THE CEYLON MUHAMMADANS. 
mencing to scrape and look for more. Take a lesson 
from that fowl, and you will turn up a few grains, 
perhaps a good many, of rice, in the Koran. “ How” 
very dreadful,’’ some may burst out with. “ Have you, 
do you read the Koran Yes, we have, actually 
have kept a Koran, and often referred to it, just 
for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the 
habits and ideas of a body of men, with w^hom it 
was necessary to hold considerable intercourse, having 
ever found it an essential necessity for success in any 
calling, to have some knowledge, in every respect, of 
the habits and opinions of those with whom we 
have had to do. For no good, but much evil, has 
frequently resulted, from crossing, thwarting a man, 
or body of men, in his, or their, religious belief, and 
a considerable amount of policy is often requisite in 
order to cause and promote a smooth running cur- 
rent, in this respect, in the stream of life, especially 
in a country like Ceylon, w^here we are necessarily 
compelled to employ labourers of so many different 
castes and religions. If we cannot (as indeed how 
can we ?) respect their religion, we need not hold 
the man in disrespect, because he respects his own 
belief : the fact that he does so, instead of lowering him 
in our own opinion, should have quite the contrary 
effect, and raise him. For, how’ever absurd the tenets 
of any religion or creed may appear in our own 
opinion, the man who acts consistently and conscien- 
tiously, in walking up to them, in accordance w ith the 
light given to him, is, as a man, worthy at all events 
Cf our toleration. No country, no separate individual, 
in the world, in any age, or time, has ever perman- 
ently enjoyed any measure of ultimate prosperity, 
who w^as intolerant in religion, or endeavoured to. 
coerce and force his opinions uj)on others who dif- 
fered from him, for it is a curious fact that all coercive 
measures which have ever been used in attempting the 
adoption of any belief have not only fallen utterly 
short of their, purpose, but eventually recoiled on the 
heads of the aggressors, to the ultimate detriment 
of the faith which they were so bent on enforcing. 
And it is the same way with sects and sections of 
any belief : if you wish them to grow and prosper, 
persecute them ! Persecution on any cause, in which 
we have very decided opinions, calls forth into prac- 
tice all the energies of the mind, which otherwise, under 
the stagnant calm of prosperity, would lie dormant. 
Just take Scotland, as an instance of this : what 
chiefly tended to strengthen and consolidate the Pres- 
byterian forms of faith in the country? Just the 
persecutions to which they w'ere at one time subjected. 
The more you persecute, vex, or annoy, any, on 
