Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/175

 CAREY AND FORT WILLIAM COLLEGE 15] present spoken in the various part of Hindoosthan and perhaps those of some of the neighbouring countries’’'. Carey, therefore, observes with regard to the materials of his Dictionary that “considerably more than three-fourths of the words are pure Sungskrit, and those composing the greatest part of the remainder are so little corrupted that their origin may be traced without difficulty”. He also states that he has endeavoured to introduce into the Dictionary every simple word used in the language and all the compound terms which are commonly current or which are to be found in the standard Bengali works. It may be thought indeed that in the latter respect he has been more scrupulous than it was absolutely necessary and has inserted compounds which might have been dispensed with, their analysis being obvious and their elements being explained in their appropriate places. The Déclionary also includes many derivative terms and _ privative, attributive, and abstract nouns which, though of legitimate construction, may rarely occur in composition and are of palpable signi- fication. The instances of such, although they swell the dictionary into an inconvenient and costly bulk, evince at the same time the compiler’s careful research, his conscien- tious exactitude, and his unwearied industry. The English equivalents of the Bengali words are well-chosen and are of unquestionable accuracy”. Local terms are rendered with that correctness which Carey’s knowledge of the manners of the people and his long domestication amongst them enabled him to attain; and his scientific aequire- ments and familiarity with the subjects of natural his-. tory qualified him to employ, and not unfrequently to ’ Preface to Bengali Dictionary, 1818. Carey as an Oriental Scholar and Translator,
 * See H. H. Wilson, Remarks on the Character and Labours of Dr.