-XXIV APPENDIX. 



tion with me Is, that, supposing the Hindi to have been the current language of the 

 country it had radical ambiguities which Behram Gor might judiciously wish to re- 

 medy. It is natural to surmise that he sought to effect this, not (as has been hastily 

 supposed) by a forcible suppression of the dialect in general use, but by exerting the 

 influence of his Court as well as of his public establishments, to which the edict 

 was probably addressed, for procuring the adoption of a connected dialect of the 

 same language, intelligible to all and into which the crowd would gradually slide 

 through the example of their superiors. 



For the dilatation of this hypothesis it would have been necessary to bring toge- 

 ther a mass of collateral proofs, as well as to show what is the internal evidence of 

 an original language, and what are the cases in which the identity of unconnected 

 words in two languages should furnish inference of the descent of one from the other 

 instead of being ascribed to casual introduction. Each would be a laborious detail, 

 and the scope appeared to me far beyond any leisure I could allot to it. After all, 

 the point may seem little material ; yet disquisitions of this sort are seldom without 

 their use. Towards deciding the earlier history of nations they are important. The 

 connection of language powerfully confirms recorded facts which otherwise might be 

 questionable, while the absence of it is a regulation of particulars too lightly admit- 

 ted into annals. 



Here I must stop. The cessation is painful, because it reminds me of the word I have 

 to pronounce. Farewell. I do not utter it as a common place formulary of leave-tak- 

 ing, but with that earnest wish for the welfare of each of you which must be prompt- 

 ed by all you have taught me to feel towards you. 



Kesolved, That these proceedings be printed in the Appendix of the volume of the 

 Researches now in the Press. 



