doubt, made enormous strides, in
comparison with the conditions that obtained in former centuries. We
have broken the despotism of the native princes, and have put an end to
the endless sanguinary wars which they waged with each other and
with their Asiatic neighbouring despots. We have laid down roads and
railways, drained marshes and jungles, constructed harbours, won great
tracts of lands from the sea, and built protecting dams and piers. The
terrible mortality of the large cities has considerably decreased. We
have given them laws assuring personal security and guaranteeing new
outlets for trade and commerce. But the aspirations of our English
Government have been purely utilitarian, and as regards the deeper-lying
current of development no progress is anywhere perceivable."

"And, pray, what do you exactly mean by this?"

"Your views in this matter are possibly divergent. I discern in most of
our achievements in India only another manifestation of that materialism
which has ever proved the worst obstacle to all real development."

"It appears to me, Mr. Proctor," Heideck interrupted, with a smile,
"that you have become a Buddhist, owing to your sojourn in India!"

"Perhaps so, sir, and I should not be ashamed of such a creed. Many
a one, who on first coming here regarded India with the eyes of a
Christian, has, on nearer acquaintance, become a Buddhist. Greek wise
men once expressed the wish that kings should be chosen from among the
philosophers. That may possibly be an unrealisable hope, but I do
not believe that a ruler who has a contempt for philosophy will ever
properly fulfil the high duties of his station. A policy without
philosophy is, like an unphilosophical religion, not established on
firmer ground than those houses there on the river Ravi, whose existence
is not safe for a single day, because the river at times takes it into
its head to change its course. A government that does not understand
how to honour the religious feelings of its people, does not stand more
securely than one of those huts. The fate that has now overtaken the
English is the best proof of what I say. We are the only power in Asia
that has not founded its political sway upon the religion of the people.
In our folly we have destroyed the habitual simplicity of a nation,
which, until our coming, had been content with the barest necessities of
life, because for thousands of years past it cared more about the
life after death than f