No. 53.— 1902.] 



PROCEEDINGS. 



85 



illustration. Dr. Copleston's consummate acquaintance with the 

 Sinhalese language was at that moment placing the Committee of the 

 Local Auxiliary of the Bible Society at their wits' end, as to where 

 they were to get one to continue the Bishop's revision of the Bible in 

 Sinhalese. (Applause.) They, as Members of that Society, were well 

 acquainted with their learned President's work in regard to the 

 Jatakas, fifty of which he had edited for the Journals of that Society 

 — a work and undertaking which excited the liveliest interest among 

 scholars in Europe. 



Then, again, they had their President's work on Buddhism, primi- 

 tive and present, published in 1892, and considered by reliable and 

 competent authorities to be the best work on the subject — a work 

 which had been made so popular as to be interesting to the general 

 reader, and so accurate as to be of great value to the scholar. 

 That work corrected and criticized previous learned writers, and 

 presented them with a true picture of Buddhism as it was in their 

 midst, and to write it a thorough acquaintance with Oriental and 

 Buddhistical literature was necessary. They had a standard work of 

 which they were all proud ; and especially the Members of the Society 

 ought to be proud of the fact that the Bishop was their President at 

 the time of its publication. (Applause.) 



Since 1882, Dr. Copleston had been a Member of the Society, and 

 since 1886 he had been President. It was inevitable that there should 

 be sadness connected in parting. It was difficult always to say fare- 

 well, and still more difficult was it to convey the thoughts connected 

 with that feeling. But there were two redeeming features on that 

 occasion : first, that they were fortunate enough to have as His Lord- 

 ship's successor an accomplished and able Scientist in their Lieutenant- 

 Governor and Colonial Secretary, Mr. im Thurn : and secondly, that 

 the Bishop, the Metropolitan, was not bidding a final farewell to 

 Ceylon, but that he had an ecclesiastical connection with the Island 

 which would justify (what he felt sure was Dr. Copleston's personal 

 desire) visits to Ceylon from time to time ; and that he would continue 

 to maintain a warm and continuous interest in the progress and 

 elevation and moral advancement of the people of the Island, and not 

 least in the work of the Ceylon Branch of the Koyal Asiatic Society. 



He had endeavoured to express, to use the words of the Bishop 

 himself on a somewhat similar occasion, " a sense of real gratitude 

 and sincere regret," — gratitude because of valuable services prolonged 

 over a period of twenty years, — and regret because when their President 

 left the Chair that evening he would vacate the position which he had 

 filled for a long period past to their great advantage and great 

 benefit. Long might His Lordship continue in the important office to 

 which he had been called. (Applause.) 



Mr. Coomaraswamy seconded, and said he bore loyal testimony to 

 the great untiring work that the Bishop had performed. 



The Hon. Mr. Obeyesekere supported, and said that, speaking as a 

 Sinhalese, he could hardly express the regret which the community 

 felt at severance from His Lordship. The opinion savants had of the 

 Bishop's literary abilities was well voiced by the well-known scholar 

 Batuwantudawa Pundit, who said that he had learnt a great deal more 

 from His Lordship than he was in a position to impart. (Hear, hear.) 



