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CEYLON BPANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



subdued or drove into the jungle the snake and demon wor- 

 shippers then inhabiting the place ; — the outcast Rhodiahs ; — 

 the Vedahs, by which last we are indeed led into the woods 

 and jungle where we lose altogether the track of human 

 population. For who are the Vedahs, and whence came 

 they ? We see the tide of population, and can mark the pro- 

 gress of political power towards the West — from mount 

 Ararat to Babylon, and thence to Nineveh, Palestine and 

 Phoenicia, Greece, E,ome 3 Prance, England — like the en- 

 campments of the children of Israel on their way to the Holy 

 Land, resting and moving according as the symbol of the 

 divine presence rested or advanced — or rather, like the sons 

 of Jesse brought up in succession before the prophet, and 

 still dismissed with the words " Neither hath the Lord 

 chosen this." For when with the fate of the nations whose 

 glory has departed from them, we place in corresponding 

 columns (like the handwriting on the wall before the impious 

 Belshazzar) their depravity and irreligion — as exhibited to 

 us in the denunciations of the prophets, the visions of Ezekiel, 

 the comedies of Aristophanes, the satires of Juvenal, and the 

 writings of Voltaire and the Holbach coterie of atheists. 

 When, I say, we thus place together the character of a people 

 and their ultimate fate, we perceive something of the great 

 principles of Providence — the philosophy of history — and 

 unavoidable proofs of the declaration of the Psalmist, i( Verily 

 there is a God that judgeth in the earth." But of the pro- 

 gress of population and political power in the East we know 

 comparatively little, nor can we connect together the lan- 

 guages of Asia as we can the languages of Europe. 



Thus much as to the history of the Island, my purpose on 

 the present occasion being only to explain the nature and 

 objects of the Society, and in doing this, to state the leading 

 topics which will arise for future discussion. 



In considering the religion of the people, Budhism will, of 



