ii Proceedings of the Asiat. Soc. of Bengal. [Jan., 1920. 
philology and international politics. In zoology he is recog- 
zed as one of the chief living authorities on the Nudibranch 
molluses, while in philology he has published a grammar o 
the Finnish language and given evidence of an extraordinarily 
wide acquaintance with languages of the Far East in various 
books of studies. In the course of his career he has held 
the posts of British High Commissioner of Samoa, His Majesty's 
f the Uni 
Sheffield and the first Principal of the Bee of Hongkong. 
He is now British Ambassador in Japan 
Thomas William Rhys Davids. 
Thomas William Rhys Davids, son of Rev. T, W. Rhys 
life-work to investigate and popularise. During his stay in 
the East he lost no opportunity of gathering as mach first- 
hand information on these subjects as he possibly could. His 
thoughtful and diligent researches were from time to time 
published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Bosiekx and 
other important papers and helped to create a taste for the 
study of Buddhism and the Pali language. He returned to 
London and became a Barrister of the Middle Temple in 
1877. In 1882 he founded the Pali Text Society and in 1895 
Religion at Manchester. In 1894 he married Caroline Augusta, 
a highly gifted, intellectual lady with tastes similar to his 
own. She is the author of “ Buddhist Psy ee eee 
“Psalms of the Early Buddhists,” “ Buddhis She 
also collaborated with her husband in the ouput of 
some of his most valuable works. The Sens is a list of 
‘his most important and best known works: 
“ Buddhism,” containing a sketch of the life of Gautama 
Buddha, published in 1878 for the London Society for the 
Promotion of Christian Knowledge 
** Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I ”” (1880), a collection of 40 
Jatakas or Birth-Stories consisting of fairy tales, parables, 
fables, riddles and comic and moral stories, some bearing a 
striking resemblance to similar ones current in the west. 
“ Buddhist Suttas from the Pali’ (1881). 
