Page:The Lusiad; Or, The Discovery of India.djvu/29

 the dispirited and passive Gentoos could, till lately, hardly form an idea. From this, as naturally as the noon succeeds the dawn, must the other blessings of civilization arise. And though the four great tribes of India are almost inaccessible to the introduction of other manners and of other literature than their own, happily there is one despised tribe, who are not bound by their superstition to reject the advantages which flow from an inter-community with civilized strangers. Nor may the political philosopher be deemed an enthusiast, who would boldly prophesy, that unless the British are driven from India, that tribe, the despised Hallachores, into which the refuse of the rest are now excommunicated, will in the course of a few centuries, from the advantages received from intercommunity, bear such a superiority over the others, that the others will be induced to break the shackles of their absurd superstitions, (which almost in every instance are contrary to the feelings and wishes of nature) and will be led to partake of those advantages which arise from the free scope and due cultivation of the rational powers. Nor can the obstinacy even of the conceited Chinese always resist the desire of imitating the Europeans, a people who in arts and arms are so greatly superior to themselves. The use of the twenty-four letters, by which we can express every language, appeared at first as miraculous to the Chinese. Prejudice cannot always deprive that people, who are not deficient in selfish cunning, of the ease and expedition of an alphabet; and it is easy to foresee, that, in the course of a few centuries, some alphabet will certainly take the place of the 60,000 arbitrary marks, which now render the cultivation of the Chinese literature not only a labour of the utmost difficulty, but even impossible to attain, beyond a very limited degree. And from the introduction of an alphabet, what improvements may not be expected from the laborious industry of the Chinese! Though most obstinately attached to their old customs, yet there is a tide in the manners of nations which is sudden and rapid, and which acts with a kind of instinctive fury against ancient prejudice and absurdity. It was that nation of merchants, the cians,