the munificent MARUTS, blowing
upon their pipe, have conferred, when exhilarated by the _soma_
juice, desirable (gifts upon the sacrificer)!

11. They brought the crooked well to the place (where the _Muni_
was), and sprinkled the water upon the thirsty GOTAMA: the
variously-radiant (MARUTS) come to his succour, gratifying the
desire of the sage with life-sustaining waters!

12. Whatever blessings (are diffused) through the three worlds, and
are in your gift, do you bestow upon the donor (of the libation),
who addresses you with praise; bestow them, also, MARUTS, upon us,
and grant us, bestowers of all good, riches, whence springs
prosperity!

If we investigate the antiquity of these hymns we shall find no definite
and unimpeachable date. Their epoch is assigned on the score of internal
evidence. The language is so much more archaic than that of the
Institutes, and the mythology so much simpler; whilst the Institutes
themselves are similarly circumstanced in respect to the Epics. Fixing
these at about 200, B.C.; we allow so many centuries for the archaisms
of Menu, and so many more for those of the Vedas. For the whole, eleven
hundred has not been thought too little, which places the Vedas in the
fourteenth century, B.C., and makes them the earliest, or nearly the
earliest records in the world.

It is clear that this is but an approximation, and, although all
inquirers admit that creeds, languages, and social conditions present
the phenomena of _growth_, the opinions as to the _rate_ of such growths
are varied, and none of much value. This is because the particular
induction required for the formation of anything better than a mere
impression has yet to be undertaken--till when, one man's guess is as
good as another's. The age of a tree may be reckoned from its concentric
rings, but the age of a language, a doctrine, or a polity, has neither
bark nor wood, neither teeth like a horse, nor a register like a child.

Now the antiquity of the Vedas, as inferred from the archaic character
of their language, has been shaken by the discovery of the structure of
the Persepolitan dialect of the arrow-headed inscriptions. It approaches
that of the Vedas; being, in some points, older than the Sanskrit of
Menu. Yet its date is less than 500, B.C. Again, the Pali is less
archaic than the Sanskrit; yet the Pali is the language of the oldest
inscriptions in India, indeed, of the oldest I