﻿66 THE SIXTH DISCOURSE : ON THE PERSIANS. 



in different proportions, must be the subject of a fu- 

 ture inquiry. There is another question of more im- 

 mediate importance, which you, gentlemen, only can 

 decide ; namely, " by what means we can preserve 

 " our Society from dying gradually away? as it has ad- 

 *' vanced gradually to its present (shall I say flourish- 

 " ing or languishing ?) state." It has subsisted five 

 years without any expence to the members of it, until 

 the first volume of our Transactions was published ; 

 and the price of that large volume, if we compare the 

 different values of money in Bengal and in England, 

 is not more than equal to the annual contribution to- 

 wards the charges of the Royal Society by each of its 

 fellows, who may not have chosen to compound for it 

 on his admission. This I mention not from an idea 

 that any of us could object to the purchase of one 

 copy at least, but from a wish to inculcate the neces- 

 sity of our common exertions in promoting the sale 

 of the work, both here and in London. In vain shall 

 we meet as a literary body, if our meetings shall cease 

 to be supplied with original dissertations and memo- 

 rials ; and in vain shall we collect the most interesting 

 papers, if we cannot publish them occasionally with- 

 out exposing the superintendents of the Company's 

 press, who undertake to print them at their own ha- 

 zard, to the danger of a considerable loss. By united 

 efforts the French have compiled "their stupendous re- 

 positories of universal knowledge ; and by united ef- 

 forts only can we hope to rival them, or to diffuse 

 over our own country and the rest of Europe the lights 

 attainable by our Asiatic Researches. 



