Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/196

182 nue had been committed to their hands. The general interests of science formed no part of their public charge, but it must not be supposed that they were on that account personally indifferent to them. No men are more disposed than the members of the Education Committee to admire the exertions of, of , of Turner, of Masson, or are more anxious to contribute to their success in any way that does not involve a sacrifice of public duty. The gentlemen whom I have named, and others who are associated with them, are turning the ancient Arabic and Sanskrit records to their proper account. Owing to the vastly superior means now at our disposal, they are worse than useless, considered as a basis of popular education; but as a medium for investigating the history of the country, and the progress of mind and manners during so many ages, they are highly deserving of being studied and preserved. These two objects have no more to do with each other than the Royal Society has with Mr. Wyse’s Committee on National Education, or the societies for Preserving Welch and Gaelic Literature, with the British and Foreign School Society. By joining them in a forced and unnatural union the progress of both has been retarded. Philological and antiquarian research was supported on