1842.] General Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Paris. 431 



of the learned, will gradually put them into fuller light, and give the 

 historian access to the facts which may be derived from them, since 

 almost each of those nations, according to the international influence it 

 has enjoyed, is possessed of more or less important chronicles ; most of 

 them have also a popular poetry, and their work in theology and in ge- 

 neral literature give at least evidence, how far the influence of those na- 

 tions extended, from which they have borrowed their leading ideas and 

 forms of art. The grammars and dictionaries of their languages by 

 furnishing historic facts, not recorded in the chronicles, are indispensa- 

 ble for ethnography ; lastly, each of them has an importance of its own, 

 and fills a corner in the general picture of the East. 



Some of those languages during the last year have given occasion 

 to publications. The study of the Georgian language, which the Asia- 

 tic Society has first encouraged, has now taken root in Russia, its 

 genuine soil, where it can flourish under the influence of the wants of 

 government. Mr. Brosset, under the title of " Materiaux pour servir a 

 l'Histoire de Georgie," 27 has edited a new redaction of the translation of 

 the Georgian chronicle, the first edition of which was published some 

 years ago at the expence of the Society. 



Mr. Tchoubinof, employed in foreign affairs in St. Petersburg, 

 and a Georgian by birth, has edited a Georgio-Russio-French Dic- 

 tionary, 28 infinitely richer than vocabularies we previously possessed. 

 The basis of it is that of Soulkhan Saba, which in Georgia was 

 considered as the best, and together with the additions of Mr. 

 Tchoubinof, contains about 35,000 words. 



Mr. Dorn in Petersburg, has published an Afghan Grammar ; 29 more 

 exact than Klaproth's, and more detailed than that of Ewald. The 

 literature of the Afghans being scanty, and to our present know- 

 ledge mostly consisting of imitations of Persian poetry, the scien- 

 tific interest in the Afghan language is essentially ethnographic, for 

 the problem of the origin of this people is not yet resolved, and the 

 elements of its solution are to be found in the grammar and dictionary 

 of their language. 



The Malayan dialects, almost entirely neglected on the continent of 

 Europe, have lately attracted some attention, and Mr. Dulaurier has 



27. Taken from the Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburg, 1840, in 4to. 



28. St. Petersburg, 184). in 4to. 



29. Taken from the Memoirs of St. Petersburg, 1840, in 4to. 



