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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
METRICAL VERSIONS FROM THE MAHABHARATA.
BY J. MUIR, D.Ó.L., LL.D., PH.D. (Continued from p. 207.) ABILITY NECESSARY FOR ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE. Mahabharata, ii. 2845; x. 178f.; ii. 1945. No teaching e'er a blockhead shows What's right, what's wrong, or makes him sage; No child in understanding grows Mature in sense with growing age. The wise who proffer learning's boon To stupid men, their labour waste: Though filied with juices sweet, a spoon Their pleasant flavour cannot taste. But able men, though taught in haste, Truth, right, and wrong, can quickly learn. The feeling tongue and palate taste, And flavours sweet and sour discern.
GOOD PRACTISED BECAUSE IT IS DUTY. Mahabharata, xii. 5906. (Compare xii. 1327.) "Tis not for gain, for fame, from fear,
That righteous men injustice shun, And virtuous men hold virtue dear; An inward voice they seem to hear,
Which tells that duty must be done. EFFORT, NOT SUCCESS, THE TEST OF GOODNESS. Mahabharata, v. 3313.
The man who toils with all his strength A high and righteous end to gain, May fail, but has not wrought in vain : His merit gains its meed at length.
DISREGARD OF GOOD ADVICE. Mahabharata, v. 4348.
That self-willed man his foes delights Who, ill advised, the counsel slights Of those sage friends who wish him well, And how to help him, best can tell.
NECROLOGY.
It is quite probable that the masterly Annual Review of the Hindustani language and literature which appeared with great punctuality during the past twenty years will no longer be published, as its gifted and experienced author is now no more. M. Héliodore Garcin de Tassy died on the 2nd of September, in his 85th year; he was a member of the Institute, President of the Asiatic Society of Paris, professor in the school of living Oriental languages, and member of the principal learned societies of Europe and of India; a Knight of the Legion of Honour, Commander of the Order of St. Jacques of Portugal, Cavalier of the Pole Star of Sweden, &c., &c.
[NOVEMBER, 1878.
Tassy acted as its Secretary, and afterwards contributed valuable papers to the Journal. His services to Oriental literature are well known. From his published writings and translations it appears that he was not only well acquainted with Hindi and Urdu, which he taught in his capacity of professor, but also with Arabic, Persian, and Turkish; indeed specimens of all these occur in his La Rhétorique et la Prosodie des Langues de l'Orient musulman, as well as in his Allégories, récits poétiques et chants populaires, &c., but he appears to have devoted himself chiefly to the first mentioned two languages. Thus he wrote a history of the Hindi and Hindustâni languages, edited and translated the works of Wali, a celebrated poet of the Dekhan, as also the Adventures of Kamrup and the Chronicle of Shir Shah, Sultan of Dehli. He wrote Rudiments, Crestomathies and Dictionaries of the Hindi and Hindustani languages, &c. He produced a French edition of Sir W. Jones's Persian Grammar, edited and translated the Persian text of Farid u'd-din Attar's Mantikuttair, or Language of Birds,' and based thereon his work on the philosophical and religious poetry of the Persians. His Islamism according to the Kurdn appeared in 1874, but some of his older works, e. g. the Memoir on the Musalmán Proper Names and Titles, his edition and translation of the Bág o Bahár, or Garden of Spring,' &c., have lately been republished.
M. G. de Tassy had absolutely no rival on the continent in the special branch of Hindi and Urdu literature, and the vacuum left by him can be neither easily nor quickly filled. E. R.
When the French Asiatic Society was established in 1821, under the presidency of the great Orientalist, Baron Silvestre de Sacy, M. Garcin de
NOTES.
The Sun Worshippers of Asia.-This is the title of a lecture by Chas. D. Poston, the materials for which were collected during an official visit to India. It is a neat little volume of 106 pages, and, while it does not pretend to give more than a brief review of the ancient Persian creed, it contains sufficient information for all practical purposes. We would commend its perusal to all who desire to become acquainted with the religion of Zoroaster. It is published by A. Roman & Co. of San Francisco.
The Revue Politique et Littéraire announces the discovery by M. de Gubernatis of several unpublished translations in Italian of Sanskrit writings, including two cantos of the Ramayana by Marco della Tomba, a Capuchin missionary, who resided in Bengal and Nepál from 1758 to 1770. M. de Gubernatis was charged by the Minister of Public Instruction to publish a part of these translations for the meeting of Orientalists at Florence in September.-Trübner's Literary Record.
