This page has been validated.
PREFACE.
The author ventures with much diffidence to make an humble contribution to the stock of public information on India and the Hindus.
It has not been his aim to tell all that could be told of India; this would call for folios. Nor has he attempted to give a popular compend of the whole vast subject; this would demand a volume whose size and style would defeat his object; and, moreover, it has already been ably done by authors in this country and in England. He has rather aimed, by a series of sketches, simply and familiarly drawn, to give some definite impressions on a number of points connected with that interesting land and its teeming millions; and more especially
3
