History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

302 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS, [cuap. v1.

Parsis is a fact which cannot be controverted. The difference between the Parsis of fifty years ago and those of the present day is all the result of English education and of intercourse with Englishmen.

Our educated men have, almost without exception, been remarkable for the purity of their conduct, while the disinterestedness of their views, their honesty of purpose, their love for their countrymen, and their high moral courage have excited unanimous praise from all who have been brought into contact with them. To spread generally among their less fortunate brethren the enlightenment and knowledge which they have received through the means provided by a beneficent Government has been their constant aim and the highest object of their ambition.

A noble band of educated Parsis, most of whom received their education in the Elphinstone Institution and College, have effected, by their disinterested exertions, a great change in the condition of Parsi society. By the establishment of girls’ schools, by the publication of cheap newspapers and magazines; and by public lectures, all more or less calculated to impart information and knowledge to the masses, they have worked such an extraordinary change in the character of their race that whatever we could say in praise of the exertions of the youthful innovators would be inadequate to express our sense

of what they have done. We are content to say that