DR. CAREY TO DR. RYLAND.

'Serampore, July 6, 1824.

'MY DEAR BROTHER RYLAND,

'Through the mercy of God, I am hitherto preserved, though still very lame, and much pained in my injured limb with rheumatism. I was six months from receiving the hurt before I could walk without crutches. I have engaged in almost all my labors as before, ever since the beginning of January, from which time I attended the college duties as usual. I, ever since that time, have preached once on the Lord's day, at Serampore, and occasionally on the week day, and twice have been at Calcutta on the Lord's day. Yesterday evening I delivered the address at the monthly prayer-meeting, which was held at the Independent chapel, and trust I shall now be able to preach as formerly. I have been brought up from the gates of death. I am laid under new obligations. May I be strengthened with all might in the inner man!

'My general health is perhaps as good as it ever was, except indigestion occasionally, arising from the close manner in which I am obliged to confine myself to labor. I got through the preparing of copy for my Bengali dictionary last week; the gleanings of words to be inserted as the printing proceeds will be pretty plentiful. There are, however, only five letters of the printing remaining, and they are short ones, one excepted. In the interval between this and beginning the Bhotanta or Boutan grammar and dictionary, I intend to write letters to all my friends.'

The suspension of his engagements by his recent affliction, and the increased work that had devolved upon him as translator of the government papers, &c., obliged him to task himself more severely than ever, working, as he informs us, extra hours for a great length of time. To which, he continues,—

'Must be added, that the whole weight of correcting and carrying all the versions of the Scriptures through the press, lies on me; so that you will perceive I have no time to spare. The editing of Roxburg's Flora

Indica, the second volume of which is just finished, though comparatively a light thing, takes up some time. While I was confined at home, I was, on the departure of the president of the Agricultural Society of India, unanimously elected to the presidentship; and, on a representation being officially made to government two years ago, that the scarcity of timber was such that it was feared there soon would be great difficulty in supplying the wants of the commissariat, I was appointed a member of a committee to inquire into and take measures for remedying the evil. This is called the Plantation Committee, and it has lately added much to my load of labor. We have to lay down plans for planting new forests and preserving the old ones, and to correspond with government upon the subject, and, with its approbation, to carry those plans into effect.

'Next week we have a missionary association of the Baptist, Independent, and Lutheran ministers, employed by the Church Missionary Society. I am to preach the English sermon on Tuesday evening, at the Circular Road chapel. I think of taking this text, Gal. vi, 9: 'Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.' I, who have seen the work from the beginning, think that much fruit has been reaped already; but some, who came later to the work, cannot compare two periods so distant from each other as I can, and therefore need encouragement in their work.

DR. CAREY TO MR. DYER.

'MY DEAR BROTHER DYER,

'Calcutta, July 27, 1825.

I have lately been so pressed with business, that I found it impossible to write. I hope I have so far gotten through with it that it will not henceforth press with any great weight upon me. My dictionary of the Bengali language is now finished and published. This is a work of three quarto volumes of close print, and has occupied all, and rather more than all, my leisure time for several years. I hope it will contribute to the facilities for the study of the language, and thereby shorten that labor which missionaries find the most disagreeable of any.

'MY DEAR BROTHER,

'Serampore, Dec. 9, 1825.

'Your last announced the death of my very highly esteemed friend and brother, Dr. Ryland. My feelings were much distressed at the intelligence, and it appears to me as if every thing dear to me in England was now removed. There are now in England very few ministers with whom I was acquainted. Fuller, Sutcliff, Pearce, Fawcett, and Ryland, besides many others whom I knew, are gone to glory. My family connexions also, those excepted who were children when I left England, or have since that time been born, are all gone, two sisters only excepted. Wherever I look in England, I see a vast blank; and were I ever to revisit that dear country, I should have an entirely new set of friendships to form. I, however, never intended to return to England when I left it, and unless something very unexpected were to take place, I certainly shall not do it. I am fully convinced I should meet with many who would show me the utmost kindness in their power; but my heart is wedded to India; and, though I am of little use, I feel a pleasure in doing the little I can, and a very high

interest in the spiritual good of this vast country, by whose instrumentality soever it is promoted.

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'You some time ago requested my opinion of the plan now about to be adopted by the London Missionary Society, of instructing missionaries in the languages of the countries to which they are to be sent, before they leave England. I should not like to condemn a plan which is sanctioned by so many men of experience and sound judgment, but I really am unable to see its advantages. The languages must be acquired. Are the facilities for acquiring them in England equal to those obtainable where they are spoken, or can they be made so? Is there any thing in England which can be substituted for the advantages of daily familiar intercourse with the natives of a country? And will not the highest acquisitions obtainable in Europe amount to a mechanical collocation of words, applicable to scarcely any practical use where the languages are spoken? I suppose that, all things else being equal, a longer time will be required in England, to obtain an equal proficiency, than in India; to which may be added, that sometimes the language of a country is mistaken, and another substituted for it; as was formerly the case in India, where the Hindostani, a mere lingua franca, was supposed to be the current language of Hindostan, and was studied to the neglect of the languages spoken in the various provinces: a system now abandoned in the college of Fort William.

'Yours &c.,

'W. CAREY,'

CHAPTER VII.

Dr. Carey's declining health and decease-His ast will-Resolution of the committee of the Baptist Missionary Society-Notice of life and last illness, by Mr. Jonathan Carey-Critique upon the literary character and productions of Dr. Carey, by Professor Wilson-General review, with reflections.

FROM the severe illness, described by him in the preceding section, Dr. Carey's constitution received a shock from which it never perfectly recovered. He was at no time afterwards in sound health for any lengthened period; and seemed sensible, from the different attacks of fever and other ailments which came upon him in very quick succession, that the end of his course was fast approaching. He recommenced his exertions in biblical translation with the least possible delay, and with the same assiduity which had ever distinguished him. The only difference was, that he somewhat contracted the circle of his labors, that he might render it finally the more effective; con centrating his efforts upon a few of the more import ant dialects, in order to bring them nearer perfection. His special care was bestowed upon the Bengali version. Upon the New Testament, in this language, his work as a translator commenced; and with the final revision of it, which he completed a little before his death, it closed. As so much has met the attention of the reader upon the subject of Oriental translations from Dr. Carey's own pen, and as an erudite review of them, together with his other literary productions, awaits his perusal from that of Professor Wilson, any further notice from the compiler is unnecessary.

I have not, either, thought it expedient to publish so largely upon this last period of Dr. Carey's life from his own correspondence, as upon those which have preceded. This I have abstained from, partly, because to have done otherwise would have swollen the work to an inconvenient size; and, partly, because the identity of his labors, for so great a number of years, rendered his successive references to them, un