OUR KNOwLEDgE Of BRAHMANISM. SIR WILLIAM JONES.

It is more than forty years since the writer, then a boy, was one day
searching
among the heavy works of a learned library in the country to find some
entertaining
reading for a summer afternoon. It was a library rich in theology, in Greek
and Latin
classics, in French and Spanish literature, but contained little to amuse a
child. Led
by some happy fortune, in turning over a pile of the "Monthly Anthology" his
eye
was attracted by the title of a play, "Sácontala,30 or the Fatal Ring; an
Indian
Drama, translated from the original Sanskrit and Pracrit. Calcutta, 1789,"
and
reprinted in the Anthology in successive numbers. Gathering them together,
the boy
took them into a great chestnut-tree, amid the limbs of which he had
constructed a
study, and there, in the warm, fragrant shade, read hour after hour this
bewitching
story. The tale was suited to the day and the scene,—filled with images of
tender
girls and religious sages, who lived amid a tropical abundance of flowers and
fruits;
so blending the beauty of nature with the charm of love. Nature becomes in
it alive,
and is interpenetrated with human sentiments. Sákuntalá loves the flowers
as
sisters; the Késara-tree beckons to her with its waving blossoms, and clings
to her
in affection as she bends over it. The jasmine, the wife of the mango-tree,
embraces
her lord, who leans down to protect his blooming bride, "the moonlight of
the grove."
The holy hermits defend the timid fawn from the hunters, and the birds,
grown tame
in their peaceful solitudes, look tranquilly on the intruder. The demons
occasionally
disturb the sacrificial rites, but, like well-educated demons, retire at once, as
soon as
the protecting Raja enters the sacred grove. All breathes of love, gentle and
generous sentiment, and quiet joys in the bosom of a luxuriant and beautiful
summer land. Thus, in this poem, written a hundred years before Christ, we
find that
romantic view of nature, unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and first
appearing in
our own time in such writers as Rousseau, Goethe, and Byron.
Ten Great Religions, by James Freeman Clarke
file:///H|/...%20RELIGIILOR/RELIGIE%20COMPARATA/Ten%20Great%20Religions%20--%20James%20Freeman
%20Clarke/14674.htm[1/18/2017 9:06:01 PM]
He who translated this poem into a European language, and communicated
it to
modern readers, was Sir William Jones, one of the few first-class scholars
whom the
world has produced. In him was joined a marvellous gift of language with a
love for
truth and beauty, which detected by an infallible instinct what was worth
knowing, in
the mighty maze of Oriental literature. He had also the rare good fortune of
being
the first to discover this domain of literature in Asia, unknown to the West
till he
came to reveal it. The vast realm of Hindoo, Chinese, and Persian genius
was as
much a new continent to Europe, when discovered by Sir William Jones, as
America
was when made known by Columbus. Its riches had been accumulating
during
thousands of years, waiting till the fortunate man should arrive, destined to
reveal to
our age the barbaric pearl and gold of the gorgeous East,—the true
wealth of Ormus