Major Price’s Extracts from the Mualijdt-i-Ddrd Shekohi. 37 
DISCOURSE THE FIRST. 
I nave chosen the faculty of speech, which is of the things belonging to 
the present state of existence, for the leading subject of disquisition in this 
work, because my principal design is to certify, as well as IT am able, to the 
satisfaction of the intelligent, from whence man came into this world, and 
where he shall exist in future: a knowledge equally difficult and intri- 
cate, whether to discuss or discover. So far, however, is manifest, that 
one intelligent mind must communicate its knowledge to others, either 
through the medium of speech or of writing ; and the aspirant after know- 
ledge must acquire his information from the learned, through either of the 
two senses, hearing or sight: the former when we speak, the latter when 
we write. 
Now the speaking medium is so far more noble than that of writing, 
inasmuch as, through the faculty of speech, the advantage is instantaneous 
to those present—while through that of writing the profit is remote, and 
only to those who are absent; and the present must always have the prece- 
dence over the absent in the acquirement of knowledge. It is understood 
that the medium of communication between the present and the absent is 
the faculty of writing. But the medium which secures an interchange of 
ideas between the learned and the worthier class, that is, those who have the 
precedence, is nobler and of a more subtle character than that which is 
employed between them and the less worthy. It is therefore manifest that 
speech is more excellent than writing. 
Further, the individual present is enabled, through the medium of speech, 
to obtain from him that speaks information on what would otherwise have 
been unknown to him; and the speaker is enabled, in other terms, to 
explain to the hearer what may be less obvious in what is spoken. The 
readers of a manuscript, on the other hand, when any difficulty occurs, 
possess no means of explanation when the writer is not to be found ; or, 
though accessible, yet may it happen that he is a person unacquainted with 
science, being nothing more than a simple copyist. Moreover, speech is 
the narration of what is lodged in the mind of an intellectual being. That 
which is written, therefore, is the narration of a narration of that which 
passes in the mind of the intelligent, whose speech is the narration itself. 
in other words, speech is the original, and writing the copy; writing is 
the shell, and speech the kernel of the shell. And thus again it is 
