30 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
Europe was enveloped in an intellectual darkness that 
exposed her to the contempt of the very countries 
which are now drawing from the stores of her wisdom 
and science a harvest that bids fair eventually to ripen 
into universal civilization, Hindostan was distinguish- 
ed by a race of philosophers who, but for the con- 
quests to which that country has been subjected, and 
the degrading dominion under which its population 
has so long groaned, would probably have raised it 
to an elevation in intellectual and social dignity not 
inferior to ancient Greece in the brightest period of 
her glory. 
The present odious system of caste is one of those 
pernicious innovations which have grown out of the 
barbarous policy that succeeded the decadency of Hin- 
doo literature ; for, until its glories had culminated, 
those prejudices were few and faint. They have, how- 
ever, in later times opposed a mighty barrier to the 
introduction of Christianity among the native popula- 
tion of Hindostan ; and had those bright lights of ge- 
nius which poured forth the radiance of their luminous 
minds from the college of Madura not been eclipsed by 
the bondage of a foreign domination, there is little 
doubt that the Christian church would have now stood 
upon the site of many a subverted pagoda, and the 
worship of a mere rude senseless block have been 
changed for that of the living God. 
It is difficult to ascertain how long the distinctions 
of caste have prevailed among the Hindoos ; but this 
is certain, that to however remote a period those po- 
litical divisions of the popular body may be traced, 
the narrow prejudices now entertained, and which 
