X NOTES. 



ind. Alterthumskunde, Bd. i. S. 356 and 492.) George Forster, by the 

 translation of Sacontala, i. e. by bis tasteful presentation in a German garb 

 of an English version by Sir William Jones (1791), contributed greatly to 

 the enthusiasm for Indian poetry, which then first shewed itself in Germany. 

 I take pleasure in recalling two fine distichs of Gb'the's, which appeared in 

 1792: 



" Willst du die Bliithe des friihen, die Friichte des spateren Jahres, 

 Willst du was reizt und entziickt, willst du, was sattigt und nahrt, 

 Willst du den Himmel, die Erde mit einem Namen begreifen; 



Nenn' ich Sakontala, Dich, und so 1st alles gesagt." 



The most recent German translation of this Indian drama is that of Otto 

 Bohtlingk (Bonn, 1842), from the important original text found by Brock- 

 haus. 



( 61 ) p. 40. Humboldt, on steppes and deserts (ueber Steppen und Wiisten), 

 in the Ansichten der Natur, 2te Ausgabe, 1826, Bd. i. S. 3337. 



( ffi ) p. 40. In order to render more complete the small portion of the text 

 which belongs to Indian literature, and to enable me to point out, as in 

 Greek and Roman literature, the several works referred to, I will here intro- 

 duce some manuscript notices, kindly communicated to me by a distinguished 

 and philosophical scholar thoroughly versed in Indian poetry, Herr Theodor 

 Goldstiicker : 



" Among all the influences which have affected the intellectual development 

 of the Indian nation, the first and most important appears to me to have been 

 that exercised by the rich aspect of nature in the country inhabited by them. 

 A profound love of nature has been at all times a fundamental character of 

 the Indian mind. In reference to the manner in which this feeling has mani- 

 fested itself, three successive epochs may be pointed out, each of which has a 

 determinate character, of which the foundations were deeply laid in the mode 

 of life and tendencies of the people. A few examples may thus be sufficient 

 to indicate the activity of the Indian imagination. The Vedas mark the first 

 epoch of the expression of a vivid feeling for nature : we would refer in the 

 Rigveda to the sublime and simple descriptions of the dawn of day (Rigveda- 

 SanhM, ed. Rosen, 1838, Hymn, xlvi.p. 88; Hymn, xlviii. p. 92; Hymn, 

 xcii. p. 184; Hymn, cxiii. p. 233: see also Hofer, Ind. Gedichte, 1841, 

 Lese i. S. 3,) and of the " golden-handed sun," (Rigveda-Sanhita, Hymn, 

 xxii. p. 31 ; Hymn. xxxv. p. 65). The veneration of nature, connected 

 here, as in other nations, with an early stage of their religious belief, has in 

 the Vedas a peculiarly determinate direction, being always conceived in the 



