2 Life of Sir Stamford Rafllcs — Introduction. 



disastrous loss of his Sumatran collections, and his premature 

 demise, all that wc now possess of the gifted spirit that animated 

 their author. For this purpose, also, the subjects of philosophical 

 inquiry to which his attention was more particularly directed, 

 have been in some degree investigated. And the various objects 

 of research thus passed in review, have excited a train of rellec- 

 tions on the relative history of those two quarters of the globe, 

 the inhabitants of Avhich have hitherto exercised the most impor- 

 tant influence on the fortunes of the rest of mankind, — the history 

 of Asia and of Europe, — which may serve appro[)riately to intro- 

 duce the biographical details, during the collection of which they 

 have been presented to the mind. 



AVhen we contemplate the history of Asia and of Europe, with 

 respect to the origin of the Human Species, the first reception of 

 Divine Revelation, and the rise of knowledge and of arts, in the 

 former division of the world, and their gradual communication to 

 and diffusion throughout the latter, the subsequent intercourse 

 between Europe and Asia being at the same time considered, we 

 are presented with a magnificent example of that unremitting cir- 

 culation and reciprocal interchange of benefits, among the various 

 communities of mankind, on which the Melfare of the human race, 

 regarded as a whole, appears to depend. And as the circulation 

 of the vital fluid by Avhich the existence of the body-natural is 

 sustained, receives its impetus from tlie heart, as from a centre, 

 whilst that organ is itself supplied with the means of impulse and 

 governed in its motions by the brain, as the sentient ruler of the 

 whole animal economy, so is the corresponding circulation of 

 knowledge in the great body-politic always impelled and directed 

 from some particular region of the world, which may thus be said 

 to perform the functions of a heart to the whole ; and it has the 

 power of so doing, because its inhabitants are the direct recipients 

 of Divine Revelation, which, with the consequent blessings of 

 general knowledge, of arts, and of civilization, they become the 

 means of distributing to all the other inhabitants of the earth. 



The human race was first called into being in Asia, and from 

 the era at which the glorious work of Creation was thus per- 

 fected, down to some ages after the establishment of Christianity, 



