other might correct him. Indeed a pretty, easy and secure way of
learning.’^4
We are continually reproaching the natives of India with
the slow advances they have made in knowledge and their
neglect of opportunities to acquire it. There we have an instance
of the same neglect in Europeans, who have allowed two
centuries to pass after they were acquainted with this invention,
before they applied it to any practical use. It was at length
introduced into this country without any acknowledgement and
it was even claimed as an invention by two individuals who
disputed upon the priority of discovery.
The Missionaries^5 have now honestly owned that the
system upon which these schools are taught was borrowed from
India. It has been probably improved by us, but this is the fate of
all original conceptions, which commonly make the most rapid
advances at second hand.
No people probably appreciate more justly the importance
of instruction than the Hindoos; hence instead of offering
obstacles or creating opposition to the establishment of schools,
they have formed institutions themselves to meet various cases
of ignorance and misery. They are not averse to a spirit of
enquiry and discussion.^6 All they wanted was a government that
would not check and discourage this spirit.
In Malabar is still to be seen the earliest mode of writing.
The paper is the natural produce of the woods. They make no
use of ink; the characters are engraved on the leaves of trees.
The leaf of a particular palm is selected and dried until it can
bear the impression of the styles. These leaves strung or tied to-
gether are formed into books. They are enclosed in a wooden
cover, sometimes gilded and lackered, so as to make neat and
handsome appearance. On these leaves also they write their let-
ters, which they fold up, but the original practice of the country
did not require them to be sealed. ‘The original Acts of the
Council of Basil 900 years since, with the Bulla or leaden affix,
which has a silken cord passing through every parchment,’ is
mentioned in the above words by Evelyn as existing in his time
at Cambridge, and which would appear to be the same form as
that in which the Malabar MSS are preserved.^7