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Proceedings of Societies : 



author's articles on Hindu astronom5^ To this deeply interesting sub- 

 ject of inquiry none has so completely brought the qualification deside- 

 rated by Ideler, the union of Sanskrit learning with competent as- 

 tronomical science. The account of the Indian and Arabian divisions of 

 the Zodiac in the 9lh volume,— and the essay in the 12th on the notions 

 of the Hindu mathematicians respecting the precession of the equinoxes 

 and the motions of the planets,— are most valuable contributions to our 

 knowledge on this subject. They are the best corrections to the 

 extravagant notions of Indian antiquity which the preceding specula- 

 tions of Bailly and others had deduced from imperfect notices of the 

 Hindu observations : and also to the crude and fanciful speculations 

 with which a writer on the opposite side, the late Mr. J. Bentley, had 

 unhappily adulterated some very valuable and interesting calculations. 



Such, with some articles of less moment, but all deserving perusal, 

 are the contributions of Mr, Colebrooke to the Researches of the So- 

 ciety, of which he was elected Vice-President on the 5th of October, 

 1803, and President on the 2d of April 1806,— an office which he con- 

 tinued to fill until his departure to England in I8i5. But it would be 

 unpardonable to omit all mention of the works separately published 

 by him while resident here : particularly the Sanskrit Grammar, with 

 ^ts very able critical preface, — the edition of the ancient Sanskrit voca- 

 bulary, the Amera Cosha, to the interpretation of which much botani- 

 cal knowledge is made to contribute ;— the very erudite and ingenious 

 work on the Algebra of the Hindus,~and the Digest of Hindu Law, a 

 standing monument of the professional value of the writer, and of his 

 skill at the same time as a jurist and an oriental scholar. 



Neither would it be pardonable to omit all mention of what has been 

 contributed by Mr. Coletjrooke to the same cause since his return to 

 England, where he acted zealously as the Society's agent until age and 

 infirmities compelled him, in 1830, to relinquish the duties of the office 

 to which they elected him. This period is signalized by the erection 

 of the Royal Asiatic Society, to which, as their first President, Mr. 

 Colebrooke delivered his inaugural discourse in March 1823, and of 

 whose transactions his articles may be regarded as the principal orna- 

 ment. Of these the essays on the Philosophy of the Hindus in its five 

 principal divisions is unquestionably the most important, relating as 

 they do, to a subject which none who studies the history of the human 

 mind can regard otherwise than with the greatest interest, — and writ- 

 ten with an ability, a mingled profundity and clearness, which chal- 



