JONES. 



prir.cipally with a view of opening fourccs of ufeful informa- 

 tion. He proceeded by way of Moorfliedabad, Jungepore, 

 Bliagilpoor, and Patna, to Benares. In the courfe of this 

 jouiney his diforder once and again returned upon him, and 

 fcemed to excite in his mind an apprehenfion of its fatal ter- 



. niin-.ition. That this was the cafe we infer from a prayer 



'which he ccmpofed on this occafion, and which is as follows : 



" O thou heftower of ail good ! if it pleafe thee to con- 



'tinue my eafy taflis in tliis life, grant me ftrength to per- 

 form them as a faithful fcrvant ; but if thy wifdom hath 

 ■willed to end them by this thy vifitatioh, admit me, not 

 weigliing my unw<^rthinefs, but through thy mercy declared 



•in CI rift, into thy heavenly manfions, that I may continually 

 adrar.ce in happin -fs, by advancing in true knowledge and 

 awful love of thee, thy will be done !" 



After a fhort refidence at Benares, he returned by the 

 Ganges to Bhagilpoor ; and in his journey from hence to 

 Calcutta, he vifited Gour, once the refidence of the fove- 

 reigns of Bengal. In a letter written to a friend after his 

 return, he fays, " As we approached Calcutta we perceived 



■ the difference of climate, and thought of Bhagilpoor with 

 pleafure and regret." "J air. juft returned," fnys he, in 



'another letter, " as it were from the brink of another world, 

 having been abfent near fevcn months ; and reduced to a 

 flceleton by fevers of every denomination, with an obftinate 

 bilious flux at their heels. My health is tolerably reftored 

 by a long ramble through South Bahar, and tlie dillrift of 

 Benares." During this tour he wrote two tradts ; one a 

 little tale in verfe, under the title of " The Enchanted 

 Maid," or " Hindu Wife ;'' and the other, " A Treatife on 

 the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India," afterwards prefented 

 to the Society, and publifiicd in the Afiatic Refearclies. The 

 defign of this work is to evince a refemblance, too ilrong 

 to have been accidental, between the popular v.-orfliip of the 

 old Greeks and Italians, and that of the Hindus, and be- 

 tween their ftrange religion and that of Egypt, Ciiina, Per- 

 fia, Phrygia, Pliccnicia, and Syria, and even remoter nations. 

 This rcfemblan'jc, if it were ellabliflied, would authorife, as 

 fir WiUiam Jones conceives, an inference of a general union 

 and affinity between the moft dillinguiflied inhabitants of the 

 primitive wor'd, at the time when they deviated, as they did 

 too early deviate, from the rational adoration of the only 

 true God. Sir Wihiam Jones, with his reftored health, re- 

 fumed his fundions in the fupreme court of judicature, and 

 renewed tiie meetings of the fociety, interrupted by his ab- 

 fence. The fociely of fir William Jones was lb much valued 

 and fo'jjrht for, and he was fubjedt to fo many intrufions, 

 that, for the fake of enjoying the benefit of air and exercife, 

 and of piirfuing his htecary purfuits without interruption, 

 he made choice ot a refidence at Crifiinagur, where tlie foil 

 was dry, and the air pure. To the Afiatic Mifcellany, a pe- 

 riodical work undertaken at Calcutta in 1785, but alto- 

 vgether unconnefted with the Afiatic fociety, fir W. .Tones 



■.contributed occafional cpmpofitions. Sir William, having 

 long propofed making an excurfion to Chatigan, tlie eaftern 

 limit of the Britifli dominions in Bengal, executed his dclign 

 after the recefs of the court in the beginning of 1786, and 

 repaired thither by fea. During his Ihort refidence at Cha- 

 tigan, he found leifurc, amidft oilier occupations, to perufe 

 twice the heroic poem of Ferdofi, the Homer of Perfia, 

 f u.ppofed to contain 60,000 couplets. But the work to which 

 his principal attention and labour were direCled, was a tranf- 

 lation of the Hindu and Mohammedan laws. Accordingly, 

 in one of his letters, he fays, " Sanfcrit and Arabic will 

 enable me to do this country more efiential fervice, than the 

 jiitroduftion of arts, (even if I fiiould be able to introduce 

 fhem,) by procuring an accurate digell of Hindu and Mo- 



-liammedan laws, which the natives hold facred, and by whicK 

 both jufticc and policy require that they lliould be governed." 

 Accordingly, he addreffed a letter to the governor-general, 

 lord Cornwallis, on this fuVjeft. The marquis Cornwallis 

 confidered the accomplifiimenl of tlie propoied plan, as cal- 

 culated to refleft the higheft. honour on his adminiilration. 

 With this fantlion fir AV. Jones entered on tlte execution of 

 the work; and having carefully feleCted, from the moll 

 learned Hindus a id Mohammed.ans, a fufficient number of 

 perfons duly qualified for the tsfk of compilation, he traced 

 the plan of the digell, piefcribed its arrangement, and 

 pointed out the MSS. from which it was to be formed. 

 Although it is much to be regretted that fir W. Jones did 

 not live to tranflate the digeft of Hindu law, to the compi- 

 lation of which he had devoted fo much attention and la- 

 bour ; yet it is fatisfadlory to know, thiit his benevolent 

 intentions have not been difappointed, and that Mr. H. T. 

 Colebrooke, in the civil fervice of the Eaft India company 

 at Bengal, from motives of public fpirit, and a laudable 

 hope of diftinttion, has completed a tranliation of it with 

 an ability which does him the highell credit. Sir W. Jones 

 fuggeiled an improvement in the police at Calcutta, fo as to 

 render it more efficient, and more conformable to the Britidi 

 conftittnion. His fu /geilions were adopted in an applica- 

 tion to parliament, and confirmed by its fan£tion. The ap- 

 plication of fir W. was inceffant ; and after what he calls 

 his " feafoning," the ftate of his health allowed his devoting 

 fevcn hours a day for four or five months in the year to pro- 

 feflional engagements, and unremitted attention, during the 

 vacations, to a complete knowledge of India, which was to 

 be obtained only in the country itfelf, where it was his inten- 

 tion not to prolong his ftay beyond the laft year of the 

 eighteenth cenfy.ry. Among other literary occupations 

 which engaged his attention, he undertook the charge of 

 editing the elegant poem of Hatefi, on the unfortunate loves 

 of Laili and Majnon, an Arabian youth and priiicefs. He 

 publidied the book at his own expence, and appropriated 

 the profits of the fale to the relief of infolvent debtors in the 

 gaol at Calcutta. The bufinefs that was devolved upon him 

 asprefident of the fociety at Calcutta, and in confequence of 

 preparing the various excellent papers which he contributed 

 to it, will be more particularly noticed in our account of 

 that Soiiety. In the year 1789, fir William prefenledto the 

 public a tranflation of an ancient Indian drama, entitled 

 " Sacontala," or the "Fatal Ring," exhibiting a very pleaf- 

 ing and authentic pi£lure of old Hindu manners, and one of 

 the greateft curiofities that the literature of Afia had yet 

 brought to light. Calidas, the author of it, called by 

 fir W. the Shakfpeare of India, lived in tlie firft century 

 B. C and wrote feveral other dramas and poetical pieces. 

 The principal fonrces of amufement of v.-hich fir W. availed 

 himfelf, was the converfation of the Pundits, with whom he 

 talked freely, in tlie lan'guage of the gods (Sanfcrit), and 

 botany, in which latter lludy, if it may be fo called, he was 

 much nffided by lady Jones. Their evenings were generally 

 pafied together, and devoted to the perufal of the bell mo- 

 dern authors in the different languages of Europe. We 

 find, however, from feveral of his letters, that he felt 

 great anxiety concerning the debilitated- ftate of her 

 health, and that, painful as mulL be their mutual feparation, 

 he had engaged her promife to take her pafiage for Europe 

 in January 1793. Such was her affectionate attachment to 

 herhufband, that file remained in India in oppofition to the 

 advice of lier phyficians, though file could entertain no rea- 

 fonable expedlalion of recovering her health in the climate 

 of that country. It was finally fettled, however, that fhe 

 fljould return to England j and it was his determination to 



follow 



