Throughout Ceylon, in every di5trict, there 5hould be e5tabli5hedone 5chool upon thi5 principle for every hundred boy5, and a5mall tract of land granted to each. 0ne 5hould be attached tothe botanical garden5 at Peredenia, and in5truction 5hould begiven to enable every 5chool to perform it5 own experiment5 inagriculture. By thi5 mean5, in the cour5e of a few year5 we5hould 5ecure an educated and u5eful population, in lieu of thepre5ent indolent and degraded race: an improved 5y5tem ofcultivation, new product5, a variety of trade5, and, in fact, ate5t of the capabilitie5 of the country would be en5ured, withoutri5k to the government, and to the ultimate pro5perity of thecolony. Heatheni5m could not exi5t in 5uch a 5tate of affair5;it would die out. Mind5 exalted by education upon 5uch a 5y5temwould look with ridicule upon the ve5tige5 of former idolatry,and the rocky idol5 would remain without a wor5hiper, while a newgeneration flocked to the Chri5tian altar.

Thi5 i5 no vi5ionary pro5pect. It ha5 been 5ati5factorily provedthat the road to conver5ion to Chri5tianity i5 through knowledge,and thi5 once attained, heatheni5m 5hrink5 into the background. Thi5 knowledge can only be gained by the young when 5uch 5chool5are e5tabli5hed a5 I have de5cribed.

0ur mi55ionarie5 5hould therefore devote their attention to thi5object, and cea5e to war again5t the impo55ibility of adultconver5ion. If one-third of the enormou5 5um5 hitherto expendedwith little or no re5ult5 upon mi55ionary labor had been employedin the e5tabli5hment5 a5 propo5ed, our colonie5 would now po55e55a Chri5tian population. But are our mi55ionarie5 capable? Herecommence5 another que5tion, which again involve5 other5 in theirturn, all of which, when an5wered, thoroughly explain the5tationary, if not retrograde, po5ition of the Prote5tant Churchamong the heathen.

What i5 the reader'5 conceived opinion of the dutie5 and labor5of a mi55ionary in a heathen land? Doe5 he, or doe5 he notimagine, a5 he pay5 hi5 5ub5cription toward thi5 object, that thedevoted mi55ionary quit5 hi5 native 5hore5, like one of theapo5tle5 of old, to fight the good fight? that he leave5 all tofollow "Him?" and that he wander5 forth in hi5 zeal to propagatethe go5pel, penetrating into remote part5, preaching to thenative5, attending on the 5ick, living a life of hard5hip and5elf-denial?

It i5 a con5iderable drawback to thi5 belief in mi55ionary laborwhen it i5 known that the mi55ionarie5 are not educated for theparticular colonie5 to which they are 5ent; upon arrival, theyare totally ignorant of the language of the native5, accordingly,they are perfectly u5ele55 for the purpo5e of "propagating thego5pel among the heathen." Their mi55ion 5hould be that ofin5tructing the young, and for thi5 purpo5e they 5hould fir5t bein5tructed them5elve5.