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lower castes who hear the Shastah ? This gentleman lived 

 upwards of twenty years in India, and, like many other others, 

 saw no impropriety in such conduct; or he would have been 

 among the first to reprobate it, and attempt a change. But as 

 I know he speaks the sentiments of numerous philanthropists, 

 I shall answer the question in the language of the excellent. 

 Cowper 



" Much. — I was born of woman, and drew milk, 

 " As sweet as charity, from human breasts. 

 " I think, articulate, I laugh and weep, 

 " And exercise all functions of a man. 

 " How then should I, and any man that lives, 

 " Be strangers to each other ? 



" nor can I rest 

 " A silent witness of the headlong rage 

 " Or heedless folly by which thousands die, 

 " Bone of my bone, and kindred souls to mine." 



There is a sweet simplicity, a pure and holy joy in the Chris- 

 tian religion, unknown to other creeds. It needs not external 

 pomp, nor splendid decoration to captivate the soul. They may 

 be appropriate and necessary in a national church: and very far 

 be it from me to lessen the influence of any mean whatever, which 

 tends to encourage piety or convert a single soul to the path of 

 peace ! The brahminical, as well as the papal hierarchy, knew how 

 much the human mind is influenced by mysterious pageantry. 

 Bigotry, or some other cause, unnecessary to develope, led the 

 one to prevent the poor from reading the holy scriptures, and the 

 other to pour boiling oil into the ears of the Soodra or Chandala 

 who heard the Shasta; but in this happy country, where the gospel 



VOL. II. 3 I 



