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from eternal damnation without the Redeemer, Jesus Christ.' He (the Headman) answered, That is your misled mind, which makes you think thus. By what can you know that it is the word of the True God?' His reply was, Permit me to say, honey is sweet, but its sweetness is known by him only who has tasted it: knowing no taste, nor what sweetness is, a man cannot conceive, by any description, the sweetness of honey. Read but our True Vedam; and, if you seek earnestly the salvation of your soul, you will then know that it is the word of the True God.'"*

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The other instance is the following. Hindoo Youth belonging to the Mission School at Allepie, on the coast of Malabar, was employed by the Missionary at that Station, who belongs to the same Society, to transcribe portions of the Gospels in the vernacular languages. While thus occupied, he became impressed with a conviction of the truth contained in the Sacred Book, and gradually discontinued the observance of the idolatrous rites of his family. He was removed by his relations into the interior of the country, in order to detach him from the Mission; and violence was threatened, to

*This account has since appeared in the Missionary Register for October 1823, pp. 438, 439.

induce him to conform to the customary practices of his caste. Urged by this treatment, he fled from the country; and coming into the Tinnevelly District, he heard of the Mission near the town of that name, and sought admission into the Seminary there. Prior to receiving him, the Missionaries wrote to his former master at Allepie, to ascertain the truth of as much of the youth's account of himself as that gentleman might be acquainted with; and he so far confirmed its accuracy. The youth has since applied himself diligently to his studies in the Tinnevelly Seminary, preparatory to baptism; and the Missionaries write in terms of entire approbation of his conduct."

I could give many similar instances of Christian fortitude displayed by Hindoo Converts; but these are sufficient for my purpose. They shew, both the kind of persecution to which they are exposed, (which certainly is not to be compared with what innumerable martyrs have endured, from the persecution that arose when Stephen was, stoned to death, to the days of the Reformation,) and, also, that it is possible for the natives of India to be faithful to their convictions, in the face of such opposition as the Abbé Dubois describes.

He thus explains the kind of influence, or

tyranny, which the Brahmins exercise over all the other castes, and the means by which they obtained it. "In framing their system of imposture, and in devising the monstrous worship prevailing all over India, they not only used every artifice in their power to adapt it to the dispositions of a simple and credulous people, but, above all, they employed all possible means to establish in this way, in a permanent and indisputable manner, the high power and uncontroverted controul they have always exercised over the other tribes. In order that their artifice, in establishing throughout the body of society the most downright imposture which ever prevailed among any nation on the earth, might not be questioned, they had the precaution to encumber the people with those numberless institutions, which, at the same time that they secure the permanent superiority of the Brahmins, render the other tribes incapable of reasoning, or of any mental exertion which might enable them to emerge from that state of intellectual degradation in which they are held by their unchangeable usages and customs." It is a sin, it is a crime, a sacrilege, in every Hindoo who is not born a Brahmin, to endeavour to emerge from that state of ignorance, and to aspire

to the lowest degree of knowledge. It is a sin for him even to pretend to calculate on what days fall the new and full moon. He is obliged to learn this and similar matters, and to be guided in the most common occurrences of life, by his religious teachers:" pp. 88-90.

These assertions would lead us to conclude, that the Brahmins keep from the other castes all religious and scientific knowledge. They do, indeed, withhold from them the six principal Sastras, which are considered sacred; and their perusal is regarded as the peculiar privilege of the Brahmins. But I never yet heard of their prohibiting the study of European arts and sciences, and am acquainted with several devoted Hindoos who have a respectable acquaintance with English literature. Some, indeed, have been for a considerable time engaged in translating many elementary works, and even such books as Ferguson's Astronomy, &c. &c. into the languages of the East, for the use of their countrymen who do not understand English. Many natives of the first respectability patronize and liberally support several institutions (such as the School and SchoolBook Societies,&c.) established by Europeans, at Calcutta and Serampore, for the diffusion

of knowledge among all classes of native youths and adults. The free school at Benares, founded and liberally endowed by the late Jay Narain, presents a striking instance of liberality in a native, both in a pecuniary and intellectual point of view. The son, also, has shewn his mind to be equally free from Brahminical influence and sordid principle. When his father died, the legal transfer of the property assigned by him for the endownment of the school having never been effected, he very honourably and generously secured to the Church Missionary Society the monthly payment of 200 Sicca Rupees which his father had assigned. The institution of the Hindoo College, at Calcutta, " almost entirely founded on the contributions of that class of natives whose appellation it bears," is another encouraging fact, in proof of the freedom of the natives of respectability from Brahminical influence. They are now begining to encourage schools for FEMALE children also. Native presses, an engine unknown a few years ago to the inhabitants of India, are in active operation. They are even associating with Christians in various charitable undertakings for the relief of suffering humanity. Their different addresses, for some time past, to official Characters, on their leaving

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