Iviii APPENDIX. 



reason to believe, that there is a feeling there in favour of this project ; and Oxford would probably 

 join. 



I hope it will not be thought that I have any wish to mal<e myself important in this business. I 

 only wish to see something done ; and shall be most willing to further any project likely to do so, as 

 far as my slender means and abilities will go. Much I cannot promise; but the little I can do shall be 

 done cheerfully. 



I have the honour to be, dear Sir, 



Your's very faithfully, 



, Samuel Lee. 



Correspondence referred to in the preceding Letter. (From the Cambridge Chronicle, March 10, 1827.^ 



To the Rev. Professor Lee. 



Sir : The influence which you possess in the community of letters, not only from your distinguished 

 situation among a bod}' itself highly eminent for talent and enlightenment, but also from your own 

 personal attainments, point you out to me as the person, above all others, to whom I would publicly 

 address a few thoughts on the present state of Oriental learning. 



You are well aware that the literature of the East is of great extent and great value; that the treasures 

 which have been hitherto explored have furnished us with specimens of the most polished and elevated 

 poetry, and the most ingenious and beautiful fiction ; with much that is valuable and single in history, and 

 much in science that even now is curious anil useful; nor, in the present state of scientific improvement, 

 are we to forget that wo derived from the East those extensive and generalized principles of calculation 

 which have conducted to the proudest triumphs of philoso[)hy. Yet it is no less certain that the great 

 field of Hindoo, Persian, Arabic, and Chinese literature, has been very imperfectly explored. Even the 

 libraries of Europe, especially those of Spain, comprise a far greater number of Oriental MSS. than have 

 ever been studied ; or, at least, communicated to the literary world. But these again are a mere speck, 

 in comparison with the vast treasures of the East itself. Amidst all these MSS., many, doubtless, are of 

 little intrinsic worth ; but it still will remain certain that an immense ocean of knowledge is floating 

 around us, which, like the waters which eluded the grasp of Tantalus, is for ever escaping our thirst. 

 And what may not this knowledge be ? Details on the population of the ancient world ; particulars of 

 those nations with whom the Greeks acquaint us incorrectl}', and the Hebrews imperfectly; and transla- 

 tions of the lost Greek and Roman authors, which we know the Arabians of Europe frequently made. 

 The entire history of Livy is, perhaps, latent in some European library, among the neglected and 

 perishing treasures of Eastern knowledge. The theory of Egyptian hierogljphics, in illustrating which 

 the most logical and discriminating minds have hitherto laboured with small, though wonderful success, 

 is perhaps placed beyond the province of conjecture in some Arabian or Ethiopian treatise. 



That such probabilities should not have been fathomed, seems a reproach to the literary world, but 

 most of all to this country, whose power and possessions in the East are so considerable, and whose 

 learning and opportunities point her out as the most ertective instrument in promoting the great result. 

 But it may be said, what can she do ? Has she not her colleges and her professors, both here and in 

 India; and is not the work itself proceeding, although with a slowness proportioned to its extent? But 

 the labourers are too few, nor are they of the class required. Dr. Wait, I am told, is now making a 

 descriptive catalogue of the Oriental MSS. in the University library: his fine talents are employed in an 

 object of the highest use. But what if this object be attainable with equal certainty, greater celerity, 

 and the expenditure of less valuable time than that of such a scholar as Dr. Wait? What if the attain- 

 ment of tills object depended not on the will and taste of individuals, but be made the subject of a sys- 

 tem which will compel its end? What if its promotion be not confined to the walls of an university, but 

 extend through the whole of the British possessions ? 



