XXli APPENDIX. 



almost any circumstances. How much more of that character must apply to an oc- 

 casion where the phrase is to be used towards persons for whom I have cherished 

 the highest esteem and by whom I am now kindly told that I possess their attach- 

 ment ! To have earned that profession from you is an honest pride for me. It is true, 

 I have sought to encourage efforts for the promotion of science, particularly through 

 retrieving the scattered remnants of Indian Literature ; and so far I have recommend- 

 ed myself to you. Our late volumes, as you justly observe, will testify that the Socie- 

 ty has not been idle. But the existence of such evidence in proof of our active at- 

 tention to the objects of our association must evince much more the inherent 

 energy of the Institution than the effect of any instigation from me. I will neverthe- 

 less urge you not to relax your search amid those ruins which have overwhelmed 

 the records of a country heretofore eminently civilized. I confess that I do not ex- 

 pect any thing directly valuable will be found. Such traces as remain of the antient 

 state of India appear to me as establishing the presumption of progress in mechani- 

 cal arts rather than in cultivated productions of the mind. The acquisitions, I ap- 

 prehend, would be found but rough gems : yet the translations which your learned 

 Secretary has this evening read to you from Sanscrit works lately discovered, will 

 prove that the matter, howsoever irregular in its native shape, may become a brilli- 

 ant decoration when subjected to the polish which genius and refined taste can ap- 

 ply to it. How far any advancement to science may be hoped is not here the ques- 

 tion. Perhaps nothing intrinsically novel in any line is attainable. It can hardly 

 be looked for even in works of fancy. Imagination, consisting wholly in various com- 

 binations, exaggerations, or distortions of simple known things has obviously its li- 

 mits, and those boundaries seem to have been reached. There is, however, in differ- 

 ent nations a different course of cultivation, so that the conceptions and phraseolo- 

 gy of an inferior people may occasionally suggest to a nation high in intellectual at- 

 tainment modes or constructions which may be adapted to the richer stock with ad- 

 vantage as to embellishment, nay possibly as to strength. While I recommend this 

 industry, I feel some shame at not having as your President offered any contributi- 

 on to your publications. The deficiency has not arisen from inattention. I can truly 

 say that I had employed much thought and some application to a topic which I ima- 

 gined would be appropriate to our compilations. An insurmountable obstacle occur- 

 red. I was not at the outset aware of the extent in which such a subject must be treat- 

 ed : and, when I found that I could not reserve for the execution of my purpose a 



