Page:Memoir of George B. Wood, M. D., LL.D.djvu/23

 of a larger plan of a History of India, conceived by its author in early life, and abandoned on account of the demands made upon his time by his professional duties. The eleven chapters which were completed make more than a hundred pages of the volume of Memoirs, &c., published by him in 1872. There is added, also, as a supplement, an Address on the British East India Empire, which was delivered by Professor Wood before the Athenian Institute of Philadelphia, January 23d, 1839. From the latter, we may take, as bearing upon a topic whose interest to the world at large is increasing every year, the following concluding reflections:

"But," it is there written, "the fortunes of India and Great Britain are not to be forever united. The English themselves, even those who have labored most assiduously in the consolidation of the Indian Empire, look forward to an ultimate separation. They look forward to the time, when, through the agency of causes brought to bear upon the people of India by their present political relations, they will have become enlightened, refined, elevated in sentiment and conduct; when the adoption of a pure religion will have cleansed away the moral foulness which now corrupts every spring of action; when their long union under one common government will have given them a feeling of political identity, a spirit of nationality and patriotism, which may lead them to desire independence, for which their expanded intelligence and purer morality shall have fitted them. When thus ripe for self-government,