This circumstance was repeatedly brought to public notice by Dr. Leitner, but no advantage has as yet been taken of an opportunity so favourable to linguistic and perhaps political objects.
In the Székler land, his native province, Csoma’s memory lives in affectionate remembrance.
The Kenderessy-Csoma Scholarship, founded by him at the College of Nagy Enyed, is administered in accordance with his wishes. Csoma’s relations made an endowment at the village school of Körös, at which, as a child, he learned his first lessons. The yearly proceeds of this sum are devoted partly to purchasing of books, and partly to improve the stipend of the schoolmaster. There is a third memorial also, namely, the donation made by Csoma in 1836 to the Military Institute of Kézdi-Vásárhely. [[161]]After the historical events of 1849 the funds of this Institute were amalgamated with those of the College of Szent György; towards this the Emperor-King, Francis-Joseph, contributed ten thousand florins. Csoma’s money is administered in a separate account there, and the yearly proceeds are divided among the most industrious scholars, each prize-book being marked with the founder’s name.
“I have no doubt,” adds Baron Orbán Balázs, “that a day will come when a better future dawns upon our country, and when past omissions and neglect will be made good, and then a substantial monument will rise to the imperishable memory of Alexander Csoma de Körös.”
We heartily add our Amen. May it be so!
The contents of the four boxes mentioned by Dr. Campbell, constituting Csoma’s travelling library, were as follows:—
1st Box.
- 1. Grammar and dictionaries of Bengali, Turkish, Tibetan, Greek, Latin, French, and English languages. 7 volumes.
- 2. New Testament in Russian.
- 3. Hodgson, on Buddhism in Nepal.
- 4. Index of the Asiatic Society’s Transactions.
- 5. The twentieth volume, Part I., of Asiatic Researches.
Total 13 volumes.
A medicine-box.
2d Box.
- 1. Grammars and dictionaries:—
Wilson’s Sanskrit Dictionary; Sanskrit Grammar; Bengali and English Dictionary; Bengali, Turkish, and English grammars; Sanskrit Dictionary; Greek Exercises; English, Bengali, and Manipuri Grammar and Dictionary.
- 2. Alphabetum Tibetanum of Giorgi.
- 3. Bible in English; New Testament in Sanskrit; St. Matthew’s Gospel in Bengali; Genesis in English.
- 4. Raja Tarangini, 2 volumes; Mahavansa; eight Bengali pamphlets.
- 5. Journal Asiatic Society, 9 volumes; Asiatic Researches, twentieth volume, Part I.; foreign books, 6 volumes.
[[162]]
3d Box.
Tibetan Grammar; Mahabharata, 4 volumes; Raja Tarangini; Susrita; Naishada Charita; four Bengali pamphlets.
4th Box.
- 1. Grammars and dictionaries:—
English Grammar and Exercises; English and French Dictionary; English pocket-dictionary; English and Bengali Dictionary and Exercises; Yates’ Sanskrit Grammar; Bhutia Vocabulary; Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary, 3 copies; Russian Grammar; two Latin and one Dutch Dictionaries; Latin Selections; Greek Grammar.
- 2. New Testament in Greek and Latin; Prayer-Book in Bengali.
- 3. Æsop’s Fables in German; 2 volumes Cicero’s Orationes; Quintilianus; Homer; Horace; Cæsar’s Commentaries, Livy, Ovid, Tacitus, Virgil, Sallust, Juvenal, Xenophon, altogether 13 volumes.
- 4. Robertson’s History of India; Klaproth’s Tibet; Dickens’ Pickwick; Journal Royal Asiatic Society; Prinsep’s Useful Tables, 1 volume.
- 5. Small Atlas; Map of Chinese Empire; Map of Western Asia; a memorandum book.
- 6. Inkstand, ruler, bundle of pencils, wafers, slate, a small glass.
N.B.—The blue dress was given to his Lepcha servant.
- 1. Grammar and dictionaries of Bengali, Turkish, Tibetan, Greek, Latin, French, and English languages. 7 volumes.
- 2. New Testament in Russian.
- 3. Hodgson, on Buddhism in Nepal.
- 4. Index of the Asiatic Society’s Transactions.
- 5. The twentieth volume, Part I., of Asiatic Researches.
- 1. Grammars and dictionaries:—
- Wilson’s Sanskrit Dictionary; Sanskrit Grammar; Bengali and English Dictionary; Bengali, Turkish, and English grammars; Sanskrit Dictionary; Greek Exercises; English, Bengali, and Manipuri Grammar and Dictionary.
- 2. Alphabetum Tibetanum of Giorgi.
- 3. Bible in English; New Testament in Sanskrit; St. Matthew’s Gospel in Bengali; Genesis in English.
- 4. Raja Tarangini, 2 volumes; Mahavansa; eight Bengali pamphlets.
- 5. Journal Asiatic Society, 9 volumes; Asiatic Researches, twentieth volume, Part I.; foreign books, 6 volumes.
- 1. Grammars and dictionaries:—
- English Grammar and Exercises; English and French Dictionary; English pocket-dictionary; English and Bengali Dictionary and Exercises; Yates’ Sanskrit Grammar; Bhutia Vocabulary; Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary, 3 copies; Russian Grammar; two Latin and one Dutch Dictionaries; Latin Selections; Greek Grammar.
- 2. New Testament in Greek and Latin; Prayer-Book in Bengali.
- 3. Æsop’s Fables in German; 2 volumes Cicero’s Orationes; Quintilianus; Homer; Horace; Cæsar’s Commentaries, Livy, Ovid, Tacitus, Virgil, Sallust, Juvenal, Xenophon, altogether 13 volumes.
- 4. Robertson’s History of India; Klaproth’s Tibet; Dickens’ Pickwick; Journal Royal Asiatic Society; Prinsep’s Useful Tables, 1 volume.
- 5. Small Atlas; Map of Chinese Empire; Map of Western Asia; a memorandum book.
- 6. Inkstand, ruler, bundle of pencils, wafers, slate, a small glass.