The present capital of Georgia is Tifflis, seated on the river Kur, or, as the Georgians call it, Mtk'wari. Mingrelia and Imeritia were formerly subject to Georgia; and all have occasionally been subject to the Persian or the Turkish government. The whole are now transferred equally to the great circle of the Russian empire: and the most recent of our maps and geographical systems must be altered to admit of the new arrange

ment.

We shall return to the work as soon as the second volume appears. Upon the whole, the translator has executed his task with judgment; but wé caution him against the affectation of writing Moskwa for Moscow: Churan for Koran; Chuli Chan for Kouli Khan, and other such pruriencies of petty reformation.

ART. XXI.-The Character of Moses established for Veracity as an Historian, recording Events subsequent to the Deluge. By the Rev. Joseph Townsend, M. A. Rector of Pewsey, Wilts. Bath. 1815. Quarto, pp. 436. Longman and Co. Mithridates oder allgemeine Sprachenkunde. Mithridates; or a General History of Languages, with the Lord's Prayer as a Specimen, in nearly five hundred Languages and Dialects. By Johann Christoph Adelung, Aulic Counsellor and Librarian at Dresden. Berlin. Vol. I. 1806. Vol. II. 1809. Vol. III. 1812. Part II. 1813. Vol. II. and III. continued by Professor Vater from the Papers of the Author. 8vo. pp. 2202.

WE derived so much gratification from the perusal of Mr. Townsend's former work, that we opened the volume before us with no small expectation both of amusement and profit. The title announces a far wider and more interesting field of inquiry than that which lately engaged our attention. Of that remote era of the world which preceded the Deluge, the inspired Historian of Israel has only set before our view a few unfinished traces, containing perhaps all that was presented to his unerring judgment as recorded in authentic characters; but in the subsequent period, and particularly after the emigration of the Hebrews from Chaldea, his narrative assumes that circumstantial and connected form which properly constitutes history. Many excellent commentators have contributed to illustrate this record, but there are still many points which seem to admit of further elucidation, and it is needless to insist on the importance of the subject. How much the older writers have left to

be achieved by the zeal and diligence of the moderns may be judged from the work of Michaelis lately translated into our language. We looked to Mr. Townsend for important lights to guide us through, that portion of history to which his superscription directs us; but in this hope we are in a great measure disappointed. The present work, with the exception of a few pages, is wholly devoted to a philological treatise, in which the author engages in the arduous attempt of tracing all the languages in the world to one original. How far he attains this object, and how far it is possible to attain it, we shall endeavour in the sequel to estimate. At present we shall only remark, that whether the attempt succeeds or fails, the event, in our judgment, no wise endangers the credit of the Mosaic history.,

The Mithridates of Mr. Adelung treats professedly of the history of languages, and is the most extensive and profound work on that subject that has ever yet issued from the European press. It was ushered into the world under very favourable auspices. During the last fifty years a great store of materials for such an undertaking had been accumulating from all parts of the world. Since the voyages of Cook and his enlightened companions, every navigator in distant regions has considered it a part of his duty to collect specimens of the dialects of savages. The ancient sacerdotal idioms of Persia, Hindustan, and Siam, which were either wholly unknown to Europeans, or enveloped in a cloud of mystery, have been thoroughly investigated. The languages of the African and American hordes have been studied by recent travellers. Yet though our knowledge had increased so much in particulars, scarcely any attempt had been made to compare the data which were collected, and to obtain any general results since the publication of the "Oratio Dominica in omnium fere gentium linguas versa," by our countryman Chamberlayne; for the great collection of vocabularies which issued from the Russian press under the auspices of the Empress Catharine must be regarded rather as a storehouse of materials. The author of the present treatise had already obtained celebrity as a lexicographer, with the reputation of extensive learning, and he brought to this undertaking all the qualifications which were necessary to ensure success. It is much to be regretted that he died before the completion of his work, but it is at the same time fortunate for the world that his manuscripts fell into the hands of so enlightened a successor as Professor Vater. That much remains in this department for future writers to perform, will not be questioned; but what Mr. Adelung has accomplished claims for him, in our opinion, the gratitude of the public. We shall endeavour to enable our readers to form their own estimate of his merits.

Our author commences his history of languages with a philosophical inquiry into the origin of human speech. Although such a disquisition does not appear strictly necessary as a prelude to a philological work, yet as he has founded upon it his arrangement of languages, and has connected it with his historical theories, we are bound to take cognisance of some of his opinions on this subject.

The idea," he tells us, "must be given up that language was communicated to the first men by their Creator, or that they were taught the use of articulate words by angels or superior intelligences." There was a time, according to him, when the human race claimed but little privilege over the brutes; when they crept upon the earth a "mutum et turpe pecus." "This is a proposition which on a little reflection offers itself to the mind as a first principle, and requires no proof." We confess that to us it does not appear so fully self-evident; but as this is not a fit op portunity to controvert it we shall suffer our author to proceed in his philosophical speculation. "It is true," he adds, "that when we consider the artificial and complicated structure of an European language, which is capable of expressing all the shades of thought and sentiment that arise in civilized society, and of representing all the metaphysical reasonings of a Plato or a Voltaire, the production of so wonderful a contrivance seems beyond the reach of the human faculties." "An European war-ship, which with a burden of twenty-five hundred tons, and bearing a thousand men and a hundred cannons, rides triumphantly through the ocean and defies the rage of conflicting elements, would appear to the wondering eyes of a naked Huron, or to the miserable savage of Oonalashka as a phenomenon altogether supernatural, and it would be impossible for him to conceive that such a work was produced by the hands of his fellow creatures. But if he were enabled to trace the art of the modern ship-builder backwards through all its stages to the fragile raft or the hollow trunk on which the first trembling barbarian committed himself to the unstable element, his astonishment would gradually subside, and the supernatural being created by his imagination would gradually dwindle into a simple man." The case is similar, according to our author, when we inquire into the history and progress of language. "It only requires a little observation to discover the stages of its advancement, and to trace it backwards to the first articulate sounds uttered by the uncouth child of nature.""Even when we examine attentively the whole fabric in its complete form, we discover clear vestiges of its homely beginning. The language which flows from the mouth of a Cicero or a Newton still bears traces of those infant ages of the world, when men referred all the movements of external nature to the same voluntary

powers of which they were conscious within themselves; when they fancied that the Wind blows, that the Sun goes down, and that the Ocean roars, and when with similar ignorance they feigned mountains and rivers to be males and females."

The first words which a savage would utter would naturally be mere vocal sounds pronounced with the open mouth without articulation. Accordingly words of this character abound in the vocabularies of many barbarous nations, as the South-Sea islanders, the Hurons, the Algonquins, Galibis, and Esquimaux. Some well known languages preserve many of these first attempts to form words. The Greek expresses the most simple ideas by mere vocal sounds, such as dw, ἕω, ἐει, ἔχω, αίω, πω, οίω, αίει, ἀνα The addition of consonants was a considerable step in advance, and that it was a matter of some difficulty, we may learn by observing how many languages are still very defective in this respect. La Hontan found it impossible to teach a Huron to articulate the labials, b, p, and m. Scarcely are there two dialects which agree in the number of consonants. The Otaheiteans imitated the name of Cook by the word Tutu, and the Chinese in the place of Christus, were obliged to substitute Ki-li-tu-su.

Next to mere vocal sounds, the most simple class of words are those in which a single vowel follows a consonant, as ba, lo, ma, &c. These are the words which a child first pronounces. The dialects of the southern islanders are replete with such sounds, and the whole Chinese vocabulary contains scarcely any other words. On this account Mr. Adelung considers this as the nearest representative of the primitive language of mankind. Our author is not the first who has supposed the monosyllabic structure to be a proof of high antiquity. The learned Dr. Shuckford adopted the same notion, and consequently made an attempt to resolve the triliteral roots of the Hebrew into monosyllables.

The first application. of names to objects, or the invention of significant words, has often been supposed to have taken its rise! from the imitation of the voices of animals, or the sounds produced by various natural causes. The serpent hisses, the bees hum, the thunder peals, the tempest roars, the wind howls among the mountains. The savage listens and imitates the sound which salutes his ears, and the word which he pronounces serves afterwards to recall to himself and his companions the idea of the object which first gave occasion to its utterance. In fact all such phænomena as are accompanied by an audible sound are distinguished in most languages by tones which are clearly imitative, and the names of animals which utter loud and distinct cries are of the same nature. Having once by these simple efforts formed the habit of communicating and receiving ideas, it is easy to conceive that a further progress could be made by associating analo

gous perceptions and objects. A stone falling to a great depth was frequently observed to occasion a peculiar sound. The imitation of this sound afforded a word to signify deep: the same word was afterwards extended to the opposite but connected sense of height, and it came at length to designate haughtiness, magnanimity, loftiness of mind, and whatever excites the sentiment of the sublime, either in animated or inanimate nature. How far these analogies may be carried, and how remote the derived sense of a word may become from the idea which first occasioned its invention, may be conceived by observing the terms which in several languages designate the soul or intellectual spirit, and which took their rise from words first applied to the act of breathing, or formed in imitation of the sound which a breeze produces in the foliage of a wood.

As these analogies are for the most part arbitrary, and depend on peculiar habits of feeling and thinking, it may thus be imagined that every little society of men would form a language in a great measure peculiar, and that the diversities would chiefly consist in words which have a figurative sense, and therefore owe their origin to real or fancied resemblances. We find in reality that the terms furnished by natural objects and by those analogies which are so accessible as to be universally perceived, are often similar in idioms which differ in their more abstract words. The structure of a language will thus bear the character of the nation by whom it was formed. Among the Oriental people the fancy takes a bolder flight, and discovers or invents analogies which escape the feeble perceptions and colder genius of the North.

But if we suppose a sufficient number of words to be thus formed, we are still far from possessing a complete language. "We have now indeed formed a canoe out of the unshapen trunk, but a rudder and sails are wanting, and we can only grope with labour and difficulty along the coast." The distinction of nouns and verbs, and the addition of numbers, declensions, and conjugations are necessary before our dialect can assume a sufficiently perfect state for expressing our thoughts with precision and facility. These advantages have been obtained by different nations in degrees, and by methods very various. The Chinese and other languages of similar character are absolutely destitute of inflections. Simple monosyllables are incapable of variation; they are a sort of monads or primitive particles; all the connections and shades of ideas are performed by them in the rudest manner; variation of tone sustains an important part, and even gesticulation is used to render language more expressive. The composition of words is precluded by the mechanism of these dialects which admits of no aggregates, and its place is rudely supplied by mere juxtaposition. In other languages our author supposes com