vi 



RISE AND PROGRESS 



sweetness of tone, and regularity of structure, at 

 least rivals the most perfect of those Western 

 tongues, to which it bears a signal affinity; with 

 an antiquity retiring, on a very reasonable com- 

 putation, to the distance of three thousand years ; 

 with treasures of thought and imagery, on which 

 the strains of Vyasa and Valmiki are enough to 

 confer immortal renown; covered as Indian^ 

 literature is with these attractions, it has needed 

 the aid of recent munificence * to introduce it, as 

 a subject of study, even into the foremost seats of 

 British education. And in an inquiry, such as 

 the present, according to the necessary rule 

 already laid down, not all the beauties of which 

 it may justly boast, nor the strong temptations 

 to digress, which these hold out, will obtain for 

 it a place. Other branches of Oriental literature, 

 endowed with equal charms, cannot, in deference 

 to the same rule, be considered in the order of 

 precedence due to their respective dates. Thus, 

 it is not until they are brought, through the 

 medium of the Moorish empire in Spain, and 

 of the crusades, into a near relation with the 

 works of European fancy, that the tales and 

 poetry of Arabia and Persia will be entitled to 

 particular notice. 



It is with a keen feeling of regret that, in 

 searching for the true fountain-head of that 

 literature, whose history is unbroken, and whose 

 progress is part of our actual experience, we 

 are constrained to pass by, for the present, a still 

 more venerable portion of the intellectual 

 treasures of the East. That any one who has 

 studied the poetry, history, and philosophy of 

 the HEBREWS, even merely as specimens of com- 

 position, should lightly esteem them, is impos- 

 sible. In lyric flow and fire, in crushing force, 

 in majesty that seems still to echo the awful 

 sounds, once heard beneath the thunder-clouds 

 of Sinai, the poetry of the ancient Scriptures is 

 the most superb that ever burned within the 

 breast of man. The picturesque simplicity of 

 their narrative gives an equal charm to the 

 historical books. Vigour, beauty, sententious- 

 ness, variety, enrich and adorn the ethical parts 

 of the collection. Nor is that seeming artless- 

 ness, which constitutes a principal charm of 

 these writings, either naturally incompatible 

 with the observance of certain rules, or actually 

 uncontrolled by such as denote an intimate 

 acquaintance with the management of style. 

 Moreover, it must be granted that these brilliant 



* The late colonel Boden, of the East India Company's 

 Service, has bequeathed his whole property to the Univer- 

 sity of Oxford for the foundation of a Sanscrit professor- 

 ihip, and the encouragement of Sanscrit learning. The 

 first Professor waw elected in 1832. 



qualities of a literature, which at last excited the 

 warmest interest among cultivated nations, have 

 produced effects easily discernible in many 

 works of modern genius. But that Literature 

 whose sun has never set, from the first moment 

 of its appearance above the horizon ; whose 

 continuous current has rolled down from remote 

 times to our own day ; was not derived from the 

 confessedly more ancient literature of Israel. 

 For ages the elder stream did not intermingle ita 

 waters with that of later birth indeed, but of 

 more wide and permanent dominion. We shall 

 hereafter, at the proper period, have to speak 

 of their union : meanwhile, though the capital 

 branches of grave composition had been enrich- 

 ed by the Hebrews, at least fire centuries before 

 the earliest memorials of GRECIAN genius, the 

 latter must be allowed to occupy the foremost 

 position in a sketch of general literature. 



The Greeks, in a dream of national vanity, 

 gave out their noblest stocks for the offspring of 

 their own soil. They were ashamed to deduce 

 their origin from any country, whose inhabitants 

 they justly deemed inferior to themselves in the 

 arts of war and peace. This fanciful hypothesis, 

 however false as far as regards the people, be- 

 comes true when applied to one part of their 

 intellectual history. Their literature was indeed 

 autochthonal. The rise of mental refinement 

 among them was independent of other races of 

 men ; and its development was their own work. 

 Their literary greatness, whose remains are a 

 brighter trophy than the memory of their martial 

 deeds or of their political systems, was the 

 growth of the beautiful region which it adorned ; 

 and the same hands which reaped the field had 

 sown it. It is not denied that they knew of the 

 intellectual progress of nations anterior to them- 

 selves, nor that materials for thought to fashion, 

 or imagination to embellish, were drawn by 

 them, to a large exten^ from foreign sources. 

 But as it was with the language, so was it with 

 the literature of the Greeks. Just as their 

 language, after its principles were once fixed, 

 and its vocabulary was established on a broad 

 basis, while it admitted contributions from other 

 lands, caused them to pass through an assimilat- 

 ing process of naturalization ; so, to the ideas 

 that poured in from various quarters, their plas- 

 tic minds gave a new consistent shape and an 

 exalted value. Thus, among the elements of 

 their mythology, originally discordant, though 

 blended by genius into a wonderful semblance 

 of uniformity, we perceive strong traces of the 

 Oriental and Egyptian creeds ; but the parts 

 taken from them have been cast in a fresh mould, 

 and reproduced in more captivating lineaments. 



