Centenary review of the Asiatic Society of Bengal from 1784 to 1883 / published by the Society.

  • The Asiatic Society
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Centenary review of the Asiatic Society of Bengal from 1784 to 1883 / published by the Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/772 (page 9)
    pursuits. Sucli ])ursuits require leisure uud ease of circum- stances, early literary training, and an affluent retired life. Europeans coining to India liave to fight the battle of existence, or to discharge onerous official duties, and when they have earned a competence and run through their allot- ted course of official career, they return to Europe to enjoy a life of ease. Natives, on tlie other hand, have, generally speaking, a defective education in early life, and cannot engage in researches, the fruits of which have to be recorded in a foreign language. The Asiatic Society has tlius always laboured unde ’ a double disadvantage. But as Milton truly remarks, — ‘‘no man who hath tasted learning but will confess the many ways of profiting by those who, not contented with stale receipts, are able to manao^ and set forth new positions to the world,’' and the highly educated gentlemen, who came out in the civil, the medical, and the military services of the East India Company, fully bore out the truth of the observation. Notwithstanding the heavy duties they had to discharge in their respective spheres, many of them contributed largely to the efficiency, the stability, and the advancement of the Society by their literary labours and scientific researches. It is worthy of note, and not a little singular, that the mem- bers of the Civil Service took a much more prominent posi- tion in this respect than those of the more learned professions. As was to be expected, merchants, tradesmen, and other non- official Europeans took but a slender share in the work of the Society. The steady growth of the Society is best shewn in the statement given in Appendix A. It shows that, com- mencing with a total of 30 names, the number of members rose, at the close of 1788, to 89, and in 1876, when the subscription of resident members was brought down to Ks. 9 per quarter, to 285. It should be added.