SOCIETY. 



foil ; alfo in breeding, rearing, improving, and encouraging 

 the various forts of live-ftock, in furthering planting in dif- 

 ferent modes, in bettering the tools and machinery of the 

 art, in diftinguifhing and encouraging good labourers and 

 fervants, in regulating and fuiting leafes, in eftablifhing 

 neceffary and convenient fairs and markets, and in promot- 

 ing any other beneficial undertakings of the fame kind ; 

 may be highly important, and of great utihty, in circulating 

 and diffufing more extenfively the information and inilruc- 

 tion collefted and brought into order by the Society or 

 Board of Agriculture. 



There are" many other ways in which fuch focieties may 

 alfo contribute in benefiting the agricultural interefts of the 

 nation. 



Society, Horticultural, of London, wa? intlituted in 

 1804, under a prefident, a council, three treafurers, and 

 fecretary. 



Society, Afiatk, an inftitution planned by the late il- 

 luftrious fir William Jones, and aftually formed at Calcutta, 

 on the 15th of January, 1784, for the purpofe of tracing 

 the hillory, antiquities, arts, fciences, and literature, of 

 the immenfe continent of Afia. As it was refolved to fol- 

 low as nearly as poffible the plan of the Royal Society of 

 London, of which the king is patron, the patronage of the 

 Afiatic Society was offered to the governor-general and 

 council, as the executive power in the territories of the 

 company. By their acceptance of this offer, Mr. Haftings, 

 as governor-general, appeared among the patrons of the 

 new fociety ; " but he feemed in his private ftation as the 

 firlt liberal promoter of ufeful knowledge in Bengal, and 

 efpecially as the great encourager of Perfian and Shanfcrit 

 literature, to deferve a particular mark of diftinftion ;" he 

 was requefted, therefore, to accept the honorary title of 

 prefident. This was handfomely declined in a letter from 

 Mr. Haflings, in which he requefled " to yield his preten- 

 fions to the gentleman whofe genius planned the inflitution, 

 and was moft; capable of conducting it to the attainment of 

 the great and fplendid purpnfes of its formation." On the 

 receipt of this letter, fir William Jones was nominated pre- 

 fident of the fociety ; and we cannot give the reader a view 

 of the objeft of the inftitution in clearer language than that 

 which he employed in his firtt difcourfe from the chair. 



•' It is your defign, I conceive (faid the prefident), to 

 take an ample fpace for your learned invelligations, bound- 

 ing them only by the geographical limits of Afia ; fo that, 

 confidering Hindooftan as a centre, and turnina^ your eyes in 

 idea to the nortli, you have on your right many important 

 kingdoms in the Eaftern peninfula, the ancient and wonder- 

 ful empire of China, with all her Tartarian dependencies, 

 and that of Japan, with the clutter of precious iflands, in 

 which many fingular curiofities have too long been con- 

 cealed : before you lies that prodigious chain of mountains, 

 which formerly perhaps were a barrier againfl the violence 

 of the fea, and beyond them the very interefting country of 

 Tibet, and the valt regions of Tartary, from which, as 

 from the Trojan horfe of the poets, have ifTiied fo many 

 confummate warriors, whofe domain has extended at leail 

 from the banks of the Ilyffusto the mouths of the Ganges: 

 on your left are the beautiful and celebrated provinces of 

 Iran, or Perfia, the unmeafured, and perhaps unmeafurable 

 deferts of Arabia, and the once flourifhing kingdom of 

 Yemen, with the pleafant ifles that the Arabs have fubdued 

 or colonized ; and farther weflward, the Afiatic dominions 

 of the Turkifh fultans, whofe moon feems approaching 

 rapidly to its wane. By this great circumference the field 

 of your ufeful refearches will be enclofed ; but fince 

 £gypt had unquellionably an old connedion with this 



country, if not with China, fince the language and litera- 

 ture of the Abyffinians bear a manifefl affinity to thofe of 

 Afia, fince the Arabian arms prevailed along the African 

 coafl of the Mediterranean, and even eredled a powerful dy- 

 nafly on the continent of Europe, you may not be dif- 

 pleafed occafionally to follow the Itreams of Afiatic learning 

 a little beyond its natural boundary ; and, if it be neceflary 

 or convenient that a Ihort name or epithet be given to our 

 fociety, in order to diftinguifh it in the world, that of 

 Afiatic appears both claffical and proper, whether we confi- 

 der the place or the object of the inftitution, and preferable 

 to Oriental, which is in truth a word merely relative, and 

 though commonly ufed in Europe, conveys no very diflinft 

 idea. 



" If now it be afked. What are the intended objefts of 

 our inquiries within thefe tpacious limits? we anfwer, Man 

 and Nature ; whatever is performed by the one, or produced 

 by the other. Human knowledge has been elegantly ana- 

 lyfed according to the three great faculties of the mind, 

 memory, reafon, and imagination, which we conflantly find 

 employed in arranging and retaining, comparing and diftin- 

 guifhing, combining and diverfifying, the ideas which we 

 receive through our fentes, or acquire by reflection : hence 

 the three 'ain branches of learning are, hi/lory, fcience, and 

 art ; the iirft comprehends either an account of natural pro- 

 duftions, or the genuine records of empires and ftates ; the 

 fecund embraces the whole circle of pure and mixed mathe- 

 matics, togeti'^'r with ethics and law, as far as they de- 

 pend on the realoniiig faculty : and the third includes all 

 the beauries of magtry and the charms of invention, dif- 

 played in modaUted language, or reprefented by colour, 

 figure, or found. 



" Agreeably to this analyfis, you will inveftigate what- 

 ever is rare in the ftupendous fabric of nature, will correft 

 the geography of Afia by new obfervations and difcoveries ; 

 will trace the annals and even traditions of thofe nations who 

 from time to time have peopled or defolated it ; and will 

 bring to light their various forms of government, with tfieir 

 intlitutions civil and religious ; you will examine their im- 

 provements and methods in arithmetic and geometry ; in tri- 

 gonometry, menfuration, mechanics, optics, aftronomy, 

 and general phyfics ; their fyflems of morality, grammar, 

 rhetoric, and dialeftic ; their fiiill in chirurgery and medi- 

 cine ; and their advancement, whatever it may be, in ana- 

 tomy and chemiftry. To this you will add refearches into 

 their agriculture, manufadures, and trade ; and whilll you 

 inquire with pleafure into their miific, architefture, painting, 

 and poetry, will not negleft thofe inferior arts by which the 

 comforts and even eleganciet of fecial life are fupplied or im- 

 proved. You may obferve that I have omitted their lan- 

 guages, the diverfity and difficulty of which are a fad ob- 

 ftacle to the progrefs of ufeful knowledge ; but I have ever 

 confidered languages as the mere inttruments of real learn- 

 ing, and think them improperly confounded with learning 

 itfelf : the attainment of them is, however, indifpenfably 

 neceffary ; and if to the Perfian, Armenian, Turkifh, and 

 Arabic, could be added not only the Shanfcrit, the trea- 

 fures of which we may now hope to fee unlocked, but even 

 the Chinefe, Tartarian, Japanefe, and the various infular dia- 

 lefts, an immenfe mine would then be open, in which we 

 might labour with equal delight and advantage." 



Of this fociety eleven volumes of the TranfaCtions have 

 been publifhed, which are replete with information in a high 

 degree curious and important ; and we hope that the Euro- 1 

 pean world will foon be favoured with another. The | 

 much-to-be lamented death of the accomplifhed prefident 

 may indeed damp the fpirit of inveftigation among the mem- 

 bers; 



