You May As Well Try To Turn Pitch Into Snow
As To Eradicate The Dark Stain Of Heathenism From The Present
Race.
Nothing can be done with them; they must be abandoned like
the barren fig-tree, and the more attention bestowed upon the
young shoots.
But, unfortunately, this is a popular error, and, like all such,
one full of prejudice. Abandon the present race! Methinks I hear
the cry from Exeter Hall. But the good people at home have no
idea to what an extent they are at present, and always have been,
abandoned. Where the children who can be educated with success
are neglected at the present day, it may be imagined that the
parents have been but little cared for; thus, in advocating their
abandonment, it is simply proposing an extra amount of attention
to be bestowed upon the next generation.
There are many large districts of Ceylon where no schools of any
kind are established. In the Ouva country, which is one of the
most populous, I have had applications from the natives, begging
me to interest myself in obtaining some arrangement of the kind.
Throngs of natives applied, describing the forlorn condition of
their district, all being not only anxious to send their children
to some place where they could learn free of expense, but
offering to pay a weekly stipend in return. "They are growing up
as ignorant as our young buffaloes," was a remark made by one of
the headmen of the villages, and this within twelve miles of
Newera Ellia.
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