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Page 290 - The Code of Manu is almost the only work in Sanskrit literature which, as yet, has not been assailed by those who doubt the antiquity of everything Indian. No historian has disputed its claim to that early date which had from the first been assigned to it by Sir William Jones
Page 130 - Man, in his primitive and perfect state, was not only endowed, like the brute, with the power of expressing his sensations by interjections, and his perceptions by onomatopoeia, he possessed likewise the faculty of giving more articulate expression to the rational conceptions of his mind. That faculty was not of his own making. It was an instinct, an instinct of the mind, as irresistible as any other instinct.
Page 130 - There is a law which runs through nearly the whole of nature, that everything which is struck rings. Each substance has its peculiar ring. We can tell the more or less perfect structure of metals by their vibrations, by the answer which they give. Gold rings differently from tin, wood rings differently from stone ; and different sounds are produced according to the nature of each percussion. It was the same with man, the most highly organised of nature's works.f Man rings.
Page 130 - ... an instinct, an instinct of the mind, as irresistible as any other instinct. So far as language is the production of that instinct, it belongs to the realm of nature. Man loses his instincts as he ceases to want them. His senses become fainter when, as in the case of scent, they become useless. Thus the creative faculty which gave to each conception, as it thrilled for the first time through the brain, a phonetic expression, became extinct when its object was fulfilled.
Page 84 - Entstehung bis zum Untergang ebensowohl fertig als nicht fertig. Fertig, insofern sie zum Ausdruck des sie sprechenden Volkes vollständig ausreicht; nicht fertig, insofern sie sich, ohne Unterlass sich fort entwickelnd, immer umgestaltet.
Page 125 - ... the actions of free agents; growth to the natural unfolding of organic beings. We speak, however, of the growth of the crust of the earth, and we know what we mean by it; and it is in this sense, but not in the sense of growth as applied to a tree, that we have a right to speak of the growth of a language.
Page 159 - This series of consonants is pronounced by turning and applying the tip of the tongue far back against the palate ; which producing a hollow sound, as if proceeding from the head, it is distinguished by the term 3-pJV2f murddhanya, which Mr.

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