IKE SECOND ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE, &C. 403 



XXIV. 

 Tin-; 



Second Anniversary Discourse, 



Delivered 24th February, 1785, 



BY 



THE PRESIDENT. 

 GENTLEMEN, 



IF the Deity of the Hindus, by whom all their juft 

 requefts are believed to be granted with fingular in- 

 dulgence, had propofed laft year to gratify my warmcft 

 wifhes, I could have defired nothing more ardently than 

 the fuccefs of your Institution j becaufe I can defire 

 nothing in preference to the general good, which your 

 plan feems calculated to promote, by bringing to light 

 many ufeful and interelting tracts, which, being too 

 fhort for feparate publication, might lie many years 

 concealed, or, perhaps, irrecoverably perifh. My wifhes 

 are accomplilhed, without an invocation to Cdmadhinu ; 

 and your Society, having already paffed its infant ftate, 

 is advancing to maturity with every mark of a healthy 

 and robuft conftitution. When I reflect, indeed, on 

 the variety of fubjetls which have been di (cuffed before 

 you, concerning the hiftory, laws, manners, arts, and 

 antiquities, of Ajia, I am unable to decide whether my 

 pleafure or my furprife be the greater; for I will not 

 diffemble, that your progrefs has far exceeded my ex- 

 pectations ; and, though we mult feriouflv deplore the 



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