Page:The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás.djvu/654



"Mathurá: a District Memoir. By F. S. GROWSE. Second Edition. (Printed at the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Government Press.) It has been our lot not only to see, but also to read through, nearly all the accounts of districts and of provinces which the example of Dr. W. W. Hunter has drawn in recent years from so many Anglo-Indian officials. They contain a magazine of local information which has never been duly appreciated in this country. So far as possible, the cream of the labour of a hundred willing but unknown workers will be given to the English public in the forthcoming Imperial Gazetteer of India. But students will always be anxious to resort to the fountain-head To such we recommend Mr. Growse's District Memoir as probably the one among all which is most inspired with the genuine love of India and the Indian people. A photograph of a great native banker (now dead), taken by a native, faces the title-page; and all through the volume native art, native forms of religion, native manners and customs, are the chief subjects dealt with. Mr. Growse is not only one of the first of Hindi scholars; he is also a sympathetic imitator of Hindu architecture. To turn to his pages and his numerous photographs after having dazed our wits in the labyrinthine figures of an administration or settlement report, is like passing from the glare of a tropical sun into the cool of some Hindu shrine or Muhammadan tomb. We feel that we are learning sọmething of the charm which still envelopes the East for all those who have the faculty to perceive it.—Academy.

"We wish there were more Indian civil servants like Mr. Growse, with eyes open to see and intellects cultivated to appreciate the marvels of which the country where their sphere of duty lies is full. Unhappily, Indian civilians' are as a class Philistine to their hearts' core. A competent observer tells us that 'it is a very exceptional thing for them to possess a real knowledge of the colloquial vernacular,' and that 'they know next to nothing really of the habits, standpoints, and modes of thought of the people. They do not think these things worth knowing. Contempt for the race they are called upon to rule is too often the dominant feeling in the awkward, cold, pig-headed and narrow-minded young Englishman who goes out to India from an English university or an Eaglish crammer's establishment. It is a feeling which is absolutely fatal to an intelligent appreciation of Hindu or Muhammadan art or literature.