5. The evidence of philological research decidedly tends to the conclusion, that such affinities exist between the earliest known stocks of the principal groups of languages now and heretofore in use, as can only be reasonably accounted for on the hypothesis of their common origin, and the consequent ra diation of the whole species from one centre. What that centre is likely to have been, is a legitimate object of inquiry ; and the follow ing, which have long been regarded by the author as the most probable deductions from modern Ethnographical research in relation to this subject, are now submitted with additional confidence, on account of the confirmation which they have received from the most recent investigations, and, in particular, from their conformity with the arrangement which Dr. Latham's linguistic researches have led him to adopt.
The stock from which the globe was ori ginally peopled, is probably more nearly repre sented at this time by the Turanians of High Asia than by any other ; and some part of that region was probably their primary seat. It is among the Mongols and their allies, that that combination of physical attributes which is best adapted to the exigencies of a nomadic life, and that constitution which renders a nomadic life a necessity of their nature, most characteristically present themselves. The bodily system of these people possesses a vigour and adaptiveness, which enables it to flourish under all the diversities of climate to which their wandering propensities conduct them ; and they can accommodate their mode of life, without any great departure from their characteristic nomadism, to a great variety of external circumstances. Moreover, the geo graphical relations of High Asia make it the most central spot on the whole globe, for the radiation of Man to every corner of the ha bitable world ; its connections with all other lands are such as are possessed by no other region ; while its climate is so intermediate between that of the frigid and that of the torrid zones, that the passage into either is without any violent transition ; and, as a matter of fact, we find that, while the Tungu sians and Ugrians have carried the Turanian stock to the shores of the Polar Sea, a Tartar tribe has made itself master of China, and governs the whole of the south-east of Asia, even to the Indian Ocean. This d priori ar gument, however, would be worth very little, if we did not find it in correspondence with the very curious fact, that the most ancient inhabitants of nearly every part of the globe are connected with the nations of High Asia, more or less closely, by affinity of language or of physical characters. This we have seen to be the case, not merely with the Seriform stock of Southern Asia and the Hyperborean and Peninsular Mongols of the north and north-east, but also with the aboriginal people of Northern and Southern Europe, with those of the Caucasus, and with the first settlers of the Indian Archipelago. Not less complete
is the transition to the American nations; for whilst, on the one hand, the Esquimaux forms the link of connection, agreeing in physical character with the Hyperborean Mongols, and in language with the mass of the proper Ame rican nations, increased acquaintance with the languages of the latter, and with the languages of the Northern Asiatics, has confirmed the suggestion long since made, that they are con structed upon a plan essentially the same; the tendency to agglutination, which is less manifested in the more immediate descendants of the parent-stock, being most fully carried out in its offsets, the Euskarian of the Basque provinces, the languages of the Peninsular Mongolidm, and the American tongues. The only region regarding which there is not the same amount of evidence, is Africa. But we have seen reason to regard the whole group of African nations as connected, through the Semitic stock, with the Asiatic races ; and all the knowledge recently acquired of the lan guage of Ancient Egypt*, together with all the information gained by Major Rawlinson and other decipherers of the most ancient inscrip tions in the south-west of Asia, tends towards the conclusion, that the languages of the Afri can nations are derived from the same funda mental stock with those of the Arian and Turanian, the separation having taken place when they were as yet in that early stage of development, which has remained stereotyped (so to speak) in the Chinese and other Seri form tongues. Looking at the African popu lation under this aspect, we may fairly imagine it to have been first derived front immigrants by no means remote from the Turanian stock ; these gradually spreading themselves over the entire continent, became gradually modified in their physical characters by the new cir cumstances in which they found themselves ; and whilst the dwellers in the Nile valley ad vanced in civilization and in intellectual de velopment, and became assimilated in cranial characters to the other races surrounding the Mediterranean sea, those of Central, Western, and Southern Africa underwent a degradation into the prognathous type, similar to that which has affected the earlier settlers in Oce ania, and to which some approach is seen in Southern India. Viewed under this aspect, the re-appearance of the Mongolian type of conformation among the Hottentots of South ern Africa is extremely significant ; for, al though they are Africans by immediate de scent, yet the characters of their remoter ancestry reappear, so soon as a correspondence in physical conditions favours their repro duction.