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quisite picture of the early life of our Aryan ancestors, ere yet it had degenerated into that state of apathy, superstition and obscene immorality in which we now find it. The whole sketch will be familiar to those of our readers who have read the interesting compilation of Mrs. Spier on ancient India, or whose studies have led them to that mine of Indian wealth, the Indische Alterthumskunde of Lassen. The lecture was delivered before one of those brilliant intellectual audiences that so often meet in Berlin, and is well worthy of the capital that the Schlegels and their school so often delighted with original speculations in poetry, philosophy and history. Taking then these works and the History of English Scholarship in India as our guide, let us look for a little at the history of this youthful Science, and see how far in its methods or materials, it has been assisted by the research and linguistic studies of our own countrymen and others in India.

The founder of Comparative Philology properly so called was undoubtedly Leibnitz. But previous to his time there had been many speculations among the ancient Greek philosophers, and the schoolmen of the middle ages, as to the origin of language, the logical connexion between thought and expression, and in short the reason for all those rules and forms which we term grammar. That mysterious existence-Pythagoras, in whom is mythically represented all the knowledge of antediluvian times, and who, in germ at least, is looked upon as having anticipated some of the greatest discoveries of subsequent ages, himself represented the two wisest among things as number and name-giving. Heracleitus and Democritus disputed with each other as to the nature of words,' and instituted that question which continued down through the middle ages to divide the logical world. As seen in the discussions of their disciples Cratylus and Hermogenes, and as brought out in the dialogue of their pupil Plato called by the name of the former, the matter resolved itself into this. Do words naturally (pura) correspond to the objects that they represent, or are they entirely arbitrary, and applied by the mere arrangement (ere) of men? The objective and the subjective schools thus arose, which taken up respectively by Plato and Aristotle, in course of time attracted Lucretius, Cicero and Caesar among the Romans, and many of the Alexandrian and Byzantine philosophers. In the middle ages, the question assumed more of a logical aspect in the great dispute between the Realists and Nominalists, and in the case of some became a practical one to be determined by lists of words and grammatical laws. At this point the logical and grammatical elements separated, and the latter henceforth divested of the subtleties as well as the support of the former, resolved itself into purely lexical

enquiries which were disfigured and rendered formidable to enquirers by the jargon of the schools. Towards the approach of modern times, however, in the fifteenth century, light began to dawn, and travellers of intelligence and observation, as they visited lands, and had intercourse with tribes hitherto unknown, were led to attend to the new languages that met their ear, and were attracted by resemblances in them to their own. Here then was Philology rescued from the grammatical quibbles of doctors, and the element of comparison at once brought to bear upon it. In the time of Charles V, an Italian, called Antonio Pigafetta, was allowed to accompany the great voyager Magelhaens in his search for the Western Passage. While defending his leader, he was wounded at the Phillippine Islands, but escaped, with seventeen of his fellows, and two valuable MSS. The one consisted of an amusing journal which was presented to the emperor and afterwards to Pope Clement VII, the other of three vocabularies of the dialects spoken in Brazil, Patagonia and Tidore in the Moluccas. The custom of making out such vocabularies of words soon spread, especially among the Dutch, and from MSS. which were stored in the library of Leyden, Reland published more extensive ones. To such was Klaproth afterwards indebted, when engaged in drawing up his laborious work, the "Asia Polyglotta.'

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Another source whence light was cast on the subjects embraced by our Science was biblical criticism, as pursued during the middle ages, and the period of the reformation in the sixteenth century. The study of Hebrew naturally led to that of its cognate languages, and comparisons between them were occasionally but blindly made. Julius Cæsar Scaliger and Bochart most distinguished themselves in this way. The early Missionaries, too, of the Roman Catholic Church, like the travellers of whom we have spoken, were led to devote attention to the languages of the tribes among whom they lived, and soon, as most convenient for comparison, the Lord's prayer in the different languages was adopted, just as at a later time, the parable of the prodigal son was used for the same purpose. Hence we have many collections of Paternosters, the best of which in those early days is the Mithridates of Gesner, published in 1555, in which we find, in addition, a list of all languages then known to be spoken. A more extensive series" was in 1715 published at Amsterdam by Chamberlayne. The data for such had meanwhile been gradually accumulating. Such were the dim beginnings of a Science which in modern times has accomplished so much for history and ethnology. Up to this point, it presents none of the lineaments of a Science, nor can we recognize it as such. But at the beginning of the eighteenth DEC., 1857.

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century, Leibnitz, equally great as a philosopher, a mathematician, and a philologist, directed his attention to it. For the purpose of carrying out investigations on the subject, he founded the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, and in a memoir read before it in 1700, as well as in a letter to Tenzel, he distinctly enunciates the principles of the Science, as they have since been developed, proved and evolved in detail. Rejecting the absurd hypothesis which rested the proof of the unity of language on the Hebrew, he at once took the immense leap of shewing the connexion between comparative philology and ethnology, as expressed in that memorable sentence, which Bunsen quotes: "Brevis designatio meditationum de originibus gentium ductis 'potissimum ex indicio linguarum." Henceforth the two are combined together as one Science, and shed a bright light on the early history of nations, and on the origin of all that constitutes their nationality, where otherwise there would have been thick darkness.

It is now that we can classify the details of the history of the Science, and slightly altering Bunsen's division, consider it under these periods.

I. From Leibnitz to Sir William Jones-the period of factcollecting, 1700 to 1794.

II. From Sir William Jones to William Von Humboldt-the period of lexical or glossarial affinity-the Indian or Sanskrit period, 1795 to 1835.

III. From William Von Humboldt to Bunsen-the period of grammatical affinity, 1835 to 1855.

It is with the second of these that we have chiefly to do.

Looking for a moment however at the first period, we see Leibnitz to be the founder of Comparative Grammar. It was he who first shewed that it is of value only in so far as the element of comparison' is brought to bear on it, and that it is the only guide in the dim beginnings of history, and the early migrations of nations. With him the matter remained for a time, and his hints, which were almost prophetic, were neglected. Fifty years afterwards the first of our English philologers, to whom the name can, with any justice, be applied, arose. John Harris published his Hermes' in 1751, but evidently ignorant of what Leibnitz had suggested before him, he again went back into the error of confining himself to mere etymology and grammatical quibbling. Bunsen says, that " he laid the foundation of grammatical philosophy," but this we question. He no more did this than Plato and Aristotle, followed by the schoolmen, had done, for a philosophy of language properly so called, and not of individual languages, must be based on comparison. Much more clever and suggestive were the speculations of his opponent Horne Tooke,

who, in his "Diversions of Purley," has given us a work that will be remembered long after the Hermes.'

The man who most marks the spirit and results of this period, is a Jesuit of the name of Hervas, or more fully Don Lorenzo Hervas y Pandura. With all the enthusiasm and energy of his order, he pursued the study, and derived large information from his own brethren who had been in foreign lands, and whose linguistic skill has ever been famed. He was essentially a collector of words, and most industriously provided materials from which, with fuller information, and a more liberal spirit, his successors might deduce great laws. We see this especially in his "Vocabolario Poliglotto con prolegomeni sopra piu di 150 Lingue," which was published in 1787, as a supplement to his "Aritmetica delle Nazioni."

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The hint as to the connexion between our Science and Ethnology, which Leibnitz had distinctly given, was taken up by Blumenbach in the course of his physiological researches. His investigations were contiuued with increased success; and the connexion between Ethnology and Physiology more fully developed by succeeding scholars to the time of Cuvier in France, J. Müller in Germany, and Prichard in England. It was he who first scientifically established the truth of the Scripture statement as to the unity of the human race, and in so doing, he was not a little indebted to linguistic Science. But for many years after Leibnitz, no philologers properly so called arose, and the Science was represented in England merely by such men as Harris and Horne Tooke. Efforts were however made in the North of Europe by the Empress Catherine II. of Russia, to direct the attention of the learned of her kingdom, then emerging from the state of semibarbarism, to the Science. Herself taking the initiative, she made out large comparative lists of words, and having deduced from the affinities that she discovered many laws that have since been more fully established, she passed over the work to Pallas, that he might carry it out still farther. Hence the " Lingua'rum Vocabularia Comparativa" was published in 1787.

Still this was a mere "Vocabularium" and nothing more, and the Science wanted a philosophic spirit or principle to be applied to it, that would cause it to take its place in the foremost rank of the inductive Sciences. Its scholars had hitherto been like men groping their way in the dim obscurity of a mist, delighted by occasional gleams of light, but wandering on for ever in uncertain paths. One attempt was made to reduce languages to order, and to classify them according to some fixed standard by Adelung so late as 1806. It was then that he published his "Mithridates," afterwards continued by Vater, a work that has

since been to the Science what the 'Sententia' of Petrus Lombardus were to the philosophy of the middle ages. Bunsen correctly characterizes Adelung, when he says that he was "merely a linguist, and neither an accurate philologer nor a deep philo'sopher."

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The clue to unravel the intricacies of language, and to lay anew the foundations of Comparative Grammar philologically, as Leibnitz had done philosophically, was found in India, in the Sanskrit. From the moment that its stores of wealth were opened up by the adventurous curiosity of a few Englishmen, it was studied with avidity by all scholars-especially by the English and Gerit became a stable foundation on which the whole nomology of the Science might, under the guidance of a strict induction, be built, and threw a light upon early history, so bright and so clear, that we can now read with a full sense of certainty the life of our early Aryan ancestors, ere they left their provincial plains in Iran, ere the Celt, followed at distant periods by the Pelasgian and the Teuton, emigrated to Europe, and those of their brethren whom they left behind, branched off and became the founders of the glory of Persia and Hindustan. We may well then look upon this as the beginning of a second period in the history of the Science, and date it from the foundation of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, and the first publication of Sir William Jones in 1783.

The question as to who was the first European that studied Sanskrit in India, is we fear too difficult to be certainly answered. The credit of it, and in their case it is of a very doubtful character, most probably lies with the Jesuit Missionaries in India. We have already seen that they often contributed materials from which comparative lists and tables of words were drawn up, and spared no labour nor expense to fit themselves for gaining an ascendancy over the minds of the heathen of those countries in which they preached. It was in the year 1545, that the great St. Francis Xavier landed in South India, and began a career unprecedented in the history of Missions for folly, enthusiasm and disinterested unselfishness. Meanwhile his friend and contemporary was laying in Europe the foundation of the society of Jesus, which had for one of its special objects, to preach the Gospel, as taught by the Roman Catholic Church, in heathen lands. The history of their efforts in India is well known, and has been more than once described in these pages. The college of St. Paul at Goa, and still more at Madura, contained many who in their own land, had been scholars of no mean order, and who devoted themselves to the study of the various dialects of South India, and especially to their parent the Sanskrit, with wonderful assiduity and success. While there is no ground for believing the statement of Father

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