Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/59

Rh Grecian writers. That the impulse was not stronger or more permanent, is owing, perhaps, to the partial use which they made of this great instrument of national improvement. If, instead of contenting themselves with meagre translations of some of the Greek philosophers, they had studied Plato and Xenophon, Homer and Thucydides, in the original, a flame of generous liberty might have been kindled, and a new direction might have been given at that period to the views and feelings of the people of the East, the possible effects of which up to the present day it is impossible to calculate. The Arabs pursued a very different course in