Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/376

Rh ness to be, like the pure light of heaven, freely and exhaustlessly communicative. “A good man,” observes an eloquent writer of antiquity, “a man who feels the power of religion, is not a blessing only to himself, but the common benefit of all other men; as he really communicates to all others the advantages which he himself enjoys. For, as the sun is a light to all those who have eyes, so the pious, the divinely wise, are the light of all rational beings: as the aromatic spices, which exhaling spread on the breeze and fill with their sweet odour those who are near; in the same manner, the friends and acquaintances of a good man derive from the breath of virtue, which emanates far and wide from his character, a perfume that adorns and enriches their own.”

But, in India, whither are we to turn, or where are we to look for relief in the privilege of gazing at the bright side of a picture like this?—or one, in any way approximating to this? —or one, containing even the seeds, germs, or primordial elements of anything resembling this?—We confess, we know not. The intellectual and moral condition of the wholly uninstructed masses, constituting the overwhelming majority, we have already glanced at; and, in the preceding pages, will be found ample materials, from which to form an accurate estimate of the intellectual and moral condition of the partially or inadequately instructed minority. To spare the reader the tedium of a lengthened recapitulation, we have only to request that he may be pleased to look back and carefully re-ponder the statements of fact already given. Let him look at the nature, character, and influence of the instruction imparted in the elementary schools, and say, whether Mr. Ward’s estimate of it does not fall far short of the reality, rather than exceed it. Education in these schools, “is confined,” says he, “to a few rudiments, qualifying the pupils to write a letter on business, and initiating them into the first rules of arithmetic. A Hindu school is a mere shop, in which, by a certain process, the human mind is prepared to act as a copying machine, or as a lithographic press. The culture of the mind is never contemplated in these seminaries. Hence Hindu youths, though of a capacity exceedingly quick, never find the means of strengthening or enlarging the faculties. The bud withers as soon as it is ready to expand. Destitute, therefore, of all that is reclaiming in education, of all that contributes to the formation of good dispositions and habits, these youths herd together for mutual corruption. Destitute of knowledge themselves, the parents, the tutors cannot impart to others that which they themselves have not received; human nature takes its unrestrained course; and whatever is in the human heart receives an unbounded gratification.” These schools, thus viewed,