William Cooke Taylor

"It was an astounding discovery that Hindustan possessed, in spite of the changes of realms and chances of time, a language of umivalled richness and variety; a language, the parent of all those dialects that Europe has fondly called classical- the source alike of Greek flexibility and Roman strength. A philosophy, compared with which, in point of age, the lessons of Pythagoras are but of yesterday, and in point of daring speculation Plato's boldest efforts are tame and commonplace. Poetry more purelyintellectual than any of those, which we had before any conception; and systems of science whose antiquity baffled all power of astronomical calculation. This literature, with all its colossal proportions, which can scarcely be described without the semblance of bombast and exaggeration claimed of course a place for itself - it stood alone, and it was able to stand alone." "To acquire the mastery of this language is almost the labor of life; its literature seems exhaustless. The utmost stretch of imaginatlOn can scarcely comprehend its boundless mythology. Its philosophy has touched upon every metaphysical difficulty; its legislation is as varied as the castes for which it was designed."