XXXV 



HORACE HAYMAN WILSON was born in 1 786, and died in London 

 on the 8th of May, 1860, at the age of 74, leaving a reputation of 

 Eastern scholarship which has no equal among Englishmen, except 

 in Sir William Jones and Henry Thomas Colebrooke. After recei- 

 ving a good classical and professional education, he proceeded to India 

 in 1808, in the Medical Service of the Government. He never, how- 

 ever, engaged in the practice of his profession, but being a skilful 

 chemist and metallurgist, he was at once attached to the Mint of 

 Calcutta, which stood in need of such services as he could render, 

 and in due time he became Master of the Mint, a post which he held 

 during his whole stay in India. 



At Calcutta Mr. Wilson became acquainted with Colebrooke, and 

 by his example and advice was induced to engage in the study of the 

 Sanskrit language and literature. The fruits of his devotion were 

 seen as early as 1813, when he published his first work, the trans- 

 lation in verse of a Sanskrit poem, called * The Cloud Messenger.' 

 This performance, equally distinguished by fidelity and good taste, 

 at once established the author's reputation as an oriental scholar. 

 From this time, the list of Mr. Wilson's various publications on 

 oriental questions is too manifold for citation, and we need only name 

 a few of the most remarkable. In 1819 he published the first, and 

 in 1832 the second edition of his Sanskrit and English Dictionary, 

 the first work of the kind that had ever been given to the public, the 

 work which has been the main guide ever since of the student of the 

 Sanskrit language and of comparative philology. This was followed 

 by a lucid grammar of the complex and difficult Sanskrit, and by trans- 

 lations of the ' Vedas ' and ' Puranas,' the most sacred writings of the 

 Hindus. In 1840 he published his continuation of Mill's 'History 

 of India,' in three volumes, and as late as 1854, his ' Glossary of In- 

 dian Terms,' a quarto of above 700 pages, a work replete with useful 

 knowledge and ingenious criticism, in which Mr. Wilson shows his 

 knowledge not only of the recondite language of India, but of its 

 many vernacular idioms, as well as of the abundant Arabic and Persian 

 words which have found their way into them. 



While he was still absent in India in 1833, the University of 

 Oxford chose him for the Boden Professorship of Sanskrit ; and about 

 the same time the Home Government of India named him Librarian 

 and Curator of their Library and Collection of Natural History and 



