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Proceedings of Societies .° 



literature of the East would receive from you a share of that attention 

 which had ah'cady been so successfully devoted to the learning and 

 science of the West. This hope has since been amply realized. 



The Journals of our Society contain abundant evidence of your 

 patient research, of your correct judgment, and of your profound 

 erudition. 



Your translation from the Sansluit of the first part of €alidasa^s 

 Uma, affords indisputable proof of your skill as a poet and a com- 

 mentator; while your qualifications as a historian and a philologist 

 have been clearly established by your restoration, with valuable criti- 

 cal and historical notices, of the Allahabad Inscription, and by your 

 full and accurate translation of the Shekhawati Inscription found in 

 the temple of Harsha at Oncha pahar, and of that discovered at Bhittri 

 near Ghazipore. In your comments on the Macan Manuscript of the 

 Alif Leila, we trace at once the minute accuracy of an experienced 

 critic and the refined taste of an accomplished scholar. 



In your Arabic Treatise on Algebra, and in your Hebrew collation 

 of the Psalms in the same language, we have a durable monument 

 of your learning and piety. But the most valuable of your literary 

 undertakings is your Sanskrit Poem, the Christa Sangita. In that 

 beautiful work the praises of our Redeemer have been for the first 

 time sung in the sacred language of the Fedas. It is your peculiar 

 boast that you have caused the purest doctrines to flow in the stream 

 of this noble language. To the whole body of the learned Hindus 

 you have thus rendered accessible the sublimest truths, by conveying 

 them in a channel to which, as to their own venerated river, they 

 ascribe the power of purifying all it touches. To a mind like yours 

 this must be an inexhaustible source of gratifying reflection. 



But, Sir, we feel that we should be doing you an injustice, were we 

 to describe at greater length, the fruits of your studies already before 

 the public. We feel that no conception can be formed of the stores 

 of your capacious mind from the comparatively small samples of your 

 labours which have been given to the world. We feel that to the un- 

 obtrusive nature of your character is owing the infrequency of your 

 appearance as an author, and we know that you have assiduously im- 

 proved your great faculties ; — that your scientific attainments are on 

 the most extended scale; — that as a Hebrew Scholar you were early 

 distinguished ; — that your knowledge as a modern Linguist may be 

 said to be universal ; — that you are equally familiar with the astro- 

 nomy of the Siddhantas, the mythology of the Puranas, and the 

 mystical doctrines of the Vedas ; while there is no department of the 



