The Ninth Anniversary Difcourfe, on the Origin and Families of Nations, delivered 23d February, 1792 The Tenth Anniversary Discourse, on Afiatick His- tory, civil and natural, delivered 22th February, 1793 The Eleventh Anniversary Discourse, on the Philo- fophy of the Afiaticks, delivered 20th February, 1794 A DISCOURSE, &c. GENTLEMEN, IF I had confulted my competency only, for the station which your choice has conferred upon me, I must without hesitation have declined the honour of being the President of this Society; and although I moft cheerfully accept your invitation, with every inclination to affist, as far as my abilities extend, in promoting the laudable views of your association, I muft ftill retain the consciousness of those difqualifications, which you have been pleased to overlook. It was lately our boast to poffefs a Prefident, whofe name, talents, and character, would have been honourable to any inftitution; it is now our misfortune to lament, that Sir William Jones exifts, but in the affections of his friends, and in the efteem, veneration, and regret of all. I cannot, I flatter myself, offer a more grateful tribute to the Society, than by making his character the fubject of first address to yoù ; B 2 my [iv] and if in the delineation of it, fondness or affection for the man fhould appear blended with my reverence for his genius and abilities, in the fympathy of your feelings I fhail find my apology. To define with accuracy the variety, value, and extent of his literary attainments, requires more learning than I pretend to poffefs, and I am therefore to folicit your indulgence for an imperfect sketch, rather than expect your approbation for a complete defcription of the talents, and knowledge, of your late and lamented Prefident. I fhall begin with mentioning his wonderful capacity for the acquifition of languages, which has never been excelled. In Greek and Roman literature, his early proficiency was the subject of admiration and applaufe; and knowledge, of whatever nature, once obtained by him, was ever afterwards progreffive. The more elegant dialects of modern Europe, the French, the Spanish, and the Italian, he fpoke and wrote with the greatest fluency and precision; and the German and Portuguese were familiar to him. At an early period of life his application to Oriental literature commenced; he studied the Hebrew with eafe and fuccefs, and many of the most learned Afiaticks have the candour to avow, that his knowledge of Arabick and Perfian was as accurate and extensive as their own: he was alfo converfant in the Turkish idiom, and the Chinese had even attracted his notice, fo far as to induce him to learn the radical characters of that language, with a view perhaps to farther improvements. It was to be expected, after his arrival in India, that he would eagerly embrace the opportunity of making himself mafter of the Sanferit; and the most enlightened profeffors of the doctrines of BRAHMA Confefs with pride, delight, and furprise, that his knowledge of their facred dialect was most critically correct and profound. The Pandits, who were in the habit of attending him, when I saw them after his death, at a public Durbar, could neither suppress their tears for his lofs, nor find terms to express their admiration at the wonderful progress he had made in their sciences. Before the expiration of his twenty-second year, he had completed his Commentaries on the Poetry of the Afiaticks, although a considerable time afterwards elapfed before their publication; and this work, if no other monument of his labours existed, would at once furnish proofs of his confummate fkill in the Oriental dialects, of his proficiency in those of Rome and Greece, of taste and erudition far beyond his years, and of talents and application without example. [vi] But the judgement of Sir William Jones was too difcerning to confider language in any other light than as the key of science, and he would have defpifed the reputation of a mere linguist. Knowledge and truth, were the object of all his ftudies, and his ambition was to be useful to mankind; with these views, he extended his researches to all languages, nations, and times. Such were the motives that induced him to propose to the Government of this country, what he justly denominated a work of national utility and importance, the compilation of a copious digeft of Hindu and Mahommedan Law, from Sanfcrit and Arabick originals, with an offer of his fervices to fuperintend the compilation, and with a promise to tranflate it. He had foreseen, previous to his departure from Europe, that without the aid of fuch a work, the wife and benevolent intentions of the legislature of Great Britain, in leaving, to a certain extent, the natives of thefe provinces in poffeffion of their own laws, could not be completely fulfilled; and his experience, after a fhort refidence in India, confirmed what his fagacity had anticipated, that without principles to refer to, in a language familiar to the judges of the courts, adjudications amongst the natives muft too |