ready for the press a complete translation of the Mahabharat; but no private individual of moderate fortune can ever hazard the publication of so immense a work; no bookseller can with common prudence undertake it; so that without extraordinary assistance this noble work must remain obscure and useless in the closet of the translator. Nor is this all-many individuals are now qualified and well disposed to undertake translations from the Sanscrit, if they were assured of the means of publication without loss, and of moderate remuneration where their circumstances required it. On the other hand, it cannot be doubted, that in an opulent and liberal community, there are many perfectly ready to supply those small contributions which would be sufficient for such a purpose; but the indigent scholar does not know whence he is to receive, and the generous patron does not know where he ought to bestow. We wish to see a common centre, to which both may be directed; and we beg leave to suggest, that the Asiatick Society may, in a public address to the British inhabitants of India, propose a general subscription to create a fund for defraying the necessary expenses of publishing translations of such Sanscrit works as shall most seem to deserve an English version, and for affording a reasonable recompense to the translators where their situation makes it necessary. It is proposed that the money when collected should be vested in a body, of whom your Society would naturally furnish the majority, who would be trustees of the fund and judges of the works to be translated, of the qualifications of those who are appointed to translate, and of the merit of their versions. If the principle were approved, the detailed regulations would be easily arranged.

It is premature, and might be presumptuous in us to point out the publications to which such a fund might be more especially destined; it is however obvious that the first place is, on every principle, due to the two great epic poems of which we have spoken. The impression made by Sacontala in every country of Europe would be sufficient, if other arguments were wanting, to point our attention to the drama. The celebrated dramatic pieces of India are said not to be very numerous, and it would not be difficult to realize the wish of the French missionary, who in the Lettres Edifiantes expressess a hope of presenting his country with a Sanscrit Theatre. We shall not speak of a grammar and dictionary of that language, because we understand that they are in great forwardness, and may soon be expected from learned members of your Society;--we shall not presume to decide whether the Vedas ought to form part of the plan, because we cannot estimate the difficulties which seem to attend the translation of these books. The province of history appears to be absolutely vacant in Hindu literature; but among the in

numerable treatises on speculative philosophy and ethics, some might be chosen very interesting to European philosophers: not perhaps for any new certain knowledge which they might afford on these subjects, but for the light which they must throw on the history of opinion, and for a conformity not only in morals, --which would not be extraordinary, because, notwithstanding the difference of dress and exterior, the moralists of all ages and nations have in general agreed; but in the devious and eccentric speculations of the metaphysicians, which seem to fluctuate more with the intellectual and moral peculiarities of the individual, and which therefore more excite our wonder, when we find them agree in distant times and places. To which must be added some works on pure and mixed mathematics, which, if the date of the works be ascertained, will, with more certainty than any other work of learning, determine the antiquity of civilization in the country where they are composed.

The full execution of this project will add a new department to the library of the poet, the elegant scholar, the inquirer into manners, into the origin of nations, and the progress of society; of the speculator on the first principles of knowledge, on the structure of the human mind, and on the revolutions of opinion; without compelling them to add a new language to the many ancient and living dialects, by the necessity of acquiring which they are already overwhelmed. To those who are desirous of adding Sanscrit learning to their present stores, it presents printed books, grammars, and dictionaries; means which have been hitherto wanting, and without which, nothing could be done by the most industrious as long as they remained in Europe. Perhaps the ancient history of India may be irrecoverably lost; but if this plan be carried into execution, the private scholar of every European country may, with little trouble and with absolute confidence, read the history of Indian science and art, usages and opinions of the Indian mind. The most interesting part will be accessible: we shall not perhaps have any serious reason to lament that we have not to load our memory with new volumes of facts and dates. We shall know nothing indeed of the dynasties of Palibothra:-But how much, after so many ages of learned investigation, do we know with certainty of those of Babylon and Persepolis? We shall not be minutely acquainted with the biography of Vicramaditya; but if we were to cast up only what we believe on sufficient evidence about Romulus, perhaps the balance of real history might not be very large in favour of the Italian chief.

The undertaking would be worthy of the British nation, and acceptable to

all Europe. We see no difficulties among such a Society as the British India, but such as activity and your influence may easily vanquish. We presume that the Directors of the East India Company would be disposed liberally to contribute towards it :-for our parts, we offer our cordial cooperation. The Society will exert all its credit, and the members will not be wanting in such contributions as the circumstances of their fortune will permit.

I have the honour to be, sir,

Your faithful humble servant,

(Signed) JAMES MACKINTOSH:

XX.

PLAN OF A COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY OF INDIAN

LANGUAGES.

By Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH, President of the Society.

Read on the 26th of May, 1806.

[The following paper is republished here in compliance with the resolution of the Society that all the papers read before it should be printed. The reader (especially the Indian reader) ought to bear in mind that it was written before the great light thrown on the Indian languages by late inquirers, and by the versions of the Scriptures into languages, of which in 1806 the existence was unknown to most, if not to all Europeans. Notwithstanding the liberal support of the various governments of British India, particularly of Lord Minto and Lord William Bentinck, the results of the inquiry were not sufficient to form a separate publication; they were therefore transmitted by order of the Society to the late Dr. Leyden, then engaged in similar researches on a very large scale; for which he was probably better qualified than any other European who ever visited India.] THE Empress Catherine II. in the year 1784 conceived the idea of a work better adapted than any which had preceded it, to facilitate the comparison of languages, and to furnish certain means of determining their affinity and filiation. This work was a comparative vocabulary of all languages. It is obvious that so great a plan must have been altogether impracticable, if it had not been limited to a moderate number of words. Her Imperial Majesty herself selected, and wrote with her own hand, one hundred and thirty words, which she thought the best fitted for the purpose of the work; and the execution was committed to the celebrated Mr. Pallas, who has already published two volumes, exhibiting these words in two hundred languages of Europe and Asia. A third was promised, but has not yet been published, with those of America. This defect, however, may be supplied by Dr. B. S. Barton, professor of natural

philosophy at Philadelphia, who is said to have collected vocabularies of a hundred American languages.

It is needless to observe how much gratitude and admiration are due to the sovereign who, in the midst of the cares of government, found leisure for so noble an enterprise; and to the celebrated scholar who undertook and executed a task so laborious. These sentiments of gratitude and admiration are not abated by some inconveniences which belong to the plan chosen, and by some defects unavoidable in the first execution of a work of such magnitude. So few copies were printed, and such was the consequent scarcity of the book, that it was not to be found even in the public library at Paris, the greatest in the world. Another circumstance besides its rarity made it almost inaccessible to curious and ingenious men. A spirit of nationality, pardonable indeed, but inconvenient, had dictated the choice of the Russian characters, known to very few men of letters. It required no great diligence to conquer that obstacle, but the character is said not to be in itself well adapted to perform the functions of an universal alphabet, and seems (in common indeed with most other alphabets) very imperfectly to represent the sounds employed by many other nations.

Very different degrees of accuracy were naturally to be expected in different parts of such a work. The authority of government was employed to collect specimens of the languages spoken through the vast extent of the Russian empire, and they may doubtless be presumed to be perfectly correct. The greatest exactness was also attainable in those languages of Sclavonic origin, which are analogous in their structure and genius to the Russian, and which are spoken by nations in the immediate neighbourhood of that great empire. And no difficulty could be found respecting the polished languages either of ancient or modern Europe; but the same correctness was not possible with regard to the languages of distant nations, either illiterate, or whose literature was unknown to learned Europeans. Defects and errors respecting them were inevitable; and they are confessed by the learned compiler with the candour natural to conscious and secure superiority. It is indeed obvious