92 General Observations on [Feb. 



equally, if not more, reasonable, to assign to the cognate languages the 

 Pali and Prakrit, a distinct origin, from however a cognate source, pro- 

 vided the direct derivation of these last from the Sanscrit cannot be 

 proved. The Sclavonic, the Latin, the Celtic — Thracian, German and 

 Medo-Persian are all more or less allied to Sanscrit.* Jaubilicus 

 declares that the language used in the Mysteries was not that of Greece, 

 but of Egypt and Assyria, and Homer's dialect of the Gods, or the Ar- 

 kite Ogdoad, was Chaldee or Hebrew. The tongues too of Chaldea, 

 Syria, Palestine, Phenecia and Arabia, are kindred, and the radical lan- 

 guage was widely diffused to the north and east.f 



During this process of diffusion we may readily believe that it un- 

 derwent some modifications, especially before ; and perhaps by different 

 lines, it reached India. 



Lieut.-Col. Sykes goes so far as to say that proof is awanting to shew 

 that the Sanscrit, in its present form, existed until six or seven centuries 

 after the Pali. 



The brahmans, or those amongst them who were religiously inclin- 

 ed, finding perhaps on their reaching India, and for centures afterwards, 

 a race of settlers who were descendants of emigrants from the same 

 western regions as themselves, and thus allied to them in a great degree 

 in habits and feelings, readily coalesced with them ; and formed the 

 Brahmana or Ascetic school of holy men, each acting for himself, yet 

 associating to a certain extent in selected places, leaving the gods, which 

 then may have been recognized, to be venerated or worshipped by the 

 multitude ; until the latter, running into the first extravagances of poly- 

 theism, called for regenerators and reformers, beginning with the first 

 Buddha, unless the process had begun before the ascetic amalgamation 

 had taken place, and could then be reduced to a reasonable period. J 



* M. Suffarik. Foreign Quarterly Review, Oct. 1840. 



f Faber quoting Diodorus, Vol. I. 



% Wilford observes, " that long before Christ, a renovation of the universe was 

 expected all over the world with a Saviour, a King of peace and justice, 1 and 

 the Magi of Scripture carried this idea with them from the East. 



" The new Asse or Godlike men from the east, took to themselves the names of 

 the ancient ones and gave themselves to be the real Asse or Gods." 2 Odin was one of 

 these. The Emperor Augustus was consecrated a God after his death, and both be- 

 fore and after it temples were erected in his honor and sacrifices offered to him. 

 1 As. Res. Vol. X. p. 27. 2 Ditto quoting Gylfe. 



