to ours, and that the researches of M. SONNERAT, whom the court of Versailles employed for seven years in these climates, merely to collect fuch materials as we are seeking, may kindle, instead of abating, our own curiofity and zeal. If you affent, as I flatter myself you do, to these opinions, you will also concur in promoting the object of them; and a few ideas having presented themselves to my mind, I prefume to lay them before you, with an entite fubmiffion to your judgement.

No contributions, except thofe of the literary kind, will be requifite for the fupport of the fociety; but, if each of us were occafionally to contribute a fuccinct defcription of fuch manuscripts as he had perused or inspected, with their dates and the names of their owners, and to propose for solution fuch questions as had occurred to him concerning Afiatick Art, Science, and History, natural or civil, we should poffefs without labour, and almoft by imperceptible degrees, a fuller catalogue of Oriental books, than has hitherto been exhibited, and our correfpondents would be apprised of those points, to which we chiefly direct our investigations. Much may, I am confident, be expected from the communications of learned natives, whether lawyers, phyficians, or private scholars, who would eagerly, on the firft invitation, fend us their Mekámát

and Risälahs on a variety of subjects; some for the fake of advancing general knowledge, but moft of them from a defire, neither uncommon nor unreasonable, of attracting notice, and recommending themselves to favour. With a view to avail ourselves of this difpofition, and to bring their latent science under our inspection, it might be advisable to print and circulate a fhort memorial, in Perfian and Hindi, fetting forth, in a style accommodated to their own habits and prejudices, the design of our institution; nor would it be impoffible hereafter, to give a medal annually, with inscriptions in Perfian on one fide, and on the reverse in Sanfcrit, as the prize of merit, to the writer of the best essay or differtation. To inftruct others is the prescribed duty of learned Brahmans, and, if they be men of substance, without reward; but they would all be flattered with an honorary mark of diftinction; and the Mahomedans have not only the permiffion, but the pofitive command, of their law-giver, to fearch for learning even in the remoteft parts of the globe. It were fuperfluous to fuggeft, with how much correctness and facility their compofitions might be translated for our ufe, fince their languages are now more generally and perfectly understood than they have ever been by any nation of Europe.

I have detained you, I fear, too long by this

address, though it has been my endeavour to reconcile comprehensiveness with brevity: the fubjects, which I have lightly sketched, would be found, if minutely examined, to be inexhauftible; and, fince no limits can be set to your researches but the boundaries of Afia itself, I not improperly conclude with wishing for your fociety, what the Commentator on the Laws, prays for the constitution, of our country, that

IT MAY BE PERPETUAL.

may

THE THIRD

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED 2 FEBRUARY, 1786.

BY

THE PRESIDENT.

IN the former discourses, which I had the honour of addreffing to you, Gentlemen, on the inftitution and objects of our Society, I confined myself purposely to general topicks; giving in the first a diftant profpect of the vast career, on which we were entering, and, in the fecond, exhibiting a more diffuse, but ftill fuperficial, fketch of the various discoveries in Hiftory, Science, and Art, which we might justly expect from our inquiries into the literature of Afia. I now propose to fill up that outline fo comprehensively as to omit nothing effential, yet so concisely as to avoid being tedious; and, if the ftate of my health fhall fuffer me to continue long enough in this climate, it is my defign, with your permiffion, to prepare for our annual meetings a series of fhort differtations, unconnected in their titles and fubjects, but all tending

to a common point of no fmall importance in the pursuit of interefting truths.

Of all the works, which have been published in our own age, or, perhaps, in any other, on the Hiftory of the Ancient World, and the first population of this habitable globe, that of Mr. JACOB BRYANT, whom I name with reverence and affection, has the best claim to the praife of deep erudition ingeniously applied, and new theories happily illuftrated by an assemblage of numberless converging rays from a most extenfive circumference: it falls, nevertheless, as every human work muft fall, fhort of perfection; and the leaft fatisfactory part of it seems to be that, which relates to the derivation of words from Afiatick languages. Etymology has, no doubt, some use in historical researches ; but it is a medium of proof fo very fallacious, that, where it elucidates one fact, it obfcures a thoufand, and more frequently borders on the ridiculous, than leads to any folid conclufion: it rarely carries with it any internal power of conviction from a resemblance of founds or fimilarity of letters; yet often, where it is wholly unaffisted by those advantages, it may be indisputably proved by extrinsick evidence. We know à pofteriori, that both fitz and hijo, by the nature of two several dialects, are derived from filius; that uncle comes from avus, and firanger from extra; that jour