April, 1844.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. xxxix 



its being in itself a curious and a solitary instance of the practice of an art forbidden 

 in the Koran, by Mahomedan artists. It is one of those unique and precious monuments 

 which the arts have given to History and to Poetry, at the sight of which a thousand 

 associations with the annals of a whole nation, (the European Arabians,) now extinct, 

 are awakened in the mind. I need not remark here, that every page of these annals 

 from the landing of El Tarikh to the glories of the Ommiyades, the winding sheet of 

 Abderahman, the conquest of Granada, and the dismal farewell of the heart-broken 

 Moors to their terrestrial paradise the Vega of Granada, is pre-eminently the classic 

 romance of History : of which the Fountain of the Lions is still the talisman. 



" It was the beautiful custom of the Arabs of old to adorn their public and private 

 buildings, and even their weapons and domestic furniture, with inscriptions allusive to 

 their purposes, or suggestive, or laudatory, of great, and good, and useful works and 

 thoughts, whether religious or secular. We have in our tribute adopted this custom 

 also, and while we have appropriated one tablet to commemorate our gift, we have, in 

 the Arabic inscription on the opposite compartment, 



/*srl %***.*> *>*X4> i_-*AA9 Jj 



of which the paraphrase may be rendered— 



" There is no fountain like the mind, 

 " There is no water clearer than Truth, 



conveyed an aphorism of which no one better than Mr. Torrens can appreciate the 

 hidden meaning." 



Such is the testimonial, and in presenting it to Mr. Torrens on the part of the Society, 

 I beg to assure him, that it affords me the most sincere gratification to be their re- 

 presentative on the occasion, and the channel of communicating to him a token of 

 estimation so well deserved. I beg also to assure him on their part, and likewise on my 

 own, of the satisfaction we feel at his having been so obliging as to resume the situation 

 in which the services, now so inadequately acknowledged, were rendered by him, and 

 their conviction, that the Society of which he is so distinguished a member, will be in- 

 debted to him for still further services, and that he will earn for himself, by the exer- 

 tion of his eminent talents, still further testimonials of their esteem and approba- 

 tion. 



Mr. Torrens then rose, and replied in nearly the following words : — 



Honorable Sir, and Gentlemen, my Fellow-members of this Society, — I will not in or- 

 dinary phrase attempt to speak of embarrassment in now rising to address you. My 

 gratification is too heartfelt and sincere to admit of any such sensation, and under its 

 influence I will endeavour to express on the spur of the moment my thanks to you for 

 this splendid, and to me, inestimable testimonial. If I do not do so in set terms, you 



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