Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/49

Rh ledge of the existing state of feeling and of mental cultivation in the principal towns was sufficiently accurate to enable us to proceed with confidence, as far as they were concerned; but more minute information was necessary before we could venture to extend our operations from town to country, from the few with whom the European society are in direct communication to the body of the people. Mr., a gentleman distinguished for his accurate and methodical habits of mind, and for his intimate acquaintance with the natives and their languages, was therefore appointed to make a searching inquiry into the existing state of native education in the interior. Mr. Adam has ever since been employed on his educational survey, and has visited many different districts, average specimens of which he has subjected to a strict analysis.

Meanwhile all the materials of a national system of education are fast accumulating; teachers are trained; books are multiplied; the interest felt in the subject is strengthening and spreading; and the upper class of natives in the towns are being prepared to aid by their influence and example in the enlightening of the lower classes in the country.