MAN'S DUTY. UNITY OF MORAL NATURE. 288 "abstract dogmas to obstruct the progress of all the light "that most improves; refines, exalts our species." Duty of Man. § 99. But this I know, that it is in the power of every man, as it is his duty, within his own sphere of action, and in all the relations of life to which his lot may introduce him, so to comport himself inwardly and outwardly, in thought, and word, and deed, as to make such a consummation, wherein Law would be superfluous because it would be unneeded, if not nearer, at any rate more possible; and if this be the duty and in the power of every man, can it, let me ask you, be more obligatory on any class, can any man have more opportunity and room for such action than he who dedicates himself to the study, and practice, amendment, or execution of the municipal laws of his own Country? Unity of Moral Nature. § 100. When we reflect upon the late ' barbarities practised by the Chinese in the execution of rebel prisoners on the one hand, and follow a Whewell and a Brewster, a Powell and a Phillips, in the deep devotion of their discussion on the Plurality of Worlds upon the other, (1) Man's moral nature seems to divide itself as it were into distinct and hostile and utterly irreconcilable parts, far as the very poles asunder, admitting of no compromise or coalescence. And yet from the lowest to the highest, it is one and the same, passing from deformity up to comparative excellence through shades and gradations so fine as scarcely to be perceptible or to admit of trace. What place the Hindoo holds in the moral scale at the present moment I will not take upon myself to say. (2) That the Nation is one of exceeding 1. It may be thought that these works are rather displays of intellectual power, and should not be opposed to the moral atrocities of the Chinese butcheries: but in truth the object of these works as well as their treatment is in the highest degree moral. 2. The Vedas contain, besides a system of pure monotheism, many maxims of benevolence and high morality. In the Kuth Opunishad of the Ujoor Veda it is written, "Life is too short to gain advantages by means of falsehood or breach of promise." The " Golden Alphabet" of the Tamul Matron Avveyar is a string of sententious aphorisms, incul capacity and benevolent disposition, experience happily assures me; there can be no more certain, no more speedy means of her exaltation, than a wide-spread understanding among her people of the eternal principles upon which Justice is founded; for these once thoroughly realized, and acknowledged and received by men, not through persuasion but upon conviction, they cannot but see their obligation to conform to those principles in every relation of life; and their belief, being the offspring of settled and satisfied reason, must, with God's blessing, eventuate in living action, producing peace on earth, good will towards men; and the first step towards such a consummation as that which I have been endeavouṛing to demonstrate to you, is rightly to conceive of Jurisprudence, the foundation of universal Law, of which Cicero in his Republic thus eloquently speaks : Cicero. "This Law cannot be contradicted by any other Law; and is not liable either to derogation or abrogation. Neither the Senate nor the people can give us any dispensation for not obeying this universal law of Justice. It needs no other expositor and interpreter than conscience. It is not one thing at Rome, and another at Athens; one thing to-day and another to-morrow; but in all times and in all nations this universal law must for ever reign, eternal and imperishable. It is the Sovereign Master and cating moral principles common to all the world. The ethical work of Tiruvallevar is replete with the loftiest sentiments. What Christian but must be struck with the following, "Defer not virtue to another day; receive her now and at thy dying hour she'll prove thy never-dying friend." What is this but the Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth and in thine old age he will not forget thee? Kabilar Agaval has most effectually exposed the irrationality of Caste; and the concluding maxim of Avveyar, if it be not an interpolation, is at once so remarkable and beautiful a parallel to the Christian doctrine of doing good to those that despitefully use us, that I cannot refrain from quoting it from a poetical paraphrase of much merit, which will be found in Perceval's Land of the Vedas: “As trees afford a cool refreshing shade, Till by the ringing axe in ruin laid To mortals shrinking from the scorching heat, As far as can be good for evil give, And acts of kindness to their foes repeat. Hooker. SOPHOCLES. SIDNEY SMYTH. HOOKER. 290 Emperor of all beings. God himself is its author, its promulgator, its enforcer. And he who does not obey it flies from himself, and does violence to the very Sophocles. nature of man;" (1)-which Sophocles sublimely characterizes in the passage selected for a motto to this Lecture ;-of which Sidney Smyth wrote. "Truth is its hand-maid; freedom is its child; peace is it's companion; safety walks in its steps, victory follows in its train: it is the brightest emanation of the Gospel; it is the greatest attribute of God; it is the centre round which human motives and passions turn: and Justice, sitting on high, sees genius, and power, and wealth, and birth, revolving round her throne, and teaches their paths, and marks out their orbits, and warns with a loud voice, and rules with a strong arm, and carries order and discipline into a world, which, but for her, would only be a wild waste of passions;" and which Hooker thus magnificently personifies: “There can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power; both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." 1. "Est quidem vera lex, recta ratio, naturæ congruens, diffusa in omnes, constans, sempiterna; quæ vocet ad officium jubendo, vetande a fraude deterreat: quæ tamen neque probos frustra jubet aut vetat, nec imbrobos jubendo aut vetando movet. Huic legi nec obrogari fas est, neque derogari ex hac aliquid licet, neque tota abrogari potest. Nec vero aut per populum solvi hac lege possumus. Neque est quærendus explanator, aut interpres ejus alius. Nec erit alia lex Romæ, alia Athenis; alia nunc, alia posthac; sed et omnes gentes, et omni tempore una lex, et sempiterna, et immortalis continebit; unusque erit communis quasi magister, et imperator omnium Deus. Ille legis hujus inventor, disceptator lator; cui qui non parebit, ipse se fugiet, ac naturam hominis aspernabitur; atque hoc ipso luet maximas pœnas, etamsi cætera supplicia, quæ putantur, effugerit." Cicero, Fragm. be Rep. L. III. "Right reason" says Philo the Jew " is an unerring Law, not corruptible or lifeless, written by this or that mortal man on paper or inanimate pillars; but incorruptible, and engraved by an immortal nature on an immortal mind." ADDRESS delivered on the Opening of Govindoo Naidoo's School: 1865. MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN,-The institution of a new school is always an event fraught with pleasurable considerations, and generally with some anxieties, to the reflecting and philanthrophic mind. But on the present occasion, there is, perhaps, little or no room for any mixture of anxiẹty; for this Seminary will not have to undergo any of the struggles or difficulties which beset the path of most young educational institutions; it is an off-shoot from a well established parent: it will be guided by the same fostering and paternal care, intelligence, and honorable independence, as has given PATCHEAPPAH'S Central School its high characer and position: its numbers are already nearly full, large as those numbers are:-at its very birth it has reached its full growth, as Minerva is fabled to have sprung up from the head of Jove. And if only one half the care and zeal and energy which have characterized the long labours of Mr. LOVERY, the Principal, and the Masters of PATCHEAPPAH's, be brought to bear upon GOVINDOO's School, I cannot doubt of its fortune and success. On a late occasion, I stated the reasons which induced me to urge on the members of PATCHEAPPAH's Charities, the expediency of separating the school into two parts. I will not reiterate those arguments; but content myself with stating that, in addition to getting out of the difficulty of dealing with so overgrown a bulk as that of the Central School, fuller justice is thus done to the benevolence of GOVINDOO NAICK, and a more stimulating example afforded to the charity of other Native gentlemen; for, long as PATCHEAPPAH's and GOVINDOO's charities were ad norable Sir Colley Harman Scotland, Chief Justice. INDIA IN A TRANSITION STATE. ministered in one and the same school, the lesser light was somewhat obscured by the greater; and the benevolence, of GOVINDOO NAICK forgotten in the presence of the more startling munificence of PATCHEAPPAH. The boys who form this school are of such very tender years, that it would be manifestly of little use were I to address myself personally to them; and I propose therefore to dedicate the brief time at my disposal to the expression of certain considerations which appear to me to be appropriate, at the present moment, to the cause of Native Education generally. I will not take up your time by descanting on either the objects or the advantages of general education. The subject is trite and well worn; and we have abundant proof in the immense numbers annually offering themselves for examination, that the Natives are quite alive to the temporal benefits which a sound education opens up to them. What I want to impress upon the minds of all who hear me, or who may care to read what I have said, is the allimportant fact, a fact, the significance of which cannot be overrated, that India is at this moment in a transition state. Nay, I will go further; and assert that she is in the progress of one of the most extraordinary and gigantic revolutions which the history of the world has ever seen. You have only to look around you, in whatever direction you will, to satisfy yourselves of the truth of this assertion. If you look at the transfer of the actual Government, from the East India Company to the hands of Her Majesty the Queen; if you look at the amalgamation of our armies; the amalgamation of our leading Courts; at the adjective administration of justice; at the substantive Codes of civil and criminal law; at the more liberal admission of Natives to share in the administration of the country; at the activity of |