It is upon these principles that I propose to conduct the inquiry of which the results are embodied in these pages. CHAPTER I. ON THE EVIDENCE FURNISHED BY A COMPARISON OF THEIR LANGUAGES OF THE ORIGINAL UNITY OF THE VARIOUS NATIONS OF THE CONTINENTS OF ASIA, EUROPE, AFRICA, AND AMERICA. Absolute Identity of the Languages of the Four Continents when compared collectively. Illustrations from the Names of the Gods of Egypt, Greece, Italy, and India, showing the Origin of Idolatry. North American Indian Names for “The Great Spirit.” The proposition which forms the subject of this Chapter will be supported through the course of this work by the progressive development of a series of various but mutually connected proofs, which—both by their individual force, and by their harmonious combination,—will be found to be conclusive. But of these proofs there is only one branch which admits of being conveniently adverted to in this place. I allude to the evidence collected in Appendix A, in the form of a “Comparison of the most Common Terms in the African, Asiatic, European and American languages.” This comparison, though composing only a part of the proofs adduced, will be found to involve in itself evidence sufficient to establish the suggested conclusion, Moreover, the evidence therein embodied,—though copious in details, and strictly conforming to the principles laid down by philosophical writers on language, is simple in its nature and results, which may readily be appreciated by inquirers totally unaccustomed to philological investigations. For these reasons, the comparison instituted in Appendix A forms an appropriate subject of examination at the commencement of this work. Here, however, it must be premised that it will be impossible, without a complete perusal, to form a correct appreciation either of the facts or of the consequences developed in that Appendix. The explanations I shall present in this place must be viewed, therefore, in the light of a general and imperfect outline only. These explanations will be directed to— I. The Nature, II. The Results of the Comparison contained in Appendix A. I. _Of the Nature of the Comparison in Appendix A._ The languages of Africa have been chosen as the basis or _subject_ of comparison with which the languages of the other three continents have been collated. ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ This arrangement has been dictated by a consideration of the comparatively slight attention which has hitherto been paid to the languages of the Central and Southern Regions of Africa; and also by the peculiar physiology of the Negro and Hottentot tribes, which has induced some physiologists to refer the origin of these tribes to Races totally distinct from the other Families of mankind.