d scholarlike treatment of the
religions of the world should still be a desideratum. Scholars who
have gained a knowledge of the language, and thereby free access to
original documents, find so much work at hand which none but
themselves can do, that they grudge the time for collecting and
arranging, for the benefit of the public at large, the results which
they have obtained. Nor need we wonder that critical historians should
rather abstain from the study of the religions of antiquity than trust
to mere translations and second-hand authorities.

Under these circumstances we feel all the more thankful if we meet
with a writer like M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, who has acquired a
knowledge of Eastern languages sufficient to enable him to consult
original texts and to control the researches of other scholars, and
who at the same time commands that wide view of the history of human
thought which enables him to assign to each system its proper place,
to perceive its most salient features, and to distinguish between what
is really important and what is not, in the lengthy lucubrations of
ancient poets and prophets. M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire is one of the
most accomplished scholars of France; and his reputation as the
translator of Aristotle has made us almost forget that the Professor
of Greek Philosophy at the College de France[53] is the same as the
active writer in the 'Globe' of 1827, and the 'National' of 1830; the
same who signed the protest against the July ordinances, and who in
1848 was Chief Secretary of the Provisional Government. If such a man
takes the trouble to acquire a knowledge of Sanskrit, and to attend in
the same College where he was professor, the lectures of his own
colleague, the late Eugene Burnouf, his publications on Hindu
philosophy and religion will naturally attract a large amount of
public interest. The Sanskrit scholar by profession works and
publishes chiefly for the benefit of other Sanskrit scholars. He is
satisfied with bringing to light the ore which he has extracted by
patient labour from among the dusty MSS. of the East-India House. He
seldom takes the trouble to separate the metal from the ore, to purify
or to strike it into current coin. He is but too often apt to forget
that no lasting addition is ever made to the treasury of human
knowledge unless the results of special research are translated into
the universal language of science, and rendered available to every
person of intell