and storm, thunder and hurricane, undaunting. With it they have undergone all, dared all, conquered all, even with failure after failure. "You may laugh now," said the son of a retired gentleman, originally a mere articled clerk to a London attorney, friendless as he felt himself on his entry into Parliament, and spitefully caricatured for a wild extravagance of imagination in a first essay in romance, but now the most eloquent of all Parliamentary speakers and the accepted leader of a great political party--the younger Disraeli--" You may laugh now," said he, courageously, as he concluded his first speech; "but you shall hear me some day." This courage to manfully repel the contempt and ridicule of vain scoffers is scarcely to be found even in the best of our young men, who have much of that vincibility of temper which makes them mere playthings in the hands of designing fools; and but for this they should ere long have been fitted to adorn the highest posts of their country-to manage, in other words, the reigns of self-government, which, in their present cowardly temperament, whatever their vain boasters or false friends may say, we believe they are not equal to. Now, these inherent principles of character SECRET OF HARRIS'S SUCCESS. 73 for success in life Baboo Harrischander possessed in a pre-eminent degree, affording a bright picture, quite distinct from the gloomy aspect we have just been contemplating. He was a man of strong self-reliance, stern purpose, indomitable will, and manly courage, though, under more favourable circumstances than it was his lot to be surrounded by in early life, he being a Native of India, these should all have been well tempered and increased. It would be a work of supererogation to mark the working of these bold virtues in his after life, after all that has already been said in the preceding pages of what he did, and what opposition, scoffing, and contempt he met with in the early part of his career; and rather than engage in this work of mere repetition, we should prefer to hasten to an investigation of the causes that lead to the utter want of the elements of success in our young educated countrymen. But before closing this chapter, it is necessary to state that the manly robustness, and noble disdain of all meanness and wrong, which so pre-eminently marked out the public career of Baboo Harrischander, were early discernible in the boy Harris. While at the school, a drunken sailor having once on an occasion insulted some stray lads of his class, Master Harris felt extremely indignant, and resolved upon revenge. A Lilliputian army was immediately assembled in Bhowaneepore, armed with rulers, and, with young Harris commanding, marched on with measured steps, "breathing revenge." The warrior, who had vainly thought to annihilate entire armies, like Samson, single-handed, was at once brought to a sense of his vincibility. He received a severe blow, and was put to flight! This was the intrepid victory of Master Harris, barely ten years old. But how often at this age are Native boys lost amidst pigeons and play, and alarmed into instinctive shiverings at the very sight of a sailor or soldier! CHAPTER IV. CAUSES OF A WANT OF THE MAINSPRINGS OF SUCCESS IN THE CHARACTER OF "YOUNG INDIA." UTTER want of early domestic training in India.-Instances of Indian Women figuring as Authors and Poetesses of eminence. -The doctrine of Female Depravity, as propounded by the Rishees.-By Menu.-Woman's occupation in India.-Her daily round of labours described. Her extreme fondness for begetting Children.-Puranas quoted.-Present Female Education in India.-Absence of all elementary information on it.-An observation of no spirit of a change being wrought over the Girls by the present system of education stated.A scheme for the higher training of Females.-Englishmen's aversion for familiarity with the Natives in private life.It is just and merited.—Clever Women are of greater importance to the world than clever Men.-Absence of BoardingSchools in India.-Its pernicious effects.-Physical hardihood of an Indian more of a forced character than otherwise.-Strength and spirit required to uphold National Rights. PERHAPS the deficiency, or even perfect want of the mainsprings of all successes in life, in the character of Young India, as recited in the last chapter, can be traced more to their unfortunate position in the very nature of things, as they obtain in India, than their own neglect. Since with the domestic life is connected the promotion of the best interests of man, both in this world and the next; since it is within the little circle of the walls of "home, sweet home," that the best affections are implanted and rooted; and since it is there that the elements of infant humanity are developed, bearing an influence on the principles and conduct in future life: it is no less palliative of the defects in the general character of Young India, than it is melancholy, to say that their homes are a wretched scene of ignorance, indifference, and misery. It is the mother that reigns paramount at home; our blood comes from the mother; our bones are our mothers' bones-we are all our mothers'; and it is the mother that gives us life-first animal life, then spiritual life; for it is the mother that teaches us to walk, and talk, and think, and lays within us the whole future. man. Yet how do we behold the mother in her own house? Can she not justly complain, in the words of Tennyson's Lilia "But convention beats us down: It is but bringing up, no more than that; |