Another and not less important reason, which makes a critical comparison of the Sanskrit with its European sisters, worthy to be undertaken, is the light thrown thereby upon each of the languages compared, and the clearer view we thence obtain of the most ancient forms of each respectively, and probably some conception of the original and primitive signification of a great part of the grammatical inflections common to all. It is chiefly by comparison that we determine as far as our sensible and intellectual faculties reach, the nature of things. FREDERIC SCHLEGEL justly expects, that comparative grammar will give us quite new explications of the genealogy of languages, in a similar way as comparative anatomy has thrown light on natural philosophy.
- Bopp (1820), Pag. 2