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



Nor is the ascertainment of any fact to be considered destitute of 

 use. The aberrations of the human mind are a part of its history. 

 It is neither uninteresting, nor useless, to ascertain what it is that 

 ingenious men have done, and contemplative minds have thought, 

 in former times ; even where they have erred : especially, where 

 their error has been graced by elegance, or redeemed by tasteful 

 fancy. 



Mythology then, however futile, must, for those reasons, be 

 noticed. It influences the manners, it pei-vades the literature, of 

 nations which have admitted it. 



Philosophy of ancient times must be studied ; though it be the 

 edifice of large inference, raised on the scanty ground of assumed 

 premises. Such as it is, most assiduously has it been cultivated 

 by Oriental nations, from the further India to Asiatic Greece. The 

 more it is investigated, the more intimate will the relation be found 

 between the philosophy of Greece, and that of India. Whichever 

 is the type, or the copy, whichever has borrowed, or has lent, 

 certain it is, that the one will serve to elucidate the other. The 

 philosophy of Didia may be employed for a commentary on that of 

 Greece ; and conversely Grecian philosophy will help to explain 

 Indian. That of Arabia too, avowedly copied from the Grecian 

 model, has preserved much which else might have been lost. A 

 part has been restored through the medium of translation ; and 

 more may yet be retrieved from Arabic stores. 



Tlie ancient language of India, the polished Sanscrit, not 

 unallicd to Greek and various other languages of Europe, may yet 

 contribute something to their elucidation ; and still more to the not 

 unimportant subject of general grammar. 



Though attic taste be wanting in the literary performances of 

 Asia, they are not, on that sole ground, to be utterly neglected. 

 Much that is interesting, may yet be elicited from Arabic and 

 Sanscrit lore, from Arabian and Indian antiquities. 



Connected as those highly polished and refined languages are 

 with other tongues, they deserve to be studied for the sake of the 



