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THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

For JULY, 1811.

Art. I. Christian Researches in Asia: With notices of the Translation of the Scriptures into Oriental Languages. By the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, D. D. late Vice-Provost of the College of Fort William in Bengal, 8vo. pp. 260. Price 7s. Deighton, Cambridge. Cadell and Davies.

TO a certain proportion of the copies of this work are prefixed, a 'Sermon preached before the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, June 1810, and two Discourses before the University of Cambridge, July 1810,' by the author. The strong representations, in those discourses, of the duty of making a grand effort to diffuse the Christian religion over the world, were accompanied by brief notices,-very reasonably expressed in a spirit of great elation,-of the unparalleled exertions and progress of a few of our countrymen in Asia, in preparing the machinery for this operation on that continent and its islands; and were enforced by allusions to what the preacher had personally witnessed of the happy effects of the true religion, and of the abominations and miseries of superstition, in a very extensive journey of research in those regions. He doubtless had previously intended, what every hearer and reader would be constrained to desire and urge, a publication of the most remarkable facts that came under his immediate inspection, or within his certain knowledge. This was indeed his indispensable duty,-and he has performed it in this most interesting volume; with a brevity and compression, however, in some parts, that will leave every reader unsatisfied, at the same time that it will reflect credit on the literary moderation of the author, whose VOL. VI.

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journal could so easily have supplied materials for a much larger book. We will attempt a brief abstract of the contents of the volume, taking them in the order of succession in which we find them, and obtruding but a very small quantity of any thing in the nature of commentary.

The work begins with some notices of the College of Fort William, which was founded May, 1800, began its literary operations with great activity, and prosecuted them on a wide and still widening scale till 1806; at the end of which year the India Directors, alarmed at the great expense of the institution, reduced it within much narrower limits,-incompatible with those extensive schemes of biblical translation, in the execution of which it had been for some time cooperating with the missionaries at Serampore. The College, our author informs us, is restored to a 'flourishing state, and has received the final sanction and patronage of the East-India Company; but he does not state, whether its now consolidated constitution and means are such, as to enable it to resume its former designs in their whole extent. He seems, however, to have no doubt of its effectual acceptance of Dr. Leyden's late offer to 'superintend the translation of the Scriptures into seven languages, hitherto but little cultivated in India; viz. Affghan, Cashmirian, Jaghatai, Siamese, Bugis, Macassar, and Maldivinian. He adds the following observations.

The Jaghatai is the original Turcoman language, as spoken in the central districts of Asia. The Bugis is the language of the Celebes. The Macassar is spoken at Macassar, in the Celebes, and in the great island of Borneo. Dr. Leyden is assisted by learned natives in the compilation of grammars and vocabularies, in the above languages, and entertains no doubt that he shall be able to effect correct versions of the Scriptures in them all.

Thus, sooner than could have been expected, we are likely to have the Bible translated into the language of the Celebes. But who can estimate the importance of a translation of the Scriptures into the languages of Affghana and Cashmire, those Jewish regions!

The Jaghatai or Zagathai, is the language of Great Bucharia, which was called Zagathai, from a son of Zenghis Khan. It is an auspicious circumstance for Dr. Leyden's translation into the Jaghatai, that Prince Zagathai himself embraced Christianity, and made a public profession of the Gospel in his capital of Samarchand. There were at that period above a hundred Christian churches in the province, and some of them remain to this day. p. 221.

All good men, and indeed some who are not good, but who are not therefore incapable of admiring magnificence of enterprize, will join our author in his animated applause of this perfectly heroic project; a project at the same time quite clear of presumption, in a man possessing the talents and acquire

ments which we have observed to be unanimously attributed to Dr. Leyden, by his learned oriental contemporaries. It presents a striking view of the difference of employment among human beings, that, while there are some men of powerful mind tracing on the map, perhaps at this very hour, the utmost limit to which they can venture to assume the possibility of extending conquest and desolation, and feeling a most lofty exultation in the consciousness of being the presiding and directing spirits of the design, there should be others who are daring to project a still more ambitious sweep of enterprize, against every thing which revealed religion can find to give battle to, within the compass of a million of square miles. It is little less striking to consider, that the former class of heroes regard the projects of the latter as, compared with their own, insignificant and contemptible; and that poets and historians, who are among the most effectual moral teachers, are sure to do all they can to give confirmation and popularity to this estimate.

After applauding the noble undertaking of this scholar, Dr. Buchanan addresses himself to both the better and the meaner sentiments, presumed to exist in the mind of another chief of the Indian literati.

There are now several Orientalists, members of the Asiatic Society, who have been engaged in translating the Holy Scriptures. We hope, hereafter, to see the name of Mr. Colebrooke added to the number. Mr. C. is the Father of Sanscrit Literature, and has lately published an Essay on the Sanscrit poetry and metres. How much gratified should we be to see a version of the Pentateuch from his pen! or at least a critique on the New Testament, which has been already translated into Sanscrit. Mr. C. is the proper man to oppose the Pentateuch to the Hindoo Cosmogony, and to invite the Brahmins to contemplate the Mosaic records, in classical Sanscrit. This would be a work worthy of his great erudition, and his name, as a Sanscrit scholar, would then, indeed, live for ever. Mr. Colebrooke has ever shewn kindness to the humble Missionaries, who have been cultivating the Sanscrit tongue; he has supplied them with books, and afforded them every liberal aid; and it will give him no regret, at his last hour, to think that he has had it in his power, in any degree, to promote the cause of Christianity.' p. 223.

It is indeed to be most earnestly desired, that this leader of the Oriental scholars may be induced to direct the main force of his accumulated means, to co-operate in the hostility that is at last opening in earnest, and in so grand a style, against the most ancient, extensive, and consolidated empire of the gods. And yet to the zealously Christian agents in this great enterprize, it would be a very melancholy reflection, that they owed this able cooperation to the irreligious principle which our author has

here endeavoured to animate into a motive. It may even be doubted, whether the palpable contrariety of the quality of this motive to the nature of the great cause intended to be promoted by its stimulation, will not render an energetic co-operation impossible. For surely a man of intelligence and some degree of conscience, in labouring, for the sake of renown among his fellow-mortals, to extend the knowledge. and influence of the divine oracles, will feel a deadly damp on his ardour when he perceives, that every successive page he is interpreting or elucidating, contains something which, either expressly or virtually, reprobates the motive by which he is conscious of being actuated in these very labours.

The manner in which Dr. B. here alludes to the Baptist Missionaries, calls for a slight notice, in passing. If the epithet humble' were a word of perfectly nnequivocal meaning, synomimous with modest, or unassuming; if it were expressive simply of the reverse of ostentation and arrogance, and competently descriptive of the character of persons who, while they should be accomplishing great things, should speak of them in a language of the utmost moderation, then, no epithet was ever more properly applied than this would be in the above passage. But it is needless to say, that the word is often employed in a very different sense; and whoever observes the cautious parsimony of our author's allusions to the missionaries,the coolness of his style when the mention of them is unavoidable, and the management to place them in the back ground, when their labours are to be mentioned in connexion with those of other distinguished oriental scholars,will be inclined to admit the suspicion, that the epithet 'humble' is here applied in that sense, in which it intimates a certain degree of disparagement. Nor will this suspicion be lessened, by the reader's observing what immense im portance Dr. B. constantly attaches to the point of securing an active and engrossing predominance to our established church and its members, in the whole economy of Indian Christianity, especially if, in addition, this reader should have heard of some circumstances in the intercourse of the reverend author with the missionaries. Should it be a correct surmise, that the expression in question conveys some sentiment of undervaluation and supercilious condescension, it will not be worth while to remark on the want of equity betrayed in such a sentiment; since this defect of justice will be perfectly harmless to the feelings and the interests of the missionaries. But it may be worth

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