260 HINDOO LITERATURE. 



Sanscrit is taught. In Benares alone Mr. Ward enumerates 

 upwards of eighty ; but each was attended by only from 

 ten to thirty students. The teacher, instead of exacting 

 fees, affords to his pupils board as well as instruction gra- 

 tuitously. He is compensated by the respect paid to his 

 character ; by donations for the support of his establish- 

 ment ; and by invitations to feasts, where he shares the 

 presents, which are most lavishly bestowed. The semina- 

 ries where such pupils are received, usually built by alms, 

 are mere clay-huts, which, though containing eight or ten 

 apartments, may be erected for seven or eight pounds. 



But a new feature has been introduced into the intellec- 

 tual character of the Hindoos by the cultivation of English 

 literature. The minds of the more opulent and intelligent 

 natives resident at Calcutta have been improved by inter- 

 course with enlightened Europeans, and particularly the 

 Serampore missionaries, who have deeply studied their 

 language and antiquities. This disposition to extend their 

 researches beyond the limits of native books, has been 

 strengthened by their convictions of the superiority possessed 

 by the Europeans in arms, arts, and policy, and by the 

 acknowledged equity and mildness of their government. 

 Wot only have many of our standard classics been translated, 

 and literary societies formed after our model, but several 

 natives have composed works of merit in the English lan- 

 guage, both in prose and verse ; among whom may be par- 

 ticularly mentioned Rammohun Roy, a distinguished indi- 

 vidual, who taking the lead in this pursuit, has recently sought 

 to extend his knowledge by visiting Britain. The pre- 

 valence of this disposition appears very stikingly in the 

 recent establishment by Hindoos, for their own use, of an 

 English newspaper, entitled the Reformer, which, in the 

 second number, contains the following remarkable pas- 

 sage : — 



" Whatever may be the opinion of those who advocate 

 the continuance of things as they are, there will come a 

 time when prejudice, however deep and ramified its roots 

 are reckoned to be, will droop, and eventually wither away 

 before the benign radiance of liberty and truth. Our ideas 

 do not now range on the surface of things. We have 

 commenced probing, and will probe on, till we discover that 

 which will make us feci that we are men in common with 



