Page:India—what can it teach us?.djvu/18

 I certainly have never felt any displeasure at these attacks. Still, in the interest of public morality, one sometimes regrets that the old time-honoured pillory no longer exists, and that we must be satisfied with handing over the distinguished culprits under their transparent masks to the contempt not only of all distinguished Orientalists, but of all honest men.

But while this is a case of mala fides, I can almost match it by what seems a perfectly bona fide accusation brought against me by another critic in the simplicity and innocency of his heart. He tells the English public that 'I am a Hindoo pervert, and as such making a counter-attack upon a great Christian citadel.' This, I feel convinced, was written with an honest belief, and I do not blame my friend for writing it. I only wonder that he should not have read pp. 97 seq. of this very book.

It may be quite true that neither the bona fide nor the mala fide charges of this kind deserve any serious notice; that they are like nine-pins, put up only to be bowled over; nay, that I really ought to be very grateful for having enemies of that calibre, whether in England, Germany, or America. I do not deny it, but I thought nevertheless that such things were instructive, as showing by extreme cases what is possible in the arena of Oriental scholarship, what fires there are smouldering beneath the surface, till they show themselves here and there in outbursts of envy, hatred, and malice.