Works Author:William Jones Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE, DELIVERED 34 FEBRUARY, 1786, THE PRESIDENT. GENTLEMEN, IF the Deity of the Hindus, by whom all theif juft requef... more »ts are believed to be granted with fin- gular indulgence, had propofed laft year to gratify my warmeft wifhes, I could have defired nothing more ardently than the fuccefs of your inftitution; becaufe I can defire nothing in preference to the general good, which your plan feems calculated to promote, by bringing to light many ufeful and interefting tra6ls, which, being too fhort for feparate publication, might lie many years concealed, or, perhaps, irrecoverably perifh: my wifhes are accomplifhed, without an invocation to Ca'madhe'nu; and your Society, having already pafled its infant ftate, is advancing to maturity with every mark of a healthy and robuft conftitution. "When I reflect, indeed, on the variety of fubjects, which have been difcufled before you, concerning the hiftory, laws, manners, arts, and antiquities o I am unable to decide whether my pleafure or my furprife be the greater ; for I will not dif- femble, that your progrefs has far exceeded my expectations ; and, though we muft ferioufly deplore the lofs of thofe excellent men, who have lately departed from this Capital, yet there is a profpect ftill of large contributions to your ftock of Ajiatick learning, which, I am per- fuaded, will continually increafe. My late journey to Benares has enabled me to allure you, that many of your members, who refide at a diftance, employ a part of their leifure in preparing additions to your archives ; and, unlefs I am too fanguine, you will foon receive light from them on feveral topicks entirely new in the republic k of letters. It was principally with a defign to open fources of fuch information, that I long had medi...« less