320 
REPORT— 1847 * 
;Xi-» S)--S;:.S 
works wL-re composed and circulated in Latin, tlien mag 
ha. been customary for a long >0 
of .a language by either its merely practical use. or ^ 
literature was capable of exciting, yet the ■■’5“^? 
culailyin latter (lays, taken anew turn, and “ v. "ni.^ 
guage only as a useful instriiuient for social conversation o ^ 
niciit and instruction, men begin at length to understand g ^ 
of itself an intrinsic value, which recommends J. 
think it a worthy occupation to investigate the nature o 
in its lirHt and primitive nmnifestation by language, an 
progress and individual developments of it, preserve .i r(Muan'» 
berless branches of human speech. Tins stmly, usually ca 
Phtloiogu, has taken fur its base the ° 
maiical and etymological structure of language m a^wellast- 
ages, and has succeeded, by pointing out striking ‘ ® 
racterUtical discrepancies, in arranging the languages ' (. Apjoiu 
nations of the world into great families, winch have sprea 
to the north in many and diverse forms, though die same 
nncxtinguisliabli! marks of a former unity aim altiliation. a IpJii 
covery,‘a new mra in the history of philology arisen, ' 
which, by its ancient language, the Sanscrit, 1ms placed the A 
in the hands of European scholars, like Kask, K Schlepl, 
boldt, Uopp, Biirnouf, Grimm and others, who were endeavo . 
their way through the intriente paths of the labyrinth of human 
It iH therefore no exaggeration to call Sanscrit the 
since it is only by means of it that we have arrived at any rea 
ing of the other languages as languages, and since it is the 
which has made those languages sjujak out distinctly, and has f.. 
their real origin, character and meaning. mj,gSjn>' 
became acquainted widi the Sacred language of India, said, ^crel*^ 
language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful ’ jjjjel) 
feci than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more ,• 
fined than either, yet hearing to both of them a strong amm 
would he difficult to characterise this language better than 
of Mr. Brian liodgsoii, who was so long resident in Nepal* 
sjicech, capable of giving soul to the objects of sense, an 
abstractions of metaphysics.” ivof^ 
The great advantage however tvbich Sanscrit offers to the 
parativc Philology, consists not only in the pcrsp^icuous 
graminatical structure, and in the rich variety of iu etymoWo ^|j^- 
tions, but in the opportunities which it affords to us of following^ 
of a language through all the stages of its development, 
IK-riod of its Vcdic Inspiration, through that of its Epic poetry, 
morn! and legal compositions; its philosophical speculations, tlta ^ 
sentutions anil lyrical effusions, down to that which may be ea 
andrinc period, and the age of the final extinction of all its viW P 
while even then it exhibits a new and not less interesting phasis* ^ 
ing to us the most striking and instructive analogies with t le 
