LONDON:

SPOTTISWOODE and SHAW,

New-street-Square.

TABLE OF
OF CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

4. Lennep-Hemsterhuys-Primitive Greek roots

Page

1. General reasons which justify publication

xxiii

2. Particular views of the author respecting Philology

ib.

3. All the aid has not been derived from the Oriental languages

which they are capable of affording

xxiv

il.

XXV

-

xxvi

5. Words from the Shemitic Languages adopted by the Greeks

6. Mode of their adoption, and changes produced in them

7. List of Sanskrit Nouns adopted by the Greek and Latin

8. The change produced in their terminations infers the existence

of some cause of a very peculiar nature

9. Sanskrit crude nouns destitute of gender, case, and number-

10. The addition made to them by the Greeks was that of the

Personal Pronoun, os, -n, -ov

11. List of Sanskrit Verbal Roots adopted by the Greek and

Latin

12. The addition made to them by the Greeks and Romans was

that of the Auxiliary Verb To be, by the aid of which the

Sanskrit Verb itself is formed

13. Application of the Baconian mode of reasoning to Language

-Deficiences and attainments of the Greeks

14. Hindu Philosophy-Greek Sophists-Schoolmen of the

Middle Ages

Xxxviii

15. Political reasonings of the Greeks-Slow progress of Statis-

tics, and Political Economy

ib.

16. Observation and experiment the only secure basis of Physics xxxix

17. Geology-Cosmogony-Comparative Anatomy-Cuvier

18. The investigation of what is fact, almost appears to constitute

xl

a peculiar science

xli

19. The different rate of progress of Metaphysical and Physical

knowledge, illustrated by a reference to the Economical

annals of England

xliii

20. Mr. Watt-The Steam-engine-Its effects-

xlv

21. Application of steam to the production of locomotion-Pro-

phecy in Darwin's Botanic Garden

xlvi

22. Important consequences likely to be the result of the invention
of railroads. Its effect on Knowledge

-

23. On Philanthropy, religious Liberality, and general Civilisation
24. Prospect of the rapid and indefinite enlargement of the human
mind-Passage from Condorcet

CHAPTER I.

ON THE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE OF MANKIND.

Page

xlvii

1

ib.

1. Positive assertion on this subject in the Book of Genesis

Different views of Bentley, and Sir William Jones

П. Mode proposed of ascertaining some of the oldest existing lan-

guages

III. Reasons for believing that there are at least seven as old as

the Hebrew

1. Egyptian

2. Sanskrit

3. Arabic

4. Persic

5. Turkish

6. Syriac

-

2

3

7. Greek

IV. All these probably formed parts of the Primitive language which
contained the roots of all the languages since spoken

v. The Indo-European class of languages of Adelung

VI. Proposed arrangement of the author

VII. The Arabic or Shemitic family of languages

vin. The characteristics of that family

IX. The Sanskrit, or Indian family of languages characterised

CHAP. II.

ON THE OLDEST NAMES AND FORMS OF ANY EXISTING ALPHABETICAL

II. Contains little that is historical, and to be relied on

III. We are in many respects better able to investigate the antiquities

of the Greeks, than the Greeks themselves were

13

14

ib.

IV. Coincidence between European and Chinese Chronology

v. Account. of the ancient modes of writing in China

VI. Identity of hieroglyphic characters in China and Egypt

VII. Letters derived by various Asiatic alphabets from Chinese hiero-

VIII. The Kou-Ouen or oldest Chinese writing

IX. The Oighur alphabet of fourteen letters

x. The Runic, an Asiatic alphabet

XI. Identity of the Northern Woden with the Indian Budha

XII. Two Runic letters on a Parthian gem

XIII. The names of two of the Runic letters, Persic words

CHAP. III.

ON DIVERSITIES OF LANGUAGE WHICH APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN PRODUCED

BY DIFFERENT MODES OF WRITING, THAT IS, FROM RIGHT TO LEFT, OR

FROM LEFT to RIGHT.

1. Unwritten languages least changed-Many changes appear to

have been produced by the art of alphabetical writing itself 26

II. Three leading modes of writing-from top to bottom, from
right to left, and from left to right

III. Tien, Chinese, and Neit Egyptian-Neitha, Egyptian and
Athene, Greek

IV. Tien, Chinese-Tihan, Sanskrit - and Dihan, Greek,-Dihan,
Greek, and Nahid Persic - Nihad, Persic, Nature— Tabiat,
Arabic, and Tabiti, Scythic

v. Mitra, Persic, and Artemis, Greek-Misitra, Sparta

27

28

29

VI. Rama, Sanskrit, and Amor and Amar, Latin-Dipuc, Sanskrit,
and Cupid, and Cupidus, Latin - Rhm, Arabic, and Mhr,
Persic, Love

VII. Laib, the heart, Hebrew, and Bal, Chaldee

ib.

-

30

ib.

VIII. Sar, the head, Persic, and Ras, Arabic-Kid, Arabic, and Dike

Chlom, Coptic—and Moloch, Hebrew

Greek

CHAP. IV.

ON

DIVERSITIES

OF

PRO-

LANGUAGE WHICH APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN

DUCED BY THE SUBSTITUTION OF ONE LETTER FOR ANOTHER.-ORIGIN

OF DIALECTS.

1. Letters inconveniently alike, when frequently mistaken for each
other, produce a Dialect

II. Great fluctuations in Alphabets before they became finally

settled

-

III. Hebrew Daleth (D) and Raish (R) confounded
IV. Hebrew Samech (S) and final Mem (M) confounded
v. Hebrew final Caph (Ch) and Daleth (D) confounded

VI. Arabic Re (R) and Ze (Z) confounded

VII. Sanskrit S, and Roman R, confounded

VIII. The Duillian Inscription-S, R, and D

IX. The Spartan Decree against Timotheus of Miletus

x. Greek Alpha and Rho, confounded

XI. Greek Delta and Lambda confounded- SS, the Greek letter

Xi, and the Roman X

xn. Greek Iota, and Lambda, confounded

XIII. Etruscan Phi, and Chi, confounded

43

-

44

ib.

CHAP. V.

ON THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE OF CHINA.

1. Extravagant and unfounded statements respecting almost every
thing connected with China

II. Dr. Marshman's comparison of the Chinese with the Sanskrit

and the Hebrew

II. Observations on it

IV. List of Chinese words from the Names of the 214 Keys, with

their Analogies in other Languages

v. List of Chinese words from the Glossary in Du Halde
VI. List of Chinese words from the Index to De Guignes -

VII. Two spoken Languages in China, one of which may be denomi-

nated the Literary The 330 Chinese words, and 300 Greek

roots

VIII. Abstract of Chinese Grammar

IX. The Nominative Case -

x. The Genitive -

XI. The Dative

XII. The Accusative, Vocative, and Ablative

xm. Adjectives

XIV. Personal Pronouns

xv. Conjugation of Verbs

XVI. Artificial Classification in the first instance is favourable to the

advancement of knowledge, but tends to retard it when we

forget that it is artificial

CHAP. VI.

ib.

ON THE LANGUAGE OF ANCIENT EGYPT -THE COPTIC AND SAHIDIC.

1. The Egyptians claimed the honour of being the inventors of

Letters

II. Memnon the Egyptian-Cecrops the Athenian-Linus the

Theban - Palamedes the Argive-Assertion of Josephus

that Homer left no written works

III. Singular fact that no Egyptian Monuments prior to the accession
of the Ptolemies contain Alphabetical Inscriptions