The Arctic Home in the Vedas c2.3

c2.3

The first manuscript of the book was written at the end of 1898, and since then I have had the advantage of discussing the question with many scholars in Madras, Calcutta, Lahore, Benares and other places during my travels in the different parts of India. But I hesitated to publish the book for a long time,—a part of the delay is due to other causes,—because the lines of investigation had ramified into many allied sciences such as geology, archæology, comparative mythology and so on; and, as I was a mere layman in these, I felt some diffidence as to whether I had correctly grasped the bearing of the latest researches in these sciences. The difficulty is well described by Prof. Max Muller in his review of the *Prehistoric Antiquities of Indo-Europeans*, published in the volume of his *Last Essays*. "The ever-increasing division and sub-division," observes the learned Professor, "of almost every branch of human knowledge into more special branches of study make the specialist, whether he likes it or not, more and more dependent on the judgment and the help of his fellow-workers. A geologist in our day has often to deal with questions that concern the minerologist, the chemist, the archæologist, the philologist, nay, the astronomer, rather than the geologist *pur et simple*, and, as life is too short for all this, nothing is left to him but to appeal to his colleagues for counsel and help. It is one of the great advantages of University life, that any one, who is in trouble about some question outside his own domain, can at once get the very best information from his colleagues, and many of the happiest views and brightest solutions of complicated problems are due, as is well-known, to this free intercourse, this scientific give and take in our academic centres.” And again, “ Unless a student can appeal for help to recognised authorities on all these subjects, he is apt to make brilliant discoveries, which explode at the slightest touch of the specialist, and, on the other hand, to pass by facts which have only to be pointed out in order to disclose their significance and far-reaching importance. People are hardly aware of the benefit which every branch of science derives from the free and generous exchange of ideas, particularly in our Universities, where every body may avail himself of the advice and help of his colleagues, whether they warn him against yet impossible theories, or call his attention to a book or an article, where the very point that interests him, has been fully worked out and settled once for all.”