Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/142

128 prising copiousness, the complicated mechanism of the Sanskrit and Arabic languages were spoken of as if languages were an end to be attained, instead of a means for attaining an end, and were deserving of being studied by all sorts of people without any reference to the amount or kind of knowledge which they contain. All the concurrent systems were liberally patronised by the government, and the praises and emoluments lavished on great Arabic and Sanskrit scholars, were shared by natives as well as Europeans.

By degrees, however, a more wholesome state of things began to prevail. The government ceased to give indiscriminate support to every literary system, without reference to its real merits. Persian is ceasing to be the language of business. The study of Arabic and Sanskrit will soon be rendered superfluous by the inestimable boon which is being prepared for the people, of a complete body of law in their own language. By these changes an incalculable saving of human labour will be effected. The best literary, scientific, and professional education will be obtained at the expense of learning a single foreign language: and the years which were before painfully spent in breaking the shell of knowledge, will be employed in devouring the kernel.