e now been
established by the students of the science of language were not yet known,
and as with words, so with the names of deities, similarity of sound, the
most treacherous of all sirens, was the only guide in such researches.

It is not pleasant to have to find fault with a man possessed of such
genius, taste, and learning as Sir W. Jones, but no one who is acquainted
with the history of these researches will be surprised at my words. It is
the fate of all pioneers, not only to be left behind in the assault which
they had planned, but to find that many of their approaches were made in a
false direction, and had to be abandoned. But as the authority of their
names continues to sway the public at large, and is apt to mislead even
painstaking students and to entail upon them repeated disappointments, it
is necessary that those who know should speak out, even at the risk of
being considered harsh or presumptuous.

A few instances will suffice to show how utterly baseless the comparisons
are which Sir W. Jones instituted between the gods of India, Greece, and
Italy. He compares the Latin Janus with the Sanskrit deity Ganesa. It is
well known that Janus is connected with the same root that has yielded the
names of Jupiter, Zeus, and Dyaus, while Ganesa is a compound, meaning
lord of hosts, lord of the companies of gods.

Saturnus is supposed to have been the same as Noah, and is then identified
by Sir W. Jones with the Indian Manu Satyavrata, who escaped from the
flood. Ceres is compared with the goddess Sri, Jupiter or Diespiter with
Indra or Divaspati; and though etymology is called a weak basis for
historical inquiries, the three syllables Jov in Jovis, Zeu in Zeus, and
Siv in Siva are placed side by side, as possibly containing the same root,
only differently pronounced. Now the s of Siva is a palatal s, and no
scholar who has once looked into a book on Comparative Philology need be
told that such an s could never correspond to a Greek Zeta or a Latin J.

In K_ri_sh_n_a, the lovely shepherd-god, Sir W. Jones recognizes the
features of Apollo Nomius, who fed the herds of Admetus, and slew the
dragon Python; and he leaves it to etymologists to determine whether
Gopala--_i. e._, the cow-herd--may not be the same word as Apollo. We are
also assured, on the authority of Colonel Vallancey, that K_ri_sh_n_a in
Irish means the sun, and that the goddess Kali, to whom human sacrifices
were offered, as enjoined in the Vedas (