aration, their modes of life, social and civil state, knowledge, art, and religion-these are not wholly unknown; some interesting details of them are given, as inferred from the words which can be shown with more or less certainty to have formed parts of their language.

The sixth lecture takes up the branches of the Indo-European family in a brief review, which aims especially to point out the period and character of the earliest monuments by which they are known to us. The seventh gives the reasons for believing that the primitive Indo-European tongue, polysyllabic as it was and highly inflected, was developed from a language of monosyllabic rootwords, something like the Chinese; these root-words being of two kinds, the pronominal on the one hand, and those expressive of action and quality on the other. The next two lectures describe, naturally with much less fulness, the other groups of related languages, as made out thus far, with certainty or with various degrees of probability, by philological research. The first and most interesting is the Semitic (including Hebrew, Arabic, etc.), which in many respects approaches nearest to the Indo-European, but is separated from it by the extraordinary feature of its triliteral, or rather triconsonantal, roots-a feature which, implying, as it does, a complete working over of the earlier radical elements, seems to render almost hopeless the attempt to make out a radical identity between Semitic and Indo-European. In Northern Europe and Asia, Prof. Whitney recognizes a "Scythian" family, characterized by some remarkable peculiarities of structure, and consisting of five branches, the Ugrian (or Finno-Hungarian), the Samoyed, the Turkish, the Mongolian, and the Tungusic; but he does this with the understanding that it is to be taken as a presumptive or provisional classification, and that the evidence obtained for a genetic relationship extending through all the five branches is not yet such as to command conviction. As for the remoter families--the Japanese and its kindred in northeastern Asia, the Dravidian or Tamulian in southern India--which some inquirers would connect with the Scythian, he is still less inclined to admit that any sufficient proof has been given for such a connection. The ancient Egyptian, with its later, but long extinct, descendant, the Coptic, was supposed by Bunsen to have affinities at once with the Indo-European and the Semitic, so as to form a connecting link between the two families; but Prof. Whitney con

siders its affinity with the Semitic as by no means established, and still less its affinity with the Indo-European.

The tenth lecture criticises various schemes for classifying languages not by descent, but according to their structure; especially the schemes of Max Müller and of Schleicher. The remarks on the threefold division into monosyllabic, agglutinative, and inflective-or, as Müller calls them, family languages, nomadic languages, and state languages-are exceedingly acute and instructive. Returning to the genetic classification, Prof. Whitney raises the question as to the comparative value of linguistic and of physical evidence of race. He holds that, as a general rule, connection of language implies connection of race; and that cases of a contrary kind—as those occasioned by the conquests of the Romans and the Arabs, who imposed their own languages upon alien races subject to their power-are of an isolated and exceptional character. And if the indications of language are liable to such exceptions, the same is true of the indications afforded by physical characteristics, as we see, for instance, in the physical differences between the Magyars of Hungary and their Uralian kindred, or between the Osmanli Turks and the wild tribes of Turkestan. While, therefore, the testimony of language and of physical science in regard to race is alike subject to uncertainty, the former has decided advantages in its fulness, its clearness, and its minuteness of distinction. As to the original unity of the species, or rather as to the bearings of linguistic science on this much-vexed question, Prof. Whitney comes to a conclusion which some may regard as disappointing, though all must admit the force and fairness of his argument. He holds that language furnishes no clear evidence on the subject, either one way or the other. The difference between widely separated languages, as Chinese and Sanskrit, is such that by philological reasoning we cannot prove or hope to prove an original connection between them; points of agreement we could doubtless discover, but not more than might be supposed to arise by pure accident between languages wholly unrelated. Yet, on the other hand, no amount of difference between two languages, taken by itself, is irreconcilable with the supposition that they were originally connected; for we can set no limit to the effects which the causes of linguistic diversity may produce, when operating under circumstances favorable to their action through indefinite periods of time.

The subject of the eleventh lecture is the difficult and disputed

problem of the origin of language. Prof. Whitney holds that language, in its inception, as in its whole subsequent history, was the product of human agency; that it was divine, only in the sense that man was divinely endowed with the powers required for its production. The sufficient motive to the exercise of these powers he finds in the social instinct: man, as a solitary being, would never have invented language; but man, among his fellows, would feel the impulse to hold communication with them, and would be driven to devise the necessary means for this purpose. Language is not thought, as some have supposed; nor is it, as others have supposed, the absolutely necessary instrument of thought it is only the most convenient and effective means for conveying thought from one mind to another. But how could men, thrown together without any language as yet formed, make the first beginnings? how could they first fix upon particular sounds as the signs of particular ideas? Was it through an imitation of natural sounds, the inarticulate voices of animate and inanimate nature? Was it through the cries which in human beings are the spontaneous, untaught expression of joy, pain, anger, and other intense emotions? Was primitive language onomatopoetic, or was it interjectional? Prof. Müller, who stigmatizes these solutions as the bow-wow theory and the pooh-pooh theory, proposes a solution of his own, which others have named the dingdong theory. His view, that the primitive man, when an idea struck his mind, would, by a spontaneous impulse, give out an articulate sound, as the bell rings when struck by the clapper, Prof. Whitney regards as without reason or even plausibility. He considers the onomatopoetic principle as the probable source of most of the primitive vocables, though some may have been supplied by interjectional utterances. After a very few were thus determined, others would be formed, as they were needed, by modifications of the material already obtained.

The last lecture of the twelve is occupied mainly with the subject of writing. It shows, in a most interesting manner, how much time and how many efforts were required to evolve the true ideal of writing, to make it an exact representation of spoken sounds by giving to each articulation its appropriate and constant sign. It shows, too, how far English orthography has fallen away from this ideal; how desirable, on many grounds, would be an orthography worthy of the name; and how weak are the objections usually urged against such an orthography.

We have thus skimmed over the volume, touching here and there on the summa fastigia rerum, with the view of giving some idea of its varied and instructive contents. The attempt, we are sensible, has been a failure: we have misrepresented what we aimed to represent. Our brief, disjointed statements must appear abstract and inanimate, perhaps obscure; while the full and flow. ing style of the work itself, and its wealth of illustration, make it in a high degree clear, vivid, and interesting. But we trust that most of those who look at this notice will read the book for themselves, and thus be in condition to rectify our unintended injustice.

NORTON'S ASTRONOMY.-This work, in previous editions, has been long before the public, and extensively used as a college text book. The present edition, largely rewritten, and greatly improved, both in matter and arrangement, offers to colleges, and especially to the scientific schools so rapidly growing into importance in this country, a text book well adapted to the purposes of class instruction. If somewhat fuller and more mathematical, in some parts, than many of the treatises heretofore used in ordinary college instruction, it is not, we think, any too much so for a thorough college course, certainly not for institutions distinctively scientific, especially where astronomy is taught as a branch of higher engineering. The work is adapted, in a measure, to courses of greater or less extent, and to different grades of students, by having certain portions printed in smaller type, and other portions, including the more difficult mathematical discussions, wrought together in an Appendix, so as to be studied or omitted, as may be desired.

On certain points in Physical Astronomy, such as the Constitution of the Sun, the Phenomena of Comets, the Development of Stellar Systems, and the like, the author has contributed the results of his own investigations, and presented theoretical views of much interest and originality.

The work, on the whole, well represents the present condition of Astronomical Science in its great facts and principles, and will,

* A Treatise on Astronomy, Spherical and Physical; with Astronomical Problems, and Solar, Lunar, and other Astronomical Tables. For the use of Colleges and Scientific Schools. By WILLIAM A. NORTON, M. A., Professor of Civil Engineering in Yale College. Fourth Edition. Revised, remodeled, and enlarged. New York: John Wiley & Son, 535 Broadway. 1867.

we doubt not, be cordially welcomed by the classes for which it is particularly designed.

GUIZOT'S MEDITATIONS ON THE STATE OF CHRISTIANITY.*-This instructive volume by M. Guizot-the second of the series-was noticed in the New Englander for Oct. 1866. The translation, which professes to be made under the direction of the author, will make the work accessible to many who would not read it in French. It is printed with clear type and good paper.

FRASER'S REPORT ON THE COMMON SCHOOLS OF AMERICA.†— The author of this report visited this country in 1865; landing May 2d, and sailing the 4th of October. He was commissioned to examine and report upon the public schools of this country and the Canadas, and devoted himself very earnestly to the duties enjoined upon him. The results of his observations and reflections are embodied in this report-one of the blue books of 1866-a few copies of which have been sent to this country. While Mr. Fraser was with us he won many friends by the excellence of his character, the thoroughness of his investigations, the independence of his judgments, and the eminent fairness and uprightness of his intentions. The report before us has very satisfactorily fulfilled the expectations which his friends had entertained. It is thorough, critical, generous, and just. The facts from which he derives his inferences are given in detail, the inferences are honestly and fairly expressed, and the testimony to all that is good in the theory and operation of our schools is justly made and generously accorded. Perhaps his facts might have been more philosophically arranged, and the facts themselves might have been more instructive by being elaborated into forms which would have facilitated comparison, but the method adopted is more pleasant to read, and is more characteristically English-reminding us all the while of the admirable national tendency to tread squarely and surely at every

* Meditations on the Actual State of Christianity, and on the attacks which are now being made upon it. By M. Guizor. Translated under the superintendence of the Author. New York: Charles Scribner & Co., 684 Broadway. 1867.

+ Schools Inquiry Commissions. Report to the Commissioners appointed by her Majesty to inquire, &c., &c., on the Common School System of the United States and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. By the Rev. JAMES FRASER, M. A., Assistant Commissioner. London, 1866. 8vo. pp. 435.