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Notices of Books. 



more gradually brought nbout. Abundant proofs may be adduced to 

 shew the fanatical ferocity with which these two great sects persecut- 

 ed each other, — a ferocity which mutually subsided into passive ha- 

 tred and contempt, only when the parties were no longer placed in the 

 position of actual collision. 



" European scholars, therefore, on entering upon their researches 

 towards the close of the last century, necessarily, by the expulsion of 

 the buddhists, came into communication exclusively with hindu pun- 

 dits ; who were not only interested in confining the researches of orien- 

 talists to Sanscrit literature, but who, in every possible way, both by- 

 reference to their own ancient prejudiced authorities, and their indivi- 

 dual representations, laboured to depreciate in the estimation of Euro- 

 peans, the literature of the buddhists, as well as the Pali or Ma.g- 

 adhi language, in which that literature is recorded. 



" The profound and critical knowledge attained by the distinguished 

 Sanscrit scholars above alluded to, has been the means of elucidating 

 the mysteries of an apparently unlimited mythology; as well as of 

 unravelling the intricacies of Asiatic astronomy, mathematics, and 

 other sciences, — of analysing their various systems of philosophy and 

 metaphysics, — and of reducing tracts, grammatical as well as philo- 

 logical, into condensed and methodised forms; thereby establishing an 

 easier acquirement of that ancient language, and of the varied informa- 

 tion contained in it. 



" The department in which their researches have been attended with 

 the least success, is History ; and to this failure may perhaps be justly 

 attributed the small portion of interest felt by the European literary 

 world in oriental literature. The progress of civilization in the west 

 has, from age to age, nay, from year to year, added some fresh advance- 

 ment or refinement to almost every branch of the arts, sciences, and 

 belles lettres; while there is scarcely any thing, as hitherto developed 

 in Asiatic literature, which could be considered either as an acquisition 

 of practical utility to European civilization, or as models for imitation 

 or adoption in European literature. 



" In the midst, nevertheless, of this progressively increasing dis- 

 couragement, the friends of oriental research have proportionately 

 increased their exertions, and extended the base of their operations. 

 The formation of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, and of similar institutions on the continent of Europe ; and 

 the more rapid circulation of discoveries made in Asia, through the 

 medium of the monthly journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, during 

 the last four years, afford undeniable proofs of unabated exertion in 

 those researches. To those who have watched the progress of the 

 proceedings of these institutions, no small reward will appear to have 

 crowned the gratuitous labours of orientalists. In the pages of the 



