In Fact, They Are
Engaged During Their Leisure Hours In A Variety Of Experiments,
All Of Which Tend To An Industrial Turn Of Mind, Benefiting Not
Only The Lad And The School, But Also The Government, By
Preparing For The Future Men Who Will Be Serviceable And
Industrious In Their Station.
Here is a lesson for the government which, if carried out on an
extensive scale, would work a greater change in the colony within
the next twenty years than all the preaching of the last fifty.
Throughout Ceylon, in every district, there should be established
one school upon this principle for every hundred boys, and a
small tract of land granted to each. One should be attached to
the botanical gardens at Peredenia, and instruction should be
given to enable every school to perform its own experiments in
agriculture. By this means, in the course of a few years we
should secure an educated and useful population, in lieu of the
present indolent and degraded race: an improved system of
cultivation, new products, a variety of trades, and, in fact, a
test of the capabilities of the country would be ensured, without
risk to the government, and to the ultimate prosperity of the
colony. Heathenism could not exist in such a state of affairs;
it would die out. Minds exalted by education upon such a system
would look with ridicule upon the vestiges of former idolatry,
and the rocky idols would remain without a worshiper, while a new
generation flocked to the Christian altar.
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