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the life of william carey-第62章

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 to form a catalogue raisonn?of the ancient Hindoo books; which he sent to me; and entering warmly into my plan; desired that I would send in a set of proposals。  After some amendments it was agreed that the College of Fort William and the Asiatic Society should subscribe in equal shares 300 rupees a month to defray the current expenses; that we should undertake any work approved of by them; and print the original with an English translation on such paper and with such a type as they shall approve; the copy to be ours。  They have agreed to recommend the work to all the learned bodies in Europe。  I have recommended the Ramayana to begin with; it being one of the most popular of all the Hindoo books accounted sacred。  The Veda are so excessively insipid that; had we begun with them; we should have sickened the public at the outset。  The Ramayana will furnish the best account of Hindoo mythology that any one book will; and has extravagancy enough to excite a wish to read it through。〃

In 1807 Carey became one of the most active members of the Bengal Asiatic Society。  His name at once appears as one of the Committee of Papers。  In the ninth volume of the Asiatic Researches for that year; scholars were invited to communicate translations and descriptive accounts of Asiatic books。  Carey's edition of The Ramayana of Valmeeki; in the original Sanskrit; with a prose translation and explanatory notes; appeared from the Serampore press in three successive quartos from 1806 to 1810。  The translation was done by 〃Dr。 Carey and Joshua Marshman。〃  Until Gorresio published his edition and Italian translation of the whole poem this was the first and only attempt to open the seal of the second great Sankrit epic to the European world。  In 1802 Carey had encouraged the publication at his own press of translations of both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana into Bengali。  Carey's Ramayana excited a keen interest not only among the learned of Europe; but among poetical students。  Southey eagerly turned to it for materials for his Curse of Kehama; in the notes to which he makes long quotations from 〃the excellent and learned Baptist missionaries of Serampore。〃  Dean Milman; when professor of poetry in Oxford; drew from the same storehouse many of the notes with which he enriched his verse translations from both epics。  A。 W。 von Schlegel; the death of whose eldest brother at Madras early led him to Oriental studies; published two books with a Latin translation。  Mr。 Ralph T。 H。 Griffith most pleasantly opened the treasures of this epic to English readers in his verse translations published since 1868。 Carey's translation has always been the more rare that the edition despatched for sale in England was lost at sea; and only a few presentation copies are extant; one of which is in the British Museum。

Carey's contributions to Sanskrit scholarship were not confined to what he published or to what appeared under his own name。  We are told by H。 H。 Wilson that he had prepared for the press translations of treatises on the metaphysical system called Sankhya。 〃It was not in Dr。 Carey's nature to volunteer a display of his erudition; and the literary labours already adverted to arose in a great measure out of his connection with the college of Calcutta; or were suggested to him by those whose authority he respected; and to whose wishes he thought it incumbent upon him to attend。  It may be added that Dr。 Carey spoke Sanskrit with fluency and correctness。〃

He edited for the college the Sanskrit text of the Hitopadesa; from six MSS。 recensions of this the first revelation to Europe of the fountain of Aryan folk…tales; of the original of Pilpay's Fables。15 H。 H。 Wilson remarks that the errors are not more than might have been expected from the variations and defects of the manuscripts and the novelty of the task; for this was the first Sanskrit book ever printed in the Devanagari character。  To this famous work Carey added an abridgment of the prose Adventures of Ten Princes (the Dasa Kumara Carita); and of Bhartri…hari's Apophthegms。  Colebrooke records his debt to Carey for carrying through the Serampore press the Sanskrit dictionary of Amara Sinha; the oldest native lexicographer; with an English interpretation and annotations。  But the magnum opus of Carey was what in 1811 he described as A Universal Dictionary of the Oriental Languages; derived from the Sanskrit; of which that language is to be the groundwork。  The object for which he had been long collecting the materials of this mighty work was the assisting of 〃Biblical students to correct the translation of the Bible in the Oriental languages after we are dead。〃

Through the College of Fort William during thirty long years Carey influenced the ablest men in the Bengal Civil Service; and not a few in Madras and Bombay。 〃The college must stand or the empire must fall;〃 its founder had written to his friends in the Government; so convinced was he that only thus could proper men be trained for the public service and the welfare of our native subjects be secured。 How right he was Carey's experience proved。  The young civilians turned out after the first three years' course introduced that new era in the administration of India which has converted traders into statesmen and filibusters into soldier…politicals; so that the East Indian services stand alone in the history of the administration of imperial dependencies for spotless integrity and high average ability。  Contrast with the work of these men; from the days of Wellesley; the first Minto; and Dalhousie; from the time of Canning to Lawrence and the second Minto; the provincial administration of imperial Rome; of Spain and Portugal at their best; of even the Netherlands and France。  For a whole generation of thirty years the civilians who studied Sanskrit; Bengali; and Marathi came daily under the gentle spell of Carey; who; though he had failed to keep the village school of Moulton in order; manifested the learning and the modesty; the efficiency and the geniality; which won the affectionate admiration of his students in Calcutta。

A glance at the register of the college for its first five years reveals such men as these among his best students。  The first Bengali prizeman of Carey was W。 Butterworth Bayley; whose long career of blameless uprightness and marked ability culminated in the temporary seat of Governor…General; and who was followed in the service by a son worthy of him。  The second was that Brian H。 Hodgson who; when Resident of Nepal; of all his contemporaries won for himself the greatest reputation as a scholar; who fought side by side with the Serampore brotherhood the battle of the vernaculars of the people。  Charles; afterwards Lord Metcalfe; had been the first student to enter the college。  He was on its Persian side; and he learned while still under its discipline that 〃humility; patience; and obedience to the divine will〃 which unostentatiously marked his brilliant life and soothed his spirit in the agonies of a fatal disease。  He and Bayley were inseparable。  Of the first set; too; were Richard Jenkins; who was to leave his mark on history as Nagpoor Resident and author of the Report of 1826; and Romer; who rose to be Governor
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