xviii Mr. H. T. Colebrooke's Discourse. 



beholden; and, by acquisition of dominion in the East, is bound 

 by a yet closer tie. As Englishmen, we participate in the earnest 

 wish, that this duty may be fulfilled, and that obligation requited ; 

 and we share in the anxious desire of contributing to such a happy'' 

 result, by promoting an interchange of benefits, and returning in 

 an improved state that which was received in a ruder form. 



But improvement, to be efficient, must be adapted to the actual 

 condition of things : and hence a necessity for exact information of 

 all that is there known, which belongs to science ; and all that is 

 there practised, which appertains to arts. 



Be it then our part to investigate the sciences of Asia ; and 

 in(iuire into the arts of the East ; with the hope of facilitating 

 ameliorations, of which they may be found susceptible. 



In progress of such researches, it is not perhaps too much to 

 expect, that something may yet be gleaned for the advancement 

 of knowledge, and improvement of arts, at home. In many recent 

 instances, inventive faculties have been tasked to devise anew, 

 what might have been as readily copied from an Oriental tyjie ; 

 or unacknowledged imitation has reproduced in Europe, with an 

 air of novelty, what had been for ages familiar in the East. Nor 

 is that source to be considered as already exhausted. In beauty 

 of fabric, in simplicity of process, there possibly yet remains 

 something to be learnt from China, from Japan, from India ; 

 which the refinement of Europe need not disdain. 



The characteristic of the arts in Asia is simplicity. With rude 

 implements, and by coarse means, arduous tasks have been 

 achieved, and the most finished results have been obtained; which, 

 for a long period, were scarcely equalled, and have, but recently, 

 been surpassed, by polished artifice and refined skill in Europe. 

 Were it a question of mere curiosity, it might yet be worth the 

 inquiry, what were the rude means by which such things have 

 been accomplished .'' The question, however, is not a mei'ely idle 

 one. It may be investigated with confidence, that an useful an- 

 swer will be derived. If it do not point to the way of perfecting 



