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mightier still in prospect, coming over the country under the benign influence of British domination; and there has now sprung up a class of men who, without purse or power, are more influential than the greatest warrior in olden days. We refer to the educated men of olden_days. our country, who are not, like all influential men of some centuries past, "blind leaders of the blind"; not men whose influence, whenever they have any, may be seen only in the triumphs of the field or the chicaneries of the court,-but men, who command more without either of these graces, by the mental light they enjoy; men, whose power is only in the evocation of the breath or the stroke of the pen. There are traditions in this land which perhaps none has yet attended to with due concern-that the East will be completely changed by a nation from the west; and the tenth avatar of Vishnu, a man on a white horse, so current among the prophecies of the sacred Brahmanical writings, must be looked upon to typify the advent of the English in India. Statesmen vainly look upon the Anglo-Indian empire as an accident, something that will not last long; and though events like the Mutinies of 1857 frequently give to that expres

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sion a significance it can never otherwise bear, the prophecy of the West, "Japhet shall dwell in the tents of Shem," and the prophecy of the East relating the tenth incarnation of Vishnu, a man on a white horse, coming from the West and destroying everything Brahmanical,* render it imperative on us to accept, however reluctantly, that European supremacy in Asia is one of the permanent conditions of the world. When we consider the darkness of former times, the slavish reverence to authority, its abuse, its adulteries, and its vicious acts in every instance, and the superstitious awe of religious guides, in spite of their lies, deceptions, and crimes, we may well conceive that He who sits King among nations has most wisely ordained that the East shall be lorded over by the West. If there is anywhere inscribed, in modern times, with special truth, "Ichabod!" it is upon Eastern imbecility and utter darkness; and we have got among 'us now a class of young men moral in tone, vigorous in character, and intellectual in attainments, in whom centre the hopes of families,

* The writer of these pages is not aware whether this prophecy has been dealt upon in its significance by any author, but if not, he does not see why he should not on his part.

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of churches, of the entire nation, of futurity itself. These are destined to convert the whole country into a moral, healthy, and vigorous being, to dispel its present darkness and bring forth light; who shall illuminate not only their own country, but, as we shall show hereafter, the whole of the East, and even perhaps the World, by developing a new and more

healthy civilisation than the European. We predict a glorious future for these men; they are as lights, created by the advent of English civilisation: "few and far between," we readily a'mit, but yet lights to illuminate this land of darkness and error, and, in time, also the East; and though night yet broods thickly and extensievly here, we may say, without any inspiration of prophetic discernment, that "the morning cometh." But while thus cheerfully according its due meed, we must never forget that this subject has shades as well as lights. The state of our young countrymen has much to cause a gloom as well as exhilaration in the heart: the many defects in their character, their want of energy, fixedness of purpose, and determinate zeal-so apparent, that he who runs may read them-require as much to be weighed in the balance of calculation as their greatness

THE MORNING COMETH.

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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 be-what that light of India, without the accoinpanying 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

*The title of this discourse, as it at first stood, was Life of Baboo Harrischander, as affording a useful study for young Natives."

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