2 Proceedings. [Jan., 



■whicli he lias rendered to the Soietice of Philology, were it not desirable, 

 in the interests of that Society itself to place on I'ecord the history of 

 the connexion which has existed between it and one of its most brilliant 

 members. Opportunity should also be tiikcn to supply the future 

 historian of the Society with a few brief facts concerning the life and 

 works of a scholar of worldwide reputation. 



Augustus Fi'ederick Rudolf Hoernle, C.T.E., Ph D., was born at 

 Secuiidra, near Agra, on the 19th Octol)ei', 1841. His father was the 

 Reverend C, T. Hoernle, who was during the greater part of his life a 

 Church Missionary in India, and he came of an old German family, the 

 eailiest recorded ancestor living in tlie 15th century. He was taken 

 home in the year 1848, and was educated first by a private tutor, and 

 then, successively, at the Paedagogium in Esslingen, at the Gym- 

 nasium in Stuttgart, and at the ' Klosterschule ' in Schonthal, all which 

 places are in the Kino^dom of Wiiitemberg. In 1858 he went to Basel 

 University, to study Philosopliy with Professor Steffensen, to whom he 

 twenty-two years later dedicated hia first great work, the Gaudian 

 Grammar ; and, in 1860, to London, to study Sanskrit with Professor 

 Goldstiicker. He returned to India in the year 1865, and was appointed 

 Professor of Philosophy and Sanskrit at Jay Karayan's College in 

 Benares. He was elected an Ordinary Member of this Society at the 

 December Meeting of the year 1872, his first contribution to the Joui'nal 

 of the Society, entitled Essays in Aid of a Comparative Grammar ofGaurian 

 Languages which formed the basis of his Gaudian Grammar subsquently 

 published, having appeared a few months previously. Dr. Hoernle 

 spent the years 1873-1877 at home in England, where he was actively 

 employed in the preparation of the latter work, which appeared in 1878, 

 ViXidiQY the iiile oi A Comparative Grammar of the North-Indian Verna- 

 culars. In the same year he came out to India again as Principal of the 

 Cathedral Mission College, which position he held till the year 1881, when 

 he was appointed Principal of the Calcutta Madrasah and Professor 

 at the Presidency College, posts wliich he is still nominally holding. 

 In 1892, he was placed on special duty by the Government of Bengal to 

 prepare an edition of the Bower Manuscript, and at present he is again 

 on similar service, being employed by the Government of India to report 

 on the British Collection of Central Asian Antiquities. In the year 1897 

 his high scientific attainments were recognised by Her Majesty, who 

 conferred upon him the title of Companion of the Indian Empire. 



It has already been stated that Dr. Hoernle joined this Society in 

 the year 1872. He was elected Honoi^aiy Philological Secretary in 1879, 

 and it is difficult to express in adequate terms the indebtedness of the 

 Society to liim for the tacfc and learning with which he edited its 



