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Article CHARACTER OF SIR WILLIAM JONES. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Character Of Sir William Jones.
imbibe those pernicious principles , which , in too many instances , have affected the minds of oriental travellers . It is surely a circumstance of no small weight for the consideration of sceptics , that , while superficial enquirers presume to treat with contempt or disregard the Mosaic writings , one of the profoundest oriental scholars that ever lived firmly believed . their authenticity , and strenuously defended their divine truth . His great aim , throughout the three volumes of
Asiatic Researches , published during his life , seems to have been to maintain the character of those writings , and to display their excellence as superior to all merely human productions . He traced , from age to age , the chain of prophecies connected with the first sentence against the serpent , and clearly saw their complete accomplishment in the Messiah . Hence flowed his zeal to illustrate and defend what he deemed of such infinite importance to the human race ; and
hence his name , great and celebrated as it is in the paths of science , still shines with more distinguished splendour in those of piety and devotion . The writer of these strictures well knew the hi gh spirit and
untainted purity of heart which belonged to this illustrious man . He knew him to be incapable of uttering sentiments that did not flow from the rooted conviction of that heart ; and he has solidreason for asserting that Sir William Jones , before he left England for India , was by no means wholly free from a sceptical bias . Pie had full opportunity , when he resided in Asia , for investigating , with minute and riid attention , all those intricate theological points that miht
g g have occasioned his doubts , in the country , and not very remote from the scene , where the grand transactions , recorded in the sacred annals , were performed . He did investigate them , we are assured , in the most ample manner ; and the result was not only his own complete conviction , as well as that of many other eminent scholars , who , till then , had but slightly attended to the proofs which the annals
of the great empires of * Asia afford to the verity of the Hebrew historian . These beheld , with equal surprise and admiration , the new testimonies brought in their favour from-a quarter the least expected ; and , as they perused his animated and energetic pages , renounced their doubts and errors , and became , like himself , not almost but altogether Christians .
The influence of virtue and piety , in exalted station , is almost boundless . The sceptics of Bengal began to think again of that sacred book which they had read in their youth , but slighted in their more advanced years . Am attentive examination of its contents soon became general among the more enlightened members of the settlement ; and if , on all minds , a thorough belief in it was not the consequenceopen infidelity wasat leastabashed ; while the princiles
, , , p of morality were better understood , and the practice of it was more predominant . The character of the virtuous Cornwallis at the helm of government , and of Sir William Jones , among others , on the bench of jurisprudence , overawed the profligate ; while frugality and ceconomy , both public and private , succeeded to unbounded expence
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Character Of Sir William Jones.
imbibe those pernicious principles , which , in too many instances , have affected the minds of oriental travellers . It is surely a circumstance of no small weight for the consideration of sceptics , that , while superficial enquirers presume to treat with contempt or disregard the Mosaic writings , one of the profoundest oriental scholars that ever lived firmly believed . their authenticity , and strenuously defended their divine truth . His great aim , throughout the three volumes of
Asiatic Researches , published during his life , seems to have been to maintain the character of those writings , and to display their excellence as superior to all merely human productions . He traced , from age to age , the chain of prophecies connected with the first sentence against the serpent , and clearly saw their complete accomplishment in the Messiah . Hence flowed his zeal to illustrate and defend what he deemed of such infinite importance to the human race ; and
hence his name , great and celebrated as it is in the paths of science , still shines with more distinguished splendour in those of piety and devotion . The writer of these strictures well knew the hi gh spirit and
untainted purity of heart which belonged to this illustrious man . He knew him to be incapable of uttering sentiments that did not flow from the rooted conviction of that heart ; and he has solidreason for asserting that Sir William Jones , before he left England for India , was by no means wholly free from a sceptical bias . Pie had full opportunity , when he resided in Asia , for investigating , with minute and riid attention , all those intricate theological points that miht
g g have occasioned his doubts , in the country , and not very remote from the scene , where the grand transactions , recorded in the sacred annals , were performed . He did investigate them , we are assured , in the most ample manner ; and the result was not only his own complete conviction , as well as that of many other eminent scholars , who , till then , had but slightly attended to the proofs which the annals
of the great empires of * Asia afford to the verity of the Hebrew historian . These beheld , with equal surprise and admiration , the new testimonies brought in their favour from-a quarter the least expected ; and , as they perused his animated and energetic pages , renounced their doubts and errors , and became , like himself , not almost but altogether Christians .
The influence of virtue and piety , in exalted station , is almost boundless . The sceptics of Bengal began to think again of that sacred book which they had read in their youth , but slighted in their more advanced years . Am attentive examination of its contents soon became general among the more enlightened members of the settlement ; and if , on all minds , a thorough belief in it was not the consequenceopen infidelity wasat leastabashed ; while the princiles
, , , p of morality were better understood , and the practice of it was more predominant . The character of the virtuous Cornwallis at the helm of government , and of Sir William Jones , among others , on the bench of jurisprudence , overawed the profligate ; while frugality and ceconomy , both public and private , succeeded to unbounded expence