A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c4.61

v1.c4.61

We may get as near to the brink of this vast gap on either side as we can, but I very much doubt if the intervening space will ever be filled up; the materials seem lost for ever. Buddhism is our only chance, but if the Buddhistic literature which remains to be disinterred prove, as almost certainly it will, to be no more faithful a representative of current speech than those works which have already been made accessible to the public, there seems to be nothing more to hope for, and these nine centuries must remain for ever a sealed book.