112 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



the time of Abraham the languages of those 

 great leading stocks must have been nearly 

 as far apart as they are now. Professor Max 

 Miiller is of opinion that to the Hymns of 

 the Vedas a later date cannot be assigned 

 than 1,200 B.C. Homer and Hesiod are in all 

 probability referable to a later date, but not 

 so much later as to cast any doubt on the 

 conclusion that both Greek and Sanskrit were 

 then perfectly developed. Those who have 

 studied the growth of languages, and the 

 mysterious laws by which that growth is 

 regulated, are lost in conjecture as to the 

 lapse of time which may probably have been 

 required to account for the wonderful creations 

 of Human Speech, 



Next comes the evidence of Geology, which 



