User:Anthony.Sebastian/Sebastian-Sandbox-

In February 1837—even before he sailed on the Beagle— Charles Darwin wrote to his sister Caroline, discussing the linguist Sir John Herschel’s idea that modern languages were descended from a common ancestor. If this were really the case, it cast doubt on the Biblical chronology of the world: “[E]veryone has yet thought that the six thousand odd years has been the right period but Sir J. thinks that a far greater number must have passed since the Chinese [and] the Caucasian languages separated from one stock” [1- Darwin Correspondence Project (1837) Letter 346].