nto consideration the
influence of religion, the natural ambition of the priestly classes, the
splitting up into sects, and the fondness of the Hindoo mind for subtle
distinctions, the rest easily follows. But, though numerous castes arose
amongst the invaders, the main line of demarcation, is still the original
one of race--between the races of the north and the aborigines whom they
found in possession of India. The base, then, of caste, we may rest
assured, was simply the result of a people, or rather of peoples, wishing
to keep themselves uncontaminated when coming in contact with a debased
population.

This was exactly the case with the Jews. They were simply a very strongly
guarded caste, with a number of regulations as to what they were and were
not to eat, and with rules which prohibited them intermarrying or
associating with peoples with whom they came in contact. Many of those
rules may seem to us ridiculous and fanciful, but they were calculated to
prevent the Jews from any chance of adopting the manners and customs of
the peoples around them; and the Indians, having had similar views,
naturally adopted similar means. Such then is a brief generalization of
the causes which led to caste laws, which were, no doubt, carried in some
instances to a ridiculous length, but which were founded in common sense,
and were admirably adapted to carry into effect the opinions of the
superior races.

We have now, in the second place, to consider caste with reference to the
approach of native converts to the Lord's table, the sitting apart of the
various castes in church, and the effects of caste as regards what is
called social intercourse.

The whole difficulty of the caste question, as regards the Sacrament, lies
in this, namely, that a high-caste vegetarian objects to drink wine at the
same time and after a low-caste meat-eater. And here I find a great
difficulty in finding words or illustrations that will at all convey the
feelings of a high-caste vegetarian at the very idea of drinking after a
low-caste carrion-eater. If from the lowest, filthiest, and most poisonous
dens in London, you were to take a man, reeking with beer and tobacco, and
with his clothes crawling with vermin, and presenting, in short, every
appearance of foulness, dirt, and disease; if you were to take that man
and place him between two ladies at the administration of the Holy
Communion, I do not say that they would there and then refuse the
Sacram