330 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. X. 



are afraid to be known to have anything lest it be taken 

 away from them." 



The Government thus referred to was that of the native King 

 of Kandy, amongst whose subjects Knox passed the twenty 

 years of his captivity, living as one of themselves, and there- 

 fore knowing their ideas, habits, and feelings more intimately 

 than any other of their European historians. Under the cir- 

 cumstances thus described, industry would not only be useless 

 but injurious. In later times the officers of Mohamet Ali's gov- 

 ernment in Egypt habitually employed the bastinado to ex- 

 tort levies from people whom they suspected of having secret 

 possessions. Thus the mere suspicion of their having any 

 spare means exposed the Egyptian fellaheen to penalties 

 which are generally reserved for the punishment of convicted 

 criminals. Industry, in such case, would only aggravate ex- 

 tortion ; self-denial and thrift, the virtues which elsewhere 

 insure wealth and create capital, incur the penalties of 

 crime. The truest wisdom and policy of labourers so treated 

 is to leave nothing unconsumed that could attract the 

 State inquisitor and his armed retinue. The material 

 progress of such a people is impossible, and demoralisation 

 inevitable. 



Hence it appears that though the natural resources of a 

 country and its means of creating surplusage may exist 

 abundantly, its material advancement does not depend upon 

 the extent of wealth so arising, but upon the way it accrues, 

 and the manner in which it is employed ; whether, in fact, it 

 be consumed in luxury, or wasted otherwise unproductively; 

 or whether, on the other hand, it be converted into capital 

 for developing the resources and economising the means of 

 the country. 



The ruins of Yucatan, the remains of Nineveh, the pyra- 

 mids of Egypt, and the irrigation works of Ceylon, all afford 

 striking evidence of the great natural resources of those 

 countries at the time when these works were constructed ; 

 and each contains a chapter of local history, which may be 

 read in the nature and purposes of the structures themselves.. 



