Page images
PDF
EPUB

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

LINGUISTIC AND ORIENTAL ESSAYS. By ROBERT NEEDHAM CUST, Late Member of H.M. Indian Civil Service; Hon. Sec. to the Royal Asiatic Society; and Author of "The Modern Languages of the East Indies." London: Trübner and Co., 1880. Pp. 484.

E

HERE are some books which are absolutely impersonal. They may be profound in thought, cogent in argument, eloquent in language; they may be exemplary in their impartiality, or bitter in their polemics; but whether we approve them or the contrary, we judge them simply as books-the writer is nothing to us. There are others in which the impress of the author's individuality appears on every page. It matters not what the subject is, nor how it is treated: as we read, we feel ourselves in contact with a living man, a man with a heart as well as an intellect; and whether he attracts or repels our sympathies, we cannot get away from the personality that breathes through all he writes.

These Linguistic and Oriental Essays are a conspicuous example of the latter class. You may never have heard of the author, much less met him and come to understand something of his literary or political or religious stand-point; but long before you have got half through this substantial volume you will know the man, or at all events think you know him. The Essays are very different in character, and their subjects are most diverse; but the same mental lineaments can be plainly seen in them all. And he is conscious of it. In the preface we find these words: "Such as they [the Essays] are, they reflect the turn of thought, the employment, the studies, and no doubt the weaknesses of the writer, viz., an ardent love for the people of India, a fearless spirit of inquiry into the history of the past, and a tendency to cast off all conventional shackles in the search for truth, and to look upon men of all ages and countries as stamped in the same mould, deformed by the same weaknesses, and elevated by the same innate nobility." This witness is true; and we might add, as additional and not less conspicuous characteristics, a ripe and ready scholarship, a kindly humour, a sympathy whose ardent expression is checked by none of the lofty cynicism so common among writers on cognate subjects; besides which there is manifest throughout-notwithstanding the "unconventional " modes of expression and some indications here and there of views in which we might not altogether concur-a reverent Christian tone and spirit.

We have said that the Essays are on very diverse subjects. They also belong to widely separated periods. Some were written and published more than thirty years ago; some are dated 1879. Some are geographical, historical, and descriptive, as "The Countries betwixt the Satlaj and the Jamna," written in 1846, just after the first Sikh War; or "Sikh-land, the Country of Baba-Nának" (1859). Some combine with these features the results of archæological research, as that on "Mesopotamia" (1855). Others are more purely archæological, as

those on "Egyptology," "The Phenician Alphabet," and "Monumental Inscriptions," all written quite recently. An important group treat of various branches of Indian lore, as "The Ramáyana" (which is interesting as being earlier in date-1855-than some better known expositions of the great Sanskrit epic), "The Religions of India," and "The Languages of the East Indies" (these two of recent date). Another group may be described as reminiscences of the author's official career in India: "The Collector of Land-Revenue in India," "Civil Justice in the Panjáb," and "An Indian District during a Rebellion." These are full of valuable first-hand information. "A Tour in Palestine" (written at Benares in 1852) stands by itself as a record of personal travel, and in this case again additional interest is lent to the Essay by its almost ancient date as compared with the teeming crowd of books on the Holy Land which have appeared since. Lastly come four articles-virtually special correspondent's lettersdescriptive of the Oriental Congresses held in London, St. Petersburg, and Florence, in 1874-6-8.

We have thus enumerated the titles and subjects of the Essays on purpose to show their variety, and so to emphasise our allusion to the strongly-marked individuality that links them all together. Having read every one-we were going to say conscientiously, but that would be an infelicitous word, for, in truth, whichever we began to look at cursorily we were drawn into reading from beginning to end-we have some right to testify to their remarkable interest. It would be a grateful task to refer in further detail to several. But we must be content with an extract from one, as a specimen of picturesque description, and with a remark or two on one other. Our extract is from "The Collector of Land-Revenue in India"

With the departure of the rains, prospects brighten; the white tents are brought forth, and, quitting the principal town, the Collector starts with his migratory camp into the interior, to see and be seen of the people in their fields and amidst their homesteads. Gladly and unreservedly the poorest and the lowest crowd round his encampment, which is shifted day by day, by the banks of many a stream, under many a stately grove. There is no fear of the people of India suffering in silence; the least injury, real or supposed, is at once told; but a kind word is often sufficient. Much can be done by those who win to themselves a personal influence over the people; and in his rides, or seated on a log in the village, the Collector can discover secrets shrouded in darkness in his Office. Much talk is there with the headmen about grain and the prospect of the season; long discussions on the culture of the sugar-cane, or the picking of cotton; but an interest shown on such subjects cannot fail to attract the well-disposed, and many is the little favour that can be granted. A simple people hang upon the words of their ruler, laugh heartily at his jokes, and remember with pride his gracious salutation.

Follow him in his morning ride. With delight he contemplates the abundant harvest, or signs of material improvement; with regret he rides through ruined homesteads, or stunted crops, bowing to the inclemency of the seasons, but meditating remedies, where ignorant man has been the cause of the ruin. Sit with him during the livelong day, mark the multitudinous references, the over-taxed patience, the indignation at some outrage, the satisfaction at some enterprise accomplished; he is now instructing his trained subordinates in the narrow rules of Office, now reasoning on the broad grounds of expediency and proprietory and mutual advantage, with half-clothed and uneducated rustics, who will take

delightingly from his hand and mouth what they would resent from any other. By the scattering of a little dust from that hand the village tumult subsides; by a few timely words from that mouth many heart-burnings are charmed away. It is the privilege of those in power, that even punishments, justly and intelligently administered, are not resented; that a few kind words will send away smiling the peasant smarting under some injury, and lamentations are forgotten amidst the suggestion of better and brighter things. Simple and short are the annals of the poor; let them only be listened to.

And, after all, these are the English who come into intercourse with and give to the people something more than an abstract idea of their rulers. On their discretion and knowledge of the language, feelings, and prejudices of the rural population, much must ever depend; of the Governor the people know nothing; he is a myth, more obscure than one of their cloud-enveloped deities. The Collector and his assistants furnish them with their notions of the Englishman; they are the only members of the Stranger Nation who hold personal conference with the subject people, who can ascertain their wants, make allowance for their prejudices, and, learning to like them, may receive the reward of being liked; and how soon they begin to love the green fields, to know the villagers by name, especially when the time draws near when they are to be left for ever; when, as the best and only return of long labours, unbidden crowds flock out to touch the feet of their ruler, and lament his departure! Such moments will never be forgotten!

In these migratory Courts we find none of the pomp and circumstance of European justice. No Judge in ermine chills the unfortunate litigants with portentons frown; no crowd of javelin-men obstruct the entrance; the matter at issue is soon disposed of, freed from the load of official technicality. Beneath the wide-spreading trees, the memorial of the times of the Moghal Emperors, the carpet is spread. No places are reserved for the privileged great, where all are equal. The village communities are there; the grey-bearded veteran, who had fought for his ancestral acres, acknowledges and appreciates the better order; round him are his sons and his grandsons, his kinsmen and belongings. Spirits, which would have exhausted themselves in bloodshed and outrage under a native rule, or debased themselves to chicanery in the Civil Courts, stand abashed in the presence of the Genius of Order, unpretending, yet absolute, as no king was before. A murmuring in the crowd, or a sudden move among those interested, shows how closely the proceedings are watched and understood. Truth, unknown in the closed and stifling Office, is spoken without an effort, since immediate conviction from the lips of the whole community would follow every falsehood.

Such, we may fondly imagine, was the judging of God's own people, when they settled in Canaan; such were the simple Courts, which we read of in the earlier ages of mankind; thus Abraham among his shepherds, Samuel among the twelve tribes, managed the affairs of simple communities. To some such source must be traced all the judicial systems of the West, ere the increase of population, and the growth of cities, complicated the relations of mankind.

The Essay which demands another word or two is that on the Religions of India. It is here that the "fearless spirit of inquiry" and the tendency to cast off conventional shackles," avowed in the preface, are especially noticeable. Mr. Cust is a student of what is called Comparative Religion; and he has generous eyes to see the best side of the Vedic, the Buddhist, and the Mohammedan systems. All three, in his judgment, "have been benefactors to the human race, permitted by the Great Disposer of human events to play their part in the education of mankind, teaching men the decencies of life, to cease from man-eating and head-hunting, to live in houses and villages and submit to the tie of matrimony, and the duty to parents: to learn to till the soil, plough the ocean, and found royal states, build magnificent cities, and bequeath

I

to posterity marvellous literature both as to quality and quantity" (p. 129). Of course, there is another side to this. On the one hand, it is open to us to rejoin that most if not all of these advantages were enjoyed under the Polytheism of Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, so that Buddhism and Islam have no exclusive claim to the merit of conferring them on mankind. On the other hand, it would be easy to point to the caste-bigotry of Brahmanism, the curious combination of blank atheism and puerile superstition in Buddhism, and the fanatical cruelty of Mohammedanism. But no thoughtful Christian will object to the use, which it has pleased God in His over-ruling providence to make of even false religions, being pointed out; and all the more, because he on his part will always demand that even Christianity shall be judged by its best and not its worst representatives. Mohammedan advance in Africa, for instance, has unquestionably brought sore evils on that unhappy continent, every candid traveller being witness; yet what has "Christendom" done there in past times? It is Livingstone who says, "Heathen Africans are much superior to Mohammedans;" but it is Livingstone who also says, after seeing the Portuguese slave-trade, "Were Christianity not divine, it would be trampled out by its professors." What we have a right to look for in discussions on "Comparative Religion," is the distinct recognition of Christianity as the Revelation of God for the salvation of men; and this, which is so often conspicuous by its absence, we do find, expressed in unmistakable terms and without reserve, in Mr. Cust's contribution. He "rests with confidence on the Rock, and that Rock is Christ," and declares that in Christianity alone is the cure for the evils of this life, and hope for the life to come. The Essay, is indeed a profoundly sad one. The great hidden problems of the Divine purposes oppress the sympathetic heart of the writer. He mournfully contrasts the ancient Vedic faith with the degrading Hinduism of to-day, and wonders what the Gospel might have done had it reached India earlier:-"At the time when the message came to Jews and Gentiles of Western Asia, there was no debased worship of Siva; the religion of the Brahmans was fresher, younger, and purer; the intellect of the nation was in its youth, and more ready to receive impressions; it is too late, too late; they cannot enter now" (p. 137). Yet Mr. Cust does not really think it is too late. "That Christianity," he says, a page or two further on, "in one of its forms, or in a new form, will eventually triumph, we cannot doubt"; and because "Oriental Christianity already shows signs of desiring for herself a Church with less of Anglo-Saxon rigidity, and modified to suit oriental notions," he pleads, just as the Church Missionary Society pleads, that "the Native and European Churches should be kept separate." Yes; let Church government, and worship, and other externals, be freely modified if thereby souls shall be saved. Only we must pray that the "modification" does not extend to the Truth-or rather we should say to the belief of the Truth, for in itself

"Thy Truth unchanged hath ever stood."

Meanwhile, we are by God's help saving a remnant, the election of

His grace. And for the rest-and for the dread future-who will dare to say more than this one word, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

HEROINES OF THE MISSION FIELD. By Mrs. EMMA RAYMOND PITMAN. London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin, and Co., 1880. Pp. 368.

A collection of twenty-eight biographical sketches of female missionaries or the wives of missionaries, with two introductory chapters on woman's work in the mission field and on zenana work in India. The subjects of the sketches include, among C.M.S. names, those of Mrs. Gobat, Mrs. Hinderer, Mrs. Hope, Mrs. Jowett, Mrs. Krapf, and Mrs. Krusé; and among others, Mrs. Moffat, Mrs. Mullens, two Mrs. Judsons, Miss F. Fiske, &c. It is a well-written volume, and its true stories of Christian heroism and endurance and diligence present bright and stimulating examples. No better gift can be put into the hands of our more thoughtful girls. We heartily thank Mrs. Pitman for it.

HENRY MARTYN. By the Rev. CHARLES D. BELL, D.D., Hon. Canon of Carlisle, and Rector of Cheltenham. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1880. Pp. 190.

This is the first volume of one of those numerous series of small books now so frequently planned upon all sorts of convenient groups of subjects, classical, historical, biographical, critical, or scientific. The new series just started by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton has the general title of "Men Worth Remembering; " and Canon Bell's sketch of Henry Martyn is the first of the set.

Martyn is emphatically a man worth remembering; but is he not remembered? Certainly his name is. Its frequent citation by writers of all schools, Christian and otherwise, might lead one to think that Sir James Stephen only expressed the general opinion when he said that "Martyn's is the one heroic name which adorns the annals of the English Church from the days of Elizabeth to our own." But remembering the name is not remembering the man, or his principles, or his objects, or his work; and these are much more generally forgotten altogether. Canon Bell's very interesting and sympathetic little book will do something, we trust, to recall them to mind. It deserves to be read, and pondered. We want more Martyns; not men of zeal only, but men of single heart in loyalty to Christ, and single purpose in preaching His pure Gospel.

THE LATE REV. G. M. GORDON.

T the request of Major E. S. Gordon, R.A., brother of the Society's lamented missionary, the Rev. George Maxwell Gordon, we print the following sentences from the latter's Journal of his March to Kandahar, which, with several other paragraphs, were omitted from the Journal as published in our last number owing to the pressure on our space :

:

"I volunteered as Chaplain to the Forces under General Biddulph. I was authorized by the Bishop of Lahore to do so, but received no official sanction until I had actually reached Candahar. I took silence for consent, especially as I knew that there was no other chaplain with the whole force. I own that I was afraid of

« PreviousContinue »