THE EUROPEAN INDO-GERMANIC PEOPLES.
Like Fick, we include the ancient Phrygians of Asia Minor among the European Indo-Germans, while the CeWadockras seem rather to belong to the Iranians.
The European Indo-Germanic nations, who had been, as Fick has proved by their language, for a long time united, separated later into diverse tribes, probably by a very gradual progression and diffusion.
Deterioration of Tybe and Language.—In a survey of the European nations one phenomenon is especially remarkable: the farther west we go, the more remote from the original type and the more deteriorated do we find the languages. The Gothic is poor and sterile in comparison with the Sanskrit, and the Old Irish is still poorer, while the Old Greek and the Latin, both in the number and the richness of forms, are far more closely related to the original type.
This relation becomes apparent also in their civilization. How bar barous were the conditions of ancient Germanic life in comparison with those of the ancient Greek! How much more barbarous still those of the old Celts, and especially, in the extreme north-west, of the Scotch! This applies not merely to the coarseness of life, but to a barbarity and wild ness in customs such as neither the Asiatics nor the South Europeans exhibited. Compare the Scotch buildings (pl. iii, fig. 4), the so-called beehive houses, rudely-constructed embankments of clay with an opening at the top for the smoke, some of which have been in use even as late as this century, with the houses described by Homer. The Armenian house (pi III, fig. 2), with its artistic and well-divided inner construction, is rich in comparison; and yet such buildings date from times of repres sion, while we have a number of imposing Armenian edifices from more ancient times.
Influence of Migrations.—How can we explain this phenomenon? But one explanation is possible, and that is that these north-western people, by their migration into a part of the world so inhospitable as Europe then was, and by their struggle with hostile nature, had deteriorated from a former civilization. The intellect, directed only to the needs of life and to the dangers of the moment, necessarily retrograded under this con straint: it had to exert all its force in order to sustain mere existence. Neither power nor time remained for it to retain the old fulness of sound, the old sharply-divided copiousness of language.
We termed the Europe of that day wild and inhospitable; and cer tainly this is correct. It was colder and more rainy than at present; it was covered with impenetrable forests and extensive swamps; lofty mom: tam-ranges made it impassable; a multitude of beasts of prey (bears, wolves, lynxes, etc.) inhabited it, and also the anrochs and the Wild hog, both of which were dangerous animals. Nutritive plants Were absent, with the exception of such as the immigrants brought with them, and also grains, of which they perhaps brought rye and oats.
Probably we must look for the first immigrants on the coasts of the Black Sea and in Macedonia. Two reasons support this opinion: first, the climate was less severe there, and a gradual acclimatization could take place, while at time middle course of the Volga it is unfavor able, and an acclimatization there would have made living in different cir cumstances extremely difficult.
Secondly, we find the Greeks and Romans in possession of many treasures of language which were highly developed, so that they could not have undergone tedious and difficult migrations. The opinion that these migrations have been time cause of the great elevation and develop ment of the Indo-Germanic peoples has been advocated. But this is impossible. A migration consumes the existing power of a people: it is well if it leave any strength, but it does not create new power. The opposite opinion contradicts the first of all laws of nature, that of the conservation of force.
Influence of Naiural ease is different when a peo ple has accustomed itself to the new country and gradually masters it. The less of its strength it has used in battling with want, the more quickly will it rise amid invigorating surroundings. We must believe all time ludo Germans to have been equally gifted; at least not the slightest evidence can be brought for the contrary opinion. Therefore neither time Greeks nor the Romans could have been long in an intermediate state before reaching their new home, where, rapidly gaining ground and favored by natural surroundings, they developed wonderfully. But the Thracians and the Macedonians, although occupying their seats since remote times, have achieved far less, on account of the monotony and seclusion of their country.