having more in common with monkeys
than with men, and presenting the regular degree, or intermediate class,
between the _homo civilis_ and the _homo sylvestris_. The circumstance,
however, which afterwards transpired, of Peter's having been found with
the remains of a shirt-collar about his neck, threw considerable
discredit on the whole story; and the young savage, on being brought to
England by order of Queen Caroline, lived in Hertfordshire for many
years, perfectly harmless and tractable, and behaving pretty much the
same as other idiots. The idea, therefore, of a race of men, in a
healthy, natural condition, having ever existed without the possession
of reason, is now deemed wholly fallacious. It is even maintained by
Schlegel, and other authorities of great weight, that the civilized
state is the primitive one, and that savage life is a degeneracy from
it, rather than civilized society being a graft upon barbarity. By
Schlegel's theory, the East, especially India, was the earliest seat of
arts and sciences; from the Sanscrit, or Indian language, now extinct,
are the Hebrew, the Chaldaic, the Greek, and many others of the most
ancient tongues, derived; and from the wisdom and learning of the East
"was the whole earth overspread." Undoubtedly it is difficult to imagine
by what gradation language could have proceeded, from the howl of
savages, and the cries of nature, till it reached the eloquent music,
the heart-stirring oratory of the Greek; and besides this, and other
considerations, Schlegel is supported by the opinions of Adelung, the
learned author of "Mithridates, oder Allgemeine Sprachenkunde," upon the
probable habitation of the first family of the human race. Adelung says,
that civilization began in Asia, as is, indeed, universally admitted to
have been the case; and that when the waters of the flood subsided, the
highest ground, we may naturally conclude, must have been the earliest
inhabited. We may also reasonably presume that a beneficent Providence
would place the first family in a situation where their wants could be
easily satisfied; in a garden, as it were, stocked with all herbs and
fruits, fit and agreeable to their use and taste. Now such a country is
actually to be found in Central Asia, between the degrees of 30 and 50
North lat. and 90 and 110 long. E. of Ferro; a spot as high as the
Plains of Quito, or 9,500 feet above the level of the sea. It contains
the sources of most of the great rivers o