168 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
no less pleasure that they hold the secret of human history at a 
period prior to all record. The classical mythology, so familiar to 
us as schoolboys, has its explanation in Sanscrit etymologies ; our 
very fairy tales—our “ Puss in Boots,” our “ Jack the Giant Killer” 
—can be shown to be not peculiar to our own nurseries, but the 
common property of Eastern and Western children alike, for thou- 
sands of years. And in presence of these facts I descry, with no 
unreasonable enthusiasm, I hope, a new light breaking upon the old 
confines of history, and an horizon opening, where once brooded 
impenetrable darkness. 
I emphatically impressed upon you last year the fast growing 
importance of the comparative study of the great Eastern Language, 
“‘ which has invigorated all languages more or less,” and I expressed 
my conviction that out of the study would arise much elucidation 
of the prehistoric life of man, illustrating for us the condition of 
thought, language, civilisation, and religion in the primeval world. 
I need hardly remind you, how fully my anticipations have been 
realised. But I must not omit to indicate to you the direction 
which educated thought is taking on the whole subject which has 
gathered around this Sanscrit Centre; and in doing this, I am entirely 
within the scope of my present vocation to point out some salient 
instances of continuous and correlative knowledge, and so to illus- 
trate that unity of science, that growth of a Catholic philosophy, 
which shall ever onwards advance, in turns instigating, and im- 
pelled by advancing thought and thinkers. A year ago, when I 
had the honour of addressing you on a kindred topic, there was 
being organised at Paris, under the best help and auspices, Tue 
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF ORIENTALISTS, whose general drift is 
indicated by this title of their Society. Their object implies the 
widest ambition ; this new body proposes nothing less than com- 
passing first Iurope, in her capitals, and then other centres of 
influence in the civilized world. Their sessions are sectional like 
those of our British Association and Social Science assemblies. 
Thus attention is secured to special enquiries in different fields of 
linguistic investigation, as well as to the demands of generalisation, 
more and more made in the interests of Comparative Philology and 
Universal Grammar. ‘This year the Orientalists have held their 
second congress In our metropolis, and the occasion has collected 
from all quarters the most illustrious scholars of various countries. 
China, India, Egypt, Persia, Palestine, the classic countries of 
