECTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 iiig tlie death of Christ to have been in tlie first instance apparent, 
 the infliction of even a slight wound would have been fatal, because 
 in syncope or trance, arising from loss of blood, any venesection 
 would be considered such ;* and that in fine, so far from the spices 
 or unguents used in embalming, or the close chamber of the tomb, 
 being fitting restoratives to a person in a trance, they would be the 
 most secure instruments for converting apparent into real death, by 
 suffocation. t To which we may add Eschenbach's observation, that 
 there is no well recorded instance of syncope lasting more than one 
 day, whereas, here it must have lasted three ;| and also that, even 
 this period would not have been sufficient to restore to strength and 
 health, a frame v.'hich had undergone the shattering tortures of cruci- 
 fixion, and the enfeebling influence of syncope from loss of blood. 
 
 1 cannot omit, on this occasion, a case which may confirm some 
 of the foregoing observations ; the more so, because, never having 
 been translated into any European language, it is not likely to come 
 in the way of many readers, who take an interest in these investiga- 
 tions. I allude to an account of a crucified Mameluke, or Turkish 
 servant, published by Kosegarten from an Arabic manuscript, en- 
 titled The Mcadoiv of Flowers, and the Fragrant Odor. The narra- 
 tive, after quoting the authorities, as is usual in Arabic histories, pro- 
 ceeds as follows. "It is said that he had killed his master, for some 
 cause or other ; and he was crucified on the banks of the river Bara- 
 da, under the castle of Damascus, with his face turned towards the 
 east. His hands, arms, and feet Avere nailed, and he remained so, 
 from mid-day on Friday, to the same hour on Sunday, when he died. 
 He was remarkable for his strength and prowess ; he had been en- 
 gaged with his master in sacred war at Askalon, where he slew great 
 
 desiring Thomas to measure the former by his finger, and the latter by 
 the insertion of his hand. (John 20: 27.) This, tlierefore, must have 
 been of the breadth of two or three fingers, on the outside. But, for a 
 lance, which tapered very gently from tlie |)oint, to leave a scar or in- 
 cision on the flesh of such a breadth, at least four or five inches must 
 have jjenetrated into the l)ody, a supposition (|uite incoiiipaiilile with a 
 superficial or flesh-wound. Of course this reasoning is with those who 
 admit the entire history of the passion and subsequent appearance of 
 our Saviour, but deny his real death : and such are the adversaries of 
 the Gruners. 
 
 * Page Oil. 
 
 t Page 70. Charles Gruner, p. 38. 
 
 X Scripta Medico-biblica," Rosloch, 177l>, p. \2'S. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 165 
 
 numbers of Franks ; and when very young he had killed a lion. 
 Several extraordinary things occurred at his being nailed, as that he 
 gave himself np without resistance to the cross, and withoutcomplaint 
 stretched out his hands, which were nailed, and after them his feet ; 
 he in the mean time looked on, and did not utter a groan, or change 
 his countenance or move his limbs." Thus we see a person in the 
 flower of his age, remarkable for his hardihood and strength, inured 
 to military fatigue, nay so strong, that we are told in another part of 
 the narrative that, " he moved his feet about, though nailed, till he 
 loosened the fastenings of the nails, so that, if they had not been well 
 secured in the wood, he would have drawn them out ;" and yet he 
 could not endure the suffering more than eight and forty hours. But 
 the most interesting circumstance in this narration, and the illustra- 
 tion of the scriptural narrative I had principally in view, is the fact, 
 not I believe mentioned by any ancient describer of this punishment, 
 — that the principal torture endured by this servant, was that of thirst, 
 precisely as is intimated in the Gospel history.* For the Arabic 
 narrator thus proceeds : — " I have heard this from one who witnessed 
 it — and he thus remained till he died, patient and silent, without 
 wailing, but looking around him to the right and to the left, upon the 
 people. But he begged for water, and none was given him ; and the 
 hearts of the people were melted with compassion for him, and with pity 
 on one of God's creatures, who, yet a boy, was suffering under so 
 grievous a trial. In the mean time the water was flowing around 
 him, and he gazed upon it, and longed for one drop of it ... . and 
 he complained of thirst all the first day, after which he was silent, 
 for God gave him strength. "t 
 
 What I have said may suffice to show, how our neighbors on the 
 Continent have directed their medical pursuits to the vindication and 
 illustration of the word of God. There are many other points well 
 worthy of similar attention, many which would well repay the study 
 of a learned physician, who should feel inclined to dedicate some 
 
 * John xix. 28. The very fact of drink being prepared proves this 
 circumstance. 
 
 f Kosegarten, " Chrestomathia Arabica," Lips. 1828, pp.63 — 65. 
 There is a little circumstance mentioned in the course of this narrative, 
 which may serve to illustrate wliat is related of Absalom's hair, 2 Sam. 
 J4: 26, observing that, according to one opinion, the weight is another 
 expression for the value. " He was the most beautiful of youdis, and 
 most fair of countenance, and had the longest hair, the value of which 
 was some thousands of dirhems." (j). 65.) 
 
166 LECTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 portion of his abilities and experience to the defence or ornament of 
 religion. I will notice one which seems to me to invite such study, 
 as I know I have the honor to reckon among my audience more than 
 one fully competent for the undertaking. The subject to which I 
 allude is the attempt made by Eichhorn to explain the sudden blind- 
 ness of St. Paul, when going to Damascus, and his recovery through 
 the ministry of Ananias, by natural and medical considerations. He 
 has collected a number of medical cases, for the purpose of proving, 
 that it was no more than an amaurosis, caused by lightning, and 
 curable by means of the simplest character, such as even the imposi- 
 tion of hands upon the head !* Of course this absurd, as well as 
 impious, hypothesis, may be met upon obvious grounds : as the very 
 circumstance recorded, that Ananias told Saul he was come to res- 
 tore his sight, proves that he trusted not to natural remedies; for, 
 granting that amaurosis may accidentally be cured by such simple 
 means, assuredly, the most skilful oculist would not venture to pre- 
 dict their efficacy, or rely upon their certainty. But at the same 
 time, it would be still more satisfactory to see this history vindicated, 
 as doubtless it may be, by the very science through which it has 
 been attacked ; and to have something written in confutation of 
 Eichhorn's denial of this miracle, of the same nature as we have seen 
 done in contradiction to the blasphemies of Schuster and Paulus. 
 
 It would not be difficult to establish links between the science I 
 have just treated of, and the one on which I next shall enter, that is, 
 Geology. Chemistry, for instance, which presents many analogies 
 to both, might furnish us several interesting applications. But I pass 
 them over, both because they are probably better known, and be- 
 cause the abundance of materials lying before us, will not allow us 
 time for less important topics. I hasten, therefore, forward, to as 
 rapid a view as I can give, of the connexion between Geology and 
 Sacred History. 
 
 Geology may truly be called the science of nature's antiquities. 
 Fresh and young as this power may look to us, and ever vigorous in 
 all her operations, — free from all symptoms of decay as her beauty 
 and energy may appear, — yet has she too her olden times, her early 
 days of rude contention and arduous strivings, and then, her epochs 
 of calmer subsidence, and gentler rule. And the legends of all these 
 she has written upon monuments innumerable, scattered over the 
 
 * In his " Allgemeine Bibliothek," vol. iii. pp. 13, seqq. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 167 
 
 boundless tract of her supreme dominion, in characters which the 
 skill of man has learnt to decipher. She has her pyramids in those 
 mountain-cones of disputed formation, which rise in every continent, 
 — her mighty aqueducts in the majestic rivers which bestride, as it 
 were, large territories, — now sinking into the depths of earth — now 
 flowing in peaceful streams to the reservoirs of the vasty deep ; — her 
 landmarks and local monuments to note the times and places of her 
 victories over art, or of her defeats, by a stronger energy than her 
 own, — her cameos and sculptured gems, in the impressions, upon 
 stone-laminjB, of insects or plants : — and we have but even now dis- 
 covered her cemeteries, or columharia, in those curious caverns, 
 wherein the bones of early generations lie inured, yea embalmed, by 
 her preserving hand, with evidences and proofs of when they lived, 
 and how they died. And even beyond those times, we may go back 
 to her Cyclopean monuments, her fabulous ages of 
 
 "Gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire," 
 
 when the huge saurians and megalheria, disported in giant propor- 
 tions over sea and land, and find, to our astonishment, all that a 
 night-mare fancy might have dreamt of their shapes, recorded in sure 
 representations upon unerring monuments. 
 
 Of all sciences, none has been more given up to the devices of 
 man's heart and imagination than geology ; none has afforded ampler 
 scope for ideal theories, and brittle, though brilliant, systems, con- 
 structed for the most conflicting purposes. In enumerating the vari- 
 ous theories of the earth, as they are called, which have been framed 
 during the last two centuries, we may conveniently divide them into 
 three classes. 
 
 The first should embrace those who assumed the Mosaic cos- 
 mogony or creation, and the deluge, as demonstrated points, and 
 conducted their studies primarily with a view of reconciling actual 
 appearances with these events. In the earlier works of this, as of 
 every other class, there is, naturally, more of imagination and inge- 
 nuity, than of solidity or research. The older theorists hardly deserve 
 to be dwelt upon ; Burnet and Woodward, and Whiston and Hooke, 
 and many others, may deserve praise for their zeal in the cause of 
 religion, but can receive but little for real services in its behalf. 
 Nothing was easier than to show how the world was first created, 
 and how it was destroyed by a deluge, when all the agents employed 
 were pure suppositions, or fictions of the author's imagination. Bur- 
 
168 LECTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 net supposed a brittle crust to have formed tlie earth's original sur- 
 face, and a change to have taken place, about the era of the deluge, 
 in the direction of its axis ; this imaginary change, which has been 
 sufficiently disproved by modern astronomers, freed the imprisoned 
 waters from their frail bondage, and made them overflow the earth. 
 Whiston was still more poetical. He supposed our earth to have 
 roamed, for ages, through space. 
 
 " A wandering mass of shapeless flame ; 
 A pathless comet ;" — Byron. 
 
 till, at the period of the Mosaic creation, its course was bridled in, 
 and it was reclaimed from its vagrant state, to begin the peaceful 
 revolutions of a planet. But then what occurred so soon to interrupt 
 it, in its orderly career, at the deluge ? Another comet is at hand, 
 let loose by almighty vengeance upon the wicked world ; 
 
 " Down an)ain 
 Into the void the outcast world descended, 
 Wheeling and thundering on : its troubled seas? 
 Were churned into a spray, and whizzing, flurred 
 Around it like a dew." — Hogg. 
 
 In this state it bore down upon our little globe, caught it up in its 
 watery atmosphere, and at once drowned and demolished it. 
 
 Truly, theories such as these, which caused Voltaire, in his scof- 
 fing mood, to say that " philosophers put themselves, without cere- 
 mony, in the place of God, and destroy, and renew the world after 
 their own fashion," materially hurt, instead of assisting, the cause of 
 religion. For De la Beche has observed, that, when a river grows 
 impetuous in its course, and threatens an inundation, they are the 
 bridges which men have thrown over it, that they may pass it in 
 safety, or the drains they have constructed to turn it into useful pur- 
 poses, which give its waters a dangerous accumulation, and, by op- 
 posing a frail bar, impart to them, when this is broken, a more fear- 
 ful rush ;* and so may we here say, that the artificial means thus 
 taken, to pass unhurt over what were deemed the dangers of this 
 study, and to apply it to profitable ends, did rather give those dan- 
 gers a greater power : and, as Dr. Knight observes, when they were 
 
 * " A Geological Manual," 3d edit. 1833, p. 65. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 
 
 169 
 
 overthrown by the advance of science, seemed to entuJl some dis- 
 grace upon the subjects they pretended to illustrate.* 
 
 I am unwilling to say any thing of living authors, where blame 
 must almost seem to be cast upon labors directed by a zealous love of 
 religion, and for the most disinterested purposes. But I am sure 
 that the cause of religion is no way served by crude theories, or the 
 rejection of facts repeatedly demonstrated. I shall have to allude, 
 though very briefly, to the warm attacks made by Mr. Granville Penn 
 upon Dr. Bucklund's discoveries and observations regarding the 
 antediluvian remains of bone-caverns ; it is impossible not to be 
 struck with the manner in which he seizes hold of secondary or 
 inconsiderable circumstances and inferences, and denies, through 
 them, the more general and important results. Mr. Fairholme fol- 
 lows much the same process : for instance, before observations had 
 been well collated, .some geologists had considered the mastodon a 
 native exclusively of America ; the discovery of its bones in Europe 
 is enough, according to him, to overthrow the whole systera of fossil 
 animals. t If we reason that there are extinct species of animals, 
 because the huge bones of the saurians, or the capricious skeletons 
 of the ptcrodactyli have no parallel in the known modern world, all 
 this is inconclusive ; because we have not yet explored all the rivers 
 in the interior of Africa, and consequently know not but these ani- 
 mals may exist in their vicinity 1% 
 
 But while upon this theme, and while alluding to authors, who 
 reject all geological facts and principles, and then pretend to recon- 
 cile geology with the Mosaic history ; who severely reprove geologists 
 for framing any theory in their science, and then fashion to them- 
 selves two, one of geology, and another of the inspired narrative ; I 
 cannot pass over one writer, who perhaps, of all others the most 
 visionary, partly by declamation, more by di,stortion, chiefly by per- 
 
 * " Facts and Observations towards forming a New Theory of the 
 Earth." Edinh. 1819, p. 262. See, also, Conybeare and Phillips's " Out- 
 line of the Geology of England." Lond. 1822, p. xlix. And the "Cor- 
 respondence particiillere entre M. le Dr. Teller et J. A. De. Luc." 
 Hanov. 1803, p. 161. 
 
 f "We know that, in America, the remains of both the 31astodon 
 and Mammoth are constantly disrovered on the same soils. This cir- 
 cumstance would, of itself, be sufficient to destroy the whole theory of 
 geologists, who confine the Mastodon to America." A general View 
 of the Geology of Scripture, Lond. 1833, p. 368. 
 
 I p. 366. 
 
 22 
 
170 I.KCTURi: THE FIFTH. 
 
 versity of reasoning, attacks this study as essentially anlichristian, 
 and consigns all foreign geologists, at least, to the anathema of true 
 believers. 1 allude to Dr. Croly's " Divine Providence," a book 
 which seems to assume, that Christianity was undemonstrated, till the 
 author discovered the marvellous parallelism between Abel and the 
 Waldenses, Enoch and the Bible, (" the two witnesses in sackcloth !") 
 Constantine and Moses, the relics of the Apostles and the two gold- 
 en calves, Ezra and Luther, Nehemiah and the Elector of Saxony.* 
 Surely, one so visionary, and one, moreover, who had been sufficient- 
 ly courageous to add another baseless theory to the shivered frag- 
 ments of preceding apocalyptic interpretations, should have paused 
 before he scoffed at a science because of the many systems imagined 
 by its cultivators. To detail the various inaccuracies, philological 
 and physical, in the declamations of this vvriter.t — to expose the 
 false views which he gives of the tendencies of geology, especially on 
 the Continent^ — to confute, particularly, the unjust and unjustifi- 
 able criticism he passes on the views and reasonings of the learned 
 
 * "Divine Providence ; or, the Three Cycles of Revelation," Lond. 
 1834. Compare the preface with these strange comparisons, pp. 549, 
 571, 581, etc. 
 
 f For instance, p. 95, after Granville Peim, Dr. Croly denies that 
 the days of creation can mean any thing but tlie space of twenty-four 
 hours; because, among other reasons, the Hebrew word QV 3/0/71, 
 comes from the verb yanin fferbidl.) There is no such a verb in He- 
 brew, (consult Winer's Lexicon, p. 406 ;) neither if there were, could 
 it be root to the other. In Arabic, there is a cognate verb '^^^ icama, 
 
 (ferbuit dies,) "the day was hot ;" but surely the simple term day, could 
 in no language be derived from the idea of a hot day. To prove that 
 the word day could not syinholically signify a longer term, because 
 literally it means the period of ligfit, "the time between two sunsets," 
 is surely an error in logic : you tnight as well say that night cannot 
 mean death, because it signifies the time between sunset and sunrise. I 
 do not advocate the prolongation of tiie days to periods ; hut I think 
 it very wrong to call men iniidels for doinjj: so, when only such errone- 
 ous grounds are given to the contrary. The terms used to express the 
 sun's standing still, are just as literal and express as those used in the 
 history of creation ; yet no one hesitates to take them figuratively, be- 
 cause demonstrated laws of physic compel us to do so. 
 
 I Dr. Croly always atteets to si)eak against yb/-eig-/j geology: and 
 even in a note contrasts with it the conduct of the English Geological 
 Society, p. 108. And yet he must have known that all eminent Eng- 
 lish geologists concur in the opinions he so severely denounces, of 
 great revolutions prior to tlial of the fleluge. 
 
NATCRM. SCIENCES. 
 
 171 
 
 Dr. Bucklaiid, would require not much time, but more than the work 
 deserves. The charge of infidelity, whether against a large class of 
 men, or against particular writers, is easily made ; it resembles, m 
 our days, the vague outcry of treason or suspicion, which, in times of 
 commotion, will bring down, without examination, popular indigna- 
 tion or vengeance upon the most innocent ; and I know not if there 
 be a worse class of fe slander than that which endeavors to affix the 
 most odious of stigmas upon any one, who shall dare to think dif- 
 ferently from ourselves upon matters indifferent. 
 
 But if we feel inclined to speak severely of those who have been 
 builders of systems without foundations, but with correct motives at 
 least, we must not forget that another class too has been guilty of no 
 less, or rather of far greater extravagance, without even this ground 
 for extenuation of censure. 1 allude to those whose theories were 
 framed in direct opposition to the inspired records. The last centu- 
 ry produced many such in France ; and one in particular, which if 
 not intended, was at least conceived by too many admirers, to be m 
 conflict with the Mosaic narration. I mean Buffon's, who in his cel- 
 ebrated Epochs of Nature, published in 1774, repeated and illustra- 
 ted the Theory of the Earth, which he had produced twenty-six 
 years before.* All that brilliancy of imagination, charm of style, 
 and decision of tone, could do in favor of any theory, this one cer- 
 tainly possessed. " He came forward," says Howard, " no longer to 
 o-ive a bold conjecture on the formation and theory of the universe, 
 but with pretended proofs in hand, to evince not only the possibility, 
 but on most points, the necessary truth, of his former assertions. 
 This was no longer in the style of a man who offers his conjectures 
 to the world, but in the magisterial and dictatorial tone of one who is 
 perfectly sure of whatever he advances."! The basis of his theory 
 was, that the earth had originally been a ma.ss of fire, heated to an 
 almost incredible degree, and that it has been gradually cooling till 
 our own times ; so that at each appropriate stage in this process, it 
 produced the plants and animals suited to each degree of warmth. 
 It cannot be necessary to enter into any explanation of the dissen- 
 
 * Rousseau wan among those who placed Buffon's system in oppo- 
 sition to the scriptural account, and gave it the preference.— See De 
 Luc, " Discours Pr6liminaire," in his " Lettres sur I'Histoire Physique 
 de la Terre," Paris, 1798, p. ex. 
 
 f Howard's "Thoughts on the Structure of the Globe," London, 
 1797, p. 286. 
 
172 LECTURK THE FIFTH. 
 
 sion which now exists concerning the grounds of this theory ; that is 
 as to whether a process of gradual cooling is going on in the earth. 
 M. Arago contends, upon observation, that the exact accordance of 
 climate, so far as we can reason between ancient and modern times, 
 will not allow the admission of this supposition. And he argues from 
 elements which a French philosopher at the time of BuflTon would, I 
 think, have hardly ventured to use, without consenting to incur the 
 ridicule of being too credulous. For, with the books of Moses in his 
 hand, he shows that the seasons in Palestine correspond now exact- 
 ly to what they were in his time, as to order of succession and power 
 of production ; and he thence concludes that no alterations of cli- 
 mate can possibly have occurred.* To which reasoning, perhaps, 
 it might be objected, that a gradual change of climate, by degrees 
 almost imi)erceptible, except at long intervals, might produce a cor- 
 responding modification in the habits, if one may so speak, of plants 
 and vegetables. Connected with this subject, and bearing in an in- 
 teresting manner upon geological facts, is the question of central 
 heat, which has been treated with great mathematical accuracy and 
 learning by Fourrier and Poisson, the former maintaining the exist- 
 ence of a radiating heat in the interior of the earth ; the other, 
 while he admits the experimental facts, denying the conclusions. 
 But any discussion of this question would lead us too far from the 
 matter in hand. 
 
 From the time of Bnffon, system rose beside system, like the 
 moving pillars of the desert, advancing in threatening array; but 
 like them, they were fabrics of sand ; and, though in 1806 the French 
 Institute counted more than eighty such theories hostile to Scripture 
 history, not one of them has stood till now, or deserves to be re- 
 corded. 
 
 The third and most important class of geologists comprises those, 
 who, without positively constructing theories, have been content to 
 collect phenomena, and to classify and compare them. And geolo- 
 gy, in this its true sense, ows its origin and principal development to 
 Italy. Crocchi, in a preliminary discourse to his ConcJdologia fossile 
 subapennina, has done ample justice to his country, by describing a 
 series of geological writers, principally treating of fossils, such as no 
 other country can produce. It would be tedious to enumerate them; 
 though later I may have to allude to some of their amusing specula- 
 
 Aiinuaire du Bureau des Longitudes," for 1834. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 
 
 173 
 
 tions. Suffice it, for the present, to say, that throughout their works 
 there appears a fear of pushing their conclusions too far ; a sort of 
 lurking apprehension, that if bold consequences were drawn from 
 their opinions, they might be found at variance with more important 
 truths. Of this uneasiness, the writings of Moro.-Vallisnieri, and 
 Generelli, would furnish ample proofs. 
 
 It is not, however, to be understood, that in this class are to be 
 comprehended writers indifferent to the bearings of their science up- 
 on religion : on the contrary, in it are to be placed its most zealous 
 upholders, and those who have really served it most effectually, al- 
 though they hr.ve carefully refrained from constructing formal theo- 
 ries of the earth. Thus, De Luc, who through the course of a very 
 long life never lost sight of the Scripture narrative, has been a most 
 valuable collector and collator of facts. The researches of Dolomieu, 
 Cuvier, Buckland, and innumerable others, whose judgment you 
 shall hear in their proper places, have been conducted without any 
 spirit of system, and yet have proved most favorable to the cause of 
 truth. 
 
 While science is in the hands of men thus persuaded of the cer- 
 tainty of those great leading facts which are enrolled in the sacred 
 account of the world's early history, assuredly the writers, whom I 
 have quoted as hostile to this study, should have little cause to fear. 
 So long, indeed, as phenomena are simply recorded, and only the 
 natural and obvious consequences drawn from them, there can be no 
 fear that the results of the study may prove hostile to religion. How 
 much wiser was the counsel of Gamaliel, and how applicable to 
 those who impugned these pursuits : Refrain from these men and let 
 them alone ; for if the work be of men, it will fall to nothing ; but if of 
 God, ye are not able to destroy it."* If the representations they have 
 given of nature are the fictions of men, they cannot stand against the 
 progress of science ; if they truly picture the work of God, they must 
 be easily reconcileable with his revealed manifestations. 
 
 Before entering directly upon the greater conclusions of this science, 
 I will stop to notice an instance of one of those popular objections raised 
 upon a specious reasoning, from ill-observed facts, which, for a time, 
 was again and again repeated, and produced no inconsiderable im- 
 pression. Brydone, in his Tour in Sicily, wrote as follows : — " What 
 shall we say of a pit they sunk near to Jaci, of a great depth. They 
 
 * Acts 5:38,39. 
 
174 LFXTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 pierced through seven distinct lavas, one over the other, the surfaces 
 of which were ])arallel, and most of them covered with a thick bed of 
 fine rich earth. "Now," says he, (the canon Recupero,) " the erup- 
 tion that formed the lowest of these lavas, if we may be allowed to 
 reason from analogy," (that is, allowing two thousand years for a 
 stratum of lava to be covered with vegetable mould) " must have 
 flowed from the mountain at least fourteen thousand years ago. Re- 
 cupero tells me he is exceedingly embarrassed by these discoveries, 
 in writing the history of the mountain. That Moses hangs like a 
 dead weight upon him, and blunts his zeal for inquiry, for that really 
 he has not the conscience to make his mountain so young as that 
 prophet makes the world. What do you think of these sentiments 
 from a Roman Catholic divine? The bishop, who is strenuously or- 
 thodox, for it is an excellent see, has already warned him to be on 
 his cpuard, and not to pretend to be a better natural historian than 
 Moses ; nor to presume to urge any thing that may in the smallest 
 degree be deemed contradictory to his sacred authority."* 
 
 It is difficult to say where to begin in answering this absurd state- 
 ment, whether with the scientific or with the moral delinquencies it 
 heaps together. Some writers believed this story, and gave the canon 
 credit for profound experience and learning in this matter, and thus 
 were seduced bythe first class of errors; others, like Dr. Watson, while 
 they rejected the reasoning pursued, did not spare either the poor 
 ecclesiastic or his bishop, for their respective conduct.t Both 
 classes were equally wrong ; for, in the first place, it does not take 
 two thousand years, nor two hundred, to cover lava with what, to un- 
 skilful observers, will appear earth ; secondly, the strata of Jaci 
 Reale are not covered with vegetable mould ; thirdly the canon Re- 
 cupero never asserted what Brydone has put into his mouth, nor 
 drew any such consequences. 
 
 The first point has been placed beyond doubt, by a scientific ob- 
 server, who surveyed the coast of Sicily by order of the British gov- 
 ernment : — "■ The practice," says Capt. Smyth, " of estimating the 
 
 * "A tour through Sicily and Malta," London, 1773, vol, i. p. 131. 
 
 f "I will not add more upon this .subject, except that the bishop of 
 the dioce.se was not much out in his advice to Canon Recupero, to 
 take care not to make his mountain older than Moses; tiiough it would 
 have been fully as well to have shut his mouth with a reason, as to 
 have stopi)ed it with the dread of an ecclesiastical censure." — Two 
 Apologies, 1816, p. 156. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES, 175 
 
 ages of lava by the subsequent progress of vegetation is Ibunded on 
 a fallacious theory ; as that progress must depend on their local situ- 
 ation, their porosity, and their component parts. Nor is more de- 
 pendence to be placed on the alternate strata of lava and earth, as a 
 shower of ashes, assisted by filtration of rain, soon forms a stratum 
 of earth resembling argil. Some of the volcanic masses of the iEoli- 
 an islands, that have existed beyond the reach of history, are still 
 without a blade of verdure ; while others in various parts, of little 
 more than two hundred years date, bear spontaneous vegetation ; 
 and the same is seen on two lavas of ^Etna near each other ; for the 
 one of 1536 is still black and arid, while that of 1636 is covered with 
 oaks, fruit trees and vines."* Sir W. Hamilton has made the same 
 remark upon the lava currents which have passed over Herculaneum, 
 the period of whose destruction is so well known in history. " The 
 matter which covers the ancient town of Herculaneum," he says, " is 
 not the produce of one eruption only ; for there are evident marks 
 that the matter of six eruptions has taken its course over that which 
 lies immediately above the town, and was the cause of its destruction. 
 These strata are either of lava or burnt matter, with veins of good 
 soil betwixt them."f 
 
 The second and third points were sufficiently made good by Do- 
 lomieu, who vindicated the canon's character, while he established 
 by personal observation, that no vegetable mould whatever exists be- 
 tween the lava beds of Jaci Reale. These are his words : " The 
 canon Recupero deserves neither the praises which have been be- 
 stowed on his science, nor the doubts raised against his orthodoxy. 
 He died without any other annoyance than that inflicted on him by 
 Brydone's work. He could not understand for what end this stran- 
 ger, to whom he had been kind, should endeavor to excite suspicions 
 concerning the correctness of his belief. This simple man, who was 
 very religious, and sincerely attached to the faith of his fathers, was 
 far from admitting, as evidence against the book of Genesis, pretend- 
 ed facts which are false, but from which, even if true, nothing could 
 have been concluded. Vegetable earth, between the several beds of 
 lava, do not exist ; and the argillaceous earths which are sometimes 
 there, may have been placed there by means quite independent of 
 
 * "Memoir on Sicily and its Islands," London, J821, p. 164. See 
 also Knight, " Facts and Observations," p. 204. 
 I " Philosoj)hiral Transactions," vol. Ixi. p. 7. 
 
176 LECTUIIE THE FIFTH. 
 
 ^tna."* I will only add to this satisfactory confutation, from my 
 own personal knowledge, that Swinburne's statement is incorrect, 
 that Recupero was deprived of his benefice, and otherwise persecuted 
 in consequence of Brydoiie's statement. His character was too well 
 known at home to be injured by such calumny ; and in fact, after its 
 publication, he received a pension from the government, which he 
 enjoyed till his death. t You will further see, in its proper place, how, 
 even if vegetable mould did exist between many successive layers of 
 lava, no conclusion could thence be drawn in reference to the period 
 of the present order of things. 
 
 Still we cannot too harshly censure the cruelty of the slanderer, 
 who could thus requite kindness by a groundless aspersion, necessa- 
 rily tending to bring suspicion, if not even ruin, upon the person whom 
 he called his friend. And at the same time this may serve as an ex- 
 ample of the crude and ill-directed speculations to which a superficial 
 and unscientific observer may bring himself and others. 
 
 And after so long a preamble, come we now to see, in what way 
 the doctrines of geology bear upon the inspired records, and how far 
 the phenomena, observed by men upon whose accuracy we may rely, 
 are in accordance with their artless narrative. 
 
 The first point of contact between this study and the Mosaic 
 history, is the creation of the world. Dr. Sumner thus briefly enu- 
 merates the questions whereon the connexions between the two may 
 be discussed. " The account in Genesis may be briefly summed up 
 in these three articles : first, that God was the original Creator of all 
 things ; secondly, that at the formation of the globe we inhabit, the 
 whole of its materials were in a state of chaos and confusion ; and 
 thirdly, that at a period not exceeding 5,000 years ago, (5,400) — 
 whether we adopt the Hebrew or Septuagint chronology is immateri- 
 al — the whole earth underwent a mighty catastrophe, in which it 
 was completely inundated, by the immediate agency of the Deity. "| 
 
 Some writers have attempted to read the days of creation step by 
 step in the present appearances of the world, and to give a history of 
 each successive production, from light to man, as recorded upon the 
 face of the globe. All this, however laudable in its object, is not 
 certainly satisfactory in its results. The first portion of my task, 
 
 * "Memoire sur les isles Ponces," Paris, 1788, p. 471. 
 t "Journal des Savans," 1788, p. 457. 
 I " Records of Creation," vol. 2, p. 344. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 177 
 
 therefore, shall be rather negative than positive, — an attempt to show 
 you that the startling discoveries of modern science no ways clash, 
 or stand at variance, with the Mosaic narrative. 
 
 And in the first place, the modern geologist must, and gladly 
 will, acknowledge the accuracy of the statement, that after all things 
 were made, the earth must have been in a state of chaotic confusion ; 
 in other words, that theelements, which later were to combine in the 
 present arrangement of the globe, must have been totally disturbed, 
 and probably in a state of conflicting action. What the duration of 
 this anarchy was, what peculiar features it presented, whether it was 
 one course of unmodified disorder, or was interrupted by intervals of 
 peace and quiet, of vegetable and animal existence, the Scripture has 
 concealed from our knowledge : while it has said nothing to dis- 
 courage such investigation, as may lead us to any specific hypothesis 
 regarding it. Nay, it would seem as though that indefinite period 
 had been purposely mentioned, to leave scope for the meditation and 
 the imagination of man. The words of the text do not merely ex- 
 press a momentary pause between the first fiat of creation, and the 
 production of light ; for the participial form of the verb, whereby the 
 Spirit of God, the creative energy, is represented as brooding over 
 the abyss, and communicating to it the productive virtue, naturally 
 expresses a continuous, not a passing action. The very order ob- 
 served in the six days' creation, which has reference to the present 
 disposition of things, seems to show that divine power loved to mani- 
 fest itself by gradual developments, ascending as it were, by a meas- 
 ured scale from the inanimate to the organized, from the insensible to 
 the instinctive, from the irrational to man. And what repugnance is 
 there in the supposition, that, from the first creation of the rude em- 
 bryo of this beautifid world, to the dressing out thereof with its come- 
 liness and furniture, proportioned to the wants and habits of man, it 
 may have also chosen to keep a similar ratio and scale, through 
 which life should have progressively advanced to perfection, both in 
 its inward power, and in its outward instruments. If the appearan- 
 ces discovered by geology shall manifest the existence of any such 
 plan, who will venture to say that it agrees not, by strictest analogy, 
 with the ways of God, in the physical and moral rule of this world? 
 Or who will assert that it clashes with His sacred word, seeing that 
 in this indefinite period, wherein this work of gradual development is 
 placed, we are left entirely in the dark. Unless indeed, with one 
 now enjoying high ecclesiastical preferment, we suppose allusion 
 
 23 
 
178 LECTURE THE TIFTH. 
 
 made to such primeval revolutions, that is destructions and reproduc- 
 tions, in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes ;* or with others we take 
 the passages wherein worlds are said to have been created in their 
 most literal sense. t 
 
 It is indeed singular that all ancient cosmogonies should conspire 
 to suggest the same idea, and preserve the tradition of an early series 
 of successive revolutions, whereby the world was destroyed and re- 
 newed. The institutes of Menu, the Indian work most closely 
 agreeing with the scripture narrative of the creation, says : " There 
 are creations also and destructions of worlds innumerable ; the su- 
 premely exalted Being performs all this with as much ease as if in 
 sport, again and again, for the sake of conferring happiness. "| The 
 Birmese have similar traditions ; and a scheme of their various des- 
 tructions of the world by fire and water, may be seen in the interest- 
 ing work of Sangermono, translated by my friend Dr. Tandy. § The 
 Egyptians, too, have by their great cycle, or Sothic period, recorded 
 a similar opinion. 
 
 But I think it much more important and interesting to observe, 
 how the early fathers of the Christian Church should seem to have 
 entertained precisely similar views ; for St. Gregory Nazianzen, after 
 St. Justin Martyr, supposes an indefinite period between the creation 
 and the first ordering of all things.|l St. Basil, St. Csesarius, and 
 Origen, are much more explicit ; for they account for the creation of 
 light prior to that of the sun, by supposing this luminary to have in- 
 deed before existed, yet so as that its rays were prevented, by the 
 dense chaotic atmosphere, from penetrating to the earth; this was on 
 the first day so far rarified as to allow the transmission of the sun's 
 rays, though not the discernment of its disk, which was fully display- 
 ed on the third day.^ This hypothesis Boubee adopts as highly con- 
 
 * " Ricerclie sulla Geologia," Rovereto, 1824, p. 63. 
 f Ileh. 1: 2. In like manner one of llie titles of God in the Koran 
 'S, (.v./.^.5\.J?Jf lJ ) — '^'^ Lord of the worlds. — Sura i. 
 
 I Institutes of Hindu Law," Lond. 1825, chap. i. No. 80, p. 13, comp. 
 No. 57, 74, ore. 
 
 § "A Dt'scn[)tion of the Birrnese Empire," printed for the Oriental 
 Translation Fund, Rome, 1833, p. 29. 
 
 II Orat. 2. torn. i. j). 51, ed. Bened. 
 
 H "St. Basil Hexfemer," horn. 2. Paris, 1G18, p. 23. " St. Csesarius, 
 Dial. i. Bihlioth. Pat. Gallandi," Fen, 1770, torn. vi. p. •'^7. "Origen 
 Periarch," lib. 4. c. ](>, ton), i. j). 174, ed. Beuea, 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 1'*' 
 
 formable to the theory of central heat, and the consequent solution of 
 substances in the atmosphere ; which would gradually be precipitated 
 as the dissolving medium cooled.* Nay, if Dr. Croly is so indignant 
 at some geologists, for considering the days of creation indehnite 
 periods, because according to its etymology the word used signifies 
 "the time between two sunsets," what will he say to Origen, who, 
 in the passage I have alluded to,eyxlaims; " who that has sense can 
 think that the first, second, and third days were without sun, or 
 moon, or stars?" Assuredly the time between two sunsets would 
 exist most anomalously without a sun. 
 
 In making these remarks, I am not guided by a personal predi- 
 lection for any system. I have no claim to be called a geologist ; I 
 have studied the science more in its history than in its practical 
 principles; rather to watch its bearings upon more sacred researches, 
 than from any hope of personally applying it. I will just now give 
 you another method, whereby some able geologists think they prove 
 the beautiful accordance of this study with Scripture. I do not pre- 
 tend—it would be presumption in me to pretend— to judge between 
 the two, or pronounce upon the reasons which each may advance 
 But I am anxious to show that there is sufficient room, without 
 trenchincT upon sacred ground, for all that modern geology thinks it 
 has a right to demand. I am anxious,-and I trust the authorities I 
 iust now crave will secure that point,-to show, that what has been 
 claimed or postulated by it, nas oeen accorded of old by ornaments 
 and lights of early Christianity, who assuredly would not have sacri- 
 ficed one tittle of scriptural truth. 
 
 But what, you will ask me, renders it necessary, or expedient, 
 thus to suppose some intermediate period, between the act of creation, 
 and the subsequent ordering of things, as they now exist ? According 
 to my plan, it is my duty to explain this point, and I will endeavor to 
 do so with all possible brevity and simplicity. Within, comparatively 
 a few years, a new and most important element has been introduced 
 into geolocrical observation-the discovery and comparison oi fossil 
 remains. °Every one of my hearers is doubtless aware, that, in many 
 parts of the world, enormous bones have been found, which used to 
 be considered those of the elephant-the mammoth as it was called, 
 from a Siberian word, designating a fabulous subterraneous animal 
 Besides these and similar remains, vast accumulations of shdls^a^ 
 
 * Geologie 'Elementaire a lapoit^e de tout le Monde," Paris, 1833, 
 p. 37. 
 
180 LECTURE THK FII'TH. 
 
 impressions of fishes in stones, as at Monte Bolca, have been at all 
 times discovered, in every countr}'. All these used formerly to be 
 referred to the delu;^e, and quoted as evidence that the waters had 
 covered tiie entire globe, and extinguished terrestrial life, as well as 
 deposited marine productions upon the dry land. But perhaps you 
 will hardly believe rne u'hen I say, that, for many years, the fiercest 
 controversy vvas carried on in thi^ country (Italy) upon the question, 
 whether these sliells were real shells, and had once contained fish, or 
 were only natural productions, formed by, what was called, the 
 'plastic power of nature,' imitating real forms. Agricola, followed 
 by the sagacious Andrea Mattioli, affirmed, that a certain fat matter, 
 set in fermentation by heat, produced these fossil shapes.* Mercati, 
 in 1574, stoutly maintained, that tlie fossil shells collected in the 
 Vatican, by Sixtus V, were mere stones, which had received their 
 configuration from the influence of celestial bodies ;t and the cele- 
 brated physician Falloppio asserted, that they were formed, wherever 
 found, by, " the tumultuary movements of terrestrial exhalations." 
 Nay, this learned author was so adverse to all idea of deposits, as 
 boldly to maintain, that the potsherds, which form the singular 
 mound, known to you all under the name of Monte Testaceo, were 
 natural productions, sports of nature to mock the works of man. J 
 Such were the straits, to which these zealous and able men found 
 themselves reduced, to account for the phenomena they had observed. 
 As a more accurate attention was paid to the order, and to the 
 strata, in which the remainsof animals were found, it was perceived, 
 that there was a certain ratio existing between the two. It vvas, 
 moreover, observed, that many of these remains lie entombed in 
 situations which the action of the deluge, however violent and ex- 
 tensive, could never have reached. For, we must suppose this action 
 
 * "Agricola sognavii in (rertrianin, rhe allu forniazione di questi 
 corpi fosse concorsa nou .so qual iiiatci ia pingiie, inessa in fermento da! 
 calore. .Andrea Mattioli addotio in Italia i. medesimi proi.'iiidizii." — 
 Brocclii, Couchiologia Fossile Subaijeniiiiiu, torn. i. Milan, 18J4, p. 5. 
 
 f " Egli iiieira clie If; coiieliiglie Iripidefatte sieno vere <;<)nrliigiie; e 
 (iopo un lunghissin)o discorso, sidla materia e ^;^liia forma sostaiiziale, 
 coiicliiude clie sono pietre in cotal giiisa configuraie dall, influenza dei 
 corpi celesti." //;. p. 8. 
 
 J " Concepisce piu faciiinente die le cliiocciole ini|)ietrite siaiio 
 Slate generate sul liiogo, dalla fermentazioiK;, o pure, die abbiano ac- 
 quisiato quelle fortna, mediante il niovimento vorlicoso dolle esalazioni 
 terrestri." [). 6. 
 
NATURAi. SCIf:NCES. 
 
 181 
 
 to have been exercised upon the surface of the earth, and to have 
 left signs of a disturbing and destructive agency ; whereas, these re- 
 mains were found below the strata which form the outermost rind of 
 the earth's crust; and this reposed over them with all the symptoms 
 of a gradual and quiet deposit. Again, if we consider these two ob- 
 servations in unison, supposing the whole to have been deposited by 
 the deluge, we should expect to find them mixed in complete con- 
 fusion : whereas, we discover that the lower strata, for instance, ex- 
 hibit peculiar classes of fossils; then, those which are superimposed, 
 are again pretty uniform in their contents, though, in many cases, 
 they differ from their inferior deposits, and so forward to the surface. 
 Which symmetry of deposition through each range, while it is dis- 
 similar to the preceding one, supposes a succession of actions exer- 
 cised upon varied materials, and not one convulsive and violent catas- 
 trophe. But this conclusion seems put out of doubt, by the still more 
 unexpected discovery, that, while in moveable beds, or wherever the 
 deluge can be supposed to have left its traces, we find the bones of 
 animals belonging to existing genera ; among the more deeply-seat- 
 ed fossils such are never discovered. On the contrary, their skele- 
 tons give us a representation of monsters, whether considered in their 
 dimensions or their forms, such as have not even analogous species 
 now existing, and should seem to have been incompatible with the 
 coexistence of the human race- 
 
 This latter consideration deserves some illustration, because it 
 will introduce such as have not paid attention to this science, to some 
 knowledge of its recent discoveries. They may, perhaps, wonder 
 how, from a few fractured bones, any judgment can be formed of the 
 animals to which they belonged. Some years ago the problem 
 would have appeared absurd, — to reconstruct an animal from one of 
 his bones ; and yet we may truly say, that it has been most fully 
 solved. It may be, perhaps, unnecessary to observe, that so perfect 
 is the individuality of each species of animals, that every bone, almost 
 every tooth, is sufficiently characteristic to determine its shape. 
 The careful study of these varieties, and the analogous results to 
 which it always leads, were the basis on which the lamented Cuvier 
 rested his extraordinary construction of this new science. The hab- 
 its or characters of animals, as I once before had occasion to remark, 
 impress their peculiarities upon every portion of their frames: the 
 carnivorous animal is not merely so from its fangs and its claws ; 
 every muscle must be proportioned to the strength and agility re- 
 
182 LKCTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 quired for its metiiod of living, and every muscle grooves the bones 
 which it grasps, or under which it passes, with a corresponding cav- 
 ity. Nothing can be more curious than the convincing, though un- 
 expected analogies by which Cuvier confirms his theory ; for he 
 shows a constant, and ever proportioned relation between parts ap- 
 parently unconnected, such as the feet and the teeth. 
 
 When, however, he first commenced the application of his prin- 
 ciples of comparative anatomy to the broken remains of bones dug 
 up in the limestone quarries of Montmartre, he soon discovered that 
 they were referable to no species now inhabiting the globe. Yet 
 so sure were the scientific principles which guided him, that he easi- 
 ly apportioned the bones to different animals, according to their vari- 
 ous structure and size ; and he pronounced them to represent ani- 
 mals of the pachydermatous, or thick-skinned class, and most closely 
 allied to the tapir. He distinguished two genera, and discovered 
 even several subdivisions, and gave them their appropriate names. 
 The two genera he styled the palmotherium or ancient animal, and 
 the anaplotherium or unarmed, from the circumstance of the one be- 
 ing distinguished from the other by a want of tusks. His results 
 must not, however, be looked upon as mere conjectures : for when it 
 happened, after he had constructed from such analogy the skeleton 
 of any animal, that an entire skeleton, or any part not before pos- 
 sessed, was discovered, he was found to have been invariably right 
 in his suppositions, and in no case, I believe, was it found necessary 
 to modify his conjectural restoration.* 
 
 In some instances, indeed, naturalists have been sufficiently for- 
 tunate to discover the spoils of these extinct monsters in such com- 
 pleteness, as to dispense with the toilsome process I have explained. 
 Spain, for example, was early in possession of an almost complete 
 skeleton of the megatherium, as it is now called, sent over from Bue- 
 nos Ayres, in 1789, by the Marquis de Loreto ; it was reunited in 
 the cabinet of Madrid, and published in plates by Juan Bautista Bru. 
 Other fragments, indeed a considerable portion of the bones, of the 
 same animal, have been since brought over to England by Mr. Parish, 
 
 * See his principles in the " Extrait d'un ouvrage snr les esp^ces 
 de quadnipedes dent on a trouv6 les ossemens dans I'interieur de la 
 Terra," p. 4 ; in his "Discours preliminaire, Recherclies snr les osse- 
 mens fossiles," vol. i. p. 58. Published likewise separately. See also 
 vol. iii. p. 9, seqq. for the processes followed in the creation, as he calls 
 it, of the new genera. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 183 
 
 and presented by him to the Royal College of Surgeons ; and, fortu- 
 nately, they serve in a great measure to fill up the defective parts of 
 the Madrid specimen.* We have thus an animal, with the head and 
 shoulders of the sloth, yet with limbs and feet between the armadil- 
 lo's and the ant-eater's. But, at the same time, it must have equalled 
 the largest elephant in size, being thirteen feet long, and nine high. 
 
 Still more strange are the classes of animals allied to the saurian., 
 or lizard tribe ; the enormous dimensions, and almost chimerical 
 shapes, of some among which, would hardly have been conceived by 
 the imagination. The ?)iegaIosatfrits, as it has been justly named by 
 Dr. Buckland, was at least thirty feet long ; indeed, judging from a 
 specimen found in Tilgate Forest, in Sussex, it seems, after making 
 every reduction, to have attained the frightful length of sixty or sev- 
 enty feet.f The ichthyosaurus, or fish lizard, when discovered in 
 parts, presented such strange incongruities, that its limbs could hard- 
 ly be supposed to belong to the same animal. It was not till after 
 repeated discoveries, that Conybeare and De la Beche produced an 
 animal, with the head of a lizard, a fish's body, and four paddles in- 
 stead of legs. The size of some of these monsters must have been 
 enormous, as the specimens in the British Museum will satisfy any 
 observer. Still more fantastical is the formation of the plesiosaurus, 
 or, as it has been now more properly named, enaliosauriis, or sea-lizard, 
 which, to characteristics similar to the others, joins a neck longer 
 than that of any swan, at the extremity of which is a very small 
 head. I In fine, not to detain you upon such mere illustrations, an- 
 other far more extraordinary, and, I might almost say fabulous, ani- 
 mal, has been discovered, to which the name of ptcrodactylus has 
 been given by Cuvier, who first determined its character from a 
 drawing by Collini, and had the satisfaction of afterwards seeing his 
 decision confirmed by several specimens. This he pronounces to 
 have been the strangest animal of the ancient world ; for it had the 
 body of a reptile or lizard, with excessively long legs, manifestly 
 formed, like the bat's, to expand a membrane, by which it was ena- 
 
 * See a plate, showing the parts supplied by each, in the " Geologi- 
 cal Transactions," New Series, vol. iii. 1835, plate xliv. with a minute 
 description by Mr. Clift, p, 437. 
 
 t Ibid. vol. i. 1825, p. 391. 
 
 \ See "Geological Transactions," vol. i. pp. 43, 103. 
 
184 LECTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 bled to fly, a long beak, armed with sharp teeth ; and it must have 
 been covered, neither with hair nor feathers, but with scales.* 
 
 These examples, out of many, may be sufficient to show you, 
 that the species of animals found imbedded in limestone, or other 
 rocks, have no corresponding types in the present world ; and that, 
 if we consider them in contrast with the existing genera, which are 
 found in more superficial beds, we must conclude that they were not 
 destroyed by the same revolution, as swept the latter from the face of 
 the earth, to be renewed from the specimens preserved by God's 
 command. 
 
 Some naturalists have, in spite of the valuable use made, by our 
 geologists, of fossil remains, even in the comparison of mineralogical 
 strata, persisted in excluding them from geology, as foreign to the 
 science.! But it is impossible to shut our eyes to the new light 
 which these discoveries have shed upon its study, and, consequently, 
 to neglect considering the relation in which the science, thus en- 
 larged, stands to the scriptural account. So far, I think that, how- 
 ever negative our conclusion may appear, it is highly important ; for 
 the first step in the connexion of any science with revelation, after 
 it has passed through the tumultuary period of crude, conflicting the- 
 ory, is, that it gives no result adverse to revelation. And this is, in 
 fact, a positive confirmation. For, as I will more fully demonstrate 
 in my concluding lecture, the beautiful manner in which the scriptu- 
 ral narrative, subjected to the examination of the most different pur- 
 suits, defies their power therein to discover any error, forms, in the 
 aggregate of various examples, a strong positive proof of its unassail- 
 able veracity. Thus here, had the Scripture allowed no interval be- 
 tween creation and organization, but declared that they were simulta- 
 neous or closely consecutive acts, we should, perhaps, have stood 
 perplexed in the reconciliation between its assertions and modern 
 discoveries. But when, instead of this, it leaves an undecided inter- 
 val between the two, nay more, informs us that there was a state of 
 confusion and conflict, of waste and darkness, and a want of a pro- 
 per basin for the sea, which thus would cover first one part of the 
 
 * " Osseriiens Fossiles," vol. iv. p. 36 ; vol. v. part ii. p. 379. De la 
 Beclie, in "Geological Transactions," vol. iii. p. 217. 
 
 t As Dr. Mac Culioch, in his " System of Geology, with a Theory of 
 the earth," London, 1831, vol. 1. p. 430. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 185 
 
 earth, and then another; we may truly say, that the geologist reads 
 in those few lines the history of the earth, such as his monuments 
 have recorded it, — a series of disruptions, elevations and disloca- 
 tions ; sudden inroads of the unchained element, entombing succes- 
 sive generations of amphibious animals; calm, but unexpected sub- 
 sidences of the waters, embalming in their various beds their myri- 
 ads of aquatic inhabitants;* alternations of sea and land, and fresh- 
 water lakes ; an atmosphere obscured by dense carbonic vapor, 
 which, by gradual absorption in the waters, was cleared away, and 
 produced the pervading mass of calcareous formations ; till at length 
 came the last revolution preparatory for our creation, when the earth, 
 being now sufficiently broken for that beautiful diversity which God 
 intended to bestow on it, or to produce those landmarks and barriers 
 which his foreseeing counsels had designed, the work of ruin was 
 suspended, save for one more great scourge; and the earth remained in 
 that state of sullen and gloomy prostration, from which it was recalled 
 by the reproduction of light, and the subsequent work of the six days' 
 creation. 
 
 But I think we may well say, that even on this first point of our 
 geological investigation, science has gone further than I have stated. 
 For I think we are in a fair way to discover so beautiful a simplicity 
 of action in the causes which have produced the present form of the 
 earth, and, at the same time, such a manifest approach to the pro- 
 gressive method manifested in the known order of God's works, as to 
 confirm, if such a term may be used, all that he hath manifested in 
 his own sacred word. 
 
 For when I have spoken of successive revolutions, destructions 
 and reproductions, I have meant not a mere series of unconnected 
 changes, but the steady action of a single cause, producing most 
 complete variations, according to established laws. And this, I may 
 say, it is certainly the tendency of modern geology to establish. 
 I have before slightly touched on the subject of central heat, or the 
 existence of a principle of that power, in the interior of the earth ; 
 whether it arise from the former state of the globe, or from some oth- 
 er source, it matters not. That its action can be even now sufficient- 
 ly violent to effect revolutions on our earth, — great, if viewed in re- 
 ference to particular tracts, — in miniature, if compared to its prime- 
 
 * See this point beautifully treated by De la Beche, " Researches 
 into Theoretical Geoiogy," London, 1834, chap. xii. p. 242. 
 
 24 
 
186 
 
 LECTURK THE FIFTH. 
 
 val efforts, — must be known, from observation, to most of you who 
 have visited the scenes of volcanic action. There, islands have been 
 formed and swallowed up again, hills have been raised, the cones of 
 mountains broken down, the sea has altered its boundaries, and fruit- 
 ful fields have been changed into black tracts of desolation. Sup- 
 pose this power acting on a gigantic scale, not in one district, but 
 over the entire world, now bursting out on one side, and now on the 
 other ; the effects must have been convulsive to a frightful degree, 
 the disruptions must have been far more tremendous, and mountains 
 must have been heaved up instead of hills, like Monte Rosso, which 
 .^^tna raised in 1609, or the sea may have invaded large territories, 
 instead of small tracts of coast. 
 
 The observations of geologists go far towards proving the action 
 of some such power, in the manner which I have described : Leo- 
 pold von Buch, first proved that mountains, instead of being the most 
 immovable and firm portions of the earth's structure, and existing pre- 
 viously to the softer materials which repose on their sides, have, on the 
 contrary, been raised up through these, by an upheaving action from 
 below. M. Elie de Beaumont has carried this observation so much 
 further, as almost to be considered the founder of the theory. One 
 simple demonstration of it you will easily comprehend. If the vari- 
 ous strata on the side of a mountain, though necessarily precipita- 
 tions of a solution in water, instead of lying horizontally, as such 
 precipitations must do, and consequently cutting the mountain's 
 side at angles, thus, {a being the section of the mountain, and b 
 representing the surrounding strata,) 
 
 shall, on the contrary, lie parallel to its sides in this manner, 
 
 a 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 187 
 
 it is manifest that the mountain must have been thrust up through 
 the strata already deposited. M. de Beaumont, by comparing the 
 various strata thus perforated, as it were, by each chain of mountains, 
 with those which lie in horizontal order, as if deposited after its ele- 
 vation, endeavors to determine the period, in the series of primeval 
 revolutions, when each was upraised. And each of these systems of 
 mountains, as he calls them, produced, or accompanied some great 
 catastrophe, destructive to a certain extent, of the existing order of 
 things.* This system of the French geologists has been confirmed 
 and adopted by the scientific men of our own country. Professor 
 Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison remark upon the phenomena observa- 
 ble in the isle of Arran, that they seem to prove the great dislocations 
 of tiie secondary strata, to have been " produced by the elevation of 
 the granite ;" in which case, " the upheaving forces must have been 
 in action some time after the deposition and consolidation of the 
 new red sandstone."! But De la Beche is clearly of opinion that 
 these successive elevations, indicative of the convulsions which dis- 
 turbed the quiet action of sedimentary depositions, may be further 
 simplified, by reference to one cause, that is the power of a great 
 central heat, variously breaking the earth's crust, whether by the 
 progress of refrigeration, as he supposes,! or as the author of the 
 theory imagines, by volcanic action. 
 
 Now it seems to me that this theory, by its beautiful unity in cause 
 and action, is in perfect accordance with all we know of the methods \ 
 
 t)sed by divine Providence, which establishes a law and then leaves i j(^ ' 
 it to act ; so that the budding forth of mountain chains should be the 
 well-timed effect of causes, constant in rule, though irregular in ac- 
 tion ; just as much as the putting forth of the new germ is the yearly 
 consequence of the same action of heat, on the plant. But it seems, 
 moreover, in the most striking harmony with thee.xpress declarations 
 or explanations of the phenomena of creation recorded in God's 
 word. According to these we learn, that, to limit the ocean within 
 its bed, " the mountains ascend, and the vallies descend, into the 
 
 * " Revue Francaise," May 1830, p. 55. See also his MS commu- 
 niciitions to De la Beche, in his Manual, pp. 481 seqq. Carlo Gemmel- 
 laro informs us, that at the scientific meeting of Stuttgard, in 1834, he 
 read a paper proposing a modification of the Theory, and restricting the 
 elevation of mountain chains to small spaces. " Relazione sul di lui 
 viaggio a Stuttgaril." Catania, 1835, p. 12. 
 
 f Geolog. Trans, vol. iii. p. 34. t Researches, p. 39. 
 
188 rXCTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 place which God has founded for them. He has placed (them) as a 
 barrier which they (the waters) shall not pass, nor return to cover the 
 earth."* Again, the formation of mountains is spoken of as distinct 
 from that of the earth. " Before the mountains were brought forth, 
 or the earth was born."t Another remarkable passage seems 
 graphically to describe the effects of this consuming principle : " Fire 
 shall be kindled in my wrath, and it shall burn into the lowest abyss 
 (grave or hell ;) it shall eat the earth and its produce, and shall burn 
 up the foundations of the mountains."^ In which description, as in 
 most that extol either the glory or power, the munificence or the se- 
 verity, of the Supreme Being, the figures are most probably drawn 
 from his actual works ; as Bishop Lowth has abundantly demonstra- 
 ted. 
 
 But the discoveries of modern geologists have, as I have before 
 suggested, also established a progressive series in the production of 
 different races of animals, in evident accordance with the plan mani- 
 fested to us in the six days' creation. Indeed, this approximation 
 between the two has appeared to some so striking, as to lead them 
 to abandon the method I have explained, for reconciling the inspired 
 record and modern science, and induce them to maintain that the 
 two are in far more perfect accordance than I have hitherto asserted. 
 If you will not agree with them in their hypothesis, you will at least 
 have an opportunity of seeing that" foreign geology" has no desire to 
 destroy or controvert the Mosaic narrative. 
 
 Dr. Buckland truly observes, that learned men, upon grounds 
 quite distinct from geology, have maintained the days of creation to 
 signify long indefinite periods. § With the plausibility of this suppo- 
 sition I have nothing to do ; philologically or critically I perceive no 
 objection to it ; but I do not deem it absolutely required. Still, ad- 
 mitting the hypothesis before given, that all which modern science 
 demands is granted in the intermediate space between creation and 
 the present arrangement of the earth, some longer period may be re- 
 quired than a day, if we suppose the laws of nature to have been left 
 to their ordinary course ; for then, some longer interval would have 
 been requisite for the plants produced to be decked out as we must 
 suppose them, with flower and fruit, and grown to their complete 
 perfection, when man was placed among them. But it might please 
 
 * Ps. civ. 8, 9. t Ps. xc. 2. I Dent. xxxi. 22. 
 
 § "VindicisB Geologicoe," Ox/or J, ISm p. 3?. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 189 
 
 God to bring them forth at once, in all their grandeur and beauty, 
 from the first instant of their production. 
 
 Cuvier first remarked, that in the fossil animals of the primeval 
 world, there was a gradual development of organization ; inasmuch 
 as the lowest strata contained the most imperfect animals, molluscs, 
 and shell-fish ; after which come crocodiles, saurians, and fish ; last 
 of all, quadrupeds, beginning with the extinct species whereof I have 
 spoken.* Mr. Lyell, perhaps justly, denies the correctness of the 
 consequence often drawn from this result, that " there is a progres- 
 sive development of organic life, from the simplest to the most compli- 
 cated forms. "t inasmuch as the discovery of one fish, or the bones 
 of a saurian among the shells, is sufficient to derange the scale. But 
 this observation noways clashes with the view which I am going to 
 state : since every subsequent examination has, as far as I know, 
 tended to confirm this succession of animals. For instance, in the 
 very minute tabular arrangement given by Mr. Mantell, of the organ- 
 ic remains of Sussex, we find in the alluvial deposits, the stag, and 
 other such animals ; and in the diluvial, the horse, ox, and elephant; 
 after these, proceeding downwards, we have fish, and shells, and in 
 some formations, tortoises, and the different saurians I have before 
 described. The bones of, what he at first supposed to be a bird, 
 were discovered : but. Professor Buckland considers it most probable, 
 that they belonged to a pterodactylus, or flying lizard. J 
 
 Assuming these premises, the authors, to whom I have alluded, 
 suppose the days of creation to signify longer, and of course indefi- 
 nite, periods ; during which a certain order of animate beings ex- 
 isted ; and they observe that the disposition of organic remains in 
 strata, corresponds exactly to the order in which their respective 
 classes are, in the Scripture record, said to have been produced. An 
 anonymous writer, last year, published a comparative table of this 
 conformity, following, on the one hand, Humboldt's valuable work on 
 the superposition of rocks, and the acknowledged succession of or- 
 ganic fossils, on the other. In the lowest, primitive, or as they are 
 better called, unstratified rocks, as well as in the lowest order of the 
 stratified, we have no traces whatsoever of vegetable, or animal life ; 
 then we find plants mingled with fish, but more especially with shells 
 
 * Discours Prelim." p. 68. 
 
 t "Principles of Geology," vol. i. p. 145. 
 
 t " Geolog. Trans." vol. 3. pp. 200—216. Comp. Dr. Buckland, 
 p. 220. 
 
190 LECTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 and molluscs, as in the grauwacke group ; thus indicating that the 
 sea was the first to produce life, and bring forth its inhabitants ; 
 while the greater abundance of the inferior class, as shells, molluscs, 
 etc. seem to indicate their prior existence to the more perfect tenants 
 of the same element. Reptiles, or the monstrous creeping things, 
 before described, and connected with the occupiers of the air, through 
 the flying lizard, are the next that appear, and are no less justly clas- 
 sed by the inspired liistorian as marine productions. Now at length 
 the'earth produces life, and accordingly we next find the remains of 
 quadrupeds, of species however, in a great measure no longer exist- 
 ing. They are found only in the latest strata, superior to those 
 wherein the larger marine reptiles lie, such as the Paris fresh-water 
 formation. Then at last come moveable beds, in which, as at our 
 next meeting will be more fully shown, exist the remains of genera 
 now inhabiting the earth. With the remains of each class are found 
 sufficient marks, of their having been swept from existence, by some 
 great catastrophe.* 
 
 This hypothesis and attempt to place in harmony the Jewish 
 annalist with the modern philosopher, may appear to many deficient 
 in the precision, requisite to establish so minute a parallelism. At 
 any rate, it will serve to vindicate the cultivators of the science, from 
 the reproach of being unconcerned about the connexion their results 
 may have with more sacred authorities. And I will add moreover, 
 that many among those on the continent, so far from slighting the 
 truth of that record, on the contrary, express a deep veneration for it, 
 and their admiration of its wisdom, from seeing how their scientific 
 pursuits, do, in the manner I have rehearsed, appear to confirm it. 
 
 " We cannot too much remark," says Demerson, " this admirable 
 order, so exactly according with the soundest notions which form the 
 basis of positive Geology. What homage ought we not to render to 
 the inspired historian !"t " Here," exclaims Boubee, " we are met 
 by a reflection which cannot fail to strike us. Since a book, written 
 at the time when the natural sciences were so little advanced, con- 
 tains nevertheless, in a few lines, the summary of the most remarka- 
 ble consequences, at which it could not be possible to arrive other- 
 wise than by the immense progress made in the eighteenth and 
 
 * " Annales de Philosophie Chr6tienne," Aug. 1834, p. 132. 
 
 t "La G^ologie enseignde en 22 Icons, cue historic naturelle du 
 globe terrestre," Paris, 1829, p. 408, comp. p. 461. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 
 
 191 
 
 nineteenth centuries ; since these conclusions are connected with 
 facts, which were neither known nor even suspected at that time, nor 
 ever had been till our days, and which philosophers have ever con- 
 sidered contradictorily, and under erroneous points of view: since in 
 fine that book, so superior to its age in scientific knowledge, is equal- 
 ly superior to it in morals, and in natural philosophy, we are obliged 
 to admit that there is in that book something superior to man, some- 
 thing which he sees not, which he comprehends not, but which pres- 
 ses upon him irresistibly."* 
 
 Both the works which I have cited, are of a popular and elemen- 
 tary char:.cter, written designedly to instruct youth, and persons of 
 an inferior education, in the outlines of the science. And on this 
 account I quote them the more willingly ; because they serve to show, 
 . how the tendency of this study, on the continent, so far from being 
 towards infidelity, is rather towards the confirmation, and even 
 demonstration, of Christianity ; and how foreign geologists, instead 
 of directing their pupils to contemn the sacred books, as irreconcila- 
 ble with their new pursuits, do on the contrary strive to gain fresh 
 motives of respect and admiration towards them, from the result of 
 their researches. To the names already cited I might add many 
 others, as D'Aubuisson, Chaubard, Bertrand, whose work, recently 
 translated into English, has gone through six or seven editions in 
 France, and Margerin, the outline of whose course, in the program- 
 me ofthe Universite Catholique,t is eminently christian. 
 
 These observations, too, must be doubly gratifying, when we 
 consider the country whence they arise ; that which for years sup- 
 plied Europe with crude and ill-digested materials, for unreflecting 
 minds to object against religion. But to those who know the better 
 spirit which is now fermenting in the warm blood of many among its 
 youth, who are apprised of the genial ardor of true patriotism, which 
 cheers them on in the holy desire to blot that stain from their coun- 
 try's scutcheon, and to raise her as much by the new glory she shall 
 shed around the cause of religion, as she has been shamed by her 
 former enmity to it ; to those who are acquainted with the sacred 
 league tacitly existing among many, to devote their various and su- 
 perior accomplishments and abilities to the defence, the illustration, 
 and the triumph, of religion, under the secure guidance of the Church 
 
 • " G^ologie 6i6mentaire k la port6e de tout le monde," Paris, 1833, 
 p. 66. 
 
 t Paris, 1815, p. 57. 
 
192 LECTURE THE FIFTH. 
 
 which they obey ; to stich as know these things, the authorities I 
 have quoted are but small manifestationsof a widely extended feelino-, 
 mere leaves rising to the surface of the waters, to show the rich and 
 luxuriant growth of vegetation, which their depths enclose. 
 
 And surely it must be gratifying thus to see a science, formerly 
 classed, and not, perhaps, unjustly, among the most pernicious to 
 faith, once more become her handmaid ; to see her now, after so 
 many years of wandering from theory to theory, or rather, from vision 
 to vision, return once more to the home where she was born, and to 
 the altar at which she made her first simple offerings ; no longer, as 
 she first went forth, a wilful, dreamy, empty-handed child, but with 
 a matronly dignity, and a priest-like step, and a bosom full of well- 
 earned gifts, to pile upon its sacred hearth. For it was religion 
 which, as we saw at the commencement of this lecture, gave geology 
 birth, and to the sanctuary she hath once more returned. And how, 
 our next entertainment shall yet further declare. 
 
LECTURE THE SIXTH 
 
 ON 
 
 THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Second i)oint of contact between Geology and Scriptme- — the Deluge. 
 — 1. Geological proofs of the existence of a Deluge — denudation of 
 valleys ; erratic block group ; appearance of the Alps. — Huttoniau 
 theory. — Elie de Beaumont's application of his theory to the cause 
 of the Deluge. — Animal remains : entire animals found in tjje North : 
 Bone-caverns and osseous breccias. Objections. — 2. Unity of the 
 Deluge, proved by uniformity of effects. — 3. Date of the Deluge. 
 General impression produced from observation of facts. — Deluc's 
 system of chronometers. — Deltas of rivers; progress of dmies. Judg- 
 ment of Saussure, Dolomieu, and Cuvier. — Concluding remarks on 
 the natural sciences. 
 
 If we travel along some smooth and pleasant road, those objects 
 which immediately surround us, shall seem to us adverse to our 
 course, and moving in the opposite direction. And these are mostly 
 works of the hands of men, the hedge-rows perhaps which he hath 
 planted, or the cottages and houses which he hath built. But if we 
 cast our eyes beyond these, and gaze upon the handiwork of nature, 
 upon the huge mountains which engird the horizon, or the majestic 
 clouds which swim in the ocean of heaven, we shall see that they 
 travel with us on our way, and that their course is onward, even as 
 our own. And thus, methinks, it is with us in our pilgrimage 
 towards truth. Men have hedged us round with the plantings of 
 their own hands, or the devices of their own hearts ; and if we look 
 at these as we advance, we shall seem to be, as it were, in opposition 
 and contradiction to the realities of things. But raise we our sight 
 above and beyond these new and mortal creations, and when we 
 25 
 
194 LF.CTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 shall contemplate and interrogate nature herself, in her primeval and 
 enduring works, we shall find her, through them travelling on the 
 same road with us, and pointing towards the object of our desires. 
 
 Assuredly the science of geology hath already given you some 
 proof, that so long as men piled up systems, they hindered those who 
 would have gladly advanced towards the discovery of sacred truths ; 
 but that when the appearances of nature were fiiirly consulted, and 
 simply delivered, tliey manifestly led to the wished-for conclusions. 
 But descending now to the second point to which I before alluded, 
 as supposing a contact between sacred and profane researches, that 
 is the Deluge, I think you will find the usefulness of this science 
 much more plainly manifested. It is evident, that, if any traces of 
 former events can be met upon the earth, it needs must be, that the 
 last catastrophe which passed over its surface, has left the clearest 
 footmarks of its course. The short duration of the deluge, and the 
 convulsive nature of its destructive action, would allow no leisure for 
 the slow operation of successive deposits, but must have left traces 
 rather of a disturbing than of a shaping power, of removal, disloca- 
 tion, and transport, of a scooping and furrowing tendency, rather 
 than a formative and assimilating agency. We should expect to 
 trace its course now, as we follow in summer that of a winter torrent, 
 rather than, as we discover the bed of a dried up lake ; by the frag- 
 ments it tore from its banks, by the wearing action it exercised on 
 the mountain's flank, by the accumulation of loose materials, vvhere 
 its eddies were the strongest, perhaps by the fragments of more valu- 
 able spoil, by the remains of tho.se plants and animals, which, as it 
 burst over its ordinary limits, it swept from their natural haunts into 
 its gulf The universality of its action would produce such a uni- 
 formity in its effects, as would identify them through tracts placed at 
 a considerable distance from one another; so that the ocean torrent, 
 issuing from the opened flood-gates of the abyss, would mark its rav- 
 ages in a similar direction in the American and in the European 
 continent. It must be, doubtless, difficult to fix the era of such a 
 scourge over tracts, which many centuries of vegetation have covered 
 with their yearly tribute of decay ; which the hand of man has indus- 
 triously broken up, or otherwise altered ; which the wearing and de- 
 facing corrosion of time has smoothened and disguised ; and which 
 a series of minor and local catastrophes have, from time to time, ma- 
 terially deranged. Yet, in spite of all these altering causes, there 
 may be time-marks, either in the state of the ruins which the last devas- 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 195 
 
 tation left, or in the effects of progressive agencies, which can only 
 date from it, sufficient to guide us to, at least, a vague and approxi- 
 mating calculation of the epoch at which it occurred. 
 
 In examining the light which modern geology has cast upon 
 these three points, — the existence, the unity, and the date of a deluge, 
 or devastation of the world by water, I shall chieHy follow as my 
 text, the summary given in a kw lines by Dr. Buckland, at the con- 
 clusion of his Viml/ria; Geologiccc, and afterwards repeated in his 
 Reliquice Diliiviana* Indeed, it will be this work which I shall 
 have principally in my eye, in the compendious view I shall endeav- 
 or to present you, of what modern geology has decided, regarding 
 the physical evidences of this catastrophe. 
 
 The first phenomenon which, we may say, was justly observed 
 and proposed, as giving proof of a sudden and complete inunda- 
 tion, such as the deluge supposes, is that which is known in mod- 
 ern works, by the name of valleys* of denudation. Catcott, in his 
 work on the deluge, was the first to notice it ; but it has received 
 much more accurate attention since his time. By this term are un- 
 derstood — valleys inclosed between hills, the strata of which corres 
 pond exactly, so that the valley has evidently been scooped out from 
 their substance. To explain this by a familiar illustration ; if you 
 discovered, among the ruins of this city, fragments of wall, recurring 
 at intervals, and standing in the same line, and if, upon minuter ex- 
 amination, you ascertained that the different portions were built of 
 the same materials, in precisely the same order, so that, for instance, 
 rows of brick, travertine and tufo, succeeded one another at equal in- 
 tervals throughout, and with corresponding dimensions, assuredly 
 you would conclude that the different fragments had originally 
 formed one continuous wall, and that the breaches interposed were 
 the result of time or violence. Precisely the same lino of reasoning 
 must lead us to conclude, that the valleys, which have manifestly cut 
 the hills in two, have been excavated in them, by some agency equal 
 to the effects. Dr. Cuckland has been particularly successful in the 
 examination of this appearance, on the coast of Devon and Dorset, of 
 which he has given illustrative plates. From these, as well as from 
 his description, it appears that the entire coast is cut by valieys run- 
 ning towards the sea, dividing the strata of the hills, so that they tally 
 one with another. On the sides of these valleys there are accumula- 
 
 * " Vindicise," p. 30. " Reliquiae," Lond. 1823, p. 226. 
 
196 LECTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 tions of gravel, manifestly deposited on the slopes of the hills, and at 
 the bottom of the gorge, by the excavating cause. This cannot have 
 been any agent now in operation, for no river runs through many of 
 them ; and in the gravel thus deposited are found the remains of ani- 
 mals, such as would be destroyed by a sudden flood, in the present 
 order of creation.* Similar examples might be brought from the es- 
 says of other geologists. 
 
 To this class of proofs I may refer another singular appearance, 
 which seems attributable to the washing away, by water, of the sides 
 of mountains. I allude to those huge pinnacles of granite, or other 
 hard rock, which seem to stand detached and insulated from the 
 neighboring mountains. Mount Cervin, in the Vivarais, presents a 
 pyramid 3,000 feet high upon the loftiest Alps, and is thus comment- 
 ed upon by Saussure : — " However keen a partizan I am of crystali- 
 zation, it is impossible for me to believe that such an obelisk, is- 
 sued directly, from nature's hand, in this shape. The surrounding 
 matter has been broken oif and swept away ; for nothing is seen 
 around it but other pinnacles, springing, like it, abruptly out of the 
 the ground, with their sides, in like manner, abraded by violence." 
 At Greiffenstein, in Saxony, are a number of granitic prisms, stand- 
 ing upon a plain, and rising to the height of a hundred feet, and up- 
 wards. Each of these is again divided, by horizontal fissures, into 
 so many blocks ; and thus they present the idea of a great mass of 
 granite, the connecting parts of which have been violently torn 
 away.t 
 
 Another class of phenomena which gives the same results, may 
 be justly comprehended in the term proposed by De la Beche, the 
 erratic block group | Dr. Buckland had before proposed the distinc- 
 tion between alluvial and diluvial lormations ; understanding by the 
 former, those deposits which tides, or rivers, or other existing causes, 
 make in their ordinary action, and by the latter, those which seem 
 due to the agency of a more powerful cause, than any now at work, 
 — such as a vast and overwhelming inundation. The constituents of 
 this class may be reduced to two ; first deposits of sand or gravel, 
 where no water now acts, or could well have acted, in the present 
 
 * "ReliquitB," p. 247.—" Geoioir. Trans." vol. i. p. 96. 
 t Saussure, "Voyage dans les Alpes," to. iv. p. 414. lire, "New 
 System of Geology," Lojir/. 1829, p. J570. 
 I Poge 18 J. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 197 
 
 order of things ; and secondly those larger masses, varying from 
 some inches in diameter, to the weight of many tons, technically de- 
 nominated, bowlder stones. These, when small, are generally inter- 
 mixed with gravel ; but often they surprise us with their huge masses 
 standing insulated and alone, on the side of a mountain, so as to ver- 
 ify the beautiful description of the poet, — 
 
 "As a huge stone is sometimes seen to lie 
 Couched on the bald top of an eminence, 
 Wonder to all wlio do the same espy, 
 Bj' what means it could hither come, or whence ; 
 So that it seems a thing endued with sense, 
 Like a sea-beast crawled forth, that on a shelf 
 Of rock or sand reposetb, there to sun itself." — 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 De la Beche has paid particular attention to the circumstances in 
 which deposits of gravel occur, and shows them to be incompatible 
 with the theory, — that actual causes have produced them. Thus, 
 we often find that the strata have been btoken into what is called a 
 "fault," over which the transported gravel lies quiet and undisturbed, 
 thus showing, that a different action deposited it there, from that 
 which caused the fracture of the strata. In like manner, wherever 
 it has been possible to examine the ground under these deposits, we 
 find the rocks, however hard, scored in furrows, as if a vast current, 
 bearing heavy masses along, had passed over its surface. Upon these 
 facts he reasons thus : — " Our limits will not permit greater details, 
 which would require the necessary maps ; but it would go far to sup- 
 port the supposition, that masses of water had passed over the land. 
 Confining our attention to one district, it should be observed, that the 
 dislocations are far greater, and the faults, evidently produced at a 
 single fracture, far more considerable, than we can conceive possible 
 from modern earthquakes. It is not, therefore, unphilosophical to in- 
 fer, that a greater force, causing vibrations and fractures of the rocks, 
 w'ould throw a greater body of water into more violent movement, and 
 that the wave or waves, bursting upon the land, or acting upon the 
 bottom, at comparatively small depths, would have an elevation and 
 destructive sweeping .power, proportioned to the disturbing force 
 employed. 
 
 " The next question that will arise is, are there any other marks 
 of masses of water passing over the land ? To this it may be rC' 
 
198 LFXTURH THE SIXTH. 
 
 plied, that tlie forms of the valleys are gentle and rounded, and such 
 as no complication of meteoric causes, that ingenuity can imagine, 
 seems capable of producing : that numerous valleys occur on the 
 lines of faults, and that the detritus is dispersed in a way that cannot 
 be accounted for, by the present action of mere atmospheric waters."* 
 
 Dr. Buckland has minutely traced the course of quartzose pebbles, 
 from Warwickshire, to Oxfordshire and London, in such a manner 
 as to leave no doubt, that they have been carried down by a violent 
 rush of waters from north to south. For, when we first meet them, 
 in the neighborhood of Birmingham and Lichfield, they form enor- 
 mous beds, subordinate to the red sandstone. Thence they have 
 been swept downwards, chiefly along the valleys of the Evenlode and 
 Thames, mixed with fragments of rock existing in Yorkshire and 
 Lincolnshire, but nowhere iti situ near the places where the pebbles 
 are now found. The quantity decreases in proportion as we recede 
 from their original bed ; so that in Hyde Park, and the Kensington 
 gravel-pits, they are less abundant than at Oxford. But these trans- 
 ported pebbles, being found on the heights which line these valleys, 
 it would appear a natural conclusion, that the same cause which 
 brought them hither, also excavated the valleys: though according to 
 the learned professor's supposition, rather in its retreat than in its 
 first advance. The sufficiency of this one action to produce all the 
 ellects, affords surely a strong ground for adopting his hypothesis.! 
 
 De la Beche found on the top of Great Haldon liill, about 800 
 feet above the sea, pieces of rock, which must have been derived 
 from lower levels. "I there found," he adds, " pieces of red quart- 
 ziferous porphyry, compact red sand-stone, and a compact siliceous 
 rock, not uncommon in the grauwacke of the vicinity, where all 
 these rocks occur at lower levels than the summit of Haldon, and 
 where certainly they could not have been carried by rains or rivers, 
 unless the latter be supposed to delight in running up hill." Dr. 
 Buckland collected, in the county of Durham, within a kw miles of 
 Darlington, pebbles of more than twenty varieties of green-stone rock 
 and slate, which occur nowhere nearer than the lake district of 
 Cumberland ; and one block of granite in that town, cannot have 
 come from any nearer place than Shap, near Penrith. Similar 
 
 * P.igc 134. In tl)(! first edition, tho learned autlior is more explicit, 
 as lie uses tlie word, "deluge," where now he has, "masses of water," 
 in the beginning of the second paragraph. 
 
 t " Reliquiae, p. 249. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 199 
 
 blocks are found also on the elevated plain of Sedgfield, on the south- 
 east of Durham. The nearest point from which these blocks and 
 pebbles could have been derived, is the lake-district of Cumberland, 
 from which they are separated by the heights of Stainmoor ; and if it 
 be thought too great a difficulty to suppose them brought thence, the 
 only choice is to give them a Norwegian origin, and suppose them 
 transported from beyond the present sea. Mr. Conybeare has re- 
 marked, that it would not be difficult to collect almost a complete 
 geological series of English rocks, in the neighborhood of Market 
 Harborough, or in the valley of Shipston-on-Stour, from the rolled 
 fragments and bowlders which there occur. Professor Sedgwick has 
 observed that the bowlders accompanying the detritus, or gravel, in 
 Cumberland, must come from Dumfriesshire, and consequently have 
 crossed Solvvay Frith. Still more striking is the discovery of Mr. 
 Phillips, that the diluvium of Holderness, contains fragments of rocks, 
 not only from Durham, Cumberland, and the north of Yorkshire, but 
 even from Norway : and similar fragments of Norwegian rocks are 
 said to exist in the Shetland islands. The same vvriter gives a singu- 
 lar phenomenon of this sort. In the valley of the Wharf, the substra- 
 tum of slate is covered with a stratum of limestone, on the top of 
 which, 50 or 100 feet above, we find huge transported blocks of 
 slate in great abundance ; further on the scars, to an elevation of 150 
 feet, the blocks are still more numerous. They appear to have been 
 driven up, at a particular place, by a current, towards the north, and 
 afterwards carried along the surface of limestone."* So that here 
 we have a manifest deposition of limestone upon the slate, and then, 
 a violent transportation of blocks of this rock, over the surface of the 
 deposit. 
 
 On the Continent precisely the same appearances are ob.'jcrved. 
 In Sweden and in Russia large blocks occur, with every evidence of 
 their having been borne from north to south ; Count Rasouinousky 
 observes, that those between St. Petersburgh and Moscow, come from 
 Scandinavia, and are disposed in lines from N. E. to S. W. The 
 erratic blocks from the Duna to Niemen, are attributed by Professor 
 Pusch to Finland, lake Onega, and Esthonia; those of eastern 
 Prussia and part of Poland belong to three varieties, all found in the 
 vicinity of Abo, in Finland. t In America, appearances are precisely 
 
 * " Geo!. Trans." vol. iii. p. 13. 
 
 f De la Beche, uhi sup. Bucklaiid, " Reliquiae," p. 192 seqq. 
 
200 LECTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 the same. Dr. Bigsby, describing the geological appearances of lake 
 Huron, observes: "The shores and bed of lake Huron, appear to 
 have been subjected to the action of a violent rush of waters, and 
 floating substances rushing from the north. That such a flood did 
 happen is proved, not only by the abraded state of the surface of the 
 northern mainland, and scattered isles of the Manitouline range, but 
 by the immense deposits of sand, and rolled masses of rock, which 
 are found in heaps at every level, both upon the continent and islands ; 
 since these fragments are almost exclusively primitive, and can in 
 some instances be identified with the primitive rocks in situ upon the 
 northern shore ; and since, moreover, the country to the south and 
 west is secondary to a great distance, the direction of this flood from 
 the north seems to be well attested."* 
 
 It is just, however, to notice the hypothesis maintained with so 
 nmch acuteness and learning by some very able modern geologists, 
 that all these phenomena can be explained by causes actually in 
 operation. Fuchsel was the first who made this assertion, which 
 may be said to have afterwards formed the basis of the Huttonian 
 theory. This, like many other philosophical sects, owes it celebrity 
 more to its disciples than to its founder ; and Playfair and Lyell have 
 certainly done all, for its support, which a vast accumulation of inter- 
 esting facts, and a most ingenious train of reasoning can effect. The 
 latter, in particular, must be acknowledged to have added immensely 
 to the collection of geological observations. According to this theory, 
 all valleys have been excavated by the rivers or rills which run 
 through them ; whatever requires a convulsive agent, is attributed to 
 earthquakes, of the character and extent now witnessed ; all trans- 
 pbrts of rocks or gravel may have been effected by tides, or rivers, or 
 torrents, or floating icebergs. Opposed to this theory are, of course, 
 the authors I have quoted, and most others of eminence in Geology. 
 Brongniart, for instance, confutes that portion of it, which attributes so 
 strong a cutting power to water, as to suppose deep glens and ravines 
 to have been eaten through rock, by the action of a stream. The 
 rich vegetation of mosses upon the surface of the rocks, at and below 
 the water's edge, proves that the rock on which they grow is not 
 constantly worn away ; for, if so, they must be as constantly swept 
 away with their hard bed. The Nile and Orinocco, in spite of the 
 immense force which their volume gives them, when they come to a 
 
 " Geolog. Traiie." vol. i. p. 205. 
 
NATURAL, SCIENCES. 201 
 
 barrier of rock which intercepts their course, so far from wearing it 
 out, only cover it with a rich brown varnish of a peculiar nature.* 
 Greenougii has observed, that the action of riveis tends rather to fill 
 up, than to excavate valleys, inasmuch, as they rather raise their 
 beds, than dig deeper channels. For it is proved by observation, in 
 digging pits by their sides, that the sedimentary deposit goes deeper 
 than their beds. " The action of rivers," he continues, " may con- 
 sist either in filling up or in scooping out ; it cannot consist in both : 
 if in scooping out, they have not formed those beds of gravel; if in 
 filling up, they have not excavated the valley. "t The transport of 
 gravels and bowlders to such immense distances, and such great 
 heights, can no more be accounted for by existing causes. For, it 
 has been observed, that even rivers, unless exceedingly strong, do 
 not carry their pebbles to any distance ; as different parts of their 
 course will be found paved with pebbles of various sorts. It has 
 been thus calculated, that for any Alpine torrent to carry some of the 
 blocks, scattered at the foot of that chain, we must give it such an 
 inclination, as would place its source above the line of the perpetual 
 snows. The bowlder rock, called Pierre-a-Martin, contains 10,296 
 cubic feet of granite ; another, at Neufchatel, weighs 38,000 cwt. 
 At Lage is a block of granite, called the Johannis-stein, twenty-four 
 feet in diameter. An enormous bowlder stone, on the shore of Appin, 
 in Argyleshire, has been described by Mr. Maxwell, as being a 
 granitic compound, of an irregular form, but having its angles round- 
 ed with a vertical circumference of forty-two feet, and a horizontal 
 one of thirty-eight. Numerous other granite bowlders occur in the 
 same part of Scotland, but no granite is there in situ, from which it 
 can be derived. | 
 
 Before quitting this subject of rolled blocks, I must not omit the 
 peculiar appearance they present at the Alps. This has been par- 
 ticularly examined by Elie de Beaumont, and later, by De la Beche. 
 It is precisely what we should suppose would have been produced by 
 the rush of a current of water through the valleys, bearing with it frag- 
 ments of the mountains by which it passed, and filling up entire hol- 
 lows, with the ruins it bore down. Where an escarpment, or pro- 
 
 * " Diction naire des Sciences Naturelles," vol. xiv. p. 55. 
 f "Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geology," Lond. 
 1819, p. 139. 
 
 I " Geolog. Trans." vol. iii. p. 488. 
 
202 LKCTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 jecting ledge, obstructed it, it deposited a greater accumulation of 
 materials ; nearer the place whence the blocks were torn, they are 
 larger, whereas they diminish in size, and become more worn by 
 friction, as they recede. 
 
 The geologist whom I have so closely followed, puts the question, 
 How far the distribution of blocks from the Alps may have been con- 
 temporaneous with the supposed transport of erratic fragments from 
 Scandinavia ? To this, after a preliminary caution, he replies, " that 
 the blocks in botii cases appear to a certain extent superficial, and 
 uncovered bv deposits which would afford us information respecting 
 their diftererico of age ; and that it is possible a great elevation of 
 the Alps, and distril)ution of blocks on both sides of the chain, may 
 have been contemporaneous, or nearly so, with a convulsion in the 
 North."* In another work, he enters somewhat more fully into the 
 distinction between these two great distributions of blocks, the Alpine 
 and the Northern, both of which he considers attributable to a com- 
 paratively recent period. " How far," he writes, " the events which 
 have produced both accumulations of these blocks, may have been 
 separated by time from each other, we know not ; but we are certain 
 that the geological epochs of both must have been very recent, since 
 they both rest on rocks of little comparative antiquity." Afterwards, 
 he infers, from the phenomena observed in Europe and America, that 
 some cause situated in the pohr regions, has so acted, as to produce 
 this dispersion of solid matter, over a certain portion of the earth's 
 surface. We know of no agent capable of causing the effect re- 
 quired, but moving water. t This author considers, that the same 
 simple cause proposed by M. de Beaumont, to account for all the 
 preceding revolutions on the earth's surface, will likewise e.xplain 
 this latest one. An elevation of the land under the polar seas, would 
 drive the ocean southward over the continents, with a force propor- 
 tioned to the intensity of its action. 
 
 Here, once more, I must observe, that we have another proof, 
 that, far from the tendency of many continental geologists being to 
 incredulity, they, on the contrary, display an anxiety, so to frame 
 their hypothesis, as that the Scripture narrative shall be embraced by 
 it, and that their solution of the great geological problem shall in part 
 be verified, by its including so great a historical fact, as is there re- 
 
 * "De l.i Beche,"p. 194. 
 
 f " Krsciirciies in Theonniral Geology," p. 31?0. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 203 
 
 corded. For Elie de Beaumont observes, at the conclusion of his 
 Researches, that the elevation of a chain of mountains, while it pro- 
 duced the violent effects, he had described, on the countries in its 
 immediate neighborhood, would cause in more distant ones, a violent 
 agitation of the sea, and a derangement of their level ; "events com- 
 parable to the sudden and passing inundation, of which we find an 
 indication, with almost uniform data, in the archives of all nations." 
 He then adds, in a note, that, looking at this historical event merely 
 as being the last revolution on the surface of the globe, he should be 
 inclined to suppose that the Andes were elevated at that period ; and 
 from their elevation, all the effects concurrently necessary to produce 
 a deluge, might be explained.* 
 
 I come now to another great, and far more interesting topic, but 
 one on which I enter with considerable hesitation, in consequence of 
 the various hypotheses, and conflicting opinions, connected with it — 
 the remains of animals, discovered in different parts of the world, 
 under circumstances extremely varied. I before observed, that, in 
 the superior, or more moveable, strata, such as we may suppose to 
 have been deposited during a temporary submersion of the earth 
 under a violent and impetuous rush of waters, are found the bones or 
 bodies of animals, belonging, in most cases, to genera now existing, 
 though in species sometimes differing from them. Judging by analo- 
 gy, we should conclude that these were deposited in their present 
 situations by the last convulsion which agitated the globe, since there 
 is no trace of any other having passed over them ; and it seems 
 hardly possible to doubt, that water was the agent employed, for pre- 
 serving them in so remarkable a manner. 
 
 Dr. Buckland may be considered as having exhausted this subject, 
 up to the period of his publication on diluvian remains ; and the dis- 
 covery, since his work, of later entombments, may seem, with a few 
 exceptions of some moment, which I will presently notice, to have 
 only presented repetitions of the phenomena he had observed, and 
 confirmed many of his conclusions. 
 
 The remains of animals, superficially discovered, may be classified 
 in three divisions; first, those which are found entire, or nearly so, 
 in the northern regions, to which must be joined, such as, from 
 similarity of situation, are to be accounted for by a similar hypothesis ; 
 secondly, those found in caverns ; thirdly, those which exist in what 
 
 * Uhi. sup. and " Anrialcs des Sciences Natureiles," torn. xix.p.Q32. 
 
204 LECTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 is called osseous breccia, or mixed with gravel or detritus, in the 
 fissures of rocks. 
 
 In the first class, then, we may include, primarily, the carcases of 
 elephants and rhinoceroses found in ice, or, perhaps, more properly, 
 in frozen mud, in the northern latitudes. In 1799, Schumachoff, a 
 Tungusian chief, observed a shapeless mass in the ice, on the penin- 
 sula of Tamset, at the mouth of the Lena : in 1804, it became de- 
 tached, and fell on the sand. It was found to be an elephant, so 
 entire, that the dogs, and even the men, partook of its flesh. The 
 tusks were cut off and sold, and the skeleton, with some of the hair, 
 was conveyed to the imperial museum at St. Petersburgh, where it is 
 still preserved. A rhinoceros, described by Pallas, in 1770, as dis- 
 covered in the frozen mud on the banks of the Viluji, was likewise 
 covered with skin and hair.* The expedition of Captain Beechey 
 into the north of Asia, has brought to light a number of similar dis- 
 coveries ; as the bones of these two animals have been there found in 
 considerable numbers, encased in frozen sand.t The animals thus 
 found, have been considered as belonging to different species from 
 those now existing, chiefly in consequence of the hairy coat with 
 which they were covered. Perhaps, however, the variety may go no 
 further than is traceable in well-known animals, which in some 
 countries have the skin quite, or nearly, bare, while in others they 
 are shaggy, — such as the dog, the hairless variety of which is well 
 known. Mr. Fairholme has quoted a passage from Bishop Heber's 
 narrative, showing the existence of some elephants covered with hair, 
 in India, at the present day ;t and maintains, that experience proves 
 the tendency of the elephant to become hairy, in colder climates. 
 However, placing this {)oint aside, it cannot be doubted, that these 
 animals must have been surprised by some sudden overwhelming 
 catastrophe, which destroyed and embalmed them in one and the 
 same moment. It is quite foreign to our purpose to inquire whether 
 these animals were inhabitants of the country where they now lie 
 buried ; and, if so, how they lived in so cold a climate: or whether, 
 on the other hand, the climate has undergone a change. It does, 
 indeed, seem most probable, that they lived and died where they now 
 
 * See the " Memoires de i'Acadeniie Imp^iiaJe de St. I'etersb." 
 vol. vii. 
 
 t See the Essay on this subject by Professor Bucklaiid, at tiio end 
 of Captain Beechey's narrative. 
 t Uhi. svp. V. 35(S. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 205 
 
 lie, instead of having been transported thither ; and that the climate 
 must have undergone such a modification, as renders it no longer a 
 fit temperature for animals, which before, could not only endure it, 
 but found, in its vegetation, their necessary sustenance. This change 
 too, must have been so sudden, at least, to all appearances, as to have 
 allowed no time for decomposition ; but a sudden cold must have 
 frozen the animals, almost as soon as dead. How all this can have 
 happened, is a matter of system and conjecture ; but assuredly it is 
 nowise inconsistent with the idea of a scourge, intended not only to 
 sweep all life from the earth, but also to complete the original curse, 
 by causing such modifications of climate, or other influential agents 
 on vitality, as should reduce the immense longevity of mankind, from 
 the antediluvian to the patriarchal term. 
 
 Whatever difficulties therefore there may be, yet unsolved in the 
 class of phenomena I have explained, it is evident that, so far from 
 standing in opposition to the character of the last great revolution, 
 they appear on the contrary better explicable by admitting it, than by 
 any other hypothesis. And hence Pallas owns " that, until he had 
 e-xplored these parts, and witnessed such striking monuments, he 
 never had persuaded himself of the truth of the deluge."* 
 
 The second class, comprising the bones of animals preserved in 
 caverns, possesses greater interest than the first. To enumerate all 
 the situations, where these sepulchres of the early world are found, 
 whether in England or on the continent, would greatly exceed the 
 limits I must keep ; I will therefore content myself with giving you a 
 general idea of them, from Buckland's accurate description. The 
 one which first excited very general attention, was that of Kirkdale 
 in Yorkshire. It was discovered in a quarry in 1821, and presented 
 a very small opening, through which a man was obliged to creep. 
 The floor was covered superficially with stalagmite, or the calca- 
 reous deposit formed by water, dripping from the roof Under this 
 was a rich loam or mud, in which were encrusted the bones of a 
 variety of animals and birds. By far the greater quantity of teeth 
 belonged to the hyaena, and among them were specimens indicating 
 every age. In addition to these, were bones of the elephant, rhi- 
 noceros, bear, wolf, horse, hare, water-rat, pigeon, lark, etc. Be- 
 sides other evidences of tliis cavern having been the lair of hysenas 
 through successive generations, the bones were almost without ex- 
 ception in a state of comminution, splintered and broken, with the 
 
 * "Essaisur la Fonnaiion dcs Moutacnes." 
 
206 LECTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 exception of such hard, solid bones as would best resist the action of 
 the teeth. There were ia fact tooth-prints, if I may say so, upon 
 many of the bones, which were found exactly to correspond with the 
 teeth of the hyaenas discovered in the cave. By comparing these 
 traces with the actual habits of these animals, by examining tlie ex- 
 tent and character of the accumulation, and taking into account, the 
 position, and accessories of the cavern. Dr. Buckland comes to the 
 interesting conclusion, that it must have been for ages the haunt of 
 hyaenas, which dragged in the bones of the animals they had slaugh- 
 tered, and cranched them there at leisure ; and that an irruption of 
 water carried into the cavern the loam in which they now are imbed- 
 ded, and which has preserved them from decay. Such a conclusion 
 exactly accords with the character of the deluge.* This description 
 may, in the main, be considered applicable to the other most cele- 
 brated caverns, such as those of Torquay, Gailenreuth, KUloch, etc. ; 
 though it is observable that in the German caverns the bones of bears 
 chiefly predominate. 
 
 The facts expounded by Professor Buckland, are admitted by all 
 to have been observed with scrupulous exactne&s, and detailed with 
 perfect impartiality : his reasoning, however, and conclusions, have 
 not escaped criticism. Mr. Granville Penn, in particular, has at- 
 tacked the whole of his explanation with considerable earnestness 
 and ingenuity, and maintained that the bones must have been 
 washed into the cavern by the flood, which caught them up in the 
 neighborhood, and forced them through the narrow opening in the 
 cliff. As he, however, agrees in the most important points, that is,, 
 that here we have a strong evidence of the deluge, it is unnecessary 
 to go into his arguments. It may be sufficient to say, that geologists 
 have not been gained over by his reasoning ; and that Cuvier, 
 Brongniart, and others, have continued to retain Buckland's explan- 
 ation. 
 
 But there is another more important question, which, perhaps, 
 could not be so easily solved when the learned professor published 
 his interesting account. Have human bones been discovered, so 
 blended with the remains of animals, that we may conclude man to 
 have been subject to the action of that catastrophe which swept these 
 from existence ? Certainly the instances which could come under 
 his observation were such as to justify the conclusion to which he 
 
 * " Reli(]iiia?," p|). 1 — .')1. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES, 207 
 
 came, that wherever human bones had been discovered, mixed with 
 those of animals, they had been introduced into the cavern at a later 
 period. But there appear to be one or two instances rather varying 
 in circumstances from these examples. 
 
 The cave of Durfort, in the Jura, was first visited in 1795 by M. 
 Hombres Firmas, who did not, however, publish any account of it 
 till he had examined it again, twenty-five years later. His essay ap- 
 peared under the title of Not ires snr dcs Ossemc7zs Tlumains Fossiles. 
 In 1823, M. Marcel de Sorres published a more detailed account of 
 it. The cavern is situated in a calcareous mountain, about 300 feet 
 above the level of the sea, and entered by a perpendicular shaft 20 
 feet deep. Upon entering the cavern from this shaft, by a narrow 
 passage, there is a space three feet square, containing human bones, 
 incorporated, like the Kirkdale remains, in a calcareous paste.* 
 
 But a still more accurate observation, accompanied with the same 
 results, has been made by M. Marcel de Serres upon the bones 
 found in the tertiary limestone at Pondres and Souvignargues, in the 
 department of tlie Herault. Here M.de Cristolles discovered human 
 bones and pottery, mixed with the remains of the rhinoceros, bear, 
 hyaena, and many other animals. They were imbedded in mud and 
 fragments from the limestone rock in the neighborhood. Under this 
 accumulation, in some places as thick as thirteen feet, is the original 
 floor of the cavern. The human bones were found, on a careful 
 analysis, to have parted with their animal matter, as completely as 
 those of the hyaena which accompanied them. Both are equally brit- 
 tle, and adhere as strongly to the tongue. To assure themselves of 
 this point, MM. de Serres and Ballard- compared them with bones 
 extracted from a Gaulish sarcophagus, and supposed to have been 
 buried fourteen hundred years ; and the result was, that the fossil 
 bones must be much more ancient.t 
 
 In this instance, however, the discovery of pottery makes it pos- 
 sible that the human bones may have been later introduced. For, 
 while, on the one hand, we cannot suppose men to have tenanted 
 the same cavern with hyaenas; on the other, we cannot imagine that 
 these animals, however they might have indulged their bone devour- 
 ing propensities at the expense of man, would have introduced his 
 
 * "Granville Penn's Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mo- 
 saical Geologie.i," 2d. ed. 1825, vol. ii. p. 394. 
 
 t "Lyell," vol. ii. p. 225. 
 
208 LECTURE THE SIXTH, 
 
 pottery into their haunts, or tried their teeth upon it. Accident, 
 therefore, or design, may have entombed some later inhabitant of the 
 neighborhood in the more ancient dwelhng of tlie wild beast; 
 though we must still account for the human bones being kneaded up 
 in the same paste as the others. In either hypothesis, however, we 
 have apparently a satisfactory proof that a violent revolution, caused 
 by a sudden irruption of water, destroyed the animals which inhabited 
 the northern parts of Europe; and the corresponding phenomena in 
 the southern parts, corroborated by similar discoveries in Asia and 
 America, show that its influence extended further still. In the mid- 
 dle of the last century, some human bones were said to have been 
 found encrusted in a very hard rock, and were considered evidence 
 of diluvial action.* 
 
 The third class of animal remains which I mentioned, consists of 
 the osseous breccia, as it has been called, found generally in the 
 fissures of rocks, or even in large caverns. It is formed of bones 
 strongly cemented together, and with fragments from the surround- 
 ing rocks. De la Beche has minutely examined that which is found 
 in the neighborhood of Nice ; and Dr. Buckland has collected par- 
 ticular details of that discovered at Gibraltar.t This species of in- 
 corporation is generally considered to have different dates, in differ- 
 ent circumstances ; but some of it may, perhaps, be pronounced as 
 contemporary in its formation, with the other deposits I have de- 
 scribed. 
 
 And here I close the first part of my argument, or rather of my 
 statements, regarding the latest conclusions of geology, on the sub- 
 ject of the last revolution, which disturbed the surface of the earth. 
 But before proceeding further, I must meet a difficulty which may 
 easily be raised. There are many and very learned geologists, who at- 
 tribute several of the phenomena I have described to older revolu- 
 tions than the great cataclysm, or deluge, described in Scripture ; 
 nay, some perfectly sound writers distinguish the geological deluge 
 
 * "A very curious and particular account of some skeletons of hu- 
 man bodies discovered in an ancient tomb, translated from the French ; 
 as also a circumstantial account of some petrified human bodies found 
 last February standing upright in a rock." — Lond. 17G0. See the lat- 
 ter at the end of the work. 
 
 t " Geolog. Trans." vol. iii. p. 17a " Reliquiae/' p. 156. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. -209 
 
 from the historical, which they consider only a partial inundation ;* 
 and ascribe to the former all the appearances I have explained. 
 
 To these reflections I would variously reply. First, I would say 
 that the discovery of human bones must ultimately decide this point ; 
 for, if they can be proved to exist in similar situations, or under the 
 same circumstances, as those of the animals in caverns, we must 
 assume the cause of their destruction to be what history describes. 
 For if this, whether sacred or profane, represents men and animals 
 as swept from existence by an inundation of waters, and if geology 
 exhibits the effects of precisely such a catastrophe, and gives there- 
 with evidence that no later revolution has happened, it would be most 
 unphilosophical to disjoin the two. For their concurring testimony 
 is like that of a written document, with a medal or other mon- 
 ument; just as the triumphal arch which commemorates Titus's vic- 
 tory over the Jews, by the representation of their spoils, though with- 
 out a date, will be referred, by every sensible man, to the conquest, 
 so minutely described by Josephus, 
 
 But suppose it should be proved, that all the phenomena I have 
 described belong to an earlier era, should I regret the discovery ? 
 Most assuredly not : for never should I fear, and consequently never 
 should I regret, any onward step in the path of science. Should it 
 be possible to discover an accurate system of geological chronology, 
 and should any of these appearances be shown to belong to a remoter 
 epoch, I would resign them without a struggle ; perfectly sure, in 
 the first place, that nothing could be proved, hostile to the sacred re- 
 cord : and in the second, that such a destruction of the proofs which 
 we have here seen, would only be a preliminary to the substitution of 
 others much more decisive. Who regrets, for instance, that 
 Scheuchzer's homo diluvli testis, or man who bore witness to the del- 
 uge, should have turned out to be only part of an animal of the sala- 
 mander genus ? He, indeed, thought it a most important proof; but 
 surely no lover of truth can be sorry that it could have been detected, 
 or can repine, that its weak evidence sliould have been replaced by 
 the co-ordinate facts which I have brought together. "The Chris- 
 tian religion," says Fontenelle, " has at no time needed false proofs 
 to aid its cause ; and this is still more the case now, from the care 
 which the great men of this age have taken to establish it on its true 
 foundations, with greater strength than the ancients had done. We 
 
 * " Boubee," p. 43. cf. p. 203. 
 •27 
 
210 LECTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 should be filled with such a just confidence in our religion, as will 
 make us reject false advantages, which another cause might not neg- 
 lect."* Whatever we may think of the opinions of this writer, his 
 judgment of our sincerity in that reliance which we place upon our 
 cause is perfectly correct. I will further add, that I am only the his- 
 torian of this and other sciences, viewed in reference to the Christian 
 evidences ; I have only, in general to record the opinions of men 
 learned in their respective pursuits, comparing the past with the pres- 
 ent. The ground is constantly changing under our feet ; and we 
 should be contented with any science, if its progressive development 
 shall be proved, by experience, favorable to a holier cause. 
 
 We come now to the interesting inquiry, how far geological phe- 
 nomena tend to prove the oneness of this catastrophe ; in other words, 
 whether recent observations lead us to suppose a multiplicity of local 
 inundations, or one great scourge, upon an awfully magnificent scale. 
 Now, in answer to this, I will say that appearances indicate the lat- 
 ter case. 
 
 For, in the first place, you cannot have failed to remark, that in 
 the sketch which I gave you of the course which the rolled blocks 
 and drifted matter must have taken, they present an almost uniform 
 direction from north to south. The bowlders of Durham and York- 
 shire are from Cumberland, those of Cumberland from Scotland, 
 those of Scotland from Norway. Pebbles from the same country are 
 found in Holderness ; and the valley of the Thames is supplied with 
 them, disposed in the form of torrent beds, from near Birmingham. 
 On the continent it is the same ; for the erratic blocks of Germany 
 and Poland are traceable to Sweden and Norway. Brongniart has al- 
 so remarked, that they run in parallel lines from north to south, some- 
 times slightly varying a little in direction, but always, in the main, 
 presenting the appearance of having been borne downwards from the 
 north by an overpowering current. You will remember, too, how 
 Dr. Bigsby's observations showed him, that the detritus in North 
 America came always from points further to the north. In Jamaica, 
 the same course seems observable. For De la Beche notices the 
 great plain of Liguanea, upon which Kingston is situated, as being 
 wholly composed of diluvial gravel, consisting principally of the de- 
 tritus of the Saint Andrew's and Port-Royal mountains, and evident- 
 ly produced by causes not now in action, but derived from those 
 
 * "Histoire des Oracles," p. 4, ed. .Imsl. 1687. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 211 
 
 mountains in tlie same manner, and probably at the same period, 
 with the numerous tracts of European gravel, which have resulted 
 from the partial destruction of European rocks." Now, these moun- 
 tains are to the north of the plain. Again, the plain of Vere and 
 Lower Clarendon is diluvial, and its materials seem derived from the 
 trap districts among the St. John's and Clarendon mountains, which 
 are situated towards the north.* 
 
 This coincidence of direction in the course pursued by the ocean- 
 current^in such remote parts of the world, whether we measure their 
 distance from north to south, or from east to west, seems to indicate 
 clearly the operation of a uniform course. For, if we suppose the 
 sea to have broken in upon the land at different periods, it might be 
 atone time, for instance, the Baltic, at another the Mediterranean, at 
 another the Atlantic ; and in each case the direction of the scourge, 
 as evinced by its traces, would be naturally varied. Whereas, at 
 present, not only is the admission of one only deluge the simplest, and 
 consequently the most philosophical explanation of these constant and 
 uniform phenomena ; but a variety of such catastrophes can hardly 
 be admitted, without supposing that each must have disturbed the ef- 
 fects of the preceding: so that we should have crossing lines of 
 drifted matter, and varied directions in the rolled masses, to disturb 
 every calculation. Yet nothing of this sort has been discovered in 
 tracts hitherto explored; and therefore, sound science should con- 
 clude that the cause was only one. Nor would this reasoning be 
 much impaired, should subsequent investigation in more distant coun- 
 tries lead to different results. For we must naturally suppose that 
 other oceans, besides the northern, were sluiced out upon the earth 
 to produce its last great purgation ; and from them the lines of 
 drifted masses would point in another direction. 
 
 If the tracks of these transported materials show a uniform direc- 
 tion, we may expect the road over which they travelled to be worn in 
 a corresponding manner. The first to notice this appearance, as I 
 have already mentioned, was Sir James Hall, who ob?c^rved that in 
 the neighborhood of Edinburgh the rocks are marked with ruts or 
 lines, apparently scooped out by the passage of heavy rolled masses, 
 in the direction from east to west. Mr. Murchison has minutely de- 
 scribed the same appearance in the Brora district, in Sutherlandshire. 
 — " I remarked," he observes, " in my former paper, that these hills 
 
 * "On the Geology of Jamaica," Geo). Trans, vol. ii. pp. 182, 184 
 
212 LECTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 probably owe their origin to denudation ; which supposition is now 
 confirmed by the exposure on their surface of innumerable ])arallel 
 furrows and irregular scratches, both deep and shallow, — such, in 
 short, as can scarcely have been produced by any other operation 
 thnn the rush of rock fragments transported by some powerful cur- 
 rent. The furrows and scratches apjiear to have been made by 
 stones of all sizes, which (with the occasional exception of lines 
 slightly diverging, probably occasioned by the smaller pebbles com- 
 ing forcibly in contact with the larger,) preserve a general parallel- 
 ism, with a direction from N.W. to S.E."* This coincidence is 
 certainly remarkable, and leaves little room to doubt the unity of the 
 cause, which produced such uniform results. 
 
 I will not dwell upon the coincidence of other appearances, as the 
 similarity of distribution in the diluvium, and its organic remains, in 
 different parts of the world ; for the remarks I already made will suffice 
 to show you, that the probabilities are greatly in favor of one single 
 cause having produced them all. Neither shall I detain you upon 
 another important conclusion, resulting manifestly from all that has 
 been said, that the last inundation was not like the supposed preced- 
 ing ones, a long submersion under the sea, but only a temporary and 
 passing flood, just such as the Scriptures describe it. That the land 
 previous to it was, in part at least, the same as now, is apparent from 
 the hysena caverns : that it was only for a limited period under water, 
 appears from the absence of all such deposits as suppose solution ; 
 for its sediment is composed of loose materials, gravels, breccias, and 
 mingled debris, such as a river or sea on a gigantic scale, might be 
 supposed first to take up, and then to leave behind it. 
 
 We come at length to another still more int'-resting question : 
 Does geology give any data towards ascertaining, with tolerable pre- 
 cision, the era of this last revolution ? To this I think we may safe- 
 ly reply — and some of the authorities quoted expressly say it — that 
 the general, and, if you please, vague impression produced upon ac- 
 curate observers, by geological facts is, that the last visitation is of 
 comparatively modern date. The earth's surface presents the ap- 
 pearance of having been but lately moulded, and the effects of causes 
 in actual operation appear but small, unless restricted to a very lim- 
 ited period. Thus, if we look at the trifling accumulation of rubbish 
 or fragments, which surrounds the loot of lofty mountain chains, or 
 
 * " Geol. Trans." vol. ii. p. ;}57. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. '213 
 
 at the small progress made by rivers in tilling up the lakes through 
 which they pass, in spite of the mud they daily and hourly deposit, 
 we are necessarily driven to acknowledge, that a few thousands of 
 years are amply sufficient, to account for the present state of things. 
 
 But an attempt has been made to proceed in this investigation, 
 with far more approximative accuracy, by measuring the periodical 
 effects of such causes as I have incidentally mentioned, so to deter- 
 mine, with some precision, the length of time which must have elap- 
 sed since first they began to act. Deluc was the first who took some 
 pains to observe and collect such data, to which he gave the name of 
 chronometers. He has, indeed, been severely lashed for his attempt, 
 by writers of an opposite school ;* and yet it is but fair to remark, 
 that his conclusions, and even in great measure their premises, were 
 adopted by Cuvier, whose sagacity and immense geological knowl- 
 edge few will attempt to impugn. It is, therefore, rather as admitted 
 by him, than as proposed by the other, that I shall j)roceed briefly to 
 lay before you the line of proof adopted in his system. The general 
 results it is directed to afford, are first, that the present continents 
 have not existed any thing like the time supposed or required by the 
 advocates of causes now in action ; secondly, that whenever any 
 accurate and definite measure of time can be obtained, it is nearly 
 coincident with that which Moses assigns, for the existence of the 
 present order of things. Considering the immense distance of time 
 to which we have to go back, there must be considerable discrepan- 
 cies between the different dates ; but they are not greater than the 
 chronological tables of various nations, or even those of one nation, 
 as given by different authors, will exhibit. 
 
 One method of attempting to arrive at the date of our last revolu- 
 tion, is that of measuring the increase made by the deltas of rivers, 
 that is, the land gained, at the mouths of rivers, from the sea, by the 
 gradual deposit of mud and earth, which they bear along with them 
 in their course. By examining history, we may ascertain the distance, 
 at a given date, of the head of the delta from the sea, and thus with 
 accuracy determine the annual increase. By comparing this with 
 the whole extent of territory, which owes its existence to the river, 
 we should have an estimate of how long it has flowed through its 
 present channel. But hitherto, this measurement has been but 
 vaguely taken, and consequently little more has been gained than a 
 
 * " Lyell," vol. i. pp. 224, 300. 
 
214 LECTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 negative conclusion, opposed to the countless ages required by some 
 geologists. Thus, the advance of the delta of the Nile is very sensi- 
 ble ; for the city of Rosetta, which, a thousand yeais ago, stood upon 
 the sea, is now two leagues distant from it. According to Demadlet, 
 the cape before it was prolonged half a league in twenty-five years, 
 but this must have been a very extraordinary instance. However, it 
 is unnecessary to suppose so immense a distance of time, from which 
 to date the commencement of this formation. The delta of the 
 Rhone, was proved by Astruc, by comparing its present state with 
 the accounts of Pliny and Mela, to have increased nine miles since 
 the Christian era. That of the Po was scientifically examined by 
 M. Prony, by commission of the French government. You are most 
 of you probably aware of the high embankments between which this 
 river runs: and this engineer ascertained that its level is higher than 
 the roofs of the houses of Ferrara, and that it has gained 6,000 fath- 
 oms on the sea since 1004, or at the rate of 150 feet a year. Hence 
 Adria, which once gave its name to the Adriatic, is removed eight- 
 een miles from the sea. These examples will not allow us to allot a 
 very indefinite period to the action of these rivers. A stream carry- 
 ing with it such enormous deposits, that their yearly increase may be 
 almost called visible, could not have required so many thousands of 
 years to reach its present level.* 
 
 According to Gervais de la Prise, the retreat of the sea, or exten- 
 sion of the land by the depositions of the Orme, may be accurately 
 measured, by monuments erected at different known epochs; and 
 the result is, that these causes cannot have been in operation longer 
 than six thousand years.t 
 
 A more interesting chronometer is that of dunes. By this term 
 are signified heaps of sand, which first accumulate on the shore, and 
 then are pushed forwards, by the wind, upon the cultivated lands, so 
 as to desolate and destroy them. They often rise to an almost in- 
 credible height, and drive before them pools of rain-water, the dis- 
 charge of which into the sea, they effectually cut off. Deluc paid 
 particular attention to those on the coast of Cornwall, and has de- 
 scribed many of them very minutely. Thus, one in the neighborhood 
 
 * Cuvier, " Disconrs prelirninaire," 3d edit. Pam, 1825, p. J44. 
 Deluc, " Lettres a M. Blumeubach," [). 25G; "Abrege de Goologie," 
 Paris, 1816, p. 97. 
 
 t " Accord du Livre de la Geiu'se avoc la Geoloyie," Caev, 1803, 
 p. 75. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 215 
 
 of Padstow threatened to swallow up the church, which it completely 
 overhung, having reached the very roof; so that all access would 
 have been prevented, but for the circumstance of the door being at 
 the other end. Several houses had, however, been already destroy- 
 ed in the memory of man.* In Ireland, these moving sands are not 
 less destructive. The vast sand-plain of Rosapenna, on the coast of 
 Donegal, was, little more than fifty years ago, a beautiful domain, 
 belonging to Lord Boyne. A few years ago, the roof of the mansion- 
 house was just above ground, so that the peasantry used to descend 
 into the apartments, as into a subterranean ; and now not the slight- 
 est trace of this is visible. But no part of Europe suffers so severe- 
 ly from this desolating scourge, as the department of the Landes, in 
 France. It has buried fertile plains and tall forests under its irresis- 
 tible course ; not only houses, but villages, mentioned in the records 
 of past ages, have been covered over, without chance of being ever 
 more regained. In 1802, the pools invaded five valuable farms ; and 
 there are now, or were, at least, a few years ago, ten villages threat- 
 ened with destruction by the shifting sands. One of these, called 
 Mimisoa, had been struggling, when Cuvier wrote, for twenty years, 
 against a dune, sixty feet high, with little chance of success. 
 
 Now M. Bremontier studied this phenomenon with particular 
 attention, for the purpose of submitting its laws to calculation. He 
 ascertained that these dunes advance from sixty to seventy-two feet a 
 year ; and then by measuring the entire space they have overrun, he 
 concludes that their action cannot have commenced much more than 
 4000 years ago.t Deluc had previously come to the same conclusion, 
 from measuring those of Holland, where the dates of dykes enabled 
 him to ascertain their progress with historical accuracy. f 
 
 I should only be repeating the same conclusions, were I to detail 
 to you his researches into the increase of turf, or the accumulation of 
 detritus at the base of hills, or on the growth of glaciers and their 
 accompanying phenomena.^ I will therefore content myself with 
 
 * " Abr^ge," p. 102. 
 
 f " Cuvier, p. 161. See D'Aubuisson, " Traite de Geognosie," 
 Strasb. 1819, vol. ii. p. 468. 
 
 I " Abrege," p. 100. 
 
 § Cuvier, p. 162. Knight's "Facts and Observations," p. 216. 
 DeUic, "Trait6el6mentairedeGeo]ogie,"Pam,1809,p. 129; "Abreg6," 
 pp. 116 — 134 ; " Correspondence particuliere entre M. le Dr. Teller et 
 J. A. Deluc," Hanov, 1803, p 161. A popular French writer on geolo- 
 
5^16 LECTURE THE SIXTH. 
 
 quoting the opinions of eminent observers of general geological facts, 
 in favor of his conclusions. 
 
 "This observation," says Saussure, speaking of the devolution of 
 rocks from the glaciers of Chamouny, " which accords with many 
 others I shall make later, gives us reason to think, with M. Deluc, 
 that the actual state of our globe is not as ancient as some philoso- 
 phers have imagined it."* 
 
 Dolomieu writes as follows ; " I will defend another truth, which 
 appears to me incontestable, on which the works of M. Deluc have 
 enlightened me, and of which I think I see proofs in every page 
 of the history of man, and wherever natural facts are recorded. I 
 will say then with M. Deluc, that the actual state of our continents is 
 not very ancient. "t 
 
 Cuvier has not only assented to these conclusions, but has laid 
 them down in far more positive terms. " It is, in fact," he says, 
 " one of the most certain, though least expected, results of sound 
 geological pursuits, that the last revolution, which disturbed the sur- 
 face of the globe, is not very ancient." And in another place, he 
 adds, " I think, therefore, with MM. Deluc and Dolomieu, that if 
 there be any thing demonstrated in geology, it is, that the surface of 
 our globe has been the victim of a great and sudden revolution, of 
 which the date cannot go back much further than five or six thou- 
 sand years."! And allow me to observe, that Cuvier intimates with 
 sufficient clearness, that in his researches he has not allowed him- 
 self to be swayed by any wish to vindicate the Mosaic history. § 
 
 gy, speaking of the accumulations of detritus, brought down by glaciers, 
 and deposited where they melt, known in Frenrh by the name of 
 viureines, thus concludes: "Their formation depending upon periodical 
 and nearly constant causes, it is not difficult to calculate the time neces- 
 sary for giving them the volume which we know them to possess ; and 
 as they certainly date from the commencement of the present order of 
 things, they furnish a new method of arriving at an approximating 
 knowledge of the time which has elapsed since the last cataclysm. 
 This calculation leads still to the same result, and gives us five or six 
 thousand years at most, as the age of our world." He then proceeds, 
 like Cuvier, to show how exUctly these facts agree with the Mosaic 
 records, as well as with the aimals of every other ancient nation. Dr. 
 Bertrand's " Revolutions of the Globe," English trans. 1835, p. 2G9. 
 See above, p. 320. 
 
 * " Voyage dans les Alpes," § G25. 
 
 t " Journal de Physique," Paris, 1792, part i. p. 42. 
 
 t " Discours," pp. 139, 282. § Page 352. 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES, 217 
 
 I trust I have now said enough to satisfy you regarding the 
 modern tendency of this science ; and I doubt not but Dr. Buckland's 
 expected treatise, in the Bridgewater collection, although necessarily 
 directed to show its connexion with natural theology, will neverthe- 
 less throw further light upon the topics I have discussed. I cannot 
 here refrain from expressing a wish that the study of geology may 
 soon enter into the course of education, as completely as the other 
 physical sciences. It is while the memory is young, and curiosity 
 active, that the names of objects are most easily seized, so as to be 
 firmly retained. Almost any district will present formations fit to 
 exemplify the study ; and its very pursuit, by requiring and encour- 
 aging actual and varied examination, gives a motive and a stimulus 
 to exercise, which insures health conjointly with improvement. 
 
 Many, I know, entertain the idea, that too minute an acquaint- 
 ance with the material workings of nature greatly weakens that more 
 enthusiastic and poetic feeling, which the contemplation of her face 
 excites, and thus produces a preponderance of a cold and scrutiniz- 
 ing, over a warm and admiring, disposition. Yet I know not how 
 this can be, except from some defect in the method of communicating 
 such knowledge. There can be no reason why the geologist should 
 not stand enraptured on the mountain's brow, and first range, with a 
 poet's eye, over the splendid scene of an Alpine valley, before he 
 descends to study and classify the various rocks, which form its 
 magnificent boundary. How should the comprehension of how na- 
 ture works, be at all opposed to the perception of beauty in the re- 
 sults of her labors? On the contrary, it should seem as though the 
 one must form a natural counterpart to the other. The skilful 
 musician will, by casting his eyes over the written score, unravel in 
 a moment its mazy movements, give to each note its harmonic pow- 
 er, and so combine them in his mind together, as thence to drink 
 more music through his eyes than the untutored listener will enjoy, 
 when he hears what has been written transformed into sound ; and 
 so may the learned in nature's laws measure her outward appearan- 
 ces by such just rule, as must give him a truer perception of her 
 charms, than the mere observer can ever attain. To the unpractised 
 eye, the web, which proceeds from the loom, will appear exceedingly 
 beautiful, and in design most orderly, while the machinery which 
 produced it, seems a pile of confusion through its complicated wheels 
 and pullies ; yet is it necessarily the type of what it brings forth, and 
 the experienced artizan will perchance read in it, with equal admira- 
 2S 
 
218 i-ect\;re the sixth. 
 
 tion, the beautiful pattern it is calculated to work. And in like 
 manner may the learned naturalist construct, from his knowledge of 
 nature's processes, all those beautiful objects and scenes, which 
 others cannot fancy unless they have actually beheld them. The 
 observation of how the rolled masses are disposed in the gorges, and 
 on the flanks, of the southern Alps, must have led the discoverer to 
 form in his mind a newer and a truer picture, than a poet's imagina- 
 tion could have conceived, of the course pursued by the huge inun- 
 dation which burst through them, tore down their sides, and rode, in 
 rude triumph, with their rough spoils, into the plains of Italy. The 
 contemplation of volcanic effects by a scientific eye, which can dis- 
 tino-uish the masses thrown up by explosion, from the rolling scum of 
 the fiery torrent, and can note, as at Glen-Tilt, the strange and 
 incom])rehensible manner wherein the hardest granite, reduced into 
 a vitreous fluid, has shot upwards into the superincumbent rock, and 
 injected itself through its veins, and the accurate measurement of 
 the causes proportioned to such mighty effects, would convey, we 
 mav suppose, the sublim.est idea possible,of the terrible action of that 
 powerful element, unto whose scourge this globe is yet in doom re- 
 served. 
 
 It would, of course, be impossible to bring every branch of the 
 natural sciences so completely into contact with sacred studies, as 
 these whereof we have treated, nor can it be necessary to do so. For 
 there is one way in which they all can be made subservient to the in- 
 terests of religion, by viewing them as the appointed channels by 
 which a true perception and estimate of the Divine perfections are 
 meant to pass into the understanding ; as the glass wherein the em- 
 bodied forms of every great and beautiful attribute of the Supreme 
 Being may best be contemplated ; and as the impression upon the 
 mind of the great seal of creation, whereon have been engraven, by 
 an Almighty hand, mystical characters of deepest wisdom, omnipo- 
 tent spells of productive power, and emblems most expressive of an 
 all-embracing, all-preserving love. And even as the engraver, when 
 he has cut some way into his gem, doth make proof thereof upon the 
 tender wax; and, if he find not the image perfect, is not thereby 
 disheartened, so long as it presents each time a progressive approach 
 to its intended type, but returns again and again unto his peaceful 
 task ; so if we find not, that at once, we bear uj>on ourselves the clear 
 and deep impress of this glorious signet, must not we fear to proceed 
 with our labors, but go on, ever striving to approach nearer and 
 
NATURAL SCIENCES. 
 
 219 
 
 nearer the atiainment of a perfect representation. A few years will 
 probably bring forward new arguments for the great facts whereof 
 we have treated, which will render all that you have heard but of 
 small value. Those that come after us will, peradventure, smile at 
 the small comprehension granted to our age, of nature and her ope- 
 rations :— we must be content, amidst our imperfect knowledge, with 
 having striven after that which is more full. 
 
 For, if the works of God are the true, though faint image of him- 
 self, they must, in some way, partake of his immensity ; and, as the 
 contemplation of his own unshadowed beauty will be the unsating, 
 everlasting food of unembodied spirits, so may we say, that a similar 
 proportion hath been observed between the examination of his image 
 reflected on his works, and the faculties of our present condition ; 
 inasmuch as therein is matter for meditation ever deeper, for discov- 
 ery ever ampler, for admiration ever holier. And, so God, not being 
 able to give to the beauties of his work that infinity which is reserved 
 to the attributes they exhibit, has bestowed upon them that quality 
 which best supplies and represents it ; for, by making our knowledge 
 of them progressive he has made them inexhaustible. 
 
s 
 
LECTURE THE SEVENTH; 
 
 EARLY HISTORY 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Connexion of this subject with the preceding. — Indians. Exaggerated 
 ideas concerning their Antiquity. Their Astronomy. Bailly's attempt 
 to prove its extraordinary antiquity. Confutation by Delambre and 
 Montucla. Researches of Davis and Bentley. Opinions of Schau- 
 bach, Laplace, and others. — Chronology. Researches of Sir W. 
 Jones, Wilfort, and Hamilton. Attempts of Heeren to fix the com- 
 mencement of Indian History. Discoveries of Colonel Tod. — Oth- 
 er Asiatic Nations. Latest researches into the early history of 
 the Armenians, Georgians, and Chinese. 
 
 After having thus ascertained, as far as we may, when was first 
 constructed and adorned this theatre, upon which have been acted 
 all the great scenes of human life, it may seem superfluous to inter- 
 rogate those who have trod its stage, how long it is since they com- 
 menced their varied drama of war and peace, of barbarism and of 
 civilization, of rude vices and of simple virtues. For, in nature, 
 whom we have hitherto consulted, there is no pride, no desire, and 
 no power, to represent herself other than in reality she is. But if we 
 ask the oldest nations, when they sprang up, and when they first en- 
 tered on the career of their social existence, there arise instantly in 
 the way of a candid reply, a multitude of petty ambitions, jealousies, 
 and prejudices ; and there intervenes between us and the truth a 
 mist of ignorance, wilful or traditional, which involves the inquiry 
 both in mystery and perplexity, and leaves us to find our way by the 
 aid of the most uncertain elements, with the constant danger of most 
 serious error. 
 
222 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 There have been, moreover, learned and acute investigators, who, 
 having peculiar ends to gain in their researches, have allowed them- 
 selves to be borne away by these representations, — have admitted as 
 history what was only mythological fable, — have calculated upon 
 dates, which were the purest fiction : — and, not granting to the Jew- 
 ish books the authority which they allowed to the Indian Vedas, or 
 the Egyptian list of kings, have most inconsistently condemned our 
 sacred records, because they imagined, at first sight, that they agreed 
 not with those of other nations. Fortunately, however, we have dis- 
 covered methods which they knew not ; we have learned to cross- 
 question nations in their early history ; we have accustomed ourselves 
 to pore, with lawyer-like skill, over worn-out documents, till we have 
 made out their value or detected their flaws ; we have lost the relish 
 for sarcastic disquisition, that levity in examination, which could give 
 a witticism the force of an argument, and have learnt to love a sober 
 and solemn mood in every office of science, — to prefer the real to 
 the brilliant, — fact to theory, — and patient, plodding comparison to 
 vague analogies. 
 
 The preference to which I have alluded, as given by learned and 
 able men, to any document discovered in distant lands, over those 
 which Christianity received from the Jewish people, is assuredly one 
 of those many facts, which combined, establish a strange phenome- 
 non of the human mind, the extravagant love of the wonderful in all 
 that is out of our reach, and the desire of disparaging that which we 
 possess. I have at home an Arabic manuscript, professing to give 
 among other very miscellaneous matter, an account of the principal 
 cities in the world ; and, of course, Rome could not be well excluded 
 from the number. But alas ! not the charmed city of the wildest 
 romance, not the fabulous splendor of the eastern Iram, not the 
 dreamy imaginings of the most visionary Utopian, ever planned with 
 such a noble contempt of the possibilities of human wealth, as this 
 sober representation of the Eternal City ! It is described as a city 
 of some sixty or eighty miles in length, through which flows the ma- 
 jestic river called the Romulus, over which are several hundred 
 bridges of brass, so constructed that they may be removed upon the 
 approach of an enemy ; the gates of the city are numerous, and all 
 of the same materials; a minute description is given of the dimen- 
 sions and riches of many churches, among which, unluckily, St. Pe- 
 ter's is omitted : and the author has been careful to note how many 
 gates of brass, and how many of silver ; how many columns of mtr- 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 223 
 
 ble, how many of silver, or of gold, each of them contains. Strange- 
 ly absurd as this may seem, it is but a faint parallel of what well-ed- 
 ucated Europeans have indulged in, when first describing the histor- 
 ical and scientific wealth of eastern nations, then comparatively but 
 little known amongst us. There were to be found, astronomical 
 processes of the most refined character, requiring observations at 
 epochs incalculably remote one from the other; there were periods or 
 cycles of time, necessarily framed when the state of heavens was 
 countless ages younger than at present ; there were books manifestly 
 written many thousand years before the West gave any signs of hu- 
 man life ; there were monuments obviously erected ages before the 
 desolating flood is said to have swept over the earth ; there, in fine, 
 were long lists of kings, and even of dynasties, well attested in the 
 annals of nations, which must reach back far beyond the epoch as- 
 signed, in the comparatively modern books of Moses, to the creation 
 of the world ! 
 
 And now, what has become of all these wonders ? Why, you who 
 have seen, can transmute the Arab's fancies into their vulgar reali- 
 ties, the mighty Romulus into the yellow Tiber, the brazen gates in- 
 to wooden portals, the gold and silver into stone and marble ; and 
 you have perhaps trotted round the huge city in your morning ride. 
 And so I trust you will be able to treat the no less baseless visions of 
 philosophical romance; after we shall have visited, to-day, and at our 
 next meeting, the countries where all those scientific and literary 
 marvels were said to exist, you will, I trust, be convinced, that those 
 are but as other lands, confined like ourselves within reasonable lim- 
 its of duration ; that the stream of their traditions bears down with it 
 its due proportion of rubbish and defilement; that the precious ma- 
 terials, whereof their monuments and temples were said to be com- 
 posed, are but the ordinary substance of which all things human must 
 consist. But in both cases tlie truly valuable has been overlooked. 
 The Arab was not refined enough to understand the treasures of art 
 which we here possess, and which are far more valuable than gates 
 of silver, or pillars of gold ; and the vain philosophers of the last cen- 
 tury were too blind, or rather blinded, to examine the real wealth 
 which the East was opening to their industry, in the confirmation of 
 primeval truths, in the illustration of holier pursuits, and in the field 
 of ethnographical and moral knowledge which it affords. 
 
 Opposed, however, to what I have said on the tendency of men 
 to despise what they hold in the hand, and to exaggerate what is far 
 
224 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 removed, are the very objects of which I am going to treat. For, 
 while amongst us there seems to be this strange propensity ; while 
 any discovery at variance with Scripture is eagerly siezed upon by 
 many, — of which we shall have yet plenty of examples, if the past 
 lectures have not given enough — while there is an unnatural value 
 set upon any thing brought to light which seems to clash with some 
 assertion of the sacred text ; the nations of the East so jealously cling 
 to their sacred books, and so pertinaciously reject every fact which 
 may prove them wrong, the Chinese, and the Indians, and the ancient 
 Egyptians, have ever been so attached to the unerring accuracy of 
 their respective records, that we must seek some other explanation, 
 than a natural cause, for the ease wherewith ours are so often 
 abandoned. Nay, I believe, that had the books of Moses not been 
 preserved by Christianity, but discovered for the first time among the 
 Jews of China, or by Dr. Buchanan among those of Malabar,* they 
 would have been received as a treasure of historical and philosophi- 
 cal knowledge, by those who have, under the present circumstances, 
 slighted and blasphemed them. 
 
 It is not my intention, of course, to go over the ground which has 
 been completely drained of its interest by older writers, such as the 
 antiquity of the Chaldeans or Assyrians, and the objections drawn in 
 former times from the fragments of Berosus or Sanconiathon. They 
 belong to the class of mere dry chronology, without a particle of histori- 
 cal interest, — they have been exhausted by many popular writers,— and 
 they may be said to have been abandoned by the school which used 
 to give them some value. I will, therefore, at once proceed to a 
 country, the early history of which possesses much stronger claims 
 to our attention, and will afford a strong illustration of the principle I 
 have chiefly in view, through this course of lectures. 
 
 The peninsula of India should seem to be the field especially de- 
 livered by Providence to the cultivation of our countrymen, and ought 
 certainly to possess a peculiar interest for us. Nor could any thing 
 have happened more opportunely, for the wants of the human mind, 
 than the discovery of its literary wealth. The taste of Europe, which 
 the political and religious convulsions of the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries had driven to seek delight and food in the recollec- 
 tions of ancient classical lore, had almost begun to pall with the 
 sweet but unvaried repast ; the stream of newly discovered authors, 
 
 * Where the copies of the Pentateucli were really found. 
 
EARLV niSTOllY. 225 
 
 which, for a time, flowed from llie younfr press, had ceased its re- 
 freshing supplies; every manuscript had been collated, every accent 
 adjusted, every debateable letter made the theme of learned essays ; 
 we longed, if possible, for something quite original, and able to rouse 
 and stimulate our languishing appetite. Arabia and Persia had been 
 tried in vain. Mohammedanism sat as an incubus on all their reliirious 
 literature — their exquisite poetry was too sensuous to satisfy the in- 
 tellectual demands of European refinement, and their history was 
 too limited, too modern, and too well known, from its connexions 
 with our own, to excite any powerf^.il interest. Whatever our antici- 
 pations of India may have been, they have been more than surpassed. 
 We appear, on a sudden, introduced to the very fountains of ancient 
 philosophy, to the laboratories of those various opinions which formed 
 the schools of the West ; to the nursery of our race, where the first 
 accents of our language are preserved in their simplest forms ; to the 
 very oracle or sanctuary of all ancient heathen worship, — to the in- 
 nermost chamber of all mystic lore and symbolical religion. Here 
 every thing bears the stamp of aboriginal freshness and simplicity ; 
 and we feel, that whether we examine the philosophical meditations 
 of its sages, or the early and mythological annals of its history, we 
 are perusing the results of native genius, and the uninterpolated re- 
 cords of national traditions. 
 
 But we must not allow our feelings to carry us too far, nor allow 
 ourselves to be dazzled by the novelty of the scene, to an exaggera- 
 tion of its real beauties. As well might the naturalist, upon witness- 
 ing the gigantic growth of the African or American forests, com- 
 pared with the pigmy stature of our trees, calculate that, if the oak 
 has required its hundred years to reach its strength, they must have 
 been rooted for thousands in the soil, as the philosopher cortclude, 
 that so many ages must have been requisite to give to the systems of 
 science which we there find, their consistency and consolidation, an- 
 terior to the appearance of philosophy in the West. There are other 
 elements to be calculated besides time ; there is, in the one instance, 
 the succulent vigor of the soil, and the ripening energies of the cli- 
 mate and in the other, the complex action of physical and moral 
 influences caused by an early settlement in a congenial country, by 
 the fortunate preservation of earliest recollections, and a peaceful 
 state amidst objects which draw the mind to contemplation. 
 
 I fear I have allowed my thoughts to ramble from reflection to 
 reflection, without sufiicient regard to the more important and sub- 
 29 
 
226 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 stantial entertainment which you require at my hand : and I there- 
 fore proceed at once to my task. I have not to consider the Indians 
 to-day in reference to their literature, but only to their history. And 
 this I will divide into two parts. First, I will trace the history of in- 
 quiry into the antiquity of their scientific knowledge, particularly 
 their astronomy ; for this has been one of the most alarming topics in 
 the hands of men hostile to religion. Then I will trace for you a 
 brief sketch of the researches made into their annals, and the suc- 
 cess experienced in unravelling the perplexities of their political 
 history. 
 
 The first man of any reputation in science, who gave an unnatu- 
 ral antiquity to the astronomical discoveries of the Hindoos, was the 
 unfortunate Bailly. During his life, he possessed, at least among 
 less profound mathematicians, a very brilliant reputation ; but he was 
 infected with all the defects of his time, a love of bold and startling 
 hypothesis, splendidly supported by ingenious and diversified argu- 
 ments. " It was not for learned men that he wrote," says Delambre, 
 " he aspired to a more extensive reputation. He yielded to the 
 pleasure of entering into the lists with Voltaire ; he revived the old 
 romance of the Atlantis; he had a good many readers, and that ru- 
 ined him. The success of his first paradox led him to create others. 
 He devised his extinct nation ; and his astro/noin}/ perfected in my- 
 thological times ; he made every thing bear upon this favorite idea ; 
 and was not very scrupulous in his choice of means to give color to 
 his hypothesis."* In his History of Ancient Astronomy, he started 
 the theory here alluded to. By analyzing the astronomical formulas 
 of the Hindoos, as far as known through the imperfect communica- 
 tions of Le Gentil, he concluded that tliey must be based upon actu- 
 al observations, but that the present state and character of the Indians 
 will not allow us to consider them their original discoveries. He con- 
 sequently treats the actual astronomy of that country as only frag- 
 ments and wrecks of an earlier and far more perfect science ; and 
 adding to these conjectures others of another class, based upon sur- 
 mises, allegories, and obscure hints, he brings out his celebrated the- 
 ory, that a nation, which has long disappeared from the world, exist- 
 ed many ages ago, in the north of Asia, from which all the learning 
 of the southern peninsula was derived. The Indians, he says, formed 
 in his opinion, a fully constituted nation from the year 3553 before 
 
 * "Astronomie du iMoycn .Age." Par. 1809, p. xxxiv, 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 9.'21 
 
 Christ ; and this is the reduced date of their dynasties. It is aston- 
 ishing, he adds in another place, to find among the Brahmins astro- 
 nomical tables whicli are five or six thousand years old* I will give 
 you one specimen of his reasoning in favor of the northern origin of 
 astronomy. The Chinese have a temple dedicated, it is said, to the 
 northern stars; and it is called ' the palace of the great light.' It 
 contains no statue, but only an embroidered drapery, on which is in- 
 scribed, " To the spirit of the god Petou." The Petous are, he says, 
 according to Magelhaens, the stars of the north. " But may not this 
 temple be dedicated to the aurora boreaUs ? It would appear that 
 the name of palace of the great light' should suggest that conjecture. 
 Why should they have made a divinity of the northern stars rather 
 than those of any other quarter? They have nothing remarkable, 
 whereas the phenomena of the aurora borealis, those crowns, those 
 rays, those streams of light, appear to have something in them quite 
 divine." This conjecture is then confirmed by another of M. de 
 Mairan, that Olympus was the seat of the Grecian gods, because that 
 mountain was particularly seen surrounded by the northern lights. 
 But then the aurora borealis is not at all remarkable in China; for 
 in thirty-two years. Father Perennin never saw any thing worthy of 
 the name. " We therefore see," thus he concludes, " in this spe- 
 cies of worship, rendered to the northern lights and to the stars of the 
 north," (here the two objects before exchanged are artfully united,) 
 " a very strong trace of the superstition of an earlier period, and of 
 the anterior seat of the Chinese in a more northern climate, where 
 the phenomenon of the aurora borealis, being more extended and 
 more frequent, must have made a more lively impression !"t 
 
 Is this science, or is it romance? is it history or vision ? Even 
 Voltaire, with all his love for the new and the rash, could not stom- 
 ach this creation of a new people, and this attribution of the origin of 
 astronomy, which all the world thought must have required bright 
 skies and mild climates, to the country of almost perpetual snows 
 and hazy mountains ; and he addressed to Bailly several letters, 
 written with all that levity of tone, and carelessness about the truth 
 or falsehood of the matter which characterizes all his works. He 
 merely seems anxious not to give up the Brahmins, whom he had 
 taken under his special protection, or sacrifice his own favorite the- 
 
 * " Histoire de rAstronomie ancienne." Par. 1775, pp. 107, 115. 
 
 t Page 101. 
 
228 
 
 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 ories on the historical antiquity of the Indians. " Nothing ever came 
 out to us from Scythia," he writes, " except tigers who have eaten 
 up our lambs. Some of these tigers, it is true, have been a little 
 astronomical, when they have gained leisure, after sacking In- 
 dia. But are we to suppose that these tigers came forth from 
 their lairs, with quadrants and astrolabes ? . . . Who ever heard of 
 any Greek philosopher going to seek science in the country of Gog 
 and Magog .'"* In his answers, Bailly enters fully into the explana- 
 tion and grounds of his theory. It is, I must own, almost nauseous 
 to read the terms of fulsome compliment in which he addresses the 
 superficial master of infidelity. " The Brahmins," he replies to 
 these observations, " would be indeed proud, if they knew they pos- 
 sessed such an apologist. More enlightened than they can ever have 
 been, you possess the reputation which they enjoyed in antiquity. 
 Men go now to Ferney as they used to Benares; but Pythagoras 
 would have been better instructed by you ; for the Tacitus, the Eu- 
 ripides, and the Homer of the age, is, by himself worth all that an- 
 cient academy." — " If the immortal songs of the Grecian bard no 
 longer existed," he writes in another place, " M. de Voltaire, after 
 having described the combats and triumphs of the good Henry, would 
 have conceived how Homer wrote the Iliad, and deserved his fame."t 
 But, passing over these disgusting flatteries, I need only say that, in 
 this work, Bailly sums up and presents in a more popular form, the 
 arguments produced in his more scientific work in favor of his prime- 
 val people, source of all human science. 
 
 Still he was not contented ; and he undertook the more formida- 
 ble task, of verifying mathematically the Indian calculations, and re- 
 ducing to the test of rigid formulas, the astronomical processes and 
 results contained in the statements of travellers and missionaries. It 
 would be foreign to my plan, and could hardly be interesting to you, 
 to follow him step by step in this toilsome undertaking. I will con- 
 tent myself, therefore, with giving you a slight idea of his method 
 and results. 
 
 Three sets of astronomical tables had been made known in Eu- 
 rope ; one of these was manifestly borrowed from another of the 
 number, and therefore Bailly excludes it. The other two profess to 
 have different dates, the one 1491 of our era, the other 3102 before 
 
 * " Lettres sur I'origiue des sciences." — Lond. and Par. 1777. p. 6. 
 f Pages 16^207, 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 229 
 
 it. Bailly proceeds to establish that it was exceedingly improbable, 
 that the Indians borrowed their date frona other nations, because in 
 their methods they differ essentially from them. He concludes that 
 both the periods must have been fixed by actual observation ; inas- 
 much as the account given of the heaven? at each is accurate. The 
 places of the sun and moon are given, for the early period, with a 
 correctness that could not be obtained by calculating from our best 
 tables ; there is mention of a conjunction of all the planets, and the 
 tables of Cassini prove that such a conjunction occurred about that 
 period, though Venus was not in the number.* All these particulars 
 which I have very unscientifically stated, are apparently established 
 by rigid calculation, through the course of his work. 
 
 Such was the specious theory of this unfortunate man. In his 
 earlier work, he had imagined the scientific researches of his extinct 
 nation to be antediluvian, and supposed the Indians, Chaldees, and 
 others, to be the races who inherited the broken fragments of early 
 science, after the great catastrophe.! In this, however, no notice is 
 taken of that hypothesis, but the astronomy of India is treated as an 
 indigenous invention ; or, at least, Bailly contents himself with at- 
 tempting to demonstrate that the supposed date of that early observa- 
 tion in India must be correct. It was not, however, long before, 
 among his own scientific countrymen, he found an adversary fully 
 equal to the task of confuting his romantic theory. Delambre, in 
 his " History of Ancient Astronomy," was necessarily led to treat of 
 the supposed observations of the Hindoos ; and, without entering 
 into any very profound mathematical examination of the processes 
 and fornmlas so extolled by his fellow-academician, laid open, one 
 by one, the inaccuracies committed by him in the statement of the 
 question, and his gratuitous assumption of the data on which he con- 
 ducted them. He shows that there is no ground on earth to admit 
 the truth of the supposed observations; but approves of the solutions 
 given by the English writers, of whom I shall presently speak. t 
 
 We may perhaps, allow that the tone in which Delambre con- 
 ducts his confutation of Bailly, is not such as would greatly delight 
 an admirer'of his dreams. For throughout there is but little respect 
 
 * " Trait^ de rAsironomie Indienne et Orientale." Par. 1787, p. 
 XX. seqq. 
 
 t Histoire de rAstronotnie," p. 89. 
 
 \ Histoire de I'Astronomie ancienne." Par. 1817, pp. 400, eeq. 
 
230 LKCTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 shown to the science or to the character of that philosopher ; not 
 only the correctness of his mathematical inductions, but the fairness 
 of his statements, is constantly called in question. It was in our 
 country that Bailiy found a champion to undertake his defence. 
 Between the epoch at which Bailiy wrote, and the time when Delam- 
 bre confuted him, much important light, as I have hinted, had been 
 thrown on the question ; and the publication of a valuable collection 
 of Indian mathematical treatises by Mr. Colebrooke, gave an oppor- 
 tunity to the Edinburgh Review to exalt the antiquity of Hindoo 
 science, and censure the conduct of Delambre. The occasion, I 
 think it must be owned, was a strange one ; for Colebrooke's work 
 affords strong presumptive grounds for supposing the comparatively 
 modern origin of mathematics in India. For he gives us, in his 
 valuable " Notes and Illustrations to his Preliminary Discourse," a 
 list furnished l)y the astronomers of Ujjayani to Dr. Hunter, of their 
 most celebrated astronomical writers; and the oldest of these is 
 Varaha-Mihira, whom they place in the third century of the Chris- 
 tian era. But of him there is nothing known, whereas another as- 
 tronomer of the same name is very celebrated, and him Colebrooke 
 shows to have lived, as is stated in Dr. Hunter's table, about the 
 latter end of the sixth century. He quotes, it is true, more ancient 
 treatises, called the five Siddhantas, but there is time enough for 
 these to have existed and become old before his age, without arriving 
 at any very extraordinary antiquity.* In like manner, Brahmegupta, 
 one of the oldest mathematical writers extant, some of whose treatises 
 Mr. Colebrooke published in this collection, cannot be considered 
 older than the seventh century ; nay, this sagacious and critical 
 orientalist, after showing the probabilities in favor of Aryabhatta's 
 being the father and founder of Hindoo algebra, proceeds to establish 
 his antiquity ; and concludes that he flourished " as far back as the 
 fifth century of the Christian era, and perhaps in an earlier age." 
 He was thus nearly contemporary with Diophantus ; though Mr. 
 Colebrooke thinks he was superior to the Greek mathematician, in 
 having methods of solving complicated equations, which the other 
 did not possess. t These statements and acknowledgments of so 
 competent a judge as Colebrooke, could not have been well supposed 
 
 * Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration, from the Sanscrit." 
 Lond. 1817, pp. xxxiii., xlviii. But see "Bentley's Historical View of 
 the Hindoo Astronomy." Lond. 1825, p. 167. 
 
 t P. X. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 231 
 
 to form a good foundation for an assertion of the Hindoo claims to 
 great antiquity in astronomical renown. But the reviewer, admitting 
 all these facts, boldly asserts that we must by no means consider 
 Aryabhatta as the inventor of his methods, but admit that many ages 
 must have elapsed between their first invention and his improvements.* 
 Though the writer confesses that Bailly was inaccurate, from want of 
 local knowledge, from too great confidence in his informers, and 
 from the spirit of system which carried him away, he still maintains 
 that not only is the originality of Hindoo science quite vindicated by 
 Mr. Colebrooke's publication, but that all now must confess that 
 science to be only a wreck of what flourished in the Indian peninsula 
 when the Sanscrit was a living language, or perhaps, " some parent 
 language, still more ancient, sent forth those roots which have struck 
 with more or less firmness into the dialects of so many and so remote 
 nations, both of the East and of the West."t A conclusion which 
 would lead us back far beyond all reach of history, and pretty nearly 
 to what Bailly would have desired. 
 
 As the name of Delambre was mentioned somewhat invidiously, 
 with a charge of undue severity upon the memory of his brother 
 academician, the learned astronomer lost no time in replying to the 
 reasonings, as well as the censure of the reviewer ; and an opportuni- 
 ty was afforded him by the publication of his work on the Astronomy 
 of the Middle Ages. In his preliminary discourse, he examines in 
 detail the different grounds for admiration proposed by the anony- 
 mous critic ; and concludes that, although the Indians may have now 
 been shown to have acquired a certain degree of skill in solving 
 algebraical problems more remarkable for their ingenuity than for 
 their utility, nothing has been yet done to prove them possessed of 
 anything approaching to a correct and scientific knowledge of as- 
 tronomy, j' 
 
 If I have dwelt at some length upon the opinions of Delambre, it 
 would not be fair to omit the concurrence in the same sentiments, of 
 another celebrated historian of mathematical science, who wrote too 
 w hile his country was still more under the influence of that philoso- 
 phical school to which Bailly had unfortunately attached himself I 
 allude to Montucla j who with the utmost impartiality addresses him- 
 
 * Edinb. Rev. vol. xxix. p. 143. 
 
 t P. H53. 
 
 1 " Histoire de I'Astronomie du Moyeii Age." Par. 1819, p. x.vxvii. 
 
232 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 self to the task of examining the grounds assigned by Bailly for the 
 excessive antiquity of the Hindoo astronomy. He analyzes, for in- 
 stance, the great period of the Cali-Yuga, consisting of 4,320,000 
 years, and finds that if divided by 24,000. it gives as quotient 180; 
 which gives rise to a suspicion that this period is only the half of 
 another composing the product of 24,000 by 360. Now, as the 
 Arabs consider 24,000 years the term in which the fixed stars, by 
 their progressive movement, would make one complete revolution, it 
 would appear that having borrowed this idea from them, the Indians 
 made their great period equivalent to a year of 300 days, the primi- 
 tive length of the year, each day of which consists of one complete 
 revolution of the heavens. This he confirms from similar calcula- 
 tions among the Arabs ; and this, among others, is a reason for his 
 concluding that, so far from Indian astronomy boasting such wonder- 
 ful antiquity as his ill-fated countryman had imagined, it was borrow- 
 ed from the inhabitants of western Asia.* 
 
 But it is fair to turn to the labors of our countrymen in this 
 branch of astronomical history. Mr. Davis was the first, as Cole- 
 brooke has remarked, to give an accurate account of Hindoo as- 
 tronomy from native treatises. Montucla had observed that the 
 Surya Siddhanta, an astronomical work supposed to have been in- 
 spired, would be a precious acquisition ; " but who," he adds, " will 
 ever force these mysterious men to communicate it ?"t It is precise- 
 ly from this very work that Mr. Davis drew his materials ; and he 
 states that he found no jealousy on the part of the Brahmins in either 
 communicating the book, or assisting to explain it. The object of 
 his researches was merely to discover the processes or formulas by 
 which the Hindoos calculate their eclipses ; and thus far he may ap- 
 pear to throw little or no light upon the subject of our inquiry. But 
 still it is manifest, from his preliminary remarks, that he considers 
 the remote periods assumed by the Hindoos as the bases or points of 
 departure for their calculations, to have been assumed arbitrarily by 
 a retrograde computation, and not selected, as Bailly fancied, by 
 actual observation.! 
 
 Mr. Bentley, however, must be acknowledged to have most 
 earnestly and most successfully studied this and other important 
 
 * " Histoire des Math^matiques." Par. n. vii. tom. i. p. 429. 
 
 t P. 443. 
 
 X " Asiatic Researches," vol. ii. p. 228, ed. Calcutta. 
 
EARLY HI=TORY. ^33 
 
 works of Indian astronomy, with a view to determine tlie true an- 
 tiquity of tlie science : and with his researches, which extend over a 
 long period of time, I shall close this portion of my task. His first 
 essay upon this subject appeared in the sixth volume of ihe " Asiatic 
 Researches." It may be divided into two parts. In the first, he 
 €xamines the astronomical methods of the Indians, and shows how 
 easily a European unacquainted with them might fall into grievous 
 error in assigning their date. He then proceeds to investigate the 
 age of the Surya Siddhanta, to which the Brahmins modestly give an 
 age of sundry millions of years. " The most correct and certain 
 mode of investigating the antiquity of Hindoo astronomical works," 
 he writes, "is by comparing the positions and motions of the planets 
 computed from them, with those deduced from accurate European 
 tables. For, it must be obvious, that every astronomer, let the princi- 
 ple of his system be what it will, whether real or artificial, must en- 
 deavor to give the true position of the planets in his own time ; or, at 
 least, as near as he can, or the nature of his system will permit; 
 otherwise his labor will be totally useless. Therefore, having the 
 positions and motions of the sun, moon, and planets, at any proposed 
 instant of time, given by computation from any original Hindoo 
 system; and having also their positions and motions deduced from 
 correct European tables for the same instant ; we can from them de- 
 termine the points of time back, when their respective positions were 
 precisely the same in both."* Mr. Bentley proceeds to apply this 
 simple rule. He takes his data, on the one side, from the Indian 
 Treatise, and on the other from Lalande's Tables ; and by finding 
 the number of years requisite to give the erroneous results deducible 
 from the former, he discovers diflferent periods of 600, 700, and 800 
 years, as having elapsed from the time it was composed. But not 
 so content, Mr. Bentley gives strong reasons to conclude that its au- 
 thor was Varaha, whose disciple, Sotanund, is known to have lived 
 about 700 years ago, a period corresponding with the mean given by 
 the deductions from the Surya Siddhanta itself.t 
 
 The critical periodical, which I before mentioned, as having so 
 earnestly defended Bailly's fanciful theories, was thereby only follow- 
 ing up the views it had taken in its first number, of Mr. Bentley's 
 labors. To the severe and studied attack which it made upon the 
 
 * P. 564. 
 
 t P. 573. This, however, lias been denied by Mr. Coiebrooke, in 
 his "Algebra." 
 
 30 
 
234 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 essay I have ([noted, he answered in a strong and clear manner, in 
 the eighth volume of the " Researches ;"* but I pass over this paper, 
 because he has since given a more enlarged and corrected, and far 
 more valuable explanation of his views ; and this I proceed to men- 
 tion. In the very year that Mr. Bentley published his "Historical 
 view of the Hindoo Astronomy," the learned Ideler at Berlin, com- 
 plained that no one had as yet been found, who united together a 
 competent knowledge of the Sanscrit language and of astronomy.! 
 In this instance, however, these two acquirements seem to have been 
 combined with that firmness of purpose, and eagerness of inquiry, 
 which were necessary for directing them in their troublesome under- 
 taking ; and probably, the severity wherewith their possessor had 
 been treated for his first attempt, nerved him to the task, and ma- 
 terially forwarded the researches which they were intended to impede. 
 In this work, Mr. Bentley, after a preface, in which he confirms 
 his former assertions regarding the Surya Siddhanta by new calcula- 
 tions, treats systematically of the ditTerent epochs into which Hindoo 
 astronomy may be divided. He establishes eight distinct ages or 
 periods in its history, each of which he endeavors to define and fix 
 by astronomical data. The first operation in any system of astrono- 
 my, must be the division of the heavens ; without which all astrono- 
 mical determinations would be impracticable. The earliest Indian 
 division is into lunar mansions, formerly 28, and now 27 in number. 
 While history places this operation at a period between 1528 and 
 1375 B. c, the astronomical data mentioned in conjunction with it, 
 exactly coincide. For the place of the equinoxial and solstitial 
 poirits, gives the year 1426 u. c. ; and the singular mythology of the 
 operation, which states the planets to have been born from different 
 daughters of Daksha, when reduced to the astronomical language of 
 occultations of the moon in the respective lunar mansions, gives pre- 
 cisely the same period, 1425 b. c.| Now, if this calculation is cor- 
 rect, we have undoubtedly a date for the preliminary operation of 
 Hindoo astronomy, quite within the range of probability. The next 
 observation on record, Mr. Bentley places in 1881 before the Chris- 
 tian era: when the sun and moon were in conjunction, and the as- 
 tronomers found that the colures had fallen back 3° 20' from their po- 
 
 * Pp. 193, el seqq. 
 
 t '• llaudliucli dor IMailieuiaiibcIieii and 'j'eclinisclicn Chrouologie." 
 lie din, 1825, vol. i. p. 5. 
 i P. 4. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. *235 
 
 sition at the former observation. This consists of the giving proper 
 names to the months; the conditions of which decide the period. 
 
 The next important era, which is decided by the astronomical 
 data it supposes, is the age of Rama, whose exploits form the noblest 
 theme of Indian poetry. " The Ramayuna," or epic poem which 
 celebrates him, gives a minute description of the heavens at his birth, 
 and upon his reaching his twenty-tirst year ; and the result is, that 
 such a state could only have occurred about 961 years before Christ.* 
 There is, too, I may remark, in his history, a passage minutely cor- 
 responding with the battle of the gods and giants in Greek mythology. 
 
 I will not follow Mr. Bentley through the later stages of his 
 course ; because all that we can possibly desire is gained in the first. 
 It matters little to us, that the Hindoos should place the ages of their 
 astronomers back in absurd antiquity ; that Garga and Parasara 
 should be said by them to have lived and written 3100 years before 
 Christ ; so long as it can be proved that the science, in which they 
 were manifestly proficients, did not commence its preliminary obser- 
 vations till many centuries later. But it is just to say, that the 
 Vasishta Siddhanta, and the Surya Siddhanta, which the Hindoos 
 used to date at some million or two of years back, have been brought 
 down by his computations, to the tenth or eleventh century of the 
 Christian era. 
 
 There is one Indian legend of consideiable importance, the age 
 of which Mr. Bentley endeavors to decide by astronomical computa- 
 tion ; that is the story of Krishna, the Indian Apollo. In native le- 
 gends he is represented as an Avatar, or incarnation of the Divinity ; 
 at his birth, choirs of Devatas sung hymns of praise, while shepherds 
 surrounded his cradle ; it was necessary to conceal his birth from the 
 tyrant Cansa, to whom it had been foretold that the infant should 
 destroy him. The child escaped, with his parents, beyond the coast 
 of Yamouna. For a time he lived in obscurity ; but then commen- 
 ced a public life, distinguished for prowess and beneficence ; he slew 
 tyrants and protected the poor ; he washed the feet of the Brahmins, 
 and preached the most perfect doctrine ; but at length the power of 
 his enemies prevailed, he was nailed, according to one account, to a 
 tree by an arrow, and foretold before dying the miseries which would 
 take place in the Cali Yuga, or wicked age of the world, thirty-six 
 
 * P. 15. 
 
236 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 years after his death.* Can we be surprised that the enemies of 
 Christianity should hvive seized upon this legend as containing the 
 original of our gospel history ? The names Christ and Krishna, 
 perverted by some of them into Kristna, were pronounced identical, 
 and the numerous parallelisms between their histories declared too 
 clearly defined to permit any doubt respecting their being one and 
 the same individual. t The ease with which the first explorers of 
 Indian letters allowed themselves to be borne away by their enthu- 
 siasm, towards ascribing extravagant antiquity to every thing they 
 found, came in here to aid these bold assertions. For Sir W. 
 Jones, who was considered an infallible authority in all such matters, 
 and whose judgment certainly deserves due consideration, had pro- 
 nounced it quite certain " that the name of Krishna, and the general 
 outline of his history, were long anterior to the lifeof our Saviour, and 
 probably to the time of Homer." Hence, acknowledging the im- 
 possibility of so many casual coincidences, in the two lives or his- 
 tories, he conjectures that the points of minute resemblance were 
 engrafted, in later times, from spurious gospels, upon the original 
 legend. I Maurice, in like manner, admits its antiquity, and meets 
 its difficulties in a manner still less qualified to assist an adversary of 
 Christianity, by considering it a remnant of an ancient, primeval tra- 
 dition, concerning the future coming of a Redeemer, who was to be 
 truly an Avatar, or incarnation of the Deity.§ 
 
 Now, it is to the examination of the age when this god-like hero 
 lived, that Mr. Bentley has applied astronomical calculation. For he 
 diligently sought out, in the notices regarding him, some data upon 
 which to base an inquiry into the era of his life ; and after finding all 
 these too scanty, though it was stated that the celebrated astrono- 
 mer, Garga, assisted at his birth, and described the state of the heav- 
 ens at that interesting moment, he was fortunate enough to procure 
 the Jcmampatra of Krishna, which contains the position of the planets 
 at the time of his birth. From computation, grounded upon Europe- 
 an tables, reduced to the meridian of Ujein, it appears that the 
 
 * See this legend in Paulinus, a S. Bartliolonieeo " Systeina Brah- 
 niinicum." Rome, 1802, [)|). 14(j. seqq. Creuzer's "Religions de I'Anti- 
 quit6," par Guigniaiit. Tom. i. Par. J825, p. 205. 
 
 t " Volney's Rtiiii.s, or Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires.'* 
 Pat: 1820, p. 2G7. 
 
 J " Asiatic Researc.Ius," vol. i. p. 273. 
 
 § " History of Hindooslan," LonJ. 1824, vol. ii. p. 225. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 237 
 
 heavens can only have been as there described on the 7th of August, 
 A. D. 600.* Mr. Bentley therefore concludes that this legend was an 
 artful imitation of Christianity, framed by the Brahmins for the ex- 
 press purpose of withholding the natives from embracing the new 
 religion, which had begun to penetrate to the uttermost bounds of the 
 East. 
 
 It may probably happen that many will not agree with this writer 
 in some of his opinions ; and I must say that, without more positive 
 proof, I cannot go to the lengths he does upon many particular points. 
 But, still, to his demonstration of the modern date assignable to 
 Indian observations, and Hindoo astronomical works, he certainly 
 has the suffrages of the best modern mathematicians. Not to men- 
 tion Delambre, who considered his paper on the age of the Surya 
 Siddhanta as quite satisfactory, we have the opinion of Schaubach, 
 who maintains all the knowledge possessed by the Hindoos, in astro- 
 nomy, to be derived from the Arabs, and, consequently, to belong 
 rather to modern, than to ancient, science. t Laplace, whose name 
 will surely be respected by every astronomer of modern times, far 
 beyond that of the over-rated Bailly, whose friend and warm admirer 
 he was, thus expresses himself upon this matter. " The origin of 
 astronomy in Persia and India is lost, as among all other nations, in 
 the darkness of their ancient history. The Indian tables suppose a 
 very advanced state of astronomy ; but there is every reason to be- 
 lieve that they can claim no very high antiquity. Herein I differ, 
 with pain, from an illustrious and unfortunate friend." This ex- 
 pression clearly shows, that it was from no leaning towards our 
 cause that Laplace decided against the claims of Sanscrit astronomy. 
 After these remarks, he proceeds to a detailed examination of the 
 point, which, I am sure I have quite often enough repeated, whether 
 the observations placed by the Indian tables, as bases for their cal- 
 culations, 1491 and 3102 years before the Christian era, were actu- 
 ally ever made ; and concludes that they were not, and that the 
 tables, were not grounded upon any true observation, because the 
 conjunctions which they suppose cannot have taken place. " The 
 same results," he concludes, " are obtained from the mean motions 
 assigned by them to the moon, in reference to its perigee, its nodes, 
 and the sun ; which, being more accelerated than they are according 
 
 * P. 111. 
 
 t In the Baron de Zach's " Monatliche Correspondenz," Feb, and 
 March 1813. 
 
ii38 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 to Ptolemy, indicate that they are posterior to that astronomer. For 
 we know from the theory of universal gravitation, that these three 
 movements have been accelerated for a great number of years. Thus 
 the results of this theory, so important for lunar astronomy, serve also 
 to elucidate chronology."* To these testimonies, we may add that 
 of Dr. Maskelyne, personally communicated to Mr. Bentley,t of 
 Heeren,t Cuvier,§ and Klaproth, who thus writes. " Les tables as- 
 tronomiques des Hindous, auxquelles on avait attribue une antiquite 
 prodigieuse, ont ete construites dans le septieme siecle de I'ere vul- 
 gaire, et ont ete posterieurement reportees par des calculs a une 
 epoque anterieure."|| 
 
 After these confirmatory authorities, in addition to the opinions 
 of the older French mathematicians before cited, we may reasonably 
 doubt whether any other champion will arise to defend the excessive 
 antiquity of Indian astronomical science. It will be difficult, at 
 any rate, to reinstate its pretensions in such a position, as shall threat- 
 en a conflict with the Mosaic chronology. There are other branch- 
 es of Indian learning, which must appear to you deserving of equal 
 investigation, such as the age of the sacred and philosophical writings 
 to which such absurd antiquity was attributed, by some men, a few 
 years back ; but as it is my intention, in pursuance of my promise, to 
 dedicate a special discourse to Oriental Literature, I shall reserve to 
 it, what appears to me most important on this head. I will, therefore, 
 pass from the astronomy to the history of the Indians, and see if it 
 can, any more than the other, pretend to rival in age the records of 
 the Pentateuch. 
 
 It was, indeed, only to be expected that the national ambition, 
 which led to extravagance in fixing an epoch for the rise of science, 
 should have suggested a corresponding remoteness of time, for the 
 governments under which it flourished. One fiction necessarily sup- 
 posed the other ; and when Oriental nations set about giving a my- 
 thological era to their origin and early history, they do not stop at 
 
 * "Exposition du Systeme du Monde," 6th ed. Bruxelles, 1827, 
 p. 427. 
 
 t " Preface," p. xxv. 
 
 \ " Ideen liber die Politik, Handel uud Verkehr der alten Volker," 
 4th ed. 1 Til. 3 Abtheil, p. J 42. 
 
 § " Cuvier, Discours, prelim." 8vo. Par. 1825, p. 238. 
 
 n " M^molres relatifs A I'Asie," Par. 1824, p. 397. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 239 
 
 trifles, or allow themselves to be restrained by the European rule of 
 attending to probabilities. A mllion of years are as soon invented 
 as a thousand ; very few kings are required to fill them with their 
 reigns, if you give them a gross of centuries a-piece ; and your read- 
 ers will believe it all, if you can only get them over the first step, that 
 of believing the kings to have been the descendants of the sun and 
 moon, or some such unearthly progenitors. We cannot, indeed, help 
 pitying those who have been deceived into the belief of such absurd- 
 ities ; but I think we must also be inclined to extend our compas- 
 sion to those who first attempted to analyze the mass of fable pre- 
 sented to us by Indian history, and to separate the few grains of truth 
 which lay concealed in this Augean confusion. 
 
 Sir W. Jones led the way in this, as in most branches of Indian 
 research. He took, for the ground-work of his inquiries, the genea- 
 logical list of kings, extracted from the Puranas, by the pundit 
 Rhadacanta; and sat down to the task of unravelling their history, 
 with a determination not to be swayed by any consideration, however 
 sacred, towards an unfair decision. " Attached," he writes, " to no 
 system, and as much disposed to reject the Mosaic history, if it be 
 proved erroneous, as to believe it, if it be confirmed by sound rea- 
 soning, from indubitable evidence, I proceed to lay before you a con- 
 cise account of Indian Chronology, extracted from Sanscrit books."* 
 He soon, however, discovered that he had to deal with the high-born 
 races before alluded to, which claimed exemption from all the laws 
 which limit the duration of mortal dynasties. Yet, nothing daunted 
 by this appalling discovery, which would have driven a less enthusi- 
 astic inquirer to despair, he attempts to account for these absurdities, 
 and to reconcile all contradiction. He draws up tables of kings and 
 assigns dates to them, according to the most plausible conjectures he 
 can devise. The result of these very unsatisfactory labors, you shall 
 hear in his own words. — " Thus," he concludes, "have we given a 
 sketch of Indian history, through the longest period fairly assignable 
 to it ; and have traced the foundation of the Indian empire above 
 3800 years from the present tirae.t" Taking, therefore, even from 
 a most prejudiced investigator, the extent to which the annals of Hin- 
 doostan can possibly be stretched, with any regard to plausibility, 
 
 * "On tlie Chronology of the Hindoos. — Asiatic Researches," vol. 
 ii. p. 11. 
 
 t Page 145. 
 
240 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 we have the establishment of a government in that country no earlier 
 than 'iOOO years before Christ, the age of Abraham, when the book 
 of Genesis represents Egypt as possessing an established dynasty, 
 and commerce and literature already flourishing in Phenicia. 
 
 Sir W. Jones was followed by Mr. Wilfort, who endeavored to re- 
 duce, to something like order, the dynasties of Maghada, given in 
 the Puranas.* Hamilton succeeded him in the same course ;t but 
 both those patient investigators found themselves checked at every 
 step by wilful misrepresentations or blundering contradictions. The 
 first of these writers is an unfortunate example of the extent to which 
 pundits will carry their impositions, and consequently, aproof of how 
 far we are to trust them in those passages of their books which would 
 carry us back to unreasonable antiquity. For Mr. Wilfort found 
 that a most confidential man, employed by him at considerable ex- 
 pense, to assist him in his labors, did not hesitate to erase and alter 
 passages in his most sacred books ; and even when he found that the 
 originals would have to be collated to verify his extracts, went so far 
 as to compose thousands of verses to screen himself from discovery. | 
 Mr. Wilfort found, in reference to our subject, that these holy men 
 of India had no scruple about inventing names, to insert between 
 those of mote celebrated heroes, and defended their conduct on the 
 ground that such had been the practice of their predecessors. Now, 
 after all due allowances and abatements have been made, we shall 
 find but sorry materials left wherewith to construct any certain, or 
 even probable history. For, the two authors I have mentioned, have 
 only, in the end, produced a series of personages, for whose real ex- 
 istence we have no better authority than poems and mythologies. 
 
 ** In that case," says a sagacious writer, who, however, is rather 
 inclined to overrate than to depress the antiquity of Hindoo literature, 
 " they are of no more authority than the generations of heroes and 
 kings among the Helleni ; and the tables, so published, hold the 
 the same rank in Indian mythology, which those of Apollodorus do in 
 the Grecian. We cannot expect to find in them any critical or 
 chronological history ; it is one by poets composed, and by poets 
 preserved ; and, therefore, in this respect a poetical history, without 
 
 * "On the kings of theMaghada, — Asiatic Researches," vol. ix. p. 82. 
 
 f " Genealogies of the Hindoos extracted from their sacred writ- 
 ings." Edinb. 1819. 
 
 I " Asiat. Res." vol. viii. p. 250. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 241 
 
 being, on that account, entirely a fictitious history."* " The chro- 
 nology and history of the Hindoos/' writes another, " are in general 
 as poetical and ideal as their geography. In this people, the imag- 
 ination prevails over every other faculty."! In fact, Klaproth pla- 
 ces the commencement of true chronological history in India in the 
 twelfth century of our era. J 
 
 Heeren, however, has taken considerable pains to trace the Hin- 
 doos back to their earliest institutions, and reconstruct their earliest 
 political state. He enters at length into proofs that the caste of 
 Brahmins are a different nation or tribe from the inhabitants of the 
 peninsula, and follows their march from their supposed mountain- 
 seats in the north, along a line marked by temples to the south. He 
 cites the authority of travellers to prove that they are of a lighter com- 
 plexion than men of the other castes; an assertion which, you will 
 remember, is at variance with the observations of other travellers, 
 whom I quoted to you, in treating of the varieties in the human spe- 
 cies. However, I do not see any strong objection to this hypothesis, 
 which alone seems to account for the absolute sway of the Brahmins 
 over the bulk of the nation. § And, after all, though this supposes a 
 very remote period, (for the oldest accounts of India show this system 
 to have been firmly grounded in their times,) it does not lead us to 
 any definite result. 
 
 The war between the Coros and Pandos, the Greeks and Trojans 
 ef Sanscrit poetry, appears to him to afford, in its historical basis, ev- 
 idence of a very early political organization in the regions of the 
 Ganges. But so far, again, we have only great antiquity — no deci- 
 sive chronological epoch. And in reference to this event, it is con- 
 sistent to remark, that it is so essentially connected with the his- 
 tory of Krishna, that if Mr. Bentley's theory regarding this be correct, 
 the other must share its fate, and be reckoned a modern invention. 
 
 However, Heeren applies himself patiently to the task of arranging 
 and reconciling the various fragments which remain of the early an- 
 nals ; he endeavors to discover what were the earliest states, and 
 
 * " Es ist eine von Dichtern behandelte, und durch Dichter erhal- 
 tene (Geschichte ;) also in diesem Sinne eine Dichter-Gescliichte, ohne 
 das sie deshalb eine ganzlich erdichte Geschichte zu seyn braucht." — 
 Heeren, ubi sup. p. 242. 
 
 i "Guigniaut on Creuzer," ubi sup. torn. i. 2de partie, p. 585. 
 
 I Ubi sup. p. 412. ^ Ubi sup. p. 357. 
 
 31 
 
242 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 the contemporary dynasties which possessed them ; but the results at 
 which he arrives, after his long investigation, through which I have 
 no wish to lead you, is such as need not alarm the most timid believ- 
 er. " From all the foregoing considerations," he writes, " we may 
 conclude the region of the Ganges to have been the seat of consider- 
 able kingdoms and flourishing cities, many centuries, probably even 
 2000 years, before Christ."* Such, then, are his conclusions. In- 
 stead of the six thousand years before Alexander, attributed by some 
 writers, on the credit of Arrian, or the millions deduced from the fa- 
 bles of the Brahmins, we have, as Jones and others had conjectured, 
 the age of Abraham, as the earliest historical epoch of an organized 
 community in India. 
 
 After having thus, and at some length, carried you through the 
 history of Indian chronology during the last forty years, it would be 
 both a grievous omission, and a violence to my feelings, to pass over 
 without due notice the labors of one, whom I have the honor to 
 count among my audience, and whose presence it might be thought 
 should have made me shrink from speaking on researches which he 
 may be said to have completed. I am sure that no one can peruse 
 the two splendid volumes on the " Annals and Antiquities of Rajas- 
 than,"t without feeling that their author has been able to bring to re- 
 searches apparently exhausted, a stock at once of new materials and 
 of superior sagacity, by which he has thrown considerable light, not 
 only upon the subject which occupies us now, but likewise on 
 those which have preceded it. And if we descend to the later peri- 
 ods of history, he has certainly been sufficiently fortunate to find a 
 vast unoccupied tract to explore, in the annals of those States which 
 he has been the first to describe. He has thus been able to combine, 
 what few discoverers before him have had the good fortune to unite, 
 new events with a new field, the varied drama of a history hardly 
 known, with a theatre decked out in the most gorgeous scenery 
 which nature can give, and with the most sumptuous monuments 
 that eastern art could add. Whether we consider the geographical, 
 the historical, or the artistic additions to our knowledge of India 
 communicated in this work, or the interest of the personal narrative 
 
 * Page 272. 
 
 t By Lieut. Col. James Tod, LonJ. vol. i. 1829, vol. ii. 1832. 
 Since these lectiircs were delivered, death has robbed our literature of 
 this learned, diligent and atniable man. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 243 
 
 it contains, we may safely, I think, rank it among the most valuable, 
 as well as among the most beautiful works upon eastern literature. 
 
 Colonel Tod has certainly gone further than any of his predeces- 
 sors in correcting and arranging the lists of Indian dynasties. He 
 shows that there is a general conformity between the genealogies 
 produced by Jones, Bentley and Wilfort, and such as he himself had 
 collected from different sources ; and as there is sufficient discrepan- 
 cy among them to warrant their being derived from various originals, 
 he concludes not improbably, that they have some foundation in truth. 
 The two principal races, as I before observed, are those of the Sun 
 and Moon : and it is remarkable that the number of princes in the 
 two lines, through the entire descent, preserves a tolerable proportion. 
 Now, assuming Boodha to be, what seems not unlikely, the regene- 
 rator of mankind after the deluge, as he is the beginning of the lunar 
 line of princes, we should have, according to the genealogical tables, 
 "fifty-five princes from Boodha to Crishna and Youdishtra ;" (I quote 
 Colonel Tod's own words,) "and, admitting an average of twenty 
 years for each reign, a period of eleven hundred years; which being 
 added to a like period calculated from thence to Vicramaditya, who 
 reigned fifty-six years before Christ, I venture to place the establish- 
 ment in India Proper of these two grand races, distinctively called 
 those of Soorya and Chandra, at about 2,256 years before the Chris- 
 tian era, at which period, though somewhat later, the Egyptian, Chi- 
 nese and Assyrian monarchies are generally stated to have been 
 established, and about a century and a half after that great event, 
 the Flood."* Thus far, certainly, there is nothing to excite a mo- 
 ment's uneasiness ; and if we take the chronology of the Septuagint, 
 which many moderns are disposed to follow, we have even an ampler 
 period between that scourge, and the epoch here allotted to the estab- 
 lishment of these royal houses. 
 
 What may serve to confirm this calculation, is the uniformity of 
 other results obtained by a similar process. 
 
 But the most original, and doubtless most valuable of Colonel 
 Tod's discoveries in the Hindoo annals, consist in the historical con- 
 nexions which he seems clearly to have established between the early 
 Indians and those tribes toward the West, which, we before saw, exhib- 
 ited a common origin, through the evidences of comparative philolo- 
 gy. He shows, in the first instance, that the Hindoos themselves es- 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 37. 
 
244 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 tablish the birth-place of tlieir nation towards the West, and probably 
 in the region of the Caucasus. But at different periods those tribes, 
 which remained in that portion of Asia, and had received the name 
 of Scythians, seem to have become the invaders of the new settle- 
 ments of their brethren, and to have considerably modified Indian 
 , manners and religion, at the same time they gave rise to some of the 
 j most distinguished lines of kings. About 600 years before Christ, 
 I we have notice of an irruption of those tribes into India, which is 
 \ nearly contemporary with a similar invasion, from the same quarter, 
 towards Asia Minor, the north of Europe, and eastward as far as 
 ^ Bactria, where they overthrew the Greek dominion. The ancient 
 Geta;, are to be discovered in the Jits of modern India, where they 
 are spread from the mountains of Joud to the shores of the Mekran, 
 and yet follow the same nomadic form of life which they did in their 
 more northern latitudes. The Asi of ancient history are probably 
 the Aswa race of India.* After establishing these resemblances in 
 name, the learned writer proceeds to trace such points of similarity 
 between the inhabitants of the north, and the present occupiers of 
 the Rajasthan, in dress, in theogony, in warlike customs, in religious 
 forms, and civil observances, as cannot leave any reasonable doubt 
 regarding the affinity of the two races. t Whether the hypothesis be 
 well sustained, that these resemblances arise from a subsequent in- 
 vasion, or whether they are remains of a primary affinity, may be, I 
 think, a matter of free discussion. And whether some of the ety- 
 mologies can be maintained I have reason to doubt ; for I fear in 
 some places the resemblance of names is not sufficiently confirmed 
 by historical data, to warrant our conclusion of identity of objects. 
 But all these are considerations of secondary importance ; quite 
 enough has been done by my learned friend to satisfy us of the earli- 
 er connexion between the tribes that yet occupy Scandinavia, and 
 those which still hold dominion in India. And this will afford 
 grounds for several reflections. 
 
 For, you will perceive how, on several occasions, besides ray 
 principal object of tracing the bearings of scientific researches upon 
 sacred truths, I have endeavored to call your attention to the light 
 which one pursuit casts upon another. And so, here, I wish you to 
 note how our former inquiries seem to receive striking illustration 
 from these totally different researches, yet so as to confirm still fur- 
 
 * Page 63. f Page 65—80. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 245 
 
 ther the evidence they gave in favor of the inspired narrative. Thus 
 we found, that every new step in the comparative study of languages 
 brought us nearer to a positive demonstration, that mankind were 
 originally one family ; and the investigation of the early history of 
 nations, assisted by the observation of their manners, religions, and 
 habits, brings us to precisely the same conclusion. Nor is this con- 
 fined merely to the members of the same ethnographic family, such 
 as the Germans and Indians ; but Colonel Tod has certainly pointed 
 out such curious coincidences between the origin assigned to their 
 respective nations by the Monguls and Chinese, and the early my- 
 thological annals of the Indians, as seem to place us, in the histori- 
 cal investigation of their common origin, much in the same position, 
 as the discoveries of Lepsius and others do in respect to the ethno- 
 graphical inquiry, that is, in the possession of strong probability, that 
 families of men, now completely distinguished by different languages, 
 may be shown to have been originally one. In each science perhaps 
 only one step has been made, but that is so successful, as to augur 
 still fuller and more satisfactory discoveries. And if the common 
 origin of these nations can be historically established, we have a 
 strong proof that some great and unknown cause must have acted, to 
 give each of them a language so essentially peculiar and distinct. 
 
 Again, by these researches, we have it still further proved, that 
 climate or some other cause may change the outward habit and phys- 
 iognomy of a people. For, taking the learned writer's hypothesis to 
 its full extent, and supposing the race now occupying the Rajasthan 
 to be a northern tribe, who invaded it from the north only GOO years 
 before Christ, indeed to be a portion of that nation which, about the 
 same period, took possession of Jutland, we have it shown how two 
 colonies of the same tribe may, inthe course of some centuries, have 
 acquired the most different physical characteristics ; the one receiv- 
 ing the fair and xanthous traits of the Dane, the other, the dusky hue 
 of the Indian. But, if we do not go so far, and only suppose the re- 
 semblances of names and manners to be traces of a primeval affinity, 
 we may still draw a similar conclusion, varying only in a compara- 
 tive vagueness of date, that the Getae of Scythia formed the fairest of 
 the Caucasian race, while those of Hindoostan rank among the dark- 
 est of the Mongul. This reflection, too, will go far to overthrow 
 Heeren's hypothesis of the existence of two different races in the In- 
 
 * Psge 56. 
 
246 LKCTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 dian peninsula, discernible at this day by variety of color, and con- 
 stituting the Brahmin and the inferior castes. 
 
 The complete resemblance between the mythological systems of 
 India, Greece, and Scandinavia, obvious not merely in the characters 
 and attributes of their respective deities, but even in their names and 
 in the minutest circumstances of their legends, is a discovery which 
 belongs to the earlier history of these studies. Sir W. Jones, Wil- 
 fort, and others, in the last generation, had abundantly established 
 this point. The last-mentioned writer also renewed with elaborate 
 care the old hypothesis, that a close affinity existed between the an- 
 cient worshippers of the Nile and the Ganges ; but, unfortunately, the 
 circumstances I have already detailed, regarding him, have cast a 
 damp upon the interest which his researches must have otherwise 
 excited. Col. Tod has, however, added many interesting points of 
 resemblance, to those which we already possessed, between the my- 
 thologies of the two countries. I will content myself with alluding 
 to his description of the festival ofGoure, as kept with great solem- 
 nity in Mewar, and to the remarks which he has added as a com- 
 mentary upon it.* Here then, again, we have an accession of 
 strength to those reasons which would lead us to suspect affinity be- 
 tween two nations belonging to different families, according to their 
 philological distribution. 
 
 This growing accumulation of proof in favor of the common ori- 
 gin of nations, drawn from researches which have no natural direc- 
 tion to its discovery, must greatly strengthen our confidence in the 
 usefulness of every study, when reduced to proper harmony with its 
 sister sciences, and made to advance with them at an even pace. 
 
 After having thus seen the chronology of India brought down 
 to reasonable limits, and new analogies discovered in its early 
 history, with the origin of other nations, there can be little to detain 
 us amidst the inhabitants of Asia. No other people of that continent 
 has affisrded scope for such assiduous investigation, partly because 
 none has materials of equal interest to stimulate the industry of schol- 
 ars, partly, because our connexion with that country has given us 
 greater opportunities of cultivating the language in which its records 
 are written. But that I may not appear uncourteous to other nations, 
 and that no suspicion may arise that their annals are not so easily 
 dealt with as those which I have discussed, I will briefly give you the 
 
 * Page 570. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 247 
 
 opinion of one or two writers who have, in our times, taken pains to 
 unravel their native chronologies. 
 
 Klaproth, in an essay several times reprinted by him, in various 
 forms and languages, has attempted to fix the dates for the commence- 
 ment of certain and of doubtful history, in different Asiatic nations, 
 following chiefly their own historians.* He soon disposes of all 
 Mohammedan kingdoms which have no early history except what 
 they borrow from Moses, or engraft upon a Jewish stock. Even the 
 Persian annals can hardly go back beyond the accession of the 
 Sassanides to the throne in 227. Cyrus appears in them as a heroic 
 or mythological person ; before him we have the dynasty of the 
 Pishdadians, a region of mere fable ;t and it is a dispute among the 
 learned, whether Gustasp, the contemporary of Zerdhust, or Zooraster 
 is the Hystaspes of history, or a sovereign coeval with Ninus,]: or, in 
 fine, the Median Cyaxares.§ 
 
 In much the same condition are those Christian nations, whose 
 history, comparatively modern, has fallen into the hands of the clergy, 
 the natural annalists of a less refined people. These would, of 
 course, reject those crude legendary traditions which form the re- 
 mote history of pagan nations, whom they would not wish any longer 
 to resemble, by descent from unclean and impious deities : and they 
 would seek to substitute such early records as the inspired writings 
 afforded them, in their room. This we find to be actually the case 
 with the Georgians and Armenians. The first portion of their 
 annals is drawn from the Bible ; they endeavor to find their forefathers 
 in that store-house of primeval history, the book of Genesis ; they 
 next fill up a long space with accounts gleaned from foreign histori- 
 ans, and, at last, attach to them their own meagre narratives, too 
 
 * " Examen des historiens Asiatiques," first publisbed in the 
 "Journal Asiatique," Sept. and Nov. 1823; then reprinted in his 
 " Memoires relatifs k I'Asie," vol. i. p. 389, which I shall refer to in the 
 text. The essay re-appeared, under the title of " WUrdigung der 
 asiatischen Geschichtschreiber," in his "Asia Polyglotta.'" pji. 1 — 18. 
 
 f Hyde, "De religione veterum Persarum," p. 312. Von Hamtner, 
 " Heidelberg Jahrbuclier, 1823, p. 86. Guigniaut, uhi sup. p. 688. 
 
 I Rhode, "Die heilige Sage . . . der alten Baktrer, Meder und 
 Perser." Frank/. 1820, p. 15% seqq. Volney, "Recherches nouvelies 
 sur I'Historie ancienne." Par. 1822, p. 283. 
 
 § The opinion preferred by Tychsen, " Comment. Soc. Goetting," 
 vol. xi. p. 112, and Heeren, " Idecn," i. Th. i. Abth. p. 440. 
 
248 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 modern to trouble the most delicate sensitiveness, on the score of 
 revelation. The earliest period to which any thing among them 
 pretending to the name of history can reach is, according to Kla- 
 proth, two or three centuries before Christ.* 
 
 But we still have China to dispose of; and surely it, at least, 
 must be expected from the remarks which I have made. For it 
 possesses a native literature, of great antiquity, and pretends to be 
 the first or primary nation of the globe. We all know, too, that it 
 carries back its annals to a very formidable age ; and it might be ex- 
 pected, that as much attention should be devoted to its claims as we 
 have bestowed on its rival's in India. I will, however, content my- 
 self with laying before you, in a few words, the conclusions to which 
 Klaproth came, from the study of its authors, to which he was princi- 
 pally devoted ; and I can assure you, that you will have the decision 
 of a judge by no means disposed to second our desires, by deprecia- 
 ting the glories of the Chinese. 
 
 According to him, therefore, the earliest historian of China was 
 its celebrated philosopher and moralist, Confucius. He is said to have 
 drawn up the annals of his coimtry, known under the name of Chu- 
 King, from the days of Yao, till his own times. Confucius is sup- 
 posed to have lived about four or five hundred years before Christ, 
 and the era of Yao is placed at 2557 years before the same era. 
 Thus, then, we have upwards of 2000 years between the first histori- 
 an and the earliest events which he records. But this antiquity, 
 however remote, did not satisfy the pride of the Chinese ; and later 
 historians have prefixed other reigns to that of Yao, which stretched 
 back to the venerable antiquity of three million two hundred and 
 seventy six thousand years, before Christ. 
 
 That you may estimate still more accurately the authenticity of 
 the Chinese annals, I must not omit to state, that two hundred years 
 after the death of Confucius, the Emperor, Chi-Hoangti, of the dy- 
 nasty of Tsin, proscribed the works of the philosopher, and ordered 
 all the copies of them to be destroyed. The Chu-King, however, 
 was recovered, in the following dynasty of Han, from the dictation of 
 an old man, who had retained it by memory. Such, then, is the 
 origin of historical science in China ; and in spite of all due venera- 
 tion for the great moralist of the East, and of respect for his assertion, 
 that he only wrought on materials already existing, Klaproth does 
 
 *P.412. 
 
EAKLY HISTORY. 
 
 249 
 
 not hesitate to deny the existence of historical certainty in the celes- 
 tial empire, earlier than 783 years before Christ, pretty nearly the 
 era of the foundation of Rome, when Hebrew literature was already 
 on the decline.* 
 
 The Japanese, in historical knowledge, are but the copiers of the 
 Chinese. They, too, pretend to their millions of years before the 
 Christian era. But the first portion of their annals is purely mytholo- 
 gical ; the second presents us with the Chinese dynasties as reign- 
 ing in Japan ; and it is not till the accession of the Dairi to the 
 throne, only C60 years before Christ, that any dependence can be 
 placed upon their records.! 
 
 In glancing back over the chronology of the different nations of 
 which I have treated, you cannot help being struck with the circum- 
 stance, that every attempt has failed to establish, for any of them, a 
 system of chronology derogatory to the authority of the Mosaic rec- 
 ords. In most of them, even when we have granted a real existence 
 to the most doubtful portions of their history, we are not led back to 
 an epoch anterior to what Scripture assigns for the existence of 
 powerful empires in eastern Africa, and enterprising States on the 
 western coast of Asia. 
 
 The learned Windischmann, whom I feel a pride in calling my 
 friend, admits the entire period of Chinese history allotted by Klap- 
 roth to the uncertain times, and shows its agreement with another 
 form of computation, drawn from the cycles of years adapted by the 
 Chinese ; and the result is a sufficiently accurate accordance between 
 the date assigned to the foundation of the celestial empire by Fo-hi, 
 or Fuchi, whom some have even supposed to be Noah, the time of 
 the deluge, according to the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the begin- 
 ning of the Indian Cali-Yuga, or iron age.J The philosophical 
 Schlegel not only concurs in the same view, but approves also of 
 Abel-Remusat's idea, that the written Chinese character mu^ be 
 4000 years old ; " this," he observes, " would bring it back with in 
 
 * P. 406. Abel-R6tnusat is disposed to allow Chinese history to 
 reach back to the year 2200 before Christ, and plausible tradition to go 
 as far back as 2637. Even this antiquity presents nothing formidable 
 to a Christian's convictions.— "Nouveaux Melanges Asiatiques," torn. i. 
 p. 61. Par. 1829. 
 
 t P. 408. 
 
 I "Die Philosophic in Fortgang der WeltgeschicliLc." 1 Th. 1 
 Ahtheil. Bonn. 1827, p. 18. 
 32 
 
250 LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 
 
 three or four generations from the deluge, according to the vulgar 
 era, — an estimate which certainly is not exaggerated."* 
 
 Even in India, you have seen authors, like Col. Tod, assuming, 
 almost without limitation, the chronological tables of the country, and 
 yet coming pretty exactly to the same period for the commencement 
 of its history. Surely a convergence like this must have the force of 
 proof with the most obstinate mind, and produce conviction, that 
 some great and insuperable barrier must have interposed between 
 nations and any earlier definite traditions, at the same time that it 
 allowed some faint rays of recollection to pass, of the original state 
 and happier constitution of the human race. A sudden catastrophe, 
 whereby mankind were, in great part, though not totally, extinguish- 
 ed, presents the most natural solution of all difficulties, and the con- 
 current testimony of physical phenomena, with the silent acknowl- 
 edgment of the vainest nations,, must assuredly shield, from every 
 attack, this record of our inspired volume. 
 
 There is yet another nation, whose history is perhaps more inter- 
 esting than any v. hich we have discussed ; but it will afford us suffi- 
 cient matter for another meeting. 
 
 * " Philosopliy of History," vol. i. p. 106, Robertson's trans!. 
 
LECTURE THE EIGHTH 
 
 EARLY HISTORY 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Egyptians. — 1. Historical Monuments. Mystery of their Monuments. 
 — Excessive Antiquity ascribed to tlie Nation. — Tlie Rosetta Stone. 
 — First researches into the Egyptian Characters on it, by Akerblad 
 and De Sacy, Young and Champollion. Hieroglyphic Alpliabet. — 
 Opposition raised. — Api)lications of the Chronology discovered 
 through it to the iNustration of Scripture by Coquerel, Greppo, and 
 Bovet. — Inedited Letter by Champollion on this subject. — Rosellini ; 
 his series of Egyptian Kings; — their coincidence with those of Scrip- 
 ture. — Vindication and illustration of a Prophecy in Ezekiel. 
 
 2, Astronomical Monuments. Zodiacs of Dendera and Esneh. Absnrd 
 antiquity ascribed to them. Discoveries of Mr. Bankes, MM. Cham- 
 pollion and Letronne. Proved to be purely Astrological. — Commen- 
 tary on some observations in the British Critic. 
 
 From the soil of Asia, over which late we strayed, fruitful in ev- 
 ery science, and varied by the display of every degree in cultivation, 
 from the restless nomade, or the untamed mountaineer, to the luxu- 
 rious Persian, or the polished Ionian, we have now to turn tea coun- 
 try whereon nature seemeth to have set the seal of desolation physi- 
 cal and moral. One redeeming spot alone of Africa has been the 
 seat of an indigenous civilization, a native dynasty and domestic 
 class of monuments; and the valley of the Nile appears rightly 
 placed in such a geographical situation, as almost detaches its in- 
 habitants from the degraded tenants of the wilderness, and links 
 them with the more favored regions of the East. 
 
 At every period, this extraordinary nation has interested the at- 
 tention of the learned. Its origin seemed to have been a problem to 
 
252 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 itself, and consequently to all others. The mysterious allegories of 
 its worship, the dark sublimity of its morality, and above all, the im- 
 penetrable enigma of its written monuments, threw a mythological 
 veil over its history. The learned approached it, as if in the most 
 obvious facts they had to decypher a hieroglyphic legend ; and we 
 were inclined to look upon the Egyptians, as a people, which, even 
 in its more modern periods, retained the shadowy tints and ill-defined 
 traits of remote antiquity, and which might consequently boast an 
 e.vistence far beyond the reach of calculation. We were almost 
 tempted to believe them, when they told us, that their first monarchs 
 were the gods of the rest of the world. 
 
 When, after so many ages of darkness and uncertainty, we see 
 the lost history of this people revive, and take its stand beside that of 
 other ancient empires ; when we read the inscriptions of its kings, 
 recording their mighty exploits and regal qualities, and gaze upon 
 their monuments, with the full understanding of the events which 
 they commemorate, the impression is scarcely less striking to an en- 
 lightened mind, than what the traveller would feel, if, when silently 
 pacing the catacombs at Thebes, he should see those corpses, which 
 the embalmer's skill has for so many ages rescued from decay, on 
 a sudden burst their cerements, and start resuscitated from their 
 niches. 
 
 While such a darkness overhung the history of Egypt, it is no 
 wonder that the adversaries of religion should have retreated within 
 it, as a strong-hold, and eagerly attacked her from behind its shelter. 
 They collected together the scattered fragments of its annals, just as 
 Isis did the torn limbs of Osiris, and tried to re-construct, by their 
 re-union, a favorite idol, a chronology of countless ages, totally in- 
 compatible with that of Moses. Volney had no hesitation in placing 
 the formation of the sacerdotal colleges in Egypt 13,300 years before 
 Christ, and calling that the second period of its history !* Even the 
 third period, in which he supposes the temple of Esneh to have been 
 built, goes as far back as 4,600 before that era ; somewhere about 
 what we reckon the epoch of creation ! But the mysterious monu- 
 ments of Egypt formed the most useful entrenchments to these assail- 
 ants. They called upon those huge and half-buried colossal images, 
 and those subterraneous temples to bear witness to the antiquity and ear- 
 ly civilization of the nation which erected them ; they appealed to their 
 
 ' " Rccherc'hes," vol. ii. p. 440. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 253 
 
 astronomical remains, to attest the skill, matured by ages of observa- 
 tion, of those who projected them. More than all, they saw in those 
 hieroglyphic legends the venerable dates of sovereigns, deified long 
 before the modern days of Moses or Abraham; they pointed in tri- 
 umph to the mysterious characters which an unseen hand had traced 
 on those primeval walls, and boasted that only a Daniel vvas wanted 
 that could decypher them, to show that the evidences of Christianity 
 had been weighed and found wanting ; and its kingdom divided be- 
 tween the infidel and the libertine ! Vain boast ! The temples of 
 Egypt have at length answered their appeal, in language more intel- 
 ligible than they could possibly have anticipated, for a Daniel has 
 been found in judicious and persevering study. After the succes- 
 sion had been so long interrupted, Young and Champollion have put 
 on the linen robe of the hierophant; and the monuments of the Nile, 
 unlike the fearful image of Sais, have allowed themselves to be un- 
 veiled by their hands, without any but the most wholesome and con- 
 soling results having followed from their labor. 
 
 The history of the discovery to which I allude is not perhaps dif- 
 ficult to unravel ; but it is by no means easy to allot to each claimant 
 his share of merit. There certainly were approximating steps in the 
 researches of sagacious antiquaries, before the announcement of a 
 complete system of hieroglyphic literature flashed upon Europe. It 
 is more than probable that Champollion would not so easily have at- 
 tained it, had not the way been pioneered before him ; but still, the 
 step which he at once made, from the conjectural course and detached 
 applications which others had pursued before him, to a general sys- 
 tem, at once applicable to any case ; and yet more, the public inter- 
 est which his publication drew upon the study, making it pass from 
 the hands of a few profound scholars, into the general literature of 
 the day ; are grounds which he might well advance for being consid- 
 ered the discoverer, or restorer of hieroglyphical learning. 
 
 In the last century, Warburton, and after him, Zoega, had con- 
 jectured that the hieroglyphics, in reality represented letters, but 
 neither could pretend to have verified the opinion by any practical 
 observation. In fact, it was not even known with accuracy, what 
 the language of ancient Egypt was. Jablonsky had made it extreme- 
 ly probable that it was the same as the Coptic, or modern ecclesiasti- 
 cal language of the same country ; for he had sufficiently explained 
 from this, the Egyptian names and words which occur in the Old 
 
254 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 Testament* But, if any doubt existed regarding this matter, it was 
 completely removed by the learned Quatremere, in his interesting 
 work on the language and literature of Egypt.t wherein the identity 
 or close affinity, of the ancient and modern languages was amply 
 demonstrated. One great obstacle, therefore, to the decyphering of 
 ancient Egyptian inscriptions was removed, supposing them to be 
 composed of alphabetical characters. It is just, also, to observe, that 
 before the discovery which dimmed the glory he would otherwise 
 have received from his former researches, Champollion was one of the 
 first and most assiduous to gather information from Coptic literature, 
 upon the geography and history of ancient Egypt.| 
 
 When the language is known, or may be probably conjectured, 
 in which inscriptions are written, there are certain rules whereby 
 they may be reduced to intelligible characters. The great difficulty 
 is to know where to begin, for the first step must be conjectural. 
 Thus it was, for instance, with the arrow, or nail, or wedge-headed 
 inscriptions of Persepolis, which had perplexed the learned world 
 since they were first made known by Niebuhr, till they were almost 
 simultaneously decyphered by Saint-Martin, in Paris, and Grote- 
 fend, at Vienna. The process followed by the former was exceed- 
 ingly simple and obvious. The language, he supposed, would be 
 Persian, and the ancient dialect is sufficiently known in the modern 
 and in the Zend, to give him some lever wherewith to commence his 
 work. He selected an inscription, from its form and position mani- 
 festly historical : and assuming, that in any such, if in honor of a 
 Persian monarch, the title " king of kings" would be found, he 
 turned his attention to two words or groups of letters placed together, 
 exactly similar, except that the termination of one was sufficiently 
 varied, to give ground for supposing that it was the plural of the oth- 
 er. Having by this means acquired the power of the letters which 
 composed these two words, he applied them to a proper name, which 
 nearly resembled them, and thus was in possession of the name of 
 Xerxes, which does, in reality,' bear an affinity in sound to the old 
 Persian title of King.§ The ground-work was thus laid, and by ap- 
 
 * " Opusciila quibus lingua et aiitiquitas iEgyptiorum, difficilia LL. 
 SS. loca illustrantur." Lmlg. Bat. 1804. 
 
 t " Recherclies sur la langiie et la litt^raiure de T'Egypte." Par. 
 1808. 
 
 t "L''Egypte sous les Pharaons." Par. 1814, 
 § Journal Asiatique. Tom. ii. 1833, pp. 75—79. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. "^^ 
 
 plying the letters gradually discovered, to other words wherein they 
 occurred in conjunction with others unknown, these in their turn 
 yielded to his investigation, and placed him in possession of his 
 
 alphabet. 
 
 The process ].ursued in the examination and discovery of hiero- 
 glyphics was precisely similar. The difficulty, as I before hinted, 
 was where to begin ; but fortunately a plausible conjecture, which as 
 in the other instance, proved well grounded, gave a firm foundation 
 to the entire system of discovery. You cannot have failed to observe, 
 how on all Egyptian monuments, certain groups of hieroglyphics are 
 enclosed in an oblong frame, or parallelogram, with rounded corners. 
 It had been long conjectured, with great appearance of plausibility 
 that these distinguished hieroglyphics expressed propernames; and 
 nothing was wanting to begin the work upon them ; for proper names 
 could never be well expressed in any language by emblems, but 
 must be somehow composed of pAone^iV, or sound-expressing charac- 
 ters This is the case even in Chinese ; where the language is 
 ideographic, or representative of objects or ideas, yet is reduced to 
 the necessity of adopting a different system for words which represent 
 neither but only an artificial combination of sounds, denoting a per- 
 son or place. If, therefore, it could be once possible to know a 
 single name contained in one of these squares, the decomposition of 
 it into its primary elements, or letters, would give the nucleus of an 
 alphabet, which might be easily extended. 
 
 All this reasoning is extremely simple, and though, in detailing it, 
 I am rather giving you a retrospective view of acts and their conse- 
 quences, than a line of argument, distinctly and systematically plan- 
 ned beforehand, it may serve to show you by what consistent and 
 well-warranted steps, the entire investigation proceeded. Ihese 
 were not, indeed, the work of one man, nor of one country ; and so 
 far from any rivalry or jealousy being felt by learned men on different 
 sides of the Channel, about the apparent appropriation of each other s 
 literary discoveries, I think it should be matter of congratulation, to 
 observe how two nations, after having fought bravely for the time- 
 worn spoils of Egypt, have been led to sit down together in peace and 
 harmony around them, for their illustration ; and if the mutilated 
 fragment of the Rosetta stone has been to us a military trophy. 
 it has been to our neighbors the monument of a more glorious con- 
 quest over the darkest mysteries of a hidden art. 
 
 This celebrated stone, is. at present, an irregular block of basalt. 
 
256 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 smooth on one side, and may be considered the foundation stone of 
 this important study ; as all discoveries in it owe their origin and 
 strength to the first elements of knowledge which it supplied. This 
 almost shapeless mass, which a few years ago would have been 
 thrown aside into the lumber-room of the Museum, is now one of 
 the most valuable monuments of our national collection, and was 
 originally discovered by the French Expedition in digging the founda- 
 tion of a fort near Rosetta. It contains three inscriptions, one in 
 Greek, another in hieroglyphics, and a third in an intermediate alpha- 
 bet, which in the Greek legend is called enchorial* It was evident 
 from this, that each inscription contained nearly the same sense, 
 and that each was probably a version of the others. Here then was 
 some hope of a discovery in the unknown, from its being joined, as 
 in equation, with the known. The Greek inscription contains 
 proper names, so must the other two ; but in the first instance, 
 probably from considering the task as hopeless, the hieroglyphic in- 
 scription hardly obtained attention from the learned, who rather ap- 
 plied themselves to the study of the enchorial, or, as it has since been 
 called, demotic, legend. Perhaps I should observe that the language 
 so called was the vernacular dialect of Egypt, the Coptic, and that 
 the alphabet used in it is a linear one, formed, however, undoubtedly, 
 through several gradations, from the hieroglyphic. 
 
 The illustrious Silvestre de Sacy was the first to make any inter- 
 esting discovery on this subject. He observed that the letters or 
 symbols used to express the proper names, in the demotic character, 
 were grouped together, so as to have the appearance of being letters ; 
 and by comparing different words, wherein the same sounds occur- 
 red, he found them represented by the same figure ; and thus he ex- 
 tracted from them the rudiments of a demotic alphabet, which was 
 further illustrated and extended by Akerblad, at Rome, and Dr. 
 Young in England. All these researches and partial discoveries oc- 
 curred as early as 1814, and by no means close the history of the 
 demotic literature of Egypt. Dr. Young, who truly deserves the title 
 of the father of this portion of Egyptian studies, pushed them forward 
 to the almost complete formation of the current alphabet, and was 
 
 * This custom of polyglott inscriptions, intended only for one coun- 
 try, which might be frequented by strangers, illustrates and explains 
 the reasons of Pilate's commanding a trilingual inscription to be placed 
 over our Saviour's cross. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 257 
 
 aided in his researches, by some most extraordinary combinations of 
 circumstances. 
 
 Thus, for instance, a copy of a demotic manuscript, brought to 
 Europe by Casati, was placed in his hands by M. Champollion, at 
 Paris, in 1822, because it seemed to bear considerable resemblance 
 to the preamble of the Rosetta stone. Champollion had already de- 
 cphered the names of the witnesses who signed it, for it seemed to 
 be a deed. It so liappened that after Dr. Young's return to England, 
 Mr. Grey placed at his disposal a Greek ])apyrus, which he had pur- 
 chased at Thebes, together with others in Egyptian characters. 
 The very same day, he proceeded to explore this treasure, and to use 
 the Doctor's own expression, he could scarcely believe that he was 
 awake and in his sober senses, when he discovered it to be nothing 
 less than a translation of the very manuscript which he had procured 
 at Paris ; and it actually bore the title of " a copy of an Egyptian 
 writing." " I could not, therefore, but conclude," he says, " that a 
 most extraordinary chance had brought into my possession a docu- 
 ment, which was not very likely, in the first place, even to have ex- 
 isted, still less to have been preserved uninjured for my information, 
 through a period of near two thousand years; but that this very 
 extraordinary translation should have been brought safely to Europe, 
 to England, and to us, at the very moment that it was most desirable 
 to me to possess it, as the illustration of an original which I was then 
 studying, but without any other reasonable hope of being UiMy able 
 to comprehend it ; this combination would, in other times, have been 
 considered as affording ample evidence of my being an Egyptian 
 sorcerer."* 
 
 But I have pursued further than was necessary, the history of 
 this secondary branch of Egyptian discovery ; which is interesting 
 from the influence it had on the decphering of hieroglyphical legends. 
 Here also Dr. Young decidedly took the first step, however imperfect 
 it may be considered. He conjectured that the frames which occur- 
 red in the inscription of Rosetta included the name of Ptolemy, and 
 
 * "An account of some recent discoveries in hieroglyphical litera- 
 ture." Lond. 1823, p. 58. A writer on tliis subject increases the 
 strange combination recorded in the text, still further, by asserting that 
 both the docufiients were copies of a bilingual inscription in Drovetti's 
 collection, which Dr. Young, with an illiberality most unusual in Italy, 
 had not been allowed to copy. See the Marquis Spineto's "Lectures 
 on the elements of hieroglyphics." Lond. 1829, p. 68. But of this 
 still more extraordinary coincidence not a hint is given bv Dr. Young. 
 33 
 
258 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 that another, in which was inscribed a group, with what he consider- 
 ed justly the sign of a feminine, contained that of Berenice. This 
 conjecture was correct, but it must be allowed that the principle on 
 which it was maintained could hardly be called a preliminary step 
 to the discoveries of Champoilion. For, as he observes, Dr. Young 
 considered each hieroglyphic to be syllabic and to represent a conso- 
 nant with its vowel, a system which would have fallen to the ground, 
 on the very next attempt at verification. For, he read the two names, 
 Ptolemeas and Btreniken, and not, as was subsequently proved 
 correct, Ptolmes and Brneks.* Dr. Young seems therefore en- 
 titled to little more than the praise of having practically attempted 
 the discovery of a hieroglyphical alphabet; an attempt, which, per- 
 haps spurred Clr.unpollion on to his more successful efforts. 
 
 If the merit of the very first step has been thus contested, the 
 second has been, no less, an object of rival claims. This was taken 
 as follows. In the island of Phila;, situated high up the Nile, an 
 obelisk was found, and thence brought to England, on which were 
 two cartouches, or frames containing hieroglyphics, joined together. 
 One of these presented invariably the group already explained in the 
 Rosetta stone by the name of Ptolemy. The other, evidently con- 
 tained a name composed, in part, of the same letters, and followed by 
 the sign of the feminine gender. This obelisk had been originally 
 placed on a base bearing a Greek inscription, which contained a pe- 
 tition of the priests of Isis to Ptolemy and Cleopatra, and spoke of a 
 monument to be raised to both.t There was, consequently, every 
 reason to suppose that the obelisk bore these two names conjointly ; 
 and observation proved that the three letters common to both, P, T, 
 and L, were represented in the female name by the same signs as 
 occurred for them in the king's. Thus, there could be no reasonable 
 doubt, as to this second name, which put the learned investigators in 
 possession of the other letters which enter into its composition. All 
 this Champoilion claimed as exclusively his own.| Mr. Bankes, 
 however, maintains that he had previously decyphered the name of 
 
 * " Precis du Systeme lii6rogly|)hique des anciens Esyptiens," Par. 
 1824, p. 31. 
 
 f This inscription was illustrated by Letronne in a learned essay 
 upon it, entitled ^'Eciaircissciiieiits sur une inscription Grecque," etc. 
 Par. 1622. The inscription had been copied by the diligent and accu- 
 rate Cnilii.'uid. 
 
 I "I.citjx- a M. Dacicr." Par. 182'2, p. 6. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 '259 
 
 Cleopatra, and endeavors to show that Champollion must have been 
 aware of the discovery. For, he says, that he had been led to the 
 observation, that when two figures occur together on any temple, 
 they are so repeated throughout. Now, over the portico at Diospolis 
 Parva, is a Greek inscription to Cleopatra and Ptolemy, the only in- 
 stance of the female preceding ; and, so through the temple, she is 
 always placed before the effigy of the king. Over the latter is the 
 same hieroglyphical group as Dr. Young had assigned to the name 
 from the Rosetta stone, and therefore Mr. Bankes plausibly conjec- 
 tured, that the legend over the other expressed the name of the queen, 
 Cleopatra. He then ascertained that both on the obelisk and on the 
 temple at Philae, which were determined, by Greek inscriptions, to be 
 dedicated to the same two sovereigns, similar hieroglyphic groups 
 were found. This led him to the certain conclusion, that as the one 
 designated Ptolemy, so the other must contain the name of his con- 
 sort. As these circumstances were marked by him in pencil on the 
 very engraving of his obelisk which he presented to the Institute, as 
 they alone could have suggested a clue to Champollion's conjectures, 
 and as he referred to this very print, Mr. Bankes and his friends con- 
 clude, that this important step in hieroglyphic investigation, should 
 be attributed to him.* 
 
 When these first, and more laborious measures had been once ta- 
 ken, the work was comparatively easy, and Champollion, who at first 
 had imagined that his system could only apply to the reading of 
 Greek or Latin names hieroglyphically expressed, soon found that 
 the older names yielded to the key ; and that the successive dynasties 
 of Pharaohs and of Persian monarchs who had ruled in Egypt, had 
 recorded their names also, with their titles and their exploits, in the 
 same character.t It was after his researches had reached this point, 
 that they could be said to possess a real value for history, and aid us 
 in unravelling the complicated difficulties of the early Egyptian 
 annals. But, before proceeding to trace the history of their results, 
 I must pause to explain the system which they introduced. 
 
 Many scattered passages exist in ancient writers regarding the 
 hieroglyphical writings of the Egyptians, but there was one which 
 seemed to treat the subject with peculiar detail. It lay treasured up 
 in that vast repertory of philosophical learning, the Stromata of 
 
 * Salt, " Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Champollion's phonetic syS' 
 teni of Hieroglyphics." Land. 1825, p. 7, note. 
 t Precis du Systeme," etc. p. 2. 
 
260 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria ; but so encased in impenetrable difficulties, 
 that it may rather be said to have been explained by these modern 
 discoveries, than to have led the way towards them. It has, however, 
 rendered them most essential service, by strongly corroborating what 
 must be considered the essential foundation of their results, the po- 
 sition that alphabetical letters were used by the Egyptians. When 
 this passage was examined, after Champollion's discovery, it was 
 found to establish this point, which had not been suspected by older 
 investigators, and moreover to explain the various mixture of alpha- 
 betical and symbolical writing used in Egypt, in a manner exactly 
 corresponding to what monuments exhibit. The result of this pas- 
 sage, as translated, and commented on by Letronne, is, that the 
 Egyptians used three different sorts of writing : the cpistolographic 
 or current hand ; the hieratic, or the character used by the priests; 
 and the hicroi^Jjjphic, or monumental character. Of the two former 
 we ha\e sufficient examples ; the first being the demotic or enchorial, 
 of which I have already spoken ; the second a species of reduced 
 hieroglyphic character, in which a rude outline represents the figures, 
 and which is found on manuscripts which accompany mummies. 
 The third, which is the most important, is composed, according to 
 Clement, first of alphabetical words, and secondly of symbolical ex- 
 pressions, which again are threefold, being either representations of 
 objects, or metaphorical ideas drawn from them, as when courage is 
 represented by a lion, or else merely enigmatical or arbitrary signs.* 
 Now observation has fully confirmed all these particulars; for even 
 on the Rosetta stone, it was noticed, that when some object was 
 mentioned in the Greek, the hieroglyphics presented a picture of it, 
 as a statue, a temple, or a man. On other occasions objects are 
 representoil by emblems which must be considered completely arbi- 
 trary, as Osiris by a throne and eye, and a son by a bird most resem- 
 bling a goose. 
 
 Suffice it to say, that new discoveries have gradually enlarged, 
 and perhaps almost completed the Egyptian alphabet till we are in 
 possession of a key to read all proper names, and even, though not 
 with equal certainty, other hieroglyphic texts. To proper names the 
 application is so simple, that you may be said to possess a means of 
 
 * " Precis," p. 330. See also the pa.«saire in the Marquis de Fortia 
 d'Urhau's Kssay, " Sur les trois sistimes {sic} d'ecriture dos Egiptiens 
 (sic,) Par. 1833, p. 10. The pas.sage of Clement occurs in " Stromata," 
 Lib. v. § I), p. 245, ed. Potter. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. '261 
 
 verifying the system, perfectly within reach. For you have only to 
 walk to the Capitol, or the Vatican, with Charnpollion's alphabet, 
 and try your skill upon the proper names in any of the Egyptian in- 
 scriptions. 
 
 The fate of this brilliant discovery was the same as we saw allot- 
 ted to Geology, and to other sciences. Scarcely was it announced 
 to Europe, than timid minds took the alarm, and reprobated it, as 
 tending to lead men to dangerous investigations. It was feared, 
 apparently, that the early Egyptian history, thus brought to light, 
 would be employed as that of the Chaldeans and Assyrians had been 
 ill the last century, for the purpose of impugning the Mosaic annals. 
 Rosellini, who was the first to make the new discovery known in 
 Italy, as he has been the means of bringing it to its perfection, justly 
 observed, that such an outcry has been raised against every important 
 discovery. Those who raise it, he adds, do but little justice to the 
 truth, by being so timid on its account. " This truth is founded on 
 eternal bases, neither can the envy of man disprove it, nor can ages 
 deface it. And if men, eminent for their piety and learning, admit 
 the new system, what has revelation to fear from it?"* In fact, the 
 holy pontiff who then sat in the chair of St. Peter, expressed to 
 Champollion his confidence, that his discovery would render essential 
 service to religion. t In spite of this high sanction, the opposition 
 has since continued, and, I regret to say, with a degree of personal 
 feeling, and a severe animosity, which seem hardly worthy of a just 
 mind employed on literary pursuits. J 
 
 Perhaps the best conducted attack on the system, because, while 
 free from the feelings which I have just blamed, it is united to the 
 desire of substituting something better in its place, is that lately made 
 by the Abbe Count De Robiano, who ingeniously exposes the weak 
 
 * "In his Italian abridgment of " Champollion's Letters to the Duke 
 de Blacas." 
 
 f " Bulletin Universe)," 7e sect. torn. iv. p. 6. Par. 1825. 
 
 I I w\\\ not mention the various essays by Riccardi ; but the learn- 
 ed Professor Lanci has been particularly zealous in his resistance. 
 " Svanira," he writes, " il timore che il nuovo gerooflifico sisteina possa 
 mai adotiihrare in alcuna parte, queilu storia che sola merita la univer- 
 sale venerazione." " Ulustrazioiie di uii Kilanoglifo," in his " Osserva- 
 zioni sul basso rilievo Fenico-Egizio." Rome, 18'25, p. 4^. — See 
 Champollion'.s answer, in the " Memorie Romane di Antichita." 1825. 
 ^ippend. p. 10. 
 
262 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 parts of the hieroglyphical system, especially throufrh the demotic 
 character. He institutes a very patient and successful analysis of 
 the demotic text on the Rosetta stone, as compared with the Greek, 
 and concludes, with great apparent reason, first, that the one is not a 
 verbal or very close version of the other, and secondly, that nothing 
 has been done, or well can be hoped, towards proving the identity of 
 the Egyptian phrases thus discovered, with corresponding Coptic 
 words.* The Abbe is himself of opinion, that the language of Egypt 
 is of Semitic origin ; and, on this hypothesis, he attempts to explain 
 one or two inscriptions by the Hebrew language.! This attempt, 
 though ingenious and learned, does not seem to me successful. 
 However, I do not think it necessary to follow the arguments of this 
 learned ecclesiastic ; because it does not strike me that any theory 
 which he has advanced, at all affects the only part of the system 
 interesting to our present inquiries, its power of decyphering proper 
 names. 
 
 One of the first applications made by M. Champollion, of his dis- 
 covery, was an attempt to restore the series of Egyptian kings. The 
 table of AbydosJ had given him a list of pronomens, and the exam- 
 ination of monuments exhibited the names of the kings who bore 
 them. These corresponded pretty accurately with the eighteenth 
 dynasty, contained in the lists of kings quoted from the Egyptian 
 priest, Manetho, by Eusebius, Syncellus, and Africanus ; and by 
 combining the two documents together, he endeavored to trace the 
 ancient history of Egypt. As the Museum of Turin had supplied 
 him with the greater part of his monuments, he communicated his 
 results in letters upon that magnificent collection, addressed to his 
 great Mecfenas, the Dukeof Blacas.§ His relative, M. ChampoUion- 
 Figeac, previously known for his learned work on the Lagides, added 
 as an appendix to each of these letters, a chronological disquisition, 
 having for its object to reconcile together the discrepancies in the 
 quotations from Manetho given by ancient writers. 
 
 It was natural to expect that a comparison between the chronolo- 
 
 * " Etudes sur I'^criture, les hi6roglyphiesei la langue de l''Egypte." 
 Paris, 1834, 4to. with atlas of plates, pp. 16 — 24, etc. 
 
 X p. 43. 
 
 t " Precis du Syst^me," p. 241. 
 
 § " Lettres a M. le Due de Blacas, relatives au Mus^e Royal Egyp- 
 tian de Turin, Premiere Lettre." Paris, 1824, 2de, 1826. 
 
EARLY HISTORY 263 
 
 gy thus established and that of Scripture, would soon be instituted, 
 and in this instance, the task was undertaken by the friends, not as 
 heretofore by the enemies, of revelation. That malignant spirit, 
 which at the close of the last century had so often induced able and 
 learned men to direct the whole force of their genius, and many 
 years of deep research, to the overturning of sacred history, had now 
 passed away, or at least altered its form of attack. 
 
 The first who appeared in the field was M. Charles Coquerel, a- 
 Protestant clerygman at Amsterdam, who, in a pamphlet of a few 
 pages, in 1825, compared the two chronologies, and pointed out the 
 advantages which one derived from the other.* 
 
 I believe I had the satisfaction of being the second in the field. 
 In making out his Egyptian chronology, Champollion-Figeac found 
 it necessary, on one occasion, to depart from his usual guides, and 
 adopt the term of years attributed to Horus by only one document, 
 the Armenian translation of Eusebius's chronicle. I was fortunate 
 enough to discover a Syriac fragment in the margin of a Vatican 
 MS. which coincided exactly with this view, and in publishing it, I 
 took occasion to sketch out a comparison between the sacred and 
 the Egyptian chronologies.! I was not, however, able to see Co- 
 querel's pamphlet till several years later. 
 
 In 1&"29, a learned and diligent investigation of this subject was 
 published by M. Greppo, Vicar-General of the diocese of Belley, en- 
 titled " Essai sur le Systeme hieroglyphique de M. Champollion le 
 Jeune, et sur les avantages qu'il ofire a la critique sacree." After a 
 clear and popular exposition of Champollion's system, and a few re- 
 marks on some philological connexions which it seems to have with 
 early Hebrew literature, the author proceeds to a minute analysis of 
 the biblical and Egyptian chronology, endeavoring to discover in the 
 latter each of the Pharaohs mentioned in Scripture. 
 
 The same year, another work upon the same subject appeared in 
 France, entitled, " Des Dynasties Egyptiennes," by M. Bovet, for- 
 merly archbishop of Toulouse. The parallel into which he enters 
 of the two chronologies, is much more minute than Greppo's, but on 
 some points, as in the attempt to find the Hyk-Shos, or shepherd 
 
 * "Lettre k M. Charles Coquerel sur le Systeme Hieroglyphique de 
 M. Champollion considere dans ses rapports avec I'ecriture saiute.'" 
 Par A. L. Coquerel. Amsterd, 1825. 
 
 f " Horse Syriacee," torn. i. Rome, 1828. Particula iv. p. 263. 
 
264 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 kings in the Jews, he does not seem to me so judicious. He appears 
 to have imbibed much of the opinion introduced before the revolution, 
 by Boulanger and Guerin de Rochcr, that a great part of all ancient 
 annals only contains the history of the Jewish people. All these au- 
 thors have undertaken the same task of demonstrating what beautiful 
 confirmation sacred history and chronology have received from the 
 latest discoveries in hieroglyphical and Egyptian learning. 
 
 But, in the mean time, great and important advances have been 
 made in the history of the Egyptian dynasties, by persons laboring in 
 that country. Messrs. Burton and Wilkinson, the latter of whom 
 only returned within a few months, remained several years in Egypt, 
 copying, printing, and illustrating its ancient monuments. Burton's 
 " Excerpta Hieroglyphica," was lithographed at Cairo; Wilkinson's 
 " Materia Hieroglyphica, containing the Egyptian Pantheon, and the 
 succession of the Pharaohs," was published at Malta in 1828; and 
 by reason of their appearing in such remote places, I believe both 
 works have been comparatively little known. Burton's book is valua- 
 ble for our studies merely from the accuracy of its drawings," es- 
 pecially of the table of Abydos. Wilkinson's contains many inter- 
 esting discoveries applicable to the illustration of Scripture, and I 
 shall refer to it more than once. 
 
 Every preceding work, however, has been eclipsed by the splendid 
 and accurate publication now in press at Pisa, under the direction of 
 Prof Rosellini. He was the companion of Champollion in the lite- 
 rary expedition sent, at joint expense, by the French and Tuscan 
 governments. ChampoUion's death threw the entire task of publica- 
 tion upon Rosellini, who is acquitting himself of it in a manner that 
 leaves nothing to regret. The monuments of the kings are already 
 published, and two volumes of text contain their illustration from 
 historians and other monuments. 
 
 Before showing you by examples, the advantage derived by sacred 
 chronology, and the authenticity of Holy Writ, from this modern 
 study, I must lay before you a highly interesting document connec- 
 ted with our inquiry. The chronological part of the letters to the 
 Due de Blacas was entirely executed by Champollion-Figeac, as I 
 before observed ; but the author of the great discovery, though well 
 known to be perfectly sound in his principles, never published any 
 thing tending to prove the conformity of his chronology with that of 
 Scripture. But I have the pleasure of laying before you an original 
 letter from him in my possession, wherein he not only indignantly 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 265 
 
 repels the imputation that his studies tend even slightly to impugn 
 Scripture history, but endeavors to shov/ how exactly the two histories 
 give and obtain mutual support. This interesting document I will 
 read you in the original. It is dated Paris, May 23, 1827. 
 
 " J'aurai I'honneur de vous addresser sous peu de jours une 
 brochure, contenant le resume de mes decouvertes historicjues et 
 chronologiques. C'est I'indication sommaire des dates certaines, 
 que portent tons les monuments existants en Egypte, et sur lesquels 
 deit desormais se fonder la veritable chronologie Egyptienne. 
 
 " MM. De San (iuintino et Lanci trouveront la une reponsc per- 
 emptoire a, leurs calomnies, pnisque j'y demontre qu'aucun monu- 
 ment Egyptien n'est reellement anterieur a I'an 2,200 avant notre 
 ere. C'est certainement une tres haute antiquite, mais elle n'offre 
 rien de contraire aux traditions sacrees ; et j'ose dire meme qu'elle 
 les confirme sur tons les points : c'est en eflfet en adoptant la chrono- 
 logie et la succession des rois donnees par les monuments Egyptiens, 
 que I'histoire Egyptienne Concorde admirablement avec les livres 
 saints. Ainsi par example : Abraham arriva en Egypte vers 1900, — 
 c'est-a-dire, sous les Rois Pastcurs. Des rois de race Egyptienne 
 n'auraient point permis a un etranger d'entrer dans leur pays, — c'est 
 egalement sous un roi pasteur que Joseph est ministre en Egypte, et 
 y etablit ses freres, — ce qui n'eut pu avoir lieu sous des rois de race 
 Egyptienne. Le chef de la dynastie des Diospolitains, dite la XVIII*, 
 est le rex novus qui ignorahat Joseph de I'Ecriture sainte, lequel 
 etant de race Egyptienne, ne devait point connaitre Joseph, ministre 
 des rois usurpateurs ; c'est celui qui reduit les Hebreux en esclavage. 
 Da captivite dura autant que la XVIII'' dynastie; et ce fut sous 
 Ramses V, Gr Amenophis, au commencement du XV° siecle, que 
 Moyse delivra les Hebreux. Ceci se passait dans I'adoJescence de 
 Sesostris, qui succeda immediatementa son pere, et fit ses conquetes 
 en Asie pendant que Moyse et Israel erraient pendant quarante ans 
 dans le desert. C'est pour cda que les livres saints nc doivent point 
 parler de ce grand conquerant. Tous les autres rois d'Egypte nom- 
 mes dans la Bible, se retrouvent sur les monuments Egyptiens, dans 
 le meme ordre de succession, et aux epoques precises, oil les livres 
 saints les placent. J'ajouterai meme que la Bible en ecrit mieuxles 
 veritables noms, que ne I'ont fait les historiens Grecs. Je serais 
 curieux de savoir ce qu' auront a repondre ceux qui ont malicieuse- 
 ment avance que les etudes Egyptiennes tendent a alterer le creyance 
 dans les documents historiques fournis par les livres de Moyse. 
 34 
 
266 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 L'application de ma decouverte vieiit, au contraire, invinciblement i 
 leur appui. 
 
 " Jc compose dans ce momciit-ci le texte explicatif des Obilis- 
 ques de Rome, que Sa Saintete a daigne faire graver k ses frais. 
 C'est iin vrai service qu'Elle rend a la science, et je serais heurcux 
 que vous voulussiez bien mettre <\ ses pieds rhommage de ma recon- 
 naissance profonde." 
 
 But it is high time to lay before you the results of these combined 
 labors ; and always anxious to select from the latest and best writers, 
 I will run through the connexions between sacred and Egyptian his- 
 tory as given in the different parts of Rosellini's work, to show you 
 what new lights and striking confirmation the former has received 
 from these researches, and how groundless were the alarms of their 
 early antagonists. In the first place I must observe that Rosellini 
 takes the Scripture chronology as a necessary basis to all his calcu- 
 lations ; so far that he is willing to reject every part of the early his- 
 tory of Egypt which cannot enter within the limits prescribed by 
 Genesis.* 
 
 The first point in Scripture on which the labors of Rosellini 
 throw new light, is the origin and signification of the title of Pharaoh ; 
 though on this point he may be said to have received a hint from our 
 learned countrymen, Wilkinson and Major Felix. By several analo- 
 gies between the Hebrew and Egyptian letters, he shows the title to 
 be identical with that of Phra or Phre, the sun, which is prefixed to 
 the names of the kings upon their monuments. t Coming down to a 
 later period, we have an extraordinary coincidence between the facts 
 related in the history of Joseph, and the state of Egypt at the period 
 when he and his family entered it. We are told in the book of Gen- 
 esis, that Joseph, upon presenting his father and brethren to Phara- 
 oh, was careful to tell him that they were shepherds, and that their 
 trade had been to feed cattle, and that they had brought their flocks 
 and herds with them.J But in his instructions to them there seems 
 to be an extraordinary contradiction :— " When Pharaoh shall call 
 on you and say ' What is your occupation,' ye shall say, ' Thy ser- 
 vants' trade hath been about cattle, from our youth even until now, 
 both we and also our fathers' ; that ye may dwell in the land of Go- 
 
 * " I Moniimenti dell' Egittoe della Nubia." Vol. i, p. 111. 
 t I'age 117. I Gen. 45: 33, 34. 47: 1. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 267 
 
 shen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."* Now, 
 why make it such a point to tell Pharaoh that his family were all 
 shepherds, because all shepherds were an abomination to the Egyp- 
 tians? This contradiction is removed by the circumstance, that 
 when Joseph was in Egypt, the greater part of its kingdom was un- 
 der the dominion of the Hyk-shos, or shepherd kings, a foreign race, 
 probably of Scythian origin, who had seized upon the kingdom. 
 Thus we have it, at once, explained how strangers, of whom the 
 Egyptians were so jealous, should be admitted into power ; how the 
 king should be even glad of new settlers, occupying considerable 
 tracts of his territory ; and how the circumstance of their being shep- 
 herds, though odious to the conquered people, would endear them to 
 a sovereign whose family followed the same occupation. These 
 Hyk-Shos are supposed by Champollion to be represented by the fig- 
 ures painted on the soles of Egyptian slippers, in token of contempt.t 
 By this state of Egypt we can also more easily explain the measures 
 pursued by Joseph during the famine, to bring all the land and per- 
 sons of the Egyptians into a feudal dependance upon their sovereign. | 
 And before leaving this period, I may observe that the name given 
 to Joseph of " Saviour of the world," has been well explained by 
 Rosellini from the Egyptian language. 
 
 After the death of Joseph, the Scripture tells us that a king arose 
 who knew not Joseph. This strong expression could hardly be ap- 
 plied to any lineal successor of a monarch who had received such 
 signal benefits from him. It would lead us rather to suppose that a 
 new dynasty, hostile to the preceding, had obtained possession of the 
 throne. " The Scripture," says James of Edessa, " does not mean 
 one particular Pharaoh, when it says a new king, but all the dynas- 
 ty of that generation. "§ 
 
 Now, this is exactly the case. For, a few years later, the Hyk- 
 shos, or Shepherd Kings, who correspond to the 17th Egyptian dy- 
 nasty, were expelled from Egypt by Amosis, called on monuments 
 Amenophtiph, the founder of the 18th or Diospolitan dynasty. He 
 would naturally refuse to recognize the services of Joseph, and would 
 consider all his family as necessarily his enemies ; and thus, too, 
 we understand his fears lest they should join the enemies of Egypt, 
 
 * lb. 46: 34, cf. 47: 6, 11. 
 
 f Champollion, Lettre i. pp. 57, 58. J Rosellini, ib. p. 180. 
 
 § Cod. VcU. Syr. 104. fol. 44. 
 
'268 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 if any war fell out with them.* For the Hyk-Shos, after their expul- 
 sion, continued long to harass the Egyptians, by attempts to recover 
 their lost dominion.t Oppression was, of course, the means em- 
 ployed to weaken first, and then extinguish, the Hebrew population. 
 The children of Israel were employed in building up the cities of 
 Egypt. It has been observed by Champollion, that many of the edi- 
 fices erected by the 18th dynasty are upon the ruins of older build- 
 ings, which had been manifestly destroyed.^ This circumstance, 
 with the absence of older monuments in the parts of Egypt occupied 
 by the Hyk-Shos, confirms the testimony of historians, that these 
 usurpers destroyed the monuments of native princes ; and thus was 
 an opportunity given to the restorers of a native sovereignty to employ 
 those whom they considered their enemies' allies, in repairing their 
 injuries. To this period belong the magnificent edifices of Karnak, 
 Luxor, and Medinet-Abu. At the same time, we have the express 
 testimony of Diodorus Siculus, that it was the boast of the Egyptian 
 kings, that no Egyptian had put his hand to the work, but that for- 
 eigners had been compelled to do it,§ 
 
 It was under a king of this dynasty, according to Rosellini, of 
 Ramses, that the Children of Israel went out from Egypt. The 
 Scripture narrative describes this event as connected with the de- 
 struction of a Pharaoh, and so the chronological calculation adopted 
 by Rosellini, would make it coincide with the last year of tfiat mon- 
 arch's reign. 1 1 
 
 * Exod. 1: 10. Also Manetho, ap. "Joseph. Cent. Appion." Lib. i. 
 
 f Rosell. p. 291. 
 
 I Champollion, 2de Lett. pp. 7, 10, 17. 
 
 § 14 Tom. ii. p. 445. ed. Havercarnp. 
 
 § Lib. i. p. 6(i, Ed. Wesseling. I omit noticing the opinion, former- 
 ly held by Josopliiis and others, (ubi sup.) repeated by many modern 
 writers, as Marshum (Canon JE^^ypt. Lips. 1676, pp. 90, 106.) and Ros- 
 enmiiller, (Scholia in Vet. Test. Pa. i. vol. ii. p. 8, ed. tert.) and upheld 
 even since the discovery of the hieroglyphical alphabet by a few, as Bo- 
 vet and Wilkinson : (Materia Hkros;lyphica, Malta, 1828, part ii. p. 80) 
 that the slieplicrd kings were no other than the Children of Israel. 
 This opinion ap|)ears now quite untenable, and not likely to find many 
 supporters. The Hyk-Shos, as represented on monuments, have the 
 features, color, and other dislinciives of the Scythian tribes. 
 
 II As the Scripture speaks, with the exception of one poetical pas- 
 sage, of the destruction of Pharaoh's host, rather than of the monarch's, 
 somti writers, as Wilkinson, (p. 4, Remarks, at the end of Materia Hie-. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 269 
 
 At this point we are met with a serious difficulty. Ancient his- 
 torians speak of Sesostris as of a mighty conqueror, who, issuing from 
 Egypt, and passing along the coast of Palestine, subjected innumera- 
 ble nations to his sceptre. The Scripture never once alludes to this 
 great invasion, which must have passed over the country inhabited 
 by the Israelites. And this silence has been charged against sacred 
 history, as involving a serious omission, ruinous to its authenticity. 
 For a long time it was supposed, that the Sethos iEgyptus of Mane- 
 tho was identical with the Sesostris of Herodotus. Even Champolli- 
 on, from a want of sufficient monuments, had fallen into an error on 
 this point, and subsequently changed his opinion. Rosellini has 
 taken great pains to prove that the two were distinct, and by this dis- 
 covery entirely removes all difficulty. For he shows that the great 
 conqueror, Ramses Sethos iEgyptus, a totally different person from 
 Ramses Sesostris, or the Sesoosis of Herodotus and Diodorus, was 
 the sovereign who conducted that mighty expedition, and founded 
 the 19th Egyptian dynasty. As the Israelites had left Egypt shortly 
 before the conclusion of the 18th, it follows that the exploits of this con- 
 queror, and his passage through Palestine, happened exactly during 
 their forty years' wandering through the wilderness, and could have 
 no influence on the state of that people, and consequently needed 
 not to be recorded in their national annals.* 
 
 Connected with this application, is a curious and interesting mon- 
 ument, which has for some time formed the topic of discussion 
 among our Roman antiquaries, and deserves a passing notice. He- 
 rodotus mentions that the great conqueror Sesostris marked the route 
 which he took by a series of monuments, some of which he himself 
 saw in Palestine, while others existed in Ionia. t Maundrell was the 
 first to notice " some strange figures of men, carved in the natural 
 rock, in mezzo relievo, and in bigness equal to life," on the moun- 
 tain which overhangs the ford across the river Lycus, or the Nahr-el- 
 Kelb, not far from Beiroot. 
 
 Champollion, in his " Precis," noticed this monument as Egyp- 
 tian, and as appertaining to Ramses or Sesostris. It appears that his 
 
 roglyph.) and Greppo, to whom I cannot now refer, maintain, that we 
 need not necessarily suppose the death of a king to coincide with the 
 exit from Egypt. In Roseilini's scheme this departure from the re- 
 ceived interpretation is not wanted. 
 
 * Roseli. p. 305. f Lib. ii. c. 105. 
 
270 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 information came from a sketch made of it by Mr. Bankes ; but an 
 earlier one, by Mr. Wyse, had led Sir W. Gell to the same discovery 
 of the hero whom it represents. Mr. Levinge, at Sir William's re- 
 quest, examined the monument, and pronounced that the hieroglyph- 
 ical legend was quite defaced.* Mr. Lajard published a further no- 
 tice, from a sketch by MM. Guys, but turned his attention chiefly to 
 the Persian monuments which are on the same rock. Later, he col- 
 lected all the information he could from M. Callier, who had not, 
 however, any drawings to illustrate his description.! Mr. Bonomi at 
 length fully investigated this interesting matter, and his observations, 
 with the drawings that accompany them, both published by Mr. Land- 
 seer, leave little more to be desired. 
 
 Ii appears, then, that on the side of the road, which passes along 
 the side of a mountain skirted by the Lycus, are ten ancient monu- 
 ments. Two of these comparatively of small interest, being a Latin 
 and an Arabic inscription, regarding some repairs done to the road. 
 Of the others, Mr. Bonomi speaks as follows : — " The most ancient, 
 but, unfortunately, the most corroded of the antiquities, are three 
 Egyptian tablets. On these may be traced, in more places than one, 
 the name, expressed in hieroglyphics, of Ramses the Second; to the 
 period of whose reign, any connoisseur in Egyptian art would have 
 attributed them, even if the evidence of the name had been wanting, 
 from the beautiful proportions of the tablets, and their curvetto mould- 
 ings."J I will content myself with mentioning, that beside this is a 
 Persian rilievo, representing a king, with astronomical emblems, and 
 covered with an arrow-headed inscription. Of this precious monu- 
 ment a cast was made, with great difficulty by Mr. Bonomi. § Mr. 
 Landseer supposes it to represent Salmanasor, or some other early 
 Assyrian invader. 1| The Chev. Bunsen, without having inspected 
 the cast or drawing, conjectures, with great appearance of reason, 
 that its hero is Cambyses.1] 
 
 * " Biilletino dell' Institirto di Correspondenza Archeologica," Gen- 
 naro, 1834. No. l. b. p. 30. No. VL Luglio, p. 155. 
 
 t Ibid, and " Bulletino," No. III. a. Marzo. 1825. p. 23. 
 
 I " Landseer's Sabean Researches continued," Z»onrf. 1835, p. 5. See 
 the drawing prefixed to liis essay. 
 
 § The original cast is at present in possession of my friend, W. 
 Scoles, Esq. 
 
 II lb. p. 14. , 
 
 IT " Bulletino," No. III. a. 1835, p. 21. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 271 
 
 But to return to our Egyptians;— Champollion, and after him 
 Wilkinson, considered the Sesostris of history to be identical with 
 Ramses II. to whom Bonomi attributes the hieroglyphical legend on 
 the Syriac monument ;* but, probably, he added the number to his 
 name only on account of that received idea. Champollion changed 
 his opinion, I believe, before his death, and was followed, as you 
 have seen, by Rosellini. But M. Bunsen, who has long been occupy- 
 ing himself with an attempt to unravel the complications of Egyptian 
 chronology, has observed that Ramses III. is undoubtedly the Sesos- 
 tris of the Greeks : and that there is a mistake of three or four cen- 
 turies in the date assigned by Champollion to the commencement of 
 his reign. t 
 
 Proceeding downwards in order of time, Rosellini, with all other 
 chronologists, places the 5th year of Rehoboam, when Shishak over- 
 ran the kingdom of Judah, and conquered Jerusalem, in the year 
 971 B. C.J Now, in Egyptian monuments, we find that Sheshonk 
 began his reign with the 2l3t dynasty, precisely at the same period.§ 
 Rosellini has published many monuments of Shishak, one of 
 which particularly affords the strongest confirmation of sacred, by 
 profane history, hitherto any where discovered. But this morning I 
 am treating only of pure chronology, and must, therefore, reserve 
 this interesting monument for our next meeting, when we shall dis- 
 cuss archaeology. 
 
 The Zarach of the Second book of Chronicles, (14: 9—15) has 
 been supposed by Greppo and others to be the Osorchon of monu- 
 ments. Rosellini, however, rejects this opinion, though, I confess, I 
 do not think his reasons very satisfactory : they consist in the slight 
 difference of the. name, and in his being called an Ethiopian, a cir- 
 cumstance which rather confirms the coincidence, for the dynasty to 
 which he belonged was the Bubastian, considered by Champollion, 
 Ethiopian.il 
 
 * "Lettres dcrites d''Egypte et de Nubie en 1S28 et 1829." Par. 
 1333, pp. 362, 438. Wilkinson's " Topography of Thebes," Lond. 1 835, 
 p. 51 ; also " Materia Hieroglyph." 
 
 f " Bulletino," ib. p. 23. t 3 or 1 Kings 14: 25. 
 
 § Rosell. p. 83. See also Ciiampollion 2de Lett. p. 120, 164. .Also 
 his Letter to Mr. G. A. Brown, in " Les principaux monumens Egypti- 
 ens du Musee Brittanique, par le T. H. Charles Yorke, et M. le Col.M. 
 Leake," Lond. 1827, p. 23. 
 Jj Ubi BUji. p. 122. 
 
272 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 Rosellini, however, has added new monuments to those already 
 furnished by Champollion, as the commemorating two other kings 
 mentioned later in sacred history : — Sua, the Sevechusof the Greeks 
 and the Shabak of monuments, commemorated in the palaces of 
 Luxor and Karnak, and by a statue in the Villa Albani ; and Teraha, 
 commemorated at Medinet-Abu, under the name of Tahrak.* 
 
 To conclude these chronological details, one of the most striking 
 confirmations of Scriptural accuracy yet remains. In Ezekiel 29: 30 
 32, and Jerem. 44: 30, we have a donation made by God, of Pha- 
 raoh and his land to Nebuchadonosor, and " there shall be no more 
 a prince of the land of Egypt." Yet we find mention made of Ama- 
 sis by Herodotus and Diodorus, as king of Egypt, after that period. 
 
 How are these two facts to be reconciled? By his monuments, 
 first published by Mr. Wilkinson. Upon them Amasis never re- 
 ceives the Egyptian titles of royalty, but, instead of a pronomon, has 
 the Semitic title of Melek, showing that he reigned on behalf of a 
 foreign lord.t Two circumstances put this, I may say, beyond a 
 doubt. 1st. Diodorus tells us that Amasis was of low birth, conse- 
 quently, he did not inherit the kingdom. 2dly. A son of Amasis 
 seems to have governed Egypt under Darius, for he bears the same 
 title. Now certainly, under the Persian conquest there was no na- 
 tive king, for monuments bear the names of the Persian monarchs. 
 The title Melek will thus be proved to denote vice-regal authority ; 
 which again, is still further confirmed by a monument published by 
 Rosellini, who does not seem to have observed Wilkinson's remark. 
 This is an inscription at Kosseir, belonging to the times of the Per- 
 sian domination, recording " the Melek of Upper and Lower Egypt."} 
 Thus is a serious difiiculty removed ; Amasis was not a king, but 
 only a viceroy. 
 
 But it is time to turn to another application of Egyptian re- 
 searches ; to the illustration of its astronomical representations. The 
 attention to Egyptian monuments and literature, in modern times, 
 has been indeed fertile in objections to sacred history, which, like every 
 other study, it has overthrown in its advance. The controversy up- 
 on the zodiacs of Dendera, the ancient Tentyris, and Esneh, or La- 
 topolis, is a remarkable proof of this assertion. 
 
 The expedition into Egypt under Napoleon, which shed as much 
 
 * Pp. 107, 109. Wilkinson, pp. 98, 99. 
 
 f " Materia Hierogl." p. 100, 101. \ Page 243. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 273 
 
 lustre on the literary ardor of France, as it cast shadow upon her 
 martial prowess, first made us acquainted with these curious monu- 
 ments. At Dendera were found two ; one was an oblong painting, 
 formed by two parallel but separate bands, enclosed within two mon- 
 strous female figures. Upon these bands, in an inner sub-division, 
 were disposed the zodiacal signs, with numerous mythological repre- 
 sentations ; on the outside were a series of boats, representing the 
 decans of each sign. This zodiac was painted upon the portico of a 
 temple, where, like all the others, it occupied the ceiling. The sec- 
 ond zodiac, or rather planisphere, is circular, and has been trans- 
 ported to France, from an upper chamber of the same temple, by 
 MM. Saulnier and Lelorrain. Esneh contributed also two zodiacs, 
 one from the greater, the second from the smaller of its temples. 
 These two, with the rectangular zodiac of Dendera, can alone claim 
 particular attention ; the circular planisphere must follow the fate of 
 the zodiac painted in the same temple. 
 
 No sooner were representations of these monuments published, 
 than Europe, and particularly France, teemed with memoirs and dis- 
 sertations discussing their antiquity. It was in general taken for 
 granted, that they represented the state of the heavens at the period 
 when they were projected, and when the edifices which they adorned, 
 were erected. Some discovered in them the point in which the sol- 
 stitial colures cut the ecliptic at that time, and, with Burckhardt, at- 
 tributed to the great zodiac of Esneh the frightful antiquity of 7000, 
 to that of Dendera of 4000 years ; while Dupois, on the same premi- 
 ses, stinted the latter to 3562.* Others assumed that they repre- 
 sented the state of the heavens at the commencement of a Sothic pe- 
 riod, and, like Sir W. Drummond, assigned to that of Dendera 
 1322,t to that of the great temple of Esneh 2800 years before our 
 era.J A third class, in fine, saw in them the heliacal rising of Sinus 
 at some given period, and concluded, with Fourier, that the zodiacs 
 of Esneh were constructed 2500, that of Dendera 2000 years before 
 Christ,^ or with Nouet, that the latter was traced 2500, the greater 
 of the former 4600 years anterior to that era. 1 1 I need not weary you 
 
 * See Cuvier, ubi sup. p. 251. 
 
 f " Memoir on the antiquity of the Zodiacs of Esneh and Dendera," 
 Lond. 1821, p. 141, vid. p. 7. 
 
 I lb. p. 59. § See Guigniaut, p. 919. 
 
 II Volney's "Recherches nouvelles," 3e partie, Par. 1814, p. 33G. ^ 
 
 35 
 
274 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 furtlier, by enumerating such systems as these. The same basis led 
 different speculators to opposite conclusions ; and error thus betrayed 
 itself by the characteristic variety of its hues. 
 
 Early in the contest, there was a class of investigators who ven- 
 tured to suggest, that the alarming antiquity thus conceded to these 
 curious monuments should be examined, not upon astronomical, but 
 on archajological principles. The venerable and learned Monsignor 
 Testa, and the celebrated antiquary Visconti, were among the num- 
 ber * The latter remarked, in particular, that the temple of Dende- 
 ra, though of Egyptian architecture, bore characteristic marks which 
 could not be more ancient than the Ptolemies, and that Greek in- 
 scriptions upon it referred to a Caesar, who, he thought, must be Au- 
 gustus or Tiberius. This reasoning, however, was overlooked for 
 twenty years, and astronomical illustrations were alone admitted. 
 Mr. Bankes, during his visit to Egypt, paid considerable attention to 
 this interesting investigation ; and in a letter to Mr. David Baillie, 
 communicated his grounds for believing these temples to be of no 
 greater antiquity than the reigns of Adrian and Antoninus Pius.t 
 He remarked, that while the capitals of the most ancient columns of 
 Thebes are a simple bell, and placed on Polygonal or fluted shafts, 
 those of Esneh and Dendera are laboriously rich with foliage and 
 fruit. More than this, the hieroglyphics upon the columns are not 
 certainly Egyptian, for Mr. Bankes found an inscription, stating that 
 they were traced in the reign of Antoninus. | 
 
 The archseological arguments, however, for the modern construc- 
 tion of these monuments, received their full development from the 
 hand of M. Letronne. This learned scholar collected all necessary 
 information from the publications and reports of travellers, regarding 
 their architecture, and illustrated the inscriptions still existing upon 
 them. MM. IJuyot and Gau furnished him with interesting particu- 
 lars on the former subject. Among other facts they proved from its 
 style, and from the colors employed, that the Pronaon of the small 
 temple of Esneh, in which the zodiac is painted, is of the same date 
 with the temple itself. Now, an inscription, probably the same allu- 
 ded to by Mr. Bankes, was copied by these artists from a column of 
 
 * "Tfif^ta sopra due zodiac) novellarnente scoperti nell' Egitto." 
 Rome, 1802. Visconti in Landier'.s llorodotu.s, vol. ii. p. 5tj7. seqq. 
 
 t Sir W. Drummond's Memoir, p. 56. 
 
 } 11>. p. .57. This, I suppose, is meant of the temple at the north of 
 JlBneh, known by the name of the small temple. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 275 
 
 the latter, in which it was stated that two Egyptians caused the 
 paintings to be executed in the tenth year of Antoninus — the 147th 
 after Christ.* Such, then, is the date of the small zodiac of Esneh, 
 to which an age had been assigned of from two to three thousand 
 years anterior to Christ. The temple of Dendera has shared the 
 same fate. A Greek inscription on its portico, which had been over- 
 looked, declares it to be dedicated to the safety of Tiberius.t 
 
 While Letronne was thus occupied in examining the Greek in- 
 scriptions on these supposed vestiges of hoary antiquity, M. Chara- 
 pollion was maturing his alphabet of hieroglyphics, and soon con- 
 firmed, by his researches, the conclusion of his friend. On the 
 pronaon of the temple of Dendera, he also read the hieroglyphical 
 legend of Tiberius.| On the circular planisphere of the same temple, 
 he decyphered the letters AOTKRTR ; or, supplying the vowels, 
 JTTOKPAT^P,i\\e title which Nero takes upon his Egyptian 
 medals.§ Only the zodiac of the great temple of Esneh remains, and 
 M. Champollion has disposed of its antiquity, together with the tem- 
 ple on which it is painted, in an equally unceremonious manner. 
 When at Naples, in August 1826, Sir William Gell communicated 
 to him accurate drawings of the Esneh zodiac, taken by Messrs. 
 Wilkinson and Cooper ; and he discovered that this monument was 
 dedicated, not as the astronomers would have conjectured, under the 
 reign of some rough-named Egyptian Pharaoh, but under the Roman 
 Emperor Commodus.H The sculptures of this temple he had before 
 demonstrated to have been executed in the reign of Claudius.^ 
 
 It was with justice, then, that the Minister of the Interior, the 
 Viscount de la Rochefaucauld, in a letter addressed to the king of 
 France, dated May 15th, 1826, attributed to M. Champollion, the 
 merit of having decided the controversy, in the opinion of every un- 
 prejudiced person. 
 
 " The public suffrage," says he, " of the most distinguished learn- 
 ed men in Europe has consecrated results, the application of which 
 has already been very useful to the truth of history— andjheassu^- 
 
 *"Recherches pour servir a Phistoire de I'Ejiypte pendant la do- 
 mination des Grecs et des Roraains." Paris, 1823, p. 456. 
 
 \ lb. p. 180. 
 
 \ Lettrc a M. Leiromie, ut the end of Observations, etc. as below, 
 p. 111. 
 
 § Lettre a M. Dacier, p. 25, Letronne, p. xxxviii. 
 
 (1 Bulletin Universel, id sup. to vi. ^ Letronne. 
 
276 LECTUUE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 ance of sound literary doctrines. For your Majesty has not forgot 
 that the discoveries of M. Champollion have demonstrated, without 
 opposition, that the Zodiac of Dendera, which appeared to alarm 
 public belief, is only a work of the Roman epoch in Egypt." 
 
 It was not, however, to be expected, that the resistance of adver- 
 saries would be fully overcome by these vigorous attacks. Too much 
 learning had been expended in the support of elaborate theories, too 
 much confidence had been exhibited in asserting favorite systems, 
 for their authors to yield them up without a pang, and in some in- 
 stances without a struggle. 
 
 "Difficile est longum subito deponere arnorcrn."* 
 
 The temples, it might be granted, were indeed, proved to be 
 modern, and consequently the zodiacs which they bear; but the 
 latter must have been copied from others of an ancient date. '' Thus, 
 the original scheme of the round zodiac of Dendera must have been 
 formed at least seven centuries before our era." Such was the de- 
 fence raised by the late Sir William Drummond, in his lastwork,t 
 and when he penned it, he cannot have been acquainted with the 
 learned dissertation, published a few months before, in which Le- 
 tronne gave the finishing stroke to this and every other defence of 
 the absurd antiquity of the zodiacs. | 
 
 The enterprising traveller, Cailliaud, on his return from Egypt, 
 brought, among other rarities, a mummy discovered at Thebes, and 
 distinguished by several peculiarities. The two most important 
 were, a Greek legend much defaced, and a zodiac, very exactly re- 
 sembling that of Dendera.§ In the dissertation to which I have 
 alluded, M. Letronne undertakes the illustration of these two points, 
 and their application to the zodiacal representations in the Egyptian 
 temples. The inscription he restores with a felicity that must satis- 
 fy the most supercilious critic, and discovers the mummy to be that 
 
 * Catul. Car. Ixxvi. 13. 
 
 t " Origiiies; or Remarks on the origin of several Empires," vol. ii. 
 p. 227. Lond. 1825. 
 
 I " Observations critiques et arclicologiques sur I'ohjet des Rc|)ri;- 
 sentatioiis Zodiacales," Paris, Mars. Id24. Sir VV. Druumioiid's dedica- 
 tion is dated Sept. 17, 1824. 
 
 § " Voyage a Meroe, au Flcuve Blam:, etc." Par. 1823. fol. vol. ii. 
 pi. l.xxi. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 277 
 
 of Petemenon, son of Soter and Cleopatra, who died at the age of 
 twenty-one years, four months, and twenty-two days, in the nineteenth 
 year of Trajan, the 8th Payni, or June 2, a. n. 116.* 
 
 The zodiac on the interior of the case, I Iiave already said, re- 
 sembles that of Dendera. Like it, protected by a disproportioned 
 female figure, whose arms are extended, it exhibits the zodiacal signs 
 in two parallel bands ascending and descending precisely in the 
 same order, and in a similar style of design. Even the cow reposing 
 in a boat, and emblematic of Isis or of Sirius, is not wanting. The 
 identity, therefore, of the two representations, may be said to be fully 
 established. But there is one peculiarity in the miniature representa- 
 tion. The sign of Capricorn is withdrawn from the series, and pla- 
 ced over the head of the figure, in an isolated situation, where it ap- 
 pears to dominate. f 
 
 The very existence of a zodiac upon the case of a mummy must 
 suggest the idea that it has a reference to the embalmed ; in other 
 words, that it is astrological and not astronomical. In this case, the 
 detached sign may be supposed to represent that under which the 
 individual was born, and which consequently was to rule his fate 
 through life. This hypothesis is easily verified. We have the exact 
 age of Petemenon, with the date of his death. Calculating from 
 these, we find that he was born on January 12, a. d. 95. On that 
 day the sun is situated at nearly two thirds of Capricorn. If instead 
 of the sign we prefer the constellation, the conclusion will be the 
 same ; for, calculating from Delambre's table, according to the 
 annual precession, we find that at the period in question, the whole 
 constellation was comprised in the sign, and that on the 12th of 
 January the sun was about the IGth degree of the former.| 
 
 We can therefore entertain no doubt that the zodiac expresses a 
 natal theme ; and analogy would lead us to the same conclusion re- 
 garding that of Dendera, even if the appearance of the decans, 
 recognized by Visconti and demonstrated by Champollion, who has 
 beside them the names given them in Julius Firmicus, did not already 
 authorize us to consider it astrological. 
 
 M. Letronne, however, does not content himself with this general 
 conclusion, but enters into an elaborate examination of the astrology 
 of the ancients. This, originally the offspring of Egypt, passed into 
 
 * Page 30. t Page 49. 
 
 X Pages 53, 54. 
 
278 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 I 
 
 Greece and Rome, and returned to its mother country, ennobled and 
 consecrated, by the patronage of the Csesurs.* Precisely at the 
 moment when the celebrated zodiacs were sketched, this science, 
 if it may bear that name, had attained its zenii'i, and culminated 
 over its native soil. Manilius, in the reign of Augustus, Vettius 
 Valens in that of M. Aurelius, wrote their treatises concerning it; 
 but the numerous astrological medals of Egypt, under Trajan, Adrian, 
 and Antoninus, demonstrate its prevalence in that country.! This 
 was likewise the age of astrological sects, of Gnostics, Ophites, and 
 Basilidians, whose Abraxas, exhibiting various astrological combina- 
 tions, had been gravely taken by some of the illustrators of the 
 zodiacs, for monuments of 3863 years before the Christian era-l 
 This concentration of evidence, the modern and nearly contemporary 
 dates of a// the zodiacs, the decided astrological character of one, the 
 Decans upon another, and above all, the prevalence of astrological 
 ideas at the only time when any zodiac existing in Egypt was made, 
 leaves no room to doubt that all such representations are purely 
 remnants of the occult science, and only exhibit genethliacal themes.§ 
 What a waste of talents, of time, and of learning, has not truth to 
 deplore, in retracing the history of this memorable controversy ! 
 Over what a glittering heap of ruined systems has not error to mourn 
 — systems where all was brilliant, all was imposing, all was confident, 
 but where all was, at the same time, hollow and brittle, and un- 
 sound. We have, indeed, many cases where a sportive or malicious 
 fraud has deluded the ingenuity and study of an antiquary, and made 
 him pay, like Scriblerus, to modern rust, the veneration and homage 
 reserved to that of antiquity. || But never before did the world see 
 an instance where " a spirit of giddiness" had so completely invaded 
 such a large portion of learned and able men, as that they should as- 
 cribe countless ages to monuments comparatively modern, undeterred 
 by the fall of system after system, — 
 " And still engage 
 Within the sarne arena where they see 
 Their fellows fadi before, like leaves of the same tree." 
 
 Childe Harold, Canto iv. 94. 
 
 * Pages 58—86. t lb. 86—92. 
 
 \ lb. 70. § lb. 105—108. 
 
 II See D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature," 2d series, 2d ed. Lond. 
 1824. vol. iii. p. 49, seqq. But many other curious examples might be 
 added to those cited by D'Israeli. 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 279 
 
 Never, in fact, did error bear more completely its hydra form. Each 
 head was cut off the moment it appeared, but a new one rose instant- 
 ly at its side, equally bold, and equally "speaking great things." 
 For more than twenty years, this galling warfare continued ; but, as 
 prejudice was gradually exhausted, and true science gained strength, 
 the vital powers of the monster became less vigorous, and the wounds 
 which it received more fatal. Its last gasp has long since died away ; 
 the last flap of its mortal struggles has ceased ; and only existing 
 among the records of history, it can now present no moro terrors to 
 the most simple and timid, than the " gaunt anatomy," or well pre- 
 served coils of some desert monster, in the cabinet of the curious. 
 
 Still, it is a pleasure to see the catalogue of great names who did 
 not bend their knee to this favorite idol, and it is only justice to re- 
 cord them. A writer in an English journal, long after the last re- 
 seaiches which I have detailed, had the boldness to assert, that "on 
 the Continent," — and he is speaking of France in particular — " the 
 antiquity of the zodiacs of Dendera has been considered as quite suffi- 
 ciently established to prove that the Egyptians were a learned and 
 scientific people, long before the date which our belief affixes to the 
 creation of man ;" while in England, not only was this denied, but 
 the contrary demonstrated, /or thejirst time, by Mr. Bentley !* By a 
 logical process, unfortunately too common in the pages of that jour- 
 nal, the writer finds the cause of this phenomena in the religions of 
 the countries. " The baneful influence of Popery," he says, induces 
 the philosophical inquirer "to reject all revelation as no better than 
 priestcraft," while " in our own free country, the encouragement 
 given to a full and free examination of the evidence of Christianity, 
 has taught acute reasoners to know its strength."! All this was 
 written ttco years after the last work of Letronne had closed the lists 
 in France on the subject of the zodiacs. But if the critic had been 
 less borne away by the desire of tilting against Catholicity, even 
 where his challenge was with infidelity — the common adversary — he 
 surely would have recollected the names, not only of Letronne and 
 Champollion, but of Lalande, Visconti, Paravey, Delombre, Testa, 
 Biot, Saint-Martin, Halma and Cuvier, every one of whom had as- 
 signed a modern epoch to these monuments. And where not num- 
 
 * « British Critic," April 1826, p. 137, cf. 149. 
 t P. 136, seq. 
 
280 LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 bers, but astronomical science is required, 'such names as those of 
 Lalande, Delambre, and Biot, may surely weigh in the balance 
 against many others, and redeem the French savans from the sweep- 
 ing imputation so injuriously cast upon them. 
 
LECTURE THE NINTH; 
 
 A R C H iE O L O G Y. 
 
 Introductory remarks.— Medals : Reconciliation of an apparent con- 
 tradiction between Genesis and the Acts.— Frcihlicli's application of 
 medals to the defence of the chronology of the Maccabees.— Alexan- 
 der called the first kins; among the Greeks: Death of Antiochus 
 Evergetes. Acknowledgments of his opponents ; accordance of 
 Eckhel. M. Tochon d'Annecy's objections. — Apamean medals ; 
 history of them ; com|)arison with other monuments. — Inscriptions. 
 Verbal illustrations of Scripture from them.— Gibbon and Dodwell's 
 assertions regarding the small number of Christian martyrs, and Bur- 
 net's objections, answered by Visconti, ^rom inscriptions. — Monu- 
 ments. Use of wine in Egypt denied, and the Scripture conse- 
 quently assailed. — Confutation of this cavil from Egyptian monu- 
 ments. — Costaz, Jomard, Champollion, and Rosellini. — Curious vase 
 found in the Roman Campagna, referable to the deluge. — Conquest 
 of Judah by Shishak, represented at Karnak. — Concluding remarks. 
 
 Our last inquiries have gradually led us amongst the monuments 
 of antiquity ; and, from the examination of such great chronological 
 points as touched on the authenticity of sacred history, we found 
 ourselves almost imperceptibly brought to the discussion of individu- 
 al monuments of kings, and of their people. It might, therefore, be 
 said, that the study on which we have now to enter, has been already 
 introduced ; or, at least, that the connexion between what has been 
 said, and what will follow, is so close and natural, as hardly to war- 
 rant a separation into two distinct pursuits. But, in all the histories 
 hitherto examined, we have had one specific object in view, the re- 
 conciliation of their early monuments with sacred chronology, and 
 the process we have pursued has been consequently uniform and 
 36 
 
282 t.^CTVTRE THE NINTH. 
 
 simple. We have followed the actual progress of science ; and coni- 
 paring its results with our sacred records, have invariably discovered 
 that it removed all difficulties, and gave us a variety of new and in- 
 teresting chronological coincidences. 
 
 There are, however, a multitude of monuments bearing upon the 
 Christian evidences which could not enter into this class, and which, 
 if introduced under the same science, would have disturbed our pro- 
 cess, and broken the unity of our design. These, therefore, I will 
 throw together into a distinct class, under the name of archaeology. 
 Obviously, il.s character will hardly allow us to y)ursue so uniform and 
 progressive a method as in our last researches ; for like the objects 
 which it discusses, it is necessarily of a fragmentary nature. It 
 owns not the unities of time, place, or action; it professes to deal 
 with the remains of every age, and of every country, composed of ev- 
 ery sort of materials, and shaped in every possible form. Thus, as it 
 turns its attention from Greece to Italy, from Sicily to Egypt, as it 
 decyphers an inscription, discusses a medal, fixes the locality of an 
 edifice, or judges of its age, it must vary its rules, its methods, and 
 its direction. Hence, as a science, it cannot be said to have one 
 definite onward movement, tending to the development of any gener- 
 al conclusion. Our course must be of a similar nature ; we will here 
 pick up a medal, there will pore over an inscription ; we will con- 
 tent ourselves with such Hionuments as chance shall throw in our 
 way, and carefully store up in our cabinet such illustrations or con- 
 firmations, however slight, as they may seem to afford to our sacred 
 convictions. 
 
 To these remarks I must further add, that here I can only pre- 
 tend to glean what others have left behind. Of the species of con- 
 firmatory evidences which these lectures pursue, none has been 
 oftener or more fully handled than the illustrations from such anti- 
 quarian remains. Every elementary introduction to Scripture dedi- 
 cates a chapter to this subject ; though, in some instances, as in the 
 monument of the Assyrian captivity given by Home from Kerr Porter, 
 the examples are far from certain ; in others, as in the Apemean 
 medal, by no means accurate. Now, I have pledged myself to bring 
 forward no examples already given in works upon the evidences, and 
 therefore I must be content with such as the industry of others may 
 have overlooked. 
 
 I cannot avoid mentioning, in thi.'^ place, a work which has taken 
 one cla.ss of monument? out of our hands, those that relate to the his- 
 
ARCHEOLOGY. 
 
 283 
 
 tory of Christianity. I mean Walsh's " Essay on ancient coins, 
 medals and gems, as illustrating the progress of Christianity in the 
 early ages."* It is a work, however, which must disappoint expec- 
 tation. Most of its materials are but of a secondary interest ; a great 
 portion of the volume is taken up with an account of the Gnostics, 
 and their doctrines, and makes but a sorry figure beside the profound 
 researches of such continental writers as Neander and Hahn. The 
 second part of the work gives a series of medals, illustrative of the 
 imperial history from Dioclesian to John Zemiscus in 969, and so 
 far is interesting; but it contains many inaccuracies, and gives the 
 author opportunities of displaying an ill-timed illiberality. 
 
 With these disadvantages, we will enter upon our researches 
 among the medals, inscriptions, and monuments of antiquity. 
 
 I. There is an apparent contradiction between the narratives in 
 Gen. 33: 19, and in Acts 7: 16, relating to the purchase of a field by 
 Jacob from the Hemorites. For, St. Stephen, in the latter passage, 
 tells us that the price was paid in a sum of money, iif-ii]Q ugyv(jlov, 
 whereas the original text of Genesis says that it was paid by a hun- 
 dred lambs, or sheep. At least, the Hebrew word there used, ni:2"'i23p> 
 ( Kesita), is so rendered by every ancient version. Hence, the En- 
 glish version, which renders it by pieces of money, has added in the 
 margin, as nearer the original, the other interpretation. Supposing 
 this rendering of the ancient versions to be correct, and there must 
 have been some reason for their all giving that meaning to the w'ord, 
 there was a very simple method of reconciling the two passages, by 
 considering the same term to have expressed both objects ; in other 
 words, by conjecturing that the ancient Phenician coin bore upon it 
 the figure of a lamb, for which it was an equivalent, and that from 
 this emblem, it also derived its name. For, nothing is more common 
 than such a substitution. Among our ancestors, the attgel and cross, 
 so often alluded to in Shakspeare, received their names from the 
 representation they bore ; and, among the Romans, the very name 
 of money, pecunia, is allowed to be derived from the exactly similar 
 case of a sheep being stamped upon it. Any apparent difficulty 
 would thus be satisfactorily removed, by a highly probable conjec- 
 ture. But the publication of a medal, found by Dr. Clark near Citium 
 in Cyprus, has given us all the evidence we might desire. The late 
 learned Dr. Munter, presented a dissertation on this subject to the 
 
 London 1828. 
 
284 LECTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 Royal Danish Academy, inserted in their Acts for 1822.* In it he 
 observes, that the coin, which is of silver, is undoubtedly Pheuician, 
 as it bears upon the reverse a legend in Phenician characters. On 
 the obverse is the figure of a sheep ; and no doubt can be entertained 
 of its extreme antiquity. Here, then, he concludes, it is extremely 
 probable that we have the very coin alluded to in Scripture; at least, 
 we now know for certain that the Phenicians had a coin with a sym- 
 bol corresponding to the meaning of the word Kesita ; and the ele- 
 ment alone wanting to make the conjectural reconciliation morally 
 certain, now exists.! 
 
 A most complete and valuable application of numismatics, to the 
 vindication of sacred chronology, has been made in reference to the 
 latest historical works of the Jews, the two books of Maccabees. No 
 books of Scripture had been subjected to a stricter examination than 
 these, because they entered among the topics of religious dispute, af- 
 ter the Reformation. The Catholic, who believes them to form part 
 of the canonical Scriptures, feels necessarily a livelier interest con- 
 cerning them; but to all Christians they must appear of immense 
 value, from forming the last and only historical link in the connexion 
 between the old and new dispensations, and the only record of the 
 fulfilment of those promises, which foretold the restoration and con- 
 tinuation of the Jewish sceptre till the Messiah should come. Great 
 difficulties, however, existed regarding the dates assigned by them 
 to events related no less in classical history, and the manner in which 
 they recounted them. By some strange inconsistency, it has almost 
 always happened, that when the evidence of any sacred book is com- 
 pared with that of a piofane author, it is taken for granted that the 
 former must be in error, if both do not agree. This we have seen to 
 be the case, in treating of Indian and Egyptian antiquities. Where 
 they did not harmonize with Scripture chronology, this was i)ro- 
 nounced in fault ; though, critically speaking, it must be allowed at 
 least an equal weight with them. Now precisely the same course 
 was pursued here. Discrepancies were undoubtedly found to exist 
 between the dates assigned to events in these and in other authors 
 
 * Pliiiosopliical an<l llistoncal Class. 
 
 f On tlie reverse, with the legend, is a crown of pear/,'?. One would 
 be tempted to suspect, that such a circumstance may account for the 
 strange translation of the two Targums of Onkelos and Jerusalem, 
 wliicli both render r!i:"'C5p r^N7J a hundred Kcsiias liy ';'<"'b.l"i:D Hf^lO a 
 liundred pearls. 
 
ARCHiEOLOGY. 285 
 
 later in time, and more distant in country from the scene of those 
 actions; and, of course, the sacred book was condemned as inaccu- 
 rate. Erasmus Friihlich, in the preface to his " Annals of the Kings 
 and Events of Syria," a numismatic work of great authority and re- 
 searcl), has undertaken the task of comparing the chronology of these 
 books, not with the vague testimony of other historians, often differ- 
 ing among themselves, but with the contemporary and incontestible 
 evidence of medals. And the result has been, a table confirming, in 
 every respect, the order and epochs of events recorded in the in- 
 spired history.* 
 
 You will easily suppose, that the objections were not given up 
 without a struggle. The first edition of Frohlich's work appeared in 
 1744, and two years later, Ernest Fred. Wernsdorff appeared in the 
 field against him.t His efforts were not considered satisfactory by 
 his party, and his brother, Gottlieb, came to his assistance in the fol- 
 lowing year. J Both were fully answered by an anonymous work in 
 1749 ;§ and in spite of the virulence exhibited by the two brothers, I 
 think, whoever reads the controversy, will be satisfied that the vic- 
 tory was not with them. However, in giving two or three examples 
 of Frohlich's illustrations, I will select such as the Wernsdorffs 
 themselves acknowledge to be satisfactory. 
 
 In the first book of Maccabees, 6: 2, Alexander the Great is 
 introduced with this description, — og ^(Suailfvos vQwiog iv rolg 
 i'kXriai — ivhojirst 7cos king among the Greeks. This, it has been al- 
 leged, is false ; inasmuch as Alexander had several predecessors in 
 Macedon, who certainly were kings, and reigned among the Greeks. 
 It may be answered, indeed, that he was the first among them who 
 founded an empire bearing their name; but the solution given by 
 Frbhlich is far more satisfactory. For it is extraordinary, that what- 
 ever may have been the power of other monarchs before him, not 
 
 * " Annales compendiarii Reifutn et Renim Syriae." Ed. sec. Vien. 
 ]754. The second part of his Prolegomena is einirely taken up with 
 the vindication of these books. 
 
 f " De fomihus Historic Sy rise in Liliris Maccu!)aeorun) proliisio," 
 Lips. 174G. 
 
 J " Gottlieb Wernsdorffii Comnjentatio hi.stdnco-critica de fide 
 historica libroriim Maccabaicorurn." Wratislau. 1747. 
 
 § " Aiicloritas utriusquelibri Maccab. caiionico-liistorica adserta.... a 
 quodam Soc. Jesii sacerdoie, Curanie (^asparo Sciimidl l)iblio|>eyo." 
 Vien. 174'J. 
 
286 LECTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 one ever took the title of Baoufvg, or king, upon his coins before 
 him. " Certainly," says Frohlich, " it is not without importance that 
 no medal of undoubted genuineness of sovereigns in Macedon, 
 anterior to Alexander, should bear the title of king. They have 
 barely the names of the monarchs, as Amyntas, Archelaus, Perdicas, 
 Philip ; and some coins have simply Alexander, but many more, 
 King Alexander."* Gottlieb Wernsdortf acknowledges that this 
 solution is correct. — " This," he says, " is right, I could hardly sup- 
 pose that any doubt could exist on this point. For Jewish historians 
 under the name of Greeks, (ctoi^ FAhjVMv) always understand the 
 Macedonians, and by kingdom, the Macedonian empire, or more pe- 
 culiarly that of the Seleucidae." He, however, charges Frohlich 
 with a double fraud ; first, in attributing to Philip Aridajiis a medal 
 of Philip Amyntor, given by Spanheim, on which the title of king 
 occurs; secondly, in overlooking a medal of Argaeus. — " Dicitur 
 quoque extare numus Argai, regis antiquissimi cum epigraphe 
 ^gyfiov l3aGdfO)g."i To these objections the anonymous defender 
 of Frohlich replies — that the supposed Amyntor of Spanheim is 
 manifestly, from the style of art, a coin of a Gallo-Grecian king; and 
 that the Arga3us of Tollius, no one had ever seen, or could pretend 
 to trace. He assures us also, that he and Frohlich had carefully ex- 
 amined every medal in the imperial and other cabinets, and had 
 never found the title upon any prior to Alexander. | 
 
 Again, the second book gives us, in the first chapter, a letter 
 from the Jews of Palestine to their brethren in Egypt, dated in the 
 year of the Seleucidae 188, and containing a detailed narrative of the 
 death of king Antiochus in Persia. What Antiochus, it has been 
 asked, could this be? Independently of chronological objections, it 
 could not certainly be Antiochus Soter, who died at Antioch ; not 
 his successor, Antiochus Theus, who was poisoned by Laodice ; nor 
 Antiochus Magnus, who was friendly to the Jews. Of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes's end, we have quite a different account in the very same 
 book. (ix. 5.) Antiochus Eupator, his successor, after a reign of 
 
 * " Sane non de nihilo est, veterum qui ante Alexandrum fuissent 
 Macedoniic reguni certa numisniata ^aaihwg thuUim non prse se ferre: 
 sola com[)aient regimi nomine: auvvrcx \e\ a^vrrov, aQxdaov^Tifgdixxov, 
 (pdmnov, et qiiscdam numismata ah^avd^ov leginius, alia phira Saad- 
 t(og rdi^avdQov." — Frolich, p. 31. 
 
 t ''Commentatio," § xxii. p. 39. 
 
 I Opcr. cit. p. 170. 
 
ARCHJEOLOGY. ^87 
 
 two years, was killed by Demetrius, and the infant of the same royal 
 name, who was proclaimed king by Tryphon, was soon poisoned by 
 him as well. No other sovereign of this name remains, but Antio- 
 chus Sidetes, called also Evergetes, whose reign alone coincides with 
 the time of the letter. But a difficulty, apparently as serious as any 
 of the preceding, seemed to exclude him. For, this monarch com- 
 menced his reign 174, and Porphyrins and Eusebius agree in assign- 
 ing less than nine years as the term of its duration. He must, there- 
 fore, have died in war, according to them, about the year 182. How, 
 theri, could the Jews in 188, give an account of his death as of a 
 recent event ? Could we imagine, for instance, the members of any 
 religious community now-a-days, writing a common letter to their 
 brethren in a very near country, to convey the intelligence that the 
 sovereign who oppressed them was dead, full six years after that 
 event ? This concurring testimony of two historians was considered 
 decisive against the Jewish historian, and Prideaux unhesitatingly 
 adopted it as correct.* Now, Fr6hlich has proved beyond a doubt, 
 that they must be wrong. First, he produced two medals bearing 
 the name of Antiochus, with dates, one of 183, and the other 184 ; 
 consequently later by two years than the time which those historians 
 assign to his death. One is as follows : — 
 
 BAICAE^C. yJNT^oxov TTP : JEP.ACT. ATIP. 
 
 Of king Antiochus ; of Tyre, the sacred Asylum 184.t 
 
 The controversy ujwn these medals has been earned down into 
 our own times. Ernest Wernsdorff acknowledges the genuineness 
 of the medal, and allows that it satisfactorily proves Antiochus 
 Sidetes to have lived beyond the period assigned to him by profane 
 history ; and even seems to add his own testimony to that of Fr6hlich. 
 For he thus expresses himself;—" Quamquam igitur quod ad numis- 
 mata et annos iisdem inscriptos attinet facile assentior ; eidem cum 
 ipsi mihi, beneficio consultissimi viri complures ab Antiocho procusos 
 nuinos oculis usurpare manibusque tractare contigerit."| His aux- 
 iliary however, was more unyielding, for he suggests that the legend 
 has been misread, and that, probably, a slight alteration^a^r 
 
 * Old and New Testaments connected," Chronolog. table at the end 
 of vol. iv. ed. 1749. 
 
 f P. 24. See the medals in his plate xi. Nos. 27, 29. 
 I "De fontibus historise Syria?," P. xiii. 
 
288 LKCTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 has changed the number 181 into 184.* But if even we allow all 
 that has been written against these two medals to be valid, there 
 are others, produced subsequently to the animadversions of the two 
 brothers, whicli seem to place the matter out of doubt. For Frohlich 
 afterwards published a medal of the same king, with the date of 185 ;t 
 and Eckhel added a fourth, struck in 186.| 
 
 This point of sacred chronology was re-examined a few years 
 ago by M. Tochon d'Annecy,§ who was manifestly guided by no 
 desire to weaken the authority of the books of Maccabees. He 
 proves what every one will allow, that serious difficulties surround 
 every hypothesis, and that the concurrent testimony of historians 
 should not be lightly rejected. Apparent contradictions, indeed, 
 must meet us in every part of history ; the difficulty is where to lay 
 the blame. The medals struck for the coronation of Louis XIV. 
 give a different day from that which all contemporary historians ac- 
 cord in fixing, for the date of that event. Of them all, one only, D. 
 Ruinart, has noticed a circumstance which reconciles this discre- 
 pancy. For, he alone has recorded, that the coronation had been 
 appointed to take place on a certain day, the one given by the medals, 
 which were accordingly prepared, but circumstances caused a delay 
 till the one which historians assign. Nothing can be more simple 
 than all this ; yet, in a thousand years, had no such explanation been 
 given, antiquaries might have been sadly perplexed to find a recon- 
 ciliation. In that case, then, the medals were wrong, and the his- 
 torians right ; in ours we are equally driven to condemn one class of 
 authorities, and I think the critic will hardly hesitate which to prefer. 
 For, in the example given, the medals are inaccurate, from the date 
 once placed on them not having been changed, when the event 
 which they commemorated was deferred ; but here we must suppose 
 
 *" Commode leg! posset AIIP 181, cum eleinentum A et ^adeo 
 siinilibus lineis exaretur, ac numus ipse n)utilus sit, ut ne nomen qui- 
 (lem Anliochi distincte exhibeat." — Ubi sup. sec. xlii. p. 79. cf. the reply, 
 p. 288. 
 
 f " Ad numismata regum veterum anecdota et rariora accessio 
 nova," p. 69. 
 
 X " Syllogc Numoruni veterum," p. 8. " Doctrina numorum vete- 
 rum," torn. iii. p. 23G. 
 
 § " Dissertation sur 1' 'Epoque de la inort d'Antiochus Vll. Ever- 
 getes, Sid^t^s." Paris, 181.5. 
 
ARCH.^OLOGY. 289 
 
 the incredible error of successive false dates, in consequence of new 
 medals being struck to a monarch who was lon^r before dead. 
 
 M. Tochon rejects the two earlier medals, chiefly that of 184, on 
 grounds different from WernsdorfTs, but admitted by Eckhel, that 
 the supposed A. or 4, which is somewhat indistinct, appears to be a 
 B, or 2, of peculiar shape.* But against the two later medals, he 
 urges nothing but plausibilities; the difficulties which we incur by 
 considering them genuine, to the disparagement of so many historical 
 authorities.! In some respects he is hardly just to Frohlich ; for he 
 assumes throughout, that the learned Jesuit places the death of the 
 king in 188,1 and consequently asks, how it happens, that we have 
 medals of his successor, Antiochus Grypus, with the date of 187.§ 
 Now Frohlich places the death of Antiochus Evergetes, in 186.|| In 
 this manner, the circumstance of no medal of Antiochus Grypus 
 bearing an older date, forms a negative confirmation of his opinion. 
 Thus far, therefore, it should seem that the application of medals has 
 served to defend the chronology of these sacred records. 
 
 I will now call your attention to a class of medals, long the sub- 
 ject of serious disputes and endless conjectures, and allusive to that 
 great revolution which has already several times occupied our notice. 
 After the proofs we have seen of the deluge in the traditions of every 
 country, " from China to Peru," after the visible evidences of its ac- 
 tion, which we have discovered, piled up on the mountains and 
 scooped out in the valleys of our globe, it will perhaps appear mere 
 trifling to occupy ourselves about the petty monuments on which any 
 particular nation, much more any city, may have thought proper to 
 inscribe its traditions concerning it. Still must we not neglect small 
 things, on account of greater ; but make all contribute where they 
 can, to the noble and glorious cause of religion. It is evident that 
 the ancients had two very different legends of the deluge, one a popu- 
 lar fable adapted to their national mythology, another far more phi- 
 losophical, derived from the traditions of the east, and consequently 
 
 * " Dissertation," p. 22. 
 
 t Page G4. 
 
 X Pages 24—29, etc. 
 
 § "Comment ah. rs supj)Oser, que la mort d'Antiochus 'Evergetes 
 puisse ^tre arrive I'au 188 ? Elie serait posierieureau regne de son fils." 
 P. 61. 
 
 I " Anno cLXXxvi. Circa hoc tempus contigisse existimo c^dem 
 Antiochi VII. Evergetis." P. 88. 
 
 37 
 
«>90 I.KCTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 much more in accordance witli the scriptural narration. The for- 
 mer is the deluge of the poets, such as Ovid has described it ; and 
 Milhn has observed, that no monument exists whereon it is represent- 
 ed.* The other .account of this event is preserved in the writings of 
 Lucian and Plutarch. According to this tradition, Deucalion is 
 represented as making an ark or chest, (Aapi/a>ca) into which he re- 
 tired, taking with him a couple of every species of animals as well as 
 his wife and children. In this ark they sailed so long as the inun- 
 dation lasted, and "this," says Lucian at the end of his narrative, 
 " is the historical account given by the Greeks concerning Deuca- 
 lion. "t Plutarch adds, that the return of a dove, first gave notice to 
 Deucalion of the waters being dried up.| Now, the medals of which 
 I am going to treat, with another monument which I shall by and by 
 describe, contain the representation of this traditional history. 
 
 These imperial bronze medals of the city of Apamea,in Phrygia, 
 bear on one side the head of different emperors, of Severus, Mac- 
 rinus, and Philip the elder. The reverse is uniform, having the 
 representation drawn on the lithograph placed in your hands, (pi. 1, 
 fig. 1.) It is thus described by Eckhel. " A chest swimming upon 
 the waters, in which a man and woman appear from the breast up- 
 wards. Without it, advance with their faces turned from it, a wo- 
 man robed, and a man in a short garment, holding up their right 
 hands. On the lid of the chest stands a bird, and another balanced 
 in air, holds in its claws an olive branch. "§ The small compass of a 
 medal could hardly give a more expressive representation of this great 
 event. We have two diflferent scenes, but manifestly the same ac- 
 tors. For, the costume and heads of the persons standing outside, 
 do not allow us to consider them others than the figures in the ark. 
 We have these individuals first floating over the waters in an ark, 
 then standing on dry land in an attitude of admiration, || with the 
 dove bearing the symbol of peace above them. 
 
 But the most interesting circumstance yet remains. On the 
 
 * "Galerie Mythologique." Par. 1811, torn. ii. p. 136. 
 
 t "De Dea Syra," vol. ii. p.GGl, Ed Bened. Amst. J687. 
 
 \ "Utruni aiiinialia terrestria autaquaiica magis slut soicrtia/' Oper. 
 Par. 1572, torn. ill. p. 1783. 
 
 §"Doctrina numoriim vetcriim." Vienna, 1793, part I, vol. ill. 
 p. 130. 
 
 tl Eckhel, ibid. p. 136. 
 
T] 
 
ARCHiEOLOGY. 
 
 291 
 
 front pannel of this ark are some letters, and the discussion of their 
 import has been the subject of many learned dissertations. The first 
 who published these medals was Octavius Falconieri, in Rome, in 
 1667. The engraving which he gives of the Paris Severus, has the 
 letters JSHTSIN; which he reads in continuation oi lUylF (.layvT)- 
 Twv* Vaillant pretended to read on it, and on the Chigi medal of 
 Philip, NESIK, for vioi-AO(j(ai'. The Rev. Mr. Mills gave an essay 
 on this subject, inserted in the fourth volume of the Archseologia, by 
 the Royal Antiquarian Society, in which he maintains all to be spu- 
 rious which read not thus. Blanchini published two copies of this 
 medal, on one of which he reads NS2E, and on the other j\L'f2,f the 
 former of which readings Falconieri also gives upon another medal. 
 Thus we had four versions of this legend, and every new inquiry 
 seemed still more to involve the controversy. The reading JSSIE 
 appeared too favorable to the object proposed in the first publication 
 of these medals, not to be held in suspicion ; and such was the dread 
 of admitting any thing so good to be true, that Mr. Barrington, al- 
 lowing this to be the correct legend, would not believe it to have any 
 allusion to the scriptural name, but rather supposed it to stand for 
 iVJ2/, we, dual of fyoi, and to be a compendious representation of 
 Ovid's words ; " Nos duo turba sumus !"| The fact is, that of all 
 these readings not one is correct ; for Eckhel has proved that the 
 medals only bear two letters, JSSl. This he has proved from his own 
 and Frohlich's observation of the Vienna and Florence medals, from 
 Venuti's of that in the Albani cabinet, and Barthelemy's, of the Paris 
 Severus. Indeed, in some only the A"^ is visible, but at the same 
 time, in most, trace of a third letter is discernible, which has not 
 been purposely erased, but worn out from being the most prominent 
 point in the relief Eckhel, after examining the different explana- 
 tions given by others to this legend, rejects them, and concludes, that 
 as the entire scene, represented on the medal, bears manifest refer- 
 ence to the Noachian deluge, so must the inscription on the ark ; 
 and that, consequently, it is the name of that patriarch. This he il- 
 lustrates from the coins of Magnesia in Ionia, on which is the figure 
 
 * "De nummo Apamensi Deucalionei diluvii typum exhibente Dis- 
 sertatio, ad P. Seguiuum." Rome, 1667. 
 
 f " La Storia universale provota con monument)." Rome, 1697, pp. 
 186, 191. 
 
 I Archeeology, vol. iv. p. 315. 
 
292 LECTl'KK THE NINTH. 
 
 of a ship, bearing the inscription APJ^^i ; no doubt for the purpose 
 of clearly specifying tlie mythological event to which it refers, the 
 expedition of the Argonauts.* 
 
 But here an obvious difficulty occurs ; what could have induced 
 the Apameans to choose such an event for their symbol on their coins ? 
 This difficulty, too, is satisfactorily removed. It was customary for 
 cities to take, as their emblems, any remarkable event which was 
 fabled to have happened there. Thus the city of Thermae in Sicily, 
 has Hercules upon its coins, because he is supposed in mythology to 
 have there reposed. Now, this is precisely the case with Apaniea ; 
 or, as it anciently was called, Cela;ne. For the Sibylline books, 
 which, however spurious, are sufficient testimony of the existence of 
 a popular tradition, expressly tell us, that in the neighborhood of Ce- 
 Isene stands the mountain Ararat, upon which the ark reposed. This 
 tradition, evidently having no reference to Deucalion's deluge, the 
 seat of which was Greece, is sufficient to account for the adoption of 
 such a representation upon the Apamean coins. Hence, too, pro- 
 bably arose another ancient name of this city AilScorog, the Ark, as 
 Winkelmaun has shown, and this name is the very word used by the 
 Septuagint and Josephus in describing Noah's ark.f 
 
 Here, then, we have an instance of a monument illustrative of 
 Scripture, which owes its certainty and authority to the progress of 
 the very science which first presented it. For we have seen the 
 learned medalist, who may be said to have first reduced the study of 
 coins into a systematic order, and incorporated the whole science 
 into one plan, was also the first to clear away all uncertainty from 
 these interesting documents, and j)lace their meaning above all 
 doubt. 
 
 But it might be objected that such a representation of the ark 
 can hardly be considered in acordance with either the sacred or the 
 profane description of the deluge before rehearsed ; inasmuch as 
 these suppo.se not merely Noah and his wife, but all his family 
 and many animals, to have been shut up in the ark. Such circum- 
 .stances can hardly be exj)ressed by the representation of a small chest, 
 containing two individuals. To remove this difficulty, I would pro- 
 pose a comparison between the early Christian monuments and the 
 
 * Page 133. 
 
 + See VVinkeimann's "Moiuinienti anticiii inediti." Rome, 17G7, 
 torn. ii. p. 358. Eckhel. ib. pp. 133, 139. 
 
ARCHEOLOGY. 293 
 
 representation on the medals, for in the former, no one can doubt that 
 the Scripture narrative was kept in view. In them the ark is always 
 represented as a square chest, floating upon a stream of water. In 
 it is seen only the figure of the patriarcli from the waist upwards ; 
 and above, the dove bearing the olive-branch towards him. Such is 
 the representation on four marble sarcophagi given by Aringhi,* and 
 in the painting of the second chamber in the cemetery of Callistus.f 
 An exactly similar representation is given from a metal lamina by 
 the senator Buonarotti,J and illustrated by Ciampini.§ Some of_^these 
 paintings seem to show the cover of the chest raised open above the 
 head of the patriarch, as in the Apamean medals.|| Again, as in 
 these, the figure of Noah is sometimes seen out of the ark, standing 
 on dry land, with the symbolic dove to specify who he is. For, so 
 Boldetti enumerates, among the common Christian symbols : " Noe 
 dentro e talvolta fuori dell' area, colla colomba."^ In fine, the dove 
 is sometimes seen perched upon the ark, as on the medal, but then 
 the figure of the patriarch is wanting. Thus it is on the Fowginian 
 gem, described by Mimachi.** To enable you better to make the 
 comparison between the sacred and profane representations, I have 
 had a painting from the ceme>cry of Callistus, drawn beside the Apa- 
 mean medal, (Fig. 2.) And I think, after seeing the two together, 
 you will conclude, not only, that theieby is removed every difficulty 
 as to whether such an ark as Noah's could ever have been repre- 
 sented as we see it on the medals, but that the resemblance between 
 the two classes of monuments is such as to warrant our considering 
 
 * "Roma subterranea." Rome, 1651. Tom. i. pp. 325, 331, 333; 
 Tom. ii. p. 143. 
 
 t lb. p. 539. See also pp. 551,. 556. 
 
 I "Osserviizioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antichi di vetro," 
 Tom. i. Fig. 1. 
 
 § " Dissertatio de diiobtis embletnatibus Mussel Card. Carpinei." 
 Rome, 1748, p. 18. Biancliini lias also piibiislied, from an ancient 
 plass, a miniature representation of the same scene. (Demonstratio 
 historiae ecclesiasticae quadripartitse comprobatte monumentis. Rome, 
 1753, |). 585.) It is marked No. 159, in the last sheet of the second 
 plate, illustrative of the second century. 
 
 II See examples in Aringhi. Tom. ii. pp. 67, 105, 187, 315. 
 
 II " Osservazioni sopra i. Cimiterii," etc. Rome, 1720. Lib, i. p. 22. 
 
 ** " Orisinuin et antiquitatum Christiaiiar." Lib. xx. Tom. iii. Rome, 
 1731, p. 22. Tab. ii. fig. 6. 
 
294 LECTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 their subjects identical. Add to this that the difference of age be- 
 tween the two cannot be very great; and that it is evident the Chris- 
 tians, in these paintings, which are so uniform in different monu- 
 ments, had a common type, quite distinct from the sacred narrative, 
 for their designs, and that this type was probably borrowed from oth- 
 er traditions. 
 
 II. From medals let us turn to inscriptions, a higher order of 
 monuments, inasmuch as they are generally more detailed in the in- 
 formation they convey. The greatest advantage which has been de- 
 rived from this class of ancient remains, consists in verbal illustra- 
 tions of obscure passages in Scripture, which they have often afford- 
 ed ; but were I to enlarge upon this species of philological confirma- 
 tion or explanation, which the sacred text has received from them, 
 it is plain that I should lead you into a minute detail and learned 
 disquisition, hardly suitable to the purport of these lectures. Yet, 
 whatever throws new light upon any passage of Scripture, and what- 
 ever vindicates its phraseology from any charge of inconsistency or 
 barbarism, tends likewise to increase our clear apprehension of it, 
 and gives us additional evidence of its authenticity. I will therefore 
 content myself with one example, taken from a learned dissertation 
 by Dr. Fred. Miinter, entitled, " Specimens of Sacred Observations 
 from Greek Marbles ; inserted a few years ago in the Copenhagen 
 Miscellany.* In Jo. 4: 46, mention is made of a rig (iuathnog, a 
 certain nobleman, or ruler, or courtier, for in all these ways it is ren- 
 dered. The English version has the first with the other two in the 
 margin, and of this interpretation a modern commentator observes, 
 that it " conveys the notion of hereditary rank, and certain dignities, 
 to which there was nothing in Palestine, or even in Syria, that cor- 
 responded. "f Some have thought it meant one of the royal blood, 
 another a royal soldier ; others have considered it a proper name. 
 The most probable explanation of the word seemed that of Krebs, 
 that it signified a minister or servant of the king's.J The examples 
 
 * "Symbolse ad interpretationem N. T. ex marmoribus, numis, la- 
 pidibusque caelatis, inaxime Graecis." In tlie "Miscellanea Hafnensia 
 theologici et philologici argument!." Tom. i. fascic. i. Copenhag. 1816. 
 
 f Campbell, in loc. 
 
 I "Observationes Flaviana?," p. 144. Six of GriesbacL's codices 
 read, ftatnUaxoc, and it is evident that tlic translator of the viilgate read 
 it so ; for that version has "quidam rtguLus" or as we have wondered 
 it, "a certain ruler." Schleusner supposes this reading to have arisen 
 
ARCHEOLOGY. 
 
 295 
 
 he brought from authors, did not satisfy many commentators. A 
 new one produced by Miinter, from an inscription on Memnon's 
 statue, written in the same Greek dialect, the Hellenistic, as the 
 New Testament, puts this translation on a more secure footing. 
 For in it mention is made of yi^if^udo){)oq TTiolff-iaiov ^uodiy.og, 
 Artemidorus, the courtier, or servant of Ptolemy. For the addition 
 of the king's name will admit of no other translation.* 
 
 To come now to instances of more general importance and in- 
 terest, and from words to things, I will give you an example of the 
 services which inscriptions may render to the great evidences of 
 Christianity. Whoever has but superficially studied these, is aware of 
 the importance of the argument drawn from the alacrity with which 
 the early Christians encountered death, in defence of their religion. 
 From the visions of the revelations, to the great ecclesiastical history 
 of Eusebius, the Church annals present us a cloud of witnesses, a 
 host of martyrs, who returned love for love, and life for life, sealing 
 their confession with their blood, and setting at nought the malice 
 and cruelty of relentless persecutors. And in this firmness of con- 
 viction, this steadfastness of faith, this boldness of profession, and 
 this enthusiasm of love, we have surely proof of the powerful might 
 with which a thousand evidences, now read, but then seen and 
 felt, laid hold of their minds; and in the strength which sup- 
 ported them through every cruel trial, we have a demonstration of a 
 strong inward principle counteracting in them the feebleness of our 
 
 from the vulgate, but the contrary is much more probable. It may not 
 be out of place to remark in tliis note, that although the vulgate has 
 rendered the word by a diminutive, in Hellenistic Greek it has by no 
 means that signification. This appears from an inscription of Silco, 
 king of Nubia, first published from a less perfect copy of M. Gau, by 
 Niebuhr, in his " Inscriptiones Nubienses." Rome, 1S20 ; and again, 
 from one of M. Caillaud, by Letronne, in the "Journal des Savans," 
 Feb. 1825, pp. 98, 99. This king begins the magnificent recital of his 
 victories by E-/<a 2'iAxw ^uffdixoc t(ov JXov^uSav xai o).wv twv Ai&ionav. 
 Even if the judicious axiom of M. Salverte, in his " Essai sur les noms 
 propres ;" " Jamais people ne s'est donne a lui-meme un nom peu hon- 
 orable," did not ai)ply to monarchs, in the proclamation of their titles, 
 the words in the tenth and eleventh lines would leave no doubt of the 
 true meaning. For he there says ; on syr/ovs ^r,v (Saadicxog, "I was 
 not behind other princes, but I have been superior to them." M. Le- 
 tronne illustrates many phrases of this inscription from the Greek of the 
 Septuagint and New Testament. 
 * "Miscellanea," p. 18. 
 
296 LECTLKE THE NINTH. 
 
 nature ; and in the nothingness of every effort to overcome them, or 
 utterly destroy them, we have evidence of a protecting arm, of the se- 
 cure promise of One who could hring to nought every weapon forged 
 against his work. Who, then, can be surprised at the ingenuity 
 with which every discredit has been thrown upon that interesting fact 
 of ecclesiastical history, and that Gibbon should have employed all 
 the meretricious brilliancy of his own style, and borrowed all the 
 learning of his predecessors, to prove that Christianity had but few 
 martyrs, and that these suffered death rather from their own impru- 
 dence, than from any malice or hatred to Christianity in their ene- 
 mies ; that they were driven to the scaffold by an ambitious or restless 
 spirit, rather than by any hallowing and inspired motive. — "Their 
 persons," he concludes, " were esteemed holy, their decisions were 
 admitted with deference, and they too often abused by their spiritual 
 pride and licentious manners, the predominance which their zeal and 
 intrepidity had acquired. Distinctions like these, whilst they dis- 
 play their exalted merit, betray the inconsiderable number of those 
 who suffered, and of those who died, for the profession of Christian- 
 ity."* The learned Dodwell, in his dissertations on St. Cyprian, 
 had prepared the way for this attack upon the historical evidences of 
 Christianity, by maintaining that the number of martyrs was but in- 
 considerable, and, that after the reign of Domilian, the Church en- 
 joyed perfect tranquillity.! Doubtless Ansaldi and others have well 
 performed the task of confuting these assertions upon historical 
 grounds ; but monumental inscriptions afford the most direct and 
 satisfactory means of overthrowing them. Visconti has taken the 
 pains to collect, from the voluminous works on Christian antiquity, 
 such inscriptions as show the number of those who shed their blood 
 for Christ.t 
 
 The cruelty of the heathen persecutions, even under emperors of 
 mild principles and gentle rule, is sufficiently attested by a pathetic 
 inscription given by Aringhi, from the cemetery of Callistus. "Al- 
 exander is not dead, but liveth above the stars, and his body rests in 
 this tomb. He finished his life under the emperor Antoninus, who, 
 when he saw that much favor was due, instead of kindness returned 
 
 * " Decline and Fail," ch. xvi. 
 
 f " Dissertationes Cyprianicoe." Dissert, xi p. 57, ad calc. Cypr. Opp. 
 Oxon. 1682. 
 
 t In the " Memorie Romnne di AntichitA," ton^- '• Rome, 1825. 
 
archa:ology. 297 
 
 him hatred. For, when bending his knee about to sacrifice to the 
 true God, he was dragged off to punishment. Oh unhappy times ! 
 wherein amidst our sacred rites and prayers we cannot be safe, even 
 in caverns ! What is more miserable than hfe? But on the other 
 hand, what more miserable than death ? for we cannot be even bu- 
 ried by our friends and families."* This pathetic lamentation will 
 explain the difficulties which the Christians must have experienced 
 in recording the names of their martyrs, and why they were so often 
 obliged to content themselves with giving their numbers. Thus we 
 have the following inscriptions in the catacombs : — t 
 
 Marcella et Christi martyres cccccl. 
 (Marcella and 550 Martyrs of Christ.) 
 
 HiC RKi^UIESCIT MeDICUS CUM PLURTBUS. 
 
 (Here rests Medicus with many.) 
 
 CL Martyres Christi. 
 (150 Martyrs of Christ.) 
 
 These inscriptions clearly prove the cruelty of the persecutions, 
 and the great number of the martyrs. 
 
 Having thus seen the custom of commemorating in one short in- 
 scription, so many sufferers for the faith of Christ, we are led to 
 the natural conclusion, that when a simple number is found inscribed 
 upon a stone, it may refer to the same circumstance. This, the an- 
 tiquarian to whom I have referred, seems satisfactorily to have proved ; 
 for it had often been supposed that such numerals referred to some 
 series, in which the inscriptions had been arranged. But, not to say 
 that any such series, or any approximation to it, cannot be discov- 
 ered, these cyphers are sometimes inscribed in a manner which 
 could hardly have been adopted, were they simple progressive num- 
 
 * " Alexander mortuus non est, sed vivit super astra, et corpus in 
 hoc tumuio quiescit. Vitara explevit cum Antonono Imp. qui ubi niul- 
 tum benefitii antevenire provideret pro gratia otium reddit : genua 
 enim flectens, vero Deo sacrificaturus, ad supplicia ducitiir. O tempe- 
 ra infausta! quibus inter sacra et vota ne in cavernis quidem salvari 
 possimus I Quid miserius vita ? sed quid miserius in inorte, cum ab 
 amicis et parentibussepeiiri nequeant I" — Aringhi, " Rotna Subtorranea," 
 torn. ii. p. 685. 
 
 t Visconti, pp.112, 113. 
 38 
 
298 LECTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 bers. For instance, they are sometimes surrounded by a wreath, 
 supported by doves : in the one place, the word triginta, thirty, is 
 written at full, with the monogram of Christ's name before and after, 
 which excludes all idea of its being merely a reference to a progres- 
 sive series ; in another, the number xv. is followed by IN Pace, in 
 peace. The conjecture that such simple inscriptions record the 
 death of as many martyrs as the numbers signify, passes into absolute 
 certainty, when confirmed by a passage in Prudentius, writing on tbe 
 catacombs while the traditions regarding them were yet fresh : — 
 " There are many marbles," he tells us, " closing tombs, which on- 
 ly indicate a number ; you thus know how many bodies lie piled to- 
 gether ; but you read not their names. I remember I learnt there, 
 that the remains of sixty bodies were buried under one heap." 
 
 " Sunt et multa tamen lacitas claudentia tiimbas 
 Marmora quae solum significant iiumerutn. 
 
 Quanta virum jaceant congestis corpora acervis 
 Scire licet quorum nomina nulla legas. 
 
 Sexaginta illic defossa mole sub una 
 
 Reliquias memini me dlcidisse hominum."* 
 
 These verses leave us nothing to desire ; they put us in possession 
 of a great many inscriptions, which while they only record numbers, 
 prove most sufficiently that they were truly many, who, in those first 
 ages, bore testimony to the Lord Jesus. 
 
 But a new antiquarian difficulty here meets us. For Burnet has 
 asserted, that no monument has been found whereby it can be proved 
 that the Christians possessed the catacombs before the fourth centu- 
 ry. t General negative assertions are always easy to make, and, 
 doubtless, hard to prove ; but on the other hand, they are the easiest 
 to confute, for one instance to the contrary will suffice. So it is here. 
 One only of the numeral inscriptions already explained will demon- 
 strate all that we want. It runs thus : — 
 
 N. XXX- SURR.\- ET SENEC COSS- 
 
 (30. In the consulate of Surra and Senecio.) 
 
 Now, Surra and Senecio were consuls in the year of Christ 107, 
 
 * "Carmina." Route, 1788, torn. ii. p. 1164, Carm. xi. 
 \ "Some leltcrs from Italy." bond. 1734, j). ^24. 
 
ARCHA'.OLOCy. '299 
 
 the very era of Trajan's persecution. But there is another most valu- 
 able inscription given by Marangoni, which places this question out 
 of doubt. It is that of Gaudentius, an architect, whom tliis learned 
 antiquarian believes to have been the director in building the Colos- 
 seum. The inscription in the catacombs tells us that he suffered 
 death under Vespasian. Nor can it be supposed that it was erected 
 later to his honor. For it is distinguished by a particular sort of ac- 
 cents, or apices, over some syllables, which the learned Marini has 
 shown to have been in use only from Augustus to Trajan.* Conse- 
 quently, the inscription must have been engraved belbre this empe- 
 ror's reign. 
 
 These inscriptions are a strong additional evidence what num- 
 bers must have laid down their lives for the faith, and have thus con- 
 duced towards confuting a powerful objection against one of the most 
 interesting and beautiful confirmations of Christianity. 
 
 III. Although medals and inscriptions may justly be considered 
 monuments, yet I have reserved this term rather for the class of 
 more completely commemorative symbols, which, by representations 
 speaking to the eye, preserve the remembrance of great events, or of 
 the practices and customs of ancient times. The value of such 
 monuments must be very great ; for they are the deliberate commit- 
 tal of the fame of generations to those that follow them ; — the rep- 
 resentatives and substitutes of nations, who, knowing themselves to 
 be perishable and mortal, have erected them, fashioning them as 
 best they could, to their own image and likeness, — have clothed 
 them with that grandeur and splendor which might best symbolize 
 their own estate, — have written on them all the thoughts of pride 
 which influenced their own hearts, — have embodied in them all the 
 vastness of their ambition, and the immeasurableness of their wishes, 
 and have breathed into them a soul of silent recollections, an appeal- 
 ing power, which fastens on the sympathies, and speaks to the heart 
 of living generations, as though they communed with the concentra- 
 ted energy of the whole extinguished race. And alas ! too well have 
 they made them in general typical of themselves : epigraphs, like 
 their history, an enigma for the scholar to pore over ; ground-plans, 
 like their constitutions, a ruinous labyrinth for the antiquarian to re- 
 store ; sculptured images, like their national character, time-worn 
 and featureless, for the poet to muse on ; mighty fabrics, like the 
 
 » " Atti dei Fratelli Arvali," p. 760. 
 
300 LECTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 mighty men who raised them, disjointed, mouldered, scattered into 
 dust, whereon the philosopher may meditate, and whereby human 
 pride may be humbled. But a far sweeter lesson will they speak to 
 us, if man's design, or providence's guidance, shall have somewhere 
 caused them to bear any slight uneffaced memorial of things sacred 
 to us, though worthless to those who noted them, if, as among the 
 sculptured images on Titus's triumphal arch, the emperors who 
 erected them, and who ride thereon in triumph, shall have been muti- 
 lated, disfigured, and almost blotted from the very record of their 
 greatness ; but the golden candlestick of the temple, the lamp of 
 holy evidence, shall remain upon them, — a trophy then of war, now 
 of prophecy, — a token to them of victory, and to us of unconquerable 
 strength. 
 
 In the last century, the books of Moses were often attacked on 
 account of grapes and vineyards being mentioned in them,* and per- 
 haps wine,t as used in Egypt.f For Herodotus expressly tells us. 
 that in Egypt there were no vineyards,§ and Plutarch assures us, 
 that the natives of that country abhorred wine, as being the blood of 
 those who had rebelled against the gods.|| So conclusive did these 
 authorities appear, that the contrary statements of Diodorus, Strabo, 
 Pliny, and Athenaeus, were considered by the learned author of the 
 " Commentaries on the laws of Moses," as quite overbalanced by the 
 testimony of Herodotus alone. ^ Hence, he concluded, that wine 
 was ordered in the Jewish sacrifices, expressly to break through any 
 Egyptian prejudice regarding it, and detach the chosen people still 
 more from their overweaning affection for that country, and its insti- 
 tutions. In this opinion he has been followed by many able men. 
 Dr. Prichard mentions oblations of wine among those rites, which stand 
 either "in near relation or contradiction to the laws of Egypt;"** 
 and as it cannot certainly enter into the first of these classes, I presume 
 we must consider him of the same opinion as Michaelis. So long as the 
 authority of Herodotus was thus held superior to the concurrent testi- 
 
 * Gen, 40: 0, 43: 13. f Num. 20: 5. 
 
 X See Bullet, "R6ponses critiques," Besangon, 1819, torn. iii. p. 142. 
 Duclot's "Bible veug6e," Brescia, IS21, torn. ii. p. 244. 
 
 § Lib. ii. cap. Ixxvii. 
 
 II "De Iside et Osiride," § 6. 
 
 H Vol. iii. p. J21. seqq. English trans. 
 
 ** "Analysis of Egyptian mythology," p. 422. Gu^n^e, Lettres de 
 quelques Juifrf." Paris, 1821, torn. i. p. 192. 
 
ARCHiEOLOGy. 301 
 
 monies of other writers, the reply to the objection was necessarily 
 feeble. Accordingly, we find the authors who undertook this reply, 
 either having recourse to conjecture, from the improbability of such 
 a statement, or else supposing a chronological difference of circum- 
 stances, and a change of customs between the ages of Moses and He- 
 rodotus. 
 
 But Egyptian monuments have brought the question to issue, and 
 have, of course, decided in favor of the Jewish legislator. In the 
 great description of Egypt, published by the French government after 
 the expedition into that country, M. Costaz describes the minute 
 representation of the vintage in all its parts, as painted in the hypo- 
 geae, or subterraneans of Eilithyia, from the dressing of the vine to 
 the drawing off of its wine ; and he takes Herodotus severely to task 
 for his denial of the existence of vineyards in Egypt.* 
 
 In 1825, this question was mooted once more in the Journal des 
 Debats, where a critic, reviewing a new edition of Horace, took oc- 
 casion to observe, that the vinum mareoticum mentioned in the 37th 
 Ode of the first book, could not be an Egyptian wine, but the produc- 
 tion of a district in Epirus called Mareotis. This was in the paper 
 of June 26 ; and on the 2d and 6th of the following month, Malte- 
 Brun examined the question in the same paper, chiefly in reference 
 to the authority of Herodotus ; but his proofs went no further back 
 than the times of Roman and Grecian dominion. M. Jomard, how- 
 ever, took occasion to discuss the point more fully ; and in a literary 
 periodical, better suited than a daily paper to such discussions, pushed 
 his inquiries into the times of the Pharaohs. In addition to the 
 painted representations already quoted by Costaz, he appeals to the 
 remains of amphorae, or wine vessels, found in the ruins of old Egyp- 
 tian cities, and as yet encrusted with the tartar deposited by wine.t 
 But since Champollion's discovery of the hieroglyphic alphabet, the 
 question may be considered as quite decided : as it now appears cer- 
 tain, not only that vvine was known in Egypt, but that it was used in 
 sacrifices. For, in the paintings of offerings, we have, among other 
 gifts, flasks colored red up to the neck, which remains white, as if 
 transparent ; and beside them is read in hieroglyphics the word EPTI, 
 which, in Coptic, signifies wine. J 
 
 * " Description de I'Egypte, Antiquitds M6m." torn. i. Faris^ 1809, 
 p. 62. 
 
 f "Bulletin universal," 7e section, torn. 4, p. 78. 
 
 + " Lettres a M. le Due de Blacas," 1st Lett. p. 37. 
 
302 LECTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 Rosellini has given, in the plates of his splendid work, represen- 
 tations of every department of a vintage and wine manufactory. But, 
 before this, he had published at Florence an Egyptian basso-rilievo, 
 from the Grand-Ducal gallery, containing a prayer in hieroglyphics, 
 as he supposes, to the goddess Athyr. She is requested to bestow 
 upon the deceased wine, milk, and other good things. These objects 
 are symbolized by vessels supposed to contain them, with their names 
 written in hieioglyphics around them. Round the fiist are the 
 feather, mouth, and square, the phonetic characters of the letters 
 riPU* And here I will observe, that the learned Schweighauser, 
 in his observations on Athenaeus, appears to doubt the correctness of 
 Casaubon's assertions, that tQuiq was the Egyptian for wine,t though 
 proved clearly from Eustathius and Lycophron. Had he written 
 after this discovery of the word in hieroglyphics, he would doubtless 
 have altered his opinion. And on the other hand, I doubt not but 
 Champollion and Rosellini would have confirmed their interpretation 
 from those ancient writers, had they been aware of their testimony. 
 
 Allow me now to claim your attention to an extremely curious 
 monument, which seems to bear no other explanation but such as we 
 saw given to the Apamean medals ; the considering it as commemo- 
 rative of the deluge. In the year 1696, in excavating a monument 
 in the neighborhood of Rome, a workman found an earthen vase, 
 covered with a tile. In removing this the cover fell and broke. 
 The workmen then drew out a number of seals and amulets, con- 
 sisting of closed hands, oxen's heads, and olive berries all rudely 
 worked in stone. Below these he felt something hard and even ; 
 and in his impatience to discover it, broke the vase in two, and not 
 so satisfied, broke it open below : upon which there dropped out a 
 bronze circle, which had fitted exactly into the lower portion of the 
 
 * "Di un basso-rilievo Egizlano della 1. e R. Galleria di Firenze," 
 ib. 1826, p. 40. Wilkinson has also read the same word, " Materia 
 hieroglypliica." p. 16, note 5. 
 
 f Athenaeus, "Deipnosoph. Epit." lib. ii. torn. 1. p. 148, ed. Scliwei- 
 ghauser, has liie word t{)THi in a quotation from Sappho, though, in 
 another passage, (lib. x. torn. 4. p. 55) he reads olniv. The learned 
 critic seems to have proved, that the latter is the correct reading-. 
 (Animadv. in Athen. Argentoi, 1804, torn, v, p. 375.) This discovery, 
 however, of the Egyptian name given to wine by ancient writers, in 
 hieroglyphic characters, under the circumstances noticed in the text, 
 must be considered a strong corroboration of the correctness of the 
 phonetic system. 
 
ARCHAEOLOGY. 303 
 
 vase, and a thin plate, which evidently had covered it. It had no 
 bottom ; but, from the fibres of wood which were found mixed with 
 the earth, it was conjectured that this was originally formed of that 
 material. At the same time, there fell out a number of figures which 
 I will presently describe. This curious monument came into the 
 possession of the antiquarian Ficoroni, and a minute account of it 
 was published by Bianchini in the following year.* An engraving 
 accompanies it, very rudely executed ; but a later edition of this 
 exists, without date, but stating below that the objects were in the 
 house of the Ab. Giovanni Domenico Pennacchi. From this I have 
 had a copy made, without attending to the imperfect drawing ex- 
 hibited in both the engravings, which are sufficiently different from 
 each other to .show that perfect accuracy of design was not an ob- 
 ject in either. You have it before you,t and 1 proceed to explain it. 
 The figure is divided into three compartments. The first, on the 
 left hand, represents the vase A, made of earthen ware, of a different 
 quality from ordinary terra coftas, inasmuch as it was mixed up with 
 shining metallic fragments, and bits of marble. In shape it some- 
 what resembles a small barrel, or the vase represented on the Isiac 
 pomp in the Palazzo Mattei. The figure represents it as it was 
 broken, and shows the distribution of the trinkets within at C. Be- 
 side it, B is the cover which was found upon it. Passing to the sec- 
 ond compartment, you have the shape and proportion of the lower 
 part of the vase, two thirds the size of the reality. In the same pro- 
 portion nearly, are the figures distributed in this and the third com- 
 partment. D represents the metal circle which lined the lower por- 
 tion of the vessel, composed of small plates nailed together, as if in 
 imitation of a wooden frame work. At intervals are windows or open 
 spaces, with shutters over them. There is no door, but, to supply 
 this deficiency, there is a bronze ladder of five steps, as if intended 
 to give entrance above. The structure of this metal box seems thus 
 evidently to indicate a desire of representing a building or edifice, 
 probably of wood, not to be entered from the ground. At certain 
 distances, the side is raised higher than the rim of this little chest, 
 like the breast-works of a battlement ; two of these elevations appear 
 in the design, these seemed to hold on the cover, which was fastened 
 to them by certain metal pins, one of which, fastened in the cover, 
 is seen at E, in the left division. 
 
 * La storia universale provata coi monumenti," pp. 178, seqq. 
 f See PI. II, prefixed to this Volume. 
 
304 LECTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 The figures consisted of twenty couple of animals,* twelve of 
 quadrupeds, six of birds, one of serpents, and one of insects. There 
 were two other unpaired insects, the fellows of which were probably 
 lost in the excavation. The animals were a lion and lioness, a 
 couple of tigers, horses, asses, deer, oxen, wolves, foxes, sheep, hares, 
 and two others not specified. There were, besides, thirty-five hu- 
 man figures, some single, some grouped ; but all, with two or three 
 exceptions, showing signs of trying to escape from drowning. The 
 hair of the females is all dishevelled, and they are borne away on the 
 shoulders and backs of the men. In this case they perform the task 
 of closing the mouth and nostrils of their protectors. Single figures 
 do the same for themselves. All are represented as raised to their 
 utmost pitch of stature, and on the right you have a group of thfje 
 figures standing upon a corpse apparently drowned, as if to add some- 
 what to their height. The figures were all of exquisite workmanship, 
 indicating a very perfect state of art, with the exception of four, 
 which seem to have been supplied by a much ruder hand. The 
 same may be said of the animals, in which pieces broken or lost 
 seemed to have been supplied in later times. In the description we 
 are nowhere told of what materials the figures were composed. If of 
 bronze, we might compare them to the number of little images of 
 animals, always in pairs, found in Pompeii, of which many may be 
 seen in the museum of Naples. Neither am I aware what has since 
 become of this curious relic. 
 
 I will not follow the learned illustrator of this monument into the 
 variety of arguments which he brings to prove that this was a vase 
 used in the festival of the hydrophorio, or commemoration of the 
 deluge. The different amulets are certainly very like what Clement 
 Alexandrinus, Arnobius, and others, have described as placed by the 
 heathens in their mystic baskets ; but if the one given in the Acts of 
 the Academy of Cortona be correct,! as it seems most probable, this 
 vessel could hardly be considered as belonging to that class of monu- 
 ments. I must observe, that a chain and lock were found close to 
 our vase, as if belonging some way to it. 
 
 * Bianchini, in his description, says there were nineteen couple ; 
 but this does not accord with his enumeration of them in detail. 
 
 \ " Atii (leir Accademia di Cortona," Rome 1742, torn. i. p. 65, Cf. 
 Also the dissertation of Prof. Wonder, " De discrimine verborum cislcB 
 et titellcR,'' in his " Varise lectiones hbrorum aliquot M. T. Ciceronis ex 
 cod. Erfurt." Lips. 1827, pp. clviii. seqq. 
 
ARCHJEOLOGY. 
 
 305 
 
 But be this as it may, it is difficult to give any other explanation 
 of this singular little monument, than what must obviously strike at 
 once, that it alludes to the destruction of the human race, with the 
 exception of a few, who, with pairs of animals, were saved in some 
 species of ark or chest. 
 
 In my last lecture, treating of the chronology of Egypt, as now 
 established by monuments, I mentioned one remarkable synchronism 
 of Shishak and Relioboam, as given by Rosellini. This king of 
 Egypt, is totally omitted by Herodotus and Diodorus, though Mane- 
 tho mentions him under the name of Sesonchis, as founder of the 
 22d dynasty. I mentioned the discovery of several monuments bear- 
 ing the name of this king as Shishonk. This agreement between 
 the two annals in so definite a manner, makes this point the proper 
 basis of any system of Egyptian chronology, and as such Rosellini 
 takes it. But I reserved for this meeting, one monument completely 
 establishing this harmony, and affording, at the same time, one of 
 the most striking confirmations yet discovered of sacred history. 
 This I proceed to lay before you. 
 
 The first book of Kings (14: 24) and the second of Chronicles 
 (12: 2) inform us, that Shishak, king of Egypt, came against Juda, 
 in the fifth year of Rehoboam, with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horse- 
 men, and a countless host ; that, after taking the fortified places of 
 the country, he approached to besiege Jerusalem, that the king and 
 people humbled themselves before God, and that he, taking pity on 
 them, promised them, that he would notdestroy them, but still should 
 give them into the invader's hand to be his slaves ; " nevertheless 
 they shall be his servants, that they may know my service, and that 
 of the kingdoms of the nations." Shishak therefore came and took 
 the spoil of the temple, and among it the golden shields which Solo- 
 mon had made* In the great court of Karnak, the exploits of this 
 mighty conqueror, and restorer of the Egyptian power, are represent- 
 ed at full. We might naturally expect this conquest of Juda to be 
 included among them, the more so as that kingdom might be con- 
 sidered at its zenith, just after Solomon had overawed all neighbor- 
 ing nations by his splendid magnificence. Let us see if this is so. 
 In the representations at Karnak, Shishak is exhibited, according to 
 an image familiar in Egyptian monuments, as holding by the hair a 
 crowd of kneeling figures heaped together, and with his right hand 
 
 * 2 Chron. 12: 8. 
 39 
 
306 LECTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 raised up, ready with one blow of his battle-axe to destroy them all. 
 Besides these, the god Ammon-Ra, drives forwards towards him a 
 crowd of captives, with their hands tied behind them. If the first 
 group represent those whom he destroyed, the second may well be 
 supposed to contain those whom he only made his servants, or simply 
 overcame, and subjected to tribute. According to the promise made 
 him, the king of Juda was to be in this class, and in it we must look 
 for him. Among the figures of captive kings we accordingly find 
 one, with a physiognomy perfectly Jewish, as Rosellini observes. 
 He has not as yet given the copy of this monument, though he has 
 the legend;* but that you may convince yourselves how truly ?«ie- 
 gyptiun, and how completely Hebrew the countenance of this per- 
 sonage is, I have had it exactly copied for you, from the engraving 
 published of it at Paris, by Champollion.t (PI. HI.) The profile, 
 with its beard, is every way Jewish, and to make this more apparent, 
 I have placed beside it an Egyptian head, quite characteristic of the 
 natural type. Each of these captive monarchs bears a shield, in- 
 dented as if to represent the fortifications of a city ; and on this is 
 written a hieroglyphic legend, which we may suppose to designate 
 who he is. Most, if not all the shields are so far defaced, as to be 
 no longer legible, except that borne by our Jewish figure, which re- 
 mains, as you see it in the drawing. The two feathers are the let- 
 ters J. E. ; the bird OU. ; the open hand, D. or T. ; thus we have 
 Jeoud, the Hebrew for Juda. The next five characters represent the 
 letters, H. A. M. L. K., and supplying the vowels, usually omitted in 
 hieroglyphics, we have the Hebrew word with its article, Hamelek, 
 the king. The last character always stands for the word Kali, a 
 country. Thus we have a clear demonstration that this was the 
 king of Juda, treated just as the Scripture tells us he was, reduced to 
 servitude by Shishak or Shishonk, king of Egypt. Well may we 
 say, that no monument ever yet discovered, gives such new confirm- 
 atory evidence to the authenticity of Scripture history. I will close 
 my observations, by remarking that Paravey thinks a resemblance 
 clearly discernible between the face of the king of Juda, and the re- 
 ceived type of our Saviour's countenance, particularly in the lower 
 part; and thus a family likeness would exist between the ancestor 
 and descendant. 
 
 * "I irionumenti dell' Egitto," Parte i. Monum, stor. Tom. ii. p. 79. 
 f In liis "Lpttres ^-crites d'Egypte." 
 
ARCHiEOLOOY. 
 
 307 
 
 Let these examples suffice ; for, when I remember where wc are, 
 in the very heart and citadel of this science, where its great influen- 
 ces are drunk in by every sen^e, and we ourselves become as it were 
 identified with the recollections of its sacred monuments, I foel as if 
 the detailing of a few insignificant instances of its power to aid our 
 faith, must Appear almost a needless importunity. There has been 
 one who sat upon the ruins of this city, and was led, by the train of 
 reflections they suggested, to plan that work upon its later history, 
 to which I have to day referred, 
 
 "Sapping a soleirm creed with soletrm sneer." 
 
 But surely a believing mind must rise from such a meditation 
 with very different feelings, oppressed, indeed, with the whole weight 
 of his natural feebleness, humbled in spirit before the colossal wrecks 
 of matchless grandeur, more than ever sunk into littleness before the 
 memorials:of almost superhuman power ; but at the same time cheer- 
 ed- by other and more consoling thoughts. For even those heathen 
 monuments have many holy recollections; of the three triumphal 
 arches, one records the fulfilment of a great prophecy, the other the 
 triumph of Christianity over heathenism ; and the Flavian amphi- 
 theatre was once the scene of the martyrs' witnessing. And surely, 
 whatever creed any may profess, he cannot visit, but with soothed 
 and solemn feeling, those many old and venerable churches which 
 stand alone amidst the ruins of ancient buildings, not because they 
 were erected in solitude, but because, like the insulated cones that 
 rise on the flanks of mountains, the inundations of many ages have 
 washed down around them, the less durable masses that enclosed 
 and connected them together. And if he enter some of these, and 
 see them yet retaining all their parts, and decorations, even as they 
 were in early times, so unmoved, so unchanged, as if the very atmos- 
 phere breathed in them by the ancient Christians, had not been dis- 
 turbed • meihinks it were not difficult for you to feel, for some short 
 space as they did, to wish that all else had suff-ered as small mutation, 
 and long that religion could once more strike its roots as deeply into 
 our hearts as it did into theirs, and if it produce no more the mar- 
 tyr's palm, put forth at least the olive branch of peace. And where- 
 ever we move among the remains of the ancient cty, whether in 
 search of amusement or instruction, there is caught a tone of mind 
 which the most thoughtless cannot escape, essentially subuu.ng ot all 
 
308 LECTURE THE NINTH. 
 
 selfish and particular feelings, an approximation to a religious frame 
 of soul, which shows how necessarily the destruction of all mere 
 earthly power, was a preliminary step to the introduction of a more 
 spiritual influence, even as the contemplation of that destruction 
 opens the way to that influence's personal action. And thus may 
 we say that archaeology, the study of ruins and of monuments, while 
 it enlightens and delights us, may well form the basis of the strongest 
 religious impressions, and individual evidences. 
 
LECTURE THE TENTH 
 
 ORIENTAL STUDIES. 
 
 PART I. 
 SACRED LITERATURE, 
 
 Introductory Remarks on the connexion of these studies with relig- 
 ion. Critical Science.— Its objects and principles. Old Testa- 
 ment.— Uouh'igant, Michaelis, Kennicott, De Rossi.— Encouragement 
 given by Rome to these studies. JVetv Tesiamen^— Anticipations of 
 Free-thinkers.— Wetstein, Griesbach. Results: 1. Proof ol)tained 
 of the purity of the text in general ; 2. Authentication of particular 
 passages ; 3. Security against future discoveries.— Confutation of an 
 anecdote related by Michaelis and Dr. Marsh. Sacred Philology. 
 
 Hebrcic Grammar — Its origin among Christians. — Reuchlin and 
 
 Pelicanus, etc. Application of cognate Dialects, De Dieu, Schul- 
 tens: Dutch School of Sacred Literature. — German School; 
 Michaelis, Storr, Gesenius.— His application of it to invalidate the 
 prophecy of is. lii. liii.— Confutation of his rule by later Grammari- 
 ans ; Ewald. Hermeneutical Studies.— 1. Use made of this science 
 to attack the character of the Fathers. — Vindication of them, drawn 
 from the very progress of the study. Winer, Clausen, RosenmUller. 
 2. Vindication of the old Catholic Commentators by the same ad- 
 vance. 3. Attacks upon Scripture, principally the Projjhecies, drawn 
 from the imperfect state of Biblical henneneutics ; the Rationalist 
 ■ School. — Return to sound principles.— Hengstenberg. 4. Practical 
 application of Philology to the refutation of objections made to the 
 genuineness of Matt. i. ii. from expressions therein used. 
 
 The east has already more than once engaged our attention ; 
 and assuredly it would be vain to look for collateral evidences of 
 Christianity, or documents confirmatory of its sacred writings, with 
 greater chance of success, in any other country than in that which 
 
310 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 gave it birth. The east bears a character in regard to us, and the 
 entire human race, which no relative situation can ever alter ; to 
 the scholar and philosopher, it oi)ens a mine of reflections, sacred 
 and historical, which yields every time it is farther explored, new and 
 exhaustless treasures. It is the womb of nations, not only where 
 the species originally came into being, and was renewed after the 
 deluge, but whence by a power given to no other portion of the globe, 
 successive races of men have come forth, pushing forward each other 
 as waves to the shore, from the unmoved calm of the ocean. Ap- 
 parently, without the power of giving the last development of intel- 
 lectual^ energy to its own inhabitants, it hath so fitted and prepared 
 them, that under proper influences, they have advanced to every 
 possible degree of civilization, of culture, and of power. 
 
 For, so long as they remain in their native birth-place, as though 
 it were but a nursery wherein their growth is stunted, the nations of 
 Asia appear incapable of rising above a certain degree of moral pre- 
 eminence. While physical life seems brought to the highest possi- 
 ble perfection : while every luxury which nature has bestowed upon 
 the world is there a gift rather than a production ; while the out- 
 ward vesture of man, his corporeal endowments of beauty, agility, 
 strength, and temperate endurance, is dressed out in surpassing ex- 
 cellence ; while every institution of government, of morality, of soci- 
 ety, and religion, bears the impress of a sensuous happiness, carried 
 to its highest stretch of gratifying power ; there is a boundary set up- 
 on all these qualities, a separation impassable between them and a 
 nobler order of excellence; the civilization there can never give full 
 growth to the spirit's wings, to raise it into the higher regions of pure 
 intellectual enjoyment ; the inventive powers are forever supplied by 
 mere contriving skill ; the steadiness of rule is replaced by boister- 
 ous and transitory conquest, or by stagnant despotism; and civiliza- 
 tion stands, age after age, at a dull unvarying level, seldom sinking 
 below, and never rising above an appointed mark. 
 
 But this strange contrast between the inhabitants of Asia, and 
 those races which, when once issued from it, have shown such mar- 
 vellous powers of thought and design is, withal, a source of great 
 and interesting advantages. For it gives to the former a fixed and 
 unaltering character, which enables the latter to trace back their 
 history and institutions into the remotest ages, and gives connexions 
 between the present and the past, which must otherwise have been 
 effaced, and which afford us now many rich and valuable illustra- 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 311 
 
 tions of our mosi sacred monuments. Vain would be the attempt to 
 discover the state of any country in Europe, of Germany, for instance, 
 of Britain, or of France, two thousand years ago, from such institu- 
 tions, habits or appearances, as yet remain. Except the great un- 
 changeable features of nature, mountains, seas, and rivers, nothing 
 is there which has not been altered and modified ; languages, govern- 
 ment, arts and cultivation, the face of the field, the countenance of 
 man, all is different, and gives tokens of complicated change. But if 
 we travel to the east, it is far otherwise. We find the Chinese, just 
 as his oldest literature describes him ; we have the wandering Mon- 
 gols and Turcomans, with their waggon-houses and herds, leading 
 the Scythian's life ; we see the Brahmin performing the same ablu- 
 tion in the sacred river, going through the same works of painful 
 ceremony, as did the ancient gymnosophit;ts, or rather as is pre- 
 scribed in his sacred books of earlier date ; and still more, we dis- 
 cover the Arab, drinking at the same wells, traversing the same 
 paths, as did the Jew of old, on his pilgrim journeys ; tilling the 
 earth with the same implements, and at the same seasons ; building 
 his house on the same model ; and speaking almost the same lan- 
 guage as the ancient possessors of the promised land. 
 
 Hence, it follows, that innumerable illustrations of holy writ may 
 be found at every step, through that blessed country. But, inde- 
 pendently of this, there is comprised in that unchanging uniformity 
 of more eastern nations, a tenacious grasp of all great traditions, an 
 earnestness in the preservation of all that records the primeval histo- 
 ry of man ; and thus is given us, in the present, a test which cannot 
 deceive us, when used to assay what is delivered of the past ; a 
 means of collecting links, otherwise irretrievably dispersed, of that 
 chain which continues the history of man's mind, from the first- 
 taught lessons of his childhood to the bolder thoughts of manlier 
 years. 
 
 Having now entered upon that department which more strictly 
 forms my own particular pursuit, and feeling the materials whereof it 
 is composed more immediately under my hand, my principal difficul- 
 ty to-day, and in my next lecture, will consist in selecting, out of in- 
 numerable examples, a k\v of more general interest, and in confin- 
 ing myself to such sim]>le outlines of things capable of much higher 
 finish, as may be easily retained. And I will divide my subject into 
 two portions, treating to-day of sacred, and at our next meeting of 
 profane, oriental literature. 
 
31l2 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 The portion of my task which I have allotted to this day, I shall 
 divide under the two heads of critical and philological pursuits. For, 
 to preserve some measure of proportion between this and our next 
 entertainment, I must place under the head of profane studies, such 
 antiquarian illustrations as are drawn from uninspired sources. The 
 subject of this day's Lecture will wholly consist of such studies as 
 have the Scriptural text alone in view. 
 
 Of all these pursuits, critical science may be justly considered the 
 very foundation. For, if the understanding the words of Scripture 
 aright, necessarily form the ground-work of all true interpretation, 
 the reading of them correctly must be a preliminary step to that ac- 
 curate understanding. Now, the science of sacred criticism under- 
 takes this office. First, it investigates what are the true words of 
 any single text, it examines all the varieties which may exist therein ; 
 and, weighing the arguments in favor of each, decides which read- 
 ing the commentator or translator should prefer. But then it goes 
 further, and generalizes its results, by inquiring into the correct- 
 ness of the entire sacred volume, after the revolutions of so many 
 ages. 
 
 The influence of this study upon the Christian evidences is man- 
 ifestly very great. For, as to its particular application, very rnuch 
 may be gained or lost, by a word or a syllable. The application to 
 Christ of the beautiful prophecy. Psalms 22 : 16, " they pierced 
 my hands and feet," is disputed by the Jews, and by all theolo- 
 gians of the rationalist school ; and the dispute turns entirely upon 
 the reading of the words. For, the present reading of the Hebrew 
 text gives a totally different meaning to the passage, that is, " as a 
 lion are my hands and feet ;" and innumerable are the disquisitions 
 published upon the true reading of the text. In the New Testa- 
 ment, it is singular that the most important passages aifecting the 
 Socinian controversy, should be in the same condition ; and form 
 the subject of the most complicated critical investigations. I hardly 
 need mention the endless dispute, whether the celebrated verse of 
 the Three Witnesses, 1 Jo. 5:7, be a part of the original text, or a 
 later interpolation. But besides this, another most important pas- 
 sage, bearing upon the same dogma, is in a still more curious posi- 
 tion. This is 1 Tim. 3: 16, where a serious dispute exists, whether 
 we should read, " God appeared in the flesh," or " vAo appeared in 
 the flesh ;" and this dispute has been not only contested witii the 
 pen, but has literally been made the object of microscopic investiga- 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 313 
 
 tion. For it turns upon this ; whether the word in the most celebra- 
 ted manuscripts be OC, ivho, or GC, the abbreviation for Qiog, God. 
 Now, the pronoun and the abbreviation are the same, excepting in 
 the transverse stroke, which, passing through the 9, distinguishes it 
 from the O, and in the line drawn over it, as a sign of abbreviation. 
 Some, for instance, assert, that in the celebrated Alexandrian man- 
 uscript in the British Museum, these lines are added by a later hand ; 
 all agree that they have been most imprudently retouched. Others 
 have maintained that some remnants of the original stroke might be 
 seen in a strong light, with the aid of a good lens ; and their oppo- 
 nents again rejoin, that it was only the transverse stroke of a letter 
 on the other side of the page, which appeared through the vellum, 
 when raised to the sun.* In fine, this dispute has been continued, 
 and the passage positively handled, till strokes and letters, retouch- 
 ings and originals, have been equally cancelled, and the decision for 
 posterity must rest on what judgment it can form from so many con- 
 flicting testimonies. A similar variety of opinion exists regarding 
 the passage in another most celebrated Paris manuscript, called the 
 " Codex Ephrem ;" Woide, Griesbach, and Less, e^xamined it, yet 
 could not ascertain which is its true reading. 
 
 But the great and most important office of this study, particularly 
 in connexion with the object of these lectures, consists in giving ua 
 the means of deciding how far the text of Scripture, as we now pos- 
 sess it, is free from essential alterations, and corruptions ; and con- 
 sequently, in removing all our anxiety and uneasiness regarding its 
 interpretation. And to show how far it has been successful in its 
 researches, I will briefly sketch out the history of the science, as ex- 
 ercised upon the texts of both Old and New Testaments. 
 
 I need not say, that, from the earliest ages of the Church, the ne- 
 cessity of having correct texts, and the duty of taking pains to pro- 
 cure them, were fully admitted ;t with this difference, that, as the 
 language of the Old Testament was little known to Christians, their 
 labors were chiefly directed to the perfecting of their versions. Ori- 
 gen, Eusebius, Lucian, and other learned Greeks, dedicated their 
 talents to this object, purged the Septuagint version of the errors 
 
 * See Woide " Notilia Cod. Alexandrini," Lips. 1788, p. 172, § 
 Ixxxvii. 
 
 t "Codicibus emendandis primitus debet invigilare solurti;i eorum 
 qui Scripturas nosse desiderant." St. Aug. " De Doctiina Christiana," 
 lib. ii. cap. 14, torn. iii. pa. i. p. 27. ed. Maur. 
 40 
 
314 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 which had gradually crept into it, and produced different texts, yet 
 discernible in the different MSS. of that translation. In the West, 
 St. Jerome, Cassiodorus, and Alcuin, took no less pains with the 
 Latin version. But all the ecclesiastical writers who, besides those 
 already enumerated, occupied themselves with critical subjects, par- 
 ticularly St. Augustine, and Ven. Bede, repeatedly acknowledged 
 the necessity of having recourse to the originals, and endeavoring, 
 as far as possible, to procure a correct text.* 
 
 When the study of Hebrew began to be more cultivated among 
 Christians, and the invention of printing made its text accessible to 
 all, there s])rung up an important controversy upon its accuracy. In 
 many most important passages, as the one I have cited from Ps. xxii, 
 it was found to differ from the versions then in use ; and suspicions 
 were raised against the Jews, who had so long monopolised it, as 
 though they had taken advantage of that circumstance, to alter and 
 strangely corrupt the original text, in divers places. Hence, many 
 assumed that the versions were to be preferred to the original ; — 
 others of more moderate principles, that this was at least to be cor- 
 rected by them. But, even before critical studies had received their 
 full development, or been reduced to principles, which in every sci- 
 ence, must follow, not precede observation, the accurate examination 
 of almost every passage quoted in support of these opinions, was 
 found to lead to their confutation ; and the Jews were proved upon 
 incontestable evidence to have preserved the sacred volume free from 
 all intentional alteration. Such is the judgment which all now agree 
 in pronouncing on the animated, folio controversies between Cap- 
 pellus and the Buxtorfs. 
 
 Still there were many who were not convinced ; and their obsti- 
 nacy led to the most important step in this branch of sacred literature, 
 to laying the foundation of all satisfactory critical investigation, by 
 the collection of various readings from the examination of MSS., ver- 
 sions, and ancient quotations. Such at least was the motive which 
 excited the industry of F. Houbigant. He fancied that the Hebrew 
 text was essentially corrupt ; and therefore attem])ted, in 1753, to 
 publish it in four splendid folios, purged of its errors, and restored to 
 its original purity, by the examination of several manuscripts in the 
 
 * " Ul)i cum ex adveiso audieris proba, non confugias ad exempla 
 veriora, vol plurium codicum, vel autiquorum, vel lingua? pr.Tecedentis, 
 nride hoc in aliam linguain interpretatum est." Adv. Faust. lib. x. cap. 2, 
 torn. vii. \\ 219. 
 
SACRED r.ITERATinK. 315 
 
 libraries of Paris, and by the comparison of the oldest version;*. Rash 
 as were at once his theories and their application, no alarm was felt 
 by the friends of religion, lest they might lead to any serious conse- 
 quences, — no obstacles were thrown in his vvay by his ecclesiastical 
 superiors, and the Pope sent him a splendid gold medal, as a testi- 
 mony of approbation for his industry and zeal.* 
 
 This same path was, however, pursued upon higher and better 
 motives by other learned men. John Henry Michaelis, whose repu- 
 tation has been unjustly much eclipsed by that of his nephew, pub- 
 lished in 1720, after thirty years' incessant labor, an edition of the 
 Bible, with notes, in which, among other valuable matter, are given 
 the varieties discoverable in three manuscripts preserved at Erfurt. 
 Our own country, however, has the merit of producing the greatest 
 and most valuable work on this important science, the one to which 
 all later researches must necessarily be attached as supplements and 
 appendixes. The learned Benjamin Kennicott occupied more than 
 ten years in preparing the materials for his great critical Bible, which 
 issued from the Clarendon Press in 1776, and 1780. For this pur- 
 pose, he did not content himself with collating all the manuscripts in 
 England, but extended his researches over all the continent, and 
 every where received the most liberal encouragement. The results 
 of his labors, and every interesting discovery which they made, he 
 communicated to the public every year in an annual report, which 
 kept alive the interest of the learned, from the first announcement, to 
 the completion of his herculeati work. 
 
 Nothing has been more common than to charge us who dwell in 
 Rome, and particularly those who have authority here, with dis- 
 couraging all critical research, especially in sacred literature, and 
 with throwing every obstacle in the way of those who cultivate it. I 
 shall have to advert, a little later, to a specific charge of this nature ,* 
 but the conduct and feeling manifested in Rome towards Kennicott 
 and his undertaking, affords sufficient proof of how groundless are 
 such accusations. He himself tells us, that the first place which 
 gave him encouragement, and offered him assistance, was Rome ; 
 and he gives us the following letter, written to him by Card. Passi- 
 onei, librarian to the Vatican, dated May IG, 1761, and entitled by 
 him, " The Roman Testimonial." 
 
 " The undertaking of a new edition of the Bible to be made at 
 
 * See Orme'e " Bibliotheca Biblica :" Art. Houuigant 
 
316 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 Oxford upon all the Heb. MSS. existing in the most celebrated 
 libraries, has here met as many approvers as persons who have heard 
 it mentioned. And to favor the author of so important a work, I 
 have permitted with pleasure, the collation of the ancient Hebrew 
 MSS. existing in the Vatican Library, and I have granted it officially 
 as Librarian of the Holy R,oman Church."* 
 
 In 1772, F. Fabricy, a Dominican, published in Rome two very 
 large volumes, directed almost entirely to prove the great benefit 
 which religion must receive from a free and complete examination of 
 the critic;d state of our present Hebrew text, such as was promised 
 by Kennicott. " What must chiefly interest us," he says, " is, that 
 it will infallibly give religion powerful arms to confound a funda- 
 mental error of the impious and the libertine, on the actual state of 
 our Hebrew text. From the inspection of Heb. MSS. compared 
 with our common text, and with the most ancient versions, an inter- 
 esting fact must result, the assurance of our divine Scripture being 
 essentially incorrupt. We cannot give a better confutation of their 
 hypothesis, who call themselves philosophers in our days, and who 
 refuse credit to the sacred books, on the pretence that the originals 
 of Scripture are essentially corrupt, and are now in extreme confu- 
 sion and disorder."t 
 
 It was only, indeed, by the existence of such kind encouragement, 
 that the next and last laborer in this field could have accomplished 
 his extraordinary undertaking. This was John Bernard de Rossi, a 
 poor and modest professor of Parma. • In an interesting account of 
 his labors, which he published shortly before his death, he considers 
 himself only an humble instrument in the hands of Divine Provi- 
 dence, for the work which occupied his life, the collection of manu- 
 scripts and rare editions of the Hebrew text. Without fortune, 
 influence, or connexions, he dedicated himself to this task; he de- 
 voted to it all his little means ; he employed every art to overcome 
 the repugnance which the Jews had to part with their written re- 
 cords ; and by this steady, undeviating attention to one great and re- 
 ligious object, succeeded in his design beyond his most sanguine ex- 
 pectation. Kennicott, through the whole of Europe, had only been 
 able to collate 531 Hebrew manuscripts; nor does any public library 
 
 * Kennic. Vet. Test. Pref. p. viii. 
 
 i " Des litres primitifs de la R^v^lntion." Tom. prem. p. 3. See 
 torn. 2, pp. 332,373,521, etc. 
 
SACRED LITKR&TURE. 317 
 
 in England, or on the continent, possess more than fifty such docu- 
 ments. In 1784, De Rossi published the first volume of his various 
 readings, as supplementary to Kennicott's collection, and in it he 
 gives the catalogue of 479 manuscripts in his own possession. Before 
 the completion of the fourth volume in 1788, his collection had 
 increased to 612 : and in 1808 he published a supplementary volume, 
 in which 68 new manuscripts are described, making in all 680 
 Hebrew manuscripts. As he went on amassing till his death, a few 
 years ago, this invaluable collection is now much greater. Every 
 temptation was held out to this worthy ecclesiastic to part with his 
 literary treasure. The Emperor of Russia offered him an enormous 
 price, but he replied that it should never go out of Italy. Pius VI, 
 had before proposed to purchase it, and the thought of having his 
 library united to that of the Vatican, perhaps tried him more keenly 
 than gold ; but he preferred accepting a trifling compensation for 
 himself and his niece, from his own sovereign, and bequeathed it to 
 the library of his native city. With the valuable labors of this hum- 
 ble, but enterprising individual, the history of this department of sa- 
 cred criticism may be said to close ; its results we shall see united to 
 those of the other more interesting branch, the critical examination of 
 the New Testament. 
 
 Very early after the first publication of this sacred collection, it 
 became the custom to examine the manuscripts of it, which abounded 
 in every library, though with no great accuracy, and on no uniform 
 plan. It was not till the great edition of Mill, in 1707, which con- 
 densed all the labors of his predecessors, corrected their errors, and 
 greatly increased their stores, that sacred criticism could be said to 
 have assumed a systematic form. After him the task of collecting 
 rapidly advanced, and successive critical editions occupied the at- 
 tention of the learned, through the whole of the 18th century. That 
 of Wetstein, in 1751 and 1752, far eclipsed all that had gone before; 
 but he, as well as they, has yielded the pre-eminence which he long 
 enjoyed, to the great reformer of the science, John James Griesbach. 
 To him we owe the leading principles which have swayed it ever 
 since, almost with an iron rule. 
 
 It was chiefly with reference to this branch of critical science 
 that the interest of the learned, and of theologians in particular, was 
 much excited. For, it was chiefly here that the opposers of religion, 
 or of its most essential dogmas, had hoped for something useful to 
 their cause. It had been anticipated, indeed, that some various read- 
 
318 LKCTURE THE TENTH, 
 
 ing would probably be discovered more favorable to Socinian opin- 
 ions; and, at any rate, many believed that such an uncertainty would 
 arise concerninjr the entire text, such difficulty of choice between 
 conflicting readings, as would unsettle all belief, and utterly destroy 
 the authority of Scripture as a guide to truth. Such was the view 
 taken of the critical labors of Mill and others, by the celebrated 
 Anthony Collins, in his " Discourse on Fieethinking." He took ad- 
 vantage of the dift'erences between Mill and Whitby, about some 
 passages, and about the value of various readings in general, to con- 
 clude that the entire New Testament was thereby rendered doubtful. 
 He was soon, however, chastised by the heavy lash of Bentley, who, 
 in his disguise of Phileleutherus Lipsiensis, thoroughly exposed the 
 folly of Collins's assertions, and vindicated the condition of the in- 
 spired text. 
 
 And, in fact, we may well inquire, what has been the result of 
 this laborious and acute research, — of this toilsome collation of 
 manuscripts of every age, of the many theories for classifying critical 
 documents, in fine, of all the years which able and learned men have 
 dedicated to the zealous task of amending and perfecting the sacred 
 book ? Why truly, if we exclude the great and important conclu- 
 sions which we have at present in view, the result is so trifling, that 
 we should say, there had been much unthrifty squandering of time 
 and talents thereupon. Not indeed, that there has been lack of 
 abundant differences of readings ; on the contrary, the number is 
 overpowering. Mill's first effort produced 30,000, and the number 
 may be said daily to increase. But in all this mass, although every 
 attainable source has been exhausted ; although the fathers of every 
 age have been gleaned for their readings, although the versions of 
 every nation, Arabic, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, and Ethiopian, 
 have been ransacked for their renderings ; although manuscripts 
 of every age from the sixteenth upwards to the third, and of every 
 country, have been again and again visited by industrious swarms to 
 rifle them of their treasures; altliough, having exhausted the stores 
 of the West, critics have travelled like naturalists into distant lands, to 
 discover new specimens, — have visited, like Scholz, or Sebastiani, 
 the recesses of Mount Athos,or the unexplored libraries of the Egyp- 
 tian and Syrian deserts — yet has nothing been discovered, no not 
 one single various reading which can throw doubt upon any passage 
 before considered certain or decisive in favor of any important doc- 
 trine. For, in the instances which I before quoted, as 1 Tim. 3: 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 319 
 
 16, the doubt existed already, from the variety found in the ancient 
 versions. These various readings, almost without an exception, 
 leave untouched the essential parts of any sentence, and only inter- 
 fere with points of secondary importance, the insertion or omission of 
 an article, or conjunction, the more accurate grammatical construc- 
 tion, or the forms rather than the substance of words. For instance, 
 the first verse of St. John's Gospel had been the subject of various 
 critical conjectures, with a view of destroying its force in proving the 
 divinity of Christ. One author had maintained that the reading 
 should be in the genitive, " and the Word was of God ;" another 
 that the sentence should be differently pointed, and that we should 
 read, " and God was," leaving " the Word" to be joined to the next 
 period. Now, after examining all the evidence within the reach of 
 unexampled industry, exercised by men no ways unfavorable to the 
 cause supported by those conjectures, what discoveries have been 
 made in this passage ? Several various readings to be sure ; such as 
 Clement of Alexandria's having once, " the Word was in God," in- 
 stead o^ with God ; one MS. and St. Gregory, of Nyssa, reading the 
 word God with an article, " was the God." These are the only 
 variations found in the text, while the great doctrine which it con- 
 tains, remains perfectly untouched, and the presumptuous conjectures 
 of Photinus, Crellius, and Bardht, are proved to be frivolous and un- 
 grounded. 
 
 In fact, if we look through the new text published by Griesbach, 
 the first critic who ventured to insert a new reading into the received 
 text, and see, as we may in a moment from the difference of type, 
 how few are the instances where ilic great quantity of documents 
 which he consulted, suggested to him any improvement, we cannot 
 but be surprised at the accuracy of our ordinary text, formed as it 
 was, without selection, from the first manuscripts that came to hand, 
 after the invention of printing ; or rather we must feel great satis- 
 faction at the small difference between the best and the most interior 
 manuscript.^, and consequently at the consoling manner in which the 
 integrity of the inspired records has been preserved. 
 
 So completely did this result disappoint the expectations of those 
 who opposed religion, that we are told by a celebrated scholar of the 
 last century, that they began to think less favorably of that species of 
 criticism which they at first so highly recommended, in the hope of 
 
320 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 its leading to discoveries more suitable to their maxims than the an- 
 cient system.* 
 
 This result is precisely the same as has been obtained from the 
 critical study of the Old Testament. It has been acknowledged by 
 the learned Eichhorn, that Kennicott's various readings hardly pre- 
 sent any of consequence, or sufficiently interesting to repay the labor 
 bestowed on their collection. + Even within these few years we have 
 had a new and striking confirmation of this result. Dr. Buchanan, 
 in 1801, procured and brought to Europe a Hebrew manuscript used 
 by the black Jews, settled from time immemorial in India, where 
 they had for ages been cut off from all communication with their 
 brethren in other parts of the world. It is a fragment of an immense 
 roll, which, when complete, nmst have been about ninety feet long. 
 Even as it now is, it is made up of pieces written by different persons, 
 at different epochs, and contains a considerable portion of the Penta- 
 teuch. It is written on skins dyed red. An interesting collation of 
 this MS. has been made and published by Mr. Yeates ; and the re- 
 sult is, that, comparing it with the edition of Van der Hooght, con- 
 sidered always as the standard edition in such collations, it presents 
 not more iha^n forty various readings, not one of which is in the least 
 important, for the most part affecting letters, such as jod or vau, 
 which may be inserted or omitted with perfect indifference. Indeed, 
 comparing it with other printed, and very correct editions, this num- 
 ber is considerably reduced. The collator well observes, that here 
 we have "specimens of at least three ancient copies of the Pentateuch, 
 whose testimony is found to unite in the integrity and pure conserva- 
 tion of the sacred text acknowledged by Christians and Jews in these 
 parts of the world. "t 
 
 But, once more returning to the New Testament, and the critical 
 attention paid to its text, the advantages which this has procured us, 
 are far from .stopping at the assurance, that nothing has been yet dis- 
 covered which could shake our belief in the purity of our sacred 
 books. This advantage was but the first step gained by it in the 
 earliest labors of Mill and Wetstein. The critic, with whose name 
 I closed my list, went much further, — he gave us, in addition, a secu- 
 rity for the future. His great theory of the classification of manu- 
 
 * Michaelir, Tom. ii. p. 266. 
 
 t Einleitung," ii. Th. S. 700, ed. Leipzig, 1824. 
 
 I " Collation ©fan Indian copy of the Pentateuch," p. 8, 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 
 
 321 
 
 scripts, was however first suggested by an amiable and profound 
 scholar, John Albert Bengel. This learned man is a noble model 
 of the principles in action which I have been striving to inculcate 
 through this course of lectures. He was perplexed by the quantity of 
 various readings discovered in the New Testament, and feared that, 
 by them, all security in its correctness was essentially destroyed. He 
 had no one to consult; he feared to open the state of his mind ; and 
 with an uprightness and a courage which do him honor, he resolved 
 to face every difficulty, to dedicate himself to critical inquiries, and 
 to find, in the science itself that suggested them, the solution of his 
 scruples. The result was what might have been anticipated ;— his 
 own individual conviction of the purity of the text, and the simplifica- 
 tion of the inquiry to all who might find themselves in a similar po- 
 sition. He soon observed, that it was lost labor to count manuscripts 
 upon any passage ; for a great number of them always herded togeth- 
 er, so that when you knew how one read, you might consider it a 
 type or representative of many more, which belonged, as it were, to 
 the same family. Thus he suggested, that if you found upon any 
 text one celebrated old manuscript, agreeing with any very ancient 
 version, you might safely consider their joint reading as certain. 
 
 This, however, was but a rude germ of the system discovered and 
 introduced by Griesbach. He found, by a lonT and diligent research, 
 that all known manuscripts are divided into three classes, to which 
 he has given the name of Recensions, because he supposes them to 
 have been produced by corrected editions of the text in different 
 countries ; and he consequently gives them the titles of the Alexan- 
 drian, the Western, and the Byzantine Recensions. Every known 
 manuscript belongs to one of these classes ; and though it may occa- 
 sionally depart from its type, it accords with it on the whole. The 
 consequence of this arrangement is obvious. We no longer speak of 
 twenty manuscripts being in favor of one reading, and as many on 
 the other side, nor think of examining their individual value ; nor 
 have we to weigh numbers against intrinsic worth, and decide be- 
 tween them. Individual manuscripts have now no value; but we 
 only decide between families. If two families agree, their joint read- 
 ing is probably correct; if they are so blended together, that MSS. 
 of all families are confusedly mixed on both sides, the question can- 
 not be decided. But here we have a security against the discovery 
 of any future documents. For, if any manuscript, however venerable 
 and precious, were to be discovered, it must enter into the ranks, and 
 41 
 
322 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 submit to be classified with one of the families, whose weight it might 
 increase, while it lost all individual authority ; and thus it could no- 
 ways disturb our security. And if it presented such anomalies as 
 would exclude it from them all, and prevent its classification, it must 
 be considered a vagrant and outlaw, and could no more derange the 
 system than a comet cutting through the orbits of the planets could 
 be said to disturb their order, by refusing to come into their arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 This great and important step in the critical study of the New 
 Testament, has received important modifications, all tending to sim- 
 plify it further. Nolan, Hug, Scholz, and many others, have pro- 
 posed various arrangements, and distributions of manuscripts ; but 
 they have gone little further than varying the names and numbers of 
 the classes ; the principles they have preserved entire. Scholz in- 
 deed may be said to have proposed the most important change. Af- 
 ter travelling all over Europe, and a great part of the East, to collate 
 MSS , he published in 1830 the first volume of a new critical edi- 
 tion ; in the preface to which he reduces the families to two, thus 
 rendering the application of Griesbach's principle still more attaina- 
 ble. By a letter which I lately received from him, I learn that the 
 second volume is now in the press. 
 
 Thus, may we say, that critical science has not only overthrown 
 every objection drawn from documents already in our possession, but 
 has given us full security against any that may be yet discovered ; 
 and has, at the same time, placed in our hands simple and easy 
 canons, or rules for deciding complicated points of difference. And 
 these results will be still more within our reach, when a new edition 
 now preparing shall have appeared, in which only select readings, 
 examined with great care, and given with great accuracy, shall have 
 been completed. • 
 
 Besides these general advantages, we may moreover say, that 
 many particular passages, over which a cloud of doubt before hung, 
 have been cleared of their difficulty, and fully secured. For instance, 
 the eleven last verses of St. Mark, containing very important and 
 Interesting matter, had been doubted of by many critics ; and the 
 same may be said of Luke 22: 43 — 45, wherein the account is given 
 of our Saviour's bloody sweat in the garden. Now, the progress of 
 critical research has so completely placed these two passages on a 
 level with every other part of the New Testament, that it is quite 
 impossible they can ever again be called in question. 
 
SACRED LITERATrRE. 323 
 
 There is an anecdote connected with this science, to which I 
 before alluded, and which it would he unjust not to inquire into be- 
 fore concluding it. The Vatican library possesses, as all of you must 
 be aware, the most valuable manuscript of the Septuagint version, 
 and the New Testament, now in existence. It is known by the 
 name of the Codex Vaticanus, and was published in 1587, by order 
 of Pope Sixtus V. Michaelis, and his arniotator Dr. Marsh, have 
 informed us, upon the authority of Adier, that in 1783, the Abbate 
 Spaletti, or, as they call him, Spoletti, applied to Pope Pius VI. for 
 permission to publish a fac-simile of the entire MS. upon the same 
 plan as the Anacreon which he had printed : that the Pope was 
 favorable to the scheme, but " referred the matter, according to the 
 usual routine, to the Inquit-ition, with the order that F. Mamachi, the 
 magister sacri palatii should be consulted in particular; whose igno- 
 rance, and its usual attendant, a spirit of intolerance, induced him 
 to persuade the Pope to prevent the execution of the plan, under the 
 pretence that the Codex Vaticanus differed from the Vulgate, and 
 might, therefore, if made known to the public, be prejudicial to the 
 interests of the Christian religion." A second memorial was pre- 
 sented to the Pope, " but the powers of the Inquisition prevailed 
 against arguments, which had no other support than sound reason." 
 De Rossi, in a letter to Michaelis, answered this accusation against 
 the character of his patron, the Pope ; but Dr. Marsh replies, that 
 *' this at least is certain, that no public permission was ever given to 
 Spoletti, though he repeatedly asked it; he was therefore obliged to 
 abandon the design, since the private indulgence of the Pope would 
 have been no security against the vengeance of the Inquisition."* 
 It is really a pity to see such a tissue of misrepresentations, as are 
 here strung together, repeated by writers of authority, from whom 
 they are, of course, copied into popular works, and become univer- 
 sally current. Mr. Home, naturally, has not overlooked it.t 
 
 When I first read this story, some years ago, I lost no time in ex- 
 amining its accuracy. The leading fact is, indeed, true, that the 
 Abbate Spaletti applied for permission to publish a fac-simile of that 
 immense manuscript ; and, doubtless, had he applied for permission 
 only, it would have been soon obtained. But, unluckily, his demand 
 was, that he should publish it at the expense of the government; and 
 
 * Michaelis, vol. ii. part i. p. 181, part ii. p. G44. 
 t Vol. ii. p. 125. 
 
324 I.r.CTUKF, THE TENTH. 
 
 this was tlie sole ground of refusal. This I was told by one who had 
 known Spaletti intimately, and was acquainted with the whole trans- 
 action, and had no idea that any different account, or, indeed, any 
 account of it at all, had been ever published.* It would have been a 
 pity, he added, if Spaletti had been allowed; for he was but a super- 
 ficial scholar, and merely desired to undertake this immense task, as 
 a good speculation. When we consider that it required the inter- 
 ference of Parliament, and its engagement to pay all expenses, before 
 •Mr. Baber's fac-simile of the Alexandrian manuscript of the Old 
 Testament alone could be undertaken ; and that, even then, on ac- 
 count of the enormous expense, only 250 copies have been printed, 
 we surely have reason enough for the government here declining the 
 extravagant outlay necessary for carrying Spaletti's projects into exe- 
 cution. Besides this leading incorrectness, there are others of minor 
 importance in the anecdote. The Inquisition could not have been 
 ever referred to, according to the "ordinary routine," as Dr. Marsh 
 expresses it ; for, to any one acquainted with the course of business 
 here, such an assertion sounds as probable, as if some foreigner were 
 to state, that Mr. Baber's proposal to publish the Alexandrian MS. 
 was referred, according to " the usual routine," to the Horse-Guards, 
 or the Board of Control. Nor, in fact, was it ever referred to the In- 
 quisition at all. So far from any misunderstanding having ever ex- 
 isted between Spaletti and the members of that office, he continued 
 to the end of his life to spend all his Sunday mornings in their society, 
 within the walls of that dreaded tribunal. Nor can I pass over the 
 learned Bishop of Peterborough, speaking of the ignorant Mamachi ; 
 a man who holds a place among the illustrators of ecclesiastical anti- 
 quity second to none, and whose works will fortunately last as long, 
 at least, as this aspersion on his memory. However, Dr. Marsh him- 
 self affords the best confutation of the motive attributed to this ig7io- 
 rant clergyman, who surely knew that the Vatican MS. had been 
 published nearly two centuries before, when he tells us that Dr. 
 Holmes found no obstacles in the way of collating the manuscripts of 
 the Vatican for his edition of the Septuagint.t And, in fact, Spaletti 
 
 * The late Canonico Baldi, sotto-custode of the Vatican Library. 
 
 \ Tlie collation of this manuscript was interrupted by the French 
 revolution. AVIiy it was not resumed after the restoration of the Codex, 
 the officers of tlie liitrary were at a loss to di.scover. Surely a critical 
 edition of the Septua>;irir, in which a collation of the beet and oldest 
 MS. is wanting, labors under an essential defect. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 325 
 
 was employed among others in making it, and the very MS. in ques- 
 tion was one of those examined. 
 
 When Monsignor Mai, lately librarian of the Vatican, suggested 
 to Leo XII. the propriety of publishing the New Testament of the 
 Codex Vaticanus, his Holiness replied, that he would wish the whole, 
 including the Old, to be accurately printed. Upon this, the learned 
 prelate undertook the task, and advanced as far as St. Mark's gospel. 
 Not satistied with the execution of the work, he has since recom- 
 menced it en a different plan. The New Testament is finished, and 
 the Old considerably advanced. This publication will be the most 
 satisfactory proof of how little apprehension is felt in Rome of any 
 " injury to the Christian religion," from the critical study of the 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 But, to conclude this last portion of my task, we have thus seen 
 this science run precisely the same course as so many others ; afford, 
 in its imperfect state, some ground of objection to freethinkers 
 against the bases of Christian revelation, and then, by pursuing its 
 own natural direction without fear, not only overthrow all the diffi- 
 culties which it had first raised, but replace them by such new and 
 satisfactory assurances, as no farther inquiry can possibly weaken or 
 destroy. 
 
 After the text has been settled by critical research, the next 
 task is to interpret. This is, primarily, the province of philology, 
 which examines the signification of the words, whether singly, or com- 
 bined in phrases, and, by deciding on their value, arrives at the sense 
 of entire sentences and paragraphs. Now, the different parts of this 
 study, strange as it may seem, have been progressive, and their pro- 
 gress has uniformly tended to the vindication of Scripture, and the 
 confirmation of the evidences. Grammar is necessarily the basis of 
 all study which has words for its object ; and I commence with it. 
 
 You will perhaps be inclined to smile, when I speak of the gram- 
 mar of a language dead two thousand years, as in a state of progress 
 and improvement. You will doubtless be no less tempted to incre- 
 dulity, when I assert that its progress has even slightly added to our 
 security in essential doctrines. And yet both assertions are really 
 true. For the sake of such as may feel an interest in such research- 
 es, I will sketch you an outline of its history, and then exemplify the 
 useful and important applications to which it may be directed. 
 
 The grammar of the Hebrew language naturally originated with 
 the Jews ; nor did any Christian, in modern times commence its 
 
326 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 Study, until it had received from them all that perfection which their 
 defective methods could bestow on it. Still the study amongst us 
 may be said to have been conducted upon independent grounds. Elias 
 Levita was employed, in giving to the grammatical researches of the 
 Kimchis, all the improvements which they were ever to receive from 
 wrhers of his nation, when Conrad Pellicanus, in 1503, and Reuch- 
 lin, three years later, published the first rudiments of Hebrew intend- 
 ed for Christian education. The former, a monk at Tiibingen, had 
 made himself acquainted with the language at the age of twenty-two, 
 with no other help than a Latin Bible ; and embodied, consequently, 
 in his grammar, only such imperfect elements as he had thus gleaned. 
 Reuchlin took lessons at Rome, from a Jew, at the extravagant price 
 of a golden crown an hour ; and to him we are indebted for most of 
 the grammatical terms now used in the study of the sacred language. 
 Sebastian MUnster, a scholar of Elias, soon eclipsed his predeces- 
 sors : and his labors, which were copied almost entirely from the 
 Rabbins, yielded, in their turn, to the more comprehensive and more 
 lucid method of the elder Buxtorf Nor were grammatical research- 
 es wanting in other parts of Europe besides Germany. Santes Pag- 
 nini in Italy, and Chevalier in France, published introductions to the 
 study of the sacred language. This may be styled the first period of 
 Hebrew grammar among Christians, a period ending with the mid- 
 dle of the seventeenth century.* Its characteristics are those of the 
 Jewish school, from which it sprung, a minute attention to the com- 
 plicated changes of letters and vowel-points, and to the derivation 
 and formation of nouns ; while the general structure of the language 
 is, in a great measure, overlooked. Besides Buxtorf, one other hon- 
 orable exception must, however, be made. Solomon Glass, whose 
 Philologia Sacra, especially in the improved edition of Dathe, should 
 never be absent from the table of a biblical student, collected a treas- 
 ure of syntactical remarks, which, besides their utility for Hebrew 
 grammar, had the merit of first bringing the language of the New 
 Testament into relation with the Old. 
 
 While the study of Hebrew grammar was thus slowly advancing, 
 the cognate Semitic dialects, then known by the general name of 
 the Oriental languages, were cultivated with considerable attention. 
 At the period which, after Gesenius, I have assigned to the termina- 
 
 * Gesenius, "Geschichte der hebraischen Sprache und Schrift." 
 Leipzig, 1825, pp. 107—101. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 327 
 
 tion of the first Christian school, the study of them began to exercise 
 an influence on Hebrew grammar, and thus marked the commence- 
 ment of a second epoch. Louis De Dieu, in 1028, first published a 
 comparative grammar of Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac. He was 
 followed by Hettinger, (1649) and Sennert, (1G5;}) who added the 
 Arabic to the languages previously compared. The celebrated poly- 
 glott lexicon of Castell, in its prolegomena, further contributed the 
 Ethiopic or Abyssinian. 
 
 This was a new and important instrument for the study of He- 
 brew grammar ; but the syntax of these kindred languages was itself 
 imperfectly developed, and the application of them was therefore 
 principally confined to the declensions and conjugations. At the 
 beginning of the last century, a more extensive application of one 
 branch, at least of this comparative philology, was introduced by the 
 learned and sagacious Albert Schultens. Deeply versed in Arabic 
 literature, and having at command a treasure of oriental manuscripts 
 in the Leyden library, he devoted most of his life to the illustration of 
 Hebrew philology from these new sources. Great as his merits are, 
 his devotion to the system which he was the first to introduce, neces- 
 sarily led him too far. He sacrificed the advantages, which a com- 
 parison of all the kindred dialects affords, to his predilection for one. 
 He went further still ; for he often neglects the peculiar structure 
 and idiomatic uses of the Hebrew language for a parallelism, howev- 
 er faint, with Arabic* 
 
 He was the founder of what is called the Dutch school in 
 Hebrew philology. As might be expected, may of his scholars cop- 
 ied the faults of their master, though a few, more judicious, were 
 careful to avoid them. While rash Arabisms, as they were called, 
 and forced etymologies, disfigure the v.orks of the Venema, Lette, 
 and Scheid, others, like Schroder, have brought a more chastened 
 judgment to the study of grammar. The " Institutiones" of this ju- 
 dicious author,! was for many years the standard work in Germany, 
 and is, I believe, as yet considerably used, and deservedly esteemed, 
 in England. His .syntax is copious and accurate, and may be reck- 
 oned the best substitute by those who have not access to the larger 
 German works of Gesenius and Ewald. 
 
 * lb. p. 128. 
 
 t " Institutiones ad fundainenta iiuguse Hebralcae." The last Ger- 
 man ed. Ulm, 1799. It was reprinted at Glasgow in 1824. 
 
328 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 While the Dutch school was in its perfection, the Germans were 
 laying the foundation of that system which, though not matured so 
 early, was the only true and solid method of proceeding. This con- 
 sisted in not attempting to reach at once a full and comprehensive 
 system of grammar, but in illustrating particular points, either from 
 the cognate dialects, or by a collation of numerous passages in the 
 Bible itself. Christian Benedict Michaelis laudably attended to 
 both methods ; Simonis, Storr, and numerous others, contributed 
 valuable observations towards methodizing the Hebrew syntax, and 
 its analogies. Materials were thus accumulated at the commence- 
 ment of this century, which only required a learned, judicious, and 
 patient investigator, to arrange, discuss, and complete them. 
 
 From the first school, the modern one differs, much in the same 
 manner as the tactics of the present day do from those of ancient 
 times. As these trained the phalanx, or legion, through a maze of 
 manoeuvres, which depended chiefly upon the exact movements and 
 positions of individuals, so the whole system of ancient grammar de- 
 pended on the minute changes which occured in every single word, 
 upon the complicated evolutions of each point, its advance, its re- 
 treat, or its charge. The modern grammarian, on the other hand, 
 neo-lects not, indeed, those minor movements, but bestows his great- 
 est attention on the co-ordination of the parts of speech, on the force 
 of the particles in every varied circumstance, on the different powers 
 of peculiar forms of words, and on the mutual dependence of the 
 lesser and greater members of the sentence : — he looks mainly to 
 more extensive combinations, and more important effects. The first 
 school, however, used one advantage, which its successor neglected 
 or despised, the Rabbinical grammarians. All, indeed, at the be- 
 ginning, was Jewish, whether in grammar or in lexicography; while, 
 durincr the following period, the Rabbins were discarded in both. 
 Forster (1557) published his lexicon, " non ex Rabbinorum com- 
 mentis nee nostratum Doctorum stulta imitatione;" and Masclef de- 
 termined to purge Hebrew grammar of the points, " aliisque inventis 
 Masorethicis." I know not whether his followers consider the exist- 
 ence of syntax and construction in Hebrew as a Rabbinical inven- 
 tion ; but those grammars which treat of the language without points, 
 generally unshackle it no less of grammatical ties, and thus represent 
 the language of inspiration as a speech, wherein almost every word 
 is vague and indeterminate, and every sentence devoid of rule and 
 fixed construction. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 329 
 
 But be this as it may, the moderns make it a point to neglect no 
 source of information ; and much that is valuable in the grammar 
 and lexicography of the present day, must be attributed to a proper 
 attention to Jewish sources. The grammar also of the cognate 
 dialects has improved in like manner. The Baron de Sacy has to- 
 tally changed the face of Arabic grammar. Hoffman has left little 
 hope to those who cultivate the field of Syriac philology.* 
 
 With these principles, and these advantages, it was that Gesenius 
 undertook the task of publishing a complete Hebrew grammar, 
 which appeared in 1817.t This work, with his lexicon, forms an 
 era in biblical literature: though many severe strictures were at 
 first passed, it gained very general and merited approbation ; and 
 many writers hesitate not to consider its author as almost monopo- 
 lising the Hebrew learning of the day. 
 
 I have detained you too long with the history of so barren a dis- 
 trict of science as Hebrew grammar ; it is time that I should apply 
 it to the object of these lectures. 
 
 The influence of grammar upon the interpretation of any passage, is 
 too obvious to require explanation. No modern commentator would 
 advance an illustration of a text, without showing that the meaning of 
 each word, and its connexion with the passage, warrant the sense which 
 he has selected. To demonstrate, on the other hand, that his opin- 
 ion involves the text in a conflict with the established rules of gram- 
 mar, would be its most unanswerable refutation. But hence, you 
 must instantly see the importance of having the standard rules, to 
 which every one appeals, certain and satisfactory ; and how easily a 
 general grammatical canon may be laid down, upon the authority of 
 a few instances, which will fatally deprive us of an important dog- 
 matical proof, or give a totally nevv meaning to passages hitherto 
 deemed clear. In such a case it becomes our duty to examine 
 the universality of the rule ; we may have to enter into the minutiee 
 of philological discussion ; and in vain shall we aspire to be com- 
 mentators without being grammarians. The progress of study may, 
 
 * Hoffman's work, however, must be considered rather a conse- 
 quence of the latest advances in Hebrew and Arabic grammar, than as 
 a co-ordinate improvement. " Grammaticfe Syriacae, Libri tres." Halee, 
 1827, p. viii. 
 
 f " Ausfiihrliches grammatisch-kritisches Lehrgebaude der hebrais- 
 chen Sprache, mit Vergleichung der verwandten Dialektc." Leipzig, 
 1817, 8vo. pp. 908. 
 
 42 
 
330 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 therefore, refute these difficulties, and regain the ground which such 
 partial researches appear to have conquered. 
 
 All this has, in fact, happened. When I inform you, that the 
 most magnificent and most circumstantial prophecy in the Old Tes- 
 tament had been denied ; that the dispute concerning it had been 
 mainly reduced to a grammatical discussion of the force of one little 
 word, supposed to be the key to the entire passage ; that a rule had 
 been framed by the standard grammarian whom I have just eulogised, 
 depriving this word of the only signification compatible with a pro- 
 phetic interpretation ; that, in fine, the researches of later gramma- 
 lians, have overthrown this rule ; you will allow, that important re- 
 sults may be gained by the progress of this study, for the vindication 
 of prophecy, and consequently for confirming the truth of Christianity. 
 For, there could hardly be pointed out a passage in the Old Testa- 
 ment from which this class of evidence can be established so satis- 
 factorily, as from the fifty -second and fifty-third chapters of Isaiah. 
 Nothing, therefore, remains for my ])roof, but briefly to sketch out 
 the history of this controversy, making it as intelligible as possible to 
 those who are unacquainted with the Hebrew language. 
 
 In the three last verses of the fifty-second, and through the whole 
 of the following chapter, are represented the character and fate of the 
 Servant of God. Perhaps no portion of the same extent in the Old 
 Testament is so honored by quotations and references in the New ; 
 it is the passage which divine Providence used as an instrument to 
 convert the eunuch of the queen of Ethiopia.* As early as the age 
 of Origen, the Jews had taken care to elude the force of a prophecy 
 which described the Servant of God as afflicted, wounded, and 
 bruised, and as laying down his life for his people, and even for the 
 salvation of all mankind. t Though the Targum, or Chaldee para- 
 phrase of Jonathan, understood it of the Messiah, the later Jews 
 have explained it either of some celebrated prophet, or of some col- 
 lective body. The modern adversaries of prophecy have generally 
 adopted the latter interpretation, though with considerable diversity 
 as to tlie particular application. The favorite theory seems, that it 
 represents under the figure of the Servant of God, the whole Jewish 
 people, often designated under that title in Scripture, — and that it 
 
 • Acts 8: 32, 33. 
 
 \ Chap. T,Z:\% Compare Malt. 2G: 28, Rom. 5: 19. 18.52:15, on 
 which see Jaliri, " Appendix Hprmenenticap," faec. ii. Vitn. 1815, p. 5. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. '^^ ^ 
 
 is descriptive of tlie sufferings, captivity, and restoration of the whole 
 race * Others, however, prefer a more restricted sense, and apply 
 the whole passage to the prophetic body. This explanation has met 
 with an ingenius and learned patron in Gesenius.t 
 
 It is true, that this servant of God is represented as one individu- 
 al, but the advocates of the collective application appeal to one text 
 as containing a decisive argument in their favor. This is the eighth 
 verse of the fifty-third chapter, " for the sin of my people a stroke 
 (was inflicted " upon him.") The pronoun used here is one of rare 
 occurrence, found chiefly in the poets (r:; hww.) This it is as- 
 serted is only plural, and the text should therefore be rendered a 
 stroke is inflicted on the7r>." Now, this meaning would be absolute- 
 ly incompatible with a prophecy regarding a single individual, and is 
 therefore assumed as giving the key to the entire passage, and prov- 
 ing that a collective body alone can be signified under the figure ot 
 God's servant. The prophecy, therefore, would be totally lost ; in- 
 stead of a clear prediction of the mission and redemption of the Mes- 
 siah, we should only have a pathetic elegy over the sufferings of the 
 prophets, or of the people ! To this word the learned RosenmuUer 
 appeals in his prolegomena to the chapter, for a decisive termination 
 of the contest, andsupposes the prophet to have used this pronoun 
 for the express purpose of clearing up any difficulty regarding his 
 meanincr | To it Gesenius in like manner refers for the same pur- 
 pose •§ "and he considers it a mere prejudice to render the passage in 
 the singular, as has been done by the Syriac version and by St. Je- 
 
 * Eckermaun. « Theolo,ische Beytrdg." E.sr St. p. 19!. Rosen- 
 muiier, " Jesajie Vaticinia." Lips. 1820, vol. m. p. 3-2b. 
 
 t "Philologisch-kntischer und histo.iseher Comuiontar uher den 
 Jesaia," ZweiterTh. Leips. 1821, p. 168. 
 
 t "Omninoautemquo n.inus .le singula quadam persona vatem 
 loqii ex?stiu.emus, iliud vetat, quod versu 8 -unte e la qu. ^- 
 
 ,.L.tes inducuutur, f--- ' ^'^^,:;;;;;,::f': 1 a^e ul. '.^ 
 
 nsm-nari videb iiuis ad eiim locum, voluitque vaces iha v^.^.^ i 
 
 " ific- re n.iuistrun. iiiinn divimun, de quo loquitur, esse certam qua,, 
 a'm n run homiuuu. ejusdem con.liciouis coliatiouem umu.s personee 
 rj e epra^sentatau,. Quun, igitur omnis iuterpretatm, qu^ s mgu- 
 
 ;;;;• Tlicui persona. iKU.c pericopam accouwnoda.e smdent. plane «U .e. 
 
 poneuda, etc. ub. s\tp. 330, cf. p. 3o9. 
 § Uii sup. p. 1C3, 183. 
 
332 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 rome.* But Gesenius, as I have before hinted, had already prepared 
 the way for his commentary, and prevented the necessity of any dis- 
 cussion in it, by framing a rule in his grammar, evidently intended 
 for this passage. 
 
 There he has laid down that the poetical pronoun iab is only 
 plural ; and that though sometimes referred to singular nouns, it is 
 only when they are collectives. After noticing a certain number of 
 examples, he adds the text under consideration. " In this passage," 
 he remarks, " the grammatical discussion has acquired a dogmatical 
 interest. The subject of this chapter is always mentioned in the 
 singular, except in this text, but it is perfectly intelligible how it 
 should be changed in v. 8 for a plural, since, as appears to me cer- 
 tain, that scriHtnt of God is the representative of the prophetic 
 body."t You see, therefore, how important a discussion, in itself of 
 small consequence, may become ; how the inquiry whether an insig- 
 nificant pronoun is only plural or may be singular, has become the 
 hinge on which a question of real interest to the evidence of Chris- 
 tianity has been made to turn.J 
 
 The grammatical labors of Gesenius were not so perfect as to 
 deter others from cultivating the same field. In 1827, a very full 
 critical grammar was published by Ewald, who necessarily discussed 
 the grammatical rule laid down by Gesenius on the subject of this 
 pronoun. He brings together more examples, and by an examination 
 of their context or parallel passages, determines satisfactorily, that 
 
 * Erst. Th. erste Abth. p. 86, 88. Tho Targum, Symmachus and 
 Theodotion, wiio are not Christian interpreters, render the word in the 
 same manner. 
 
 7 Lnhrgeljaiidc; p. 221. 
 
 I It niiisl be remeinbered that the discussion of this particular 
 prophecy is closely connected with the principle whether prophecy ex- 
 ists at all in the Old Testament. It is by such special explanations that 
 rntionalists get rid of the whole system of prophecy, whereby the truth 
 of Christianity i.> so tniieh confirmed. This jiassage, moreover, is of 
 peculiar importance in proving the mission of Christ, and his identity 
 with the promised king of the Jews. I mu.'^t also observe, that, besides 
 the solutions in tiie te.\t, others liave been given which .secure the 
 prophecy, and yet leave the pronoun in the plural. One is in Jahn, 
 ubi sxtp. p. 24 ; another, I tiiink more conformable to Hebrew usage, 
 in Hengstenberg's " Chri.stologie des alten Testaments." Berlin, 1829, 
 Erst. Th. y.wfif. Abth. p. ^39. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 383 
 
 this unusual form may well bear a singular signification.* The 
 difficulty against the prophetic interpretation is thus removed by one 
 of the most modern grammarians, and all those internal arguments in 
 its favor are restored to their native force, by perseverance in the 
 very study which had been brought to confute them. 
 
 Hermeneutics, or the principles of biblical interpretation, will scarce- 
 ly appear to you a science more capable of improvement than Hebrew 
 grammar. Did not the early writers of the Church understand the 
 sacred volume, and must they not have been, therefore, guided by 
 fixed and correct rules in its interpretation? I well understand the 
 force of this question, which will receive, perhaps, a sufficient answer 
 in what I shall presently say. But when I speak of hermeneutics as 
 a science, I mean that regular digest of principles and rules which 
 qualifies the student to study, with comparative facility, God's holy 
 word ; and just as we have certainly better grammars of the Greek 
 and Latin languages than those who spoke them, without our there- 
 fore claiming to know or understand them better than they, so has 
 modern diligence collected and arranged with care those principles 
 of sacred hermeneutics, founded on reason and logic, which are to be 
 found scattered in the writings of the ancients, and were applied by 
 them when interpreting literally, without referring to them as rules. 
 
 I am not afraid of this last assertion being disputed. It is true 
 that the fathers often run into allegories and mysteries which the 
 taste of the age required, and which conduced to the moral instruc- 
 tion of their readers or hearers. It is true, that when commenting 
 even literally, they do not always follow those theoretical maxims 
 which they have themselves clearly laid down, but prefer appropriate 
 
 *"Kritische Grammatik der Hebraischen Sprache ausfiihrlich 
 bearbeitet von D. Georg, 11. A. Ewald," Leipzig, 1827, p. 365. It would 
 be out of place, in a popular lecture, to enter into the minute confirma- 
 tions of a grammatical rule. I will therefore observe in this note, that, 
 besides the examples given by Ewald from Job 27: 23, but especially 
 Is. 44: 15, 17, which is quite satisfactory, other considerations confirm 
 the singular rendering of i^b 1. The suffix 173 attached to nouns is 
 certainly singular in Ps. 11: 7.' TQ''?.D " his face," speaking of God. A 
 plural suffix is never referred to the name Jnr;"; as a plurale majestatis, 
 (Ewald ib.) and hence Gesenius supposes the use of this suffix to have 
 been a mistake of the author's {ubi sup. p. 216.) 2. In Ethiopic the 
 suffix i^T is certainly singular. Lud. De Deu. Crit. Sacra, p. 226. 
 Animad. in V. T. p. 547. This pronoun seems to be common not only 
 to both numbers, but also to both genders, as it seems to be feminine in 
 Job 39: 7. 
 
334 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 theological discussions, to the less engaging occupation of the scholi- 
 ast. Bat, notwithstanding this, I do not hesitate to affirm, that the 
 best principles of biblical interpretation are to be found in their trea- 
 tises, and the most judicious and acute application of them in their 
 commentaries. 
 
 The fathers knew very well the difference between literal and 
 allegorical interpretation. St. Ephrem, for instance, is careful to 
 warn his readers when he is going to neglect the literal, for the mysti- 
 cal sense.* Indeed, Junilius has assured us, that a course, introduc- 
 tory to Scripture, was delivered in the Syriac school of Nisibis, in 
 which St. Ephrem lived ; and has given a compendium of the princi- 
 ples there taught. These he collected from the mouth of a Persian 
 scholar, and they certainly compress in few words the chief substance 
 of modern hermeneutics.t The merit of St. Chrysostom as a literal 
 commentator, who knows how to use all the pretended improvements 
 of modern biblists, is acknowledged by Winer, a critic of the severest 
 school. I Nor does he deny unequivocal praise to his disciple Theo- 
 doret.§ But as I am upon this subject, you will, I trust, indulge me 
 a few moments while I trace an important revolution in the opinions 
 of the moderns, and show how the increasing attention to this branch 
 of theology, has served to vindicate the early writers of Christianity. 
 A few years ago it was the fashion to consider the Fathers of the 
 Church as devoid of fixed or solid principles of interpretation, and 
 their commentaries as a tissue of blunders or mistakes. The pro- 
 gress of herrneneutics has produced this fruit, among others, that 
 this prejudice has worn away, and those learned and pious men have 
 regained, in modern works, that respect and deference which had 
 
 * See " Horoe Syriacae," p. 54; and Gaah's Essay on the method of 
 commenting followed by St. Epiirem in the " Memorabilien" of Paulus. 
 No. i. |). 65, seqq. 
 
 f '^De Partibus Divinse Legis," in " Biblioth. magna Pat. Col. torn, 
 vi. F. ii. 
 
 I " In lis enim, quas ad singulos, SS. lihros confecit, homiiias, nihil 
 antiquins habet, nisi sensuum el singuloram verbonim et integrorum 
 commatum e loquendi usu, ex historiis, e scriptorum denique sacrorum 
 consUiis explicare, eaque in re idoneam probavit solertiam, ita id si qua 
 parum rede nihil tamen tenure dictum reperialur." " Pauli ad Galatas 
 Epistola Greece, perpetiia atmotatione illustravit Dr. G. Ben. Winer," 
 Lips. 1828, p. 15. Of what modern commentator can as much be said ? 
 
 § lb. p. 16. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 335 
 
 been so inconsistently refused them. Two examples of this change 
 of sentiment will fully justify my assertion. 
 
 Of St. Augustine, the candid Ernesti has written, that " had he 
 been acquainted with Hebrew and Greek, the greatness and subtilty 
 of his genius would have raised him to a pre-eminence above all 
 ancient commentators."* Guarded as this praise may be, it is the 
 language of panegyric, when compared with the unmeasured censure 
 and scurrilous language of the elder Rosenmiiller. In his "History 
 of the interpretation of Scripture in the Christian Church,"t which 
 has been for some years a book of reference in Germany, he under- 
 takes to discuss the character and merits of that holy Bishop. He 
 details the wanderings of his youth, in order to conclude that he 
 rather "obscured than illustrated the sacred writings;" and that, as 
 " he preferred the authority of his master, St. Ambrose, to all the 
 principles of sound reason, it is no wonder that the disciple was no 
 wiser than his master."^ That St. Augustine was not unacquainted 
 with the principles of interpretation, Rosenmiiller is not bold enough 
 to deny, but his conclusion is, " Augustinum nomine interpretis vix 
 esse dignum ;" nor does he even allow him that acuteness and talent 
 which Ernesti so unrestrictedly concedes.§ Such a character of the 
 learned and pious Bishop of Hippo, is, however, worthy of a history 
 which gives the first rank, among Christian commentators, to the 
 heretics Pelagius and Julian ! || 
 
 But a vindicator has not been wanting ; and the merits of this 
 great Father have been diligently canvassed, and solidly demonstrated, 
 within these few years, by Dr. Henry Clausen. His interesting little 
 volume, published at Copenhagen, has placed the merits of St. Augus- 
 tine, as a biblical scholar, in a new and honorable light.H It is 
 there proved, that he was sufficiently acquainted with Greek to make 
 a useful application of it in his commentaries ;** that he has laid 
 
 * " Instit. Interp. N. T." Lips. 1809, p. 342. 
 
 f "D. Jo. Georg. Rosenmiilleri Historia Interpretationis Librornm 
 SS. in Ecclesia Christiana," 5 parts, Hildbwgh and Leips. 1798—1814. 
 
 X Pars. iii. Lips. 1807, p. 404—406. 
 
 § Augustine is not worthy of the name of an interpreter."— P. 500, 
 teqq. 
 
 P P. .505, 537. 
 
 H "Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis Sacroe Scripturse Interpres." 
 Haun<ei, 1827, 8vo. 271 pp. The autiior is a Protestant. 
 
 ♦* P. 33, 39. cf. Rosenmiil. 1. c. p. 404. 
 
386 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 down clearly all those principles " which are the stamina and first 
 elements of chaste and sound criticism ;"* that he has both diffusely 
 given, and condensed all the best maxims of hermeneutics ;t that by 
 the good use of these, joined to his natural sagacity, he has been fre- 
 quently most happy in elucidating the obscurities of Scripture, | in 
 confuting, by accurate research, the erroneous interpretations of 
 others ;<^ and that he has frequently removed difficulties by acutely 
 penetrating the views of the inspired writers, and adducing parallel 
 texts. 1 1 
 
 St. Jerome, the illustrious contemporary and friend of St. Augus- 
 tine, has been the object of still falser obloquy, conveyed in even 
 coarser terms. Of him Luther had said, that, instead of reckoning 
 him a Doctor of the Church, he considered him a heretic, though he 
 believed him to have been saved through his faith in Christ. He 
 adds, " I know none among the Doctors to whom I am more an ene- 
 my than Jerome, because he writes only of fasting, meats, and vir- 
 ginity." || But the elder Rosenmiiller is more definite, and more vio- 
 lent in his charges against him as a biblical expositor. He scarcely 
 allows him a single good quality. According to him, his knowledge 
 of the languages, and of Palestine, is fully counterbalanced, by his 
 groundless etymologies, his rabbinical subtleties, and his total inability 
 to seize the views of his author !^ Nay, these are the lightest of his 
 failings ; what erudition he did possess, he only employed to pervert 
 
 * P. 135. 
 
 f P. 137, seqq. St. Augustine names three qualiiies, with which 
 any one attempting the illustration of Scripture should be furnished. 
 1. A knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek languages, (scientia lingua- 
 rum, or, as he elsewhere explains himself, lingucR Hebreee et GrfBcm cog- 
 nitio.) 2. A knowledge of Biblical archfeology, (cognilione rerum qua- 
 rundam necessariarum, elsewhere detailed as a knowledge of the philoso- 
 phy, history, physics, and literature of the Bible. 3. An acquaintance 
 with the critical rules for discussing the proper reading of the text, 
 (adjuvante codicum veritate quam solers emendationis diligentia procuravit.) 
 De Doct. Christ. 1. i. c. i. Clausen, p. 140. 
 
 I P. 181, seqq. § P. 207, seqq. 
 
 II " Hieronymus soil nicht unter die Lehrerder Kirche mitgerechnet 
 noch gezahlet werden ; denn er ist ein Ketzer gewesen ; doch glaube 
 ich, dass er selig sey durch den Glauben an Christum. Ich weiss kei- 
 nem unter dem Lehrern dem ich so feind bin, als Hieronymus; denn 
 er schreibt nur von Fasten, Speisen, und Jungfrauschaft." — " Luther's 
 eammlichte Schriften." Th. xxii. p. 2070, ed. Walch. 
 
 H Rosenmiiller, ubi sup. p. 346. 
 
SACKED MTERATTRE. 337 
 
 tlie doctrines of Christianity, nor can lie be considered as possessing 
 the slightest pretensions to theological knowledge !* 
 
 For a change of opinion among modern scholars, upon the merits 
 of this Father, we need not step beyond the family of his accuser. 
 The younger Roscnmiiller, by his culogiums and ])ractical apjiroba- 
 tion, has compensated for the scurrilous and indecent censures of his 
 father. He has observed, that the commentaries of this learned doc- 
 tor must be held in the greatest estimation, on account of the learn- 
 ing with which he always supports whatever interpretation he em- 
 braces.t He is not content with verbal praise, for the constant use 
 made in his commentaries, of the exegetical labors of our Father, am- 
 ply shows the sincere estimation in which he holds them. Through 
 his Scholia on the minor prophets, he seldom has occasion to depart 
 from the sentiments of his illustrious guide. 
 
 I have detained you long on an early period of biblical literature, 
 because it proves, that even the history of hermeneutics is an advanc- 
 ing science ; and that its advance has served to remove prejudices 
 against the early writers of Christianity, and to vindicate their char- 
 acter from the rash and unwarranted aggressions of the liberal school. 
 
 Having thus shown that, however modern this science may be in 
 its code, it is as ancient as Christianity in its principles, we must pass 
 over the lapse of a thousand years of its history, and approach nearer 
 our own times. Upon the revival of letters, numerous commentators 
 arose among our divines, whose works have shared the obloquy heap- 
 ed upon those of the fifth century. It has been esteemed a duty to 
 decry the voluminous productions of these diligent, and often saga- 
 
 * I trust it will be with deserving indignation, that the following 
 bitter passages are read, by all who value the venerable ornaments of 
 early Christianity :—" Maxiine aiilem dolendinu est, luuic tantum virum 
 eruditione sua tarn turpitur ahiisuiii esse, ad pervertendam doctrinam 
 Christianam, in sacris literis traditam, atque ad ojnnis g(3neris supersti- 
 tiones defendendas et propagandas." He then proceeds to attribute to 
 him, "immodicuin studium suas ahsnrdissimas opiuiones tuendi, iucred- 
 ibilis anitiii impotentia et superstilio, furor quo abreptus," etc. p. 369. — 
 "Ex hactenus dictis satis, ut opiiior, ajjparet, Sanctum (si Diis placet) 
 Hieronymum cunj omni sua eruditione liebraica, grgeca, latina, geogra- 
 phica, etc. fuisse Monachorum superstitiosissimum, omnis verse erudi- 
 tionis iheologicce expertem. Ut paucis dicamus, religioni plus nocuit 
 quam profuit." — p. 393. 
 
 f "Ezechielis Vaticinia," Lips. 1826, vol. i. p. 26. We n)ay for- 
 give filial aftection, when he refers us to the work of his father for the 
 character of St. Jerome, whom he himself portrays so difterently, p. 25. 
 43 
 
338 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 cious, expositors, as a mere mass of literary rubbish, fit, perhaps, to 
 fill tlie shelves of a library, but not to encumber the table of the stu- 
 dent. 
 
 But though they are often too prolix, and tend too much to alle- 
 gorical interpretation, it would be injustice to deny, that in the dili- 
 gent collection and discussion of others' opinions, in a sagacious ex- 
 amination of the context and bearing of a passage, and in the happy 
 removal of serious difliculties, they have cleared the way for their 
 successors, and effected much more than these are always careful to 
 acknowledge. The commentary, for instance, of Pradus and Villa- 
 pandu^rijon Ezekiel, which was published at Rome from 1596 to 
 1604, ife still the great repertory to which every modern scholiast 
 must recur, in explaining the difficulties of that book, and is ac- 
 knowledged, by the most learned of them, to be " a work replete 
 with varied erudition, and most useful to the study of antiquity."* 
 The annotations of Agelli upon the Psalms, published also at Rome 
 in 1606, have been pronounced by the same writer, after Ernesti, 
 the work of " a most learned and most sagacious author, who is pe- 
 culiarly happy in explaining the relations of the Alexandrian and 
 Vulgate versions."! Even greater commendations are lavished 
 by the learned and ingenious Schultens, upon the Spanish Jesuit 
 Pineda, whose notes upon Job (Madrid 1597) he acknowledges to 
 " have eased him of no small part of his labors." He styles their 
 author, " Theologus et Literator eximius, magnus apud suos, apud 
 nos quoque."! Maldonatus on the Gospels, has been praised and 
 recommended by Ernesti, though, as might be expected, the recom- 
 mendation is recalled in harsh terms, by his annotator Ammon.§ 
 When, some years ago, it was proposed in Germany to republish 
 Calmet's commentaries, the very mention of such a scheme excited 
 the ridicule of the liberal school ;|| yet I have been assured by a very 
 sound scholar, that he liad compared his notes on Isaiah with 
 Lowth's, and had generally found the most beautiful illustrations of 
 
 * Rosenmliller, " Ezecliielis Vaticiiiia," vol. i. Lips. 1826, p. 32. 
 t "Psalmi," vol. i. Lips. 1821, Prsef. (p. 5.) 
 
 I " Liher Jobi cuiri nova versione et coiuiiicntario |)cr{)ttuo." Lug. 
 Bat. 1737, to. i. Pra?f. (p. 11.) 
 
 § "Inst. Jut." p. 353. 
 
 II If 1 reuieniher right, there is a paper on this siiliject, somewhere 
 ill "Eichhorn's Allgemeine Bibliothek." 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 339 
 
 the English Bishop, anticipated by the learned Benedictine. An- 
 other learned friend has pointed out to me considerable transcrif)- 
 tions from him, in modern annotators, without the slightest acknow- 
 ledgment.* But no one has put the truth of these observations in 
 a stronger light than my late amiable and excellent friend. Prof. 
 Ackermann, in his Commentary on the Minor Prophets. t Through 
 the whole of this work, the opinions of the old Catholic divines have 
 been collected, and honourably mentioned. It is pleasing to see 
 these writers whose names it has become so unfashionable to quote, 
 once more treated with respect ; and there is something almost 
 amusing in the frequent juxtaposition of Rosenmiiller and Cornelius a 
 Lapide, Oedmann and Figueiro, Horst and De Castro. 
 
 If I have wandered into such long digressions upon the older 
 commentators, you will allow that the results obtained, bear strongly 
 upon my subject, and unite their conclusions with the general issue 
 of the discourses. For it will, I trust, have appeared, that the study 
 and application of hermeneutics, though not digested into a system, 
 have always been followed in the Church, and that the progress of 
 the science has removed old prejudices, and vindicated the memory 
 of men entitled to the respect and gratitude of every Christian. 
 
 From them I must turn to a very different class. After the mid- 
 dle of the last century, Semler gave the first impulse to what he de- 
 nominated the liberal interpretation of the Scriptures. A denial of 
 inspiration, the resolution of every miracle into an allegory, or a vis- 
 ion, or a delusion, or a natural event clothed in the language of ori- 
 ental exaggeration, and a total denial of prophecy, are the characte- 
 ristics of his school. That belief in inspiration cannot be required 
 from any protestant divine, Semler argues from the acknowledged 
 principles of all the Reformed Churches ;| for this impious explana- 
 tion of miracles, actual rules have been laid down by Ammon;§ and 
 
 * For instance, Roseninulier's " Proplielse Miiiores," vol. ii. Lips. 
 1813, p. 337, seqq. is taken almost verbatim from Calmet's preface on 
 Jonas, "Commentaire literal." vol, vi. ]). 893, fol. Par. 172(3. 
 
 f " Prophetse Minores perpetua annotatione illustrati a Dre P. F. 
 Ackermann." Vienna, 1830. 
 
 X In his preface to " Vogel's Compendium of Schultens on the 
 Proverbs." Halle, 1769, p. 5. 
 
 § "De interpretatioue narrationum mirabilium N. T." prefixed to his 
 Ernesti, Ed. sup. cit. He seems, however, to allow some miracles, 
 p. xiv. 
 
340 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 practical applications of (hem abouiul in the works of Eichhorn, Pau- 
 lus, Gabler, Schuster, Rettig, and many others. But it is chiefly 
 on the progress of liermeneutics in tlie interpretation of prophecy, 
 that I wish to detain you a few moments ; because, by it the Old 
 Testament principally is connected with the evidences of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Any one accustomed, as you have been, to hear the prophecies 
 of the Old Testament treated, not merely vvith respect, but with ven- 
 eration, must be shocked to see with what open liberty they are 
 handled by authors of this school. De Wette, for instance, never 
 thinks, in his Introductory Manual, of even noticing the belief that 
 there is such a thing as real prediction, in the writings of Isaiah, or 
 of his fellow prophets. The only difference between them and the 
 seers of pagan nations is, that " these wanted the true and moral 
 spirit of monotheism, by which the Hebrew prophecy was purified 
 and consecrated."* I will not further shock you by following the 
 history of this wretched school, the impieties of which, have unfortu- 
 nately so widely prevailed on the continent, as to be openly taught 
 by persons holding theological chairs in Protestant universities, and 
 published by men who call themselves, on their title-page, pastors of 
 Protestant congregations. It will be sufficient to state that the late 
 Professor Eichhorn reduced to system the rationalist theory of prophe- 
 cy, and pretended to establish a complete parallelism between 
 the messengers of the true God, and the soothsayers of heathenism. t 
 
 With such principles as these, we must expect to find the inter- 
 pretation of the prophecies dreadfully perverted. Hence, in many 
 modern commentaries, the predictions relating to the Messiah are 
 either totally overlooked, or systematically attacked. Jahn, though 
 a rash, unsound writer, did .something towards vindicating and illus- 
 trating many of them ;t and the prophecies in the Psalms are much 
 indebted to Michaelis for an able defence. § In Rosenmidler there 
 is much inequality ; on some occa.sions he takes the side of our ad- 
 
 * " Lelirbticli der lii.storiscli-kritischeii Einleitung. Zweytc ver- 
 besserle A ullage." Berlin, 1822, p. 27U. 
 
 t " Einleitung in <ias Alte Testament," 4tli ed. Colling. 1824, vol, 
 iv. p. xiv. 
 
 J "Appendi.x IJermeneiit." I'ientia, 1813, 1815. 
 
 § "Critisches Collegium ul>nr die drey wichtigsten Psaimen, von 
 Christo." Frmil>f. and Golting. 1759. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 
 
 341 
 
 versaries, as on the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and in impugning 
 the genuineness of tlie latter portion of tiiat hook. On other occa- 
 sions, he stands forth as a learned and able advocate for the prophet- 
 ic sense ; and I need only instance his annotations on the forty-fifth 
 Psalm, and his dissertation on the celebrated prediction in Isaiah vii.* 
 The depraved state into which hermeneutical science had thus 
 sunk, was sure to produce a reaction, and through it, a return to bet- 
 ter principles. This has already in a great measure been the case, 
 and works have appeared, which having profited by the great erudi- 
 tion brought into play on the other side, have drawn some good out 
 of the mass of evil accumulated on this study. For they have fully 
 shown that the learning and ingenuity displayed in attacking divine 
 prophecy, may be well enlisted in the better cause, and retain all 
 their brilliant, though they lose their dazzling power. I will only 
 notice the work of Hengstenberg upon the prophecies regarding 
 Christ, in which the series of prophetic announcement is analysed 
 and vindicated with great sagacity, and solid learning. The doc- 
 trines of a suffering Messiah, and of Christ's divinity, as foretold in 
 the Old Testament, are admirably exposed ; all that Rabbins and 
 Fathers, oriental and classical writers, can contribute, is lucidly and 
 effectively brought together ; the objections of adversaries are skil- 
 fully solved or removed, and a great felicity and tact is exhibited in 
 unravelling the sense of obscure phraseology.t We may, indeed, 
 say, that in his hands, the very science, which till lately appeared 
 ruinous to the cause of inspired truth, becomes a most efficient in- 
 strument for its vindication. 
 
 Allow me now to give you what I consider an example of a high- 
 er order of application ; and pardon me if, for a few moments, I de- 
 part from the popular form which I have endeavored to preserve 
 throughout these Lectures ; for the subject may well seem to merit, 
 and certainly requires, more learned disquisition. Among some ar- 
 guments urged by Michaelis for rejecting the two first chapters of 
 St. Matthew's Gospel, is one founded on the following circumstance. 
 They contain several references to the Old Testament, introduced 
 by the formulas, " all this was done, that it might be fvlfilled which 
 
 * " Jesajoe Vaticin." Tom. i. i). 292. 
 
 f "Cliristologie des alten Testament.^ utui Cointiienta liber die mes- 
 sianischeii \Veissagungen der I'ropheten," Berlin, 1829, vol. i. Pa. i. ii. 
 Other parts have since been pulilished. 
 
342 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 the Lord spoke by the prophets ;"* ^' for so it is written by the pro- 
 phet ;"t " that it might he fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the pro- 
 phet;"! " '^'^''* '^"-^ fulfilled that which was spoken. "§ According 
 to him, the texts thus quoted to not appear literally to correspond to 
 the events to which they are applied ; and he refuses to consider 
 them as mere quotations, or adaptations, on account of the strong 
 forms of introduction. No examples, he observes, can be brought of 
 any phrase, so strong as the ones which I have quoted, being used to 
 introduce a mere accommodation of a text. He must, therefore, 
 consider the writer's meaning to be, that the circumstances which 
 he describes, truly formed the fulfilment of those ancient prophecies. 
 Now, proceeding on the principle of private interpretation, he thinks 
 they cannot be so taken, and, as an inspired writer could not have 
 committed an error, he will rather attribute those chapters to some 
 other, and that an uninspired author, than bend these phrases to 
 signify simply an adaptation of Scripture texts. || 
 
 It is this objection which I wish to meet. I am not going to ex- 
 amine the texts singly, and prove that they may well be considered 
 applicable to the events of our Saviour's life ; I wish to meet the 
 broad question, and show how the progress of oriential research cuts 
 away the ground from under the rationalist's feet, and totally over- 
 throws the chief argument on which the rejection of those two im- 
 portant chapters has been based. 
 
 Most commentators. Catholic and Protestant, will be found to 
 agree, that some texts, even when thus introduced, may be mere alle- 
 gations, without its being intended to declare that the literal fulfil- 
 ment took place on the occasion described. Many writers have 
 taken great pains to prove, that even the forms of expression which 
 I have cited, are not incompatible with this idea ; and, for this pur- 
 pose, they have chiefly used the writings of the Rabbins, and of 
 classical authors. Thus, Surenhusius produced a large volume upon 
 the forms of quotation used by the Rabbins ; but did not adduce a 
 single passage where the word y«/^//e(/ occurs.^ Dr. Sykes asserts, 
 that such expressions are to be found in every page of Jewish writers ; 
 
 » Matt. 1:22. f 2:5. 
 
 X Matt. 2: 15. § 2: 17. 
 
 II Michaelis's "Introduction to the New Testament," vol. i. pp. 206 
 — 214, INlarsh's translation. 
 
 II Bi^Xos xaiialXayrig. .Imslerd. 1713. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 
 
 343 
 
 but does not quote one single example.* Knapp repeats the same 
 assertion, saying, " that the Hebrew and Chaldaic verb, Nb72, and 
 the Chaldaic and Rabbinical words, -jpn, C^V-rN, and ~i7:a, signify 
 to consummate, or corifirm a thing."t He then gives an example of 
 the tirst word, from 1 Kings 1: 14, where the meaning is only, " I 
 will complde your words." Prof. Tholuck has, indeed, brought sev- 
 eral examples from the Rabbins to establish this meaning. The 
 two strongest are these :— " He who eats and drinks, and afterwards 
 prays, of him it is lorittcn, ' thou hast cast me behind thy back.' " — 
 "Since the 'T'lzt ( Shamir, vl fabulous animal) has destroyed the 
 temple, the current of divine grace, and pious men, has ceased, as it 
 is written. Psal. 12: 2." To these he has added a passage from the 
 chronicle of Barhebraeus, a Syriac writer of a much later age. Tt 
 simply says—" They saw the anger whereof the prophet says, I will 
 bear the anger of the Lord, because I have sinned. "| The force of 
 which words extend no further than this,—" they saw the anger of 
 the Lord." Mr. Sharpe, and others, have quoted a kw passages 
 from Greek classics ; but they are far from coming up to the deter- 
 minate and strong form of the phrases in the New Testament.^ For, 
 after all, Michaelis's observation stands good, that none of them equal 
 in force the words, " Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by 
 the prophet:" and his annotator's question remains unanswered, 
 " was this expression used in this sense by the Rabbins ?"|1 
 
 One example, however, may seem to escape this censure. It is a 
 passage quoted by Wetstein from the compendium of St. Ephrem's 
 life given in Assemani's Bibliotheca Orientalis ; where an angel thus 
 
 * "Truth of the Christian Religion," Lond. 1725, pp. 206-296. 
 
 t Georgii Cliri^n. Knapp, " Scripta varii argumenti maximam par- 
 tem exagelici ethistorici argumenti," Ed. 2, Halle, 1823, torn. ii. p. 523. 
 
 t"Commentar zu detn Evangelio .lohannis," J/amft. 1827, p. 68. 
 Some years ago, tliis learned professor asked me, whether, in tlie course 
 of reading, I had met witli passages, in Syriac writers, calculated to re- 
 move these difficulties, and to illustrate the phrases in question. I 
 pointed out the examples given in the text; and, at his request, furnish- 
 ed him with a copy, and gave him full permission to use them. It is 
 possible, therefore,' that they may have appeared in some German 
 work which I have not seen"; and I consequently, feel it right to men- 
 lion the circumstance, lest I should be suspected of taking to myself 
 credit for any other person's industry. 
 
 § Ap. Home, "Introduction," vol. ii. p. 444, note. 
 II " Note.s on Michaelis," vol. i. p. 487. 
 
344 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 addresses the saint ;— ].o*/^i^? «-Acn ^^j.^^ u4.labi.AZ ]]; ••a7i1| 
 
 ^AO ]:!:i..y_l:^ 5^«.] >OajS)|7 "Take care lest that 6c /MT^V/frfm 
 
 thee tpJiich is written, * Ephraim is a heifer,' etc."* This instance, 
 however, did not appear to Michaelis satisfactory, because I suppose 
 it was unsupported by others, and on account of its admonitory form.t 
 
 The field, therefore, may be considered open, and worthy to oc- 
 cupy the attention of scholars. Now, though it may appear presump- 
 tuous, I think I have it in my power to solve the difficulty, simply by 
 the course which I have been endeavoring to suggest through these 
 Lectures, by the prosecution, however feebly, of the very study to 
 which it belongs. In endeavoring to meet it, I need not premise 
 that I, by no means, allow any validity to Michaelis's arguments, or 
 mean to admit that the quotations in St. Matthew's first chapters may 
 not be proved accurately applicable to the events there described. 
 On these points, there is very much to be said ; but I wish to waive 
 the long investigation into which they would lead us, and simply take 
 up the question upon the objector's own grounds, and prove that, 
 even granting all that he assumes, he has no reason for rejecting that 
 portion of Scripture, or impugning the ins])iration of its writer. In 
 other words, I wish to show, that, even if those texts could not be ap- 
 plied to certain events, otherwise than by accommodation, the phrases 
 which introduce them will easily bend to that e.xplanation, and so 
 destroy the argument drawn from their force. For, I will show you 
 by examples from the earliest Syriac writers, that in the East similar 
 expressions were used for accommodating Scriptural phrases to indi- 
 viduals, to whom the writers could not possibly have believed theni 
 primarily or originally to refer. 
 
 1. " The phrase " to be fulfilled" is so used, and that in a declar- 
 atory form, and not merely as in the instance given by Wetstein. 
 In a fuller life of St. Ephrem than the one which he quotes, we have 
 
 this remarkable passage: — 2j.liDUb l^l^i^ii) ..AOial^.:^ Z\i£i2:ikA.o 
 
 . 1x0,,^^ «-j.!^ OCT JL J.i£>7 . U J. j_j>a1^ ..tial^Qa ^.^liO " And in Jiim 
 
 teas fulfilled the word which was spoken concerning Paul to Ananias : 
 he is a vessel of election to me. "J The author is here speaking of 
 
 * " Assem. B. O," torn. i. p. '35. "Acta S. Ephr. Oper." torn. ill. p. 
 36. Wetstein in Matt, i: 22. 
 t Vol. i. p. 214. 
 t " St. Ephrem Oper." Tom. iii. p. 26. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 345 
 
 St. Ephrern, and clearly expresses himself, that the words which he 
 applies to him were really spoken of another. But the saint himself, 
 the oldest writer extant in that language, uses this phrase in a more 
 
 remarkable manner. For thus he speaks of Aristotle ; — tAcnal^i* 
 
 oiZao] j.'iQj.o.w^ ]ooi |J. " In him joas fulfilled that which was 
 written concerning Solomon the wise ; ' that of those who were be- 
 fore or after, there has not been one equal to him in wisdom.' "* 
 
 2. The expression, as it is tvrittcn, or as the prophet says,f is 
 used precisely in the same manner. St. Ephrem uses it manifestly 
 
 to introduce a mere adaptation of a scriptural text. — ^j.ic 
 J.AO Xo'iDi j^j| t*-^^^ joil^j ucii.b.:^') ijija:^? ]a1^v, ]xii..^_bi, 
 
 " Those who are in error have hated the source of assistance : as it 
 is ivritten, ' the Lord awoke like one who slept.' "| To see the force 
 of this application, the entire passage must be read. I pass over 
 some less decided examples,^ and hasten on. 
 
 3. Even the strongest of all such expressions, " this is he of 
 whom it is written," is used with the same freedom by these early 
 oriental writers. In the Acts of St. Ephrem, which I have more 
 than once quoted, it is so applied. For example, speakino- of the 
 
 Saint — ili-^V^ \^h]-> ^a2| ]iQJ? ^xjo^q^zj j-lof? ajcn. "This is he 
 
 of 70 horn our Saviour said, * 1 came to cast fire upon the earth.' "|1 In 
 another place the same text is applied to him by St. Basil in still more 
 definite terms. ^ 
 
 * Serin, i. Tom. ii. ]>. 317. f Matt. 2: 6, 
 
 t Serm. xxxiii. adv. Haeres. Tom. ii. p. 513. To such as are con- 
 versant with the Syriac language, I would observe that the Latin ver- 
 sion translates the word [^^^ by amentes, whereas, throughout all these 
 
 sermons it means ivanderers, or heretics. Cf. jip. 526, 527, 559, etc. 
 By it St. Ephrem seems to mean the Manicheans. 
 
 § For instance, in the Acts of St. Ephrem, p. 25, where, however, 
 only a moral precept is cited, which in fact does not occur in the Bible. 
 Again, Tom. ii. p. 487, where "as it is written," introduces a quotation. 
 
 II P. 38. 
 
 H P. 68. He exj)ressiy says, " This is he of tohom our Saviour said," 
 etc., whereas in tlie other text, the words in italics are understood. 
 Assemani, the translator of this life, renders the phrase by " propterea 
 ipsi accommodatitm iri ilia Domini verba, etc. 
 44 
 
346 LECTURE THE TENTH. 
 
 Still further to confirm these illustrations, I will observe, that the 
 Arabs, in quoting their sacred book, the Koran, apply it in this man- 
 ner to passing events. I will give you one or two instances out of 
 many which I have noticed. In a letter from Amelic Alaschraf 
 Barsebai to Mirza Schahrockh, son of Timur, published by De Sacy, 
 we have these words. " We, indeed, if the Most High had wished 
 it, could not prevail over you ; but lie has promised us victory in the 
 venerable book of God, saying, ' then we gave you the advantage 
 over them.' "* Which words were clearly spoken of a quite differ- 
 ent person. The following example approaches more to the phrases 
 
 in question : ^a!> cJOtf V>c ^Vi ^9 bSl\ \^>^ r^ »%*^f VaJJ 
 
 t^_0 •[ \/o " ^"^ resemble the Prophet, when he says ; ' Never did 
 prophet suffer what I suffer.' "f 
 
 I fear lest this disquisition may have proved tedious to many ; if 
 so, I will only request them to consider how important its object may 
 well appear. For it is directed to wrench out of the hands of rash 
 scholars, a pretended argument for rejecting two of the most im- 
 portant and beautiful chapters of gospel history. It serves, too, as 
 another illustration, of how continued application to any pursuit is 
 sure to obtain possession of a sufficient clue, to unravel the difficulties 
 drawn from its lower stages. 
 
 Desultory as the subjects of which I have treated may appear, 
 they have, I trust, presented a variety of points illustrative of the ob- 
 ject pursued in these Lectures. In every one of the members which 
 compose the direct study of the Bible, we have seen a natural on- 
 ward progress ; and in every instance the spontaneous consequence of 
 that progress has been the removal of prejudice, the confutation of 
 objections, and the confirmation of the truth. I will only add, that 
 the persoHiil and practical application of the various pursuits which 
 have been grouped together in this Lecture, will satisfy any one, that 
 even in that confined form, they have the same power of develop- 
 ment, and the same saving virtue. Experience has long since satis- 
 fied me, that every text which Catholics advance in favor of their 
 doctrines controverted by Protestants, will stand those rigid tests to 
 which modern science insists a]x)n submitting every passage under 
 
 * De Sacy, " Chrestoinathie Arabc," 1st nd. Arab, text, j). 2o(], Vers. 
 Toiri. ii. f). ;W.j. 
 
 t Uiiml)t;i-r, " Aiilliolo;;ic Ara!)e." Paris, 1819, p. 112. 
 
SACRED LITERATURE. 
 
 347 
 
 discussion. This, liowever, is the province of dogmatic or polemic 
 theology, and therefore must not be intruded upon here. 
 
 The study of Gods word, and the meditation upon its truths, 
 surely forms our noblest occupation. But when that study is con- 
 ducted upon severe principles, and with the aid of deep research, it 
 will be found to combine the intellectual enjoyment of the mathema- 
 tician, with the rapture of the poet, and ever to open new sources of 
 edification and delight, to some of which I hope to open you a way 
 ia my next discourse. 
 
LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 ORIENTAL LITERATURE 
 
 PART II. 
 PROFANE STUDIES. 
 
 Introductory remarks. Illustrations of particular passages. Collec- 
 tions of oriental customs and ideas from travellers. — The ijrowing 
 nature of such illustrations exemplified in Gen. 44: 5, 15. — Difficul- 
 ties raised by earlier writers; illustrations furnished bj? later authors. 
 — Luke 2: 4, supposed to be not conformable to any known law 
 among the ancients ; difficulties removed by a passage of an oriental 
 author. — Geographical elucidations lately made by Messrs. Burton 
 and Wilkinson. — Philosophy of Asia. General remarks on the con- 
 firmation it gives of the fundamental principles of Christian faith, by 
 the unity of its conclusions in diffijrent countries. — On the oriental 
 philosophy. — Its influence on the Jewish doctrines ; Scriptural 
 phrases illustrated by Bendslen. — Sabian doctrines ; their use in ex- 
 plaining some parts of the New Testament. — Opinions of the Samar- 
 itans lately ascertained, remove a difficutly in John iv. — Chinese 
 school of Laotseu ; its doctrine of the Trinity shown to be probably 
 derived from the Jews. — Indian philosoiihy ; excessive antiquity at- 
 tributed to it ; opinions of the moderns ; Colebrooke, the Windisch- 
 manns, Ritter. Supposed antiquity of the Ezour Vedam ; the work 
 discovered to be modern. — Historical restarches. Serious historical 
 difficulty in Is. xxxix. removed by a newly discovered fragment of Be- 
 rosus. — Attack on the origin of Christian rites, from their resem- 
 blance to the Lamaic worship. Discovery, from oriental works, of 
 the modern origin of that system. 
 
 In my last Lecture, I treated of those illustrations of the sacred 
 text which had its own substance for their object, whether in the 
 
350 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 letter or in its signification. There are obviously many of anotlv^r 
 class, which oriental studies must afford, similar to those which we 
 have seen furnished by other sciences. In fact, there is no branch 
 of literature so rich in biblical vindications and illustrations, as those 
 studies which I have characterized as " Profane Oriental Litera- 
 ture." The epithet here given is unfortunately equivocal, and I 
 wish we had some other to substitute in its place. The term ' pro- 
 fane,' when applied to studies not essentially connected with sacred 
 subjects, seems almost to cast a reproach upon them. Being often 
 used to express not merely the absence of a peculiarly sacred char- 
 acter, but the addition of positive unholiness, and applied to ex- 
 press the guilt of acts otherwise indifferent, it has unfortunately the 
 same force in the minds of some, when applied to literary pursuits. 
 Among the errors of thought which the use of equivocal words has 
 introduced, there are few more hurtful, and yet few more common 
 than this. In my concluding lecture I may have occasion to notice 
 the opposition made at all times by many to human learning ; for the 
 present I will only observe, that they are the epithets by which it has 
 been distinguished from more sacred studies, which have chiefly led 
 weak minds to their rash decision. The names of secular, or human, 
 or still more, profane learning, have in reality suggested or encour- 
 aged the abhorrence which such men have felt and expressed for all 
 but theological pursuits. 
 
 These terms, however, are all relative, and only framed thus 
 strongly to exalt the other, which necessarily excels them, as all 
 things directed to the spirit and its profit, must surpass whatever is 
 but the offspring of earth. But wisdom and knowledge, wherever 
 found, are gifts of God, and the fruits of the right use of faculties by 
 him given; and as we find that the Christians of former ages scrupled 
 not to represent on their most sacred monuments the effigies of men 
 whose science or graceful literature had adorned the world even in 
 ages of paganism, so may we consider the learning of such men well 
 worthy of a place among the illustrations and ornaments of the holy 
 religion to which those buildings were devoted. 
 
 At the same time, therefore, that I esteem such pursuits most 
 worthy of our attention, the consideration of what I have remarked 
 leaves me no scruple in placing among profane literature, such illus- 
 trations of Holy Writ, as may be found in oriental writers of the 
 most venerable character, and of the most holy minds. For I use 
 
PROFANE STUDIES. 351 
 
 the term in no other sense than as a conventional distinctive of a class 
 of learning most useful and most commendable. 
 
 I shall divide the subject of this morning's entertainment into 
 three parts ; first, T will treat of such particular illustrations as east- 
 ern archajology may glean in the East ; secondly, I will give a few 
 instances of the influence which our growing acquaintance with the 
 philosophy of Asia has had upon the vindication of religion ; and 
 thirdly, I will try to select one or two examples of the use to be made 
 of oriental historical records. 
 
 The first of these classes has been long justly popular in this 
 country. No other nation has sent so many enterprising travellers 
 to explore the East; and it was natural to expect that it would take 
 the lead in applying the results of their observations, which became 
 a part of its literature, to the illustration of Scripture. Accordingly, 
 we have been almost overrun with collections from travellers, of man- 
 ners, customs, and opinions existing in Asia, and tending to throw 
 some light upon the Biblical narrative. Often the examples which 
 follow the order of the books and chapters of Scripture, are quite un- 
 necessary, sometimes they are insufficient ; on all occasions, they do 
 not possess the value of systematic treatises on Scriptural antiquities, 
 in which the results are digested, and compared with all the passa- 
 ges on which they seem to bear. It is hardly necessary to remark, 
 that whatever advantage such compilations may present to religion 
 and its sacred volume, is necessarily of a growing character. The 
 mine is inexhaustible ; every traveller succeeds in discovering some 
 new coincidence between the ancient and modern occupants of Asia, 
 and at every new edition, the works to which I have alluded swell in 
 bulk, and increase the number of their volumes. Burder's " Orien- 
 tal Customs and Literature," when translated by Rosenmiiller into 
 German, received great and valuable accessions, which have in their 
 turn been translated, and added to the original work. I believe I 
 should have to add to the number of my lectures, were I to offer you 
 the gleanings which I have made in this branch of literature, after 
 the plentiful harvest of my predecessors. Well might the Oriental 
 Translation Committee pronounce, not only that "the sacred Scrip- 
 tures abound in modes of expression, and allusions to customs, in 
 many cases imperfectly understood in Europe, but still prevailing in 
 the East," but also, that many additional illustrations might be ex- 
 pected from the publication of more oriental authors.* 
 
 * "Report," Lond. 1829, p. 7, 
 
352 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 I will select one instance, almost at random, which seems to ex- 
 emplify the increasing nature of such researches. 
 
 In Gen. 44: o, 15, mention is made of a cup in which Joseph di- 
 vined ; of course, keeping up the disguise which he had thought it 
 necessary to assume. — " The cup which you have stolen is that in 
 
 which my lord drinketh, and in which he is wont to divine And 
 
 he said to them, why would you do so? know ye not that there is no 
 one like me in the science of divining?" Now, formerly this gave 
 rise to such a serious objection, that very able critics proposed an al- 
 teration in the reading or translation of the word ; for it was supposed 
 to allude to a custom completely without any parallel in ancient au- 
 thors. " Who," exclaims Houbigant, " ever heard of auguries taken 
 by the agency of a cup?"* Aurivillius goes still further : — " I ac- 
 knowledge," says he, " that such an interpretation might be proba- 
 ble, if it could be proved by the testimony of any creditable historian, 
 that, either then or at any later period, the Egyptians used this 
 method of divination. "t Burder, in the first edition of his Oriental 
 customs, produced two methods of divining with cups, given by Sau- 
 rin from Julius Serenus and Cornelius Agrippa, neither of them very 
 applicable to this case. J The Baron Silvestre de Sacy, was the first 
 to show the existence of this very practice in Egypt in modern times, 
 from an incident recounted in Norden's travels. By a singular coin- 
 cidence, Baram Cashef tells the travellers that he had consulted his 
 cup, and discovered that they were spies, who had come to discover 
 how the land might best be invaded and subdued. § Thus, we see 
 the condition complied with on which alone Aurivillius, half a cen- 
 tury ago, agreed to be satisfied with the sense at present given by 
 the text. In the "Revue des deux Mondes," for August J 833, a 
 very curious and well attested instance was given of the nse of the 
 divining cup, as witnessed by the reporters in Egypt, in company 
 with several English travellers, which bears a character highly mar- 
 vellous and mysterious. 
 
 But so far from its being any longer diflicult to find a single in- 
 stance of this practice in Egypt, we may say, that no species of di- 
 
 * Note in loc. 
 
 f " Dissertationes ad Sacras Literas et pliilologiam orientaletu per- 
 tinentes," Gbllins;. and Laps. 1790, p. 273. 
 
 \ "Oriental Customs," Lond. 1807, vol.i. p. 25. 
 
 § " Chrestoinathie Arabe," Paris, ISOH, vol. ii. p. r»l3. 
 
PROFANE STUDIES. 
 
 353 
 
 vining can be proved more common throughout the East. For in- 
 stance in a Chinese work, written in 179-2, wliicli contains a de- 
 scription of the kingdom of Thibet, among tlie methods of divining 
 in use there, this is given : " Sometimes they look into a jar of wa- 
 ter, and see what is to happen."* The Persians, too, seem to have 
 considered the cup as the principal instrument of augury ; for their 
 poets constantly allude to the fable of a celebrated divining cup, ori- 
 ginally the property of the demigod Dshemshid, who discovered it in 
 the foundations of Estakhar, and from whom it descended to Solo- 
 mon and Alexander, and formed the cause of all their success and 
 glory. Guignaut adds Joseph to the list of its possessors, but I know 
 not on what authority.t All these examples suppose the augury to be 
 taken by inspection. I will add another example of a different man- 
 ner. This the authority of the oldest Syriac Father, St. Ephrem, 
 who tells us, that oracles were received from cups, by striking them, 
 and noticing the sound which they emitted. t Thus, then we see a 
 growing series of illustrations of a passage not many years ago con- 
 sidered untenable, from its being unsupported by any. 
 
 And having produced this last example from a class of oriental 
 literature too much neglected at present, I cannot refrain from 
 giving one more illustration from it, of a difficulty v/liich T believe 
 has not as yet been removed. It is stated in Luke 2: 4, that Joseph 
 was obliged to go to Bethlehem, the city of David, there to be en- 
 rolled and taxed with his virgin spouse, on occasion of a general cen- 
 sus. This was evidently an obligation ; and yet tliere appears no 
 other example of such a practice. Lardner proposes this difficulty, 
 and suggests a solution from Ulpian, who tells us that all should be 
 enrolled where their estate lies. "Though Joseph," says he, " was 
 not rich, yet he might have some small inheritance at or near Beth- 
 lehem. "§ He was not, however, himself satisfied with this answer ; 
 because, as he observes, had Joseph possessed any land there, {ager 
 is the word used by Ulpian,) some house would probably have been 
 attached to it, or at least his tenant would have received him under 
 his roof And moreover, the reason given is, " hecattse he was of the 
 
 * " Quelquesfois lis regardent dans nne jatte d'eau, et voient ce que 
 doit arriver."— ' Nouveau Journal Asiatique," Oct. J829, p. 261. 
 t "On Crcuzcr," to. i. part. i. p. 312. 
 \ "Opera omnia, torn, i." Syr. el Lat. Rome, 1737, p. 100. 
 § " Lardner's Works," Land. 1827, vol. i. p. 281. 
 4a 
 
351 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 house and family of David.'' Lardner, tiicreforc, further suggests, 
 that it was some custom of the Jews, to be enrolled in tribes and 
 fauiilies : but there could be no necessity for this troublesome method 
 of observing it, nor has it been shown that such a custom ever exist- 
 ed. But the fact is, we have an example of this very practice in the 
 same country in later times. Dionysius, in his Chronicle, tells us, 
 that " Abdalmelic made a census of the Syrians in 1G92, and pub- 
 lished a positive decree, that every individual should go to his coun- 
 try, his city, and his father's house, and be enrolled, giving in his 
 name, and whose son he was ; with an account of his vineyards, his 
 oliveyards, his flocks, his children, and all his possessions." This, 
 he adds, was the first census made by the Arabs in Syria.* This one 
 instance is sufficient to take away all strange appearance from the 
 circumstance as recorded in the Gospel, and makes it unnecessary to 
 assign a reason for it. 
 
 I can hardly give any motive for allowing these instances a pre- 
 ference over many others, which would have equally shown, how this 
 branch of oriental pursuits, the inquiry into the habits and state, 
 physical and moral, of the East, goes on, so long as it is pursued, re- 
 moving all difficulties, and shedding new light upon Scriptural nar- 
 ratives. 
 
 To conclude this branch of my subject, I will notice the informa- 
 tion lately gained upon Scripture geography by the discoveries in 
 Egyptian literature. For instance, Mr. Burton has made us ac- 
 quainted with the Zoan of Numbers, (13:22) and Ezckiel, (30:14) 
 the liieroglyphic name for which he has discovered and published.! 
 In like manner, Mr. Wilkinson has cleared up the controversy res- 
 pecting the No-Ammon, or No of Nahum, (3: 8) Jeremiah (4o: 25) 
 and Ezekiel (ib.); for he has proved it to be the Egyptian name for 
 the Thebais.t The Septuagint has indeed translated it by Diospolis, 
 tlie ancieiw uamr of Thebes among the Grcpks. In fact, the name 
 Thebes, or Thebfc, is sup|)osed by Champollion to be the Egyptian 
 word Tape, i\ie head or capital, in the Theban dialect. The He- 
 brew name No-Aminon, is purely Egyptian, and signifies the posses- 
 sion or portion of the God Amun, by which the same version once 
 renders it ptijlg "^7//// on', (Nah. 3: 8.)§ 
 
 * Asseniani, " IVihlioth. Orientalis," vol. ii. p. 104. 
 f " Exrcrpta 1 !i(>roglyiih." No. iv. 
 
 I f'nnumiuicated liy Sir W. Goll, in tiio "Bulleliiio dell' Istituto, di 
 Corfis|»n!idcnz;i arciioologica," Rome, 1829, No. i.v. p. 104 — lOG. 
 
 ^ "Ilandbuch der bibliochcn Altcrthlium.skundc," or '■ Biblische 
 
PROFANE STUDIES. 355 
 
 It must not be thought that the department of biblical illustration 
 on which I have so long dwelt, has been etitirely in the hands of such 
 popular writers as I have before alluded to. On the contrary, the 
 natural history of the East has been protbundly studied, since the 
 time of Bochart and Celsius, by Oedman and Forskal, with wonder- 
 ful success; the manners and costumes of the Jews have received in- 
 valuable light from Braun and Schroeder ; nay, we have a volume 
 by ByncBus, replete with much curious erudition, de calnis HchrtBo- 
 rum, on the shoes of the Hebrews. But let us pass forward to more 
 important subjects. 
 
 The philosophy of the East may be viewed in many lights, and 
 in each reflects differently upon sacred truths. We may simply con- 
 sider the philosophy of different nations as the characterising indica- 
 tion of their mind, as that distinctive which, in reference to the ope- 
 rations of their understandings, take the place held by the outward 
 features in regard to their characteristic passions. Every national 
 philosophy must necessarily bear the impress of that peculiar system 
 of thought which nature or social institutions, or some other modify- 
 ing cause, has stamped upon the mind ; it will be mystical, or merely 
 logical, profound or popular, abstract or practical, according to the 
 character of thought prevalent in the people. The experimental phi- 
 losophy which we owe to Bacon, is the exact type of the habit of 
 thought pervading the English character, from the highest medita- 
 tions of our sages to the practical reasoning of the peasant. The ab- 
 stracting and contemplative, half-dreaming mysticism of the Hindoo, 
 is no less the natural expression of his habitual calm and listlessness, 
 the flow of bright deep thought, which must be produced in one who 
 sits musing on the banks of his majestic streams. Where there are 
 many sects, we may rely upon most of them professing foreign, and 
 often uncongenial, doctrines. Hence arise those almost contradic- 
 tory appearances in some parts of the best Greek philosophies, that 
 admission of great truths, and yet the weakness of proofs, which we 
 meet in their snblimest writer. 
 
 But hence it follows, that when we see all the philosophical sys- 
 tems of nations quite distinct in character, perfectly unlike each 
 other in their logical processes, arriving at the same consequences, 
 on all great points of moral interest to man, we are led to a choice of 
 
 Geographic, von E. F. K, Rosenmiiller," Ltifz. 1828, Drittor Band, 
 p. 299. 
 
356 LECTUUE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 one of two conclusions ; either that a primeval tradition, a doctrine 
 common to the human species, and consequently, given from the be- 
 ginning-, hns flowed down to us through so many channels ; or else, 
 that these doctrines are so essentially, so naturally, true, that the hu- 
 man mind, under every possible form, discovers and embraces them. 
 Ancient philosophers concluded, from the consent of mankind in 
 some common belief, that it must be correct ; and thus did prove 
 many precious and important doctrines. By the deeper study of the 
 philosophy of many nations, v,e have advanced the force of this rea- 
 soning an immcube step ; for we now can tell the grounds on which 
 they received them. Had we met one system in which the future 
 and perpetual existence of man's soul was denied, and the denial sup- 
 ported by processes of reasoning, conducted on principles perfectly 
 independent of foreign teaching, we certainly should have felt before 
 us a difliculty, of some weight, to overcome. But when we find the 
 mysticism of the Indian arriving at the same conclusion as the syn- 
 thetic reasoning of the Greek, we must be satisfied that the conclu- 
 sion is correct. In the portiojis of the Aklilak e Naseri, a Persian 
 work upon the soul, which Col. Wilks has translated, all the ques- 
 tions relating to that portion of man are discussed with marvellous 
 acuteness ; and though, from some resemblance to the Greek philoso- 
 phers, the translator thinks the reasoning is borrowed from them,* 
 it seems to me that the turn of thought, and form of argumentation, 
 display a decidedly original character. 
 
 Thus have we gained an additional force for our convictions upon 
 points of belief essentially necessary, as the ground-work of Chris- 
 tianity, and still further developed by its teaching. But there are 
 several systems of Asiatic y)hilosophy, which come into close contact 
 with the Scriptures, from their being alluded to in it, or perhaps at- 
 tacked ; and which being known, may throw considerable light upon 
 particular passages. 
 
 The principal of these is what is commonly known under the 
 name of the onenfcl philosophy. This consists of that peculiarly 
 mysterious system which formed the basis of the old Persian religion, 
 and from which the earliest sects of Christianity sprung up ; the be- 
 lief in the conflict betu'een opposite powers of good and evil, and in 
 the existence of emanated influences, intermediate between the di- 
 
 * " Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and 
 Ireland," vol. i. p. 514. sefjrj. Lond. 1827. 
 
PROFANE STUDIES. 357 
 
 Vine and earthly natures ; and the consequent adoption of mystical 
 and secret terms, expressive of the hidden relations between these 
 different orders of created and uncreated beings. This philosophy 
 pervaded all tW^^ast : there can be no doubt but that its influence 
 was felt among the Jews at the time of our Saviour's coming, and 
 that in particular the sect of Pharisees held much of its mysterious 
 doctrines. It penetrated into Greece, affected greatly the Pythago- 
 rean and Platonic philosophies, and acted on the people through the 
 secret religious mysteries. In many of its doctrines it approached so 
 near to the truth, that the inspired writers were led to adopt some of 
 its terms to expound their doctrines. Plence it is, that our greater 
 acquaintance with this system of philosophy, from the greater atten- 
 tion paid to it, has tended to confirm and illustrate many phrases and 
 passages formerly obscure. For instance, when Nicodemus either 
 understood not, or affected not to understand, our Lord's expression 
 that he must be " born again," we should be rather inclined to think 
 such an expression by no means easy, and to consider the censure as 
 severe; "Art thou a master in Israel, and understandest not these 
 things?"* But when we discover that this was the ordinary figure 
 by which the Pharisees themselves expressed, in their mystic lan- 
 guage, the act of becoming a proselyte, and that the phrase belongs 
 to that philosophy, and is used by the Brahmins of such as join their 
 religion ;t we at once perceive how such an obscure phrase should 
 have been well understood by the person to whom it was addressed. 
 Bendsten has carefully collected such ancient inscriptions as contain 
 mystical allusions drawn from this hidden philosophy, and has pro- 
 duced several illustrations of phrases in the New Testament. | It 
 may suffice to say, that such expressions as light and darkness, the 
 flesh and the spirit, the representation of the body as a vessel or tab- 
 ernacle of the soul, images so beautifully adapted for expressing the 
 purest doctrines of Christianity, as none other at that time could be, 
 all have been found to belong to this philosophy, and have thus lost 
 the obscurity wherewith they used to be reproached. 
 
 But to come to one particular sect or modification of this system; 
 a curious elucidation has been obtained of a difficult portion of the 
 
 * John 3: 3. 
 
 t See the author's " Lectures on the Real Presence." Lond. 1836, 
 p. 95. See Wiivlischmann's " Philosophie," etc. p. 558. 
 
 \ In the "Miscellanea Hafnensia," Tom. j. Copenhag. 1816, p. 20. 
 
35S LECTURK THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 New Testament, by our acquaintance with a sect of Gnostics yet ex- 
 isting, but of whom little or nothing was known till the end of the 
 last century. From a small treatise, of no great celebrity, published 
 above a hundred years ago by F. Ignatius a Jesuf*^ missionary in 
 Asia, Europe first became acquainted with a semi-christian sect, set- 
 tled chiefly in the neighborhood of Bassora, evidently descended from 
 the ancient Gnostics, but having a peculiar veneration for St. John 
 the Baptist.* They are called Nasareans, Sabians, Mendeans, or 
 disciples of John. The last is the name they give themselves. Evi- 
 dence is not wanting to prove that they have existed from the earliest 
 ages ; and the whole of their belief is grounded upon the oriental 
 philosophy, the system of emanations from the Deity. Prof. Nor- 
 berg was the first who made this strange religion better known, by 
 publishing, not many years ago, their sacred book, the Codex Adam, 
 or Codex Nasargeus.t It is written in a peculiar character and dia- 
 lect of very corrupt Syriac, and is extremely difficult to he under- 
 stood. Their principal work, which N( rberg so much desired to see 
 published, is yet inedited. It is an immense roll covered ');!; curi- 
 ous figures, and is called their Divan. The original copy is in the 
 Museum of the Propaganda ; from this I have had two fac-similes 
 made, whereof one is in my possession, and I have brought it for 
 your inspection ; the other I have deposited in the Library of the 
 Royal Asiatic Society in London. 
 
 It had been well known that St. John, in his writings, entirely 
 attacked Gnostic sects, principally those known by the name of 
 Ebionites, and Cerinthians. This circumstance explained many ex- 
 pressions otherwise obscure, and led us to understand why he so con- 
 stantly insisted upon the reality of Christ's being in the flesh. It 
 was evident that the first chapter of his gospel contained a series of 
 aphorisms directly opposed to their tenets. For instance, as these 
 Gnostics maintained the existence of many iEons, or emanated 
 beings inferior to God, one of which they called " the Word," and 
 another " the only begotten," another " the light," etc. ; and asserted 
 the world to have been created by a malignant spirit; St. John 
 overthrows all these opinions, by showing, that only One was bom 
 
 * Ignatius a Jesu, " Nanalio originis et errorum Christianorum S. 
 Johannis." 
 
 t " Codex Nazareeijs liber Adami appellatus." Tom. i. Hafnise. Na 
 date. 
 
PROFANK STUDIES. 359 
 
 from the Father, who was at once liglit, tlio word, and tlic only be- 
 gotten, and by whom all things were made.* 
 
 But, there were other things in this sul)lime prologue, not so 
 easily explained. Why is the inferiority of the Baptist so much in- 
 sisted upon? why are we told that he was not the light, hut only a 
 witness to the light, and why is this thrice repeated ? Why are we 
 told that he was a mere man ? These reiterated assertions must 
 have been directed against some existing opinions, which required 
 confutation as much as the others: yet we knew of no sect that 
 could appear to have suggested them. The publication of the Sabian 
 books has, to all appearance, solved the difficulty. 
 
 When the Codex Nasarasus was first published, several learned 
 men applied its expressions to the illustration of St. John's gospel. 
 The evidence for this application was at first considered strong,t,but 
 was afterwards, particularly, if I remember right, by Hug, rejected 
 as of small weight. Still, on looking over the book, I think we can- 
 not fail to be struck with opinions, manifestly ancient, which seem 
 exactly kept in view by the Apostle, in the introduction to his gospel. 
 First, the marked distinction between light and life; secondly, the 
 superiority of John the Baptist to Christ ; thirdly, the identification 
 of John with " the light." 
 
 The first of these errors was common, perhaps, to other Gnostic 
 sects; but in tiie Codex Nasaraeus, we have the two especially dis- 
 tinguished as different beings. In it the first emanation from God, 
 is the king of light; the second, fire; the third, water; and the 
 fourth, life. t Now, this error St. John rejects in the fourth verse, 
 where he says, " and the light was life." The second error, that 
 John was superior to Christ, forms the fundamental principle of this 
 sect. Its members are called Mende Jahia, disciples of John, from 
 this very circumstance. And an Arabic letter from the Maronite 
 Patriarch in Syria, published by Norberg, tells us that they worship 
 John before Christ, \^ whom they carefully distinguish from " the life." 
 In the third place they identify John with " the light." These two 
 last errors will be at once brought home to them by one passage, 
 which I take without seleciiun, upon opening the book. "Going 
 forward and coming to the prison of Jesus, the Messiah, I asked, 
 
 * St. Iri^iifEus " Adv. Bceres." lib. i. c. i. § 20. 
 
 f !\richaulis, " Introdurtion." Vol. iii. pj). 28.5, seqq. 
 
 \ Xorherj:, p. 8. ■§ Notes to the Preface. 
 
360 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 wliose place of confinement is this? I was answered ; ' it overshad- 
 ows those who have denied the life, and followed the Messiah.' "* 
 The Messiah is then supposed to address the narrator in these words : 
 " Tell MS thy name, and show us thy mark, which thou receivedst 
 from the water, the treasure of splendor, and the great baptism of tlie 
 Light." And on seeing the mark, the Messiah adores him four 
 times.t After this, the souls that are with him, ask permission to 
 return into the body, for three days, that they may be baptized in 
 the Jordan, " in the name of this man who has passed above him. "J 
 Here, then, we have John and his baptism superior to Christ; the 
 Messiah distinguished from " the ligiit," and the baptism of John, 
 called " the baptism of the Light." Now, we can hardly fail to ob- 
 serve, how pointedly the evangelist co'iiidicts every one o: these 
 blasphemous opinions, when he tells us, that in Christ " was life ;" 
 that John " was not the light, but only a witness to it ;" (vv. 7, 8) 
 and that John was inferior to Christ, according to his own testimony. 
 And on this point, the very words of the gospel seem selected to meet 
 the error. " John beareth witness and crieth out, saying ; ' this was 
 he of whom I spake, he that shall come after me shall be preferred 
 be/ore me, because he was before me.' " (v. 15.) 
 
 That the opinions of this strange sect have been much changed 
 in the lapse of ages, we have every reason to suppose, but their con- 
 formity to the Gnostic system, and some historical evidence, prove 
 that the religion is not modern ; indeed, it seems to have sprung 
 from those who only received the baptism of John. At any rate, 
 the publication of these documents, and our belter acquaintance with 
 this sect, has shown opinions to have existed among the Gnostics, 
 exactly corresponding to the errors condemned by St. John. Ex- 
 pressions, which before were unintelligible, have thus become clear ; 
 and the series of apparently unconnected propositions, or axioms, 
 which compose his proeme, and which seemed unnecessarily to insist 
 upon points to us of little interest, have been shown to point at blas- 
 phemous doctrines confuted in the gospel. 
 
 Another example of a difficulty being cleared away, by our be- 
 coming acquainted, in modern times, with the opinions of an oriental 
 sect, may be drawn from the Samaritan literature. This sect sprung 
 from the Jews, in part at least, at an early period of their history ; 
 and acknowledged, as is well known, no sacred books but those of 
 
 * Tom. ii. p. 9. t lb. p. 11. 
 
 I lb. p. 13. "In nomine bujusviri qui te preeteriit." 
 
PROFANE STUDIES. 361 
 
 Moses. Their religious hatred to the Jews was violent ; and as they 
 never could be united together in friendship, so does it appear im- 
 probable that one sect would have ever borrowed opinions from the 
 other. In the fourth chapter of St. John, a Samaritan woman pro- 
 fesses her belief that a Messiah would speedily come ; (v, 25) and 
 afterwards the inhabitants of the city publicly avow the same ex- 
 pectation, (vv. 39, 42.) Does not this seem highly improbable? 
 For, surely the pentateuch alone could hardly have furnished grounds 
 for so rooted and general a belief This difficulty increases when 
 we reflect, that the only passage in those books, which could appear 
 to suggest the doctrine with sufficient clearness, is not interpreted by 
 them of the Messiah. I allude to Deut. 18: 15 ; " The Lord thy 
 God shall raise up unto thee a prophet, etc." which Gesenius in his 
 essay on the theology of the Samaritans, has shown they do not apply 
 at all to his coming.* And yet we have now every evidence that we 
 can desire upon this point. For, the Samaritans, who are reduced 
 to about thirty houses in Naplous,'yet profess to expect such a Mes- 
 siah under the name of Hathab. In the last century, a correspond- 
 ence was entered into with them, for the purpose of clearing up this 
 question ; it was published by Schnurrer,+ and the result is precisely 
 such as we could desire, to confirm the gospel narrative. This con- 
 clusion has been still further illustrated by the Samaritan poems in 
 the Bodleian library, which Gesenius has published. For in them 
 the expectation of a Messiah seems clearly expressed. J Thus, then, 
 is an important illustration obtained by our modern acquaintance 
 with the doctrines of this remnant of the Samaritans, for a passage 
 otherwise presenting some difficulty. 
 
 * " De Samaritanorum theologia." Halcc, 1822, p. 45. 
 
 t "Eichhorns Biblisches Repertoriiim," ix. Th. S. 27. There had 
 been other similar correspondences between the few remaining Samar- 
 itans, aud Scaliger, Ludolf, and the University of Oxford. See De 
 Sacy, "Memoire sur l'6tat actuel des Samaritains," p. 47. 
 
 fCannina Samaritana e codicibus Londinensibus et Gotlianis." 
 Lips. 1824, p. 75. On the objections made by several reviewers, 
 Gesenius is not disposed to enforce the allusion to the Messiah in this 
 verse, and allows that it may be differently interpreted. But, knowing 
 that the word there used, Hathab, " the convertor," is the Samaritan 
 name for the Messiah, there seems no reason to depart from his origin- 
 al interpretation. At any rate, his commentary places our proofs of 
 tjje expectations of a Redeemer among the Samaritan?, ujion a more 
 secure footing than it had before. 
 46 
 
362 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 Having seen the influence exercised by foreign philosophy upon 
 the exprerisions, and consequently upon the explanation, of Scripture, 
 let us turn the tables, and see if from this we can throw any light 
 upon the philosophy of other oriental nations, and thereby remove 
 objections made against our religion ; and by this course, we shall 
 return to the oriental philosophy, from which we have somewhat 
 wandered. 
 
 An extraordinary resemblance has been discovered between some 
 of the most mysterious dogmas of Christianity, and expressions found 
 in this philosophy. Some traces of a belief in a Trinity, you are 
 probably aware, may be found in Plato's celebrated epistle to Dion- 
 ysius of Syracuse. Philo, Proclus, Sallustius the philosopher, and 
 other Platonists, contain still clearer indications of such a belief It 
 was agreed, that it could only be derived from the oriental philoso- 
 phy, in which every other dogma of Platonism is to be discovered. 
 
 The progress of Asiatic research placed this supposition beyond 
 controversy. The Oupnekhat, a Persian compilation of the Vedas, 
 translated and published by Anquetil Duperron, contains many pas- 
 sages in still clearer unison with Christian doctrines than the hints of 
 the Greek philoso|)hers. I will only quote two from the digest of 
 this work, made by Count Lanjuinais : — " The word o^ the Creator 
 is itself the Creator, and the great Son of the Creator." — " Sat" 
 (that is, truth) " is the name of God, and God is trabrot, that is, 
 three making only one."* 
 
 From all these coincidences, nothing more ought to be deduced, 
 than that primeval traditions on religious doctrines had been pre- 
 served among different nations. But instead of this conclusion 
 being drawn, they were eagerly seized by the adversaries of Christ- 
 ianity, and used as hostile weapons against its divine origin. Dupuis 
 collected every passage which could make the resemblance more 
 marked, not even neglecting the suspicious works of Hermes Trisme- 
 gistus, and concluded that Christianity was only an emanation of the 
 philosophical school which had flourished in the East, long before its 
 divine Founder a[)peared.t 
 
 But if one did borrow this doctrine from another, it mu.«t now be 
 acknowledged, that the very research, which extended still further 
 
 * "Joiwnfil Asiaiique," Par. 18'2.3, torn. iii. pp. 15,83. Tlie name 
 Oiqinckliat, i.< a corruption ol'tlio Indian I'panishad. 
 
 •f " Orijiine de luus les Ciilte^." Parity I'an iii. vol. v. pp. 263, seqq. 
 
PROFANR STUDIES. 363 
 
 this connexion between the different philosophic schools of tlie East 
 and West, has discovered the stock from which they all originally 
 descended. China, too, is now proved to have possessed its Platonic 
 school ; and the doctrines of its founder, Laotseu, bear too marked a 
 resemblance to the opinions of the Academy, not to be considered an 
 offspring of the same parent. The early missionaries had presented 
 the public with some extracts from his writings, and some account of 
 his life. The former, however, were incomplete, the latter was 
 mixed with fable. To Abel-Remusat we are indebted for a satisfac- 
 tory and highly interesting memoir upon both.* Not only are the 
 leading principles of Platonism expressed in his works, but verbal 
 coincidences have been traced in them by this learned orientalist, 
 which cannot be explained without admitting some connecting link 
 between the Athenian and Chinese sages. t The doctrine of a 
 Trinity is too clearly expounded in his writings to be misunderstood ; 
 but in one passage it is expressed in terms of a most interesting char- 
 acter. 
 
 "That for which you look, and which you see not, is called I: 
 that towards which you listen, yet hear not, is called Hi (the letter 
 H): what your hand seeks, and yet feels not, is called Wei (the 
 letter V.) These three are inscrutable, and being united, form only 
 one. Of them the superior is not more bright, nor the inferior more 
 obscure This is what is called form without form, image with- 
 out image, an indefinable Being ! Precede it, and ye find not its 
 beginning ; follow it, and ye discover not its end."| 
 
 It is not necessary to comment at any length upon this extraordi- 
 nary passage, which obviously contains the same doctrine which I 
 have quoted from other works. I need only remark, with Abel- 
 Remusat, that the extraordinary name given to this Triune essence, 
 is composed of the three letters, I H V ; for the syllables expressed 
 in the Chinese have no meaning in that language, and are, conse- 
 quently, representative of the mere letters. It is, therefore, a foreign 
 name, and we shall seek for it in vain any where except among the 
 
 * "Memoire snr la vie et les opinions de Lao-tsen, philosophe 
 Chinois du vi. siecle avant notre ere, qui a profess6 les opinions com- 
 mun^ment attribuees k Pythagori-, h. Platon, et a leurs disciples." Paris, 
 1823. 
 
 f See pp. 24—27. 
 
 t P. 40. 
 
364 LECTURE THE ELEVKNTH. 
 
 Jews. Their ineftable name, as it was called, which we pronounce 
 Jehovah, is to be met, variously distorted, in the mysteries of many 
 lieathen nations ; but in none less disfigured tlian in this passage of 
 a Chinese philosopher. Indeed, it could not have been possibly ex- 
 pressed in his language in any manner more closely approaching to 
 the original.* 
 
 The learned French orientalist is far from seeing any improba- 
 bility in this etymology. On the contrary, he endeavors to support it 
 by historical arguments. He examines the traditions, often disguised 
 under fal)les, which yet exist among the followers of Lao-tseu ; and 
 concludes, that the long journey which he made into the West, can 
 only have taken place before the publication of his doctrines. He 
 does not hesitate to suppose that his philosophical journey may have 
 extended as far as Palestine : but though he should have wandered 
 no further than Persia, the captivity of the Jews, which had just 
 taken place, would have given him opportunities of communing with 
 tliem.t Another singular coincidence of his history, is, that he was 
 nearly contemporary with Pythagoras, who travelled into the East to 
 learn the same doctrine ; and perhaps brought to his own country 
 the same mysteries. 
 
 With these conclusions of Abel-Remusat, authors agree of no 
 mean name, whether we consider this a question of philosophy or 
 philology. Windischmann, whom I have before quoted, and of 
 whom I shall have occasion again to speak, seems to consider the 
 grounds given by Abel-Remusat for his opinion, as worthy of great 
 consideration.^ Klaproth, in like manner, defends his interpretation 
 against Pauthier's strictures ; observing that, though he does not 
 think it probable that the name Jehovah is to be found in Chinese, 
 
 * lub) is probahiy tli<*Greek foiin approaching nearest to the true 
 proJUMiciiUion of tiie llelirevv name. Even pronouncing the Chinese 
 word according to iis sylla!)les, I-lii-wei, we have a nearer ai)proach to 
 the Helirew le-ho-wa, as the oriental Jews rightly pronounce it, than 
 in ilie Chinese w^onl Clii-li-sii-iu-sii, to its original Chnstiis. 
 
 \ " Ef^ectiveiiient, si i'on vcut examiner les choses sans prejug^, il 
 n-y-a pas d'iiivraisemliiaiice a supposer, qii'un j)liilosophe Chiiiois ait 
 voyag6, lies le vi^ siecie avant notre ere, dans la Perse ou dans la 
 Syrie," p. 13. One tradiiion among liis followers is, that, before his 
 birth, his soul had wandered into the kingdoms west of Persa. 
 
 I "Die Philosophie im Fertgang der Weltgeschichle," Erst. Th. 
 Bonn. 18^7, p. 404. 
 
PROFANE STUDIES. 
 
 365 
 
 lie sees no impossibility in the idea, and maintains that his learned 
 friend's interpretation has not been solidly ensued.* 
 
 This instance, renders it sufficiently probable, that, if any con- 
 nexion be admitted between the doctrines delivered to the Jews, and 
 those which resemble them in other ancient nations, these derived 
 them from the depositories of revealed truths. It satisfies us, that in 
 other instances similar communications may have taken place ; and 
 there is an end to the scoffing objections of such writers as I before 
 quoted, that Christian dogmas were drawn from heathen philosophy. 
 Let us now, after these partial applications, look at the general 
 progress made by one branch of research in oriental philosophy, which 
 long used to be employed as a formidable weapon against Scripture. 
 You will remember how the Hindoo astronomy and chronology, exag- 
 gerated to an excessive degree, were found to have come down wonder- 
 fully in their pretensions, and that I reserved for this place, the exami- 
 nation into the age of philosophical literature in India. I need not say 
 that the unbelievers of the last century, did not confer a more reason- 
 able antiquity on those sacred booksof the Indians, wherein are con- 
 tained their philosophical and religious systems, and which are well 
 known by the name of the Vedas : in fact so extravagant an antiqui- 
 ty was attributed to them, that the writings of Moses were repre- 
 sented as modern works in comparison with them. It must, there- 
 fore, be a matter of some interest to ascertain, how far this opinion 
 has been confirmed or confuted, by the great progress made in our 
 acquaintance with Sanskrit literature. 
 
 The first consideration which must strike us, is, that works of 
 this character are the most easy to invest with appearances of age ; 
 since a certain simplicity of manner, and mysticism of thought, will 
 lead the mind to attribute to them, an antiquity which cannot be 
 tested, as in the other branches of literature or science, by dates or 
 scientific observations. But, at the same time we may further re- 
 mark, that when other portions of a nation's literature have been 
 proved in spite of high pretensions, to be comparatively modern, any 
 other class, which shared their unmerited honors, may also, with 
 great show of justice, be made partaker of their degradation, and 
 condemned to aspire no higher than its associates. Thus, therefore, 
 the moral philosophy of the Hindoos, having been considered a part 
 
 * "M^nioire sur I'origine et la propagation de la doctrine du 
 Tao." p. 29. 
 
366 LKCTURE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 of the very ancient literature of India, may well, in part at least, yield 
 to those investigations which have deprived the rest of its fancied 
 antiquity. 
 
 But specific researches have not been wanting; and they present 
 much more detailed and striking results. And first, let us take the 
 extreme most favorable to our opponents. The authority of Cole- 
 brooke will be considered perfectly competent to decide questions 
 connected with Sanskrit literature; and he certainly has never 
 shown a disposition to underrate its importance and value. Now, 
 he takes as the basis of his calculations, the astronomical knowledge 
 displayed in the Vedas ; and concludes, from such data as it presents, 
 that they were not composed earlier than fourteen hundred years be- 
 fore Christ.* This, you will say, is a great antiquity ; but, after all, 
 it does not go back, by nearly two hundred years, to the age of 
 Moses, and the time when the arts had reached their maturity in 
 
 Egypt. 
 
 There is a more recent investigation into this question, which 
 seems to me still more remarkable for its results, no less than inter- 
 esting from the character of its author. This is Dr. Frederick Win- 
 dischmann, whom I have a real delight in calling my friend, not 
 merely on account of his brilliant talents, and his profound acquaint- 
 ance with Sanskrit literature and philology, but far more on account 
 of qualities of a higher order, and of a more endearing character, 
 and for virtues which will be one day an ornament to the ecclesiasti- 
 cal state to which he has devoted his future life. Free from the re- 
 motest idea of either exaggerating or diminishing the antiquity of 
 these books, which he has minutely studied, he has ingeniously col- 
 lected all the data which they afford for deciding their true age. 
 Now, what strikes us particularly in his investigation, is, how mani- 
 festly the struggle of Sanskrit philologers now is to prevent their fa- 
 vorite literature being depressed too low, and how, instead of claim- 
 ing, on its behalf, in the spirit of older writers, an unnatural term 
 of ages, they contend, with eagerness, to have it raised to a reasona- 
 ble period before the Christian era. The course of argument fol- 
 lowed by my amiable young friend, is simply this. The Institutes 
 of Menu appear, from internal evidence, to have been drawn up be- 
 fore the custom of self-immolation was prevalent, at least completely, 
 throughout the peninsula of the Ganges. As we learn from Grecian 
 
 * "Asiatic Researches," vol. vii. p. 284. 
 
PROFANE STUDIES. 367 
 
 writers of the time of Alexander, that this rite was then practised, 
 this work must have been composed anterior to that age. Now the 
 Institutes suppose the existence of the Vedas, which are tlierein 
 quoted, and said to have been composed by Brahmah.* The argu- 
 ment as thus stated, does injustice to the great acquaintance mani- 
 fested by the young author with the minutiajof the language and the 
 contents of these sacred volumes. Every position is supported by a 
 profusion of erudition, which few can fully appreciate. The same 
 must be said of the remainder of his arguments, which principally 
 consist in proving by philological disquisitions, interesting only to the 
 initiated, that the style of the Vedas is much more ancient than that 
 of any other work in the language. t Still the conclusions to which 
 he comes are no ways definite ; they allot a high antiquity to the Ve- 
 das, but not such as can startle the most apprehensive mind. 
 
 After doing so little justice to this learned author, I fear it is less in 
 my power to render a proper tribute to the labors of his father, 
 whose reputation in Europe, as a philosopher, must raise him above 
 the necessity of any preliminary remarks from me ; especially as in 
 making them, I should certainly appear to be carried away by my 
 feelings towards him, as an admiring and revering friend. The 
 work of this extensive and profound scholar, which I have already 
 quoted to-day, has arranged, in the most scientific and complete man- 
 ner, all that we know of Indian philosophy. He does not so much 
 consider it chronologically, as inquire into its internal and natural 
 development, and endeavor to trace through every part of the sys- 
 tems which compose it, the principles which animated it, and perva- 
 ded all its elements. Now, in this form of investigation, which re- 
 quires at once a vast accumulation of facts, and an intellectual ener- 
 gy, that can plunge into their chaos, and separate the light from the 
 darkness, Windischmann has been beyond all other writers, success- 
 ful. The epochs of the Brahminic system, he examines by the doc- 
 trines and principles which they contain ; and his results are such 
 as, while they attribute great antiquity to the Indian books, bring 
 them forward as confirmatoiy evidence of what is described in the 
 inspired records. For the earliest epoch or period of Brahminic phi- 
 
 * "Froderici Hour. Hug. Windisciirrianni Sancara sive de iheolo- 
 gmnenis Vedanlicorum." Bonnee, 1833, p. 52. 
 
 \. Pp. 58, seqq. 
 
368 LECTUKE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 losophy, exhibits, according to him, the exact counterpart of the pa- 
 triarchal times as described in the Pentateuch.* 
 
 But there is another author of deserved reputation among the his- 
 torians of philosophy, who is far from being disposed to admit the 
 claims or the arguments, advanced by orientalists in favor of this 
 high antiquity. Ritter, professor in the University of Berlin, has 
 sifted, with great acuteness, all that has been advanced on its be- 
 half The astronomical reasonings, or rather conjectures of Cole- 
 brooke, he rejects, as not amounting to any positive or calculable 
 data ;t and he is inclined to concede very little more force to the argu- 
 ments drawn from the apparent antiquity of Indian monuments, or 
 the perfection of the Sanskrit language. For, he observes, the taste 
 for collbssal monuments is not necessarily so ancient, seeing that 
 some have been erected in comparatively modern days ; and lan- 
 guage receives its characteristic perfection often at one moment, and 
 cannot form a sure criterion of antiquity, unless relatively considered 
 by epochs discoverable within itself| The entire reasoning pur- 
 sued by Ritter, tends more to throw down the supposed antiquity of 
 Indian philosophy, than to build up any new theory. However, his 
 conclusion is, that the commencement of true systematic philosophy 
 must not be dated further back than the reign of Vikramaditja, about 
 a century before the Christian era.§ 
 
 Before quitting the subject of Indian philosophical works, I will 
 give you an example of the facility with which men, who took pride 
 in being called unbelievers, swallowed any assertion which seemed 
 hostile to Christianity. In the last century, an Indian work, ex- 
 tremely Christian in its doctrines, was published by Ste. Croix, un- 
 der the title of the Ezour Vedam.\\ Voltaire pounced upon it, as a 
 proof that the doctrines of Christianity, were borrowed from the hea- 
 thens, and pronounced it a work of immense antiquity, composed 
 by a Brahmin of Seringham.^ Now, hear the history of this mar- 
 vellous work. 
 
 * " Die Philosophic iin Forigang der Weltgeschichte." Zweiter 
 Buch, pp. 690, seqq. 
 
 t " Goschichte der Philosophie," 1 Th. Hamburg, 1829, p. 60. 
 
 I Page 62. § Pp. 120, 124. 
 
 II "Ezour VedaiM, on ancien commentaire du Vedam." Yverdun, 
 172e. 
 
 H "Siecle ile Louis XV." 
 
PROFANF, STUDIES. 
 
 369 
 
 When Sir Alex. Johnston was Chief Justice in Ceylon, and re- 
 ceived a commission to draw up a code of laws for the natives, he 
 was anxious to consult the best Indian works, and, among the rest, 
 to ascertain the genuineness of the Ezour Vedam. He, therefore, 
 made diligent search in the southern provinces, and inquired at the 
 most celebrated pagodas, particularly that of Seringham, but all in 
 vain. He could learn no tidings of the Brahmin, nor of the work 
 which he was said to have composed. Upon his arrival at Pondi- 
 cherry, he obtained permission from the governor. Count Dupuis, to 
 examine the manuscripts in the Jesuits' library, which had not been 
 disturbed since they left India. Among thetn he discovered the 
 Ezour Vedam, in Sanskrit and French. It was diligently examined 
 by Mr. Ellis, principal of the College of Madras; and his inquiry led 
 to the satisfactory discovery, that the original Sanskrit was composed 
 in 1621, entirely for the purpose of promoting Christianity, by the 
 learned and pious missionary, Robert De Nobilibus, nephew of Card. 
 Bellarmin, and near relative to Pope Marcellus II.* 
 
 From philosophy, we may now proceed to examine what has been 
 done for religion by the progress of oriental history, and I shall con- 
 tent myself with one or two examples. 
 
 The thirty-ninth chapter of Isaiah informs us, that Merodach- 
 Baladan, king of Babylon, sent an embassy to Ezekiah, king of 
 Judah. This king of Babylon makes no other appearance in sacred 
 history ; and even this one is attended with no inconsiderable diffi- 
 culty. For, the kingdom of the Assyrians was yet flourishing, and 
 Babylon was only one of its dependencies. Only nine years before, 
 Salmanassar, the Assijrian monarch, is said to have transported the 
 inhabitants of BafiyZott to other parts ;t and Manasses, not many 
 years after, was carried captive to Babylon by the king o{ Assyria-X 
 Again, the prophet Micheas, about this very period, speaks of the 
 Jews being carried away to Babylon, while the Assyrians are men- 
 tioned as the enemies whom they have principally to fear.§ 
 
 All these instances incontestably prove, that at the time of Eze- 
 kiah Babylon was dependent on the Assyrian kings. Who, then, 
 was this Merodach-Baladan, king of Babylon ? If he was only gov- 
 
 * " Asiatic Researches," vol. xiv. « British Catholic Colonial Intel- 
 ligencer," No, ii. Lond. 1834, p. 163. 
 
 t 2 (4) Reg. 7: 24. \ 2 Chrou. 33: 11. 
 
 § Micali 4: 10, cf. v. .5, G. 
 47 
 
370 LKCTURE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 ernor of that city, how could he send an embassy of congratulation 
 to the Jewish sovereign, then at war with his liege lord ? The ca- 
 non of Ptolemy gives us no king of this name, nor does his chronol- 
 ogy appear reconcileable with sacred history. 
 
 In this d;irl<ness and doubt we must have continued, and the ap- 
 parent contradiction of this text to other passages would liave re- 
 mained inexplicable, had not the progress of modern oriental study 
 brought to light a document of the most venerable antiquity. This 
 is nothing less than a fragment of Berosus, preserved in the chronicle 
 of Eusebius. The publication of this work, in a perfect state, from 
 its Armenian version, first made us acquainted with it ;* and Gesen- 
 ius, whom I have so often quoted as opposed to us in opinion, I have 
 now the p!e:isure of citing, as the author to vvhose ingenuity we owe 
 its application. t 
 
 This interesting fragment informs us, that after Sennacherib's 
 brother had governed Babylon, as Assyrian viceroy, Acises unjustly 
 possessed himself of the supreme command. After thirty days he 
 was murdered by Merodach-Baladan, who usurped the sovereignty 
 for six months, when he in his turn was killed, and succeeded by 
 Elibus. But after three years, Sennacherib collected an army, gave 
 the usurper battle, conquered and took him prisoner. Having once 
 more reduced Babylon to his obedience, he left his son Assordan, the 
 Essarhaddon of Scripture, as governor of that city. 
 
 There is only one apparent discrepancy between this historical 
 fragment and the Scripture narrative; for the latter relates the mur- 
 der of Sennacherib, and the succession of Essarhaddon, before Me- 
 rodach-Baladan's embassy to Jerusalem. | But to this Gesenius has 
 well replied, that this arrangement is followed by the prophet, in 
 order to conclude the history of the Assyrian monarch, which has no 
 further connexion with his subject, so as not to return to it again. 
 
 By this order also, the proi)hecy of his murder is more closely 
 connected with the history of its fulfdment.^ But this solution, 
 which supposes some interval to have elapsed between Sennacherib's 
 return to Nineveh and his death, is rendered probable by the words 
 of the text itself, — " He went and returned, and abode in Nineveh; 
 and it came to pass," etc. ; and moreover becomes certain from chro- 
 
 * "Eusebii Chronicon," Vcmt. 18J8, torn. i. p. 42. 
 
 t " Comnif.-ntar iiber den Jesaia," Erst. Tli. 2. Ablh. pp. 999, seqq. 
 
 I IsiiiaJj 37: 38- § lb. v. 7. 
 
PROFANE STUDIES. 371 
 
 nological arguments. For it is certain, that Sennacherib's expedi- 
 tion into Egypt must have been made in liis first or second year ; 
 (714 B. c.) since the twentieth chapter of Isaiah mentions Sargon as 
 reigning just before that event. (716.) Now, according to Berosus, 
 at the conclusion of the above quoted fragment, Sennacherib reigned 
 eighteen years before he was murdered by his sons. He must, there- 
 fore, have survived, by many years, his return to Nineveh.* The 
 account of Berosus, that the Babylonian revolt happened in the reign 
 of Sennacherib, is thus noways at variance with the sacred text ; and 
 this only difficulty being once removed, the fragment clears up every 
 possible objection to its accuracy. 
 
 For we have it perfectly explained how there was a king, or 
 rather a usurper, in Babylon, at a time when it was in reality a pro- 
 vincial city of the Assyrian empire. Nothing was more probable, 
 than that Merodach-Baladan, having seized the throne, should en- 
 deavor to unite himself in league and amity with the enemies of his 
 master, against whom he had revolted. Ezekiah, who, no less than 
 himself, had thrown off the Assyrian yoke,t and was in powerful 
 alliance with the king of Egypt, would be his first resource. No 
 embassy, on the other hand, could be more welcome to the Jewish 
 monarch, who had the common enemy in his neighborhood, and 
 would be glad to see a diversion made in his favor, by a rebellion in 
 the very heart of that enemy's kingdom. | Hence arose that ex- 
 cessive attention which he paid to the envoys of the usurper, and 
 which so offended the prophet Isaiah, or rather God, who through 
 him foretold, in consequence, the Babylonian captivity. § 
 
 Another instance of the advantage which the progress of oriental 
 historical research may bring to matters of religious interest, is af- 
 forded us by the light lately thrown upon the religious worship of 
 Thibet. When Europe first became acquainted with this worship, it 
 was impossible not to be struck with the analogies it presented to 
 the religious rites of Christians. The hierarchy of the Lamas, their 
 monastic institutes, their churches, and ceremonies, resembled ours 
 with such minuteness, that some connexion between the two seemed 
 
 * " Gesenius," p. 1002, of. the Table, 2 Th. p. 560. 
 
 t 2 (4) Reg. 18: 7. 
 
 I From what has been said in the text, it appears probable that the 
 revolt in Babylon took place during Sennacherib's expedition against 
 Judea and Egypt. 
 
 § Isaiah 39: 2, 5. 
 
.'J72 LKCTCHE THK ELKVKNTH. 
 
 necessarily to have existed. " The early missionaries were satisfied 
 with considering Lamaism as a sort of degenerate Christianity, and 
 as a remnant of those Syrian sects which once had penetrated itito 
 those remote parts of Asia."* 
 
 But there have been others who have turned this resemblance to 
 very different purposes. " Frequent mysterious assertions and sub- 
 dued hints, in the works of learned men," says a lamented orientalist, 
 to whose memoir on this subject I shall have to refer just now, " led 
 many to doubt whether tlie Laraaic theocracy was a remnant of 
 Christian sects, or on the contrary, the ancient and primitive model, 
 on which were traced similar establishments in other parts of the 
 world. Such were the views taken in the notes to Father D'Andra- 
 da's Journey, to the French translations of Thunberg and of the 
 Asiatic Rcsearrhts, and in many other modern works where irreli- 
 gion has sought to conceal itself under a superficial and lying eru- 
 dition."! " These resemblances," says Malte-Brun, " were turned 
 into arguments against the divine origin of Christianity."! In fact 
 we find these analogies affording matter for peculiar merriment to 
 Volney.<5> 
 
 At first these objections were only met by negative answers. It 
 was well argued by Fischer, that no writer anterior to the thirteenth 
 century, gives a hint of the existence of this system, nor could any 
 proof be brought of its antiquity. Cut it had been the fashion to at- 
 tribute an extravagant date to ail the institutions of central Asia, upon 
 the strength of ])lausible conjecture. The venerable age given to 
 this religious establishment, was in perfect accordance with Bailly's 
 scientific hypotheses regarding the same country, and formed a 
 natural counterpart to the romantic system which made the moun- 
 tains of Siberia or the steppes of Tartary, the cradle of philosophy. 
 Since that period the languages and literature of Asia have made a 
 wide step ; and the consequence has been, the thorough confutation 
 of these extravagant hypotheses from the works of native writers. 
 
 Abel-Remusat is once more the author to whom we are indebted 
 for this valuable exposition. In an interesting memoir, he has made 
 
 * Abel-RemiisHr, "Apercu d'un Metiioire intitule Reflierc-he« 
 rhroiioloKiques .«ur i'ori^rine de la iiier.'UThie Larnaique," reprinted in 
 the " IVlelnngcs Asiatiques," Paris, 1825, vol. i. p. J29. 
 
 t II). Note 2. " Melanjres," p. 132. 
 
 I " Precis dc la Geographio iiiiivorsellc."' P<xm, 1812, vol. iii. p. 581. 
 
 § " Ruliics." Pmis, nm, p. 428. 
 
rUOKANE STUDIES. 
 
 373 
 
 us acquainted with a valuable fragment preserved in the Japanese 
 Enajrlopccdia, and containing the true history of the Lamaic hierar- 
 chy. Without this, we should perhaps have been forever left to 
 vague conjectures ; with its assistance we are able to confute the un- 
 founded, though specious, dreams of our assailants. The god Bud- 
 dha was originally supposed to be perpetuated upon earth, in the 
 person of his Indian patriarchs. His soul was transfused in succes- 
 sion, into a new representative chosen from any caste; and so confi- 
 dent was the trustee of his divinity, that he possessed an amulet 
 against destruction, that he usually evaded the sufferings of age by 
 ascending a funeral pile whence, like the phojnix, he hoped to rise 
 into a new life. In this state the god remained till the fifth century 
 of our era, when he judged it prudent to emigrate from southern 
 India, and fix his residence in China. His representative received 
 the title of preceptor of the Tcingdom; but only added, like the later 
 khalifs at Bagdad, a religious splendor to the court of the celestial 
 empire. 
 
 In this precarious condition the succession of sacred chiefs was 
 continued for eight more centuries, till, in the thirteenth, the house 
 of Tchingkis-khan delivered them from their dependance, and in- 
 vested them with dominion. Voltaire has said, that Tchingkis-khan 
 was too good a politician to disturb the spiritual kingdom of the 
 Grand Lama in Thibet ;* and yet, neither did a kingdom tlien ex- 
 ist in Thibet, nor did the high priest of Shamanism yet reside there, 
 nor was the name of Lama yet an appellation. For, it was the 
 grandson of the conqueror thirty-three years after him, who first be- 
 stowed sovereignty on the head of his religion ; and, as the living 
 Buddha happened to be a native of Thibet, that country was given 
 h.im for his government. Thus was the mountain of Pootala, or 
 Botala,t made the capital of this religious kingdom, and the terra 
 Lama, which signifies a priest, first applied as a distinctive title to 
 
 its ruler. 
 
 This account of the origin of the Lamaic dynasty, accords yjer- 
 fectly with another interesting document lately brought before the 
 public. This is a description of Thibet, translated from the Chinese 
 into Russian, by the Archi-mandrite, F. Hyacin th Titcho ur insky ;j : 
 
 * " Pliilosophie de i'Histoire ; Essiii sur les Moeurs," Ahel-Remu- 
 sat, p. 1:^7. 
 
 f See tlie " Noiiveau Journal Asialique." Qd. 1829, p. 273, note I. 
 \ St. rclcrsburgli, 1828. 
 
374 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 and I'rom tlie Russian into French, with corrections upon the origin- 
 al, by Julius Klaproth.* From this document we learn thatTching- 
 kis-khan overrun that country, and established a government which 
 comprised Thibet and its dependencies. The emperor Khoubilai 
 seeing the difficulty of governing this distant country, devised a 
 method for rendering it submissive, which was conformable to the 
 usages of the people. " He divided the country of the Thou-pho 
 into provinces and districts; appointed officers of different degrees, 
 and subjected them to the authority of the Ti-szu (preceptor of the 
 emperor.) At that time Bhdchhah or Pagha, a native of Sarghia, 
 in Thibet, held this office. At the age of seven years he had read 
 all the sacred books, and comprehended their most sublime ideas, 
 for which reason he was called the spiritual child. In 1260 he re- 
 ceived the title of king of the great and precions law, and a seal of 
 oriental jasper. Besides these, he was invested with the dignity of 
 chief of the yellow rcligioti. His brothers, his children and descen- 
 dants, have enjoyed eminent posts at court, and have received seals 
 of gold and oriental jasper. The court received Bhachbah with dis- 
 tinction, entertained towards him a superstitious faith, and neglected 
 nothing which could contribute to make him respected. "f 
 
 At the time when the Buddhist patriarchs hrst established them- 
 selves in Thibet, that country was in immediate contact with Chris- 
 tianity. Not only had the Nestorians ecclesiastical settlements in 
 Tartary, but Italian and French religious men visited the court of 
 the Khans, charged with important missions from the Pope, and St. 
 Lewis of France. They carried with them church ornaments and 
 altars, to make, if possible, a favorable impression on the minds of the 
 natives. For this end, they celebrated their worship in presence of 
 the Tartar princes, by whom they were yjermitted to erect chapels 
 within the precincts of the royal palaces. An Italian Archbishop, 
 sent by Clement V., established his see in the capital, and erected a 
 church, to which the faithful were summoned by the sound of three 
 bells, and where they beheld many sacred pictures painted on the 
 walls.t 
 
 Nothing was easier than to induce many of the various sects 
 which crowded the Mongul court to admire and adopt the rites of 
 
 * In the "Nouveau Journal Asiatique," ^'lug. and Oct. 1829. 
 
 t lb. August, p. 119. 
 
 X Ahel-R^musat, p. 138. Compare Assemani, ivf. cit. 
 
PROFANE STUDIES. 375 
 
 this religion. Some members of the imperial house secretly em- 
 braced Christianity, many mingled its practices with the profession 
 of their own creeds, and Europe was alternately delighted and dis- 
 appointed by reports of imperial conversions and by discoveries of 
 their falsehood.* It was such a rumor as this, in reference to Mang- 
 hu, that caused the missions of Rubriquis and Ascellino. Surround- 
 ed by the celebration of such ceremonies, hearing from the am- 
 bassadors and missionaries of the West, accounts of the worship and 
 hierarchy of their countries, it is no wonder that the religion of the 
 Lamas, just beginning to assume splendor and pomp, should have 
 adopted institutions and practices already familiar to them, and al- 
 ready admired by those whom they wished to gain. The coinci- 
 dence of time and place, the previous non-existence of that sacred 
 monarchy, amply demonstrate that the religion of Thibet is but an 
 attempted imitation of ours. 
 
 It is not my province to follow the learned academician in the 
 later history of this religious dynasty. It has continued in depend- 
 ance on the Chinese sovereigns till our days, at one and the same 
 time revered and persecuted, adored and oppressed. But its claims 
 to antiquity are forfeited forever, and its pretensions as a rival, still 
 more as the parent of Christianity, have been fully examined and re- 
 jected. 
 
 I have prolonged my disquisition so far, that I must forego the 
 many reflections which its subject might well suggest. But it would 
 be unjust to take leave of it without alluding to the proud pre-emi- 
 nence which our country is taking in the prosecution of these studies ; 
 and if our education have not qualified us, like our continental neigh- 
 bors, for such deep research into the abstruser parts of Asiatic litera- 
 ture, we are at least learning to contribute those vast means which 
 Providence has placed at our disposal, towards bringing to light 
 much which otherwise would have remained concealed. It would, 
 indeed, be disgraceful to us, if, in after ages, the history of all our 
 colonies should present to the inquiring philosopher, only pages ruled 
 into balances of imports and exports, and statements of annual re- 
 turns to our national coffers ; or, if the annals of our mighty empire 
 in India, should present nothing better than a compound establish- 
 ment of commercial and military agents, passing through varied 
 
 * " Assemaui Biblioth. Orient." Tom. ill. Par. ii. ]). 480, seqq. " Di 
 Marco Polo e degli altri viaggiatori Veneziani pii\ illustri Dissertarzoni 
 del P. Ab. (afterwards Cardinal) Zurla." Ven. 1818. vol. i. p. 287. 
 
376 LECTURE TII3 ELEVENTH. 
 
 scenes of mercantile wnrfaresaml kingly speculations. It is, indeed, 
 an honor to our national character, and the greatest proof of its moral 
 energies, that so much has heen done by those whose professions 
 seemed necessarily at variance with literary and scientific pursuits; 
 and I know not whether the public discredit will not be hidden by 
 the honor reflected from the personal merit of so many illustrious 
 individuals. For posterity will not fail to observe, that while the 
 French, in their Egyptian expedition, sent scientific and literary 
 men, to accompany their army, and bring home the monuments of 
 that country, England has needed not to make such a distinction ; 
 but found among those who fought her battles and directed her 
 military operations, men who could lay down the sword to take up 
 the pen, and record for us every interesting monument, with as much 
 sagacity and learning, as though letters had been their sole occupa- 
 tion.* But still there is a hope of a higher national feeling ; and 
 the foundation under royal patronage of the Committee for the trans- 
 lation of oriental works has already greatly increased our stock of 
 oriental lore. It has interested in these pursuits, those who 
 otherwise could hardly have been led to patronize them ; it has 
 cheered many a scholar, who otherwise would have drooped in silent 
 obscurity ; and it has encouraged many, who otherwise would not 
 have felt the necessary strength, — 
 
 " Eoam tentare fidem, populosque bibentes 
 Euphratem — 
 
 Meilorum penetrare domos, Seythiosqiie recessus 
 Arva super Cyri Chaldseique ultima regni, 
 Quae rapidus Ganges, et qua Nyssseus Hydaspes 
 Ac-cedunt peiago." 
 
 (Lucan. viii. 213.) 
 
 * The autlior's lamented friend, Colonel Tod, was among the num- 
 ber. 
 
LECTURE THE TWELFTH 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Object of tliis Lecture. — Character of the confirmatory Evidence ob- 
 tained through the entire course, arising from the variety of tests to 
 which the truth of rehgion has been submitted. — Confirmed from 
 the nature of the facts examined, ami of the authorities employed. — 
 Auguries thence resulting for the future. — Rehgion deeply interested 
 in the progress of every science. — Opponents of this opinion. First, 
 timid Christians ; confutation of them by the ancient Fathers of the 
 Church. Second, the enemies of religion, in former and in later 
 times. — Duty of ecclesiastics to apply to study, with a view of meet- 
 ing all objections ; and of all Christians, in proportion to their ability. 
 — Advantages, pleasure, and method of such pursuits. 
 
 I HAVE now accomplished the task on which I entered, encour- 
 aged by your kindness. I promised to pass through the history of 
 several sciences, and to prove by that simple process, how their pro- 
 gress has ever been accompanied by the accession of new light and 
 splendor to the evidences of Christianity. I promised to treat my 
 subject in the most unostentatious manner, to avoid such exemplifi- 
 cations as had already found their way into elementary books upon 
 the subject, and to draw my materials, as much as possible, from 
 works which were not directed to a defence of Christianity. 
 
 And now having, to the best of my small ability, discharged my 
 duty towards you, it may be given us to rest a little, and look back 
 upon the course we have followed ; or, like those who have journeyed 
 together awhile, sit down at the end of our travel, and make a com- 
 mon reckoning of what we have therein gained. Our road may 
 have seemed in part to lie over barren and uninteresting districts; I 
 have led you through strait and toilsome ways, and perhaps some- 
 ' 48 
 
378 LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 times have bewildered and perplexed you ; but if, while we have 
 kept company, you have to complain of having found but an unskil- 
 ful guide, he in his turn may perchance rejoin, that he has found but 
 too much encouragement to prolong his wanderings, and too much 
 indulgence to have easily discovered his going astray. But there 
 has been sufficient variety at least in the objects which have passed 
 under our observation, to make compensation for the labors of our 
 journey ; and we have throughout it kept one great point in view, 
 which sooner or later could always bring us back, to our right track, 
 and give a unity of character, and uniformity of method, to our most 
 devious wanderings. And by looking for one moment upon this 
 again, we shall be able, in a few moments, to run over the road 
 through wliich our course hath led us. 
 
 And first, I may naturally be asked, what addition I consider 
 myself to have made to the evidences of Christianity. Now, to this 
 question I should reply with the most measured reserve. I hold 
 those evidences to be something too inwardly and deeply seated in 
 the lieart, to have their sum increased or diminished easily by the 
 power of outward considerations. However we may require and use 
 such proofs of its truths, as learned men have ably collected, when 
 reasoning with the opponents of Christianity, I believe no one is 
 conscious of clinging to its sublime doctrines and its consoling prom- 
 ises, on the ground of such logical demonstration ; even as, an able 
 theorist shall show you many cogent reasons, founded on the social 
 and natural laws, why ye should love your parents, and yet both he 
 and you know that not for those reasons have you loved them, but 
 from a far holier and more inward impulse. And so, when we once 
 have embraced true religion, its motives or evidences need not longer 
 be sought in the reasonings of books ; they become incorporated with 
 our holiest affections; they result from our finding the necessity for 
 our happiness, of the truths they uphold ; in our there discovering 
 the key to the secrets of our nature, the solution of all mental pro- 
 blems, the reconciliation of all contradictions in our anomalous 
 condition, the answer to all the solemn questions of our restless con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 Thus is religion like a plant, which drives its roots into the cen- 
 tre of the soul ; having in tliem fine and subtile fibres, that pierce 
 and penetrate into the solidest frame-work of a well-built mind, and 
 strong knotty arms that entangle themselves among the softest and 
 purest of our feelings. And if without, it also put forth shoots and 
 
CONCLUSION'. 379 
 
 tendrils innumerable, wherewith as with hands, it apprehends and 
 keeps hold of mundane and visible objects, it is rather for their ben- 
 efit and ornament than from any want of such support ; nor does it 
 from them derive its natural and necessary vitality. Now, it is with 
 this outward and luxurious growth, that our husbanding liaih been 
 chiefly engaged, rather than with its hidden foundations and roots; 
 we have, perhaps, somewhat extended its beneficial connexions ; we 
 have sometimes wound it round some decayed and neglected rem- 
 nant of ancient grandeur, we have stretched it as a garland to some 
 vigorous and youthful plant, and mingled the fruits of its holiness 
 with less wholesome bearing, and we have seen, how there is a come- 
 liness and grace given to both, by the contact, how it niay cast an 
 interest and an honor, and a beauty over what else were useless and 
 profane. And we may also, by this partial tilling, have given to the 
 plant itself, some additional energy and power to strengthen. 
 
 In other words, these lectures have been mainly directed to watch 
 the relation between the evidences of Christianity and other pursuits, 
 to trace the influence which the necessary progress of these must 
 have upon the illustration of the former. With the true internal 
 proofs of the Christian religion we have not dealt; but, by removing 
 objections against the external form of manifestation in which this 
 religion appears, and against the documents in which its proofs and 
 doctrines are recorded, and against many of the specific events there- 
 in registered, we may in some measure hope, that the native force of 
 those grounds of evidence will be something increased and fitted for 
 receiving a more powerful development in our minds. This consid- 
 eration admits of many different views, and leads the way to many 
 even more important conclusions, which will form the subject of this 
 my last address. And first, I will say a few words upon the direct 
 application of what has been hitherto treated, to the general eviden- 
 ces of Christianity, and to the vindication of those sacred documents 
 whereby the principal evidences are authentically enforced. 
 
 The great diflference between specious error, and a system of 
 truth, is, that the one may present certain aspects, under which if 
 viewed, it gives no appearance of fault ; it is like a precious stone 
 that has a flaw, but which may be so submitted to the eye, that the 
 play of light, aided by an artful setting, may conceal it, but which, 
 when only slightly turned, and viewed under another angle, discov- 
 ers its defect. But truth is a gem which need not be enchased, 
 which, faultless and cloudless, may be held up to the pure bright 
 
380 
 
 LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 light, on any side, in any direction, and will every where display the 
 same purity, and soundness, and beauty. The one is an impure ore, 
 that may resist the action of several re-agents brought to act upon it, 
 but in the end yields before one of them ; the other is as annealed 
 gold, which defies the power of every successive test. Hence, the 
 more numerous the points of contact which any system presents to 
 other orders of intellectual or scientific research, the more op- 
 portunities it gives of assaying its worth ; and assuredly, if it no ways 
 suffer by their continued progress towards perfection on different 
 sides, we must conclude, that it hath so deep a root in the eternal 
 truth, as that nought created can affect its certainty. Nothing has 
 been oftener attempted than the forgery of literary productions, but 
 nothing has been more unfortunate. Where the author, like, per- 
 haps, Synesius, has confined himself to philosophical speculation, 
 which may have been the same in any age, it may be more difficult 
 to decide on the imposture. But where history, jurisprudence, man- 
 ners, or other outward circumstances, enter into the plan of the work, 
 it is almost impossible for it to succeed in long defeating the ingenu- 
 ity of the learned. The most celebrated literary frauds of modern 
 times, the history of Formosa, or, still more, the Sicilian code of 
 Vella, for a time perplexed the world, but were in the end dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Now, such has been the object and tendency of our investigation, 
 to examine the different phases which revealed religion presents, 
 from the reflected light of so many various pursuits ; to see what are 
 its a.spects under the influence of such diversified powers, and thus 
 ascertain how far it is capable of resisting the most complicated as- 
 say, and defying the most obstinate and most unfriendly examination. 
 And surely we may say, that no system has ever laid itself open more 
 completely to detection, if it contained any error, than this of Chris- 
 tianity ; no book ever gave so may clues to discovery, if it tell one 
 untruth, than its sacred volume. In it we have recorded the earli- 
 est and the latest physical revolutions of our globe, the dispersion of 
 the human race ; the succession of monarchs in all surroundintr 
 countries, from the time of Se.sostris to the Syrian kings ; the habits, 
 and manners, and language of various nations; the great religious 
 traditions of the human race ; and the recital of many marvellous 
 and miraculous events, not to he found in the annals of any other 
 people. Had the tests whereby all these different ingredients were 
 to be one day tried, existed when they were thus compounded togeth- 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 381 
 
 er, some pains niiglit have been taken to secure tliem against their 
 action. But against the future, no skill, no ingenuity, could afford 
 protection. Had the name of a single Egyptian Pharaoh been in- 
 vented to suit convenience, as we see done by other oriental histori- 
 ans, the discovery of the hieroglyphic alphabet, after 3000 years, 
 would not have been one of the chances of detection against which 
 the historian would have guarded. Had the history of the creation, 
 or of the deluge, been a fabulous or poetical fiction, the toilsome 
 journies of the geologist among Alpine valleys, or the discovery of 
 hyaenas' caves in an unknown island, would not be the confirmations 
 of his theory, on which its inventor would have ever reckoned. A 
 fragment of Berosus comes to light, and it proves what seemed be- 
 fore incredible, to be perfectly true. A medal is found, and it com- 
 pletes the reconciliation of apparent contradictions. Every science, 
 every pursuit, as it makes a step, in its own natural onward progress, 
 increases the mass of our confirmatory evidence. 
 
 Such, then, is the first important result which we have gained ; 
 — the acquisition of that powerful proof which a system receives from 
 multiplied verifications. This proof will be greatly enhanced in 
 value by a few obvious considerations. And first, I would remark, 
 that the sacred volume is not the work of one man, nor of one age, 
 but is a compilation rather of the writings of many. Now, if one 
 very skilful writer had attempted the task of forging the annals of a 
 people, or of writing the fictitious biograi)hy of some distinguished 
 person, or of drawing up imaginary systems of nature, or of describ- 
 ing from fancy the great events of her history, he might, by possibili- 
 ty, have guarded himself on every side against detection, and meas- 
 ured every phrase, so as to suit the specific purpose which he held in 
 view. But to imagine, that during the 1600 years from Moses to 
 St. John, such a system could have been carried on, by a series of 
 writers having no connexion, of the most unequal abilities, writing — 
 if we, for one moment, admit the impious hypothesis — under the 
 most diverse influences, necessarily viewing the past and the future 
 under different aspects, is to imagine a stranger combination of mor- 
 al agents for an evil work than the world ever beheld. But this is 
 not our present consideration. It is evident that the power could not 
 have seconded the will to deceive, supposing this to have existed ; 
 the points of contact with other facts would have been too infinite- 
 ly multiplied to fit exactly in every case : if we supposed Moses to 
 have been accurately acquainted with the Egypt of his time, it would 
 
382 LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 be improbable that every succeeding annalist should have possessed 
 a similar acquaintance ; if the opinions of his time, concerning the 
 pliysical constitution of the world, were so accurate as to give no 
 chance of their being falsified by modern discoveries, this would not 
 have secured to Isaiah accuracy in recounting the affairs of Babylon. 
 In fine, the greater the extent of time and territory, events and usa- 
 ges embraced by the sacred Book, the greater the dangers of disco- 
 very, had it contained aught untrue or incorrect. 
 
 Secondly, we may remark, that the points which our researches 
 have verified, have seldom been leading events, or the direct subject 
 of which the inspired authors treated ; but generally incidental, and 
 almost parenthetic observations, or narratives, on which they could 
 liardlv have expected much research to be made. The common ori- 
 gin of all mankind, or the miraculous dispersion of our race, are not 
 matters paraded at length ; but the former is left almost to inference, 
 and the latter is recorded in the simplest manner. Yet we have seen 
 what a long process of study has been required, to bring out the 
 proofs of these events, against the strong prepossessions of first ap- 
 pearances, and the boasted conclusions of ill-studied science. The 
 various historical incidents, on which light has been shed by our 
 modern application, are mostly episodes to the general narrative of 
 Jewish domestic history ; all are such passages as would have been 
 penned with a less guarded hand, and with the smallest suspicion 
 that they would be used for assaying the work. Yet even such pas- 
 sages as these have been searchingly assailed, without any unfavor- 
 able result. 
 
 Thirdly, we might have been somewhat jealous of the experiment 
 had it been conducted exclusively by friends. But though these have 
 labored much in the work of verification and illustration, the greater 
 part has been done by two other classes of men, equally above suspi- 
 cion. The first consists of those who have quietly conducted their 
 studies, without intending at all to apply them to sacred purposes, or 
 even suspecting that they would be so applied. The antiquarian, 
 when he garners up, and then deciphers, a new coin, knows not, till 
 the process is complete, what tidings from the olden world it will bear 
 him. The orientalist pores over his defaced parchments, unable to 
 conjecture what information it will give him of distant usages, till he 
 has overcome its difficulties. Neither the one nor the other pursues 
 his studies from a surmise that what he shall discover will prove of 
 use to the theologian ; no possibly anticipation of mind could have 
 
CONCLUSION. 383 
 
 led the learned Aucher to hope, that a fragment of Berosus would be 
 found in the Armenian version of Eusebius, which had been lost in 
 the original ; still less that such a fragment, if discovered, would dis- 
 perse a difficulty which clouded an important narrative. Now, this 
 has been essentially a portion, or rather a condition, of my plan, to 
 have recourse chiefly to authors that have conducted their researches, 
 without attention to any advantages thence accruing to Christian 
 evidences. 
 
 But the second class of writers, to whom we are indebted for a 
 large portion of our materials in this investigation, are removed a 
 step further from all suspicion of partiality to our cause. You will 
 naturally understand me to signify such as are decidedly hostile to 
 our opinions. These, again, may be subdivided into two classes. 
 The first may contain such writers as do not admit the conclusions 
 which we draw from our premises, though they assist us in establish- 
 ing them ; or who do not impugn, though they admit not our belief. 
 Thus, you have seen Klaproth deny the dispersion, and Virey the 
 unity of the human race, yet both accumulating evidence of impor- 
 tance towards establishing these two points. Others have been 
 pressed into our service much more unwillingly ; for their ingenuity 
 and talents have been exercised to combat the very propositions 
 which I have endeavored to establish. Nay, the genius of Buffon 
 seems to have been quickened by the idea that he was taking a 
 bolder flight than men are wont to attempt, and striving to pass the 
 limits of universal conviction. The miserable fragments then pos- 
 sessed of Hindoo astronomy, never would have occupied the genius 
 of the unfortunate Bailly, had not his eagerness been sharpened by 
 the vain hope of thereby constructing a chronological scheme, more 
 in accordance with the irreligious opinions of his party, than with 
 the venerable belief of former ages. And yet the imagination of the 
 former first devised the theory of a gradual cooling of the earth's 
 mass, which now is considered by so many as a sufficient solution of 
 the difficulties regarding the deluge ; and the latter may be said, by 
 trying to reduce that astronomy to a scientific e.xpression, to have laid 
 the train for its total exposure. 
 
 These considerations must add greatly to the power of the argu- 
 ment proposed in these Lectures. For they must remove every sus- 
 picion that the authorities on which it is based have been carefully 
 prepared by a friendly hand. 
 
 The first result of this reasoning is obvious ; that every security 
 
384 LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 which an endless variety of tests applied to a system without injuring 
 it, can giie ns of its truth, the Christian religion, and its evidences, 
 may justly boast. But this consequence has also an important pros- 
 pective force, for it presents a ground of confidence for the future, 
 such as no other form of argument could present. For, if all that 
 has yet been done has tended to confirm our proofs, we surely have 
 nothing to fear from what yet remains concealed. Had the first 
 stages of every science been the most favorable to our cause, and had 
 its further improvement diminished what we had gained, we might 
 indeed be alarmed about any ulterior prosecution of learning. But 
 seeing that the order of things is precisely the reverse, that the begin- 
 nings of sciences arc least propitious to our desires, and their pro- 
 gress most satisfactory, we cannot but be convinced that future dis- 
 coveries, far from weakening, must necessarily strengthen, the evi- 
 dences we possess. 
 
 And thus we come to form a noble and sublime idea of religion, 
 to consider it as the great fixed point round which the moral world 
 revolves, while itself remains unchanged ; or rather as the emblem 
 of Him who gave it, the all-embracing medium in which every other 
 thing moves, increases and lessens, is born and destroyed, without 
 communicating to it essential mutation, but, at most, transiently alter- 
 i ing its outward manifestation. We come to consider it as the last 
 I refuge of thought, the binding link between the visible and invisible, 
 \ the revealed and the discoverable, the resolution of all anomalies, the 
 determination of all problems in outward nature and in the inward 
 soul ; the fixing and steadying element of every science, the blank 
 and object of every meditation. It appears to us even as the olive, 
 the emblem of peace, is described by Sophocles — a plant not set by 
 human hands, but of spontaneous and necessary growth in the great 
 ' order of creative wisdom, fearful to its enemies, and so firmly ground- 
 ed, as that none, in ancient or later times, hath been able to uproot it. 
 
 cpvxfv^ uxslgwTOV, uvtcttoiov 
 
 TO fiiv rig ovis viog ovn yrj^u 
 (TTjfiuivMV uXioiati x^qI nsQaug* 
 
 After what I have said, it may appear superfluous to conclude 
 that the Christian religion can have no interest in repressing the cul- 
 
 * (Edip. Col. 694. 
 
CONCLUSION. 385 
 
 tivation of science and literature, nor any reason to dread their gene- 
 ral diffusion, so long as this is accompanied by due attention to sound 
 moral principles and correctness of faith. For if the experience of 
 the past has given us a security that the progress of science uniformly 
 tends to increase the sum of our proofs, and to give fresli lustre to 
 such as we already possess, in favor of Christianity, it surely becomes 
 her interest and her duty to encourage that constant and salutary ad- 
 vance. Yet, from the beginning of the Church there have been 
 found men, who professed a contrary opinion, and they may be divid- 
 ed into two classes, according to the motives which have instigated 
 their opposition to human learning. 
 
 The first consists of those well meaning Christians, who in all 
 ages, have fancied that science and literature are incomj)atible with 
 application to more sacred studies, or that they draw the mind from 
 the contemplation of heavenly things, and are an alloy to that con- 
 stant holiness of thought, which a Christian should ever strive to pos- 
 sess ; or else that such pursuits are clearly condemned in Scripture, 
 wherever the wisdom of this world is reproved. This class of timid 
 Christians first directed their opposition to that philosophy which so 
 many fathers, especially of the Alexandrian school, endeavored to 
 join and reconcile with Christian theology. They were, however, 
 strenuously attacked and confuted by Clement of Alexandria, who 
 devoted several chapters of his learned Stromata to the vindication 
 of his favorite studies. He observes very justly, that " varied and 
 abundant learning recommends him who proposes the great dogmas 
 of faith, to the credit of his hearers, inspiring his disciples with ad- 
 miration, and drawing them towards the truth ;"* which is in like 
 manner the opinion of Cicero, when he says, " magna est enim vis 
 ad persuadendum scientias."t Clement then illustrates his argument 
 by many quotations from the Holy Scriptures, and from profane au- 
 thors. I will read you one remarkable passage. 
 
 " Some persons, having a high opinion of their good dispositions, 
 will not apply to philosophy or dialectics, nor even to natural philoso- 
 phy, but wish to possess faith alone and unadorned ; as reasonably 
 as though they expected to gather grapes from a vine which they 
 have left uncultivated. Our Lord is called, allegorically, a vine, 
 from which we gather fruit, by a careful cultivation, according to the 
 
 * " Stromata," Lib. i. cap. 2. Tom. i. p. 327, ed. Potter. 
 t "Topicn," Oper. Tom. i. p. 173, ed. Lond. 1G81. 
 49 
 
38G LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 eternal Word. We must prune, and dig, and bind, and perform all 
 other necessary labor. And, as in agriculture and in medicine, he 
 is considered the best educated who has applied to the greatest vari- 
 ety of sciences, useful for tilling or for curing, so must we consider 
 him most properly educated, who makes all things bear upon the 
 truth ; who from geometry, and music, and grammar, and philosophy 
 itself, gathers whatever is useful for the defence of the faith. But 
 the champion who has not trained himself well, will surely be de- 
 spised."* 
 
 These words, I must own, afford me no small encouragement. 
 For if, instead of geometry and music, we say geology, and ethnog- 
 raphy, and history, we may consider ourselves as having, in this pas- 
 sage, a formal confirmation of the views which we have taken in 
 these Lectures, and an approbation of the principles on which they 
 have been conducted. 
 
 As this opposition continued in the Church, so was it met by 
 zealous and eloquent pastors, as most prejudicial to the cause of truth. 
 St. Basil the Great seems particularly to have been thought a most 
 strenuous defender of profane learning, in his age. He himself ear- 
 nestly recommends the study of elegant literature, at that age when, 
 according to him, the mind is too weak to bear the more solid food 
 of God's inspired word. He expressly says, that by the perusal of 
 such writers as Homer, the youthful mind is trained to virtuous feel- 
 ings ; at the same time, however, that care must be taken to withhold 
 all that can corrupt the innocence of the heart.t 
 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa speaks of him with great praise, because he 
 practically brought these principles to bear upon religion, and illus- 
 trated them by his great learning. " Many," he writes, " present 
 profane learning as a gift to the Church ; among whom was the great 
 Basil, who having, in his youth, seized on the spoil of Egypt, and 
 consecrated it to God, adorned with its wealth the tabernacle of the 
 Church."! 
 
 But the illustrious friend of St. Basil has entered more at length 
 into the merits of this question- St. Gregory Nazianzen had been 
 his schoolfellow at Athens ; where both, animated by the same reli- 
 gious spirit, had devoted themselves with signal success to the prose- 
 
 • Ibid. c. ix. p. 342. 
 
 t " Basilii Opera," Tom. i. Horn. 24. 
 
 I " De Vita Mosis." " S. Gregorii Nj-asenni Opera." Paris, 1638. 
 Tom. i. p. 209. 
 
CONCLUSION. 387 
 
 cution of study, considering truth, according to the expression of St. 
 Augustine, "wherever found, to be the property of Christ's Church." 
 Indeed, so well did their schoolmate, Julian, understand the value 
 which they and other holy men of their time, attached to human 
 learning, and the powerful use which they made of it to overthrow 
 idolatry and error, that, upon his apostasy, he issued a decree, where- 
 by Christians were debarred from attending public schools, and ac- 
 quiring science.* And this was considered by them a grievous per- 
 secution. One passage, from St. Gregory's funeral oration over his 
 friend, will be sufficient to satisfy you concerning his opinion. 
 
 " I think that all men of sound mind must agree, that learning is 
 to be reckoned the highest of earthly goods. I speak not merely of 
 that noble learning which is ours, and which, despising all outward 
 grace, applies exclusively to the work of salvation, and the beauty of 
 intellectual ideas, but also of that learning which is from without, 
 which some ill-judging Christians reject as wily and dangerous, and 
 as turning the mind from God." After observing, that the abuse of 
 such learning by the heathens is no reason for its rejection, any more 
 than their blasphemous substitution of the material elements for God, 
 can debar us from their legitimate use, he thus proceeds : — " There- 
 fore must not erudition be reproved, because some men choose to 
 think so ; on the contrary, they are to be considered foolish and igno- 
 rant who so reason, who would wish all men to be like themselves, 
 that they may be concealed in the crowd, and no one be able to de- 
 tect their want of education. "t 
 
 The terms here used are indeed severe ; but they serve to show, 
 in the strongest manner, the sentiment of this holy and learned 
 man, on the utility of human science and literature. Turning to the 
 great lights of the Western Church, we find no less severity of re- 
 proof used in dealing with those that oppose profane learning. St. 
 Jerome, for instance, speaks even harshly of those who, as he says, 
 " mistake ignorance for sanctity, and boast that they are the disciples 
 of poor fishermen."! On another occasion, he illustrates the Scrip- 
 
 * " Socrates Hist. Eccles." lib. i. cap. 12. 
 
 f S. Gregor. Nazianzeni " Funebris oratio in laiidem Basilii Magni," 
 Oper. Paris, 1609, torn. jj. 323. 
 
 I "Responsum habeant non adeo me hebetis fuisse cordis, et tarn 
 crassse rusticitatis, quam iili solam pro sauctitate liabeiit, piscatorum se 
 discipulos asserenies, quasi iilcirco sancti sint, si nihil scirnnt." Ep. xv. 
 ad jMarcellam, Oper. Tom. ii. Par. ii. p. 62, Ed. Martianay. 
 
388 LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 ture from many topics of heathen philosophy, and then concludes in 
 these words : — " Ha3C autem de Scrij)tura pauca posuimus, ut con- 
 gruere nostra cum philosophis doceremus." " We have alleged these 
 few things from Scripture, so to show that our doctrines agree with 
 those of the philosophers."* Which wotds clearly intimate, that he 
 considered it an interesting study, and not unworthy of a good Chris- 
 tian, to trace the connexions between revealed truths and human 
 learning, and to see if the two could be brought into harmony together. 
 
 His learned friend, St. Augustine, was clearly of the same mind. 
 For, speaking of the qualities requisite for a well-furnished theolo- 
 gian, he enumerates mundane learning among them, as of great im- 
 portance. Thus he writes : — " If they who are called philosophers 
 have said any true things, which are conformable to our faith, so far 
 from dreading them, we must take them for our use, as a possession 
 which they unjustly hold." He then observes, that those truths, 
 which lie scattered in their writings, are as pure metal amidst the ore 
 of a vein, " which the Christian should take from them, for the right- 
 ful purpose of preaching the Gospel. "t " Have so many of the best 
 faithful among us," he continues, " acted otherwise ? With what a 
 weight of gold and silver, and precious garments, have we not beheld 
 Cyprian, that sweetest doctor and most blessed martyr, laden as he 
 went forth from Egypt? How much did Lactantius, Victorinus, 
 Optatus, Hilary, bear away ? How much innumerable Greeks ?"| 
 
 It is not difficult to reconcile with such passages as these, those 
 many places where the fathers seem to reprobate human learning ; 
 as where St. Augustine himself, in one of his letters, speaking of the 
 education he was giving to Possidius, says, that the studies usually 
 called liberal, deserve not that name, at that time honorable, which 
 properly belongs to pursuits grounded on the true liberty which 
 Christ purchased for us ; or where St. Ambrose, to quote one passage 
 out of many, tells Demetrias, that " they who know by what labor 
 they were saved, and at what cost redeemed, wish not to be of the 
 wise in this world. "§ For it is plain that they speak, on those occa- 
 
 * "Adv. Jovinianum," lib. ii. lb. p. 200. 
 
 f " Del)(!i ab eis auferre Christiaiuis, ad usuin jiistuin pra^dicandi 
 evangeiiiun." 
 
 I " De Dootrina Christiana," lib. ii. cap. 40, Opera, torn. iii. par. i. 
 p. 42. Ei.]. Mam: 
 
 § "Epistoiar." lib. iv. Epist. xxxiii. Opcr. torn. v. p. 264. Ed. Par. 
 1632. 
 
CONCLUSION. 389 
 
 sions, of the foolish, vain, and self-sufficient learning of arrogant 
 sophists and wily rhetoricians, and of that science which void of the 
 salt of grace, and of a religious spirit, is insipid, va])id, and nothing 
 worth. And how can we for a moment, think otherwise, when we 
 peruse the glorious works, and contemplate the treasure of ancient 
 learning therein hoarded, and trace in every paragraph their deep 
 acquaintance with heathen philosophy, and in every sentence, 
 their familiarity with the purest models of style ? Who can 
 doubt, or who will dare to regret, that Tertullian and Justin, 
 Arnobius and Origen, were furnished with all the weapons which 
 pagan learning could supply, towards combating on behalf of truth ? 
 Who can wish that St. Basil and St. Jerome, Si. Gregory and St. 
 Augustine had been less versed than they were, in all the elegant 
 literature of the ancients? Nay, even in the very letter to which I 
 have alluded, St. Augustine, if I remember right, speaks without re- 
 gret, and even with satisfaction, of the books on music which his 
 friend had expressed a wish to possess. 
 
 The sentiments of the early Church have undergone no change 
 from time on this, any more than on other points. Mabillon 
 has proved, beyond dispute, that even among men of monastic life, 
 learning was encouraged and promoted from the beginning.* Ba- 
 con writes with great commendation of the zeal for learning which 
 has always been shown in the Catholic Church. God, he writes, 
 " sent out his divine truth into the world, accompanied with other 
 parts of learning, as her attendants and handmaids. We find that 
 many of the ancient bishops and fathers of the Church were well 
 versed in the learning of the heathens, insomuch that the edict of 
 the Emperor Julian, forbidding the Christians the schools and exer- 
 cises, was accounted a more pernicious engine against the faith, than 
 the sanguinary persecutions of his predecessors. It was the Chris- 
 tian Church, which, among the inundations of the Scythians from 
 the north-west, and the Saracens from the east, preserved in her 
 bosom the relics of even profane learning, which had otherwise been 
 utterly extinguished. And of late years the Jesuits have greatly en- 
 livened and strengthened the state of learning, and contributed to 
 establish the Roman See." 
 
 " There are, therefore," he concludes, " two principal services, 
 
 * " Traiie des 'Etudes monastiques." par. i. cap. xv. p. 112. Par. 
 1G91. 
 
390 LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 besides ornament and illustration, which philosophy and human 
 learning perform to religion ; the one consists in effectually exciting 
 to the exaltation of God's glory, the other affording a singular preser- 
 vation against unbelief and error."* 
 
 Between the two extremes which Bacon has named, the ancient 
 fathers and the Society of Jesus, there is a long interval, during 
 which, in spite of ordinary prejudice, we must not allow ourselves to 
 imagine, that the fostering spirit of the Church was not exerted in 
 favor of profane learning. " I would observe," writes a learned and 
 amiable author, " that to a Catholic, not only the philosophical, but also 
 the literary history of the world is prodigiously enlarged ; objects 
 change their relative position, and many are brought into resplendent 
 light, which before v/ere consigned to obscurity. While the moderns 
 continue, age after age, to hear only of the Csesars and the philoso- 
 phers, and to exercise their ingenuity in tracing parallel characters 
 among their contemporaries, the Catholic discovers that there lies, be- 
 tween the heathen civilization and the present, an entire world, illustri- 
 ous with every kind of intellectual and moral greatness ; the names 
 which are on his tongue, are no longer Cicero and Horace, but St. 
 Augustine, St. Bernard, Alcuin, St. Thomas, St. Anselm ; the places 
 associated in his mind with the peace and dignity of learning, are no 
 longer the Lycaeum or the Academy, but Citeaux, Cluny, Crowland, 
 or the Oxford of the middle ages."t 
 
 I will only refer you to his rich and glowing page for sufficient 
 proof that classical and philosophical pursuits were zealously and 
 ably followed in the solitude of the cloister, by — 
 
 " The thoughtful monks, intent their God to please, 
 For Christ's dear sake, by human sympathies 
 Poured from the bosom of the Church."| 
 
 But I cannot withhold from you the opinion of one who was a bright 
 ornament of those calumniated ages. Among the exquisite sermons 
 of St. Bernard on the Canticles, is one on this very theme ; " that the 
 knowledge of human learning is good :" in which the eloquent father 
 
 * " De augmentis Scientiarum." Bacon's Works. Lonrf. 1818, vol. 
 vi. p. 63. 
 
 t *' Mores Catholic), or Ages of Faith." Book iii. Land. 1833, 
 p. 277. 
 
 \ " Yarrow revisited." 2d ed. p. 254. 
 
CONCLUSION. 391 
 
 thus expresses himself. " I may, perhaps, appear to depreciate learn- 
 ing too much, and almost to reprove the learned, and forbid the study 
 of letters. God forbid. I am not ignorant how much learned men 
 have benefitted, and now benefit the Church, whether by confuting 
 those who are opposed to her, or by instructing the ignorant. And 
 I have read, ' because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject 
 thee ; that thou shalt not do the office of the priesthood to me.' "* 
 
 Such then has been the feeling and conduct of the Catholic 
 Church regarding the application of profane learning to the defence 
 and illustration of truth : and perhaps the best answer which can be 
 given to such inconsiderate Christians as say that religion needs not 
 such foreign and meretricious aids, is that of Dr. South ; " if God 
 hath no need of our learning, he can have still less of your ig- 
 norance." 
 
 The second class of writers who assert that religion is not inte- 
 rested in the progress of learning is actuated by very different mo- 
 tives. For it comprises those enemies of revelation, against whom 
 these Lectures have been principally directed, and who pretend that 
 the onward course of science tends to overthrow or weaken, the 
 evidences of revealed religion. I have had so many opportunities of 
 practically confuting these men, that I shall not stay to expose any 
 further the folly of their assertions. I will only observe that this un- 
 grounded reproach was not made, for the first time, by the modern 
 adversaries of Christianity, but is in fact the oldest charge brought 
 against it. For Celsus, one of the most ancient impugners of its 
 truth, whose objections are on record, especially taunted us with this 
 hostility to science, from a fear of its weakening our cause. But he 
 met with an able and victorious opponent in the learned Origen, who 
 triumphantly rebuts the calumny, and draws from it a conclusion 
 which I cannot refrain from quoting. " If the Christian religion 
 shall be found to invite and encourage men to learning, then must 
 they deserve severe reprehension who seek to excuse their own igno- 
 rance, by so speaking, as to draw others away from application."! 
 This remark, while it shows the security felt by Origen, that Chris- 
 tianity could not suffer by the encouragement of learning, is also 
 a just rebuke to that timid class of friends who are alarmed at its 
 progress. 
 
 * "Serm. xxxvi. super Cantiea." Opera, p. 608. Basil. 1566. 
 
 f " Contra Celsum." Lib. iii. Opera, Tom. i. p. 476, ed. De la Rue. 
 
392 LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 More than once I have had opportunities of vindicating Italy, 
 and Rome especially, from silly calumnies in this regard. I have 
 proved that this city has been the foremost in encouraging and aid- 
 ing science and literature, the tendency of which was to probe the 
 foundations of religion to their very centre, without jealousy and 
 without alarm. There is no country, perhaps, where the higher de- 
 partments of education are so unreservedly thrown open to every 
 rank, where the physical sciences are more freely pursued, and 
 where oriental and critical literature have been more fostered than 
 here. This city possesses three establishments in the form of a Uni- 
 versity, in which all branches of literature and science are simulta- 
 neously cultivated under able professors ; and there is a chair in the 
 great University of a character perfectly unique, wherein the discov- 
 eries of modern physics are applied to the vindication of Scripture.* 
 In my own case, I should be unjust to overlook this opportunity of say- 
 ing, that on every occasion, but principally in reference to the sub- 
 ject of these Lectures, I have received the most condescending en- 
 couragement from those whose approbation every Catholic will con- 
 sider his best reward on earth. f 
 
 But from all that I have hitherto said, and I hope proved, we 
 may surely draw some practical conclusions. And first I beg to turn 
 myself, with all becoming deference, to those who share the duties 
 and the dangers of my own calling ; and without presuming so far as 
 to instruct or even to advise them, as a friend and brother, entreat 
 them to lose no opportunity of giving the lie, by their deeds, to the 
 
 * The chair of "Fisca sagra." 
 
 f I feel a pleasure in relating the following anecdote. A few years 
 ago, I prefixed to a thesis held by a member of my establishment, a 
 Latin dissertation of ten or twelve pages, upon the necessity of uniting 
 general and scientific knowledge to theological pursuits. I took a 
 rapid view of the diflFerent branches of learning dicussed in these Lec- 
 tures. The Essay was soon translated into Italian, and printed in a Si- 
 cilian journal; and I believe appeared also at Milan. What was most 
 gratifying, however, to my own feelings, and may serve as a confirma- 
 tion of the assertions in the text, is, that when two days after I waited 
 upon the late Pope, Pius VIII, a man truly well versed in sacred and 
 profane literature, to present him, according to form, with a copy of the 
 Thesis prepared for him, I found him with it on his table ; and in the 
 kindest terms he informed me, that having heard of my little essay, he 
 had instantly sent for it; and added, in terms allusive to the figure 
 quoted above from the ancient fathers, " you have robbed Egypt of its 
 spoil, and shown that it belongs to the people of God." 
 
co\ci,usio\. 393 
 
 persevering reproacli of religious enemies. It is not by abstract 
 reasoning that we shall convince mankind of our not dreading the 
 progress of learning ; it is by meeting it fairly, or rather accom- 
 panymg it in its onward march, treating it ever as an ally and a 
 friend, and exhibiting it as enlisted on our side, that we can reason- 
 ably hope to satisfy them that truth is God's alone, and that his ser- 
 vants and their cause may fear it not. The reason why infidelity 
 proved so mischievous in France, during the last century, was, that 
 Its emissaries presented it to the acceptance of the people, tricked 
 out with all the tinsel ornaments of a mock science; because they 
 dealt m illustration and in specious proofs drawn from every branch 
 of literature; because they sweetened the edge of the poisoned cup 
 with all the charms of an elegant style and lively composition ; while 
 unfortunately they who undertook to confute them, with the exception 
 of Guenee, and perhaps a few others, dealt in abstract reasoning, and 
 mere didactic demonstration.* And is it too much to demand that 
 equal pains be taken by us to deck out religion with those charms 
 that are her OAvn vesture, given unto her by God, which her enemy 
 has imperiously usurped ? 
 
 The shifting forms which infidelity takes, the Proteus-like facility 
 with which its shape and motions vary, should keep us in a state of 
 unwearied activity, to face in it all its changes, with a suitable re- 
 sistance, and so be able to quell it in all its fantastic apparitions. 
 " The versatility of error," says an eloquent writer of our times, " de- \ 
 mands a correspondent variety in the means of defending truth ; and i 
 from whom have the public more right to expect its defence, in oppo- 
 sition to the encroachments of error and infidelity, than from those 
 who profess to devote their studies and their lives to the advancement 
 of virtue and religion?.. .As the Christian ministry is established for 
 the instruction of men, throughout every age, in truth and holiness, 
 it must adapt itself to the ever-shifting scenes of the moral world, and 
 
 * As an instance of this defect, in one who has taken a higher 
 ground than I have thought; necessary, and tried to carry the war into 
 the enemy's country, I might mention a work, published at Naples to- 
 ward the end of the last century, entitled, " L'irreligiosa liberty di pen- 
 sare nemica del progresso delle scienze." It is a large quarto, but from 
 the first page to the last does not contain a single illustrative fact, to 
 prove that infidelity has been hostile to the progress of science. It is a 
 work of dry reasoning with a good deal of declamation. 
 50 
 
394 LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 stand ready to repel the attacks of impiety and error, under whatever 
 form they may appear."* 
 
 But these sentiments, spoken of the instructors of any religion, 
 have been uttered more than a thousand years ago, concerning our 
 ministry, by the glorious Chrysostom, in the golden book which he 
 wrote for those of our profession. For thus he speaks upon this very 
 point. " Wherefore we must take all pains that the doctrine of 
 Christ dwell abundantly within us. For the preparations of the 
 enemy's battle are not of one form ; for the war is in itself various, 
 and waged by divers foes. All use not the same arms, nor conduct 
 their assault on the same plan. He, therefore, who undertakes to 
 fight them all, must understand the arts of each. He must be at 
 once an archer and a slinger, subaltern and commander, soldier on 
 horseback or on foot, equally able to fight in the ship and on the bul- 
 wark. For in ordinary warfare, each one opposes his adversary 
 after that manner, whereunto he hath been trained ; but in this con- 
 flict it is far otherwise ; since, should he, who must gain the victory, 
 be not intimately acquainted with every separate art, the devil well 
 knows how to take advantage of some unguarded point, and intro- 
 duce his despoilers to seize and tear the flock. This is not the case 
 where he knows the shepherd to be provided with every acquirement, 
 and aware of his deceits. It behoveth us, therefore, to be prepared 
 on every side."t 
 
 To this encouraging testimony of the correctness of the views 
 which I have taken, I can add that of an illustrious Father of the 
 Latin Church. For St. Jerome, commenting on Eccles. 2: 8, " I 
 heaped together for myself, silver and gold, and the wealth of kings," 
 thus expresses himself: " By the wealth of kings we may understand 
 the doctrines of the philosophers and profane sciences, which the 
 ecclesiastic, understanding by his diligence, he is able to catch the 
 wise in their own toils." | 
 
 It is, you will say, a toilsome task to acquire the necessary pre- 
 paration for this varied warfare ; but such, no less, is the qualification 
 for every other noble oflice of society — 
 
 * "Modern infidelity considered with respect to its influence on so- 
 ciety," in a sermon by R. Hall, M. A. Lond. 1822, pp. 4 and 1 1. 
 
 I "De Sjicerdoti," lib. iv. § iv. p. 177. Cantab. 1710. 
 
 :f " Possunt regum substantiae et philosophorum dici dogmata et 
 scientise saeculares, quas ecclesiasticus vir diligenter intelligens, appre- 
 inendit sapientes in astutia eorum." Comment in Eccles. Tom. ii. p. 726. 
 
CONCLUSION. 395 
 
 " Pater ipse colendi 
 
 Haud facilem esse viaui voliiit."* 
 
 Shall the Roman orator declare that no one need hope to attain 
 the perfection of his profession, " unless he shall have acquired the 
 knowledge of all the sciences ;"t and this to cajole a multitude, and 
 perhaps even to turn the course of justice :| and shall we be deterred 
 from a similar application, sweet in itself and full of fruit, by an idea 
 of labor and of difficulty ; when our object is the noblest and the 
 holiest, which earth can propose ; when the sciences themselves, 
 daughters as they are of the uncreated wisdom, will receive consecra- 
 tion, and be made the priestesses of the Most High, by the very er- 
 rand whereon we lead them ? That time will be consumed in the 
 preparation necessary for this method of meeting error and illustrating 
 truth, cannot be denied ; but how, I may confidently ask, could time 
 be better spent ? Surely not on the flitting topics which occupy for 
 a day the public mind, not on the flimsy literature which issues in an 
 unfailing stream from our national press, not upon the insipid grati- 
 fications which general society can offer. "Break," I would say 
 with the poet, " through the trammels of such chilling cares, and 
 follow the guidance of heavenly wisdom, that we may be an honor to 
 our country, and possess a fund of happiness within ourselves." 
 
 " Quod si 
 
 Frigida curarum fornenta reiinquere posses, 
 Quo te ccEJestis sapientia duceret, ires. 
 Hoc opus, hoc studium parvi properemus et anipli, 
 Si patriae volumus, si nobis vivere cari.";^ 
 
 Yes; parvi properemus et ampli; let all, great and little, forward 
 this noble work. It is in every one's power so to order his literary 
 occupation as to render it subservient to his religious improvement, 
 to the strengthening of his own solemn convictions ; even though he 
 be not blessed with talents sufficient to add unto the sum of general 
 
 * Virgil Georg. i. 121. 
 
 f " Ac rnea quidem sententia, nemo poterit esseomni laude cumula- 
 tus orator, nisi erit oinniuin reruni magnarum atque artium scientiam 
 consequutus." De Orat. Lib. i. p. 89 ed. cit. 
 
 \ " Discitnr innocuas ut agat facundia causas ; 
 Protegit heec sontes, itnmeritosque prernit." 
 
 Trist. ii. 273. 
 § " Horace Epist." I. i. ep iii. 25. 
 
39G LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 evidence, for the public benefit. For, if few are destined by Divine 
 Providence, to be as burning lights in his Church, not to be hidden 
 under the bushel, yet hath each one a virginal lamp to trim, a small 
 but precious light to keep burning within his soul, by feeding it ever 
 with fresh oil, that it may guide him through his rugged path, and 
 be not found dim and clogged when the bridegroom shall come. 
 
 And yet I know not wiiy any one who possesses but ordinary 
 abilities, may not hope, by persevering diligence, somewhat to en- 
 large the evidences of truth. There are humble departments in this 
 as in every other art ; there are calm, retired walks, which lead not 
 beyond the precincts of domestic privacy, over which the timid may 
 wander, and, without exposure to the public gaze, gather sweet and 
 lowly herbs, that shall be as fragrant on the altar of God, as the cost- 
 ly perfume which Bezaleel and Aholiab compounded with so much 
 art.* The painted shell which the child picks up on the hill side, 
 may well be sometimes as good evidence of a great catastrophe, as 
 the huge bones of sea monsters, which the naturalist digs out of the 
 limestone rock ; a little medal may attest the destruction of an em- 
 pire, as certainly as the obelisk or triumphal arch. " While others," 
 says St. Jerome, " contribute their gold and their silver to the service 
 of the tabernacle, why should not 1 contribute my humble offerings, 
 at least of hair and skins ?"t To this beautiful figure, which each 
 one may utter in his own name, I will only add, that while the gold 
 and silver are for the ornament of God's house, those humbler gifts — 
 the skins and hair-cloth — are for its shelter and protection. 
 
 You all, 1 doubt not, have often admired those exquisite paintings 
 on the ceilings of the Borgia apartments in the Vatican, wherein the 
 sciences are rejiresented as holding their separate courts ; each en- 
 throned upon a stately chair, with features and mien of the most 
 noble and dignified beauty, surrounded by the emblems and most 
 distinoruished representatives of its power on earth, and seeming to 
 claim homage from all that gaze upon it. And judge what would 
 have been the painter's conception, and to what a sublimity of ex- 
 pression he would have risen, iiad it been his task to represent that 
 noblest of all sciences, our divine religion, enthroned, as ever be- 
 comes her, to receive the fealty and worship of those her handmaids. 
 For if, as hath been proved, they are but ministers unto her superior 
 rule, and are intended to furnish the evidences of her authority, how 
 
 • Rxod. 30: 35:31. 11. 
 
 t '• Prologus Galcalu.^,'" pi cii.\c(l to ihc Xui-nuc. 
 
co^•CLUSIO^■. 
 
 397 
 
 much above theirs must be the comeliness and grace, and majesty 
 and holiness, with which she must be arrayed ! And what honor 
 and dignity must be conferred on him who feels himself deputed to 
 bear the tribute of any of these fair vassals ; and how must his ad- 
 miration of their queen be enhanced, by finding himself thus brought 
 so near unto her presence ! 
 
 But whosoever shall try to cultivate a wider field, and follow, from 
 day to day, as humbly we have striven here to do, the constant pro- 
 gress of every science, careful ever to note the influence which it 
 exercises on his more sacted knowledge, shall have therein such 
 pure joy, and such growing comfort, as the disappointing eagerness 
 of mere human learning may not supply. Such a one I know not 
 unto whom to liken, save to one who unites an enthusiastic love of 
 nature's charms, to a sufficient acquaintance with her laws, and 
 spends his days in a garden of the choicest bloom. And here he 
 seeth one gorgeous flower, that has unclasped all its beauty to the 
 glorious sun ; and there another is just about to disclose its modester 
 blossom, not yet fully unfolded : and beside them, there is one only 
 in the hand stem, giving but slender promise of much display ; and 
 yet he waiteth patiently, well knowing that the law is fixed whereby 
 it too shall pay, in due season, its tribute to the light and heat that 
 feed it. Even so, the other doth likewise behold one science after 
 the other, when its appointed hour is come, and its ripening influen- 
 ces have prevailed, unclose some form which shall add to the varied 
 harmony of universal truth, which shall recompense, to the full, the 
 genial power that hath given it life, and, however barren it may have 
 seemed at first, produce somethin-^ that may adorn the temple and 
 altar of God's worship. 
 
 And if he carefully register his nwn convictions, and add them to 
 the collections already formed, of various, converging proof, he as- 
 suredly will have accomplished the noblest end for which man may 
 live and acquire learning, his own improvement, and the benefit 
 of his kind. For, as an old and wise poet has written, after a wiser 
 saint: — 
 
 "The chief use then in man of that he kiiowes, 
 
 Is his paines-takiiig for the good of all, 
 
 Not fleshly weeping for our ovvu made woes, 
 
 Not laughing from a melanclioly gall. 
 
 Not fiiil'me from a soul thai overflowcs 
 
398 LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 
 
 With bitterness breathed out frotii inward tlirall ; 
 But sweetly rather to ease, loose, or binde, 
 As need requires, this fraiie fallen human kiride." 
 
 " Yet some seeke knowledge, meerely to be knowne, 
 
 And idle curiosity that is ; 
 
 Some but to sell, not freely to bestow, 
 
 These gaine and spend both time and wealth amisse, 
 
 Emhasing arts, by basely deeming so : 
 
 Some to build others, which is charitie ; 
 
 But these to build themselves who wise men be."* 
 
 When learning shall once have been consecrated by such high 
 motives, it will soon be hallowed by purer feelings, and assume a 
 calmer and more virtuous character than human knowledge can ever 
 possess. An enthusiastic love of truth will be engendered in the 
 soul, which will extinguish every meaner and more earthly feeling in 
 its pursuit. We shall never look with a partisan's eye upon the 
 cause, nor estimate it by personal motives, but, following the advice 
 of the excellent Schlegel, we shall " eschew all sorts of useless con- 
 tention, and uncharitable hate, and strive to keep alive a spirit of love 
 and unity. "t We shall consider the cause as too sacred to be con- 
 ducted under the influence, or with the aid, of human passions. In 
 the words of the poet it will seem to address us ; inciting us indeed 
 to seek victory, but only in the power of God : 
 
 BovXovxgattiv fisv, ^vv Osm d'as xgaxsiv.l 
 
 But these motives will have a still stronger power ; they will in- 
 sure us success. For if once a pure love and unmixed admiration of 
 religion animate our efforts, we shall find ourselves inflamed with a 
 chivalrous devotion to her service, which will make us indefatigable 
 
 * Lord Brooke, "Treatise of Humane Learning." These lines are 
 but a paraphrase of the following beautiful passage of St. Bernard : — 
 "Sunt namque qui scire volunt eo tantum fine ut sciant, et turpis 
 curiositas est. Et sunt qui scire volunt, ut sciantur ipsi, et turpis vani- 
 tas est. Et sunt item qui scire volunt, ut scientiam suam vendant, verbi 
 causa pro pecunia, pro honoribus, et turpis quaestus est. Sed sunt quo- 
 que qui scire volunt ut aedificent, et charitas est. Et item qui scire 
 volunt ut pedificentur, et prudcntia est." Sermo 36, super Cant. p. 608. 
 
 t "Philosophische Vorlesungen," p. 265. 
 
 I Softhooles, " Ajax," 764. 
 
CONCLUSION. 399 
 
 and unconquerable, when armed in her defence. Our quest may be 
 long and perilous, there may come in our way, enchantments and 
 sorceries, giants and monsters, allurements and resistance ; but on- 
 ward we shall advance, in the confidence of our cause's strength ; 
 we shall dispel every phantasm, and fairly meet every substantial foe, 
 and the crown will infallibly be ours. In other words, we shall sub- 
 mit with patience to all the irksomeness which such detailed ex- 
 amination may cause ; when any objection is brought, instead of 
 contenting ourselves with vague replies, we shall at once examine 
 the very department of learning, sacred or profane, whence it hath 
 been drawn ; we shall sit down calmly, and address ourselves meekly 
 to the toilsome work ; we shall endeavor to unravel all its intricacies, 
 and diligently to untie every knot ; and I promise you, that however 
 hopeless your task may have appeared at first, the result of your ex- 
 ertions will be surely recorded in the short expressive legend, preser- 
 ved on an ancient gem, which I trust I may consider as the summary 
 and epilogue of these ray Lectures ; 
 
 " RELIGIO VICISTI." 
 
 RELIGION, THOU HAST CONQUERED ! 
 
NOTE, 
 
 Referred to in Page 62, on the conformity between the Semitic and 
 the Indo-European grammatical forms. 
 
 It will have been observed by the reader, that the personal pro- 
 nouns are among the most important elements employed by ethno- 
 graphers for determining the affinities of hajaguages, and in the 
 foregoing lecture it has been shown what important conclusions 
 Lepsius has drawn from the marked resemblance between the 
 Egyptian and Hebrew pronouns and suffixes. Dr. Prichard, in his 
 Appendix before referred to, at the end of his Eastern Origin, etc., 
 has, indeed, compared some of the Hebrew with the Indo-European 
 pronouns, i^PiN — atta with tu, etc. But it appears to me that a more 
 minute analysis of this, and the other pronouns, will lead to more 
 satisfactory conclusions. 
 
 When we discover a portion of each word in a particular class to 
 be always identical, while the rest varies, we may justly conclude 
 that it forms only a generic characteristic, which may safely be 
 omitted in studying the specific determination of the word, or in 
 comparing it with other languages. Thus in Sanskrit, the pronoun 
 of the first person is aham ; that of the second, tuam ; whence Bopp 
 justly considers the syllable am as merely generic, and reduces the 
 essential parts to ah and tu, corresponding, the first to the Old Ger- 
 man ih, Latin ego ; the second to the Latin tu, the Persian ^^i — to 
 or <M, and German du. "^ 
 
 Now it seems to me that the Semitic pronouns are involved in a 
 similar composition, which should be unravelled before we can ex- 
 pect to reach their characteristic parts, and this can only be seen by 
 comparing forms, now lost in some of the dialects, but preserved in 
 others. The syllable which we shall thus find common to all the 
 persons in both numbers is ]N, differently pronounced an or en, ac- 
 cording to the tendency of the different dialects, but always com- 
 posed of the same two letters, aleph and nun. 
 
 The pronoun of the first Pers. sing, is in Heb. ""DilN — AN-ochi, 
 abbreviated into "'li* — AN-i ; in Chaldaic, NjN — AN-a; in Syriac, 
 5U 
 
402 
 
 FT — EN-o ; in Arabic, \j\ — EN-a. The plurals are respectively, 
 Heb. "3n:N — AN-achnu ; Chald. and Samar. "jSN — AN-an ; Syr. 
 ' — chnan ; Ar. , .vs;— N-achna* In the two last, the performa- 
 tive syllable has been more or less lost. 
 
 The pronouns of the second person are in Heb. (omitting for 
 brevity's sake the feminines, which follow the masculine by rule) 
 NPiX — atta, sing. ; and nriN — attem, plur. : but in the first T, ex- 
 pressed in Hebrew only by a sign of duplication, there lurks a sup- 
 pressed N, so that all grammarians agree that these forms stand for 
 {<n:N — AN-ta, and nroN — AN-tem. This is placed beyond doubt 
 by the other dialects ; Chald n:N — AN-t, and ]in;N — AN-tun ; Syr. 
 
 Aji — AN-t, oZjj — AN-tun; (though a stroke over the ^jor N, 
 indicates that the letter has not to be pronounced, thus connecting 
 
 the other dialects with the Hebrew) Arab, ^jf — EN-ta j^Xi)— 
 EN- torn. 
 
 In the third person, the Hebrew and Arabic have entirely lost the 
 compounding particle, or rather have adopted a different pronoun ; 
 but it has been carefully preserved by the Syriac in the plural, and 
 by the Chaldaic in both numbers. Thus Chald. i<3N — IN-e, sing. ; 
 •j!]3N — IN-un, pi. masc, "J'^SN — IN-e(i)n, fern. In which words the 
 alcph is pointed by I, on account of the reduplications of the N : 
 
 Syr.^Qjl — EN-un, pi. masc, ^^jj — EN-e(i)n. 
 
 From this analysis it would appear that the syllable ]N, is merely 
 a generic particle, forming no essential portion of any pronoun, but 
 common to all the persons : and consequently that it may, and ought 
 to be detached from them, before we can reach the peculiar or es- 
 sential substance of each. For in a much more marked manner than 
 the Sanskrit am, it pervades all the pronouns of whatever number, 
 gender, or person. 
 
 If we apply this system to the pronoun of the first person singular, 
 we have the essential portion of it in Hebrew, for in all the other 
 dialects it is found only in its abbreviated form, "^31 — OCHI, which 
 may fairly be compared to the Sanskrit ah-nm, or the German ich. 
 Even the abbreviated form I (AN-I) will bear a sufficient resem- 
 blance to the old German ih. 
 
 Proceeding to the plural, it would appear that the radical portion 
 4>f the Hebrew pronoun is ylCHNU ; the first part of which seems to 
 
403 
 
 arise from the aspirate C or n in the singular, here transmuted into 
 a pure guttural. If so, the portion of the pronoun strictly denoting 
 the plural number would be NU, and we have the gradations from 
 the fuller to the abridged form in the other dialects, Arab. (N) 
 ACH-NA ; Syr. CH-NAN ; Chald. (AN) AN. From this scale it 
 would appear that NU, NA, or N, are the characteristics of the first 
 person plural ; and this gives us a very singular coincidence with the 
 Sanskrit and Greek duals nou and vbi'i, and the Latin plural nos. 
 
 In the second person the resemblance is still more marked ; for 
 upon stripping off the generic syllable, the pronoun is reduced to T A 
 in Hebrew and Arabic, and into T in Chaldaic and Syriac, which 
 sufficiently agrees with the Sanskrit <«-am, gen. tai, the Latin and 
 Persian tu, and German du. The plural is formed from the singular 
 by ordinary rule. 
 
 When I analyzed the pronouns of the third persons in Syro- 
 Chaldaic, it was simply for the purpose of establishing the constant 
 recurrence, through the entire pro-nominal system, of the compound- 
 ing particle. But the comparison between the pronouns of this per- 
 son will appear not less striking than the foregoing, if we examine 
 the forms preserved in the Hebrew and Arabic, and in the Syriac 
 singular. The masc. sing, is in the first NW — HU ; in the second, 
 
 ^^ — hua; in the third ccn — hu. With these we may compare the 
 Persian,! — o; the Welsh evo, which, in the suffix, changes like 
 Hebrew into mc or o ; the Latin hie, Jiujvs, hi ; and the English he. 
 The feminine is the same in all : NTT ^ib «ind uaO? — HI. It is 
 precisely the same in Welsh, in which hi is the third person feminine. 
 The plural nn— HEM, or its feminine ]-— HEN, or the Syriac ^qjJ 
 — EN-UN, may be, perhaps, compared with the corresponding 
 Welsh hwynt. 
 
 I put forward these conjectures with becoming reserve. I have 
 seen too often how sadly an ingenious theory may seduce its author 
 into the mistaking of casual or imaginary resemblances for real analo- 
 gies, not to put myself doubly on my guard, where any new and arti- 
 ficial view strikes my mind. Still I cannot but think that the pro- 
 cess I have followed, and the affinities which it has opened, are not 
 unworthy of attention, from the uniformity discernible in the whole 
 sphere of their action. If so, we have a new and important point of 
 
404 
 
 contact between the two great families, based upon the grammatical 
 analysis of the primary elements of speech. 
 
 There are other investigations which I think worthy of being 
 made, from the probability of their leading to the same lesults : but 
 for the present the foregoing may suffice. I will only remark, that 
 traces appear to exist in the Semitic dialects, of what is generally 
 considered more peculiar to the other family, conjugation by auxiliary 
 verbs. For the passive voices in Chaldaic and Syriac, Ithpael, Eth- 
 pael, Ethpaal, and Ettaphel, seem clearly to have sprung from the 
 
 union of the verb substantive n"'Jt, Z)] — i7A, of which traces are found 
 in the Hebrew n"*? — la-ith, it is not, and in the determinative parti- 
 cles ns — eth, and Aj — yoth, with the indefinite verb. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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