308 Asiatic Society qf'Grmt Britain and Ireland. 



from the Grecian model, has preserved much which else might 

 have been lost. A part has been restored through the medium 

 of translation ; and more may yet be retrieved from Arabic 

 stores. 



'" The ancient language of India, the polished Sanscrit, not 

 unallied to Greek and various other languages of Europe, may 

 yet contribute something to their elucidation ; and still more 

 to the not unimportant subject of general grammar. Though 

 Attic taste be wanting in the literary performances of Asia, 

 they are not, on that sole ground, to be utterly neglected. 

 Miich that is interesting may yet be ehcited from Arabic and 

 Sanscrit lore, fi-om Arabian and Indian antiquities. Connected 

 as those highly polished and refined languages are with other 

 tongues, they deserve to be studied for the sake of the parti- 

 cular dialects and idioms to which they bear relation ; for theii* 

 own sake, that is, for the literature which appertains to them ; 

 and for the analysis of language in general, which has been 

 unsuccessfully attempted on too narrow ground, but may be 

 prosecuted with effect upon wider induction. The same is to 

 be said of Chinese literature and language. This field of re- 

 search, which is now open to us, may be cultivated with con- 

 fident reliance on a successful result; making us better ac- 

 quainted with a singular people, whose manners, institutions, 

 opinions, arts and productions, differ most widely from those of 

 the West; and through them, perhaps, with other tribes of 

 Tartaric race, still more singular, and still less known. 



" Wide as is the geographical extent of the region to which 

 primarily our attention is directed, and from which our asso- 

 ciation has taken its designation, the range of our research is 

 not confined to those geographical limits. Western Asia has, 

 in all times, maintained intimate relation with contiguous, and 

 not luifrequently with distant countries : and that connexion 

 will justify, and often render necessary, excursive disquisition 

 beyond its bounds. We may lay claim to many Grecian to- 

 pics, as bearing relation to Asiatic Greece ; to numerous topics 

 of yet higher interest, connected with Syria, with Chaldaea, 

 with Palestine. Arabian literature will conduct us still further. 

 Wherever it has followed the footsteps of Moslem conquest, 

 inquiry will pmsue its trace. Attending the Arabs in Egypt, 

 the Moors in Africa; accompanying these into Spain, and 

 cultivated there with assiduity, it must be investigated without 

 exclusion of countries into which it made its way. 



" Neither are our researches limited to the old continent, nor 

 to the history and pursuits of ancient times. Modern enter- 

 prise has added to the known world a second Asiatic conti- 

 nent; which British colonies have annexed to the British do- 



