THE MORNING COMETH. 7 and their lustre. Their mission is noble, and their destiny glorious; but before this goal is attained, the shades in their character must be well observed and carefully replaced by rays of light: and the object of the following pages has been an earnest exposition of a change in this direction. Some characters have already been well redeemed; and pre-eminent among these stands undoubtedly the late Baboo Harrischander. In all respects save one, which we will point out in its proper place, this Baboo approaches to a just conception of what an educated young Native should bewhat that light of India, without the accompanying shades, must be, that is to shed a halo of lustre in the wide East; and it is by examples like his that we would enforce our lessons of instruction. The career and the success that were his may be those of any one who chalks them out for himself; and as our object is not so much narration as moral instruction, we will more fully consider in our pages what conspired to produce this career and this success, rather than describe with nicety; and record, with humour if we can, the incidents of the Baboo's useful life. India is a vast field for the scholar to reflect, and the philanthropist to exert, upon, and either renders more durable service to God and mankind by his honest exertions, than the historian, who vividly records; and in this circumstance we hope will be found an apology for the change in our title,* and for our entering more into an exposition of circumstances at present completely paralysing the spirit of the country, and cramping the energies of its rising generation, than a bare narration, with a philosophic dissertation here and there only of facts and incidents-the staple materials of dull and unprofitable biography. Indeed, all history is subjective; and he who made the shrewd observation that "there is properly no history but biography," full well anticipated that biographies should be what we would, in our humble way, exhibit in the following pages. The world certainly exists for the education of each individual; and there is no age, society, or action in history, to which there is not something corresponding in his own individual life: what Plato has thought, he may think; what Jesus has felt, he may feel; what has befallen Cæsar, he may *The title of this discourse, as it at first stood, was "The Life of Baboo Harrischander, as affording a useful study for young Natives." OBJECTS OF THE TREATISE. 9 understand even as true of himself. Every individual, as he reads, becomes Greek, Roman, Persian, and Arab; philosopher, priest, and prophet; patriot, warrior, and villain;—or he reads nothing, and learns nothing. If all history, then, though not expressly written so, is read, and ought to be read, with a view to individual education, individualising general facts and generalising individual experiences, the reader will understand us when, in inviting him to these pages, we invite him especially to imitate Baboo Harrischander; invite him to be the educated Native, of whom Baboo Harrischander was so honorable a specimen; invite him alike with the Indian peasant and member of the dull and torpid mass of population for whom Baboo Harrischander fought so bravely and manfully; and invite him also to appreciate the British Government and the British people, whom, though on certain occasions he blamed bitterly, Baboo Harrischander esteemed and admired sincerely. The treatise under these circumstances necessarily becomes unmethodical to a certain extent; but we shall attempt to give to it a systematic arrangement, leaving it to the kindness of our critics to suggest improvements for our future guidance, and divid ing it for the present into two parts, the first treating of Baboo Harrischander, and the second containing passing thoughts on the present and future of our country. But a propos of the immediate subject of our discourse, we must, to allow of a just appreciation of his merited greatness, say that he has evidently two disadvantages. In the first place, he lived with us; and every subject, it will readily be acknowledged, in order to lend a more vivid and lively interest, requires to be shaded by the twilight of remoter times. Delille, by no means a critic of ordinary powers, suggested the defect of that masterpiece of the Revolutionary times-the Henriade-by saying that "it was too near to the eye and the age"; and it has been remarked with much vehemence that Milton might, with far greater effect, have thrown his angelic warfare into a remoter perspective. We cannot with conviction say why, but so it is, that Napoleon storming the stronghold of Presburg, and Havelock surveying his straitened position within the enclosures of Lucknow, influence us with fainter emotions than Brutus musing in his tent at Philippi, or Henry bearing down upon the desperate troops of the French Charles at Agincourt. And so it must be, that the man who died only a year past, leaving the effects of his patriotism and greatness as yet only half-perceived, must suffer in the interest and acknowledgment of his just merits. And secondly, it must be admitted, as we have already hinted, that he has not, unfortunately, shown himself sufficiently great, in the worldly conception of greatness, to deserve of a notice such as we would claim for him: he has not been a king or conqueror; nor even a poet, historian, or novelist—he wrote nothing in which we may "At intervals descry Gleams of the glory, streaks of flowing light, But yet, the friend of the poor, the mentor of the rich, the spokesman, the patriot, the brave heart that defied danger and opposition in the strife for settling the politics of his country, enchains our affections and sympathies in proportion as he was really little in the estimation of the world, and great in the truly philosophic sense of greatness, by rendering his life useful in one continued scene of charity, benevolence, and uprightness. Harris was born in 1824 A. D. The second son of a Koolin Brahmin, in absolute begga |