Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/136

122 tional improvement will be impracticable: and even if they were practicable, they would be useless. When the people have to learn a new word, it is of no consequence whether they learn at Sanskrit or an English one; and all the time spent in learning Sanskrit would therefore be downright waste.

After a language has once assumed a fixed character, the unnecessary introduction of new words is, no doubt, offensive to good taste. But in Bengalee and Hindusthanee nothing is fixed; every thing is yet to be done, and a new literature has to be formed, almost from the very foundation. The established associations, which are liable to be outraged by the obtrusion of strange words, have therefore no existence in this case. Such refinement is the last stage in the progress of improvement. It is the very luxury of language; and to speak of the delicate sensibility of a Bengalee or Hindusthanee being offended by the introduction of new words to express new ideas, is to transfer to a poor and unformed tongue the feelings which are connected only with a rich and cultivated one. It will be time enough after their scientific vocabulary is settled, and they have masterpieces of their own, to think of keeping their language pure. When they have a native