] See Lanman, The Milk-drinking Hansas of Sanskrit Poetry, JAOS.
vol. 19. 2, pp. 151-158. Goose would be a better translation of the word
_hamsa_ than swan.

[233] We cite from the edition mentioned on p. vii.

[234] Strophen des Omar Chijam, Stuttg. 1878. The translation itself
dates from an earlier period than the year of publication. The author,
speaking of the delay in bringing it before the public, states that
Horace's nonumque prematur in annum could be applied in threefold
measure to this work (p. 118). Hence the translation was made about
1850, or a little later.

[235] Herder, Briefe zur Befoerderung der Humanitaet, x, ed. Suphan, vol.
18, p. 259; Deguignes, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 172; Francis Gladwin, The
Persian Moonshee, Calcutta, 1801, Pers. and Engl. pt. ii. p. 3.

[236] See Hammer, Fundgruben, vol. i. pp. 7, 8.

CHAPTER XIII.

CONCLUSION.

Now that we have come to the end of our investigation, it may be well to
survey briefly the whole field and to summarize the results we have
reached.

We have seen that to mediaeval Europe India and Persia were lands of
magic and enchantment; their languages and literatures were utterly
unknown. Whatever influence these literatures exerted on that of Europe
was indirect and not recognized. Nor did the Portuguese discoveries
effect an immediate change. It was only by slow degrees that the West
obtained any knowledge of Eastern thought. The _Gulistan_ and _Bustan_
of Sa'di, some maxims of Bhartrhari and a few scattered fragments were
all that was known in Europe of Indic or Persian literature before the
end of the eighteenth century.

Then the epoch-making discoveries of Sir William Jones aroused the
attention of the Western world and laid the foundations of a new
science. New ideas of world-wide significance presented themselves to
the European mind. Nowhere were these ideas welcomed with more
enthusiasm than in Germany, the home of philological scholarship. Herder
pointed the way, and by means of translations and imitations tried to
introduce the treasures of Oriental thought into German literature. That
he did not meet with unqualified success was due, as we have seen, to
his one-sided didactic tendency. To him, however, belongs the credit of
the first impulse. Then Friedrich Schlegel founded the study of Sanskrit
in Germany, while at the same time Hammer was busily at work spreading a
knowledge of the Persian poets in Europe. The effect of the latter'