ON SANSCRIT ALLITERATION. 159 



arcana of literature than the Hindus ; and no other nation has ever yet 

 presented an equal variety of poetic compositions. The various metres of 

 Greece and Rome have filled Europe with astonishment ; but what are 

 these compared with the extensive range of Sanscrit metres under its three 

 classes of poetical writing ? Whilst we thus place the Eastern sages far 

 above all the Western bards for their skill in poetry, it must at the same 

 time be regretted, that their attention to those parts of learning which 

 required great ingenuity, diverted their minds from that correct and digni- 

 fied style of prose composition in which the Greek and Latin writers so 

 much excel them, and which to a nation is of far greater importance than 

 all the embellishments of poetry. 



The past ought to yield a lesson for the future. From the past the 

 Hindus may learn that they have no reason to be discouraged in any lite- 

 rary undertaking, from the apprehension that they shall fail through the 

 want of talent : only let them cultivate their minds to the extent of which 

 they are capable, and they have nothing to fear from competition with any 

 nation upon the earth. But for the future let them learn how much more 

 it will be to their interest, both as individuals and as a people, to employ 

 their talents in the noble pursuit of science, rather than in the abstruse, 

 though ingenious parts of literature. Past experience has shewn, in the 

 character of the English, that science can do more for a nation than lite- 

 rature ; and that both of them combined can work wonders. There was a 

 time, as in the days of Aldhelm, when the English, like the Hindus, were 

 more devoted to the recondite parts of school learning, than to the acqui- 

 sition of sound scientific knowledge ; and had they continued so, they had 

 never been what they are at the present period. Those dark ages have 



