On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
sitory" on the controversy between Rarnmohun Roy and the Baptist Missionaries .
lii a population of one hundred n , j [ . Kons , a single individual arises to stay " if possible , a destroying angel of darfcl nes 3 that scatters misery over the land . In such a population a hundred lives saved in course of a few years would hardly be noticed j yet what an object the saving of one life must be to the philanthropist ! That Rammohun Roy ' s writings have been the
•• Though there are many points of discussion which in the every day business of life we must unavoidably pass over—still we would fain as much as in us lies , keep the rule in view of Quicquid agunt homines nostri farrago Jibelli . 4
< On this principle alone we should have deemed it our duty to have submitted to our readers , the article which forms our principal Asiatic selection for this day's number ; we
have , however , been swayed by reasons of a higher nature than that to which we have alluded . The article in question is entitled to great consideration , with reference to the history of the human mind in the East .
* Though hitherto we have not in our paper , in any detailed manner , adverted to the labours of that distinguished Native , Rammohun Roystill , we have been no disinterested spectator of them . We say
distinguished , because he is so among his own people , by caste , rank , and respectability ; and among all men he must ever be distinguished for his philanthropy , his great learning , and his intellectual ascendancy in general . As a man who has cut no mean figure
in the republic of letters , and in the walks of philosophical inquiry , we have a right thus publicly to mention Rammohun Roy ; and it is necessary that we should claim this right , lest it
might be deemed indelicate in us to refer too pointedly to a person whose great modesty of itself is an evidence of high genius , and certainly enhances its gift .
** Rammohun Roy is pretty well known to the public in general , by his benevolent efforts to abolish the abominable practice of widow-burning . What effect his writings to that end may have produced , we have no certain criterion of judging . If
concrenaatiou of the living has not very apparently decreased since his works , exposing the absurdity and wickedness of the practice , appeared , let us not hastily infer from this that they have not produced effect somewhere . Let us rather consider the immense field of mind over which the seed was to be strown by one single unassisted hand .
Untitled Article
means of saving some lives we doubt not , for we understand that there are now many respectable Natives convinced by his arguments ; and it is not to be questioned but this conviction must be beneficial , is on the increase , and must in its increase
weaken the bonds of superstition and ruurderous custom , and set their captives free . For our own parts , we regret extremely that these writings were not spread forth among the people as much as possible * It is , however , impracticable for one man to give
sufficient currency to them . Were a committee of wealthy Natives to take the subject into consideration , much good might be effected ; and we cannot help thinking that Christian Missionaries might do as much good by
republishing and distributing the appeals against these human sacrifices , as by doling out tracts upon doctrinal and practical * Christianity which the Natives wo ' n't read , or , which reading fail to move them a jot from the religion of their fathers .
" In addition to his efforts to put a stop to a most horrid practice , Rammohun Roy endeavoured to improve the moral condition of his countrymen , by making them acquainted with the sublime ethics of the Christian system . Whatever might have been his ideas respecting the mysteries of
Christianity with reference to its Founder and his miracles , he appears to have held only one opinion respecting his precepts . He , and so must every one who studies them , considered them as incorporating the best system of moral law ever delivered to mankind . Accordingly , he selected out of the sacred books which contain his history ,
as it has come down to our , The Precepts of Jesus , and under that ? We presume the Editor of the Gazette here refers to the cerem onial practices upon which some are disposed lay so much stress . —Ed . of V * R >
Untitled Article
478 Rammohun Rot / .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1825, page 478, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2539/page/24/
-