A Grammar Of The Language Of Burmah

This endeavor to promote the acquirement of the vernacular dialect of one of the numerous provinces under his sway, and thereby to benefit a large portion of British subjects, is, by permission, inscribed by his obedient servant. In the numerous discourses handed down to his followers by that great Reformer of his age, Gaudama, though dwelling upon the various moral and social duties incumbent upon mankind, as parent and child, in language too as forcible and beautiful, at times also in words almost identical with those found on the same subject in the scriptures of the Christian; he still urges more particularly the necessity of rulers dealing justice, with impartiality and the greatest care, to their subjects. Avoid the four states of mind; the state of covetousness, and the state of malice, the state of fear, and the state of ignorance. It was therefore to obviate in a measure the mischief of such a system as at present obtains, and to mitigate the estrangement caused by the thralldom of a foreign tongue, by facilitating the acquirement of the Burmese language, that the author has been induced to draw up the following work; ever bearing in mind those peculiarities and difficulties, which, however naturalised by custom, were found almost insurmountable to him as a beginner; and it is sent forth with a knowledge that it is required and with every hope and confidence that it will be of use to those who require it.