A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volumes 1 and 2, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present DayFergusson, James
History
A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volumes 1 and 2, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- History
Their institutions for self-government, enumerated above, have probably
done more to elevate the Aryan race than can well be appreciated. When
every man takes, or may take, his share in governing the commonwealth—
when every man must govern himself, and respect the independence of his
neighbour—men cease to be tools, and become independent reasoning
beings. They are taught self-respect, and with this comes love of truth—
of those qualities which command the respect of their fellow-men; and
they are likewise taught that control of their passions which renders
them averse to war; while the more sober occupations of life prevent the
necessity of their seeking, in the wildness of excitement, that relief
from monotony which so frequently drives other races into those excesses
the world has had so often to deplore. The existence of caste, even in
its most modified form, prevents individual ambition from having that
unlimited career which among other races has so often sacrificed the
public weal to the ambition of an individual.
LITERATURE.
The Aryan races employed an alphabet at so early a period of their
history that we cannot now tell when or how it was introduced among
them; and it was, even when we first become acquainted with it, a far
more perfect alphabet than that of the Semitic races, though apparently
formed on its basis. Nothing in it was dependent on memory. It possessed
vowels, and all that was necessary to enunciate sounds with perfect and
absolute precision. In consequence of this, and of the perfect structure
of their language, they were enabled to indulge in philosophical
speculation, to write treatises on grammar and logic, and generally to
assume a literary position which other races never attained to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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