[23] I may reasonably be charged with finding the name _Goth_ in everything, in _Getæ_, _Gothi_, _Gothones_, _Gothini_, _Jutæ_, _Vitæ_, and _Jats_. But as I care far more for processes than results a somewhat sharp self-examination acquits me. Starting with the doctrine that nothing is to be considered accidental which we can reasonably investigate, I only demur to those conclusions which are incompatible with undoubted facts. Is this the case with any of the deductions hitherto laid before the reader? First let us look to them in respect to the facts they assume. Of these the most startling is the presence of Lithuanians in the Vithesleth and in India. Yet, if the oldest occupants of the Danish Islands were not Germans, what were they likelier to have been than Lithuanians, considering that Prussia was Lithuanic? “Slavonians,” it may be answered. Granted; but the Slavonic character of the Vithesleth is as much opposed to current notions as the Lithuanic. Besides which, the difference is only one of detail. Then, as to the Lithuanian elements in India. If we hesitate to deduce these from Europe, we must deduce the Indian elements in Lithuania from Asia. There is a difficulty either way. Then, as to the changes in the form of the word. Take the two extremest forms, _Goth-_, and _Vit-_. Is this change legitimate? The answer to this lies in the fact of the Russian form for Master being _Gosp_-odar, whereas the Lithuanic is _Visp_-ati. Since the chapter on the ethnology of Scandinavia was printed, Mr. Worsaae has made me acquainted with a remarkable fact connected with the Isle of Laaland, confirmatory of the belief of a Sarmatian population partially, at least, in the Vithesleth. In the southern part of the island some of the geographical terms are Slavonic, and in Saxo there is the statement, that when the other Danes prepared an invasion against their Wend, or Slavonic, enemies, of the continent, the Laalanders were neither allowed to take a part in them, nor yet informed of their being in contemplation; for fear lest they should communicate the news to the _Wends_ (Slavonians). [24] See p. 172. [25] Or _Heten_.--See p. 248. [26] Or _Ete_.--See p. 243. [27] “This book ought to be largely circulated, not only on account of its scientific merits--though these, as we have in part shown, are great and signal--but because it is popularly written throughout, and therefore likely to excite general attention to a subject which ought to be held as one of primary importance. Every one is interested about fishes--the political economist, the epicure, the merchant, the man of science, the angler, the poor, the rich. We hail the appearance of this book as the dawn of a new era in the Natural History of England.”--_Quarterly Review_, No. 116. * * * * * Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: all the popution=> all the population {pg 214} unquestionbly=> unquestionably {pg 216}