vi 



PREFACE. 



risk of pecuniary loss in so laudable an undertaking, and the 

 Society has every reason to look for rescue from such 

 a result. If the receipts were, larger, some improvements 

 might be effected in the publication ; and any surplus funds 

 would be most usefully employed towards the general ob- 

 jects of the Literary Society and Auxiliary Royal 

 Asiatic Society. 



And this leads to some notice of that Society itself, 

 and to an expression of surprise that greater numbers do not 

 avail themselves of the privilege of enrolling themselves 

 among its Members. All who value knowledge and learning 

 generally; or who are desirous of extending the benefits of 

 European civilization, and the ar.s, sciences, and literature 

 of the West, to our fellow subjects of India ; or who, on the 

 other hand, wish to carry out the investigations, still so far 

 from completion, into the history, antiquities, philology and 

 literature of the East ; should become members of a body, 

 pledged to the advancement of such purposes. 



Another consideration is, that, circumstanced as British 

 residents are in India, it is impossible to have a perfect 

 library anywhere than at the Presidency ; and it is dero- 

 gatory to the character of our nation that, in such a capital 

 as Madras, a collection of books of the most complete possi- 

 ble kind should not exist. A large accession of members 

 would enable the Society to augment its library to an ex- 

 tent commensurate with the importance of our city, and befit- 

 ting the numbers, wealth and intelligence of our countrymen 

 throughout the Presidency. To resident members the ad- 

 vantages of such a library would be incalculable ; occasional 

 visitors to the Presidency would be enabled to obtain in- 

 formation on all points; and members in the interior, even, 

 would have it in their power to make references to the depot of 

 knowledge at Madras. A Museum, too, (the embryo only of 

 which exists at present), might be perfected ; so that stu- 

 dents of Natural History might, at the outset of their career 

 in India, obtain initiatory information, as to the advances we 

 have made in Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Geology, &c. ; 



