1866.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 145 



French have been approximated ? I believe that the question before 

 us involves that issue. Scientific terminology may not seem so im- 

 portant, but it is well remarked in the last number of the Quarterly 

 Bevieiv, that we scarcely know how far the ordinary words of to-day 

 were the technical terms of another age. To whom does it occur, 

 says the Reviewer, that such English words as ' judge' and ' guard' 

 were originally technical Norman terms ? { Beef and i mutton' and 

 many others are more palpable. My hope then is that the day may 

 come, when the great mass of the higher words used in the vernacular 

 languages may be derived from the European sources, from which the 

 natives are so prone to draw — that thus a language to a great degree 

 cosmopolitan may be formed, and that then a man who desires to 

 learn one of the native languages, may have but to acquire the 500 

 or 1000 words used by the Coolie, with the simpler parts of his 

 grammar, and, so much learned, he may find that almost all the rest 

 he knows already — that he has mastered a polite and copious lan- 

 guage. Such a consummation would, I am sure, do more than any- 

 thing to draw together the educated and intelligent of the different 

 races. 



" Meantime, however, my motion is confined to the advice to be 

 given to Oriental Colleges in regard to their scientific terminology, and 

 in the belief that it is better to adopt than to manufacture new terms ; 

 and I submit my motion to the meeting." 



Mr. G-. M. Tagore said, — " Mr. President, with your permission I 

 should like to make a few observations. In my humble opinion, the 

 history of the Sanscrit College of Calcutta powerfully illustrates and 

 throws considerable light on the point under discussion. 



" If I recollect right, one of the main objects of that institution was, 

 not merely to encourage oriental learning, but also to convey a know- 

 ledge of the European sciences in an oriental garb and through an 

 oriental medium. The Sanscrit College in time, as you know, became 

 the debatable ground between the Anglicists and the Orientalists of 

 that period. Its failure as an institution for conveying a knowledge 

 of the European sciences is now acknowledged by all parties, and that 

 failure, in my opinion, proves the necessity of a new terminology (or 

 technology if you please) upon a new basis. Therefore the most 

 important question in connection with this evening's discission is, to 



