320 



" The description Dr. Robertson has given of the early pro- 

 gress made by the Hindoos is extremely accurate and guarded in 

 its assertions: it" applied to the higher orders of the brahmins, or 

 the princes of Hindostan, it is strictly just; but nothing can be 

 more erroneous than its application to the bulk of the people, 

 whom the foregoing strictures are meant to describe. The sciences 

 of India, and all the more liberal arts, are at present, and always 

 have been, confined to the great and learned alone. The moral and 

 theological knowledge possessed by a few in the higher ranks, for 

 many ages, is as completely beyond the reach of the common 

 people as if it did not exist. Of consequence it must prove of 

 little service in promoting their interests. The same thing may 

 be affirmed of every branch of knowledge. The portion pos- 

 sessed by nineteen in twenty of the whole community, is com- 

 paratively nothing. To the power of habit, and the influence 

 of custom alone, they are consigned for the direction of them- 

 selves. Reason, inert and feeble as in them it must prove, has little 

 share in what we justly regard as its peculiar province. In such 

 circumstances certainly no people can be more entitled to indul- 

 gence towards their weakness and errors; and there is certainly 

 none who have stronger claims upon our sympathy and tenderness. 

 Britons now occupy the places of their native princes; and the 

 blessings of protection, instruction, and encouragement in virtue, 

 which there are too frequently withheld, Providence has bestowed 

 upon us as a sacred duty to bestow." 



These appear strong and conclusive arguments; they oppose 

 a weighty testimony to that assertion, that " on the enlarged prin- 

 ciples of moral reasoning, the Hindoo code little needs the melio- 



