adds: "To persons deluded by ascetic works and by sacrifices I shall show the destruction of all works and sacrifices."

Dr. Rájendralála Mitra enriched me by sending to my lodgings his great work on the Aryan race and that on Buddha-Gaya, which I was about to visit. In one of his volumes I remarked a significant mistranslation of a couplet in an old Methodist hymn:

The world is all a fleeting show

For man's illusion given.

The word in the hymn is delusion, and the meaning is as far from the oriental doctrine of illusion as the East is from the West.1

Although, as I have said, it is rare to find a sceptical Moslem, there is in India a rationalistic sect (Mutarzalite) whose chief interpreter is Syed Ameer Ali. It was pleasant indeed to meet in Calcutta Syed Ameer Ali, whose friendship I had enjoyed in London, and whose ideas were so individual and his spirit so sweet that he had often suggested to me the refined Sufi Mohammedanism of Persia which one breathes in the Rose-Garden of Saadi, the "Gulistan.”

When Syed Ameer Ali was a law student at the Inner Temple, London, he was often at our house; we loved him, and his beautiful spirit seemed to transfuse his face, form, voice, manner,—his entire being. At that time he wrote "A Critical Examination of the Life and Teachings of Mohammed" (1873), which I found a delightful book; it raised all Islam-which I had deemed a hard eastern Calvinism -in my esteem that such a man could love it, and draw so much truth and beauty out of it. I still 1 1906. The hymn is omitted in the new American Methodist hymnal.

SYED AMEER ALI

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regard this little book as the best known to me on the subject.

The young author and barrister - of fairer complexion than most Hindus - fell in love with a young English lady, Miss Kohnstram — who with her mother sometimes came to my chapel, — and his love was requited. Her mother came to converse with my wife and myself about Syed Ameer Ali personally, and asked what I thought of the wisdom of marriage between an English lady and an Indian. How was her or his social position likely to be affected in India? My wife and I had heard nothing about the matter from him, and it was by a spontaneous outburst that we both declared that after knowing him for some years we considered him worthy even of her cultured and fair daughter. For the rest I did not believe that any vulgar race-prejudice would be found in Calcutta among those whose acquaintance could be of any value to either of them.

When I visited Calcutta Ameer Ali was a member of the Supreme Legislative Council. In their beautiful home hearty welcome was given me, though I do not know to this day whether they were aware that I had been consulted about the marriage. I saw that it had proved an ideal marriage; happiness was written on their faces; they were surrounded by the most intellectual people, and could pick and choose their acquaintances in "society."

I should add that I observed several Hindu ladies at receptions in Calcutta, and that there appeared no sign of colour-prejudice. The Hindu ladies must have distinguished themselves by emancipation from the restrictions of the zenana and were rather lionized. But an intermarriage between one of the ruling race and one of the ruled

race, at the very moment when reformers were demanding increased rights for the natives, could hardly fail to excite misgivings of the "conservatives." The personal equation, however, was too potent in this case for any manifestation of religious or race prejudices.1

A gentlemanly young English traveller whom I chanced

1 1906. Ameer Ali has had a unique career. In 1879 he was appointed Chief Presidency Magistrate; he sat for several years in the Bengal Legislative Council, and in 1884 was appointed by Lord Ripon to the Imperial Council; he was created by Lord Dufferin Companion of the Indian Empire; in 1890 he was at Lord Lansdowne's request appointed a Justice of the High Court. In all of these positions Ameer Ali's services were universally recognized, and at the same time he has written works of the most painstaking character and the highest value: "The Mahommedan Law;" "Personal Law of the Mahommedans; " "The Spirit of Islâm;" "The Ethics of Islâm;" "A Short History of the Saracens." In 1904 Justice Ameer Ali retired from the bench and is at present in England (where his sons are at college) and engaged on a History of Mahommedan Civilization in India." He is the only Mohammedan author, and it is a happy event that he can devote himself to literature.

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From the Dufferins and from Sir William Hunter I heard of the high esteem in which Justice Ali and his wife were held. Their house was a favourite social centre, and Mrs. Ameer Ali's Friday receptions and her parties always drew the best people together.

Another intermarriage which much interested me was that of the late Sir Mutu Cumara Swamy of Ceylon with a beautiful lady of my London chapel (Miss Elizabeth Beeby). To this I have alluded in my seventh chapter in connection with the brilliant entertainments given me by his nephews. These gentlemen are now the chief representatives of the ancient ruling race - Tamil — in Ceylon. The widow of Sir Mutu I remember returning to London with her pretty little boy; and by a letter I have just received from Hon. P. Arunáchalam I learn that this boy, Ananda Cumara Swamy, has made a name for himself in Science (D. Sc. Lond., F. L. S, F. S. S.), and is now employed in Ceylon as Director of the Mineralogical Survey. He has also edited, in connection with another able man, W. A. de Silva, "The Ceylon National Review," an organ of the Ceylon Social Reform Society, which aims to prevent the Sinhalese and Tamils from being westernized or Christianized, and to liberate women from the social seclusion (the "purdah, in India "zenana") which was "borrowed from the Mohammedan conquerors of India."