Anniversary of 18S7> Address of the President, 2'73 



tions in oriental literature and oriental science. In the course of a 

 few years there appeared from his pen many profound dissertations 

 in the Asiatic Researches, on the Vedanta System of Philosophy, on 

 Sanscrit and Pracrit Poetry and Grammar, on the Indian Classes, 

 on the Origin and Tenets of the Mahometan Sects, on the Jains, on 

 the Indian and Arabian Division of the Signs of the Zodiac, and 

 on the Notions of the Hindu Astronomers on the Precession of the 

 Equinoxes and the Motions of the Planets ; to which must be 

 added the first volume of a very elaborate Sanscrit Grammar, the 

 translation of the Peostra, a Sanscrit Dictionary, and two extensive 

 Treatises on the Hindu Law of Inheritance, together with editions 

 of the AmeraCosha, a Sanscrit Vocabulary, and of the Hitopadesa, 

 or " Salutary Instruction", which had been translated by Mr. Wil- 

 kins, and which is more commonly known under the name of the 

 « Fables of Pilpay". 



It was some time after Mr. Colebrooke's return to this country 

 that he published, in 1817, a translation of the Lilawati and Vija- 

 Ganita, Sanscrit treatises on arithmetic, algebra and mensuration, to 

 which was prefixed a dissertation on the early history of algebra and 

 arithmetic in India, Arabia and Italy, which is equally remarkable 

 for its profound knowledge of Hindu and Arabian literature and 

 its correct views of the relations of oriental and ancient and mo- 

 dern European science. He was also the first person who main- 

 tained, from his own observations on the plains of Hindostan, the 

 superior elevation of the Himalayan mountains above the Andes of 

 America, in opposition to the opinions generally entertained at that 

 period, and which had been sanctioned by the great authority of 

 Humboldt's theory of the range of the curve of perpetual congela- 

 tion. The complete confirmation which his opinion afterwards 

 received, from accurate barometrical and trigonometrical measure- 

 ments, was always referred to, in his later years, with particular sa- 

 tisfaction and triumph. 



Mr. Colebrooke continued the steady pursuit of his oriental and 

 scientific studies until nearly the close of his life, ^nd even when the 

 progress of his infirmities confined him almost entirely to his bed. 

 He was one of the founders of the Asiatic and Astronomical Societies, 

 and a short time before his death he gave to the library of the India 

 House his incomparable collection of Sanscrit and Asiatic manu- 

 scripts, which had been collected at an expense of nearly 10,000/., 

 with the noble view of preserving them for ever from the danger of 

 dispersion by the fluctuating accidents of inheritance. 



Mr. Colebrooke was probably, with one single exception, the 

 greatest Sanscrit scholar of his age ; and when we take into account 

 his great acquirements in mathematics and philosophy, and in almost 

 every branch of literature, combined with the most accurate and 

 severe judgement, and also his great public services in situations of 

 the highest trust and responsibility, we shall not hesitate to pro- 

 nounce him one of the most illustrious of that extraordinary suc- 

 cession of great men who have adorned the annals of our Indian 

 Phil. Mag, S. 3. Vol. 12. No. 74. March 1838. 2 E 



