The Bhagavat-Geeta, or dialogues of Krishna and Arjoon ... Sanscrit, Canarese, and English ... / The Sanscrit text from Schlegel's edition ; the Canarese newly translated from the Sanscrit ; the English translation by Sir C. Wilkins, with his preface and notes ... and the introduction, by ... Warren Hastings ... With ... additional notes from Prof. Wilson, Rev. H. Milman, etc. ; and an Essay ... by Baron W. von Humboldt, translated ... by ... G.H. Weigle : the second ed. of Schlegel's Latin version ... with the Sanscrit text revised by Prof. Lassen, etc. Edited by ... J. Garrett.
- Date:
- 1849
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Bhagavat-Geeta, or dialogues of Krishna and Arjoon ... Sanscrit, Canarese, and English ... / The Sanscrit text from Schlegel's edition ; the Canarese newly translated from the Sanscrit ; the English translation by Sir C. Wilkins, with his preface and notes ... and the introduction, by ... Warren Hastings ... With ... additional notes from Prof. Wilson, Rev. H. Milman, etc. ; and an Essay ... by Baron W. von Humboldt, translated ... by ... G.H. Weigle : the second ed. of Schlegel's Latin version ... with the Sanscrit text revised by Prof. Lassen, etc. Edited by ... J. Garrett. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![character and habits of the service. Every accumulation of knowledge, and especially such as is obtained by social communication with people over whom we exercise a domi- nion founded on the right of conquest, is useful to the state: it is the gain of huma- nity : in the specific instance which I have stated, it attracts and conciliates distant af- fections ; it lessens the weight of the chain by which the natives are held in subjection; and it imprints on the hearts of our own countrymen the sense and obligation of be- nevolence. Even in England, the effect of it is greatly wanting. It is not very long since the inhabitants of India were consi- dered by many, as creatures scarce elevated above the degree of savage life; nor, I fear, is that prejudice yet wholly eradicated, though surely abated. Every instance which brings their real character home to observa- tion will impress us with a more generous sense of feeling for their natural rights, and teach us to estimate them by the measure of our own. But such instances can only he obtained in their writings: and these will survive when the British dominion in India shall have long ceased to exist, and when the sources which it once yielded of wealth and power are lost to remembrance. If you, Sir, on the perusal of Mr. Wilkins’s performance, shall judge it worthy of so honorable a patronage, may I take the fur- ther liberty to request that you will be pleased to present it to the Court of Direc- tors, for publication by their authority, and to use your interest to obtain it? Its public reception will he the test of its real merit, and determine Mr. Wilkins in the prosecu- tion or cessation of his present laborious studies. It may, in the first event, clear the v J way to a wide and unexplored field of fruit- ful knowledge; and suggest, to the genero- sity of his honorable employers, a desire to encourage the first persevering adventurer in a service in which his example will have few/ followers, and most probably none, if it is to be performed with the gratuitous labor of years lost to the provision of future sub- sistence : for the study of the Sanskreet can- not, like the Persian language, be applied to official profit, and improved with the of- ficial exercise of it. It can only derive its rew ard, beyond the breath of fame, in a fixed endowment. Such has been the fate of his predecessor, Mr. Halhed, whose labors and incomparable genius, in two useful produc- tions, have been crowned with every success that the public estimation could give them ; nor will it detract from the no less original merit of Mr. Wilkins, that I ascribe to a- nother the title of having led the way, w hen I add, that this example held out to him no incitement to emulate it, but the prospect of barren applause. To say more, would be disrespect; and I believe that I address my- self to a gentleman who possesses talents congenial with those which I am so anxious to encourage, and a mind too liberal to con- fine its beneficence to such arts alone as contribute to the immediate and substantial advantages of the state. I think it proper to assure you, that the subject of this address, and its design, were equally unknown to the person who is the object of it; from whom I originally obtained the translation for another purpose, which on a second revisa] of the work I changed, from a belief that it merited a better desti- nation. A mind rendered susceptible by the daily](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22007209_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
