The learned author promises in a future essay to proceed to shew the characteristic structure of the Bali, its grammatical peculiarities, together with the relations which it bears with the Prakrit and Zend; and at the same time to give a view of the Bali literature, and its influence as a learned language on the vernacular Indo-Chinese tongues, a promise which we are anxious to see performed. Whatever may come from pen of Dr. Leyden, we doubt not, will be directed by the same spirit that has evidently guided him throughout the present essay. Animated by a love of truth, he seems equally exempt from prejudice or partiality. He communicates what he has learnt, and always accompanies his opinions with the evidence on which he founds them.* He concludes by saying: “Of the Bali language, different Koshas and Vyaka

the

* These pages were written during the author's detention as a prisoner of war in France. He was then unacquainted with the loss the literary world has sustained by the death of Dr. Leyden.

ranas are known to exist; and several of them are to be procured in Ceylon, as the Bali, Subdamala, Balavatara, Nigandu, and Nigandu Sana. Of the Zend, various alphabets and vocabularies, as well as original compositions, are extant; but no set of grammatical forms, with which we are acquainted. The learned Tychsen, in his dissertation De Cuneatis Inscriptionibus Persepolitanis, 1798, recommends, earnestly, to the Asiatic Society, to form grammars and lexicons of the Zend and Pahlavi; and this must undoubtedly be performed if ever the subject be accurately investigated; for, as yet, we are imperfectly acquainted even with the true arrangement of the Zend alphabet; though it is probably the origin of the ancient Cufic character, if not the actual Himyaric character itself. I have at present little doubt that the character of the ancient Zend, or as it is termed, according to Anquetil Du Perron's orthography, Azieanté, is derived from the Deva-nagari; for that author himself admits that the vowels coincide with the Guzeratti, and

hints that in some alphabets the consonants also have a similar arrangement. Numerous circumstances likewise lead us to conjecture, that if ever the Persepolitan inscriptions in the Arrow character be decyphered, it will be on the principles of this alphabet. Niebuhr has stated, from actual observation, that the characters of these inscriptions are certainly written from left to right, like the Deva-nagari, and the alphabets derived from it. If this authority can be depended on, it completely sets aside every attempt to explain them by any alphabet written from the right hand to the left. A subject, however, like the Arrow character, concerning which there are almost as many opinions, as authors who have engaged in the discussion, can never be illustrated by mere conjectures, however ingenious or plausible."

It would be superfluous to proceed further with that learned writer, but to such as may be desirous of more minute information we earnestly recommend a perusal of

his essay itself; and shall conclude our remarks on the Sanscrit Language by an appeal to the authority of Dr. Wilkins.

"He who knows Sanscrit has already acquired a knowledge of one half of almost every vernacular language of India; while he who remains ignorant of it, can never possess a perfect and critical understanding of any, though he may attain a certain proficiency in the practical use of them. The several dialects confounded under the common terms Hindi, Hindavi, Hindostani, and Bhasha, deprived of Sanskrit, would not only lose all their beauty and energy, but, with respect to the power of expressing abstract ideas, or terms in science, would be absolutely reduced to a state of barbarisın. These, and the idioms peculiar to Bengal, Kamarupa, and the adjacent provinces; the Tamul, the Telinga, the Carnatic, the Malabar, together with that of the Mahratta states, and of Gujarat, so abound with Sanskrit, that scarcely a sentence can be expressed in either of them without

its assistance. The learned languages of Tibet, of Ava, and of Ceylon, are enriched by it; and every one of them is indebted to it for its alphabet, however dissimilar their characters may seem at first sight."

amusement.

"The lover of science, the antiquary, the historian, the moralist, the poet, and the man of taste, will obtain in Sanskrit books an inexhaustible fund of information and Besides the Vedas, there exist at this day numerous original treatises of considerable antiquity, on astronomy, mathematics, and other sciences, highly worthy of examination; various systems of philosophy and metaphysics; innumerable tracts on grammar, elocution, logic, the art of poetry, music, medicine, ethics, politics, and other topics; with sublime and elegant poems on every variety of subject; more particularly those grand mythological treasures, the ancient poems called Puránas, an endless assemblage of enchanting allegory and fable, and of the most interesting stories of ancient times, recounted in polished numbers, calculated to allure the