having presented themselves to my mind, I presume to lay them before you, with an entire submission to your judgment.

No contributions, except those of the literary kind, will be requisite for the support of the Society; but if each of us were occasionally to contribute a succinct description of such manuscripts as he had perused or inspected, with their dates, and the names of their owners, and to propose for solution such questions as had occurred to him concerning Asiatic Art, Science, and History, natural or civil, we should possess without labour, and almost by imperceptible degrees, a fuller catalogue of Oriental books than has hitherto been exhibited; and our correspondents should be apprised of those points to which we chiefly direct our investigations. Much may, I am confident, be expected from the communications of learned natives, whether lawyers, physicians, or private scholars, who would eagerly, on the first invitation, send us their Mekámát and Risálahs on a variety of subjects; some for the sake of advancing general knowledge; but most of them from a desire, neither uncommon nor unreasonable, of attracting notice, and recommending themselves to favour. With a view to avail ourselves of this disposition, and to bring their latent science under our inspection, it might be advisable to print and circulate a short memorial, in Persian and Hindi, setting forth, in a style accommodated to their own habits and prejudices, the design of our institution. Nor would it be improper hereafter, to give a medal annually, with inscriptions in Persian on one side, and on the reverse in Sanscrit, as the prize of merit, to the writer of the best essay or dissertation. To instruct

others, is the prescribed duty of learned Brahmans; and, if they be men of substance, without reward; but they would all be flattered with an honorary mark of distinction; and the Mahomedans have not only the permission, but the positive command of their law-giver, to search for learning even in the remotest parts of the globe. It were superfluous to suggest, with how much correctness and facility their compositions might be translated for our use, since their languages are now more generally and perfectly understood than they have ever been by any nation of Europe.

I have detained you, I fear, too long by this address, though it has been my endeavour to reconcile comprehensiveness with brevity. The subjects, which I have lightly sketched, would be found, if minutely examined, to be inexhaustible; and, since no limits can be set to your researches, but the boundaries of Asia itself, I may not improperly conclude with wishing for your Society, what the Commentator on the Laws prays for the constitution of our country, that it may be perpetual.

DISCOURSE III.

DELIVERED FEBRUARY 2, 1786.

On the Hindus.-History of the ancient world.-Etymology, &c. of the Asiatics.—the five principal nations of the continent of Asia.-Sources of Asiatic wealth. The languages, letters, philosophy, religion, sculpture, architecture, sciences, and arts, of the Eastern nations.-Antiquity, structure, and description of the Sanscrit language.-Characters of the same. Of the Indian religion and philosophy.-Chronology of the Hindus.-Of the remains of architecture and sculpture in India. Of the arts and manufactures of India.-Inventions of the Hindus.

GENTLEMEN,

IN the former discourses which I had the honour of addressing to you, on the institution and objects of our Society, I confined myself purposely to general topics; giving in the first a distant prospect of the vast career on which we were entering, and, in the second, exhibiting a more diffuse, but still superficial sketch of the various discoveries in History, Science, and Art, which we might justly expect from our inquiries into the Literature of Asia. I now propose to fill up that outline so comprehensively as to omit nothing essential, yet so concisely as to avoid being tedious; and if the state of my health shall suffer me to continue long enough in this climate, it is my design, with

your permission, to prepare for our annual meetings a series of short dissertations, unconnected in their titles and subjects, but all tending to a common point of no small importance in the pursuit of interesting truths.

Of all the works which have been published in our own age, or, perhaps in any other, on the History of the Ancient World, and the population of this habitable globe, that of Mr. Jacob Bryant, whom I name with reverence and affection, has the best claim to the praise of deep erudition ingeniously applied, and new theories, happily illustrated by an assemblage of numberless converging rays from a most extensive circumference: it falls, nevertheless, as every human work must fall, short of perfection; and the least satisfactory part of it seems to be that which relates to the derivation of words from Asiatic languages. Etymology has, no doubt, some use in historical researches; but it is a medium of proof so very fallacious, that where it elucidates one fact, it obscures a thousand; and more frequently borders on the ridiculous, than leads to any solid conclusion. It rarely carries with it any internal power of conviction from a resemblance of sounds or similarity of letters; yet often, where it is wholly unassisted by those advantages, it may be indisputably proved by extrinsic evidence. We know à posteriori, that both fitz and hijo, by the nature of two several dialects, are derived from filius; that uncle comes from avus, and stranger from extra; that jour is deducible, through the Italian from dies; and rossignol from luscinia, or the singer in groves; that sciuro, écureuil, and squirrel are compounded of two Greek words, de

scriptive of the animal; which etymologies, though they could not have been demonstrated à priori, might serve to confirm, if any such confirmation were necessary, the proofs of a connexion between the members of one great empire; but when we derive our hanger, or short pendant sword, from the Persian, because ignorant travellers thus mispel the word khanjar, which, in truth, means a different weapon, or sandal-wood from the Greek, because we suppose that sandals were sometimes made of it, we gain no ground in proving the affinity of nations, and only weaken arguments which might otherwise be firmly supported. That Cús, then, or, as it certainly is written in one ancient dialect, Cút, and in others, probably, Cás, enters into the composition of many proper names, we may very reasonably believe; and that Algeziras takes its name from the Arabic word for an island, cannot be doubted; but when we are told from Europe, that places and provinces in India were clearly denominated from those words, we cannot but observe, in the first instance, that the town in which we now are assembled is properly written and pronounced Calicátà; that both Câtá and Cút unquestionably mean places of strength, or, in general, any enclosures; and that Gujerat is at least as remote from Jezirah in sound

as it is in situation.

Another exception (and a third could hardly be discovered by any candid criticism) to the Analysis of Ancient Mythology, is, that the method of reasoning, and arrangement of topics, adopted in that learned work, are not quite agreeable to the title, but almost wholly synthetical; and, though synthesis may be the better mode in pure science, where the