THE 



INTRODUCTION. 



IF this firft Publication of the Asiatick Society 

 fhould not anfwer thofe expectations which may have 

 been haftily formed by the learned in' Europe, they will 

 be candid enough to confider the difadvantages which 

 muft naturally have attended its institution, and retarded 

 its progrefs. A mere man of letters, retired from the 

 world, and allotting his whole time to philofophical or 

 literary purfuits, is a character unknown among Euro- 

 peans refident in India,where every individual is a man 

 of bufinefs in the civil or military ftare, and constantly 

 occupied either in the affairs of government, in the ad- 

 miniftration of juftice, in fome department of revenue 

 or commerce, or in one of the liberal profeffions. 

 Very few hours, therefore, in the day or night, can be 

 referved for any ftudy, that has no immediate conneaion 

 with bufinefs, even by thofe who are moft habituated to 

 mental application : and it isimpoffible to preferve health 



in^fTz^/jwithoutregularexercife, and feafonable relax- 

 ation of mind : not to infift that, in the opinion of an il- 

 luftrious Roman, « No one can be faid to enjoy liberty, 

 »« who has not fometimes the privilege of doing nothing." 

 All employments, however, in all countries, afford fome 

 intervals of leifure; and there is an adive fpirjtin Euro- 

 pean minds, which no climate, or fituation in life, can 

 wholly reprefs, which juftifies the ancient notion, that 

 a change of toil is a /pedes of rep of e ; and which feems 

 to conhder nothing done or learned, while any thing 

 remains unperformed or unknown. Several En^lifh* 

 men, therefore, who refided in a country, every part of 

 which abounds in objefts of curious and ufeful fpecu- 

 lation, concurred in opinion, that a Society inftitutedat 

 Calcutta, on the plan of thofe eftablifhed jn the princi* 

 \ pal cities of Europe, might poffibly be the means of con* 

 centratmgall the valuable knowledge which might oc- 

 cafionajly be attained in Afa ; or ofpreferving*atleaft 

 jpany little trafts aqdcffays, the writers of which might 



A * Ml 



