Page:Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society - Volume 1.djvu/29



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by the indulgence of this meeting to a chair, which I could have wished to have seen more worthily filled, upon so interesting an occasion, as the first general meeting of a Society, instituted for the important purpose of the advancement of knowledge in relation to Asia, I shall, with your permission, detail you a little from the special business of the day, while I draw your more particular attention to the objects of the Institution, for the furtherance of which we are now assembled.

To those counties of Asia, in which civilization may be justly considered to have had its origin, or to have attained its earliest growth, the rest of the civilized world owes a large debt of gratitude, which it cannot but be solicitous to repay: and England, as most advanced in refinement, is, for that very cause, the most