দৃষ্টান্ত বাক্য সংগ্রহ | A Collection Of Proverbs

ded without an adequate result of advantage, the labour, by no means inconsiderable, necessarily undergone. The estimates formed of this collection may be various. Some may deem a large portion of its contents mean; and current among an illiterate people, the style is of course often low and incorrect ; yet as the actual expression, in customary language, of the national character and notions, it is only the more valuable. Avarice and cunning, selfishness and apathy, everywhere show themselves ; the sordidness of worldly aims, and indifference to higher, are seen to flow naturally from a base idolatry that confers neither elevation of mind! nor purity of heart. Hence, however, a greater sympathy with the demoralized condition and superstitious ignorance of a whole people, will probably be excited,—and consequently a more diligent and pitying activity exerted, in endeavouring to introduce amongst them the light of truth, the power of a rational piety, a holy and spiritual religion. Nor, judging from my own experience, is the advantage small, I apprehend, derivable from thts collection, towards understanding many otherwise obscure passages in books, or concise allusions in the conversation of Natives. In this view are added to the Bengali a few Sanscrit proverbs frequently heard from the mouths of the better instructed, or met with in the higher publications. In conclusion, the merit of the suggestion of the present work is due entirely to Mr. Pearce; as well as that of having caused the far larger portion of the collection to be made— the deficiencies in execution, be they what they may, are attri- butable only to myself. It should be observed, however, that isolated sentences like these, and often incomplete in gramma- tical structure, are peculiarly difficult and frequently susceptible of various renderings : if, therefore, I have occasionally failed to seize the just intention of a Proverb, this circumstance must plead excuse for me with the candid and considerate reader. I now resign to the judgment of those for whose benefit I have been occupied, the result of an application, the object of which, doubtless, will obtain for my work that measure of indulgence which it may require. CHINSURA, July, 1832. W. M. Xvi