1840.] 



Life and Writings of Father Beschi. 



261 



find deeply versed in a science which they themselves consider scarcely 

 attainable? They will readily attend to the teaching of one whose 

 learning is the object of their admiration. And as this raay evidently 

 lead to the honour of religion, and promote the salvation of those about 

 us, I am satisfied that this consideration alone, operating on zeal like 

 yours, will suffice to excite you to the. study of this dialect, notwith- 

 standing the difficulties that attend it. 



*' But since almost all the Tamil works in this dialect are in verse, I 

 trust you will not deem it improper, if I venture to draw your atten- 

 tion to heathen poets, and to the study of poetry. In former times, 

 St. Jerome was severely censured for having, by the introduction of 

 examples from the poets, sullied the purity of the church with the pol- 

 lutions of the heathen. St. Jerome, in his learned reply, demonstrates, 

 that the apostle Paul repeatedly cites from the poets, in his epistles, 

 and that the most exemplary among the fathers not only made frequent 

 use of illustrations from the writings of laymen, but that, even by their 

 own poetry, they, far from polluting, embellished the church. These 

 remarks apply with particular force in this country, the natives of 

 which are swayed not so much by reason as by authority; and what 

 have we from their own authors to adduce in aid of truth, except the 

 verses of their poets ? For, since all their writings are in verse, they 

 have reduced to metre their rules of art, and even the rudiments of 

 their language : whence, they naturally suppose, that he who does not 

 understand their poetry, is totally ignorant. Moreover, there are ex- 

 cellent works in Tamil poetry on the subject of the divine attributes 

 and the nature of virtue; and if, by producing texts from them, we turn 

 their own weapons against themselves, they will blush not to conform 

 to the precepts of teachers in whom they cannot glory without con- 

 demning themselves. If we duly consider what has been said, we 

 shall be satisfied, that, in this country especially, it is highly proper in 

 a minister of the Gospel to read the poets, and to apply himself to the 

 study of poetry. 



The first person who wrote a grammatical treatise on this dialect, 

 and who is therefore considered as its founder, is supposed to have been 

 a devotee named Agattiyan, respecting whom many absurd stories are 

 related. From the circumstance of his dwelling in a mountain called 

 Podiamalei, in the south of the Peninsula, the Tamil language has 

 obtained the name of OjsmOLairi^, or ♦S'oM/Aerw, justas the Grandonic is 

 termed eui-Ooi/rt^, or Northern^ from the supposition that it came from 

 the northward. A few of the rules laid down by Agattiyan have been 

 preserved by different authors, but his works are no longer in exist- 



