beloved Shakspeare.[30] He is as much
loved and admired by Hindoos as by Muhammadans; and from boyhood to
old age he continues the idol of the imaginations of both. The boy of
ten, and the old man of seventy, alike delight to read and quote him
for the music of his verses, and the beauty of his sentiments,
precepts, and imagery.[31]

It was to the class last mentioned, whose incomes are derived from
the profits of stock invested in manufactures and commerce, that
Europe chiefly owed its rise and progress after the downfall of the
Roman Empire, and the long night of darkness and desolation which
followed it. It was through the means of mercantile industry, and the
municipal institutions to which it gave rise, that the enlightened
sovereigns of Europe were enabled to curb the licence of the feudal
aristocracy, and to give to life, property, and character that
security without which society could not possibly advance; and it was
through the same means that the people were afterwards enabled to put
those limits to the authority of the sovereign, and to secure to
themselves that share in the government without which society could
not possibly be free or well constituted. Upon the same foundation
may we hope to raise a superstructure of municipal corporations and
institutions in India, such as will give security and dignity to the
society; and the sooner we begin upon the work the better.[32]

Notes:

1. Johnson says: 'Mountaineers are thievish because they are poor;
and, having neither manufactures nor commerce, can grow rich only by
robbery. They regularly plunder their neighbours, for their
neighbours are commonly their enemies; and, having lost that
reverence for property by which the order of civil life is preserved,
soon consider all as enemies whom they do not reckon as friends, and
think themselves licensed to invade whatever they are not obliged to
protect.' [W. H. S.] The quotation is from _A Journey to the Western
Islands of Scotland_.

The observations in the text apply largely to the settled Hindoo
villages, as well as to the forest tribes.

2. _Ficus religiosa_ is the Linnaean name for the 'pipal'. Other
botanists call it _Urostigma religiosum_. In the original edition the
botanical name is erroneously given as _Ficus indicus_. The _Ficus
indica_ (_F. Bengalensis_, or _Urostigma B._) is the banyan. A story
is current that the traders of a certain town begged the magistrate
to remove a pipal-tree which h