Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/89

“We are by no means sanguine in our expectation, that the slight reforms which you have proposed to introduce will be followed by much improvement; and we agree with you in certain doubts, whether a greater degree of activity, even if it were produced on the part of the masters, would, in present circumstances, be attended with the most desirable results.

“With respect to the sciences, it is worse than a waste of time to employ persons either to teach or to learn them in the state in which they are found in the oriental books. As far as any historical documents may be found in the oriental languages, what is desirable is, that they should be translated; and this, it is evident, will best be accomplished by Europeans who have acquired the requisite knowledge. Beyond these branches, what remains in oriental literature is poetry; but it never has been thought necessary to establish colleges for the cultivation of poetry, nor is it certain that this would be the most effectual expedient for the attainment of the end.

“In the meantime, we wish you to be fully apprized of our zeal for the progress and improvement of education among the natives of India, and of our willingness to make considerable sacrifices to that important end, if proper means for

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