In tracing the pedigree of all these languages to their remotest origin, we arrive at Professor Adelung's investigations respecting the probable situation of the Paradise of the Scripture. This he places in Cashmir, between Persia, Tibet, and Indostan, in the most elevated region of the globe; a country remarkable for its soil, its climate, and for other natural advantages, which contributed to render its more modern inhabitants, before their conquest by the Afghans, distinguished for their beauty, their talents, and their luxury; and he considers his opinion as confirmed, by the situation allotted to the Indian Paradise, on the hill Meru, which gives rise to four great rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, the Burrampooter, and a great river of Tibet. According to this supposition, Tibet, on the east of Cashmir, must have been the habitation of Adam immediately after his fall, and the country occupied by the descendants of Cain. In Tibet, and in the countries immediately beyond it, the languages of 150 millions of people are still principally monosyllabic, and from this peculiarity, as well as from the singular simplicity of their structure, they are supposed to constitute the most ancient class of existing languages, though it must be confessed that much of our author's reasoning on this subject is extremely inconclusive. There is however a much more marked distinction between these and all other languages, that their essence consists, as we have already explained very fully on a former occasion, (Vol. V. No. X. p. 372) not in sounds, but in characters, which, instead of depicting sounds, are the immediate symbols of the objects or ideas, and are even imperfectly represented by the sounds, whatever difference of accent or tone may be exhibited by the most refined speaker. It is true that we have particular instances of a similar nature in our own language, as in the words Bear, Bare; Beer, Bier, Bere; Son, Sun: but these are rather to be considered as accidental exceptions, than as fair examples of the usual character of the language.

Another ancient and extensive class of languages, united by a greater number of resemblances than can well be altogether accidental, may be denominated the Indoeuropean, comprehending the Indian, the West Asiatic, and almost all the European languages. If we chose to assign a geographical situation to the common parent of this class, we should place it to the south and west of the supposed origin of the human race; leaving the north for our third class, which we can only define as including all the Asiatic and European languages not belonging to the two former; which may be called Atactic, or, perhaps, without much impropriety, Tataric; and which may be subdivided into five orders, Sporadic, Caucasian, Tartarian, Siberian, and Insular. The African and

American

American languages will constitute a fourth and a fifth class, sufficiently distinct from all the rest, but not intended to be considered as any otherwise united than by their geographical situation. According to this arrangement, we shall exhibit, in the form of tables, first the principal families or genera, and then the species and varieties, accompanied by a specimen of each, in the versions of the words Heaven and Earth, where they can be obtained; these words being chosen, because they seem to be known in a greater number of languages than any other, except the name of Father, which appears to be objectionable, as often exhibiting a similarity rather accidental than essential.