1851.] Literary Intelligence. 355 



a sufficient guarantee that the works are correctly printed, but we 

 must observe that in Europe these editions will not be considered to 

 have been " edited :" indeed they have no pretension whatever to be 

 so called. None of them have any preface, and their readers are 

 left entirely in the dark as to the authenticity of the MSS. from 

 which they have been printed — the history of those MSS. — the names 

 of those who wrote them — the age in which they appeared — the place 

 whence they were procured — and every thing else connected with their 

 literary fidelity and worth. "We allude to this subject the more parti- 

 cularly as we find that no attention has been paid to note down the 

 variants which are always met with in collating MSS., and the 

 first chapter of one of the works, the Dasakumara, has been omitted 

 without giving any reason for such omission. Professor Wilson, 

 we know, has expressed some doubts regarding the authenticity of 

 the chapter in question, but he has nevertheless retained it in his 

 edition of the work, thinking it better that his readers should have 

 the doubtful chapter, and with it an opportunity to judge for them- 

 selves, than be deprived of the introduction to a romance. In editing 

 oriental classics, we wish that sufficient regard be shewn to obtain 

 the use, and to point out the peculiarities, of good and ancient MSS., 

 and that our Calcutta Schultenses and Erpeniuses may more carefully 

 follow the footsteps of their European prototypes. 



There is a strong current setting in, favourable to Bengali Literature, 

 which augurs well as to the future prospects of Sanskrita lore, for the 

 Sadhu Basha or classical Bengali is so identified with the Sanskrita, 

 that the students of the former are naturally disposed to cultivate the 

 latter. We hear then with great pleasure that the principal of the 

 Sanskrita College, Isvarachandra Vidyasagara is preparing a Sanskrita 

 Grammar in Bengali, which will be adapted to late improvements in 

 philological science, and is designed to smooth the path to this difficult 

 language, but which has been made more iutricate by the mystifications 

 and scholasticisms of pandits. Along with this grammar a series of 

 selections from Sanskrit writers will be given. We hope one day to 

 see the Sanskrita College of Calcutta, a fount for a useful Vernacular 

 Literature — and a model for an improved mode of learning Sanskrit. 



A publication presenting quite a novelty in Bengali Literature has 

 lately made its appearance, the Satyarnab, a monthly Magazine of 



3 A 



