abstaining from ill, and doing good to the utmost of their ability, it is but of little importance under what forms they worship God. That things suitable to one people may be unfit for another, and that to suppose that God prefers any one particular religion to the exclusion of others, and yet leaves numbers of his creatures ignorant of his will, is to accuse him of injustice, or question his omnipotence,*

*For further particulars in regard to the manners and customs of the IIindus, as well as their religious ceremonies, we refer the reader to the work of Mr. Ward, already quoted, published in four volumes 4to. at Serampore in Bengal, 1811;-and also to that of Mr. Solvyns, begun to be published at Paris in 1808 in French and English, intituled, “Les Hindous; ou Description de leurs Mœurs, Coutumes, et Cérémonies. But we cannot help expressing a wish that Mr. Ward had, in the orthography of the names of places and persons, followed that of some of those celebrated authors who preceded him, adding afterwards, if he chose to do so, the orthography which he conceived to correspond more exactly with the original language. From not observing this rule, it would be difficult sometimes to conceive what place or person was meant, unless led to

it by preparatory circumstances; for example, when speaking of the famous temple in Orixa, written by Orme, &c. Jagarnaut, he writes Júguanat-hu-Khsatra, and that of Jambukishna on the island of Seringham, in the vicinity of Trichinopoly, he writes Koombhukonoŭ,

ON THE LANGUAGES OF INDIA.

IN an Essay on the Languages of India, by Mr. H. T. Colebrooke,* he observes, that, in a treatise on rhetoric composed for the use of Manicya Chandra, Rajah of Tirhut, a brief enumeration of the languages used by the poets, is quoted from two authors on the art of poetry, in which they speak of the Sanscrita, Prācrita, Paisachi, and Magadhi;-That the Paisachi seems to be a jargon which dramatic writers make use of in some low characters, but in reality, that only three languages are mentioned as such, namely, the Sanscrita, Prācrita and Magadhi;---That the Sanscrita is

Asiatic Researches, vol. vii. p. 199.

a most polished language, the inflexions of which, with all its numerous anomalies, are taught in grammatical institutes :-That the Pracrita is composed of what may be called provincial dialects, which are less refined and have a more imperfect grammar; that the Magadhi, or Apabhrans'a, spoken by the vulgar, is destitute of regular rules; and that the languages used by the Hindus in general, proceed from the three we have mentioned. In every part of that immense country, Sanscrit words are to be found in use, and all the names of ancient places are derived from it. This language continues to be cultivated by the learned Hindūs, as the language of science and literature; and is the repository of their laws, civil and religious. It evidently derives its origin from a primeval tongue, which has been gradually refined, and some steps of its progress may even now be traced." Like some other ancient languages it abounds in inflexions, but which, the author says, are more anomalous in it than in any other language he is acquainted

with, and among which he alludes to the Greek and Persian. It is now become what is termed a dead language, only known to those who may have particularly studied it, though it is probable that it was once almost in universal use throughout India.

"The exquisitely refined system by which the grammar of Sanscrit is taught, has been mistaken for the refinement of the language itself. The rules have been supposed to be anterior to the practice, but this supposition is gratuitous. In Sanscrit, as in every other known tongue, grammarians have not invented etymology, but have only contrived rules to teach what was already established by approved practice. There is one peculiarity of Sanscrit compositions, which may also have suggested the opinion that it could never be a spoken language. I allude to what might be termed the euphonical orthography of Sanscrit. It consists in extending to syntax the rules for the permutation of letters in etymology. Similar rules for