Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. '307 



enduring institutions ; tlieir manners, and their customs ; their 

 languages, and their Hterature ; their sciences, speculative and 

 practical : in short, the progress of knowledge among them ; 

 the pitch which it has attained ; and last, but most important, 

 the means of its extension. 



" In speaking of the history of Asiatic nations (and it is in 

 Asia that recorded and authentic history of mankind com- 

 mences), I do not refer merely to the succession of political 

 struggles, national conflicts, and warlike achievements; but 

 rather to less conspicuous, yet more important, occurrences, 

 which directly concern the structure of Society ; the civil in- 

 stitutions of nations; their internal more than their external 

 relations ; and the yet less prominent but more momentous 

 events, which affect Societ}' universally, and advance it in the 

 scale of civilized life. It is the history of the human mind, 

 which is most diligently to be investigated : the discoveries of 

 the wise ; the inventions of the ingenious ; and the contrivances 

 of the skilful. Nothing, which has much engaged the thoughts 

 of man, is foreign to our inquiry', within the local limits which 

 we have prescribed to it. We do not exclude from our re- 

 search the political transactions of Asiatic states, nor the lucu- 

 brations of Asiatic philosophers. The first are necessarily 

 connected, in no small degree, with the history of the progress 

 of society ; the latter have great influence on the literary, the 

 speculative, and the practical avocations of men. 



" Nor is the ascertainment of any fact to be considered de- 

 stitute 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 con- 

 templative 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 in- 

 fluences the manners, it pervades 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 in- 

 vestigated, the more intimate will the relation be found be- 

 tween the philosophy of Greece and that of India. Which- 

 ever 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 India may be employed for a commentary 

 on that of Greece ; and, conversely, Grecian philosophy will 

 help to explain Indian. That of Aral)ia too, avowedly copied 

 Q (J 2 from 



