BABYLON AND PERSIA

A NOTABLE RELIGIOUS SURVIVAL. 1 5" show them how," than with a view to follow it tothe end himself. True, he brought to the task atool which Anquetil had lackeda perfect knowl-_e.dge of Sanskrit, the most ancient surviving languageof the Aryans of India and the sister tongue of thatin which the so called Zoroastrian books were origi¬nally written. Curiou.sly enough, this tool, which wasthe means of establishing Anquetil's claim to honorand recognition, even while exposing his shortcom¬ings, was in a measure supplied by his bitter foe anddetractor. Sir William Jones; for, it was this greatscholar who, being called to India to fill a high offi¬cial position, first took up the study of the classicallanguage of ancient India himself, and inspired hisfellow-workers and subordinates with the same en¬thusiasm, earning for himself the title of founder ofthose Sanskrit studies which were to become soprincipal a branch of the then dawning science ofComparative Philology. The great likeness whichwas discovered between the ancient languages of theAryans of India and of Eran suggested to Burnoufthat by bringing to bear Sanskrit scholarship on theEranian texts, the traditional but mostly unintelli¬gent rendering of the Parsi Desturs might be con¬trolled and corrected, and a closer comprehension oftheir Scriptures attained than they could at allachieve. One chapter was all he worked out accord¬ing to this plan. But on what scale and with whatthoroughness the research was conducted, is shownby the fact that it fills a quarto volume of eight hun¬dred pages.* - '.* " Commentaire sur le Ya9na," published in 1833^35. ' '