106 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [May, 



tunity learn the classics. The training they gave to the mind would 

 be of immense use to many. They placed at the disposal of students 

 the productions of the greatest scholars and thinkers of antiquity. 

 The modern languages of Europe too were of the greatest value— the 

 English of the most vital importance —to the people of India, and the 

 higher and the middle classes could not neglect them without neglect- 

 ing their best interests. The value of the intellectual treasures which 

 the English language placed at the disposal of the natives could not 

 be exaggerated. Then, for the Hindus the Sanskrit was the emblem 

 of their most cherished recollections and their ancient glory. To cast 

 it aside, as " the sloughed skin of the past," would be to cast away 

 that which should be the nearest and dearest to them, to resign their 

 nationality, and without a past to reduce themselves to the level of the 

 Coles, the Bheels and the Sonthals. To give up the classics or foreign 

 languages was therefore the farthest from his thought ; the amenities of 

 modern civilization rendered them the most essential parts of a liberal 

 education ; all that he contended for, and what, in his opinion, the 

 Hon'ble the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab advocated, was that 

 our system of education, to be national, should be based on the verna- 

 cular ; that the vernacular was the best medium of education for the 

 masses ; and that it should not be neglected by the higher and the 

 middle classes ; for it has been justly observed by Frederick Schlegel, 

 one of the greatest scholars of this century, that the acquaintance with 

 foreign languages, whether dead or living, need not be associated with 

 a neglect of the vernacular speech, " a neglect which is always sure to 

 work its own revenge on those who practise it, and which can never 

 be supposed to create any prejudice in favour of their politeness or 

 their erudition." 



The Chairman then, in accordance with the notice given at the 

 previous meeting, moved, on the part of the Council — 



That this meeting is desirous of placing on record its appreciation of 

 the enlightened interest in the promotion of the study of Oriental 

 Literature evinced by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, in his 

 late reply to the address of the founders of the proposed Oriental 

 College at Lahore. 



Mr. Grote said that, though a motion of the Council was in no 

 need of a Seconder, it gave him great pleasure to support their pro- 



