RECENT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES ON THE 
cept in tlie forms of religion, lias made very little change ; and the 
principles of which, having been little imbibed by the people, are 
in language, faith, customs and letters, plainly recognized as foreign 
mixtures; 
4th. A Christian civilization which, thus far, only shews some 
traces amongst those people of the Archipelago to whom Hinduism 
and Islamism had not at all or only slightly penetrated. 
As therefore the Hindu civilization is the only one which has 
deeply imbued the character of the nations of these islands, it needs 
not to be demonstrated that, in order to learn the people thoroughly, 
we must make ourselves acquainted with the nature of the religions, 
and civil opinions, which, proceeding from the continent of India, 
(Hindoostan and the Deldian) have changed the Mfe and mode of 
thinking of the islanders. But we must also ascertain what changes 
the original Hindu principles have undergone through the peculiar 
character of the islanders themselves ; what modifications in that res¬ 
pect have had place. 
As a means of assistance towards the acquisition of this know- 
edge, we possess on Java an ancient sacred language, the K&wi, 
through the writings in which all that I have shewn above can be il¬ 
lustrated in whole or in part. But no one, whether amongst natives 
or European scholars, possesses, thus far, the key to this language. 
Again, many writings, particularly upon the ancient religion, are, 
through the intolerance of Islamism, nowhere to be looked for on 
Java itself. We even derive little light and illustration from the 
ruins of temples, from the images here and there scattered about or 
dug up from the ground, and from all that remains preserved from 
tire ancient time. 
It is row however a fact generally known that on the Island of 
B&li the Hindu religion subsists undisturbed and alone in the whole 
Archipelago, and in her two great capital forms, the Brahmanical, 
the original, and the Buddhist (following the conclusion of the great ¬ 
est scholars) the reformed form. 
This phenomenon is one of the most remarkable that European 
curiosity and ingenuity can select in the east as the object of their 
