This is precisely the kind of education which is required; and it
has already been attended with results most beneficial on its
limited scale.
This school is conducted on the principle that the time of every
boy shall not only be of service to himself, but shall likewise
tend to the support of the establishment. The children are
accordingly instructed in such pursuits as shall be the means of
earning a livelihood in future years: some are taught a trade,
others are employed in the cultivation of gardens, and
subsequently in the preparation of a variety of produce. Among
others, the preparation of tapioca from the root of the manioc
has recently been attended with great success. In fact, they are
engaged during their leisure hours in a variety of experiments,
all of which tend to an industrial turn of mind, benefiting not
only the lad and the school, but also the government, by
preparing for the future men who will be serviceable and
industrious in their station.
Here is a lesson for the government which, if carried out on an
extensive scale, would work a greater change in the colony within
the next twenty years than all the preaching of the last fifty.
Throughout Ceylon, in every district, there should be established
one school upon this principle for every hundred boys, and a
small tract of land granted to each. One should be attached to
the botanical gardens at Peredenia, and instruction should be
given to enable every school to perform its own experiments in
agriculture. By this means, in the course of a few years we
should secure an educated and useful population, in lieu of the
present indolent and degraded race: an improved system of
cultivation, new products, a variety of trades, and, in fact, a
test of the capabilities of the country would be ensured, without
risk to the government, and to the ultimate prosperity of the
colony. Heathenism could not exist in such a state of affairs;
it would die out. Minds exalted by education upon such a system
would look with ridicule upon the vestiges of former idolatry,
and the rocky idols would remain without a worshiper, while a new
generation flocked to the Christian altar.
This is no visionary prospect. It has been satisfactorily proved
that the road to conversion to Christianity is through knowledge,
and this once attained, heathenism shrinks into the background.
This knowledge can only be gained by the young when such schools
are established as I have described.
Our missionaries should therefore devote their attention to this
object, and cease to war against the impossibility of adult
conversion. If one-third of the enormous sums hitherto expended
with little or no results upon missionary labor had been employed
in the establishments as proposed, our colonies would now possess
a Christian population.
