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learned Asiatics have the candour to avow, that his 

 knowledge of Arabic and Persian, was as accurate 

 and extensive as their own ; he was also conversant 

 in the Turkish idiom ; and the Chinese had even at- 

 tracted his notice so far, as to induce him to learn the 

 radical characters of that language, with a view per- 

 haps to farther improvements. It was to be expected, 

 after his arrival in India , that he would eagerly em- 

 brace the opportunity of making himself master of 

 the Shanscrit ; and the most enlightened professors of 

 the doctrines of Brahma, confess, with pride, de- 

 light, and surprize, that his knowledge of their sacred 

 dialect was most critically correct and profound. The 

 Pandits, who were in the habit of attending him, when 

 I saw them after his death, at a public Durbar, could 

 neither suppress their tears for his loss, nor find terms 

 to express their admiration at the wonderful progress 

 he had made in their sciences. 



Before the expiration of his twenty-second year, 

 he had completed his Commentaries on the Poetry 

 of the Asiatics, although a considerable time after- 

 wards elapsed before their publication ; and this 

 work, if no other monument of his labours existed, 

 would at once furnish proofs of his consummate skill 

 in the oriental dialects, of his proficiency in those of 

 Rome and Greece, of taste and erudition far beyond his 

 years, and of talents and application without example. 



But the judgment of Sir William Jones was 

 too discerning to consider language in any other light 

 than as the key of science -> and he would have des- 

 pised the reputation of a mere linguist. Knowledge 



and 



