New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-11-06
MENrAL SECL USI0Y IN LNDLA.
From The Snecint0r


So far as we knay no man has recorded this, tho
pleasantest of Z o. rhe many speclalitles In tho
native mind,-an inexhaustible AMOUNT OF grave.
sweet easily -moved humorousness. But IN ms most
facile moments the Indian never unocks MS NINA;
never puts il to yours, never reveals MS real
thought never stands NUN ms real anu Ynn
may know n bit of it, the dominant passion, tne
ruling temper, even the reIgnlng prejudice, but
never the whole of it. After the intercourse OF
years your Indian friend knows you better, per-
maps, than you know yourself, especially on Your
weaker side but you only know HIM as you know
character in secOnd-rate novel, that Is, know aS
much as the author has been able 70 reveal, but
never quite the whole. In eXceptOnal cases. quHe
exceptional you may know rs much rs you Know
of Hamlet, know much, that Is, that you cOn!d
write book OF reflections upon the character 6ut
YOU will still be aware OF the supreme pnLllc, tEas
Won know all of Hamlet but Hamlet; Ihis s"clu-
sion of the mind is universal runs through every
grade exists under any intimacy, and Is acknOwl-
edged by every thoughtful European IN lndla about
those natives upon whom he relies often lnstlhaDy.
with a confidence as profound as his reliance upon
the most Trustworthy of his English friends; and
we believe the testimony OF one or the lew cul-
tivated Europeans who ever lived happily Win
native wife, that il extend, to both sexes. ne
why of this mental seclusOn. the cause which M
duces native of India, intelligent lnqusltive, and
hungry for knowledge, not only able TO converse,
but eager to converse, TO keep his nina IN
casket is the single puzzle OF the situation when
so perplexes The Times and every one of the very
few Europeans who has so far overcome the sens,
of despair and bewiderment always excited ny
the immensely OF the native problem, so as to look
the perplexIty fairly in the Iace.
We certainly cannot solve 10, though we, are
going to state in all humility theory in which we
believe which. if correct. partly explains II. and
which will, at least interest the DREAMER minus
among our readers We doubt if any European
ever fully realizes how great the mental effect Of tho
segrrgativeness tho separation into atoms Oh
Indian society continued, II has been, for three
thousand unbrOken years, has actually been; We
sneak of that society divided into castles, but 10
Is. and has always BEEN dIyi ed into far mora
minute divisions or crystals, each In way COM
Lt,fa ahGnln tpIV IL
Dor by rules laws, preudices. traditions and prin-
cples of ceremonial purity, which, IN the aggre-
gate form impossible lines of demarkation. lt Is
not the European to whom the Indian will not
reveal himself but mankind, outside circle usually
wonderfully small, and often a single family from
whom he mentally retreats. His first prcoccupa-
ton in life is to keep his caste, his separaeneSs,
his ceremonial purity, from any contact with any
other equally separate crystal and in that preorcu
patton, permanent and ll-absOrbng for thousands
of years he has learnt to shroud his inner mind I'll
in revealing il lac feels as if he were revealing
some shrine which it Is blasphemy 10 open, as II
he had earned from Heaven the misfortune he
thinks sure to follow.