system. These two points are: first, the Western education they give to
the higher classes; and, secondly, the protection and maintenance of the
rights of idol worship. Neither of these systems is wise. By means of
the first they successfully replace the religious feelings of old India,
which, however false, had the great advantage of being sincere, by a
positive atheism amongst the young generation of the Brahmans; and by
the means of the second they flatter only the ignorant masses, from
whom nothing is to be feared under any circumstances. If the patriotic
feelings of the bulk of the population could possibly be roused, the
English would have been slaughtered long ago. The rural populace is
unarmed, it is true, but a crowd seeking revenge could use the brass and
stone idols, sent to India by thousands from Birmingham, with as great
success as if they were so many swords. But, as it is, the masses of
India are indifferent and harmless; so that the only existing danger
comes from the side of the educated classes. And the English fail to see
that the better the education they give them, the more careful they must
be to avoid reopening the old wounds, always alive to new injury, in
the heart of every true Hindu. The Hindus are proud of the past of their
country, dreams of past glories are their only compensation for the
bitter present. The English education they receive only enables them
to learn that Europe was plunged in the darkness of the Stone Age, when
India was in the full growth of her splendid civilization. And so the
comparison of their past with their present is only the more sad. This
consideration never hinders the Anglo-Indians from hurting the feelings
of the Hindus. For instance, in the unanimous opinion of travelers
and antiquarians, the most interesting building of Hyderabad is
Chahar-Minar, a college that was built by Mohamed-Kuli-Khan on the ruins
of a still more ancient college. It is built at the crossing of four
streets, on four arches, which are so high that loaded camels and
elephants with their turrets pass through freely. Over these arches rise
the several stories of the college. Each story once was destined for
a separate branch of learning. Alas! the times when India studied
philosophy and astronomy at the feet of her great sages are gone, and
the English have transformed the college itself into a warehouse. The
hall, which served for the study of astronomy, and was filled with
quaint, mediev