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gage in the business cheerfully and with alacrity. Many of our agents are obliged to advance considerable sums to the Printer, be fore they collect what is due from subscribers. This fact, added to the trouble of collection, makes their agency burdensome, and they engage in it with reluctance.

If the Panoplist is worth subscribing for, it is worth paying for punctually; and no subscriber can delay payment beyond the stipu lated time, on the ground of personal inconvenience; whereas, to us, it is a great personal inconvenience to be kept out of many hun dred dollars which we had a right to expect.

Our subscribers may perhaps find another motive to punctuality, when told, that it is our earnest wish, and has long been our inten tion, to enlarge our page so as to admit of a considerable increase of matter. This cannot be done, however, till our subscription list is enlarged, and very general punctuality secured.

We seize this opportunity of requesting all who wish to discontin ue our work to give timely notice in writing to the Printer, or his agents, before the first day of May next, otherwise they will be bound to take the ensuing volume. We also intreat all who wish to become subscribers, and all who interest themselves to extend the circulation of our work, to make returns within the same period. For want of seasonable returns several late subscribers have not been furnished with the Minor Panoplist this year, the whole num ber printed having been previously taken up; and great delay took place in supplying others, the returns not being made till three or four months after the volume commenced.

We present thanks to all our friends who have at any time fostered our attempts to do good, and particularly to those who have lately exerted themselves to procure subscribers. The prece i ing observations will not be imputed. we hope, to peevishness, or a disposition to complain; but will be considered as a fair statement of the reason and justice of the case, a statement which a regard to our own important interests, and to the future prosperity of our work indispensably required.

Some of our subscribers, particularly those at New London, have been disappointed in not receiving their numbers. The mistake arose from our supposing the numbers referred to were included in larger orders from our agents, whereas they were not so included.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A. Z. will perceive that the letter from the Rev. Dr. Buckminster was published in our last number, before his copy was received.

A. Z. (a different correspondent from the preceding) must excuse us from publishing his strictures on the communication of D. C., which was inserted in our number for February last.

The lines on Atheism are hasty and inaccurate.

In reply to An Old Subscriber, who writes from New York, we only say, that we are sorry to find any one of our subscribers so destitute of morality, as to burden us with the postage of a very impertinent letter.

CHANTICLEER is received, as are several other communications.

THE

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(No. V. continued from p. 269.)

X. CHINESE. A version of a part or the whole of the New Testament had been made into this language before, and a copy of it was preserved in the British Museum. Within the last eight years two Chinese translations have been undertaken; one entirely new, the other founded on the former version.

The first was commenced a little after the month of September, 1804, by Mr. Lassar, employed by the superintendants of the College of Fort William, or more probably by Dr. Buchanan

alone.*

The following account of that interesting man (Dr. B.) has been received from two gentlemen lately from England, one of whom is acquainted with him, the other with his family. Mr. B. was among the great number of young men who yearly come up from Scotland to London, in expectation of finding employment in a clerk's office, or some other department of business. The Rev. John Newton, who has been instrumental in preparing so many useful men for the service of the church, had at that time a Wednesday morning lecture in a part of London near the chief resort of business; and Mr. B., friendless and VOL. V. New Series.

March, 1805.

Matthew and Mark in a course of translation, and some chapters of each printed off.

alone, strayed in one morning to hear the sermon. He instantly became impressed with a thought that has struck many persons in reading Mr. N.'s works, "That man possesses something which I want." The next Wednesday he went again. The impression became still deeper. Af ter lecture he wrote Mr. N. an anonymous letter as from an inquirer after truth, and went again the next week. After the service Mr. N. remarked, that if the person was present who wrote him the anonymous letter, he should be glad of an interview with him. This emboldened young Bu chanan to wait upon the reverend man, and by his instrumentality, Mr. B. was brought at length_to_the knowledge of the truth. For any charitable purpose Mr. N. could always command the purse of the well known Mr. Thornton, and it was soon determined to send the young man to the university of Cambridge. After finishing his education, he took orders and went to India, about the year 1796, and not so early as was suggested in a former number. While in India Dr. B. sent back to Mr. Thornton double the sum that had been expended in his education, requesting him to keep one half himself, and to employ the other in educating such another as the wanderer from Scotland. He returned in 180%, after an absence of twelve years, and landed safe on his native soil after sustaining a severe engagement with an enemy's

37

Beginning of 1806. Lassar was stationed at Serampore, and Mr. Marshman and two or three young men were learning the language; printing was discontinued.

May 19, 1807. Matthew trans

lated; no types.

A commence

End of 1807. ment made in engraving on wooden blocks to serve for types; the translation advanced nearly to the end of John.

1808. They began to print a newly revised version of Matthew;-proceeded slowly and with great caution in engraving, on account of the difficulty of correcting the blocks. The wersion of the first three Gospels was viewed as complete in February, besides a rough translation of about the whole of John.

Aug. 12, 1809. "Nearly half” of Matthew printed; the translation advanced to Ephesians.

Nov. 9. Printed to Matthew xii;-translated only to Ephe

sians.

March 8, 1810. Matthew printed and Mark begun;-translation far advanced. They hoped to send the Gospels to England that year, which seems to have occasioned Dr. Buchanan to say in his Researches, that a considerable portion of the New Testament had been printed. That hope, however, was abandoned before December.

ship. His wife had died on her pas sage the preceding year, and he has sice formed a second marriage with a lady of fortune in the north of Eng land, who received her first religious

impressions under a sermon which she heard from him. He now lives and preaches as a curate in a pleasant neighborhood a few miles from the city of York.

March, 1811. Mark just fin ished.

August. They had "succeeded in casting metallic types;"the printing seems to have been suspended to wait for this fount.

Oct. 4. The printing no further advanced; the New Tes tament, and the Old to the end of Leviticus, translated.

The second version, founded on that which had been preserv ed in the British Museum, was begun by Mr. Morrison at Canton, apparently about the begin ning of 1808. He had transcribed the greater part of the New Testament from that copy before he left England, and as soon as he was able after arriv ing at Canton, he began with the assistance of native scholars, to correct the manuscript for the press, a part of which at the end of that year he thought fit to be printed. By the month of April 1811 he had printed a thousand copies of the Acts, from blocks of wood after the Chinese manner, at an expense of $450, and expected that from the same blocks, occasionally retouched, 100,000 copies might be taken. Hearing that the New Testament was printing in Bengal, he has turned his attention to, the Old, and commenced a translation of Genesis and Psalms, without any version to guide him.

This language, which is spok en by the greatest associated population on the globe, proba. bly by 300 millions, has formerly been deemed unattainable by a European. But by the attempts lately made it has been discov ered that the acquisition is easy. "The Shanscrit and Chinese, ap. parently the most difficult of ac

cess," said Mr. Brown, in September +806, "are discovered to be the most practicable of all the languages yet undertaken."t

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XI. SHANSCRIT. This version, which is executed by Dr. Carey's own hand, was probably begun in May 1806, if not earlier in the year. This was the second language that was undertaken in the first instance by the Baptist Missionaries independent of the College: the Bengalee was the first. Sep. 13, 1806. In the press, and it was expected that Matthew and Mark would be out by the end of the year.

Oct. 24. Matthew printed, except one sheet.

July 31, 1807. Printed to John

xvi.

to the China seas," says Halhed, "is the Shanscrit,a language of the most venerable and unfathomable antiquity, which although now shut up in the libraries of the Brahmins, and appropriated sole. ly to the records of their religion, appears to have been current over most of the Oriental world; and traces of its original extent may still be discovered in almost every district in Asia." Here are not as many mistakes as there are words, but there appear to be no less than four or five. "Mr. Halhed," says a writer in the Quarterly Review, who is the Shanscrit, speaking of "gravely states its antiquity to be unfathomable, as if we had fathomed the antiquity of any language." Halhed represents the Shanscrit to be the parent of the Persian, but that is very

End of 1807. Printed to Acts xxvii. June 1809. Revelation in a questionable, the Persian being course of translation.

Jan. 12, 1809. New Testatament, 600 copies, published between the beginning of the month and this date, within three years after it was commenced.

Aug. 12. Old Testament printed to the middle of Exodus. Nov. 9. Printed to Exodus

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March 8, 1810. Half of the Pentateuch printed.

End of 1810. Pentateuch finished about this time, after being in the press almost two years. Oct. 4, 1811. Joshua printed; the translation advanced to Kings viii.

"The grand source of Indian literature, the parent of almost every dialect from the Persian gulph

+ Ch. Res. p. 96,97. Pan. vol. iii, p. 333; vol. vii, p. 277; vol. viii, p. 147, 143. M.'s Geog, vol. ii, p. 417.

confidently asserted by others to be the offspring of the Arabic. He declares it to be appropriated solely to the records of the Brahminical religion; but the Shanscrit books contain also the mathematical and astronomical science of the Hindoos, as well as histories, poems, and other works of amusement. Nor is it certain that it is altogether a dead language, though it is generally mentioned as such. It is represented by one writer as having "nearly ceased" to be spoken. Halhed regards it as having been formerly current over most of the Oriental world. But Sir William Jones, with all his zeal for the Shanscrit, placed it only on a level with the Arabic and Tartar, as one of the three pro genitors of the Asiatic tongues; and later writers regard the Ara. bie and Chinese as parents of

families wholly independent of the Shanscrit. Little doubt remains that it was spoken more or less in India, and is the source of most of the languages on both sides of the Ganges, and perhaps in the islands. One part out of three of the Malay is thought to be derived from this, another from the Arabic, and a third, which is the most copious and current in conversation, is sup. posed by Mr. Marsden to be "the original insular language of the South Seas," but by Sir William Jones, to be more remotely a derivative from the Shanscrit. But that traces of the almost universal extent of this Indian tongue can be still discovered throughout Asia, will not at this late day be believed. The age of credulity in respect to that "wonderful language," as it has been called, is past.

Sir William Jones, in the ardor of his first love, pronouneed the Shanscrit to be more perfect than the Greek, and more refined than the Greek or Latin: but a more thorough acquaintance with the language has not justified this glowing praise. Col. Dow, who appeared not unwil ling to exalt the Shanscrit records above the Books of Moses, spoke in terms of the highest admiration of this primeval tongue. "The astonishing formation of the Shanscrit," says he, "seems to be beyond the power of chance. In regularity of etymology and grammatical order it far exceeds the Arabic. It in short bears evident marks that it has been fixed upon rational principles, by a body of learned men who studied regularity, harmony, and a wonderful simplicity and energy of expression.

Though the Shanscrit is amazingly copious, a very small grammar and vocabulary serve to illustrate the principles of the whole. In a treatise of a few pages the roots and primitives are all comprehended; and so uniform are the rules for derivations and inflections, that the etymon of every word is with facility at once investigated." This is so far from being correct that "on account of the extreme copiousness and irregularity of the language" Dr. Carey expect ed theGrammar hewas preparing would "not be contained in much less than 400 pages;" and before it was finished it was swelled to 906 pages folio, with an Appen dix of 108 pages, and an index of 24. Mr. Wilkins's Grammar contains 662 pages quarto; and Mr. Colebrooke's 236 pages folio.

The Shanscrit is certainly one of the parent languages of Asia, and in this respect it may be considered as on a level with the Arabic, Russian, Welsh, and Saxon. Nor is it difficult to account for its becoming a dead language. As the Brahmins forbade the use of the Shanscrit books to the lower casts, the people would inevitably form in time a language for themselves, differing more and more from the original tongue. The Shanscrit, used only for writing,would naturally receive a polish, an orthography, and a grammar, peculiar to itself, and perhaps by the vanity of the Brahmins would purposely be made unlike the spoken dialects. Obliged however to mix with the common people in the transactions of life, the Brahmins themselves would use the popular dialects in con-

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