anks. I have to-day received the last sheet
of "Egypt," Book IV., and the last but one of Book V. (a), and the second
of Book V. (b). These three volumes will appear on the 1st of June. The
second half of Book V. (b) (Illustrations, Chronological Tables, and
Index) I furnish subsequently for Easter, 1857, in order to have the last
word against my critics.

Meanwhile farewell.

[71.]

CHARLOTTENBERG, _Wednesday, April 23, 1856_.

It would be a great pleasure to you, my dear friend, if you could see the
enthusiasm of my reawakened love for India, which possessed me in the
years 1811-14, and which now daily overpowers me. But it is well that you
are not here, for I dare not follow the notes of the siren till I have
finished the "Signs of the Times," and have the first volume of my five
books of the "Bible" before me. I see clearly, from my point of view, that
when one has the right frame, the _real facts_ of the Indian life can be
dug out from the exuberant wealth of poetry as surely as your Eros and the
Charites, and the deepest thoughts from their ritual and mythology. True
Germans and Anglo-Saxons are these Indian worthies. How grateful I am to
Lassen for his conscientious investigations; also to Duncker for his
representation of the history, made with the insight of a true historian.
But all this can aid me but little. I can nowhere find the materials for
_filling up my frame-work_; or, in case this frame-work should not itself
be accurate, for destroying it and my whole chapter. Naturally all are
ignorant of the time which precedes the great fable,--namely, the time of
the Vedas.

And so I turn to you, with a request and adjuration which you cannot set
aside. I give you my frame-work, the _chronological canon_, as it has been
shaped by me. It is clear that we cannot depend on anything that stands in
the noble Mahabharata and the sentimental Ramayana, as to kings and lines
of kings, unless it is confirmed by the Vedas; but they generally say the
very opposite. All corruptions of history by our schoolmen and priests are
but as child's play compared to the systematic falsifying and destruction
of all history by the Brahmans. Three things are possible; (1) you may
find my frame-work _wrong_ because facts are against it; (2) you may find
it _useless_ because facts are missing; or (3) you may find the plan
correct, and discover facts to support and further it. I hope for the
last; but _every_ truth is a gain. My