தமிழ் இலக்கிய வரலாறு
—
கிறித்துவமும் தமிழும்
27
Greek." The Rev. P. Percival observes, "Perhaps no language com- bines greater force with equal brevity; and it may be asserted that no human speech is more close and philisophic in its expression as an exponent of the mind. The sequence of things- of thought, action, and its results - is always maintained inviolate. "Professor Whitney writes that he "was informed by an American who was born in South India and grew up to speak its language vernacularly along with his English, a man of high education and unusual gifts as a preacher and writer, that he esteemed the Tamil a finer language to think and speak in than any European tongue known to him."
Dr. G. Slater, late professor of Indian Economics in the University of Madras, writes that "the Tamil language is extraordinary in its subtlety and sense of logic." and that "the perfcection with which it has been developed into an organ for precise and subtle thought, combined with the fact that it represents a much earlier stage in the evolution of infexional language than any Indo germanic tongue, suggests.......................... the priority of the Dravidians in attaining settled order and regular Government," and that "as it is known to us it the product of a very long period of a somewhat elaborate civilisation."
Secondly, as regards its literature: That "unique genius," Father Beschi, writes that "the Tamil poets use the genuine language of poetry."and "there are excellent works in Tamil poetry on the subject of the divine attributes and the nature of virtue." Dr. Pope, referring to the numerous ethic works in Tamil, remarks, “I have felt sometimes as if there must be a blessing in store for a people that delight so utterly in compositions thus remarkably expressive of a hunger and thirst after righteousness." The Rev. H. Bower, a Eurasian, writes of the Tamil Poetess Auvaiyar, that "She sang like Sappho, yet not of love, but of virtue," and of the Chintamani that "it is a moral epic of the highest merit," and of the Sacred Kural that the "work is superior to the insti- tutes of Manu and is worthy of the divine Plato himself."
Thirdly, as regards its grammar: Rev. T. Brotherton wirtes that "it is generally allowed by all who are at all conversant with Tamil litera-
