EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



son, which first made it possible for us to un- 

 derstand the past history of life on our globe. 

 It is none the less true not only that systematic 

 employment of the comparative method on an 

 extensive scale is the most notable philosophic 

 achievement of the nineteenth century, but also 

 that its first great triumph was the establishment 

 of the Aryan, or Indo-European, family of lan- 

 guages. This triumph was prepared by the 

 study of Sanskrit, which ensued upon the Eng- 

 lish conquest of India. Previous to this, indeed, 

 the close resemblance between Greek and Latin 

 had been often enough remarked, and theories 

 had been entertained concerning a primeval kin- 

 ship between the peoples of Greece and Italy. 

 But in the case of peoples so similar in aspect and 

 so closely connected with one another from time 

 immemorial, this similarity of speech did not 

 provoke much curiosity. It was quite otherwise 

 when a language unmistakably akin to Greek 

 and Latin, both in grammar and vocabulary, was 

 discovered in such an out of the way country 

 as Hindustan, and among a people who had 

 hitherto been generally supposed to be barba- 

 rians. The discovery was emphasized by the 

 fact that no such obvious resemblances existed 

 in Hebrew, a language much nearer geographi- 

 cally and historically, and from which there had 

 been no end of futile attempts to derive Latin 

 and Greek. Further interest was excited when 



