preted either by cognate forms in kindred languages, or by reference to the common source from which all these forms spring, is the one condition without which it is useless to look for any real progress in this branch of philology; and this principle is here fully recognised.
I have said that the task of analysing and comparing the myths of the Aryan nations has opened to me a source of unqualified delight. I feel bound to avow the conviction that it has done more. It has removed not a few perplexities; it has solved not a few difficulties which press hard on many thinkers. It has raised and strengthened my faith in the goodness of God; it has justified the wisdom which has chosen to educate mankind through impressions produced by the phenomena of the outward world.
