graphs are perfect as a study of three types of
Brahmanhood as we have it in Southern India--keen, thoughtful, dull.]

Surely the very hardness of an enterprise, the very fact that it is what
a soldier would call a forlorn hope, is in itself a call and a claim
stronger than any put forth by something easier. The soldier does not
give in because the hope is "forlorn." It is a _hope_, be it ever so
desperate. He volunteers for it, and win or not, he fights.

There is that in this enterprise which may mark it out as "forlorn." For
ages the race has broken one of nature's laws with blind persistency,
and the result is a certain lack of moral fibre, grit, "tone." No
separate individual is responsible for this, harsh judgments are
entirely out of place; but the fact remains that it is so, and it must
be taken into account in dealing with the Brahmans and several of the
upper Castes of India. Side by side with this element of weakness there
is, in apparent contradiction, that stubborn element of strength known
as the Caste spirit. This spirit is seen in all I have shown you of what
happens when a convert comes. It is as if all the million wills of the
million Caste men and women were condensed into one single Will, a
concentration of essence of Will not comparable with anything known at
home.

Look at this face--it is a photographed fact. Does it not show you an
absence of that "something" which nerves to endurance, stimulates to
dare? Then listen to this:--A Christian man lies dead. The way to the
cemetery lies through the Brahman street, in the chief town of this
District; there is no other way. The Brahman street is a thoroughfare,
it cannot be closed to traffic, but the Brahmans refuse point blank to
allow that dead man to be carried through. The Bishop expostulates. No;
he was a Christian, he shall not be carried through. Time is passing. In
the Tropics the dead must be buried quickly. The Bishop appeals to the
Collector (Representative of Government here). The Collector gives an
order. The Brahmans refuse to obey. He orders out a company of soldiers.
The Brahmans mass on the housetops and stone the soldiers. The order is
given to fire. Then, and not till then, the Christians may carry out
their dead; and later on the Brahmans carry out theirs. This happened
some years ago, and outwardly times have changed since then in that
particular town. But the spirit that it shows is in possession to this
day, and as small things