f 3 ) 



library, where, though an undergraduate, he was fey 

 fpecial favour permitted to liudy. Many ofthefeex- 

 tra61:s were probably made from manufcripts of which 

 no other copies are known to be extant ; and it is cer- 

 tain that all of them were trartfcribed from books, which, 

 according to the laws of that library, could not be .car- 

 ried out of it. Had they been lefs rare and more ac- 

 ceflible, they would hardly have been tranfcribed by 

 Sir William Jones at the expence of fo much time 

 as they required, for I have reafon to believe that, in 

 his own opinion, their intrinlic merit was not very 

 great. I have mentioned thefe fa6ts becaufe they are 

 not generally known ; but as I do not mean to pro- 

 nounce an eulogy on Sir William Jones, nor to at- 

 tempt even the flighteft fketch of his life and writings, 

 I fhall not dwell on the extraordinary diligence with 

 which he laboured in the mines of jurifprudence, at 

 the fame time that he purfued the ftudy of Oriental 

 learning ; neither ihall I enter upon a critical examin- 

 ation of the voluminous and convincing proofs he gave 

 the publick of his pre-eminence in both. I fhall con- 

 tent myfelf with obferving that if ever the Engiifh 

 fettlements in India fhall add, to the fplendor of their 

 profperity in commerce and war, the honour and pride 

 of haring, beyond all former example, communicated 

 to Europe the wifdom and learning of AJia, for that 

 well-earned honour, that juft principle of honeft pride, 

 they mull own themfelves indebted to Sir William 

 Jones. 



For my lirft acquaintance with Sir JortN Shore, 

 conliderably more than twenty years ago, 1 was obliged 

 to my late brother William Chambers, afterwards 

 a very worthy and refpedlable member of this Society, 

 and I believe much beloved by all who knew him. 

 Mr. Shore and he were then very young fervants o£ 

 the Edji India Company, of congenial minds, and at- 

 tached to each other by limilarity of fludies and pur- 

 fuits, having both in making their choice of life pitched 

 upon the lludy of Aftat'ick languages, as the ifiode in 



A 2 which 



