and if I were to stay here half a century, I should be continually amused.

Sir WILLIAM JONES to

April 13, 1784.

I am discouraged from writing to you as copiously as I wish, by the fear that my letter may never reach you. I inclose however a hymn to the Indian cupid, which is here said to be the only correct specimen of Hindu mythology that has appeared; it is certainly new and quite original, except the form of the stanza, which is Milton's. I add the character of Lord Ashburton, which my zeal for his fame prompted me to publish*.

Had

* Lord Ashburton died on the 18th of August 1783. His character, written by Sir Willian Jones, is published in vol. iv. of his works, page 577. I transcribe from it the last paragraph, as a proof of the titude and sensibility of the writer.

gra

"For

Had I dreamt that the dialogue would

have made such a stir,

I

should cer

tainly have taken more pains with it. I will never cease to avow and justify the doctrine comprised in it. I meant it merely as an imitation of one of Plato's, where a boy wholly ignorant of geometry, is made by a few simple questions to demonstrate

"For some months before his death, the nursery had "been his chief delight, and gave him more pleasure "than the cabinet could have afforded: but this pa"rental affection, which had been a source of so much

felicity, was probably a cause of his fatal illness. "He had lost one son, and expected to lose another, "when the author of this painful tribute to his me"mory, parted from him, with tears in his eyes, little

hoping to see him again in a perishable state. As "he perceives, without affectation, that his tears now "steal from him, and begin to moisten the paper on "which he writes, he reluctantly leaves a subject, "which he could not soon have exhausted; and when "he also shall resign his life to the great Giver of it, "he desires no other decoration of his humble grave"stone, than this honourable truth:

"With none to flatter, none to recommend,
"DUNNING approv'd, and mark'd him as a friend."

3

a pro

a proposition, and I intended to inculcate, that the principles of government were so obvious and intelligible, that a clown might be brought to understand them. As to raising sedition, I as much thought of raising a church.

My dialogue contains my system, which I have ever avowed, and ever will avow; but I perfectly agree (and no man of sound intellect can disagree) that such a system is wholly inapplicable to this country, where millions of men are so wedded to inveterate prejudices and habits, that if liberty could be forced upon them by Britain, it would make them as miserable as the cruelest despotism.

Pray remember me affectionately to all my friends at the bar, whom I have not time to enumerate, and assure my academical and professional friends, that I will write to them all when I have leisure. Farewell, &c.

Sir WILLIAM JONES to CHARLES CHAPMAN, Esq.

Gardens, near Allipore, April 26, 1784.

Allow me, dear Sir, to give

you the warmest thanks in my own name, and in that of our infant society, for the pleasure which we have received from your interesting account of Cochin-china, with considerable extracts from which we have been favoured by our patrons. Our meetings are well attended, and the society may really be said, considering the recent time of its establishment, to flourish.

We have been rather indisposed, the weather being such as we had no idea of in England, excessive heat at noon, and an incessant high wind from morning to night; at this moment it blows a hurricane, and my study reminds me of my cabin at sea. Our way of life however

is quite pastoral in this retired spot; as

my

my prime favourites, among all our pets, are two large English sheep, which came with us from Spithead, and, having narrowly escaped the knife, are to live as long and as happily with us as they can; they follow us for bread, and are perfectly domestic. We are literally lulled to sleep by Persian nightingales, and cease to wonder, that the Bulbul, with a thousand tales, makes such a figure in Oriental poetry. Since I am resolved to sit regularly in court as long as I am well, not knowing how soon I may be forced to remit my attention to business, I shall not be at liberty to enter my budgerow till near the end of July, and must be again in Calcutta on the 22d of October, so that my time will be very limited; and I shall wish if possible to see Benares.

The principal object of his meditated excursion was to open sources of information,