But it was all of no avail. In 1808 Frederick Schlegel's work, _On the Language and Wisdom of the Indians_, first 'boldly faced the facts and conclusions of Sanscrit scholarship, and became,' with all its faults, the 'foundation for the science of language.' Its great result may be given in one sentence--it embraced at a glance the languages of India, Persia, Greece, Italy, and Northern Europe, and riveted them by the simple name 'Indo-Germanic.' Then in this school, begun by English industry and shaped by German genius, came Franz Bopp, with his great comparative grammar of the Indo-Germanic tongues, and the enormous labors of Lassen, Rosen, Burnouf, and W. von Humboldt--a man to whose incredible ability of every kind, as to his secret diplomatic influence, history has never done justice. Grimm, and Rask--the first great Zend scholar--were among these early explorers, who have been followed by so many scholars, until some knowledge not merely of Greek and Latin, but of the relations of _all_ languages, has become essential to a truly good education. Yet after all, Sanscrit, it was soon seen, was not the parent, but '_the elder sister_' of the Indo-Germanic languages. Behind Greek, Latin, and Sanscrit, Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic tongues, lurks a lost language--the mysterious Aryan, which, reëchoed through the tones of those six remaining Pleiades, its sisters, speaks of a mighty race which once, it may be, ruled supreme over a hundred lands, or perchance sole in the Caucasus. It is strange to see philologists slowly reconstructing, here and there, fragments of the Aryan, 'And speak in a tongue which man speaks no more.' Among the many excellent elementary and introductory works on philology which have appeared of late years, this of Müller's is on several accounts the best. It is clearly written, so as to be within the comprehension of any reader of ordinary intelligence, and we can hardly conceive that any such person would not find it an extremely entertaining book. Its author is a _genial_ writer--he writes with a relish and with real power--he loves knowledge, and wishes others to share it with him. Language, he holds--though the idea is not new with him--springs from a very few hundred roots, which are the _phonetic types_ produced by a power inherent in human nature. Every substance has its peculiar _ring_ when struck--man, under the action of certain laws, must develop first onomato-poietic sounds, and finally language. With this we take leave of this excellent work, trusting that the public will extend to it the favor which it so amply deserves. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WASHINGTON IRVING. By his Nephew, PIERRE M. IRVING. Vol. I. New-York: G.P. Putnam. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.