ass
before our very eyes in the Veda, and then to be reflected in Homer
and Pindar.

[9] Herr Geheimrath von Spiegel now lives at Munich.

Some details of this restored picture of the world of gods and men in
early times, nay, in the very spring of time, may have to be altered,
but the picture, the eidyllion remained, and nothing could curb the
adventurous spirit and keep it from pushing forward and trying to do
what seemed to others almost impossible, namely, to watch the growth
of the human mind as reflected in the petrifactions of language.
Language itself spoke to us with a different voice, and a formerly
unsuspected meaning.

We knew, for instance, that _ewig_ meant eternal, but whence eternal.
Nothing eternal was ever seen, and it seemed to the philosopher that
eternal could be expressed by a negation only, by a negation of what
was temporary. But we now learnt that _ewig_ was derived in word and
therefore in thought from the Gothic _aiwar_, time. _Ewigkeit_ was
therefore originally time, and "for all time" came naturally to mean
"for all eternity." Eternity also came from _aeternus_, that is
_aeviternus_, for time, i. e. for all time, and thus for eternity,
while _aevum_ meant life, lifetime, age. But now came the question, if
_aevum_ shows the growth of this word, and its origin, and how it
arrives in the end at the very opposite pole, life and time coming to
mean eternity, could we not by the same process discover the origin
and growth of such short Greek words as [Greek: aei] and [Greek: aiei]?
It seems almost impossible, yet remembering that _aevum_ meant
originally life, we find in Vedic Sanskrit _eva_, course, way, life,
the same as _aevum_, while the Sanskrit _ayush_, likewise derived from
_i_, to go, forms its locative _ayushi_. _Ayushi_, or originally
_ayasi_, would mean "in life, in time," and turned into Greek would
regularly become then [Greek: aiei], lifelong, or ever. It was not
difficult to find fault with this and other etymologies, and to ask
for an explanation of [Greek: aien] and [Greek: aies], as derived from
the same word _ayus_. It is curious that people will not see that
etymologies, and particularly the gradual development in the form and
meaning of words, can hardly ever be a matter of mathematical
certainty.

Historical, nay, even individual, influences come in which prevent the
science of language from becoming purely mechanical. Pott, and
Curtius, and others stood up against Bo