56 Address. [Feb, 



last year's address, lias been completed. The report notices the educa- 

 tional influence the gardens are beginning to have. In a recently pub- 

 lished Bengali book on nursery education, the author gives a discussion 

 on the instinct and habits of animals, as they may be studied in the 

 course of a visit to the garden, with a view to stimulating the faculty of 

 observation in the youthful mind. 



Oriental History, Literature and Linguistic Studies. 



The year seems to have been particularly fruitful in the results of 

 literary activity and antiquarian research in this country. Greater atten- 

 tion also seems to be paid to Oriental literature in Barope than former- 

 ly, and as the first of Asiatic Societies founded for investigation within the 

 limits of Asia, we must welcome the efforts now being made in London 

 to extend the knowledge of Oriental Studies and Literature by the estab- 

 lishment of the School of Modern Oriental Studies connected with the 

 Imperial Institute in union with University College and King's College, 

 London, of which the inaugural Address was delivered by Professor 

 Mas Miiller last month. Similar schools have already been established 

 in Russia, France, Austria and Germany, and their success has no doubt 

 led to the institution of the present school in London. It is, of course, 

 of hio-h importance that men destined for an Eastern career should, if 

 possible, receive some preliminary training and knowledge of the lan- 

 guages and people of the countries in which their future lot is to be 

 cast. The East India Company fully recognised this, and as an alumnus 

 of one of their training colleges, I must acknowledge with grateful pride 

 the advantages I derived from my early training there. But after all, 

 the best and most valuable knowledge is that acquii-ed by practical ex- 

 perience and life, and as we go en we find that much of our preliminary 

 teaching has to be unlearnt or is useless. The best of schools for India 

 is India itself, and to this may be attributed the fact that the want of an 

 Oriental training-school has not been felt so much in England as in 

 other countries. That such institutions are of use is undoubted, but we 

 must not, I think, expect too much from them. 



The eighth International Congress of Orientalists, held at Stock- 

 holm and Christiania, in September last, under the presidentship of His 

 Majesty, King Oscar II, of Sweden and I^orway, seems to have been 

 a well attended and successful one. It may be noted that Norway is 

 the fatherland of many distinguished oriental scholars of whom Lassen, 

 Holmboe and Skrefsrud are perhaps best known in connection with India. 

 It was hoped that Mr. Grierson would have been able to attend on the 

 Society's behalf, and Mons. Senart was also asked to represent the 

 Society, bvit was unable to be present. A full account of the meeting 



