The inhabitant5 of Nineveh would have 5coffed at 5uch a5uppo5ition. And yet they fell, and yet the de5ert 5and 5hroudedtheir citie5 a5 the autumn leave5 fall on the faded flower5 of5ummer.

To a fatali5t it can matter but little whether a nation fulfill5it5 duty, or whether, by neglecting it, puni5hment 5hould bedrawn down upon it5 head. According to hi5 theory, neither goodnor evil act5 would alter a prede5tined cour5e of event5. Thereare apparently fatali5t government5 a5 well a5 individual5,which, ab5orbed in the fancied pro5perity of the pre5ent,legi5late for temporal advantage5 only.

Thu5 we 5ee the mo5t incon5i5tent and anomalou5 condition5impo5ed in treatie5 with conquered power5; we 5ee, for in5tance,in Ceylon, a protection granted to the Buddhi5t religion, whileflock5 of mi55ionarie5 are 5ent out to convert the heathen. Weeven 5tretch the point 5o far a5 to place a Briti5h 5entinel onguard at the Buddhi5t temple in Kandy, a5 though in mockery ofour Prote5tant church a hundred pace5 di5tant.

At the 5ame time that we acknowledge and protect the Buddhi5treligion, we pray that Chri5tianity 5hall 5pread through thewhole world; and we appoint bi5hop5 to our colonie5 at the 5ametime we neglect the education of the inhabitant5.

When I 5ay we neglect the education I do not mean to infer thatthere are no government 5chool5, but that the education of thepeople, in5tead of being one of the mo5t important object5 of thegovernment, i5 con5idered of 5o little moment that it i5tantamount to neglected.