298 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi 



In seeking for a solution of this obscure problem, 

 it is an important preliminary to grasp the. truth 

 that the Aryan race must be much older than the 

 primitive Aryan speech. It is not to be seriously 

 imagined that the latter sprang suddenly into ex- 

 istence, by the act of a jealous Deity, apparently 

 unaware of the strength of man's native tendency 

 towards confusion of speech. But if all the di- 

 verse languages of men were not brought suddenly 

 into existence, in order to frustrate the plans of 

 the audacious bricklayers of the plain of Shinar; 

 if this professedly historical statement is only an- 

 other " type," and primitive Aryan, like all other 

 languages, was built up by a secular process of de- 

 velopment, the blond long-heads, among whom it 

 grew into shape, must for ages have been, philo- 

 logically speaking, non-Aryans, or perhaps one 

 should say " pro- Aryans." I suppose it may be 

 safely assumed that Sanskrit and Zend and Greek 

 were fully differentiated in the year 1500 b. c. If 

 so, how much further back must the existence of 

 the primitive Aryan, from which these proceeded, 

 be dated? And how much further yet, that real 

 juventus mundi (so far as man is concerned) when 

 primitive Aryan was in course of formation? 

 And how much further still, the differentiation of 

 the nascent Aryan blond long-head race from the 

 primitive stock of mankind? 



If any one maintains that the blond long-headed 

 people, among whom, by the hypothesis, the 



