To the generality of Europeans, many of the foregoing descriptions may seem improbable and the execution of what has been described, in some measure impracticable: but those who are better acquainted with the East, know that nothing is too great for Eastern magnificence to attempt; and there can be few impossibilities, where treasures are inexhaustible, where power is unlimited, and where munificence has no bounds. European artists must not always hope to rival Oriental grandeur.
IIA9 Sir William Jones (1746–94) from his Discourses to the Asiatick Society of Bengal
William Jones showed an early proficiency in the study of languages, both ancient and Oriental. By his mid‐twenties he had gained a reputation as an Oriental scholar with several noted translations to his name and had been elected to the Royal Society. For financial reasons, in the 1770s he turned to the study of law, where he also achieved prominence. A republican sympathizer and supporter of the American revolution, he was at one time thought to be about to go to America to help draft the Constitution. In the event, however, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Bengal, and he arrived in Calcutta in 1783. Among his achievements there were the founding of the Asiatick Society of Bengal in 1784 and of its journal, Asiatick Researches. The present extracts are reprinted from his first two annual Discourses to the society. The first, from 1784, titled ‘A Discourse on the Institution of a Society for Inquiring into the History, Civil and Natural, The Antiquities, Arts, Sciences and Literature of Asia’ gives some sense of the scope of Jones’s project. The ‘Second Anniversary Discourse’, delivered on 24 February 1785, is interesting for its assessment of the relations between European and Asiatic science and culture. At one level, with its clear assertion of the primacy of Greek‐based European civilization and Jones’s statement of the purpose of the society’s investigations being to go beyond ‘mere curiosity’ and aim instead at ‘our own improvement and advantage’, this may seem to conform to later criticisms of Enlightenment knowledge‐projects as being a mere cloak for imperialist expansion. But it must be remembered also that Jones is speaking both culturally, from a position of advocacy of the value of Asian civilization on a world scale, and judicially, from a principled commitment to the equality of Indians before the law. The late eighteenth‐century situation of the British presence in India exhibited connections with – but also marked differences from – the exclusionary norms of fully fledged nineteenth‐century imperialism. Our extracts are from The Works of Sir William Jones in 13 volumes, by Lord Teignmouth, vol. 3, London, 1807, pp. 1–6, 12–13 and 16–19.
Discourse 1
When I was at sea last August, on my voyage to this country, which I had long and ardently desired to visit, I found one evening, on inspecting the observations of the day, that India lay before us, and Persia to our left, whilst a breeze from Arabia blew nearly on our stern. A situation so pleasing in itself, and to me so new, could not fail to awaken a train of reflections in a mind, which had early been accustomed to contemplate with delight the eventful histories and agreeable fictions of this eastern world. It gave me inexpressible pleasure to find myself in the midst of so noble an amphitheatre, almost encircled by the vast regions of Asia, which has ever been esteemed the nurse of sciences, the inventress of delightful and useful arts, the scene of glorious actions, fertile in the productions of human genius, abounding in natural wonders, and infinitely diversified in the forms of religion and government, in the laws, manners, customs, and languages, as well as in the features, and complexions, of men. I could not help remarking, how important and extensive a field was yet unexplored, and how many solid advantages unimproved; and when I considered, with pain, that, in this fluctuating, imperfect and limited condition of life, such inquiries and improvements could only be made by the united efforts of many, who are not easily brought, without some pressing inducement or strong impulse, to converge in a common point, I consoled myself with a hope, founded on opinions which it might have the appearance of flattery to mention, that, if in any country or community, such an union could be effected, it was among my countrymen in Bengal, with some of whom I already had, and with most was desirous of having, the pleasure of being intimately acquainted.
You have realised that hope, gentlemen, and even anticipated a declaration of my wishes, by your alacrity in laying the foundation of a society for inquiring into the history and antiquities, the natural productions, arts, sciences, and literature of Asia. […]
It is your design, I conceive, to take an ample space for your learned investigations, bounding them only by the geographical limits of Asia; so that, considering Hindustan as a centre, and turning your eyes in idea to the North, you have on your right, many important kingdoms in the Eastern peninsula, the ancient and wonderful empire of China with all her Tartarian dependencies, and that of Japan, with the cluster of precious islands, in which many singular curiosities have too long been concealed: before you lies that prodigious chain of mountains, which formerly perhaps were a barrier against the violence of the sea, and beyond them the very interesting country of Tibet, and the vast regions of Tartary … on your left are the beautiful and celebrated provinces of Iran or Persia, the unmeasured, and perhaps unmeasurable deserts of Arabia, and the once flourishing kingdom of Yemen, with the pleasant isles that the Arabs have subdued or colonized; and farther westward, the Asiatick dominions of the Turkish sultans, whose moon seems approaching rapidly to its wane. By this great circumference, the field of your useful researches will be inclosed; but, since Egypt had unquestionably an old connection with this country, if not with China since the language and literature of the Abyssinians bear a manifest affinity to those of Asia, since the Arabian arms prevailed along the African coast of the Mediterranean, and even erected a powerful dynasty on the continent of Europe, you may not be displeased occasionally to follow the streams of Asiatick learning a little beyond its natural boundary. […]
If it now be asked, what are the intended objects of our inquiries within these spacious limits, we answer, MAN and NATURE; whatever is performed by the one, or produced by the other. Human knowledge has been elegantly analysed according to the three great faculties of the mind, memory, reason, and imagination … hence the three main branches of learning are history, science, and art: the first comprehends either an account of natural productions, or the genuine records of empires and states; the second embraces the whole circle of pure and mixed mathematicks, together with ethicks and law, as far as they depend on the reasoning faculty; and the third includes all the beauties of imagery and the charms of invention, displayed in modulated language, or represented by colour, figure, or sound. […]
Discourse 2
Whoever travels in Asia, especially if he be conversant with the literature of the countries through which he passes, must naturally remark the superiority of European talents: the observation, indeed, is at least as old as ALEXANDER; and, though we cannot agree with the sage preceptor [i.e. Aristotle] of that ambitious Prince, that ‘the Asiaticks are born to be slaves,’ yet the Athenian poet [i.e. Aeschylus] seems perfectly in the right, when he represents Europe as a sovereign Princess, and Asia as her handmaid: but, if the mistress be transcendently majestic, it cannot be denied that the attendant has many beauties, and some advantages peculiar to herself … [A]lthough we must be conscious of our superior advancement in all kinds of useful knowledge, yet we ought not therefore to contemn the people of Asia, from whose researches into nature, works of arts and inventions of fancy, many valuable hints may be derived for our own improvement and advantage. If that, indeed were not the principal object of your institution, little else could arise from it but the mere gratification of curiosity. […]
To form an exact parallel between the works and actions of the Western and Eastern worlds, would require a tract of no inconsiderable length; but we may decide on the whole, that reason and taste are the grand prerogatives of European minds, while the Asiaticks have soared to loftier heights in the sphere of imagination.
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In those elegant arts, which are called fine and liberal, though of less general utility than the labours of the mechanick, it is really wonderful how much a single nation has excelled the whole world: