General Meeting, Feb. 1st, 1854. lxxxi. 



sage, comes difficulty the first — Where are the books? There 

 is no Bibliopole! no ola store! And when you at length hear 

 of an ola, you must employ some one to make a copy for you, 

 and obtain the owner's leave for its being transcribed. When 

 you have got all this, you open your copy and find yourself, 

 to your dismay, among unpunctuated lines, and words without 

 capitals, like an antiquated Greek inscription. And when 

 you have at length deciphered some passages, you cannot tell 

 what relationship they bear to the rest of the work, nor, per- 

 haps, what relationship the work itself bears to others, if any. 

 There is no index of contents; and, but for Mr. Alwis's valu- 

 able labours, scarce any guide, no comprehensive Manual of 

 the literature. 



Some of these difficulties will, of course, not be fully met 

 till there is a greater demand for native works. But even 

 now, if there is not employment or enterprize enough for a 

 bookseller and publisher here, nor for a professional book 

 agent, your Society might meantime be the medium, by its 

 Librarian, for ascertaining where olas for transcription are to 

 be found, and for employing trustworthy copyists to transcribe. 

 This would be a boon to many; and by the facilities thus 

 afforded, tend in its operation to promote the cultivation of 

 native literature. 



It would greatly facilitate the perusal of native works, and 

 the study of the native literature, if, in transcribing, the 

 copyist would always separate words and sentences, as is now 

 done in the Tamil, and occasionally in the Singhalese. This, 

 however, requires caution and literary knowledge, the language 

 allowing a union of words by elision of vowels and otherwise. 

 But with all the members of your Society this should be kept 

 in view, and a uniformity in this respect preserved in the 

 Society's Journal. 



To a beginner, the characters in the Singhalese language 

 are sufficiently puzzling. Yet they are for the most part 

 remarkably simple and uniform in their structure. They may 

 to a considerable extent be reduced to two elementary particles 



