Star.
London, England, 1829-01-16 00:00:00

PRICE SIVENPENCE.

to drink snccess to the Itny rl Asiatic Society of Great
Britain and all its branches, and particularly that about
to II ,arish under th it arisp.ces at Madras.
The coast was received with vest cot duality.
After a short pause, tile venerable the Archdeacon
for.. and spike in nearly the filowing terms!
SlR—The distiniguished honour which you have dons
me in nominating me to the Chair of suth an Institu•
Lion cannot be received in Mence ; and )( t I am tore

you will believe me when I say ts:at on no occasion
have I ever 'fel( greater embarrassment in es resins
my feeliegs. At all tinsel, and under all clicon:s...nce
I must have felt this; hut it is much inc•eased on the
present occasion, by the iecellection of the s'sort time
that has elapsed since my arrival, that ram compara-
iietly a stranger to many whom I have the honour of
.ddressing, and above all by the conviction (which is
most unfeigned and sincere) of my inieequacy to fill
the office you have assigned to. me. M .ny of clime
whom I see mould me are more competent to its
duties, and I should be consulting more the fame
of the infant Institution, and mushily my own repo.
-anon, which must suffer in so prominent a post, if
sh,unk altogether from the honour you intend me.
Yet I feel it impossible to c'ecli' e the e nice when ears
caUed on, and it is only left me to assure you of my
aoziety to meet its duties to my best ability. I yie:d
Certainly to no one in appreciation rf the objects pro-
, sod ro us, and in ardent desire far their promoti..n.--
They are such as not cnly to promise great and benefi-
Chit results to India and our own cotitory,but they unite
all that is admirable and just in the learning of Europe,
sleith all that is curious and interesting in the reearct.es
of the East ; and while they lead us to Mew field, of
anvil y, revive cur rectalection of those early inisges
of classical beauty which formed the delight of our
boyish days. It an be our duty to trace not only the
es-moat history of Eastern Natives, but the growth of
their civil and religious institutions, their internal ar-
rangements and mutual connection—in a word. the
Philosophy of Nations. it wi Ibe our duty to explore
the treasures that may be set undiscovered, of Ar .bian
science either um:lWe I re original, and to extend our
researches to the Natural Ili:tory of the Rninsula, and
especially to the Geoloy yOl this vast range. It will be
our duty to add still further light to a subject—after all
the labours of our predecessors by no means exhau s ed—
the Mythology Indi o, and to tr,ce the analogy,which
every new tilqiiiry makes mote stiiking, betwreti the
tailed De ties of L.dia and Greece. In no part of India
is this 'coincidence mote conepicucus than in the South,
and it is here perlial s that the great charm and interest
of th 4 Institution will be faun.' for the mind :umber
with classic recollection. There are a thousand points
of resemblance whith must often have acetified to your
mind, w Lich cart d you back to other scenes and other
days, whose memory may slumber. het cagier trey
obliterated Ird m the mind—tothe Po, GAece and
Rome, and to that beantiitil machinery which, however
false, still keeps its hold on our love and admiration—
to those images of i !cal beauty, tl.ose airy nothings,
which floSed through out you' g imaginations, Ike ',he
wreath of a morning cloud, and tor sited the dr#pery of
ur minds in tidy youth, .and gave their. Corns and
colour to our Minuses years. 114 could not -taaterse
the 'ileitis of Scutlsein India without recalling st
every step the 01) mpus of Homer, and in all I saw
air:uild me, I was reminded of the very :tanners
in I habits of his active and conflicting (todi.. 1
aposeialhed a temple, and, from the few avendant
Piiests, Vinquired where were the irderi,:r ce,jicts
of wnship, and was info rmed. that they •had de-
p tried -some days before on a• visit of 'Cele/limey
. •
t some neigi bouring or distant shrine. I eked
for the chief Idol, to whose hunit.ir the temple was
eedicated— his shrine was empty ; he had gone to feast
ith some ft iendly or rival Pow er in all the poop and
pageantry of his shadowy greatness; or perhaps .he
'acted litter was prepared, the car was harnessed, or
(still more to •how the life and action cf the system)
the stancimaiy itelf was yoked t • its gigantic horses, as
if ready to hear is with all its regal sFlend..ur to s me
other ie,;inn of power and worship. How could I see
this and not rev, rt to the elder days of Greta!' fable,
end se. m to hear again the well known answer of
Thetis to her sorrowing son, that Jupiter with his at.
tendatit Gods was gone to tie shores of the Ocean to
a .nquet with the Ethiopians ? Many such instances,
Geetlen e , have doubtless occurred to your own ob-
sei 'satiny, and here canted you bock to the similar, but
•ntiiistely in se heantitul theology of Greece and Rowe.
Mese-paths it will be our duty to ex. I ,re, and you will
tower ore. Sit, f r saying. th it in this con. ection of
present objects with ally studies, I discover the reason
if 1114 kindness which would assign me so h. uonrahle
a cost. From the moment you did me the Setneur of
I,r• posing it, I teasel ed in vain for some n raise that
amid 11.se influenced you, till I remembered that' I had
tl e happiness of drawing my first elements oaf classical
knowledge, and whatever slime of taste in such pursuits
I have evti fir, from the same source with yourself
aid my Learned Ft lend opposite (Sir George Ricketts)
who ad.-ins the lit ofession if which he is so distinguished
a member. You Tel- naturally wished to snake your
own recol'ectionsst 11 strongei, by placing satoglrrin ro
the Chair r and where stronger reasons were manliest*
wanting, you yielded to that filial svachment to our
common parent, which however strong in our natise
country, appeals m. re pow eifuly to the heart in our
Eastern banishment, septet eted vs we now are by such
intervals of time and space from her mirernal bosom.
In the field you have opened to • us, India has already
produced great and splendid names to stimulate our
esti-dons and animate our hopes ; one especially, whose
name should never be pissed over in silence on an oc-
casion like the present, end who can never be men-
tioned without his due awed of praise and admiration—
I mean Sir Wm. Jones. No man ever brought to this
country so large a share of native genius and European
taste, united with so much devoted interest to all literary
pursuits. No man ever traversed so wide a field of learn-
ing, or amassed such a varied store of knowledge, and
who was b 0 capable of adorning whatever he attempted.
There was no point of learning, of :deuce, or of art.
which h: touc:.ed, but he attracted to it the admiration
of others also, by theharades., but electric file which
his genius had shed around it.. 1 confess I cannot hear
that the hand of rude., though.more learned criticism,
should detract at all from his high pod wel'senned re-
putation, or tear one leaf of that laurel which India
and Europe have alike conspired to place upon his
htol6/.. I have no sympathy with the coldness of th,t
criticism which can search through the volumes of inch
a scholar to detect a fault of grammar, tr an oversight