i.,^ Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [JuLY f 



" 10*7* May, 1866. 



" My dear Grote, — I enclose you a slip report of a small lecture 

 which I gave on the spur of the moment (in default of other papers) 

 at the Royal Asiatic Society. 



" The subject is one of considerable interest, and it is singular that 

 all and every bit of evidence should tend to the same end. The result, 

 however, is only exactly what we were fully prepared for, i. e. that the 

 Aryans left their early homes long after the other nations of the 

 world had achieved a large amount of civilization. The only point 

 of peculiar interest to us Indians is the course of the Aryan alphabets 

 downwards. I am quite clear about the Bactrian adaptation from the 

 Phoenician, and am equally convinced of the originality of the concep- 

 tion of the Lat alphabet, which was primarily designed for I>ravidian 

 or Scythic forms of speech. I have been collecting proofs of this for 

 some time past, and each fresh enquiry the more and more confirms my 

 early impression ! But I am anxious to learn all that can be said 

 against my position, which I am, however, quite prepared to abandon 

 on proof of error. If you can elicit any discussion on the point, it 

 may enlighten us all ! and your observations will reach England long 

 before I shall be in a position to print, even if I do write anything 

 beyond what I have already said I 



E. B, Thomas." 



The following is the printed extract enclosed in Mr. Thomas's 

 letter : — 



u The following are the positions laid down by Mr. Thomas as the< 

 result of his palseographical investigations : — The Aryans invented no 

 alphabet of their own for their special form of human speech, but were, 

 in all their migrations, indebted to the nationality amid whom they 

 settled for their instruction in the science of writing. 1. The Persian 

 Cuneiform owed its origin to the Assyrian, and the Assyrian Cunei- 

 form emanated from an antecedent Turanian symbolic character. 2. 

 The Greek and Latin alphabets were manifestly derived from the 

 Phoenician. 3. The Bactrian was adapted to its more precise functions 

 by a re-construction and amplification of Phoenician models. 4. The 

 D< vandgari was appropriated to the expression of the Sanskrit language 

 from the pre-existing Indian Pali or Ldt alphabet, which was obviously 



