தமிழ் இலக்கிய வரலாறு
—
கிறித்துவமும் தமிழும்
29
languages, whether dead or living, which is necessary for men of let- ters and fashion, is no longer associated with neglect of their vernacu- lar speech, a neglact which is always sure to work its own revenge on those who practise it, and which can never be supposed to create any prejudice either in favour of their politeness or their erudition."
Now, even if Europeans have not done anything else than trying thus to open our eyes to the excellence of our langugage, and warning us against neglecting it, we must be extremely indebted to them. But they have done more.
They simplified the Tamil script. They introduced space between the words, simple or compound, of a sentence, for it had been the native custom to write a whole sentence as if it were composed of one long word. They were the first to print Tamil tracts, books, and papers. They were the first to introduce the study of Tamil inot the civilised countries of the world. They were the first to make Tamil translations from European languages. They were the first to compile Tamil word- books, dictionaries and lexicons, which made obsolete the time- honoured custom of memorising the metrical Tamil vocabularies, be- fore taking up literature. They were the first to write Tamil treatises on Natural Science. They were the first to urge educated Tamils to bring out expurgated editions of Tamil works, and to write interesting general literature of a wholesome character. They were the first to show us how to make a critical study of our language, literature, and grammar. And they were the first not only to teach us that "that is not good language that all understand not," and that there can be no social, moral, religious, political, or economical progress among a people who have no homely prose literature to read, but also to write "Modern Tamil prose," and create the reading habit among us.
The above lines contain a brief summary of a long public Tamil lecture, "Christianity and Tamil," delivered by me about two years ago, in Madras. The author of this book, who is a broad-minded Hindu School- Master, says that the lecture roused his curiosity, and gave him the
