পাতা:দর্শন দীপিকা.djvu/৬৫

{ 8 || At such a moment; I §ay teeming with an accumulation of evils, that menace with destruction, our very existence in the East:--Is it wise, is it politic, isit even safe, to institutea war of sentiment against the only friends of any importance, we seem to have yet left on India, our faithful subjects of the Ganges; by suffering Missionaries, or our ewn Clergy, to preach among them, the errors of idolatry and superstition; and thus, disseminating throughout the public mind, the sceds of distrust and disaffection, to the imminent danger of every energy of the State : Hitherto, this result has been happily obviated, by the tolerant conduct of our Governors in the „East; judiciously seconded by the executive servants of the Company; in due attention and indulgence to the customs, the prejudices and religious rites of the natives of every description. Jf we believe, with Mr. Buchanan, that “it is an imperious duty, exacted by bur Religion,” to proceed in the work of reformation; a reservation, I persume, must be understood, in favour of that trite but prudent maxim, that “self-preservation is the first law of Nature:” and though this maxiña segms to have no place in Mr. 3Buchanan's system of reformation : yet, as we are