CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. 151

soit gui mal y pense,.. the stories of the child-Krishna
delight the mother-heart of every Indian woman, the love
of Krishna for Kadha typifies to Indian men and women
that ideal love which Dante felt for Beatrice, and the
love of the soul of man for God ; the teachings of Krishna
in the Gita, are the consolation and guide in life alike of
the learned and unlearned, the 'ISTew Testament' of
Hinduism. Indian dress, again, is 'indecent'; we hear noth-
ing of its beauty, freshness and refinement. But decency
is not intrinsic in one part of the human body, and indecen-
cy in another; the Lord made them all, and saw that they
were good. What constitutes decency at a given time or
with a given people is a social convention, the details of
which depend on a variety of local causes. A number of
English customs appear indecent to the Oriental who-
ignores this point; and it is a fact that the conventional
Englishwoman's dress, with its strong sexual exaggerations-
(pinched waist, small shoes, uncovered neck, etc.), is far
more indecent than any state of nature. But let not the
hearts of Indian men and women be troubled; there is no-
reason why Indians should dress in such a manner as to
spare the tender susceptibilities of European visitors; the
latter, if they are philistine enough not to see the beauty
of our dress, may look the other way.

Of caste, only evil is spoken, its trade-guild and!
eugenic aspects being altogether ignored. It is related
as horrible that men are divided into groups that may not-
intermarry ; as if the situation were not almost identical
in Europe, only there the rank depends more on wealth
than on descent; and as if the missionary did not himself
belong to the most arrogant of Indian castes, the Anglo-
Indian. How many missionaries would care to see their
daughters marry an Indian of any caste ?