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the coming race-第10章

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ilds;〃 said she; 〃there; be sure; He places  inhabitants。  He loves not empty dwellings。〃  She added;  however; that many changes in temperature and climate had been  effected by the skill of the Vril…ya; and that the agency of  vril had been successfully employed in such changes。  She  described a subtle and life…giving medium called Lai; which I  suspect to be identical with the ethereal oxygen of Dr。  Lewins;  wherein work all the correlative forces united under the name of  vril; and contended that wherever this medium could be expanded;  as it were; sufficiently for the various agencies of vril to  47have ample play; a temperature congenial to the highest forms of  life could be secured。  She said also; that it was the belief of  their naturalists that flowers and vegetation had been produced  originally (whether developed from seeds borne from the surface  of the earth in the earlier convulsions of nature; or imported  by the tribes that first sought refuge in cavernous hollows)  through the operations of the light constantly brought to bear  on them; and the gradual improvement in culture。  She said also;  that since the vril light had superseded all other light…giving  bodies; the colours of flower and foliage had become more  brilliant; and vegetation had acquired larger growth。 

Leaving these matters to the consideration of those better competent to deal with them; I must now devote a few pages to the very interesting questions connected with the language of the Vril…ya。


Chapter XII。


The language of the Vril…ya is peculiarly interesting; because it seems to me to exhibit with great clearness the traces of the three main transitions through which language passes in attaining to perfection of form。

One of the most illustrious of recent philologists; Max Muller; in arguing for the analogy between the strata of language and the strata of the earth; lays down this absolute dogma: 〃No language can; by any possibility; be inflectional without having passed through the agglutinative and isolating stratum。  No language can be agglutinative without clinging with its roots to the underlying stratum of isolation。〃… 'On the Stratification of Language;' p。  20。

Taking then the Chinese language as the best existing type of the original isolating stratum; 〃as the faithful photograph of man in his leading…strings trying the muscles of his mind; groping his way; and so delighted with his first successful 48grasps that he repeats them again and again;〃 (Max Muller; p。  13)… we have; in the language of the Vril…ya; still 〃clinging with its roots to the underlying stratum;〃 the evidences of the original isolation。  It abounds in monosyllables; which are the  foundations of the language。  The transition into the  agglutinative form marks an epoch that must have gradually  extended through ages; the written literature of which has only  survived in a few fragments of symbolical mythology and certain  pithy sentences which have passed into popular proverbs。  With  the extant literature of the Vril…ya the inflectional 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。 Vo
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