Preface to Chips from a German Workshop (1867)

Abstract

More than twenty years have passed since my revered friend Bunsen called me one day into his library at Carlton House Terrace and announced to me with beaming eyes that the publication of the Rig-veda was secure. He had spent many days in seeing the Directors of the East India Company, and explaining to them the importance of this work, and the necessity of having it published in England. At last his efforts had been successful, the funds for printing my edition of the text and commentary of the Sacred Hymns of the Brahmans had been granted, and Bunsen was the first to announce to me the happy result of his literary diplomacy. “Now,” he said, “you have got a work for life—a large block that will take years to plane and polish. But mind,” he added, “let us have from time to time some chips from your workshop.”