Consequently, writings in dialect are soon antiquated and void of interest save for the philologist, whereas a great national literature outlives the nation. The earliest Sanskrit plays which are preserved suddenly flash upon our sight like lightning when it breaks through a dark thundercloud. They seem perfect and full-grown as Minerva when she leapt in complete armour from Jove' s creative forehead. This view is corroberated by the existence of an old Sanskrit treatise on dramatic art. The subsequent authors of Sanskrit dramas faithfully upheld the theories laid down by Bharata.
English literature exhibits a similar feature.
Guy Mannering, gentleman, does not use sailor slang like Dick Hatteraick, the smuggler, and the provincialisms and grammatical blunders of Adam Bede's old mother widely differ from the cultured and urbane style of the Rev. Mr. Irwine. King Henry the Fifth does not speak broken English like his French lady-love, and Dickens' novels display every shade of metropolitan jargon. They appear amidst the glossy Sanskrit dialogue like a shabby camel driver among the rich and elegant court dresses of a native durbar. Scoundrels are made to talk Ujain slang, and intriguers a patois of the Dekhan. The Agra district is the holy land of Krishnaism.