Doctor Barton thinks they are
not specifically different from the Persians; but, taking afterwards a
broader range, he thinks, 'that in all the vast countries of America,
there is but one language, nay, that it may be proven, or rendered
highly probable, that all the languages of the earth bear some affinity
together.' This reduces it to a question of definition, in which every
one is free to use his own: to wit, What constitutes identity, or
difference in two things, in the common acceptation of sameness? All
languages may be called the same, as being all made up of the same
primitive sounds, expressed by the letters of the different alphabets.
But, in this sense, all things on earth are the same, as consisting of
matter. This gives up the useful distribution into genera and species,
which we form, arbitrarily indeed, for the relief of our imperfect
memories. To aid the question, from whence our Indian tribes descended,
some have gone into their religion, their morals, their manners,
customs, habits, and physical forms. By such helps it may be learnedly
proved, that our trees and plants of every kind are descended from
those of Europe; because, like them, they have no locomotion, they
draw nourishment from the earth, they clothe themselves with leaves
in spring, of which they divest themselves in autumn for the sleep of
winter, he. Our animals too must be descended from those of Europe,
because our wolves eat lambs, our deer are gregarious, our ants hoard,
&c.
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