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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. X. 



the growth of industrial enterprise, and to the material 

 advancement of a country, only in so far as the surplusage 

 of its products is turned to account in the form of reproduc- 

 tive wealth, or capital. Whatsoever is expended in luxury, 

 pageantry, wars, and other forms of unproductive expendi- 

 ture is lost to all 'beneficent purpose, and is productive, at 

 best, of a transient glory, destined either to perish in 

 oblivion, or to endure as proof of the neglect or selfish ambi- 

 tion of irresponsible despotism. 



It must not be supposed that educational and religious 

 institutions are ranked as wasteful or unproductive. In so 

 far as they tend to increase knowledge, instil virtue, and 

 extirpate vice, they are in the highest degree useful and profit- 

 able to the State by promoting order, peace, and morality. 

 They only become indefensible when they fail to honour 

 God, or when they minister only to the pride and vanity of 

 man. Moreover, knowledge is itself one of the most valuable 

 forms of reproductive capital, and ought therefore to be in- 

 culcated assiduously as an important element of industrial 

 success and material advancement. Knowledge, however, 

 is also power as well as capital. Despots, therefore, must 

 needs keep their subjects in ignorance, or they would lose 

 their power of oppression. This formidable two edged 

 instrument is sedulously kept by despotic rulers out of the 

 grasp of the people, who are thus made helpless and depen- 

 dent, and therefore in no way responsible for the condition 

 of the countries they call their own, nor for that of the in- 

 dustries in which they labour. 



In ancient times almost all countries were governed by 

 despotic rulers, or patriarchs, who regarded the labouring 

 class as inferior beings, to be kept in abject ignorance and 

 dependence. Their labour, and often also their persons, were 

 regarded as chattels at the disposal of the State. They were 

 required to work for little if any other recompense than the 

 food and shelter necessary to enable them to perform the 

 requisite service. The surplusage of their labour inured 

 entirely to their rulers, who therefore had the absolute 



