1G0 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [July, 



The whole subject, as it appeared to him, was one of extreme 

 difficulty, and one for which we ought not to lay down any rules ; 

 for if we did, no one would be bound by them. It was a subject which 

 must be left to time and experience, and the time past and the experience 

 already gained went some little way to show that, if let alone, the 

 matter would right itself. It was a subject upon which coercion would 

 do harm rather than good. People, if left to themselves, generally 

 adopted that which appeared to them the easiest mode of settling a 

 difficulty ; and in this matter experience taught that, though in- 

 dividuals might be so eccentric, where a nation had a new science 

 or new sciences to learn, they did not invent or coin new technical 

 terms, when they had old ones convenient for use ready at hand. Thus 

 the Arabs, when they translated all the Greek works on science they 

 could obtain, did not invent new terms, though they did not as a rule 

 import the Greek terms. They translated the ideas when possible. 

 The Persians, when they commenced to study those sciences, many of 

 which the Arabs had elaborated from the Greeks, took over bodily the 

 whole terminology of the Arabs. European astronomers again did not 

 reject the whole of the astronomical terms they found in use with the 

 Arabs ; they adopted some and translated others. There is no rule. 

 Each nation, no doubt, adopted the course that appeared easiest and 

 most in accordance with the peculiarities of its language ; and such 

 will be the case here. There are difficulties in the application of both 

 methods, whichever be approved ; and no resolution of ours will 

 remove or simplify them. Thus, if to translate purely technical terms 

 be impossible (as it really is), to introduce words which are not such, 

 and which are easily translatable, is a very great mistake. It only 

 increases the difficulties of acquiring knowledge, which no one can 

 approve. It will be admitted that one of the gravest objections to the 

 chevaux de frise of technical terms with which the approaches to all 

 Westerm sciences is guarded, is that they deter many from acquiring 

 them at all. This cannot now be mended ; but here foreign words are 

 often introduced quite needlessly, which not only hinders progress, but 

 actually leads to the commission of ludicrous errors. Many of the terms 

 mentioned the other evening as instances of the impropriety of using 

 foreign terms are of this class. They afford no ground for argument, 

 for they are not technical terms at all. Again, the learned Babu 



