পাতা:তত্ত্ববোধিনী পত্রিকা (দশম কল্প দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড).pdf/১৩৯

\ʻ ow ،ؤوله § . όuε, moral and philosophical development. They have also had their distinct periods of" Scepticism, Materialism and Pessimism, almost all ending by however different roads into some sort of Idealism or Pantheism as we. They have the same imaginative love of Nature—the same feeling of a certain mysterious inalienable affinity with, and a childlike trust in, her which, in spite of all crying contradictions in Nature, it is possi. ble neitt.er to explain nor to shake off. Take the representative men of both countries and you find Goethe and Kalidas across the distance of probably twenty centuries both of them as great passionate lovers of Nature which plays such a prominent part in all their immortal creations. When in the further progress of our Indian studies, we shall know more of the incidents of the life of our great Poet, it will probably bo seen that the poet of Sakuntala, although living in a very different country, lived more or less a life such as The Poet of Faust led—both were great naturalists, and great poets both served as courtiers in courts whose kings were not only their protectors, but also steady intimate tunes of joy or melancholy when the “ occasion” called for it. “–.–Wie der Vogel Singt # Der auf dem zweige wohnet Das Lied, das ans der Kehle dringt, Ist Lohn der reichlich lohnet !" It is impossible to give the full import of the above four lines of Goethe in translation. yet the following might give some idea of it. “ —-As the bird sings, That lives on the tree, The song that quills out of the throat Is the reward—that richly rewards.” I must confess that it is a very prosaic, though a literal, translation. These affinities—these points of fraternal resemblance, it appears to me, are some of the chief causes of the interest which the Germans take in us-an interest so noble and so generous that we, Hindus, should do our best to keep it alive by proving ourselves worthy of it. We should all combine to procure the German Orientalists as much of Manuscripts and Ori'ginal Sources of research as possible, Let পত্র כלשא צ 'ardent patriotic Hindu youths from different parts of India set their hearts on this noble and useful work, join their youthful zeal and energy to the ceaseless exertions of our emi nent countryman, Dr. Rajendra Lal Mitra and we shall earn not only the gratitude of these German Sawants and of the whole scientific world but what is more important we shall, in the course of a few years, have much clearer, juster ideas on the past history of our country than is at present possible with the inadequate uncertaun data at our disposal. I have deemed it necessary to suggest this subject to you who take such an unusual interest in Indian antiquities and I hope some practical steps might be promptly taken in this direction. I remember that when as a boy of 9 or 10 I used to go to the “ tole” of our learned neighbour Nyayabhusana Muhagaya to get by heart the Kalapasutrain, 1 frequently saw in his house whole heaps of palm leaf manuscripts negligently preserved and this I have seen in the houses of othor Paudits in different parts of Bengal, What Tod says of the vast heaps of manuscripts preserved in the desort-tem friends and, above all, both sang the sweetest plus of Rajasthan (see the Introduction to Todd's Rajasthan which contains some very just observations on the chronology and the historical literature of the Hindus,) is almost equally true (although certainly not to the same extent ) of the Maths tand Mandirs of Bengal where manuscripts are sometimes seen hanging down from the roofs which none but the Mohanta, the Thakur or the "Purohita dares approach or touch. It seems to me that much valuable materials might be had to elucidate obscure points in the History of Sanskrit literature if these tole manuscripts (not to say anything of those that are so jealously preserved in the Temples) might be procured for the use of critical investigation. We might probably get them at no very high prices and I further propose that after thus trying them, we should be prepared to make presents of them to some of the chief Universities of Germany, that is to say to those where the great Sanskritists I have named deliver their lectures, for instance, Berlin (Weber), Bonn (Aufrecht), Tubingen (Roth)ğeia (Boethling), and Breslau (Stenzler). We might §ïso send to Kiel where