jects of investigation which increafing knowledge had discovered to him, and an intention to pursue the line of his researches through Perfia or China, by a circuitous rout to his native country; and at an earlier period, when the extent of the field of investigation appeared boundless, he had declared his determination to remain in India until the close of the century, if it should please God to prolong his life. But affection fet limits to his zeal for knowledge, and when it was finally fettled that Lady Jones fhould return to England, he determined himself to follow her in the enfuing feafon, hoping by this period to have discharged his engagements with the government of India. She embarked in December 1793.

In the beginning of 1794, Sir William Jones published a work, in which he had long been engaged,—a translation of the Ordinances of Menu, comprising the Indian fyftem of duties religious and civil. This talk was fuggested by the fame motives, which had induced him to undertake the compilation of the di

geft; to aid the benevolent intentions of the
legiflature of Great Britain, in fecuring to the
natives of India the administration of justice,
to a certain extent, by their own laws. Menu
is esteemed by the Hindus the first of created
beings, and not the oldeft only, but the holiest,
of legiflators; and his fyftem is fo comprehen-
five and fo minutely exact, that it may
be con-
fidered as an inftitute of Hindu law, prefa-
tory to the more copious digeft.

This work, to use the words of the tranflator, contains abundance of curious matter, extremely interefting both to fpeculative lawyers and antiquaries, with many beauties, which need not be pointed out, and with many blemishes, which cannot be juftified or palliated. It is indeed a fyftem of defpotifm and prieftcraft, both limited by law, but artfully confpiring to give mutual fupport, though with mutual checks; it is filled with strange conceits in metaphyficks and natural philofophy, with idle superstitions, and with a scheme of theology moft obfcurely figurative, and confequently liable to dangerous mifconcep

tion; it abounds with minute and childish formalities, with ceremonies generally abfurd, and often ridiculous; the punishments are partial and painful, for fome crimes dreadfully cruel, for others reprehenfibly flight: and the very morals, though rigid enough on the whole, are in one or two inftances (as in the case of light oaths and pious perjury) unaccountably relaxed; nevertheless, a spirit of fublime devotion, of benevolence to mankind, and of amiable tenderness to all creatures, pervades the whole work; the ftyle of it has a certain auftere majefty, that founds like the language of legiflation, and extorts a respectful awe; the fentiments of independence upon all beings but God, and the harsh admonitions even to kings, are truly noble; and the many panegyrics on the Gayatri, the mother, as it is called, of the vedá, prove the author to have adored, not the visible material fun, but that divine and incomparably greater light, to use the words of the most venerable text in the Indian Scripture, which illumines all, delights all, from which all proceed, to which all must Life-V. II.

Q

return, and which can alone irradiate, not our visual organs, but our fouls and our intellects.

The appreciation of a work, which had occupied fo large a portion of his time and attention, affords a proof of the judgment and candour of Sir William Jones. The ordinances of Menu are by no means calculated for general reading; but they exhibit the manners of a remarkable people, in a remote age, and unfold the principles of the moral and religious systems, to which the Hindus have invariably adhered, notwithstanding their long subjection to a foreign dominion.

I now present to the reader, the last letter which I received from Sir William Jones, written two months before the departure of Lady Jones from India.

MY DEAR SIR,

A few days after I troubled you about the yacht, I felt a fevere pang on hearing of your domeftic misfortune; and I felt more for you than I fhould for moft men, on fo melancholy an occafion, because I well know the

fenfibility of your heart. The only topic of confolation happily presented itself to you: reafon perhaps might convince us, that the death of a created being never happens without the will of the Creator, who governs this world by a special interpofition of his providential care; but, as this is a truth which Revelation exprefsly teaches us, our only true comfort in affliction must be derived from Christian philosophy, which is fo far from encouraging us to ftifle our natural feelings, that even the divine Author of it wept on the death of a friend. This doctrine, though fuperfluous to you, is always present to my mind; and I fhall have occafion in a few years, by the courfe of nature, to prefs it on the mind of Lady Jones, the great age of reafons for hoping

whose mother is one of my

most anxiously, that nothing may prevent her returning to England this feafon.

* I will follow her as foon as I

can,

poffibly at the beginning of 1795, but probably not till the season after that; for although Ifhall have more than enough to fupply all the