Baron Humboldt's Essay on the Oriental Languages. 221 



of India, hastily put forth for the purpose of coming at once to a general 

 conclusion. 



These, Sir, are my ideas upon the subject, upon which you wished to 

 have my opinion. It is only in compliance with your request, that I have 

 ventured to lay them before you ; for I am well aware how much better 

 able the distinguished members of the Royal Asiatic Society are to form 

 a judgment of, and give an opinion upon, this matter than I am. 



I request you, Sir, to accept the assurance of my highest respect. 



{Signed) Humboldt. 

 London, June 10, 1828. 



NOTE. 



(1) The work to which allusion is made by Baron William de Humboldt, in the 

 passage where 1 am named, was undertaken by me in furtherance of the views developed 

 by Sir James Mackintosli. I thought that a more copious comparative vocabulary than 

 he had proposed, would be practically useful ; and would be instructive in more points 

 of view than he had contemplated. Accordingly, at my instance, a Sanscrit vocabulary 

 and a Persian one were printed with blank half pages, and distributed among gentle- 

 men, whose situations were considered to afford the opportunity of having the blank 

 column filled up, by competent persons, with a vocabulary of a provincial language. 

 ^'ocabularies of the same vernacular tongue by a Pandit and a Munshi, would serve 

 to correct mutually, and complete the information sought from them. Very few 

 answers, however, were received : indeed scarcely any, except from Dr. Buchanan 

 Hamilton. The compilation, to which Baron de Humboldt refers, comprises as many as 

 I succeeded in collecting. 



H. T. C. 



