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understood from the people of the place that not long ago each
of these pedestals had a statue on it, which was carried
away by some Franks like ourselves. This tradition agrees
very well with the import of the inscription
These marks | shew where the lines end: the dotted marks : shew where
I imagine the words end: the Σ in the third line being obliterated
by a crack in the stone is supplied by my conjecture.
The general import I take to be that on this
pedestal stood the statue of a nameless philosopher: the rest is open
to conjecture which I have at present neither room nor leisure nor
sufficient learning to discuss.
The time I was employ'd in decyphering or rather endeavouring
to decypher these inscriptions was much circumscribed
by the necessity I was under of having the old
interpreter at my elbow, and the annoyance I met with
from the people of the place, particularly the children,
who came in crowds to stare at the stranger who was
busying himself so seriously about such insignificant
nonsense. Amongst others however came an old man of
a genteel appearance who after putting some questions
to me and receiving such imperfect answers as I
could give him through the medium of our old man
who spoke no language that I had least smattering
of except Italian, gave me to understand that
he knew of another inscription, and that if I would
call on him some other time, (for he was then going
to prayers) he would send a man with me to
shew me the way, and should then be glad to hear
my sentiments about it. To enable me to carry on this
conversation a little less imperfectly I determined to endeavour
to engage the company not only of this old
man, but of Mr H.'s Nissard Servant who speaks
French and Italian with equal facility. To find a time
in which the leisure of these three persons could be
brought to coincide was no such easy matter: on Monday
afternoon however the business was accomplished:
and I got admission attended by my two interpreters
into the house of Achmet Effendi, that was the old
gentleman's name, who I had learnt in the mean
time was a man of the first quality in the place.
the apartment into which the door open'd from the
street was neither more nor less than a stable, in
which however there happen'd at that time to be no company
of the four-footed kind: from thence went up
something between a ladder and a staircase which
open'd into a pretty spatious hall of the same dimensions
of as the stable, rather upon the antique, but upon the
whole not ill fitted up. In the upper part of the
room, being the farthest from the staircase and nearest
the windows, which I can assure you were glazed and
sash-windows though not of the lightest workmanship,
on an elevated platform cover'd with matting and
some carpeting, sat the master of the house. The first
salutations
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Identifier: | JB/540/215/002"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540. |
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1785-11-05 |
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540 |
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215 |
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002 |
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Correspondence |
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Jeremy Bentham |
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