s 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 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 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 have never introduced themselves to Europe by means of it;[16]
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 civilized world by one or other of
these two roads; and I observe, that those which have descended along
the east of the