I have made the minutest inquiries in all places respecting the results of missions, and have always heard that a baptism is one of the greatest rarities.  The few Christians in India, who here and there form villages of twenty or thirty families, have resulted principally from orphan children, who had been adopted and brought up by the missionaries; but even these require to be supplied with work, and comfortably attended to, in order to prevent them from falling back into their superstitions.

Preaching and tracts are insufficient to make religious doctrine understandable, or to shake the superstitions which have been imbibed in infancy.  Missionaries must live among the people as fathers or friends, labour with them—­in short, share their trials and pleasures, and draw them towards them by an exemplary and unpretending mode of life, and gradually instruct them in a way they are capable of understanding.  They ought not to be married to Europeans for the following reasons:—­European girls who are educated for missionaries frequently make this their choice only that they be provided for as soon as possible.  If a young European wife has any children, if she is weak or delicate, they are then unable to attend any longer to their calling, and require a change of air, or even a journey to Europe.  The children also are weak, and must be taken there, at latest in their seventh year.  Their father accompanies them, and makes use of this pretext to return to Europe for some time.  If it is not possible to undertake this journey, they go to some mountainous country, where it is cooler, or he takes his wife and family to visit a Mela. {287} At the same time, it must be remembered that these journeys are not made in a very simple manner:  as mine has been, for instance; the missionary surrounds himself with numerous conveniences; he has palanquins carried by men, pack-horses, or camels, with tents, beds, culinary, and table utensils; servants and maids in sufficient number.  And who pays for all this?  Frequently poor credulous souls in Europe and North America, who often deny themselves the necessaries of life, that their little savings may be squandered in this way in distant parts of the world.

If the missionaries were married to natives, the greater part of these expenses and requirements would be unnecessary; there would be few sick wives, the children would be strong and healthy, and would not require to be taken to Europe.  Schools might be established here and there for their education, although not in such a luxurious manner as those at Calcutta.

I hope that my views may not be misunderstood; I have great respect for missionaries, and all whom I have known were honourable men, and good fathers; I am also convinced that there are many learned men among them, who make valuable contributions to history and philosophy, but whether they thus fulfil their proper object is another question.  I should consider that a missionary has other duties than those of a philosopher.