only when, at Paris, they told their admirers that Napoleon had brought them thither. He forgot that they also would tell of the bad taste and rapacity which had removed them.

He was, as M. de Pradt truly says, a man of extremes; and of extremes absolutely contradictory; a hero and a coward; and it is doubtful in which he was greater. Conqueror of Austerlitz, Wagram, and Jena, from Egypt, Smorgonie, Leipsic, and Waterloo, an infamous deserter; he audaciously invaded France with six hundred men, and fled from it in dismay when he might still have commanded an hundred thousand: He had overturned councils, senates, and directories; had curbed and manacled the whole French nation; had overthrown half the kingdoms of Europe; yet he submitted, without an effort, to be ignominiously shackled and exiled by the single hand of General Becker. In action he was a giant, but in suffering, a child: and he who had covered the world with mourning, was never known to shed a tear, till he cried, more for fear than vexation, when his toy sceptre was broken. M. de Boufflers long ago called him the night-mare of the world;' but the chevalier could not then have known the whole truth of his own expression, nor have foreseen that the world would, one day, shake it off, and wonder at the terror which so wretched and contemptible a phantom had inspired.

Of what is usually termed feeling he had none, but for himself; he never felt either pity or love. His mother, when she wished to praise him, used to say that he had feeling enough to wish that he had more. Pour le cœur,' said she, Napoléon aurait bien voulu en avoir:' but Napoleon himself rejected this half praise, and on more than one occasion honestly confessed qu'il avait le cœur à la tête,' an expression as forcible, characteristic, and satanical, as ever we recollect to have met. One of those sagacious doctors called craniologists-who, when they know a man's character by his actions, can afterwards discover it by the shape of his headfound in Buonaparte's the organs of the tiger and the peacockcruel and climbing; a judgment equally pronounced by the just and witty description that was given of him, as Robespierre à cheval.' His manners, habits, and language, exhibited the same contradictions as his mind-his language was a mixture of oracular sublimity, and low vulgarity; we should blush to repeat the instances we could select of the latter. He was by fits so liberal and so sordid that the Archbishop says, 'avarice and munificence each held a string of his purse.' His manners and habits vacillated between majesty and meanness. He insulted, with gratuitous ferocity, the tenderest' sex, and yet took lessons on deportment from an actor-and he is said to have envied equally Alexander

his empire, and Talma the applause of the parterre. On that famous night when he endeavoured to rally his fugitive troops at Fontainebleau, and to throw himself into Paris, to continue the struggle for the empire of the world, he lost his time and his health in a filthy amour. And the evening before he left Paris for the ast time, when, as Miss Williams says, one would have supposed that his thoughts were occupied with contemplations suited to the solemnity of his situation, he employed himself in procuring and packing up tapes, cambricks, and perfumery, for his transatlantic voyage!

In short, this man-displaying in his alternate extravagancies all that is most noble and most vile in human nature; the greatest majesty of sovereignty, and the boldest decision of command, with the most ignoble subterfuges and the most dastardly pusillanimity ; listening through key-holes for evidence on which to dethrone monarchs, and uniting the audacity of Tamerlane with the arts of a waiting woman-exhibits, to use M. de Pradt's lively expression, a species of Jupiter-Scapin, which had not before appeared on the stage of the world.

ART. IV. 1. Hermes Scythicus: or the Radical Affinities of the Greek and Latin Languages to the Gothic: to which is prefixed a Dissertation on the Historical Proofs of the Scythian Origin of the Greeks. By John Jamieson, Ď. Ď. F. R. S. E. and F. S. A.S. Edinburgh. 1814. 8vo. pp. 390.

2. The Character of Moses established for Veracity as a Historian recording Events subsequent to the Deluge. By the Reverend Joseph Townsend, M. A. Rector of Pewsey, Wilts. · Vol. II. Bath. 1815. 4to. pp. 436.

IN our account of Adelung's Mithridates, (vol. X. p. 250,) we attempted to give an abstract of all that is either known with certainty, or supposed with probability, respecting the relations of different languages to one another, and the steps by which the more modern have been derived from the more ancient, and become current in their respective countries. The two works now under our consideration relate immediately to the same general subject, and contain illustrations and confirmations of some of the opinions expressed in the article to which we allude.

It will be recollected that, although we did not positively deny the existence of something like a connexion between all languages without exception, we asserted the total want of evidence of such a connexion with respect to a great number, which are to

lerably

lerably well known; and the propriety of making a distinction between such languages as are manifestly related to each other, and such as have not hitherto been shown to have any thing in common, and of dividing them all into classes, according to their respective relations: at the same time we found it necessary to deviate in some degree from this principle of classification, on account of the imperfection of our knowledge of a great number of languages, by substituting geographical or historical descriptions for the distinction of some of the classes, in the absence of more appropriate characteristics. Thus of the five classes, which we denominated Monosyllabic, Indoeuropean, Tataric, African, and American, the first two only are to be considered as constituted according to correct philological principles; we look on it as sufficiently ascertained that these two classes bear no resemblance to each other, in any essential part of any of the languages belonging to them; and that the coincidences of either of them with any of the languages of the Tataric or Atactic division are too few to deserve notice: but it is not to be understood that the languages of the other classes have any common character which entitles them to be ranked together, except that they are spoken by nations inhabiting the same continents, or the islands which have had communication with them.

We placed at the beginning of the third class three families, under the title Sporadic, which are the Tshudish or Finnish, the Hungarian, and the Albanian; next to these stand the Armenian and Georgian, as the first genera of the Caucasian order: and we remarked that the Sporadic families, which are in some measure geographically detached from the rest, stand next to the Indoeuropean class, as exhibiting an occasional resemblance to some of the languages contained in it, though not enough to make it certain that the connexion is essential or original; and that the coincidences of the Armenian with the Sanscrit and Persian are just sufficient to make it doubtful, whether these languages are the offspring of a common parent, or whether one of them may have merely borrowed detached words from the others.

These doctrines are rather exemplified than materially modified by the investigations of Dr. Jamieson and Mr. Townsend. Dr. Jamieson has shown, by very minute and elaborate comparison, the resemblance of the Greek and Latin languages to the older dialects of the Gothic, especially with regard to the particles and the terminations; that is, to such parts of the languages, as must necessarily have been the least subject to any accidental variations. Mr. Townsend has professedly extended his views to all existing languages, which he considers as uniformly bearing evident marks of One common origin: but all the languages which he distinctly exmines, with one or two exceptions, are either such as we have ar

VOL. XIV. NO. XXVII.

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ranged

ranged as indisputably belonging to the Indoeuropean class, or mentioned as having some pretensions to be enumerated among its members. The only exception of importance is the Mongol language, which we have classed as a species of the Turcotartarian, an insulated family, comprehending a considerable number of different dialects; and we must confess that the coincidences, observed by Vallancey, between Strahlenberg's vocabulary of this language and the Irish, are too numerous to be called altogether accidental. We also allow the force of such an example in making it probable that some other similar instances might be found, if the languages imperfectly known, and not hitherto sufficiently examined, were studied with care, by persons well qualified for the comparison, and intent on prosecuting the investigation. But we would not for the present willingly alter our arrangement of these dialects as belonging to the Tataric class: for they seem in fact to have so much less connexion with the Indoeuropean families, than most of these have with each other, that they scarcely deserve to stand precisely in the same rank with the rest. It must be remembered that, even on the supposition that any two languages are completely unconnected with each other, we have reason to expect at least one perfect coincidence between them; for if we suppose a certain number of radical words, nearly alike, to be attached fortuitously to an equal number of things named, we may find, by calculating upon the doctrine of probabilities, that exactly one word, on an average, may be expected to mean the same thing in both; and that it is just as probable that two words should agree, as that there should be no coincidence at all.

We also followed Professor Adelung in asserting, that the Greek can only have been immediately derived from the language of the neighbouring Thracians and Pelasgians, who seem to have come originally from the middle of Asia, through the countries north of the Black Sea, and to have occupied part of Asia Minor, as well as Greece and Thrace.' This opinion is amply discussed, and supported by historical documents, in Dr. Jamieson's prelimi nary dissertation. We shall proceed to give such an account of these works, as will enable our readers to judge of the manner in which they are executed, and of the degree in which they tend to confirm the doctrines to which they respectively relate; beginning with Mr. Townsend's, as the most comprehensive in its objects.

Mr. Townsend's first volume was published in 1813, under the title of The Character of Moses established for Veracity as an Historian, recording Events from the Creation to the Deluge:' it contains a theological, philosophical, and historical examination of the subject proposed, but the greater part of the work is devoted to geological investigations, establishing the credibility of a universal

versal deluge; and it is illustrated by a number of plates, containing delineations of a great variety of fossils, taken principally from original specimens. The second volume is almost entirely philological, being intended to confirm the historical account of the Dispersion of mankind from a single origin, and to explain the manner in which the Confusion of tongues must be supposed to have taken place. Of the method observed in this part of the work we may form some idea, by collecting the heads of the chapters or sections, which is so much the more necessary, as it has been printed without any table of contents, or even a running title; and indeed with respect to elegance and accuracy of typography, and all the mechanical part of an editor's business, it has a most unworkmanlike appearance.

On Languages, p. 1; compound words, 14; abbreviations, 25; transpositions, 29; orthography, 30; general conclusion, 38; investigation of radicals, 39. Of the first inhabitants of Britain, 59; of the English language, 70. On the Welsh language, 153; its affinity with Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic, 162; with Greek, 164; with Hebrew, 166. Of the Irish and Scots dialects, 172; abbreviations in Gaelic, 196; investigation of radicals, 205; affinity with the Welsh, 209; with English, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Gothic, 210; with Russian, 212; with Mungalic or Kalmuc, 214; with Sanscrit, 217; with Greek, 220; with Hebrew, 228. Of the Manks language, 232. On the Gothie languages, 238. Of the Danish language, 253. Of the Swedish language, 261. Of the Icelandic language, 262. Of the Moesogothic, 264; affinity between Danish and Greek, 266; Swedish and Greek, 279; Moesogothic and Greek, 295. The Persian language, 300. On the languages of India, 308. On the Russian language, 331; a voca bulary, English and Russian, 338; Greek and Russian, 345. Sclavonian, 351. On the Latin language, 363; on the Aeolic digamma, 369. On the Greek language, 372; affinity between Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, 395; Lapponic and Hebrew, 401. Hebrew, 407. Chaldee, 411. Arabic, 415. Syriac, 417. Ethiopic, 420. Coptic, 422. Turkish, 423. Tower of Babel, and confusion of tongues, 424; dispersion of mankind, 428; call of Abraham, 431; pastoral state, 433; population, 435; deliverance of Israel from Egypt, 435.

The affinities of the Celtic dialects, as well with the Gothic, as with many other families, are exemplified in instances so numerous, as to supersede the possibility of deriving them from any effects of accidental admixture; although Mr. Townsend has neither in this, nor in many other cases, been sufficiently attentive to the distinction of original from derivative and adopted words: thus the Chaldee of the Targum, written long after the subjection of the Jews: to the Roman power, is employed (p. 169) in order to show the relation of the Welsh and Latin to the Hebrew; and the English word crime, though clearly deduced from the Greek krino, is re

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