This empire, then, of the Turks was of a Tartar character; yet it was the first step of their passing from barbarism to that degree of civilization 25 which is their historical badge. And it was their first step in civilization, not so much by what it did in its day, as (unless it be a paradox to say so) by its coming to an end. Indeed it so happens, that those Turkish tribes which have 30 changed their original character and have a place in the history of the world, have obtained their _status_ and their qualifications for it, by a process very different from that which took place in the nations most familiar to us. What this process 5 has been I will say presently; first, however, let us observe that, fortunately for our purpose, we have still specimens existing of those other Turkish tribes, which were never submitted to this process of education and change, and, in 10 looking at them as they now exist, we see at this very day the Turkish nationality in something very like its original form, and are able to decide for ourselves on its close approximation to the Tartar. You may recollect I pointed out to 15 you, Gentlemen, in the opening of these lectures, the course which the pastoral tribes, or nomads as they are often called, must necessarily take in their emigrations. They were forced along in one direction till they emerged from their 20 mountain valleys, and descended their high plateau at the end of Tartary, and then they had the opportunity of turning south. If they did not avail themselves of this opening, but went on still westward, their next southern pass would 25 be the defiles of the Caucasus and Circassia, to the west of the Caspian. If they did not use this, they would skirt the top of the Black Sea, and so reach Europe. Thus in the emigration of the Huns from China, you may recollect a tribe of 30 them turned to the South as soon as they could, and settled themselves between the high Tartar land and the sea of Aral, while the main body went on to the furthest West by the north of the Black Sea. Now with this last passage into Europe we are not here concerned, for the Turks 5 have never introduced themselves to Europe by means of it;[33] but with those two southward passages which are Asiatic, viz., that to the east of the Aral, and that to the west of the Caspian. The Turkish tribes have all descended upon the 10 civilized world by one or other of these two roads; and I observe, that those which have descended along the east of the Aral have changed their social habits and gained political power, while those which descended to the west of the Caspian 15 remain pretty much what they ever were. The