and were ambitious of gaining titles of which they could not comprehend the meaning; it was found highly dangerous to employ the natives as interpreters, upon whose fidelity they could not depend; and it was at last discovered, that they must apply themselves to the study of the Perfian language, in which all the letters from the Indian princes were written. A few men of parts and taste, who refided in Bengal, have fince amused themselves with the literature of the East, and have spent their leisure in reading the poems and hiftories of Perfia; but they found a reason in every page to regret their ignorance of the Arabick language, without which their knowledge must be very circumfcribed and imperfect. The languages of Afia will now, perhaps, be ftudied with uncommon ardour; they are known to be useful, and will foon be found inftructive and entertaining; the valuable manuscripts that enrich our publick libraries will be in a few years elegantly printed; the manners and fentiments of the eastern nations will be perfectly known; and the limits of our knowledge will be no less extended than the bounds of our empire.

It was with a view to facilitate the progrefs of this branch of literature, that I reduced to order the following inftructions for the Perfian language, which I had collected several years ago; but I would not present my grammar to the publick till I had confiderably enlarged and improved it: I have, therefore, endeavoured to lay down the clearest and most accurate rules, which I have illuftrated by felect examples. from the most elegant writers; I have carefully compared my work with every compofition of the fame nature that has fallen into my hands; and though on so general a subject I must have made several obfervations which are common to all, yet I flatter myself that my own remarks, the difpofition of the whole book, and the paffages quoted in it, will fufficiently distinguish it as an original production. Though I am not conscious that there are any effential mistakes or omiffions in it, yet

I am

I am fenfible that it falls very short of perfection, which feems to withdraw itself from the pursuit of mortals, in proportion to their endeavours of attaining it; like the talisinan in the Arabian tales, which a bird carried from tree to tree as often as its pursuer approached it. But it has been my chief care to avoid all the harsh and affected terms of art which render most didactick works fo tedious and unpleasant, and which only perplex the learner, without giving him any real knowledge: I have even refrained from making any enquiries into general grammar, or from entering into thofe fubjects which have already been fo elegantly difcuffed by the most judicious philofopher*, the most learned divine †, and the most laborious scholar of the present age‡.

It was my first design to prefix to the grammar a history of the Perfian language from the time of Xenophon to our days, and to have added a copious praxis of tales and poems extracted from the claffical writers of Perfia; but as those additions would have delayed the publication of the grammar, which was principally wanted, I thought it advisable to reserve them for a separate volume, which the publick may expect in the course of the ensuing winter. I have made a large collection of materials for a general history of Asia, and for an account of the geography, philosophy, and literature of the eastern nations, all which I propose to arrange in order, if my more solid and more important studies will allow me any intervals of leisure§.

I cannot forbear acknowledging in this place the fignal marks of kindness and attention, which I have received from many learned and

* See Hermes.

† A fhort Introduction to English Grammar.

The grammar prefixed to the Dictionary of the English Language.

§ See the Hiftory of the Perfian Language, a Description of Afia, and a Short Hiftory of Perfia, pubhifhed with my Life of Nader Shab in the year 1773

noble

noble perfons; but General Carnac has obliged me the most sensibly of them, by supplying me with a valuable collection of Persian manuscripts on every branch of eastern learning, from which many of the best examples in the following grammar are extracted. A very learned Profeffor* at Oxford has promoted my studies with that candour and benevolence which so eminently distinguish him; and many excellent men that are the principal ornaments of that univerfity have conferred the highest favours on me, of which I shall ever retain a grateful sense: but I take a fingular pleasure in confeffing that I am indebted to a foreign nobleman + for the little knowledge which I have happened to acquire of the Perfian language; and that my zeal for the poetry and philology of the Afiaticks was owing to his converfation, and to the able correfpondence with which he still honours me.

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Before I conclude this Preface it will be proper to add a few remarks upon the method of learning the Perfian language, and upon the advantages which the learner may expect from it. When the student can read the characters with fluency, and has learned the true pronunciation of every letter from the mouth of a native, let him peruse the grammar with attention, and commit to memory the regular inflexions of the nouns and verbs: he needs not burden his mind with thofe that deviate from the common form, as they will be infenfibly learned in a short course of reading. By this time he will find a dictionary neceffary, and I hope he will believe me, when I affert from a long experience, that, whoever poffeffes the admirable work of Meninski, will have no occafion for any other dictionary of the Perfian tongue. He may proceed by the help of this work to analyse the paffages quoted in the grammar, and to examine in what manner they illustrate the rules; in the mean time he must not neglect to converse with his living instructor, and to

* Dr. HUNT.

VOL. II.

+ Baron REVISKI.

S

learn

learn from him the phrases of common discourse, and the names of visible objects, which he will foon imprint on his memory, if he will take the trouble to look for them in the dictionary: and here I must caution him against condemning a work as defective, because he cannot find in it every word which he hears; for founds in general are caught imperfectly by the ear, and many words are spelled and pronounced very differently.

The first book that I would recommend to him is the Gulistan or Bed of Rofes, a work which is highly efteemed in the Eaft, and of which there are feveral tranflations in the languages of Europe: the manuscripts of this book are very common; and by comparing them with the printed edition of Gentius, he will foon learn the beautiful flowing hand used in Perfia, which confifts of bold strokes and flourishes, and cannot be imitated by our types. It will then be a proper time for him to read some short and easy chapter in this work, and to tranflate it into his native language with the utmost exactnefs; let him then lay afide the original, and after a proper interval let him turn the same chapter back into Persian by the affistance of the grammar and dictionary; let him afterwards compare his fecond tranflation with the original, and correct its faults according to that model. This is the exercise so often recommended by the old rhetoricians, by which a student will gradually acquire the style and manner of any author, whom he defires to imitate, and by which almost any language may be learned in fix months with ease and pleasure. When he can express his fentiments in Persian with tolerable facility, I would advise him to read fome elegant history or poem with an intelligent native, who will explain to him in common words the refined expreffions that occur in reading, and will point out the beauties of learned allufions and local images. The moft excellent book in the language is, in my opinion, the collection of tales and fables called Anvah Soheili by Auffein Vaéz, furnamed Cafhefi,

who.

who took the celebrated work of Bidpai or Pilpay for his text, and has comprised all the wisdom of the eastern nations in fourteen beautiful chapters. At fome leisure hour he may defire his Munshi or writer to transcribe a section from the Gulistan, or a fable of Cafhefi, in the common broken hand used in India, which he will learn perfectly in a few days by comparing all its turns and contractions with the more regular hands of the Arabs and Perfians: he must not be difcouraged by the difficulty of reading the Indian letters, for the characters are in reality the fame with those in which our books are printed, and are only rendered difficult by the frequent omiffion of the diacritical points, and the want of regularity in the pofition of the words: but we all know that we are often at a lofs to read letters which we receive in our native tongue; and it has been proved that a man who has a perfect knowledge of any language, may, with a proper attention, decypher a letter in that idiom, though it be written in characters which he has never seen before, and of which he has no alphabet.

In short, I am perfuaded, that whoever will study the Perfian language according to my plan, will in less than a year be able to translate and to answer any letter from an Indian prince, and to converse with the natives of India, not only with fluency, but with elegance. But if he defires to distinguish himself as an eminent tranflator, and to understand not only the general purport of a compofition, but even the graces and ornaments of it, he must neceffarily learn the Arabick tongue, which is blended with the Perfian in fo fingular a manner, that one period often contains both languages, wholly distinct from each other in expreffion and idiom, but perfectly united in sense and construction. This must appear strange to an European reader; but he may form fome idea of this uncommon mixture, when he is told that the two Afiatick languages are not always mixed like the words of Roman and Saxon origin in this period, "The true law is right reafon, conformable to the nature of things;

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