In the previous pages a peculiarly primitive character has been attributed to two ancient languages just adverted to, viz. the Hebrew and the Sanscrit. Both these tongues, it has been observed, display in a higher degree than any other the characteristic features of language near its source. As regards the former of these tongues, the Hebrew, there is an obvious reason for the primitive forms of language it involves in the high antiquity of a portion of its remains, viz. the first Books of Scripture, which are more ancient by many centuries than the poems of Homer, the most venerable literary remains of Europe. It is a remarkable fact that there is every reason to believe that the same explanation will be found to apply in an equal degree to the Sanscrit. According to the opinions of many of the most distinguished Orientalists, it would appear that the earliest Vedas, the oldest mythological books of the Indians, are not less ancient than the Pentateuch. Sir William Jones, whose candour and love of truth were not inferior to his accomplishments, concluded the Vedas to have been written about 1500 years B.C. The soundness of this opinion was at one time much questioned; but it has been confirmed by the sanction of some of the ablest of those who,—with the advantage of more recently accumulated information, have in our time pursued the same path of inquiry—in a manner that serves to place in a striking point of view the vast knowledge and the bold and sagacious judgment of its great author. Ritter, a distinguished German Orientalist, concludes the Vedas to have been collected during the period from 1400 to 1600, B.C.; and Mr. Colebrooke, whose researches are of the highest value, appears to have shown finally that the earliest Vedas were probably written about 1400 years B.C.(114) It is highly deserving of notice that these various dates all fall about the time of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, 1490 B.C. The account given in the Vedas of the early history of the world coincides in its most important features with the Scriptural relation in a manner not to be mistaken. Sir William Jones, struck with these features of resemblance, has intimated an opinion that the Indian account of the Creation, of the Deluge,(115) and other events may have been borrowed from the Jewish nation.(116) It is remarkable that this opinion will be found to involve a singular anachronism, if we adopt Sir William Jones’s own views with respect to the date of the Vedas, viz. that they were written 1500 years B.C. This date is ten years prior to the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, an event from which their national existence and the composition of their earliest scriptures may be said to have commenced.