DISCOURSE II.

DELIVERED FEBRUARY 24, 1785.

Congratulations at the success of the institution.-Reflections on the history, laws, manners, arts, and antiquities of Asia.Parallel between the works and actions of the western and eastern world.-The botany, medicine, chemistry, fine and liberal arts, poetry, architecture, sciences, jurisprudence, &c. of the Asiatics considered.-Contributions and desiderata pointed out.

GENTLEMEN,

If the Deity of the Hindus, by whom all their just requests are believed to be granted with singular indulgence, had proposed last year to gratify my warmest wishes, I could have desired nothing more ardently than the success of your institution; because I can desire nothing in preference to the general good, which your plan seems calculated to promote, by bringing to light the many useful and interesting tracts, which, being too short for separate publication, might lie many years concealed, or, perhaps irrecoverably perish. My wishes are accomplished, without any invocation to Càmadhènu; and your Society, having already passed its infant state, is advancing to maturity with every mark of a healthy and robust constitution. When I reflect, indeed, on the variety of subjects which have been discussed before you, concerning the history, laws,

manners, arts, and antiquities of Asia, I am unable to decide whether my pleasure or my surprise be the greater; for I will not dissemble, that your progress has far exceeded my expectations; and though we must seriously deplore the loss of those excellent men who have lately departed from this capital, yet there is a prospect still of large contributions to your stock of Asiatic learning, which, I am persuaded, will continually increase. My late journey to Benares has enabled me to assure you, that many of your members, who reside at a distance, employ a part of their leisure in preparing additions to your archives; and unless I am too sanguine, you will soon receive light from them on several topics entirely new in the republic of letters.

It was principally with a design to open sources of such information, that I long had meditated an expedition up the Ganges during the suspension of my business; but, although I had the satisfaction of visiting two ancient seats of Hindu superstition and literature, yet, illness having detained me a considerable time in the way, it was not in my power to continue in them long enough to pursue my inquiries; and I left them, as Æneas is feigned to have left the shades, when his guide made him recollect the swift flight of irrevocable time, with a curiosity raised to the height, and a regret not easy to be described.

Whoever travels in Asia, especially if he be conversant with the literature of the countries through which he passes, must naturally remark the superiority of European talents. The observation, indeed, is at least as old as Alexander: And though we cannot agree with the sage preceptor of that ambitious Prince, that "the Asiatics are born to

be slaves," yet the Athenian poet seems perfectly in the right, when he represents Europe as a sovereign Princess, and Asia as her Handmaid: But, if the mistress be transcendently majestic, it cannot be denied that the attendant has many beauties, and some advantages peculiar to herself. The ancients were accustomed to pronounce panegyrics on their own countrymen at the expense of all other nations, with a political view, perhaps, of stimulating them by praise, and exciting them to still greater exertions: but such arts are here unnecessary; nor would they indeed become a Society who seek nothing but truth unadorned by rhetoric; and, although we must be conscious of our superior advancement in all kinds of useful knowledge, yet we ought not therefore to contemn the people of Asia, from whose researches into nature, works of art, and inventions of fancy, many valuable hints may be derived for our own improvement and advantage. If that indeed, were not the principal object of your institution, little else could arise from it but the mere gratification of curiosity and I should not receive so much delight from the humble share which you have allowed me to take in promoting it.

To form an exact parallel between the works and actions of the Western and Eastern Worlds, would require a tract of no inconsiderable length; but we may decide on the whole, that reason and taste are the grand prerogatives of European minds, while the Asiatics have soared to loftier heights in the sphere of imagination. The civil history of their vast empires, and of India in particular, must be highly interesting to our common country; but we have a still nearer interest in knowing all former modes of ruling these inestimable provinces, on the

prosperity of which so much of our national welfare and individual benefit seems to depend. A minute geographical knowledge, not only of Bengal and Bahar, but, for evideņt reasons, of all the kingdoms bordering on them, is closely connected with an account of their many revolutions: but the natural productions of these territories, especially in the vegetable and mineral systems, are momentous objects of research to an imperial, but, which is a character of equal dignity, a commercial people.

If botany may be described by metaphors drawn from the science itself, we may justly pronounce a minute acquaintance with plants, their classes, orders, kinds, and species, to be its flowers; which can only produce fruit by an application of that knowledge to the purposes of life, particularly to diet, by which diseases may be avoided; and to medicine, by which they may be remedied. For the improvement of the last mentioned art, than which none surely can be more beneficial to mankind, the virtues of minerals also should be accurately known, So highly has medical skill been prized by the ancient Indians, that one of the fourteen Retna's, or precious things, which their gods are believed to have produced by churning the ocean with the monntain Mandara, was a learned physician. What their old books contain on this subject we ought certainly to discover, and that without loss of time; lest the venerable but abstruse language in which they are composed, should cease to be perfectly intelligible even to the best educated natives, through a want of powerful invitation to study it. Bernier, who was himself of the faculty, mentions approved medical books in Sanscrit, and cites a few aphorisms which appear judicious and rational; but we can expect

nothing so important from the works of Hindu or Muselman physicians, as the knowledge, which experience must have given them, of simple medicines. I have seen an Indian prescription of fifty-four, and another of fifty-six ingredients; but such compositions are always to be suspected, since the effect of one ingredient may destroy that of another; and it were better to find certain accounts of a single leaf or berry, than to be acquainted with the most elaborate compounds, unless they too have been proved by a multitude of successful experiments. The noble deobstruent oil, extracted from the eranda nut, the whole family of Balsams, the incomparable stomachic root from Columbo, the fine astringent ridiculously called Japan earth, but in truth produced by the decoction of an Indian plant, have long been used in Asia; and who can foretell what glorious discoveries of other oils, roots, and salutary juices may be made by your Society? If it be doubtful whether the Peruvian bark be always efficacious in this country, its place may, perhaps, be supplied by some indigenous vegetable equally antiseptic, and more congenial to the climate. Whether any treatises on Agriculture have been written by experienced natives of these provinces, I am not yet informed; but since the court of Spain expect to find useful remarks in an Arabic tract preserved in the Escurial, on the cultivation of land in that kingdom, we should inquire for similar compositions, and examine the contents of such as we can procure.

The sublime science of Chemistry, which I was on the point of calling divine, must be added as a key to the richest treasures of nature; and it is im