with those of a lower caste from the same cup at the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

It is now generally agreed among the Missionaries that whilst the native converts may be left to their own discretion in matters of food and costume, and the selection of their friends, they shall not be tolerated in their refusal to receive into their houses a brother Christian,-especially a Catechist or Preacher,-to eat with him, to listen to his instructions, to join with him in prayer, or to receive the Lord's Supper from a native minister, on account of caste. They regard it as utterly inconsistent to recognise caste distinctions in that body of which Christ is the head, and where all are members one of another."

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The subject of caste has occupied more space than its importance would seem at first sight to demand. When, however, its mischievous features and its manifold evils are seen and fully understood, and especially as they have hindered the progress of the Gospel, the reader will not regret that care has been taken to set the subject in its true light. Claiming, as caste distinction does, the prerogative of a divine and original institution; and being in theory and practice one of the greatest hindrances to the advancement of the Hindus in industry and social happiness; and also one of the most decided obstacles to the progress of Christianity in India, it is highly satisfactory that the bishops and clergy, and the missionaries of different denominations in the Presidencies, have agreed to lift up their united testimony against it, and to use every effort to preserve the Church of Christ from its baneful influence.

Four or five years ago several admirable essays were written in India on the subject of caste in competition for a prize. Thus concurrently with the full consideration of the question as bearing on the character of the Christian Church, the subject was generally discussed in its principles and in its effects. An able essay appeared on the subject in the Calcutta Review, in which the writer, after discussing the subject

of caste in its development, its principles, and its various modifications, proceeds to show in various ways how inimical the institution is to society. He proves that the institution of caste exercises a baneful influence on the development of the human mind; that the moral evils are not less conspicuous, involving self-esteem often where virtue and real excellence are wanting, and as extinguishing sympathy and fellowfeeling among its adherents, some being puffed up, others depressed, and all morally deteriorated; and since it has a tendency to retard the advancement of the mind, and to hinder its progress in science and in the arts of social life, the Essayist considers that it is one of the sorest evils that can affect society. This writer thus forcibly speaks of this great evil :—

“The principal cause of India's humiliation is caste. It is this unnatural institution, which, by detaching man from man, trade from trade, mechanic from mechanic, tribe from tribe, puts an end to unity and strength in the nation. A people divided and subdivided like the Hindus can never make head against any power that deserves the name. Mohammedan conquest was the natural result of such national weakness."

The

The effects of English education are manifestly against the continuance of the evils of caste, as may be gathered from the sentiments expressed by a native essayist, whose production on the subject obtained a prize on the occasion before alluded to. Babu Shashi Chandra Datta says: "Though not myself a Christian, in marshalling arguments against the institution of caste, I cannot well overlook the doctrines of that beautiful revelation, which makes no distinction but between the virtuous and the vicious,--recognises no uncleanness but that of the heart, and invites the poorest and the proudest to one common heaven. The heaven of the Hindus, like their earth, is made for the Brahmans alone; and, before the soul can wing its flight thither, it must, as a general rule, have passed its Brahmanical birth. But the religion of the Gospel inculcates doctrines of a different

character. Is thy soul athirst for God? Dost thou pant after Him as the hart panteth after the water-brooks? Have the words of the law been a lamp unto thy feet, and a light unto thy path? If so, be of good cheer, whoever thou art— it matters not whether Jew or Gentile-the gates of heaven shall open to let thee in. Christianity everywhere recognises the equality of mankind."

This earnest writer, urging his countrymen to action, says further: "Let all, then, gird up their loins, who profess to reverence reason, and aspire for intellectual freedom; let us do it under a conviction that no power on earth can help us if we do not help ourselves. The British Government has done much to allay our sufferings, and elevate our national character. It may yet do more, for much remains undone. But all the laws that ever were created will not render a vicious, ignorant, and superstitious people, intelligent, virtuous, and happy. The deadly upas, whose noxious exhalations have made us what we are, must first be uprooted, ere we can reasonably expect to reap any solid advantages from even the most enlightened administration on the face of the earth."

The ancient Egyptians had a classification of the popula tion, which has sometimes been compared to Hindu caste; but it was of human appointment. European nations have their distinctions of rank and station, but they are the accompaniments of virtue, or of wealth, or of learning; these differ essentially, therefore, from the selfish and dissocializing caste institution of India, which claims an origin coeval with creation, a divine ordination, and defends a system the most monstrous, oppressive, and degrading, under sanctions at once religious, moral, and political. A system so injurious to all classes must be abandoned ere India can rise to the freedom and dignity of a great nation.1

1 Several documents relating to caste, from Bishop Heber, Bishop Wilson, and others, are placed in an Appendix.

CHAPTER III.

LANGUAGES-THE SANSCRIT, THE PRACRIT, THE ABORIGINAL. THE EXCELLENCY OF THE SANSCRIT.-PROFESSOR WILSON'S VIEWS OF ITS IMPORTANCE TO PUBLIC MEN IN INDIA.-ITS VALUE TO THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER. SOME NOTICES OF ITS ALPHABET AND CAPABILITIES.

THE subject of language, like most other topics relating to India, is one of peculiar interest. The languages spoken are numerous, and most of them highly cultivated and refined. Indeed the tribes of India are more divided into nations or families by their languages than by their religions: in the latter, as in their literature, they may be regarded as one. The languages are not merely diversified as dialects proceedings from one radical source,—though to some extent this is the case, but different in origin, in structure, and in idiom. Although many distinguished orientalists have laboured hard to elucidate the subjects of Indian philology and literature, the origin of the existing languages and a great amount of ancient learning still remains in obscurity. There are numerous books of which little is known but the names; even the sacred Vedas, those earliest and most extraordinary fountains of the Hindu theology and religion, are but partially investigated.

Leaving matters of an extraneous nature, and of comparatively little importance as regards the design of this little work, it will be the object of the few paragraphs devoted to this subject, to present in a condensed form some general information relating to the languages and literature of the Hindus. More specific and extended information is to

be found in numerous works published by learned men, most of which are accessible to the student in this country.

The most remarkable points connected with languages may easily be stated. The Brahmans have one sacred language, called by way of eminence Sanscrit, the perfected, as distinguished from certain dialects denominated Pracrit, the vulgar language: hence we have the Sanscrit, the Bengali, the Hindi, the Panjabi, the Guzeratta, the Mahratta, the Ureya, the Pali and other languages, all linked together in one family. Besides this family there is also the Tamil in the south of India, which in basis, structure, and expression, is wholly independent of Sanscrit and its derivatives. This language is remarkably sweet, as one of its names, Tamil, imports; and it is connected by strong affinity with the dialects of the barbarous tribes who are scattered about on the mountains and almost inaccessible forests of the Peninsula. It has however received a large infusion of Sanscrit terms on theological, philosophical, and philological subjects. These bear the same relation to its radical structure that Latin terms

bear to the English language. The Brahmans as they advanced into the country imparted their civilization and their religion to those who spoke the dialects of this aboriginal tongue, and along with these, the terms expressive of their ideas on such subjects.

It would appear, therefore, that prior to the invasion of India by the Sanscrit-speaking Brahmanized conquerors, one common language prevailed throughout the country, which eventually issued in the polished Tamil, in a region remote from the seats of Brahmanical power. There are not wanting indications in this language of its having been cultivated in imitation of the refined Sanscrit; and it may be imagined. that the learned among the Aborigines were impelled to effort as well by opposition as by rivalry. The fact that the Tamil has been mainly cultivated by the secular class, is not only apparent in the authors who have written on it, but has become proverbial, "The Brahman in Tamil, and the culti

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