PROGRESS OF MAN. 181 



verts will be drawn chiefly from the lower 

 classes ; occasionally recruited by a sincere, but 

 probably ill-informed convert of a higher status. 

 1 have heard a " converted " Hindoo in a Chris- 

 tian pulpit inveighing against his own religion, 

 which it was clear that he had renounced 

 simply because he v/as a man of too limited 

 an intellect to comprehend it ; and, therefore, 

 neither being able to rise to the heights of 

 his own religion, nor sink to its depths, he 

 chose a middle course, and adopted the 

 religion preached to him by the missionaries. 

 I do not blame him, for he was undoubtedly 

 sincere, and chose the best path open to him ; 

 but what can we think of the intelligence of 

 a Hindoo who ridicules the mighty mystery 

 of Maya : that everything we see or com- 

 prehend is merely phenomenal, and therefore 

 Illusion ; a truth w r hich the greatest minds 

 must perceive only the more clearly in pro- 

 portion to their greatness, and before which 

 the most daring thinkers must bow. Yet such 

 as these are the exceptional converts of 

 whom our missionaries are most proud. 



We are now learning more and more that 

 man with ail his intellect is subject to the same 



