EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



races which they brought into servitude. In this 

 sense of noble, the word frequently occurs in 

 the composition of Persian proper names, such 

 as Ariobarzanes, Ariaramnes, and Ariarathes ; 

 just as in old English we have the equivalent 

 word ethely or noble, in such names as Ethel- 

 wolf and Ethelred. As an ethnic name, there- 

 fore, the word Aryan seems to have a tinge of 

 patriotic or clannish self-satisfaction about it. 

 But we shall find, I think, that such a shade of 

 meaning has been more than justified by his- 

 tory ; for we have now reached a point where we 

 may profitably enlarge the scope of our discus- 

 sion, and show how the term Aryan is properly 

 applicable, not merely over an Indo-Persian, but 

 over an Indo-European area, comprehending 

 the most dominant races known to history, 

 the Greeks and Romans, Slavs and Teutons, 

 with the highly composite English, whose lan- 

 guage and civilization are now spreading them- 

 selves with unexampled rapidity over all the 

 hitherto unoccupied regions of the earth, which 

 the Vendidad did not care or did not know how 

 to specify. In order to explain in what sense 

 we may all properly be called Aryans, we must 

 consider for a moment some of the striking re- 

 sults which have been obtained, within the pre- 

 sent century, from the comparative study of 

 languages. 



No event of modern times has exerted a 



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