1842.] General Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Paris. 429 



permission to add to it a refutation under the name " Tanka," also 

 written in Sanscrit, and thus appeared this small volume in Bombay. 

 The second theological publication is the Ta'limi Zerdusht, a (Mobed) 

 Parsee Dasabhai. This work, composed in the language of Guzerat, 

 and printed in Bombay, contains a defence of Zoroaster's doctrines 

 against the American Missionaries, together with a refutation of Chris- 

 tianity, in which he adopts the arguments of Voltaire against the doc- 

 trines of the Catholic Church. 



When the progress of a science is very rapid, a scholar would not 

 like to publish a general work to represent the actual state of this 

 science at his own time. This repugnance is very natural, as we know 

 that such a labour will be soon superseded, although works of this 

 kind are eminently useful, not only for the general reader, but also for 

 the learned to whom they represent the history of the former periods, 

 and indicate the wants which they are called for to supply. This service 

 has Mr. Benfey in Berlin, afforded to Indian studies, by selecting and 

 combining the most positive information which we possess about the 

 antient geography, history, and literature of India. 25 In this consci- 

 entious work, we observe interesting researches on the study of the 

 antient navigation of the Hindus, on the importance of the study of 

 Buddhism for the History of India, and we are sure, that every one, 

 consulting this work, will derive great benefit from it. 



Chinese literature has not given occasion to a great number of 

 works. Mr. Pauthier has under the title of " The Sacred Books of 

 the East," edited a large volume, containing a collection of works, 

 on which the religion and legislation of some great nations of the East 

 are founded. 26 In this volume are embodied the Chou-king, (according 

 to) in the translation of Gaubil, revised by the editor according to the 

 manuscript of Gaubil himself, the four Moral Books of Confucius' school, 

 translated by Pauthier, the Laws of Menu according to the translation 

 of Loiseleur, and lastly, the Koran, translated by your associate, Mr. 

 Kasimirski de Biberstein. This work is destined to render some of the 

 most fundamental works of the East more accessible to the public, while 



'25. Indien, von Th. Benfey. Leipzig, 1841, in 4to. partly taken from the Cyclopaedia 

 of Ersch and Gruber. 



'26. Des Livres Sacres de 1' Orient, traduits on revus et publies, par M. Pauthier. 

 Paris, 1840, in 8vo. 



