SIR,
IN permitting me to place under your especial patronage this Translation of a Work which had long been regarded by some distinguished Orientalists as deserving to be thrown open to the English reader, you have performed, to me indeed, an eminent and most valued kindness, but in itself an act of very small importance, when ranked by the side of the many signal benefits derived to literature from your judicious liberality.
To this our nation is indebted for one of the most illustrious ornaments of her storied hierarchy, raised by you to that eminence which the brilliancy of the talents and the splendour of the virtues of BISHOP HEBER required, to diffuse abroad their guiding light— to shine forth for yourself an everlasting monument, as Worth and Merit's Friend.
Too generous for the confinement of vulgar minds, you have disregarded the mere pretensions of connexion and clanship in the distribution not only of the higher, but also of the inferior grades of Indian preferment; and disinterestedly aiming at the welfare and improvement of our growing empire, by the encouragement of budding industry and juvenile learning, as well as of ripened erudition, you have sent aspiring talents to our distant colonies, where in after times, if their cultivators are but spared to live, they will be looked up to and admired as additional memorials of your patriotic virtue and political integrity.
Compelled by gratitude, as one of the lowest of the British Olemâ, to offer you my small share of the tribute of thanks which from the whole body are so peremptorily your due, and proud to inscribe my humble performance to so illustrious a patron,