Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/99

87 ON THE PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS,

WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THAT OF THE CARIBS.

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BEFORE THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY

THE 15th MARCH 1854.

Baron von Humboldt, in his first work on New Spain (Book II. ch. 6.), has expressed an opinion, which I believe he has never since either retracted or modified, that "the general question of the first origin of the inhabitants of a continent is beyond the limits prescribed to history, and is not perhaps even a philosophical question." To this latter declaration, made by one so justly eminent in literature, I think it becomes our duty to demur, as members of a Society devoted to the study of that new and important science of Ethnology, which takes for its ground of philosophical investigation the origin and relationship of the inhabitants of every portion of the globe. In the pursuit of the inquiries we have in this study to institute, we certainly have often to proceed beyond the limits of history, and, often to act independently of it, without, however, at any time conceding our claim to have those questions recognised as philosophical questions: for as we are told in law that circumstantial evidence is sometimes more trustworthy than positive testimony, so our inquiries may sometimes lead to results more satisfactory and convincing than the direct statements of authors, founded, as they often are on uncertain traditions, or mistaken information. The only history on which we can confidently rely for the correctness of its statements, where a distinct record is given, is that one contained in the Holy Scriptures; and as the fullest investigations have only served to authenticate and verify their statements, the more we take them for our rule and guidance, the more certain we may feel of our travelling in the right paths.