1835.] Asiatic Society. 289 



to step forward on such an occasion as the present to offer an humble but 

 earnest prayer, that the encouragement and support of the British Govern- 

 ment may not be withdrawn from the languages and literature of the vast 

 and varied population, whom Providence has committed to its protection. 



8. — Many arguments of policy and humanity might be advanced in sup- 

 port of their present solicitation, upon which the Society do not deem it 

 within their province to expatiate. There is one argument, however, which 

 appears to be of so conclusive a character as to require distinct notice 

 in this Appeal. 



9. — It is admitted by all, even the most enthusiastic advocates of the Eng- 

 lish system of tuition, that this language never can become the language of 

 the great body of the people whose moral and intellectual improvement is 

 the benevolent object of the British Government. It is moreover admitted, 

 that the Sanscrit language, while it is directly the parent of the dialects 

 spoken from Cashmere to the Kistna, and from the Indus to the Brahma- 

 putra, is also the source from which every other dialect of the Peninsula, 

 and even many languages of the neighbouring countries, have been for 

 ages dependent for every term extending beyond the merest purposes 

 of animal or savage life. If it were possible to dry up this source of 

 literary vegetation, which gives beauty and fertility to the dialects of 

 India in proportion to the copiousness of its admixture ; the vernacular lan- 

 guages would become so barren and impoverished, as to be wholly unfit to 

 be the channels of elegant literature or useful knowledge. The same may 

 be said of Arabic and Persian as regards the Hindustani language. 



10. — The Society are far from meaning to assert that the withdrawal of 

 the support of Government, from the cherished languages of the natives of 

 India, would put an end to the cultivation of them. On the contrary, they 

 think that the natural and necessary effect would be that both the Hindus 

 and Muhammedans would, in that event, adhere with tenfold tenacity to 

 those depositaries of all they hold sacred and valuable. But, incalculable 

 mischief, in a variety of shapes, would nevertheless be effected. If the 

 British Government set the example of neglecting oriental studies, it can 

 hardly be expected that many of their European subjects will cultivate 

 them. The field will then be left in the undisturbed possession of those 

 whose unprofitable husbandry is already but too visible, and who will 

 pursue it with a view to the perpetuation of superstition and defective 

 morality among the people. An influence will thus be lost, the benefit of 

 which to the more intellectual classes of natives can scarcely be estimated 

 too highly, arising from the direction given to their studies and pursuits 

 by those who can freely acknowledge what is intellectually and morally 

 valuable in their previous systems, and distinguish it from what is of an 

 opposite character : and who take the first and most necessary step for 

 removing the wrong prejudices of others, by proving that they are without 

 unjust prejudice themselves. It needs no laboured proof to shew how 

 infinitely more powerful must be our protest against what is demoralizing 

 or debasing in the native institutions, when we act with this knowledge 

 and this spirit, than if we commenced by repudiating every thing Asiatic, 

 as contemptible, and acknowledged no basis of intellectual communication 

 with them, but what was formed in the peculiar fashions of modern Europe. 



11. — If the Sanscrit and Arabic languages,consecrated as they are by ages 

 of the remotest antiquity — enshrined, as they are, in the affections of vener- 

 ating millions — the theme, as they are, of the wonder and of the admiration 

 of all the learned nations of Europe; — if these languages are to receive no 

 support from a Government which has been ever famed for its liberality and 

 its justice, — from a Government which draws an annual revenue of twenty 

 millions from the people by whom these languages are held sacred, it is the 

 decided opinion of the Asiatic Society — an opinion which they want words 

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