Note 35 — CHAP. VIII.

This consideration on the transient nature of languages, and especially of those whose fleeting sounds have never been fixed by any graphic invention, makes it the more surprizing how Lord Kames, in his sketch on the origin and progress of American nations, after observing that no passage by land had been discovered between America and the old world, should have given it as his opinion, that an enquiry, much more decisive at to the former being peopled by the latter, might be pursued, by ascertaining whether the same language be spoken by the inhabitants on the two sides of the strait that divides the northern regions of America from Kamskatka. And that, after finding this not to be the case, he should conclude that the former could not have been peopled by the latter. Had not Lord Kames written upon a system of a separate and local creation, pre-established in his own mind, he would unquestionably have laid more stress upon a resemblance in their physical characters, in their superstitions and religious notions, than on similarity of language; which, among the many acquirements of the human species, or of human institution, is not the least liable to change by a change of situation, especially where no written character has been employed to fix it. His Lordship's conclusion is the more extraordinary, as he had already observed that the resemblance between them was perfect in every other respect.