CXXXVII. To George Hardinge, Esq. Sept. 24, 1788. MY DEAR FRIEND, I AM the worst, and you the best correspondent; and I make but a pitiful return for your two kind letters, by assuring you, that I find it impossible to answer them fully this season. My eyes were always weak, and the glare of an Indian sky has not strengthened them; the little day-light I can therefore spare from my public duties, I must allot to studies connected with them; I mean the systems of Indian jurisprudence, and the two abstruse languages in which the Hindu and Mussulman laws are written. * * * Anna Maria is pretty well, and I am consequently happy: my own health is firm, and, excepting the state of hers, I have all the happiness a mortal ought to have. CXXXVIII. To W. Shipley, Esq. Sept. 27, 1788. own health, by God's blessing, is firm, but my eyes are weak; and I am so iutent upon seeing the digest of Indian laws completed, that I devote my leisure almost entirely to that object: the natives are much pleased with the work; but it is only a preliminary to the security which I hope to see established among our Asiatic subjects. The business of our society is rather an amusement than a labour to me: they have, as yet, published nothing; but have materials for two quarto volumes; and will, I hope, send one to Europe next spring. I lament the sad effects of party, or rather faction, in your Maidstone society, but hope (to use a word of Dr. Johnson), that it will redintegrate. Many thanks for the Transactions of your London Society, which I have lent to a very learned and ingenious friend, who is much pleased with them. CXXXIX. To J. Burnett, Lord Monboddo. Sept. 24, 1788. THE questions concerning India, which you do me the honour to think me capable of answering, require a longer answer than the variety of my present occupations allow me to write. Suffer me therefore to enclose a discourse, not yet published, which may give you some satisfaction on Indian literature; and to refer you to the first volume of the Transactions of our Society, which will, I hope, be sent next season to Europe. As my principal object is the jurisprudence, I have not yet examined the philosophy of the Brahmans; but I have seen enough of it to be convinced, that the doctrines of the Vidanti school are Platonic. CXL. To J. Shore, Esq. Jan. 26, 1789. LET me trouble you, as you see colonel Kyd oftener than I do, to give him sir George Young's botanical letter, which I annex. I have requested colonel Martin to send sir George all the seeds which he can collect, and will co-operate (as far as my occupations will allow) in the plan of tranferring to the West-Indies, the spicy forests of Asia: but I have little time at command; and, holding every engagement sacred, I must devote my leisure to the system of Asiatic jurisprudence, which I will see established before I see Europe: it will properly follow your wise and humane design of giving security to the property of the natives. When you have had a copy taken of the Persian Hermit, I shall be glad to borrow it, that my munshi may transcribe it. Could you not find some leisure hour to explain an episode of Homer to Serajélhak, that he might try his hand with it? CXLI. To J. Shore, Esq. 1789. FLEMING still keeps me a prisoner, and forbids my reading aloud, which used to be my chief amusement in the evening. I trust you will soon be well, and that we shall ere long meet. If the • A Persian poem, composed on the subject of Parnel's Hermit. + His medical attendant. man you mention be guilty, I hope he will be punished: I hate favouritism; and if I had the dominions of Chingis Khan, I would not have one favourite. The poem of Washi has greatly delighted me; it almost equals Metastasio's on a similar subject, and far surpasses other Wasukts* which I have seen; yet the beautiful simplicity of the old Arabs, in their short elegies, appears unrivalled by any thing in Persian: Itranscribe one of them, which I have just read in the Hamasa.† Cease, fruitless tears! afflicted bosom, rest! Till time itself shall end, must bleed and mourn. Wasukt, the appellation of an amatory elegy, descriptive of the various sensations and passions excited by love. †The original is omitted. |