পাতা:দ্বিভাষার্থকাভিধান.djvu/১০

Vm PᎡᎬFᎪᏟᎬ, or only employed in some few of the higher compositions, be rejected, if elegant in themselves or necessary to a just expression of current ideas. Many such will be found in the present compilation. Exotic terms, whether of Arabic, Penic or European origin, are not of the language whose vocabulary it is intended to give, and are therefore designedly excluded, as actual corruptions of a dialect sufficiently rich to be independent of foreign accessions which it is incapable of enuntiating justly or euphonically, to the manifest injury Gł its harmony and uniformity, while it may draw naturally and to any extent desirable from the Samscrit. The Sanscrit is distinguished, even beyond the polished language of the ancient Greeks, by the extentof its capabilities in the composition of terms, and the facility with which the most complex notious are united in their expression. The Bengali bears this mark of its affiliation in an eminent degree. The rules for the most current compositions are so easy and regular and they apply so universally, that to collect those even in daily use in the alphabetical order of a Dictionary, would be a task as useless as laborious, and swell the bulk of a volume without corresponding advantage; rather, to the manifest inconvenience of the studeot, who i d of a portable octavo would be compelled, as at preseot, to wade in search of a common simple term, through an endless list of formatives and compounds; of which from 50 to 250 and upwards may be numbered in every part of the volumes of Dr. Carey. , Nay, in two places, under Qs, that and Jose this, the body of the vocables of the language is duplicated and triplicated, occupying together no fewer than 390 pages of the whole work! It cannot but excite astonishment, considering the really extensive acquirements and acknowledged talents of the respectable author, that his labour should have been so fruitlessly expended both to himself and to those whom it was intended to benefit. On the other hand, the more pbilosophical compounds, such as are formed by aggregation or coalescence of terms, are actually limited only by the vocabulary of these latter, and are producible ad libitum: the attempt to include such is therefore out of the question. The more usual only are comprized in the present work. The Sanscrit Dictionary of Dr. Wilson is beyond ali from the Compiler of this volume, as the production of a Scholar who thought for himself. and who, even in availing himself of the labours of his predecessors, has, by an exercise of judgement and discrimination and by persoual toil, rendered that his own which has received its modification and arrangement from his mind. Of this invaluable work large use has been made, to the manifest enrichment of the present publication. The Amara Cosha and other works altogether native have been carefnlly consulted, and in some of the latter pages, a few hints have been taken from the small vocabulary recently published by Tarāchand Datt. The Abridgement of Carey's Dictionary being merely a reduction of the bulk of that work, retaining all its peculiarities though meagre in its explanatory portion, has been of no additional service. The Shabda Calpa Druma, now in course of publication by Baboo Rádhá Cánta Deb, whose talents and useful labours reflect the greatest credit on himself and bis fellow countrymen of this province, and promise to be of eminent service to the students of Hindoo literature, has been consulted as far as published. The Compiler having been, with equal kindness and liberality, favoured by that gentleman with a copy of the extant portion of his elaborate work, takes this opportunity of offering his grateful acknowledgements to him for the aid thence derived. In the native part of the work, the Amara Cosha, an edition of the same with Bhasha interpretation, and the school vocabulary of Rāmchandra Sharma, have been of considerable use; though by far more than three fourths of even that part of the work are entirely original, the result of personal reading and selection, with such aid as could be derived from native assistants. From these latter, it would not easily be credited by the mere European student, how little effective co-operation is ohtained where thought and research are required; as a single term cannot safely be admitted uncorroborated by citation or other sufficient authority; and even in the more mechanical species of assistance, the most rigid inspection must be incessantly exercised. It is with true regret that the Compiler is compelled by strict verity to exclude from any participation in the merita of the publication, whatever they may be, those by whom he has been assisted, the extent of whose services has been limited entirely to the labour of refereoce or the detection of literal errors and idiomatical inaccuracies. He hails, however, with delight, the augmenting disposition to cultivate every department of literature, in which several well known native scholars have been eminantly forward, and begs to throw the present mite of contribution into the general treasury from which the great cause of knowledge, which is the cause of Man in all the varieties of his race and conditions of his being, is to be advanced. -് le -