the Empire, once so great, of Persia, and the multitudinous tribes of Hindostan. Its history is more glorious, its renown is more diffused, its progress in science and in art is more advanced, its religion is more pure, its politics and its laws are more beneficent and more just, than those which prevail elsewhere upon earth. It, too, is that great mother of men by whose sons vast continents have been, and still are being, won from the wildness of nature, and converted to purposes of human use and human enjoyment. By their strong arms and their bold hearts the aspiration of Poseidon[1] has been fulfilled, and the Aryan name and the Aryan fame have been borne wherever Eos sheds her rays. The early history of such a race is worth an inquiry for itself. Except, therefore, when it is necessary to prove the present existence of some social force which has ceased to operate among ourselves, I have omitted all notice of non-Aryan peoples. If no conclusions be drawn wider than the premises, if the assertions made be limited to Aryan men, no reasonable objection can be taken to this course. We thereby sacrifice, indeed, much that is of interest, and detract much from the pretensions of our inquiry to scientific rank. Yet, if we lose in extent, we gain in accuracy. Our evidence as to early Aryan institutions is far superior to the evidence respecting the institutions of any other people, except the Hebrews. Most of our knowledge of other races rests upon the unsupported testimony of travellers or sojourners. Of these persons, many had little competency as observers. Even where the skill of the observer is undisputed, the difficulty of communication between men whose intellects are on a different level, the difficulty of explaining in a strange language strange and complicated customs, and the fact that the information thus
- ↑ σὸν δ' ἤτοι κλέος ἔσται ὅσον τ' ἐπικίδναται ἠώς.—Il., vii., 458.
