1834.] in the work of Native Education. 507 



and discussion, and taught the people the grand uses and advantages to 

 which it may be applied; and there the Missionary, for generations 

 past, has never intermitted in his sacred labours to root out the wide- 

 spread degrading superstition, and to plant in its stead the seed of the 

 purest morality and of true religion. There, in short, the populations 

 have already advanced far in their course of civilization. 



6th. But how widely different is the state of all the rest of the vast 

 continent of India ; at least of all Central India, including Nagpur, 

 Berar, Malwa, and Rajputana, in which my own personal experience 

 has lain. The mass of the population is as rude and barbarous, and 

 ignorant, and superstitious, as it was 17 years ago, when the supre- 

 macy of the British Government was first established. Of all the ad- 

 vantages, which have contributed to the enlightenment of the Native 

 mind at the several seats of Government, it cannot be said to have en- 

 joyed even one. What reception then can the announcement of the 

 pure truth be expected to experience amongst a people in such state ? 

 With what reason can it be hoped, for a moment, that the English lan- 

 guage and English literature, with its varied stores of knowledge, can 

 here receive any cultivation ? Even the most learned of the Hindu 

 population find itimpossible to comprehend, without assistance, the very 

 best of our translations into their own languages. The native mind, 

 habituated to the idlest absurdities, has neither relish nor taste for plain 

 sober truth. 



7th. Is it your opinion then, it may be asked, that the example of the 

 Jesuit Missionaries of the south-west of India should be followed, and 

 that the truth, to make it agreeable to the present state of the native 

 mind, be dressed up in all the fantasies of a foolish superstition ? By 

 no means ; I would on no account or in any degree degrade or com- 

 promise the simple dignity of sacred truth. But what prevents our 

 availing ourselves of the circumstances which afford us the most pow- 

 erful means of dispelling from the land a darkness otherwise so hope, 

 lessly impenetrable ; if it be at once seen, that the Siddhantas do afford 

 to us these most favorable and encouraging circumstances, and that to 

 give a command and powerful influence over the native mind, we have 

 only to revive that knowledge of the system therein taught, which not- 

 withstanding its being by far the most rational, and formerly the best 

 cultivated branch of science amongst the Hindus, and notwithstanding 

 its being the foundation of such little knowledge as they display in pre- 

 dicting eclipses and the like, has, from the superior address of the fol. 

 lowers of the Purans, and the almost universal practice amongst the 

 jyotishis, of making all their calculations from tables and short for- 

 mulae, couched in enigmatical verses, been allowed to fall into a state of 

 utter oblivion ? 2 t 2 



