Letters of Sir Wirtr1am Jones to Samurt Davis, Esq. 7 
VIII. 
Gardens near Fort William: 
17 April 1789. 
I am commissioned, my dear Sir, by our Society, to give you their hearty 
thanks for your very interesting dissertation, which I had the pleasure of 
reading last night at a full meeting. I had read it twice before; and the 
oftener I read it, the more I am pleased with it. A copy of it has been 
taken, but it would require more time than I can spare to correct the 
mistakes of the transcriber: I keep it therefore here, and send you the 
original, requesting you to return it by the post when you have revised it 
to your satisfaction, and I will then send it to the press, and correct the 
proof-sheets myself with great attention. We are advancing pretty fast in 
the second volume of our Transactions, of which your paper will be a 
principal ornament. I mean to print the index of Sanscrit astronomical 
terms at the end of your paper, with an explanation of them. I shall 
therefore be much obliged to you, if you will desire your Pandit to write 
in Dévandgari the words which he has omitted in his first list, and which 
I have scribbled in the last page of your paper. Iam very glad that you 
adopt the method of writing Sanscrit words according to the letters, which 
are constant, instead of the pronunciation, which is always variable: the 
Cashmirian Pandits, indeed, pronounce all the letters as 1 write them; so 
that my method has every advantage. Thus urgun is pronounced in 
Cashmir ahargana, and so it is written FET, literally, day-number. 
Sir Rt Chambers said last night that he had a commentary on the Vara- 
samhitd, which, as he heard at Bandres, is an incomparable work, and 
which he would lend you if he could convey it to you with safety. As to 
the figures in your paper, I dare say Mr. Daniell will be so kind as to etch 
them for us under your direction, when he returns towards Calcutta 
through Bhdgalpur. I am, dear Sir, 
Your ever faithful & 
affect® serv! 
W. JONES. 
Be so good as to let me know whether you receive this packet, as I shall 
be anxious for its safety. 
