XXX ON ASIATIC HISTORY, 



conclude that they anciently practised at least as many' 

 useful arts as ourselves. Several Pandits have inform- 

 ed me, that the treatises on art, which they call Upave- 

 das , and believe to have been inspired, are not so en- 

 tirely lost but that considerable fragments of them may 

 be found at Benares -, and they certainly possess many 

 popular, but ancient works on that interesting subject. 

 The manufactures of sugar and indigo have been well 

 known in these provinces for more than two thousand 

 years; and we cannot entertain a doubt that their San- 

 scrit books on dying and metallurgy, contain very cu- 

 rious facts, which might, indeed, be discovered by 

 accident, in a long course of years, but which we may 

 soon bring to light, by the help of Indian literature, 

 for the benefit of manufacturers and artists, and conse- 

 quently of our nation, who are interested in their pros- 

 perity. Discoveries of the same kind might be collect- 

 ed from the writings of other Asiatic nations, especi- 

 ally of the Chinese ; but, though Persian, Arabic, Turk- 

 ish, and Sanscrit are languages now so accefiible, that, 

 in order to attain a sufficient knowledge of them, little 

 more seems required than a strong inclination to. learn 

 them, yet the supposed number and intricacy of the 

 Chinese characters have deterred our moft exigent stu- 

 dents from attempting to find their way through so vail; 

 a labyrinth. It is certain, however, that the difficulty 

 has been magnified beyond the truth ; for the perspi- 

 cuous grammar by M. Fourmont, together with a copi- 

 ous dictionary, which I possess, in Chinese and Latin, 

 would enable any man who pleafed, to compare the 



original 



