পাতা:দর্শন দীপিকা.djvu/১৫৩

[ ৯৬ ] an age of ignorance, should hardly be tolerated in times of enlightenment, if the privilege of thinking and acting for themselves were precluded in the reign of despotism, a servile obedience to injurious institutions should not be the order of the day now, it would be an abuse of the social reform, which is appearing in our country, and an insult to the good sense of the rising generation to remain idle and inactive, where there is such spacious field for exertion, the time has arrived for the exercise of discrimination and judgment for the assertion of mental liberty. It calls upon us to shakc off a blind attachment to those pernicious customs which have been imposed upon our observance, by craft or prejudice, and to institute and uphold others more likely to promote the well-being of society, our character as a nation, our happiness as individuals, and our duty as responsible beings demand it, and as every advantage which might accrue to us from exertions in other respects would prove futile, unless moral reformation keep pace with intellectual improvement that should be our first consideration. It would betray a culpable indifference, to the interests of our country to neglect it. I am aware that difficulties by no