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WORKS OF II . DE BALZAC . La Comedie Ifumaine . ( Euvres completes de M . Honorfi de balzac . In the sixteen volumes which form the completest edition of his works hitherto published by Balzac , under the bold yet appropriate title of the Comedy of Life , the philosophic reader will find ample material for reflection , the mere novel reader will find excitement . Balzac has now passed from criticism ; but his works remain , rich in instruction of various kinds ; and to writers they are almost as useful in the lessons they contain on faults to be avoided , as in the models
they offer for successes to be achieved . Balzac has , perhaps , every fault that can mar a fine writer : affectation of stylo , impurity of moral feeling , exaggeration in the pourtrayal of character , a tendency towards the prosaically fantastic , prolixity , overcrowding of details , and , worst of all , tcdiousness ! Yet , although it is very easy to criticize his works and lay bare faults , such as those just named , such is the genuine power of tho man , such his laborious conscientiousness , such his exquisite perception , both of scone and character , and such his real artistic power , that no one story of La Comtdie
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culated to facilitate the acquisition of this important kind of knowledge . Compared with the work before us , all previous books on the subject , not excluding that of Dr . Prichard , will , we believe , be now found obsolete and imperfect . Dr . Latham ' s work is decidedly the best ethnographical treatise that we have seen . It is a complete and elaborate descriptive analysis of the entire population of our planet . The amount of learning required for its preparation must have been prodigious ; and yet it is clear , precise , and beautifully compendious—not overloading the student with details , bat containing exactly those
general and significant facts relative to the various tribes of the world which suffice to distinguish and individualize them . It abounds also with excellent speculative hints — bringing the reader up to the present level of ethnological science , and giving him more insight into the questiones vexatce of the affiliation of races and the derivation of languages than it would be easy to obtain in any other single volume . Altogether it is a work for which hundreds will be thankful .
There are some important features of novelty in the book as compared with other books on the same subject . Perhaps the classification of the varieties of man hitherto most in vogue , at least among those that have not cared to be too particular as to minutiee —has been that adopted , amongst others , by Schlosser in his general history . According to this classification ( on which Prichard improved ) the human race consists of three great masses or aggregates , physiologically and philologically distinguishable — the Negroes , the Mongolians , and the Caucasians :
the Negroes tenanting Africa , and little distinguished in history ; the Mongolians overspreading Eastern Asia , the Pacific Islands , and America , and distinguished in history chiefly as conquerors and producers of material changes over the globe ; and the Caucasians , more important and gifted than either , charged with the whole of the higher functions of the race , and overspreading primarily " Western Asia and Europe . Of these three fundamental stocks or varieties of mankind , the Caucasian stood most in need of subdivision . It was accordingly distributed
been once separated . 4 . A naptotic languages ( from ana , back , and ptosis , a case ) , or languages of the English type , that is , languages which are noninflexional , not because , like the Chinese , they have never developed inflexions , but because they have abandoned inflexions once possessed . This order would seem also to be the order of dignity . Applying these considerations , together with those of physical conformation and degree of social culture , Dr . Latham falls on the following classification of mankind : —
"I . Mongoi-idje . —Face broad and flat from either the development of the zygomata , or that of the parietal bones ; often from the depression of the nasal bones . Frontal profile retiring , or depressed , rarely approaching the perpendicular . Maxillary profile , moderately prognathic or projecting , rarely orthognathic ( upright ) . Eyes often oblique . Skin rarely a true white ; rarely a jet black . Irides generally dark . Hair straight , and lank , and black ; rarely light-coloured ; sometimes curly , rarely woolly . Languages . —Aptotic and agglutinate ; rarely "with a truly amalgamate inflexion .
Distribution . —Asia , Polynesia , America . Influence upon the history of the world . —Material rather than moral . II . Atlantid ^ e . —Maxillary profile projecting , nasal generally flat , frontal retiring , cranium dolikhokephalic ( long-headed ) , the parietal diameter being generally narrow . Eyes rarely oblique . Skin often jet-black , very rarely approaching a pure white . Hair crisp , woolly , rarely straight , still more rarely light-coloured . Languages . —With an agglutinate , rarely an amalgamate inflexion .
Distribution . —Africa . Influence on the history of the world . —Inconsiderable . Hi . Iapetidae . —Maxillary profile but little projecting , nasal often prominent , frontal sometimes nearly vertical . Face rarely very flat , moderately broad . Skull generally dolikhokephalic ( long-headed ) . Eyes rarely oblique . Skin white or brunette . Hair never woolly , often lightcoloured . Irides black , blue , grey . Languages . —With amalgamate inflexions , or else anaptotic ; rarely agglutinate , never aptotic . Distribution . —Europe .
Influence on the history of the world . —Greater than that of cither the Mongolidse or the Atlantidae . Moral as well as material . " In this division it will be seen there are considerable differences from that now in vogue . One of the terms is the same in both , but the other two differ . For Negroes Dr . Latham substitutes The Atlantidcsa term which has the advantage of being more general and less vitiated for ethnographical purposes by
coninto two great families—the Semitic family , consisting of men having an Arabic or Jewish cast of physiognomy , and speaking languages like the Arabic , and occupying the lands of Western Asia , lying between the Mediterranean and the Tigris ; and the Indo-European family , occupying Europe and nearly all the non-Semitic parts of Western Asia , including Hindostan and Persia , and speaking languages derived from or akin to the Sanskrit . This second family , being large and various , was again subdivided into groups or races , as follows : —1 . The Armenian race ,
crete associations . Then , again , for Caucasians ( a most unfortunate word , as Dr . Latham thinks , inasmuch as it perpetuates what he considers a positive blunder , occasioned by a single observation of Blumenbach on a Georgian skull—viz ., the notion that the Circassian , Georgian , and other Caucasian tribes exhibit a resemblance to the highest types of European humanity , whereas he considers them truly Mongolian ) he substitutes tho term lapetidec , which has also the advantage of nonconcretcncss .
whoso seat is near the Caspian . 2 . The Scythian race , stretching from the Mongolian confines in Asia westward into the East of Europe ; and divided into tho Turks , Tatars , or Asiatic Scythians , and tho Slavonians , Sarmatians , or European Scythians . 3 . The Pclasgic race ( the great parent race of the Greeks and Romans ) , at one time overspreading Asia Minor and South-Eastern Europe . And 4 . The Indo-Germanic race proper , stretching in Asia from the Caspian to the Bay of Bengal , and the parent of those two distinguished European racestho Celts and the Germans .
Having made this fundamental classification Dr . Latham occupies tho remainder of his book with special accounts of all the populations and tribes included under each head . I . The Monoolidj *; . —These he distributes into seven sections : —1 . The Altaic Mongolidae , divided into the Seriform stock , including the Chinese , the Thibetans , the Siamese , the Burmese , &c . ; and the Turanian stock , including the Mongolians proper , the Tungusians , tho Turks , and the Ugrians ( from which last come the Hungarians . 2 . The Dioscurian
Mon-Dr . Latham ' s classification in many points runs athwart this , and is doubtless entitled in some respects to supersede it . Like other ethnograx ^ hers , he founds his classification chiefly on three things—the diversity of physical conformation , the diversity of languages , and the diversity of social forms and civilization , among the inhabitants of the globe . As might be expected from so distinguished a philologist , he lays much stress on the consideration of language ; and the
folgolidic , including the Georgians , the Circassians , &c . 3 . The Oceanic Mongolidio , including the Malays and other inhabitants of all the Eastern Asiatic , Polynesian , and Australian islands . 4 . The Hyperborean Mongolidre , including the Samiieids , Yeniseians , and other Arctic nations . 5 . The Peninsular Mongolida 3 , including the Koreans , the Japanese , &c . C > . The American Mongolidae , including , with a slight exception or two , all the native American tribes and peoples . And 7 . The Indian Mongolida ? , including the Mongolian inhabitants of India .
lowing is his lucid , and , we think , novel arrangement for ethnographic purposes of the different kinds of languages spoken by men . 1 . Aptotic languages ( from a , not , and ptosis , a case ) , that is , languages of the Chinese type , which do not express the relations of actions and objects by inflexions , but by separate words : thus a Chinaman , if he meant to say " Peter ' s book , " would nay , •« Book , possessor Peter . " 2 . Agglutinate languages ; that is , languages -which do inflect , but in which the inflexions on the whole
roll . The Atlantidju . — "hese he also divides into seven sections : —1 . The Negro Atlantidcc . 2 . The KiuTroAtlantidzc . 3 . The Hottentot Atlantidto . 4 . The Nilotic Atlantidas : i . e ., Nubians , Gallas , &c . 5 . The Ama / irgh Atlantidro , including the so-called modern Berber tribes of Northern Africa , and all the ancient Libyans . C . Tho ^ Egyptian Atlantida ? , or native Copts or Egyptians . And 7 . The Semitic Atlantida ) , including all the so-called Semitic nations—the Syrians , Arabs , Jews , Phoenicians , &c .
tain the nppcarnncc of independent words stuck on to the inilcctcd word . 3 , Amalgamate languages , that is , langungos in which the inflexional additions arc so thoroughly incorporated with the inflected words as to have lost all obvious appearance of having
III . This Iavetii ^ h . — These lie divides into—1 . The Occidental Iapotidoo , including all the so-called Celtic nations , the Gauls , Ligurians , Picts , Irish ,
Cirobrians , &c . And 2 . The Indo-Germanic Iapetidae , divided into the European Indo-Germans , including the Gothic or German nations proper , the Sarmatians , or Slavonians , and the original Mediterranean nations ; and the Iranian Indo- Germans , including the inhabitants of Persia , AfFghanistan , Beloochistan , and Northern India . Such is a sketch of Dr . Latham ' s scheme of Ethnography : for the elaborate and really rich and interesting filling up we must refer to the book itself . By way of criticism we will offer but two remarks .
In the first place , it seems to us that a disproportionate length of space has been assigned to the description of the Mongolidse . The whole volume contains 568 pages of text ; and of these no fewer than 450 are devoted to the Mongolidse . It does not appear to us that this overplus of ethnographic consideration for that portion of the human species was warranted by the necessities of the case ; and we think we can see that unfortunate haste has been thereby occasioned in the appended accounts of the Atlantidae and the Iapetidae ; at any rate , of the latter .
Again , whether it is owing to our prepossessions in favour of the old scheme or not , there are some points in Dr . Latham's arrangement that at least stagger us . His constitution of those so-called prototypes of high Caucasian humanity , the Georgians and Circassians , into a division of the Mongolidse , we rather like ; nor should we feel any decided repugnance to his transference of the Turks and Hungarians from the Iapetidae , or so-called Caucasian family , where many authorities have placed them , to the Mongolidse ; but
we do feel somewhat averse to the association of the splendid Semitic nations and the ancient Egyptians and ^ Libyans under one family with the Hottentots and Negroes . We are aware there may be deep scientific grounds for this ; but we feel as if no strength of mere linguistic or other such reason whatever , could justify such an outrage on common sentiment ( and the sentiments of different portions of mankind with regard to each other is as valid a ground on ethnographic classification as any ) as is inflicted by
tethering together with whatever length of string two such diverse creatures as a Jew or Assyrian and a Hottentot . Does not Dr . Latham himself set down the Atlantidae in his fundamental synopsis as having been in respect of historic influence inconsiderable ? How , then , does ho reconcile this with the fact that under this head he includes the ancient Egyptians and Libyans , and the Semitic nations—whose historic influence , as he himself admits , has been enormous ?
It seems to us that either these splendid nations should be associated with the Iapetidae as in the old scheme , or that care should be taken to give to the Atlantidoo , as a whole , such a high preliminary reputation as will overbear the fact that to this family belong tho barbarians of Africa . Of course here we talk scientifically : morally , and as concerns action , ethnographical considerations of difference are often mere impeding rubbish , and in a supra-ethnographic view , Atlantids , Mongolids , and Iapetids , are all one firm
Appended to Dr . Latham ' s book are some " General and Special Apophthegms " of great interest . In one of these the writer states that the balance of inconveniences in his mind regarding the question of the unity of the species , is in favour of the idea of universal descent from one pair .
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642 QCfte 3 L * £ & **? [ Saturday , ... --- i ¦ - — —* . —^ .. _ ... . . —
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 28, 1850, page 642, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1854/page/18/
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