tion in the East; will approve her genuine character of humanity, of wisdom, of liberality; and will provide at once for her own support, and for the improvement of the natives.

VIII.

Since what have been called the Fine Arts flourish chiefly in a state of freedom, of opulence, and of refinement, commerce, which, while it polishes the manners, diffuses the means of enjoyment, will hold out encouragements to their cultivation; and a state of liberty and comfort, which is intimately connected with a wise and liberal policy in revenue, must be favourable to their improvement. And, affording an elegant entertainment; exhibiting excellent models of refinement, in a way the most impressive; withdrawing mankind from the grosser occupations of life, to dwell on the melting emotions of the heart, to accompany the sublime flights of imagination, or to inhale the pure and enrapturing spirit of devotion, these arts, Poetry, Music, Painting, and Sculpture, do, in their turn, minister highly to civilisation *.

The Gentoos have exhibited respectable specimens of

* Vide Note BB.

proficiency in the first of these arts: but they are few; inferior to the productions of some other nations, particularly to the classical models of Greece and Rome; and, trespassing often against the laws of simplicity, are incorrect in the taste they display. In music and painting they have not excelled, as far as we yet know: and the monuments of their sculpture, corresponding to the ideas of their superstition, betray a conception unnatural and fantastic in a high degree.

To refine their taste on such subjects, to furnish them with more unexceptionable and excellent models, to multiply and sublimate their means of intellectual and moral pleasure, to elicite the latent fires of Hindoo genius, and mingle them with the corruscations of British talent, will be no mean or useless project. But how are these noble ends to be accomplished? One obvious expedient is, to transfer the more admired productions of foreign countries, and especially of ancient times, to Hindostan. And were the works of the celebrated masters of antiquity, for ex

* As a practical art we mean: for while the venerable antiquarian to whom we have often referred admits, that although they call music "the language of the Gods," they are poor performers; he also affirms his belief, that their system of music, as a science, was formed on finer principles

than our own.

ample of Homer and of Virgil, naturalised, by being clothed in an Indian dress, what new sources of enjoyment would be opened to the natives! Were the poems of our celebrated countrymen, of Milton, of Shakespeare, of Cowper, and of Thomson, the children of sensibility, of genius, and of piety, translated into the language of the East; or were the Hindoos taught to understand them in their original tongue, what pure and refined pleasure might they taste! Yet it may be presumed, that productions of their own artists in every branch, being more congenial to their spirit, would operate a more powerful effect upon the public mind. By the transference of these illustrious models, therefore, and by other incitements, pecuniary academical and political, let it be the peculiar care of government (what has never yet been attempted in any due degree) to draw forth the ebullitions of native genius. And be it remembered, that genius is a plant of delicate frame and culture. In vain shall the fiat of despotism bid it arise. The tender flower will shrink from the touch of the iron rod, from the breath of the tyrant. The nurseling, if not of liberty alone, yet of love and of imagination, it can be reared only by means congenial to its noble delicacies, by the gentle dews and the soft sunshine of heaven. It is about the throne of the fos

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tering parent of the arts, that groupes of immortal geniuses, the illustrious ornaments of the age and of human nature, have arisen. The powerful influence which a generous and enlightened ruler sheds around him, attracts the bright constellation, and they gladly embellish his train, and follow in his career of glory. Let, then, the governor-general of India be the Mecenas of his empire, and an Augustan age will succeed. Let him imitate that munificent patronage, of which the annals of his royal master afford so many bright examples, and the irradiation of eastern talent will shed lustre on his administration also: the luxurious regions of India will emulate the classical scenes of Greece and of Rome: the names of Mornington and Cornwallis, the streams of Ganges and of Indus, will be given to the deathless song: and that gentle and contented race, over whom he presides, will become still more refined and happy.

The elegant arts are of the same family with the sciences. The same circumstances are favourable or adverse to both: they either rise and are improved, or they decline and fall together. The arts are the organs of science: science is the illuminator of the arts. Science fixes, embodies, expresses herself in the arts: they, on the other hand, derive from her taste, impression, and immortality.

Nothing, it is obvious, can have a more direct or powerful influence upon civilisation than science. She illuminates the mind, refines the taste, ameliorates the heart, polishes the manners. She furnishes us with new motives to piety; with new views of human nature, and of the relations of human society; with new sources of sublime gratification; with new and excellent means of improvement.

In Hindostan, those means of improvement have been hitherto scanty. Confined to some astronomical calculations, founded upon principles which are no longer understood; to certain historical and mythological legends and chronologies, remarkable chiefly for their extravagant claims to high antiquity, and their meagre details of facts; and to a code of laws, excellent indeed upon the whole, but dictated, in many instances, by the selfish spirit of a predominant sect, it is easy to conceive how ill calculated they are to illuminate the public mind. Ignorant of the true theory of the universe, in some at least of its grand bearings; of geography, to an astonishing degree; of natural and experimental philosophy, in its several divisions; of the science of mind; of the mathematical speculations, so high and so useful; of political economy, in a great measure; of all the invaluable information, of ancient and of modern erudition;