67
tionum Siamensium. That this hope of scholars both Eastern and Western will soon be fulfilled we have, however, good reasons to believe. Already excavations are made in old cities, the inscriptions found are collected and preserved from the inclemency of the weather. We have in Siam no written records of ancient Kings, or rather, we should say, they have not yet been traced. What therefore remains are the inscriptions in which the Kings and people recorded their pious deeds, and in collecting them, it will become true what the poet said, perhaps in another sense:—
"Wenn Menschen schweigen, werden Steine reden."
Mr. R. W. Giblin in seconding the motion said:—"I have much pleasure in seconding the vote of thanks so happily proposed by our President.
Professor Bradley's account of the inscribed stone and his translation of the inscription will always rank very highly in the records of this Society. They will be published in the Journal almost immediately and so reach those who have not been able to attend this meeting. I think that I shall be expressing the wish of all the members of the Society present to-night in stating that Professor Bradley's able paper should be the first of such a series as will embrace all the inscriptions which have been found in Siam up to date, and those others, as they are brought to light, which our President has indicated yet remain to be discovered.
It may be said that those inscriptions which have already been copied have been deciphered and the translations published, and Dr. Frankfurter has referred to that Corpus Inscriptionum Siamensium (not yet in being) which should contain copies of the known inscriptions. But the point I wish to make is that it will be worth while to publish in the Journal of this Society even those translations which have been made, with illustrations or copies of the inscriptions themselves. Professor Bradley has shown in the case of the Sukotai stone that it has been possible to improve on former readings of it, and if that achievement is not to be accomplished in every case, the publication of inscriptions in the Journal, with their translations, will be of the greatest interest to those of us who have not the learning to decipher, while to those who can do so the means will be increased of indulging in the exercise of their science and skill.
