1852.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 551 



" I am conscious that there are several here present whose earlier and 

 more intimate acquaintance with Mr. Torrens, and whose longer connec- 

 tion with this Society, make them more competent than I am, both to 

 speak fitly of his brilliant and versatile talents, and of the particular 

 services which, in the period of upwards of fifteen years, during which 

 he was a member of it, he rendered to the Asiatic Society of Bengal ; 

 yet I cannot forget that even I had, for nearly seven years, the happi- 

 ness of possessing his friendship, and of occasionally enjoying his con- 

 versation. Since his demise it has been my painful duty to look over 

 some of his note books and unfinished MSS., and I can truly say that 

 that inspection has strengthened the impression which I previously 

 entertained of the wide and diversified range of his knowledge, and of 

 the restless activity of his mind. Again, there is no reason why I 

 should not speak of his labours on behalf of this Society ; of them each 

 of us may say monumenta manent, and so long as the pages of our 

 Journal, and the collections accumulated in our Museum, shall endure, 

 monumenta manebant. 



" Mr. Torrens, as many of you know, came to this country at an age 

 somewhat more advanced than that at which the members of his dis- 

 tinguished service generally begin their career. He had completed 

 a classical education at the University of Oxford ; he had afterwards 

 mixed more largely than most of his standing, in general Society. He 

 possessed several of the languages of Modern Europe. He was more 

 than commonly conversant with the literature of Europe ; yet it must 

 be admitted, that in spite of these manifold distractions he took kindly 

 to the land of his adoption. In truth, the East had many and peculiar 

 charms for his lively fancy and active spirit. Its languages (particular- 

 ly Arabic and the kindred tongues), its antiquities, its history, its tradi- 

 tion derived from ages when history melts in fable, the origin and 

 distribution of its races — were all subjects of deep and constant interest 

 to him. It is not for me to assign a precise value to his labour as an 

 Orientalist. Those, however, if such there be, who would look at his 

 works of this kind with a critical eye, and contrast them with the pro- 

 ductions of more profound and laborious scholars, would do well to 

 recollect that they were the fruits of hours snatched from the claims 

 of official life, and that these various studies were combined with the 

 cultivation of general literature, with researches into military history — ■ 



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