Page:Mountstuart Elphinstone and the Making of South-western India.djvu/202

194 MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE advance in knowledge, and their early works fall into disuse and into oblivion. But it is otherwise wdth their poetry : the standard works maintain their reputation undiminished in every age, they form the models of composition and the fountains of classical language ; and the writers of the rudest ages are those who contribute the most to the delight and refinement of the most improved of their posterity.'

With regard to the general subject of education, he wrote, in language that has not yet lost its significance :

'It is difficult to imagine an undertaking in which our duty, our interest, and our honour are more immediately concerned. It is now well understood that in all countries the happiness of the poor depends in a great measure on their education. It is by means of it alone that they can acquire those habits of prudence and self-respect from which all other good qualities spring ; and if ever there was a country where such habits are required, it is this. We have all often heard of the ills of early marriage and overflowing population ; of the savings of a life squandered on some one occasion of festivity ; of the helplessness of the ráyats which renders them a prey to money-lenders ; of their indifference to good clothes and houses, which has been urged on some occasions as an argument against lowering the public demands on them ; and finally, of the vanity of all laws to protect them when no individual can be found who has spirit enough to take advantage of those enacted in their favour. There is but one remedy for all this, which is education.'

The actual measures that he proposed are thus summarised :

(i) 'To improve the mode of teaching at the native schools, and to increase their number ; (2) to supply them