Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-09-30
TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
OFFICE OF INTERNAL REVENUE,
WASHINGTON. Sent. "a. 1872.

bly, be necessary to produce evidence of the real
time of their delivery, Of which the date is prma
facie evidence. Very respectfully,
J. W. DOUGLASS, Commissioner.
Adm Thayer, Esq, collector eighth district
Worcester, Mass.
ORIENTAL AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES: The
Veda; The Avesta; the Science of Language.
By William Dwight Whitney, Professor Of Sans
krit and Comparative Phiology, in Yale Col
lege. New York; Scribuer, Armstrong & Co.
This volume of 426 pages contains thirteen pa
pers on topics connected with the general sub
iects indicated by the title. They have been
| collected and somewhat revised all having been
previously published, some in the Journal of
the Oriental Society, some in the North Amer-
can Review, and some in other periodicals, in
the years from 1858 to 1872. Professor Whitney
is the most learned and diKgent Sanskrit
scholar in the country. 1t is to this department
of study, in connection with Comparative Phi
lology, that his attention has been chiefly di-
Teeted. Consequently, the most valuable papers
in this collection are those which relate directly
to Sanskrit studies; while those which required
an equal knowledge of some other oriental
studies, or a close acquaintance with the history
of speculative philosophy, are less satisfactory.
But they are all worth reading with care, and
the least valuable can be studied usefully, even
by their sharpest critics. The best papers in
the volume are the following The Vedas; The
Vedic Doctrine of a Future Life; Muller's His
tory of Vedie Literature; The Translation of the
Veda; Muller's Rg-Veda Translation; Muller's
| Lectures on Language; and The Avesta, in
which is shown the history and present condi-
ton of Avestan studies.
Among the other papers is one entitled "Indo-
| European Philology and EthnolOgy," wherein
Professor Whitney reviews two productions
| which deprecate and criticise some of the ex-
aggerated claims of Sanskrit studies; one OF
them by Professor Key of London the other by
| Jules Oppert, professor of Sanskrit in Paris.
We have read this paper with much interest,
because, in our day, really useful Oriental
scholarship requires a great deal more than
knowledge of Sanskrit. That part of it which
reviews Professor Key seems to us more sue
cessful than that in which Oppert is reviewed.
0ppert's discourse was provokiugly dogmatc,
and extreme in some of its statements; but he
presented an issue which is not wholly baseless.
In reviewing it, Professor Whitney is, at times,
no less dogmatic, and, therefore, fails to mani
fest clear and sharp sighted appreciation of
the issue between them. If he were as familiar
as Oppert with the study Of Chaldean inscrp-
tons, his views of Eastern and European ethnol-
ogy would be different, probably, from what
they appear TO be now. Professor Whitney can
not readily mention an assumption more I'M
| proved and unwauanted than that which de-
scribes the Greeks as pure unmixed Aryans,
because they spoke an Aryan tongue. The
science oil language, as he will admit, is not an
absolutely infallible guide in the study of ethnol-
| ogy, although very useful one. The probable
tiles are much more in favor of Oppert's theory,
that the people known as Greeks was formed by
mixture OF "Asiatic elements engrafted upon a
foundation of primitive population" on which
| an Aryau tongue was imposed by invasion or
by the supremacy of the Aryan element. In
our day, unmixed Aryans are not easy to find
on any part of the globe.
The other papers in Professor Whitney's book
are devoted to linguistic questions, and chiefly
to the origin of language. One of the best Of
them is entitled "Schleicher and the Physical
Theory Of Language" Professor Schleicher, an
eminent and learned German philologist, having
been persuaded to read Darwin, read admired,
believed, and Immediately put forth, in short
essay, what may be called a Darwinian theory
of the origin of language. In reviewing it, Pro-
fessor Whitney presents views which we find it
| difficult to reconcile with those presented in his
review Of Professor Steinthal. The explanation
may be found in the condition of his thought
relative to what is meant by the "origin" OF
language; for he appears TO confound its origin
with the "frst utterances" of the race, which is
just about as clear and consistent as it would be
to contound the first human being with the orr.
gin Of man. In one of the papers he says, "the
origin of language is purely scientific ques-
tion;" and, in the review of Stenthal, he APP
pears to exclude from the investigation all refer
ence to metaphysics, that is to say, all reference
to the spiritual and rational nature oil
man, by virtue of which the human
being has a spontaneous tendency to
| speak. On the other hand, in his work on
Language and the Science of Language" he
says, man was "created with the necessary im-
pulses and the necessary capacities for forming
language" What does he reallysmean? The
human beings spontaneous tendency to speak
originated language; the communications and
experiences Of life developed it. The human
tendency to speak keeps it alive, and its changes
through development and growth never cease.
If Prof Whitney means this, why does he criti-
else Steinthal so sharply? The does not mean
| this, why does his work on the "Science of
| Language" describe man as q being created
| with the impulses aud faculties necessary to
produce speech? The statement of his actual
meaning might be improved, if he would con-
slider more carefully, that the ''frst utterances'
of the first men, if we had a complete record Of
them, would not explain the origin of language
any more than particular description of these
first men would explain their origin. Mean
while those who discuss the point would gain
something, if they could understand distinctly
that all questions about origins so far as life OF
intelligence is concerned, are quite beyond The
reach Of both historical and scientific research
We hope this book will have abundant success
For sale by Grout & Putnam.
TRAVELS IN SoUTH AFRICA, COMPLIED and
Arranged by Bayard Taylor New York: Serb
ner, Armstrong & Co. This volume is a new
addition, by these publishers, to their "Illus
trated Library OF Travel, Exploration, and AID
venture" II is the fourth volume of that series
and will be followed by others. The traveller
whose books have been used by Mr.. Taylor il
compiling this work, are Mofat, Livingstone
Andersen, and Magyar; but DR.. Livingstone
books furnish much more material for the com
piler than all the Others together Mr. Taylo
has done his work well; and, in this octave {
1886 pages, be has given a clear account of wha
is known Of South Africa. He gives il in til
form Of a narrative, in which, as far as possible
each traveller is made to speak for himself an
give some account Of his adventures. The boo
has twenty-three pictorial illustrations, and
map of South Africa, on which are marked ii
, routes travelled by the four explorers aboy
named The work is intended as popular sun
mary o. the results Of exploration in that region
=. ana includes the latest reports from Dr. Living
s'ohe' FOR sale by Grout & Putnam.
e Inc Norwich Mercury English newsnape,
, leaIs on good authority that ON The 0s,b XII
LORD Walsingham, who has Inoors a, RI,Lo
mouse, Yorkshire, killed with bis own ann m
astounding number Of 842 head OF gronse 4
n these 900 were brought 10 bag before one o;cloc