both of mind and body, and his promise
of superior intelligence was blighted.

In 1834, the Bishop set off on his first long journey, which included
Penang and Moulmein, where the Judsons had taken refuge after the Burmese
war, and where he found, in the midst of half-cleared jungle and Buddhist
temples full of enormous idols, a school kept by an American master, so
full of notions of equality, that, at the examination, he expected the
Bishop to go to each class, not the class to the Bishop.

The Commissioner had built a church, the walls of teak slabs, and the
pillars each a single teak-tree, and it was ready for consecration. After
this and a confirmation, the Bishop went on his way to Ceylon, and then
to the Madras Presidency, where he had already had a long correspondence
with the pastors of the Christian congregations on the question of caste.
Things had not prospered of late; and, to the dismay of the Bishop, he
found that, in the course of the last year, 168 Christians had fallen
back to heathenism, where, not having broken their caste, they could
still be received and find a place. The truth was that, though caste
might appear only a distinction of mere social rank, it was derived from
a pagan superstition, and was a stronghold of heathenism. Schwartz was
all his life trying to make it wear and die out, lest the violent
renunciation should be too much for his converts' faith. But his
successors had allowed the feeling to retrograde; and Bishop Wilson found
separate services, sides of the church allotted to the high and low
castes, and the most unchristian distinctions made between them. He
decided that toleration of the prejudice was only doing harm, and issued
orders that henceforth catechumens preparing for baptism, confirmation,
or communion, should be called on to renounce caste as a condition of
admittance; and that, though the adult communicants should be gently
dealt with, there should be no recognition of the distinction in the
places in church, in the order of administering the Holy Communion, in
marriages or processions, and that differences of food or dress, or marks
on the forehead, should be discontinued. The clergy were in
consternation, and made an appeal before they published the Bishop's
letter to their flocks; but they found his mind made up, and yielded. The
lesser stations complied without much difficulty; but at Trichinopoly,
Vepery, and Tanjore, there were many Soodras, the soldier-