-
Articles/Ads
Article PENCILLINGS PROM THE SKETCH-BOOK OE A MA... ← Page 2 of 7 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Pencillings Prom The Sketch-Book Oe A Ma...
been introd u ced , and to a considerable degree , diffused ; but in other respects , he would not have been outstepping the bounds of veracity in affirming that such an indication came not within the limits of his ken . On the contrary , we may imagine he would have delivered himself and argued thus : — " We have been ever in an unsettled state —our tenure has been marked by the pressure from without , if not of actual warfare protracted and expensive , by a constant preparation for it ; while , from within , we have had to contend with the vis ineriicB of native indolence , —the mighty barrier of deeply-rooted
prejudices in a gradually subjugated people of various castes , whose minds , presenting a complex form of ideas , were of too chaotic a character to be speedily and efficaciously worked upon by the genius of European civilization ; their mental tendencies were adverse , and their feelings moulded in every imaginable shape of antagonism , to an interference with their own antiquated usages , and original habits of thought and action . "
But now that a spirit of inquiry has gone out from among usnow that we are better known than we were in the last century by the people of India , the case is altered . With occasionally trifling outbreaks of a merely local or frontier character , we have comparative rest and security in our Eastern possessions . Steam , we know , has for a long time past been a great agent in bringing Great Britain and India into more immediate contact , and a
closer interest at home has been of late years excited in the condition of the swarthy races of the latter country ; and what may not the introduction of iron roads into India , now progressing , and in some parts completed , be expected to effect ? When the railwayengine whistle is heard across the once almost trackless plains , and intersecting lines bring their giant strength to bear on the general
benefit of the country , what vast advantages in every way will accrue ! Soon , too , will that wonder of the age , the electric telegraph , effect the most speedy transmission of intelligence between home and India ; and what are we to think when we are told in sober seriousness , that the day may yet come when the line of rail shall be completed by which the traveller may reach Calcutta in seven days from the British metropolis !
It has been stated , that the first starting of an engine on the line at one of our presidencies , occasioned the utmost consternation among the bewildered natives , who were spectators of the scene . Rushing about in an affrighted manner , they exclaimed , " Shaetan liy ! " ( It is a demon ) ; but already they have found out their mistake , and now welcome its approach as a beacon-light—the herald of their advancing prosperity .
A superhcial glance , however , at the map 01 Asia , will suihce to show us that in 1850 , from Cashmere in the north to Cape Comorin in the south , and in longitude from the mouth of the Indus to the Himalaya Mountains , we have indeed an important empire at our feet !—a noble field for the genuine philanthropist and man of enterprisean arena in which to scatter the seeds of knowledge and all that
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Pencillings Prom The Sketch-Book Oe A Ma...
been introd u ced , and to a considerable degree , diffused ; but in other respects , he would not have been outstepping the bounds of veracity in affirming that such an indication came not within the limits of his ken . On the contrary , we may imagine he would have delivered himself and argued thus : — " We have been ever in an unsettled state —our tenure has been marked by the pressure from without , if not of actual warfare protracted and expensive , by a constant preparation for it ; while , from within , we have had to contend with the vis ineriicB of native indolence , —the mighty barrier of deeply-rooted
prejudices in a gradually subjugated people of various castes , whose minds , presenting a complex form of ideas , were of too chaotic a character to be speedily and efficaciously worked upon by the genius of European civilization ; their mental tendencies were adverse , and their feelings moulded in every imaginable shape of antagonism , to an interference with their own antiquated usages , and original habits of thought and action . "
But now that a spirit of inquiry has gone out from among usnow that we are better known than we were in the last century by the people of India , the case is altered . With occasionally trifling outbreaks of a merely local or frontier character , we have comparative rest and security in our Eastern possessions . Steam , we know , has for a long time past been a great agent in bringing Great Britain and India into more immediate contact , and a
closer interest at home has been of late years excited in the condition of the swarthy races of the latter country ; and what may not the introduction of iron roads into India , now progressing , and in some parts completed , be expected to effect ? When the railwayengine whistle is heard across the once almost trackless plains , and intersecting lines bring their giant strength to bear on the general
benefit of the country , what vast advantages in every way will accrue ! Soon , too , will that wonder of the age , the electric telegraph , effect the most speedy transmission of intelligence between home and India ; and what are we to think when we are told in sober seriousness , that the day may yet come when the line of rail shall be completed by which the traveller may reach Calcutta in seven days from the British metropolis !
It has been stated , that the first starting of an engine on the line at one of our presidencies , occasioned the utmost consternation among the bewildered natives , who were spectators of the scene . Rushing about in an affrighted manner , they exclaimed , " Shaetan liy ! " ( It is a demon ) ; but already they have found out their mistake , and now welcome its approach as a beacon-light—the herald of their advancing prosperity .
A superhcial glance , however , at the map 01 Asia , will suihce to show us that in 1850 , from Cashmere in the north to Cape Comorin in the south , and in longitude from the mouth of the Indus to the Himalaya Mountains , we have indeed an important empire at our feet !—a noble field for the genuine philanthropist and man of enterprisean arena in which to scatter the seeds of knowledge and all that