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the coming race-第13章

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ional stratum  commences。  No doubt at that time there must have operated  concurrent causes; in the fusion of races by some dominant  people; and the rise of some great literary phenomena by which  the form of language became arrested and fixed。  As the  inflectional stage prevailed over the agglutinative; it is  surprising to see how much more boldly the original roots of the  language project from the surface that conceals them。  In the  old fragments and proverbs of the preceding stage the  monosyllables which compose those roots vanish amidst words of  enormous length; comprehending whole sentences from which no one  part can be disentangled from the other and employed separately。   But when the inflectional form of language became so far  advanced as to have its scholars and grammarians; they seem to  have united in extirpating all such polysynthetical or  polysyllabic monsters; as devouring invaders of the aboriginal  forms。  Words beyond three syllables became proscribed as  barbarous and in proportion as the language grew thus simplified  it increased in strength; in dignity; and in sweetness。  Though  now very compressed in sound; it gains in clearness by that  compression。  By a single letter; according to its position;  they contrive to express all that with civilised nations in our  49upper world it takes the waste; sometimes of syllables;  sometimes of sentences; to express。 Let me here cite one or two  instances: An (which I will translate man); Ana (men); the  letter 's' is with them a letter implying multitude; according  to where it is placed; Sana means mankind; Ansa; a multitude of  men。  The prefix of certain letters in their alphabet invariably  denotes compound significations。  For instance; Gl (which with  them is a single letter; as 'th' is a single letter with the  Greeks) at the commencement of a word infers an assemblage or  union of things; sometimes kindred; sometimes dissimilar… as  Oon; a house; Gloon; a town (i。  e。; an assemblage of houses)。   Ata is sorrow; Glata; a public calamity。  Aur…an is the health  or wellbeing of a man; Glauran; the wellbeing of the state; the  good of the community; and a word constantly in ther mouths is  A…glauran; which denotes their political creed… viz。; that 〃the  first principle of a community is the good of all。〃  Aub is  invention; Sila; a tone in music。  Glaubsila; as uniting the  ideas of invention and of musical intonation; is the classical  word for poetry… abbreviated; in ordinary conversation; to  Glaubs。  Na; which with them is; like Gl; but a single letter;  always; when an initial; implies something antagonistic to life  or joy or comfort; resembling in this the Aryan root Nak;  expressive of perishing or destruction。  Nax is darkness; Narl;  death; Naria; sin or evil。  Nas… an uttermost condition of sin  and evil… corruption。  In writing; they deem it irreverent to  express the Supreme Being by any special name。  He is symbolized  by what may be termed the heiroglyphic of a pyramid; /。  In  prayer they address Him by a name which they deem too sacred to  confide to a stranger; and I know it not。  In conversation they  generally use a periphrastic epithet; such as the All…Good。  The  letter V; symbolical of the inverted pyramid; where it is an  initial; nearly always denotes excellence of power; as Vril; of  which I have said so much; Veed; an immortal spirit; Veed…ya;  immortality; Koom; pronounced like the Welsh Cwm; denotes  50something of hollowness。 Koom itself is a cave; Koom…in; a hole;  Zi…koom; a valley; Koom…zi; vacancy or void; Bodh…koom;  ignorance (literally; knowledge…void)。  Koom…posh is their name  for the government of the many; or the ascendancy of the most  ignorant or hollow。 Posh is an almost untranslatable idiom;  implying; as the reader will see later; contempt。  The closest  rendering I can give to it is our slang term; 〃bosh;〃 and this  Koom…Posh may be loosely rendered 〃Hollow…Bosh。〃  But when  Democracy or Koom…Posh degenerates from popular ignorance into  that popular passion or ferocity which precedes its decease; as  (to cite illustrations from the upper world) during the French  Reign of Terror; or for the fifty years of the Roman Republic  preceding the ascendancy of Augustus; their name for that state  of things is Glek…Nas。 Ek is strife… Glek; the universal strife。   Nas; as I before said; is corruption or rot; thus; Glek…Nas may  be construed; 〃the universal strife…rot。〃  Their compounds are  very expressive; thus; Bodh being knowledge; and Too a  participle that implies the action of cautiously approaching;…  Too…bodh is their word for Philosophy; Pah is a contemptuous  exclamation analogous to our idiom; 〃stuff and nonsense;〃  Pah…bodh (literally stuff and nonsense…knowledge) is their term  for futile and false philosophy; and applied to a species of  metaphysical or speculative ratiocination formerly in vogue;  which consisted in making inquiries that could not be answered;  and were not worth making; such; for instance; as 〃Why does an  An have five toes to his feet instead of four or six?  Did the  first An; created by the All…Good; have the same number of toes  as his descendants?  In the form by which an An will be  recognised by his friends in the future state of being; will he  retain any toes at all; and; if so; will they be material toes  or spiritual toes?〃  I take these illustrations of Pahbodh; not  in irony or jest; but because the very inquiries I name formed  the subject of controversy by the latest cultivators of that  'science;'… 4000 years ago。  51 In the declension of nouns I was informed that anciently there were eight cases (one more than in the Sanskrit Grammar); but the effect of time has been to reduce these cases; and multiply; instead of these varying terminations; explanatory propositions。  At present; in the Grammar submitted to my study; there were four cases to nouns; three having varying terminations; and the fourth a differing prefix。

       SINGULAR。                          PLURAL。 Nom。     An;            Man;  |   Nom。    Ana;              Men。 Dat。     Ano;        to Man;  |   Dat。    Anoi;          to Men。 Ac。      Anan;          Man;  |   Ac。     Ananda;           Men。 Voc。     Hil…an;      O Man;  |   Voc。    Hil…Ananda;     O Men。

In the elder inflectional literature the dual form existed… it has long been obsolete。

The genitive case with them is also obsolete; the dative supplies its place: they say the House 'to' a Man; instead of the House 'of' a Man。  When used (sometimes in poetry); the genitive in the termination is the same as the nominative; so is the ablative; the preposition that marks it being a prefix or suffix at option; and generally decided by ear; according to the sound of the noun。  It will be observed that the prefix Hil marks the vocative case。  It is always retained in addressing another; except in the most intimate domestic relations; its omission would be considered rude: just as in our of forms of speech in addressing a king it would have been deemed disrespectful to say 〃King;〃 and reverential to say 〃O King。〃 In fact; as they have no titles of honour; the vocative adjuration supplies the place of a title; and is given impartially to all。  The 
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