Page:A Grammar of the Persian Language.djvu/21

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xvi
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE

persons who may have to reside in that country, they are nevertheless in Hindustan, whether right or wrong is not for me to say: I have on this account preserved them, as far as my means of information would allow me. The learner, therefore, will be at liberty to adopt them or not; just as he may think proper, or as his teacher may advise.

Another alteration is a new and more literal translation of all the examples; another the application of numbers to all the paragraphs, which has been done in order to facilitate reference: and another, the removal of the Abstract of the Arabick Grammar to an Appendix, by which the Student will be enabled to study either that or the Persian Grammar without any interruption. In the last Edition I followed the example of Mr. Lumsden: but, from my own conviction, as well as the advice of some friends, on whose judgment I could rely, the present arrangement has been adopted: and, for the sake of uniformity, the Prosody, Praxis, and Vocabulary, form the three Appendixes following.

The works consulted in preparing this Edition have been: 1. The elaborate and valuable Persian Grammar by Mr. Lumsden,[1] a work of which the Student ought at some period to make himself perfect master; for, although I differ in opinion in some respects from its estimable and learned Author, I have no hesitation in affirming, that it is the best work on this subject, that has hitherto appeared in Europe, and perhaps in the East itself.—2. The Persian Grammar attached to the King of Oude's Persian Dictionary, entitled the Seven Seas (هفت فلزم[2]). This work

  1. A Grammar of the Persian Language, Calcutta, 1810, in two volumes, folio.
  2. A Dictionary and Grammar of the Persian Language by his Majesty the King of Oude, Lucknow, 1822, two volumes, large folio.