Among Orientalists, both in Germany and in this country, an opinion prevails that there is a specific connexion among certain Asiatic and European Nations, which they have accordingly classed together as members of what they term the Indo-European race. The principal Nations included in this class are the Hindoos, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Russians, and other Sclavonic Nations; the English, Germans, and other Gothic Nations; the Irish and Welsh, and other Celtic Nations, have more recently been ranged under the same appellation, in consequence of the researches of Dr. Prichard, M. Pictet, and Dr. Karl Meyer. The advocates of a distinct Indo-European race assume either that there is no connexion, or a comparatively slight one, between the various languages of that race and those of the ancient inhabitants of Judea, Arabia, and other contiguous nations. This theory may be viewed as a modification of a conclusion expressed by Sir William Jones in his Discourse on the Origin and Families of Nations. “That the first race of _Persians_ and _Indians_, to whom we may add the _Romans_ and _Greeks_, the Goths, and the old _Egyptians_ or _Ethiops_, originally spoke the same language and professed the same popular faith, is capable, in my humble opinion, of incontestible proof; that the _Jews_ and _Arabs_, the _Assyrians_ or second _Persian_ race, the people who spoke _Syriack_, and a numerous tribe of _Abyssinians_, used one primitive dialect wholly distinct from the idiom just mentioned, is, I believe, undisputed, and, I am sure, indisputable.”(94) While one class of writers have adopted the views of Sir William Jones, another class have maintained a very opposite opinion, viz. that the Hebrew is connected, not merely as a sister but as a parent, with all the other languages of the globe. The unreasonableness of this opinion, which is totally unsupported by authority, sacred or profane, has been forcibly pointed out by Adelung, who observes, “Of all the Semetic languages the Hebrew is the youngest; the Hebrew nation still slumbered in the loins of their patriarch Abraham at a time when the whole south-west of Asia, even including the eastern banks of the Tigris, was already filled with Semetic(95) nations and tongues.” The proofs of affinity between the Hebrew and other tongues which have been adduced by the writers last referred to, are in many instances perfectly sound and legitimate. But owing to the untenable nature of the proposition with which they are associated, they have had no influence in opposition to the opinions of those celebrated men who have denied the existence of any such affinity between the Hebrew and the Indo-European tongues.