CEYLON BRANCH— ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 5 



climate and meteorology, its botany and zoology, must be, as 

 similar investigations every where are, full of interest: 

 geology, which unfolds the book of nature, and shews in the 

 successive strata the progress of creation ; - climate or the 

 fitness and adaptation of a place for life and vital energy ; — • 

 organised or living beings and the modes of growth, exem- 

 plified in one form in vegetables, which grow progressively 

 from their roots by evolution or shooting out of new external 

 parts, and in another form in animals, which grow by enlarge- 

 ment and maturity of the original parts;- -the three great 

 classes of the vegetable kingdom, and the series of animal 

 life according to the degree of development of the common 

 plan or principle on which all are modelled, with such 

 occasional modifications of that common principle, as while 

 they evince the infinite resources of the creating power, and 

 shew the nicest differences of exquisite mechanism, fill up as 

 it were all time and all space with life and action ; — and the 

 beautiful barmony which subsists throughout, giving to every 

 Creature a remarkable propriety and consistency of being, 

 and, as the series ascends, a sort of relative perfection. In- 

 vestigations such as these can never cease to be engaging, 

 and when they are conducted with a reference to the great 

 creator and maintainer of all, they must improve both the 

 heart and the mind. Such enquiries also have an interest 

 peculiar to themselves, — they tell upon the business of life, 

 our health, our wealth, our comforts, — and are, in conse- 

 quence, likely to attract the attention of a considerable pro- 

 portion of the members. Communications on these subjects 

 are indeed anxiously desired — they will give a practical 

 character to the operations of the Society, extend the sphere 

 of its influence, and conduce to the development of the 

 resources of the Island. 



And if there is any one who would willingly come forward 

 as the friend of the Society, but is unacquainted with the 



