j O ] 
svoid the Interruptions of mixed company, he withdrew 
in the fummer to a retirement at Crifhnagur, which was 
particularly attractive to him on account of its vicinity to 
n Hindoo college. In this year, a periodical work, entitled 
the Afiatic Mifcellany, was begun'at Calcutta, and fir 
William Jones communicated to it feveral compofitions 
of the lighter kind, among which were nine hymns ad- 
dreffed to as many Hindoo deities. Thefe are original 
pieces, replete with the mythological learning of the Eaft, 
decorated with all the ornaments of lyric poetry. They 
poifefs much harmony of verfification, and beauty of ima¬ 
gery, and in fome paflages rife to the true fublime. 
Among the various objects which kept his powerful 
mind in perpetual aClion, the molt important was one 
connected with his ftation, the attainment of which was a 
principal motive for the indefatigable labour he bellowed 
on learning the Shanfcrit. This was, the compilation of a 
complete digeft of Hindoo and Mahometan laws, by means 
of which, controverfies might be decided between the na¬ 
tives of the countries under the Englilh jurifdiCtion, by 
the Englilh judges, without fruiting to the fallacious re- 
prefentations of native lawyers. To this great work he 
devoted much perfonal expence in entertaining learned 
men of the country, and a great portion of his valuable 
time in making tranllations from the ealtern law-books of 
the higheft authority. He did not live to bring it to a 
conclufion; but that fo ufeful a talk is at length accom- 
pli(lied, may be confidered as entirely owing to his miti¬ 
gation and primary labours. The fame juft regard to the 
rights of other nations, in fecuring to them the benefits 
of their own laws and inftitutions, induced him to be¬ 
come the protestor of the Britilli inhabitants of Calcutta, 
in refpeCt to the trial by jury, when an idea was enter¬ 
tained of applying for a power of fummary conviction 
and punilhment, in order to give more effect to the po¬ 
lice of that capital. 
The publication of the Afiatic Refearches, the memoirs 
of that learned fociety to which he had given birth, oc¬ 
cupied much of his attention. He law three volumes of 
the work printed, and a fourth prepared for the prefs ; to 
which, befides ten anniverl'ary difeourfes, he contributed 
a number of curious and interelling papers. Of thefe, 
fome relate to natural hillory ; for this, efpecially the bo¬ 
tanical department of it, was one of his favourite amufe- 
inents in his country retreat. In 1789 he enriched lite¬ 
rature with a very lingular work, the tranfiation of an an¬ 
cient Indian drama entitled Sacontala, or the Fatal Ring. 
The novelty of the manners, the imagery, and the defign, 
rendered it a very interelling curiolity, and the llyle of 
the tranfiation was greatly admired for its fweetnefs : we 
have given a pretty long extract from it under the article 
Hindoostan, vol. x. p. 154. A work which had long em¬ 
ployed his ferious attention, appeared in the beginning of 
1794: it was a tranfiation of the Ordinances of Menu, a 
famous Indian legiflator, comprifing a fyftem of duties, 
civil and religious. To the Undent of ancient manners 
and opinions,this is a very interelling work; and the pu¬ 
rity and fublimity of its religious fentiments cannot be 
contemplated without veneration. 
The climate of India had proved fo unfavourable to the 
Jiealth of lady Jones, that Hie was at length reluCtantly 
obliged to interrupt the tender fociety which had confti- 
tuted fuch a portion of their mutual liappinefs, and em¬ 
bark for England, in December 1793. It was his plan to 
follow her as foon as he Ihould have brought to a conclu¬ 
fion his digeft of Hindoo and Mahometan laws, and have 
fecured that competence which might enable him to fpend 
the remainder of his days in dignified leifure. His own 
health was in his own opinion fufliciently re-ellablifhed to 
jullify the expectation of living to enjoy his fame and for¬ 
tune; but the (hort period to which he furvived, renders 
»t probable that even then he bore about him the feeds of 
cideafe. On the loth of April, 1794, he was feized at 
Calcutta with an inflammation of the liver, which refilled 
all remedies, and on the 27th of the fame mouth put a 
Vol. XI. No. 750. 
f E ;S. 255 
period to his exigence without pain or ftruggle. He was 
then in the forty-eighth year of his age, Hill pofleffing the 
full vigour of his mental powers, and occupied with vaft 
projects of literature, which might have employed an ac¬ 
tive life protraCted to the utmolt limits allotted to the hu¬ 
man race. 
Few men have died more ? - efpeCled or more regretted 
than fir William Jones ; as few have palled a more ufeful 
and irreproachable life. The vaft extent of his erudition 
has been difplayed in the preceding narrative of his lite¬ 
rary labours; to which it might be added, that fcarcely 
any fubjeCl of human refearch efcaped his notice. As a 
linguift he has fcarcely ever been equalled ; for his lilt of 
languages comprehends “ eight ftudied critically ; eight 
ftudied lefs perfeClly, but all intelligible with a dictionary ; 
and twelve ftudied lead perfeClly, but all attainable.'” 
Nor was his indultry in acquiring elementary knowledge 
productive of drynefs; on the contrary, taile and elegance 
marked all his exertions. As a poet, he would probably 
have rifen to the fir 11 clafs, had his ardour for tranfplant- 
ing foreign beauties allowed him leifure for the exercife 
of his own invention. His acquaintance with the hiftory, 
philofophy, laws, religion, manners, and fciences, of na¬ 
tions, ancient and modern, was moll extenfive and pro¬ 
found ; of which no other proof need be adduced than 
his difquifitions in the Afiatic Refearches, efpecially his 
enquiry into the origin of the Indians, Arabs, Tartars, 
Perfians, and Chinel'e. His private virtues were not in¬ 
ferior to his intellectual endowments. As a foil, a huf- 
band, a friend, and a citizen, he fulfilled every duty in an 
exemplary manner; his integrity in the exercife of his ju¬ 
dicial office was above all fufpicion, and his whole con¬ 
duct befpokea manly and independent fpirit. A rational 
and exalted piety crowned the whole ; nor did the liberal 
view which he took of religions in general, impair his 
conviction of the truth and importance of the Chriftian 
revelation. 
His friends and country have not been wanting in tef- 
timonies to his merit, and tributes to his memory. The 
moll effectual monument of his fame has been raifed by 
the affeCtion of his widow, who publifiied his works (the 
only progeny he left) in a fplendid edition of fix quarto 
volumes, 1799. She alfo, at her own expence, placed a 
fine marble monument of him, executed by Flaxman, in 
the anti-chamber of Univerfity-college, Oxford. The di¬ 
rectors of the Eaft-India Company unanimoufly voted a 
monument to his memory in St. Paul’s c&thedral, and'a 
ftatueof him to be fent to Bengal. A fociety of gentle¬ 
men in Bengal, who received their education at Oxford, 
fublciibed a fum for a prize-diflertation on his character 
and merits by Undents in that univerfity. His intimate 
and worthy friend fir John Shore, now lord Teignmouth, 
pronounced his eulogy in a difeourfe before the Afiatic 
Society at Calcutta, and has fince compofed Memoirs of 
his Life, in a quarto volume, from which the preceding 
narrative has been extracted. Nor has the Mule been 
filent; a poem of great beauty to the memory of fir Wil¬ 
liam Jones has been inferted in a collection of poems by 
the Rev. Mr. Maurice, author of Indian Antiquities. 
His name, in fine, has never been mentioned without 
fome expreffion of praife and admiration. The editors of 
the Monthly Review call him “one of the mod accom- 
plifbed, moll amiable, and molt virtuous, perfonages, that 
a country, once J'ersx virorum, has ever produced. Learn¬ 
ed without pedantry, elegant without oflentation, affable 
and condefcending, he poflefled all the foft graces of hu¬ 
manity. His luxuriant fancy was chaftened by a correCt 
and refined taile. His capacious mind was ftored with 
the treafures of univerfal erudition. The purfuits of a 
dull and laborious profeffion had not damped the fire of 
his genius, nor repreffed the generous throbbings of the 
heart. In times certainly not the mod propitious to the 
growth or the difplay of liberal fentiments, he relifted the 
leduCtions of interefl, maintained the unqueftionable in¬ 
dependence of his character, and dared to cherifh the fa- 
3 T cred 
