APPENDIX. xxiii 



PROSPECTUS 



Plan far translating and pnhUshbig such interesting and valuable Works on Eastern Histoi-y, 

 Science, and Belles-Lettres as are still in MS. in the Libraries of the Universities, the 

 British Museum, and the East-Iiulia House, and in other Collections, in Asia and Africa 

 as well as in Europe; and for providing Funds to carry this object into execution. 



1. The extensive and valuable collections of Oriental MSS. which are deposited in 

 our public and private libraries, have long attracted the attention of the learned of this 

 and other countries; and it has been suggested that some means, offering a reasonable 

 prospect of success, may be devised, by which the public may be put in possession of 

 all that is valuable in Eastern literature, and an opportunity be presented for shewing 

 that this country is not at present backward in contributing to the advancement of 

 Oriental learning, in which she has long held the foremost rank. The interesting 

 relations, moreover, in which this country stands with the East, affording as they do 

 the best opportunities for carrying such a project into effect, and at the same time 

 promising both to England and its Eastern possessions the most beneficial results, 

 may be mentioned as additional motives for engaging in such an undertaking. 



2. The advantages likely to be derived from a more extensive cultivation of Oriental 

 literature in this country may be considered as applicable to Biblical Criticism, 

 Ecclesiastical and General History, Biography, Belles-Lettres, the Arts and Sciences, 

 and Geography. 



3. With reference to Biblical Criticism and Ecclesiastical History, we know that 

 our Scriptures, particularly those of the Old Testament, abound in modes of 

 expression, and allusions to customs, in many cases imperfectly understood in 

 Europe, but still prevailing in the East. That light confessedly derived from the 

 Arabic and other sister dialects of the Hebrew, has been thrown on the text of 

 Scripture by the Rabbinical and other commentators, few will deny; yet volumes 

 on Arabic Grammar, Rhetoric, and the more ancient productions of the Arabian 

 poets, which approach most nearly in style and sentiments to some parts of the 

 Hebrew Bible, still lie in MS. in our libraries, either entirely neglected, or at best 

 accessible to few. 



4. In the Syriac language, which approximates still nearer than the Arabic to 

 the Hebrew in its form and modes of expression, there are in our libraries unpublished 

 Grammars and Dictionaries, and even Commentaries on the Scriptures, written by 

 tlie Bishops and other learned members of the Oriental churches, together with 

 MS. works of the greatest value to Divines, on Ecclesiastical History and Divinity, 

 composed by the fathers of the Syrian and Arabian churches. The collection also of 

 the late Mr. Rich, now placed in the British Museum by the liberality of Parliament, 

 contains perhaps the most valuable MSS. of the Syriac Scriptures now in existence; 

 and it is of the greatest importance to Biblical criticism that a collation of them 

 should be made and published. 



5. Perhaps no people possess more extensive stores of History, Biography, and 

 Polite Literature, than the Arabs and Persians. The accounts which their historical 

 and biographical works contain of their own and tlie surrounding countries, are 

 necessarily the principal sources from whicli information can be obtained relative 

 to the history of those regions, and of tlie extraordinary persons to whom they 

 have given birth. Their liistories of the Crusades in particular, wliich furnish the 

 most authentic details on this interesting subject, will always amuse and instruct 

 the general reader, while they furnish materials of tlie greatest importance to the 



