In a former paper on “Manu, the progenitor of the Aryan Indians,” published in the Society's Journal, I have attempted to shew that in general the authors of the hymns of the Rigveda regarded the whole of the Aryan people, embracing not only the priests and the chiefs, but the middle classes also of the population, as descended from one common father, or ancestor, whom they designate by the name of Manu. This reference to a common progenitor excludes, of course, the supposition that the writers by whom it is made could have had any belief in the myth which became afterwards current among their countrymen, that their nation consisted of four castes, differing naturally in dignity, and separately created by Brahmâ.

I am led to make some remarks on the subject of this paper by a passage in Mr. Cowell's preface to the fourth volume of the late Professor Wilson's translation of the Rigveda, which appears to me unduly to depreciate the services which have already been rendered by those eminent scholars both in Germany and in England who have begun to apply the scientific processes of modern philology to the explanation of this ancient hymn-collection. Mr. Cowell admits (p. vi.),—

It is reported that Kwan Tseu Tsai Bodhisattva, prompted by her great compassionate heart has engaged herself by a great oath to enter into every one of the innumerable worlds, and bring deliverance to all creatures who inhabit them.

For this purpose she has enunciated the Divine sentences which follow, which, if properly recited, will render all creatures exempt from the causes of sorrow, and by removing them, render them capable of attaining Supreme Reason.

And if the virtuous man, who has already attained the happiness consequent on True Wisdom, still continue to recite these sentences, and by his correct line of conduct induce others who believe not to follow his example, and to accept the Truth and believe in it—how great his happiness!

Having lately received two new MSS. of Sâyaṇa's Commentary on the Rig-veda, I thought that a few lines on the character of these MSS., and on the proper use to be made of Sanskrit MSS. in general, might be of some interest both in England and in India. I owe these MSS. to the kindness and enlightened generosity of Dr. Bhao Daji, who is well known to the members of the Royal Asiatic Society, both as an intelligent collector of Indian antiquities, inscriptions, and manuscripts, and as a careful and successful inquirer into the history and chronology of India.

A great number of years have now elapsed since I began to collect materials for an Assyrian grammar; an object, of which I have never since lost sight. Of late, I have been preparing my materials for publication; but a preliminary question has suggested itself:—“If I were to publish a grammar, who would read it ?” The persons for whose instruction I should naturally write would be either persons who were acquainted with other Semitic languages, and who were desirous of comparing the grammars of these with that of the oldest and the best developed language of the family; or else persons, who desired to study this language for its own sake, and who sought the aid of a grammar, in the absence of an oral instructor, to teach them the first principles of this “Sanskrit of the Semitic tongues,” which they might afterwards improve upon by their own studies.