Note 287 — EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND.

Wiseman’s Lectures on the Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion, i. 44. The Celtic has been established as a member or group of the Indo-European family, by the work of Dr. Prichard, on the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations. “First,” says Dr. Wiseman, “he has examined the lexical resemblances, and shewn that the primary and most simple words are the same in both, as well as the numerals and elementary verbal roots. Then follows a minute analysis of the verb, directed to shew its analogies with other languages, and they are such as manifest no casual coincidence, but an internal structure radically the same. The verb substantive, which is minutely analysed, presents more striking analogies to the Persian verb than perhaps any other language of the family. But Celtic is not thus become a mere member of this confederacy, but has brought to it most important aid; for, from it alone can be satisfactorily explained some of the conjugational endings in the other languages. For instance, the third person plural of the Latin, Persian, Greek, and Sanscrit ends in nt, nd, ντι, ντο, nti, or nt. Now, supposing, with most grammarians, that the inflexions arose from the pronouns of the respective persons, it is only in Celtic that we find a pronoun that can explain this termination; for there, too, the same person ends in nt, and thus corresponds exactly, as do the others, with its pronoun, hwynt, or ynt.”