A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.102

c8.102

¹ मृतसाक्षिकव्यवहारवच्च प्रलीनशाखामूलत्वकल्पनायां यस्मै यद्रोचते स तत्प्रमाणिकुर्यात्। "If a man maintain a lost tradition to have been a source, he may prove what he pleases, for it is like appealing to a dead witness." And again: येन यत्नेन मन्वाद्यैरात्मवाक्यं प्रपाठितं कस्मात्तेनैव तन्मूलं चोदना न समर्पिता॥ यस्यैव यदभिप्रेतं स एव तत्प्रलीनशाखामस्तके निक्षिप्य प्रमाणिकुर्यात्॥ "Why has a divine precept not been established by Manu and the others as the source of their teaching, which would not have cost them more labour than to proclaim their own doctrine? Anybody may throw whatever he likes into the skull of a lost tradition, and then invoke it as an authority."