Page:An introduction to Dravidian philology.djvu/78

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other disinterested workers, inspire us with hope regarding the future destiny of mankind.

This is the humanitarian side of the study of language, but to the philologist, the study of these dialects is of far greater importance. It is only by such a study that fresh contacts will be established, the range of philological vision extended and a proper foundation laid for the commencement of a comparative study of languages representing the cultures and thoughts of the peoples speaking them. The problem of the determination of the relationship of individual languages, of these again with families and these once more with one another, leading to the establishment of a linguistic commonwealth of nations, lending a helping hand to the realization of the poet's dream of "The Parliament of Man, the Federation of the world”, is a problem of fascinating attraction and beauty and