Oriental Literature. 75 



which alone intitle him to distinction, he published 

 a grammar intitled the Persian Moonshee; and also 

 a Compendious Vocabulary, English and Persian. 

 These were presented to the public about the year 

 1780, and have received great and just praise. 



Besides the above mentioned gentlemen, who 

 were eminently distinguished as promoters of Per- 

 sian literature, some others deserve to be respect- 

 fully noticed, as having contributed to the same 

 object. Among these, Mr. Richardson, by his 

 Specimens of Persian Poetry, and other publica- 

 tions; Major Davy, by his Institutes of Timour ; 

 Major Ouseley, by his Oriental Collections ; and 

 M. Mirkhond, by his Hist or ia P riorum Regum 

 Persarum, have rendered important aid to the 

 students of oriental learning. To these may be 

 added the valuable information given respecting 

 the arts, sciences, and literature of Persia, by Ta- 

 vernier, Franklin, Niebuhr, and various other 

 intelligent travellers in that country. 



HINDOO LITERATURE. 



In this branch of oriental literature the eigh- 

 teenth century presents a degree of progress highly 

 interesting and honourable. Though it is now 

 more than three centuries since Europeans first na- 

 vigated to India; and though the inhabitants of 

 that and the adjacent countries merit the attention 

 of the curious more, perhaps, than any other peo- 

 ple on the globe; yet it is but a few years since 

 any suitable inquiries were instituted, and any sa- 

 tisfactory information obtained, respecting the li- 

 terature and science of that important portion of 

 the Asiatic continent. 



Early in the century, the Lettres Edifiantes et 

 Curieuses, enriched with communications from 



