of success in every department of science; and the ideas so true, and the examples so striking, work mightily on the susceptible minds of native youth; so that by the time they have acquired a mastery over the English language, under judicious and enlightened instructors, their minds are almost metamorphosed into the texture and cast of European youth, and they cannot help expressing their utter contempt for Hindoo superstition and prejudices.”
There is an argument of fact put in by Mr. Duff, which is admirably to the point. We allude to the introduction of the English language and of English science among the Scottish Highlanders, whose native language, to this day, is the Gaelic. The parallel is a very fair one; for no people were more superstitious, more wedded to their own customs, and more averse to leaving their native country, than the Highlanders: but since the introduction of the English language among them, the state of things is much changed. The same observation applies to Ireland and Wales, where, as in the Highlands of Scotland, the English is a foreign language; and yet its acquisition is eagerly sought after by the natives of all these countries, as an almost certain passport to employment. There are medical men, natives of these countries, scattered all over the world, whose mother tongue is Welsh, Irish, or Gaelic, which, as children, they spoke for years—just as the children of European parents in India speak Hindoostanee and Bengalee; with this difference, however, that the latter soon forget the Oriental tongues; while the youth who acquire the indigenous language of Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, and Wales, never lose the language of those countries, because they do not quit them till a more advanced period of life. For the first years of youth the Highlanders at school, even of all ranks, think in the Gaelic; but this does not prevent their acquiring such a fluent and business-like knowledge of English, as to enable them to pass through life with credit, and not unfrequently with distinc-
l 2
