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Leader (1850-1860), 26th March 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 397

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    • LITERATURE-SCIENCE, ART, &c
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      Literature-Science, Art, &C

      LITERATURE-SCIENCE , ART , &c

      Untitled Article

      CHRISTIANITY IX IXDIA . ¦ Christianity in Jntliu . An Historical Narrative . By John ^ yilliaIn Kayo . Smith , Elder , and Co . Of all subjects at the present time , this is perhaps the most ' important to an Englishman ; and we may esteem it a great happiness that it has fallen into the hands of one so competent to all the relations of the great argument as Mr . Kaye . To a thorough knowledge of India , -Mr . Kaye adds much power of eloquence , ¦ which , when there , is occasion , illuminates these pages with remarkable ' radiance . As an example of this , we might instance , his narrative' of the heroic missionary efforts of the Jesuit , ' Francis Xavier , which is as line a piece of writing as we have met with ,. in its ; way . "With the mission of this extraordinary man ¦ ' properly begins the history . ; . all events prior to ' tliat period' are fabulous or mythical . The . story- ' of St . Thomas having been an apostle here is ' simply a mistake ; it relates to a St . 'Thomas of < the eighth century , not of the first . * The greatest enemies of Christianity in India * have been Christians themselves . Their * conduct , ? so inconsistent with their profession , and so in- J famous in itself , is of a nature to make one shudder . The natives summed it up in one sentence- of ' broken English— "Christianreligion , devil religion ; - j Christian much drunk ; Christian much do wrong ; } much beat and abuse others . ' Wo regret to add ' that this saying - was especially triio of the Pro- ' tcstnnts ; against . the Romanist very di'flerent ( chorees lmve to be brought . - Soon after Xnvier had accomplished marvels in J Syria , and died , Rome began to spoil the work he had done , after her usual tiishion , She contested . the supremacy of the Patriarch of Babylon . She i came down liko , a wolfon the fold upon the doomed < Indian Churches . More than one Syrian prolate « expiated their alleged heresies in the dungeons of < the Inquisition . " Don Alexis tie Mene / . os , iirch- < bishop of OJoa , conducted tlie work of persecution i with stern cruelty ; declaring the . supremacy of the ] Roman 1 ' ontin" , and excommunicating the patri- i arch , Sixty years of servitude and hypocrisy , 1 according to Gibbon , suceuoded . Hut as soon as < the Portuguese empivo was shaken by the courage < and industry of the Dutch , the Nostorians asserted i the religion of their fathers . i Jtir ) , however , on the eastern coast thnt the t movements of the tjosuitrt had to be traced . The 1 time of the strange , drama that they enacted was t the Hownteonth century . In the regions wnterod < by tho Ganges , t . hey were disheartened and re- t piilsod , but in the Southern Peninsula tlu » y had , I according to their own account , marvellous nucoeaa . i They sought their convert * nmong the JBrnhinann , fc and for that purpose n .-umnud the disguise of TJrnhimna , oalling themselves Wontorn IJnvhinans . i u They shrank , " says our author , "from no amount i of lnboiu ' 7— from ' no HuH ' ering- — from no humiliation , c They turned aside from tl ' w prtuitloo of no deceit j —from tho oxereiso of no hypocrisy . They lied in ' word and they lied in notion . " Following this j nl ' umous plan of diHsiinuIutii > : > , they mixed , with h

      . the . people ; talked their language , adopted tlie'Ii customs , and countenanced their superstitions . " Clothed in the sacerdotal yellow cloth , with the mark of sandal wood on tlieir foreheads , their long hair streaming down their backs , their copper vessels in their bands , their wooden sandals on -the'ii feet , these "New Brahnians . " ' . found acceptance among the people , and wereweleonied by the princes of Southern India . They performed their ablutions with scrupulous regularity ; they ate no animal food ; they drank no intoxicating liquors , but found in the simple fare of vegetables and milk at once a disguise and a-protection . " The Christians had hitherto appeared upon the scene , eating and drinking—gluttonous and wine-bibbers—and they had paid penalty of an addiction to those feverish stimulants undei the burning copper skies of tlie East . The holy men who now wandered half-naked among the . nativ . es oi ¦ "Southern India * ' and , sitting on their haunches , ate the common fare of the country , braved the climate . with comparative immunity , and were not suspected oi fellowship with the sensual Europeans ,, who had turned Goa into a style of corruption . Whether it was necessary to the due simulation of the IJrahnianical character to preserve in all other respects very great purity of lite , may-be left to all who are acquainted-with-. the habits of that priestly class to conjecture for themselves . " The whole affair was a pretence and an hypocrisy ; for instance , ' . under-the . . pretext' of administering medicine to them , they baptised all the dying children . Their notion was to save virtual proselytes by the magic of priestcraf t . The Clu-istianity of Madura , so taught , was mere idolatry , and disguised . itself as a ^ b-oitJy as the priests who taught'In Instead of attempting to break down caste , they made a parade of it m their own behoof , dec-larinsr that they were . sprung from the head of Brahma " himself , * The high-caste Christians and the low-caste Christians were suffered to worship apart . They could not pray in the same temple Dr dip their fingers in the same holy water . The Jesuits' method of converting the heathen was by jecomin g themselves heathens . At length the fraud exploded , and the contests betwixt the Dutch and L ' ortu- 'mese brought the whole matter to a prcmaure close . It had no : root in truth , nud perished it the slightest collision . Tlie Dutch merchants , f they did not encourage the Malabar Christians , ' sheltered them against the rapacity of the Jesuits ; and the dawn of the eighteenth century bund the authority of Rome a mere shadow among -he Syrian churches , " Tho ruin of the Jesuit missions n Southern India was accomplished , in time , by a intural internal process , rather than by any mtSvard violence . The " New IJrahinans" were letected at last . They wore found to be only Peringhces in disguise , suul tho natives rejected their ministrations with anger and contempt . The first Protestant church was erected in Madras , in 1 (> K 1 , by one Stroynshnm Master , a levoi . it man , and ch ' ief of the factory ; in 1718 , mother was erected in Bombay . More decency ) f life had commenced among the settlor * , but true Christianity was of tardy growth . At the boginling of , tho eighteenth century , however , England , vn . s consociatcd with the Hollander and the Dane , n missionary enterpri . se . Of the last named , Unr-; holumcw Ziegenbalg , and Henry Plutrtyiho , two listinguirthod men , undertook not to baptize , but to onvort tho heathen . They trn ? jdhited tho JJiblo nto the vulgar tongue of tlie natives , the Taimi-I ; md in due course this words , nt iirst punctured on ; ho ]) rimitive ]> almyra leaf , were perpetuated by neans of the printing press . At first paper win not io bo procured . " The inksiomirhn looked tlio UnU-ulty boldly in tne face , mid iimrio paper lor : heniselves . " ' The iiuiup , <"" , »« " l ' ru » lurick Schwartz ; , in honourably distin , u ; idHhod iu that ot i religious labourer iiw nviirly hall a century m Southern India . _ DurhiKuIl this liim ' , howevur , nn < l long aflorv ,, r , lfi—during ( he period * over which Hasting : * md Clivo presided—tlie conduot of European sojiety wan nuwt iinnioral . Tim gnwwosjt soi'ial vices ) revailedi ' » lruiikoin > i'nn , foncubina ^ o , unil worwu . k JtAva « ol'lUtio UHO to think of diritttianiuing tho ) ooplo , until the Knglirth in India had begun in omo ineiuuii'o to Christianity tliemselveo . " Isovop-

      Untitled Article

      LITERAHY CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK . The secret offer to the Literary Fund , communicated through Messrs . Dickens and Elwyn ( the Editor of the Quarterly ) , is understood to be a lirtre sum of money -offered by a benevolent lady , in addition-to the fund remaining over and above from the hitherto unsuccessful proceedings oi the Guild of Literature and Art , This sum of money having remained inactive nil this time upon their handsT and amounting , it is said , to about £ -5 , 000 , Mr . Dickens and his iriends have more than once tried to induce the Committee of the Literary Fund to accept , it—under ponditions ; and what those . conditions have been it is not difficult to imagine , seeing that Mr . Dickens has long been urging upon th ^ subscribers to the Fund a series of reformatory moasures not agreeable to the committee . We do not purpose to enter into that ( question now ; all that wo can do us , to inform the reader of the nature of this new movement , which has diverted , for a -tims ' , the thunder of Mr . Dickens and his friends from the heads of the Committee of the Literary Fund . The moetin . n appointed for Wednesday last , when Mr . Dickens and Mr . Elwyn were to ¦ communicate the nature , of the proposal to the Committee , proved quite abortive ; for no sooner hail the gentlemen met , than some ingenious ' person started a preliminary question , whether they had a right to meet for such a purpose ; and after some consideration it was decided that , according to the provisions of their Charter , they had not ; and , consequently , as : nought' could be done , and nought could be said , Lord Lansdow . rie * Lord Mahon , and the , rest of the noble and distinguished com ' initteemen . retired . A curious instance this of the value of forms . The " Vestiges " . question hiis taken a new form , and lias developed itself in an unexpected manner ; bidding fair to be the greatest literary cause ccUbre sine . ;! Juniu .-s . Tlie Critic , which makes itself very busy in all such matters , this week prints a formal document signed by Dr . James Coxe , the nephew of George Combe , and one of his ¦ literary executors , and written , it is alleged , with the full concurrence of his co-executors , in which the imputation of authorship to George Combe is most emphatically and strenuously denied . . , " Mr . George Combe" says Dr . Coxe , "knew nothing of the ' Vestiges ' till he saw a published copy of the work ; and we are confident that he never , by word , look , or silent acquiescence , knowingly gave tlie slightest countenance to the supposition that he was its author , or had taken any part whatever in its production .. " This statement is strong , but it proves rather too much . How can any man pronounce absolutely upon what another knows or does not know , or has seen or not seen ? It is impossible . And then , in opposition to the denial of his ever having given " the slightest countenance to the supposition that ho was its author , " oven by | ' silent acquiescence , " we have IVofessor Owen ' s evidence , thivt in his letters to Combo ho always treated him as the author , and lie never denied the assumption in his replies . Two other events hi connexion with the question are tho emphatic denhil of Professor NioUoloi ' any complicity in the authorship , coupled with an announcement thivt he will shortly publish u work-in which tho views of the " Vestiges" will ho refuted ; and Mr . JDurid- l ' ugo ' s onrphji ' nntiertion , that " Mr . Kobei-fc Chambers is ' the Sole and responsible author of the book . " No new books of marked importance have cither nppcaredor been announced . Two additions to the cheap popular prow * lire spoken of ; one a penny Bull s Life , to appear twice a week , and the other , nn JSugliAh edition of the New York Laiiger , a cLioup periodical on tho pattern of the Family I' lorald , winch has risen in America to a circulation of nearly linjfru-inilljon . Tho liritiiih Museum * luis got two now trustoos . Quo , the Jiev . W . Curuton , of St . Mnrgavet'h , ^ V « stiwinster ,, aud Canon of the Abbey , 4 ip ] K ) inted to tho vacant Royal trusteeship vliich has -boon un ( ille ; l since the death of the old JJuke

      of Cambridge . Mr . Cureton was once employed in the library of the ]\ iuseum , and has gained much , celebrity as a Syriac scholar . It may- be doubted whether -mere scholarship , without the aid of such patronage as that of the FriiiCe Consort , would have led to such a results It is stated that , before this appointment no person outside the pale of the Royal ' Family .-has ever held the post of Royal Trustee to the British 'Museum . Among coming events interesting to the literary world is tlie annual feast of the Literary Fund . It is fixed for "Wednesday , the 18 th of May , and the Right Hon . W . E . Gladstone , tlie . statesman and literary man , who did not pacify the " Isles of Greece , " but did criticise Homer , is to preside . This is always the most interesting , if not the best , dinner of the season . , From Paris we hear that the Emir Abd-el-Kadir has got his Memoirs in the press ; a French literary gentleman having undertaken the task of translating them from the Arabic MSS .

      Untitled Article

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1859, page 397, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2287/page/13/