Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/260

Rh genius and industry of the people: if they educate their women and train them to be intelligent wives and mothers: if they open technical schools and encourage scientific research: if they introduce machinery for their manufactures, remembering the fact that workmen cannot possibly compete with machinery: and if they reform their religion, giving up idolatry and sectarian prejudices and make Hinduism the true worship of a living God, they would assuredly prosper, and as part of the great Hindu nation they may rank with the foremost nations of the world. Their men of light and leading need not wait till some one sets an example: but if they quietly and steadily instil these ideas into their families and circle of relations, and carry them out in practice, as far as it is possible, without causing any violent commotion, their names would be handed down to distant generations, as the saviours of their community.