Page:Adams - Essays in Modernity.djvu/116

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104
ESSAYS IN MODERNITY

much of his most devoted admirers when he leaves them to try and justify the existence of 'Namgay Doola,' and 'The Lang Men o' Larut, and 'The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney.' Balzac could not afford to sign his name to such rubbish. For Mr. Rudyard Kipling to do so is to send snakes to strangle his reputation in its cradle.

III

'In India,' he says, speaking in his proper person, 'you really see humanity—raw, brown, naked humanity—with nothing between it and the blazing sky, and only the used-up, over-handled earth under foot' One of the results of the overwhelming nature of this fact is that, at any rate in any close consideration of the 'native feature,' you are soon driven to take refuge in 'simpler theories' than those current among the benighted English home officials. Herein, of course, is the great difference between these and the Anglo-Indian officials. The latter have ever treated the 'native feature' from the 'simpler theory' point of view. Hence the stupendous success of our Indian administration, as an administration, from the days of Clive to those of Lord Lytton and onwards. Our sympathetic comprehension of the races we have ruled, our intimate knowledge and appreciation of