Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/88

 Priests and sacred Brahmins do not step to the front to reform such a degrading abuse as this?" But the question is really an appeal to the heart and the conscience of entire educated India.

Custom, however hoary or wide-spread, though it may at times have a tempering effect, cannot make evil quite harmless; and far from light is the penalty that India has, silently and almost unconsciously, been paying for suffering this dark iniquity to live and thrive in her very bosom. Public recognition, by hiding the ugliness of a vice, makes it fashionable and thus costly. It sets up a competition where repugnance should be the only attitude. How prodigal in wealth and life this injurious indulgence has been, scores of impoverished families and hundreds of frustrated hopes, countless instances of disappointed careers, wasted opportunities, neglected affections and squandered fortunes, can amply testify. Further, the desire for repentance is generally proportionate to the social odium attaching