Page:The despatch of 1854, on General education in India.djvu/7

Rh the Committees of both Houses of Parliament upon Indian affairs has given us the advantage of similar information with respect to exertions made for this purpose by persons unconnected with Government, and has also enabled us to profit by a knowledge of the views of those who are best able to arrive at sound conclusions upon the question of education generally.

6. Aided, therefore, by ample experience of the past, and the most competent advice for the future, we are now in a position to decide upon the mode in which the assistance of Government should be afforded to the more extended and systematic promotion of general education in India, and on the measures which should at once be adopted to that end.

7. Before proceeding further, we must emphatically declare that the education which we desire to see extended in India is that which has for its object the diffusion of the improved arts, science, philosophy, and literature of Europe; in short, of European knowledge.

8. The systems of science and philosophy which form the learning of the East abound with grave errors, and Eastern literature is at best very deficient as regards all modern discovery and improvements; Asiatic learning, therefore, however widely diffused, would but little advance our object. We do not wish to diminish the opportunities which are now afforded, in special institutions, for the study of Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian literature, or for the cultivation of those languages, which may be called the classical languages of India. An acquaintance with the works contained in them is valuable for historical and antiquarian purposes, and a knowledge of the languages themselves is required in the study of Hindoo and Mahomedan law, and is also of great importance for the critical cultivation and improvement of the vernacular languages of India.

9. We are not unaware of the success of many distinguished Oriental scholars in their praiseworthy endeavours to engraft upon portions of Hindoo philosophy the germs of sounder morals and of more advanced science; and we are far from underrating the good effect which has thus been produced upon the learned classes of India, who pay