94 GRAMMAR OF THE LANGUAGE 



of such works are not put in the hands of booksellers for 

 sale. They would be purchased, at leasi, by the public libra- 

 vies of this country, and perhaps also, of Europe. 



For these reasons I have ventured upon few alterations 

 of the Manuscript now published. 1 have, however, some- 

 times varied from the Author's method, when 1 thought 

 it too defective, and I have modified his explanations, so 

 as to give them (as I thought) a greater degree of clear- 

 ness and precision, and make them more easily under- 

 stood. I have even occasionally, always with the same 

 view, added some facts and illustrations which were not 

 in the text. But this I have chiefly done in the form of 

 no'es at the bottom of the pasje, under my own name 

 and responsibility. Upon the whole, I have taken no 

 liberty with the Author's work which I was not sure he 

 would have approved of if he had been living: As a fair 

 copy of the original manuscript of this translation still re- 

 mains in the Society's library, the alterations which I have 

 made may be seen and judged of by all who will take the 

 pains to compare it with the one now published. 



I hope this Grammar will convince those who may still be 

 incredulous, that I did not go too far when I asserted in my 

 Report to the Historical Committee that the Indian lan- 

 guages are rich in words and grammatical forms, and that 

 their general structure displays as much order and me- 

 thod as that of any of those that exist on the face of the 

 earth. They are highly synthetical, and combine ideas toge- 

 ther- in a manner so artificial and so uniformly consistent 

 with the rules of analogy, that it is not to be wondered at if 

 men. reasoning d priori, have thought it impossible that such 

 combinations could proceed from the minds of savages. As 

 the fact cannot be denied, the pride of civilization has 

 at last found out that it is very natural that it should be 

 so ; because analysis is the most difficult operation of the 

 human mind, and barbarous nations being incapable of it, 

 their languages must necessarily be synthetical. Rut Mr 

 Adam Smith, who lirst broached this doctrine in a disser- 



