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PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY

FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

TRANSLATED INTO TAMIL

BY

MOONSHEE APPAVOO MOODELIAR.

MADRAS:

PRINTED BY REUBEN TWIGG, AT THE CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
SOCIETY'S PRESS, CHURCH STREET, VEPERY.

1848.

PROSPECTUS.

IN submitting to the Public the present work, the Translator feels satisfied that his labours have been well directed, and that, The Outlines of the History of England in English and Tamil will, if received and appreciated, prove eminently useful both to English and Tamil students.

Locke, Milton, and others of high authority have recommended for the learning of languages the same method which this work is intended to promote, namely, by the help of correct translations to read from the foreign language into the vernacular and from the vernacular into the foreign language, until a familiar acquaintance with the rendered meanings of the words and with the comparative idiomatic structure of both languages has been obtained.

Many have employed this method with success in learning the Classical and other languages, and it has been recommended as more rapid and effective than the usual way of acquiring these languages by the help of a Dictionary.

But much more requisite must it be in the case of such a language as the Tamil, for which a translating Dictionary cannot easily be made and cannot on that account be cheaply procured ; nor is this all for the student who does procure a Dictionary will find such toil and trouble in finding out the words that he will become puzzled and discouraged at the outset.

But by the help of the present work the English student will not experience much difficulty in acquiring a knowledge of the Tamil language, neither will the Native student experience much in learning English; and in order that the knowledge acquired may not be superficial, an analysis to the first five Chapters of the History has been formed, in accordance with the most approved Tamil

Grammars. The student is expected to learn from the Grammar of the language he studies, whether Tamil or English, such parts at least as the nouns, pronouns, verbs, &c. By these means and by observing well the grammatical peculiarities that present themselves to his view his knowledge will be correctly as well as rapidly acquired.

The Book, which consists of 256 pages, has been carefully revised, and in the hope that it will meet with the approval and patronage of a discerning public the Translator offers it at the following moderate prices.

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TO SUBSCRIBERS.

THE Translator cannot permit the accompanying Volume to issue from the Press without expressing his sincere acknowledgements to the friends of education who have so readily come forward to assist in defraying the expenses of its publication.

This humble attempt to benefit his countrymen has met with a support from the public exceeding his most sanguine expectations; and affording at the same time unequivocal testimony, if such were wanting, to the interest taken in the Native Community by their more favored brethren to whom Providence has entrusted the Government of this country.

The want of good elementary School-books in the Vernacular languages has long been felt by many who have most interested themselves in the cause of education in India, and whatever may be said of the opinion of those who would instruct the Natives in English literature through the medium of the English language alone, the Translator feels persuaded, and many will be of his mind, that the best and readiest and most effectual method of communicating European knowledge to the Natives is by means of accurate and well finished translations.

*

Without presuming that the present attempt is entitled to claim this character-since he would rather crave for it the indulgence of the public-it may safely be urged that works of this nature when efficiently executed, possess the double advantage of teaching the Natives English, and at the same time of facilitating to Europeans a correct acquisition of the Native languages. In this view it is of no small importance to remark that an accurate, if not an intimate acquaintance with one or more of the Verna

* See Duff on India, and India Missions.

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