Favours of the Gracious God — Page 28
28 A NOTE OF CAUTION Before I proceed to write the Arabic portion of this book, it is important to mention that I had initially intended to only gather the root words of Arabic. But then I thought that, in such case, perhaps some readers may not be able to fully understand what I wish to convey, since every nation possesses some root words. For instance, even though Sanskrit possesses very little stock of root words and the scholars of this language state that it does not have more than four-hundred roots, yet one cannot say that it possesses none, even if it is only four-hundred. Although the researchers of Arabic have found that its root words are in excess of two million seven hundred thousand, but until a prejudiced opponent is not rebuked under an established principle he does not desist from exhibiting his meanness, mischief and argumentation. Thus, I deemed this idea to be very reasonable that, in each treatise, the system of root words ought to be employed. And by the system of roots I mean, to the point that every composition naturally comes to an end, it ought to be completed with such phrases that are solely composed from root words. Then a comparable example may be demanded