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

CHAP. VI.] PATTON AND REID. 309

the Parsi members of the society the Hindu members also took up with laudable zeal the question of the education of their young women. They also taught gratuitously in the Marathi schools, which were established at the same time as the Parsi. The professors of the Elphinstone Institution, who were connected with the Students’ Society, took great interest in these endeavours; and their encouragement and guidance contributed in no small degree to their success. The future generation of Parsi women will ever remember the names of Patton and Reid with gratitude and respect.

For the first six months instruction in the schools was given by volunteer teachers, and well and creditably did they perform the task which they had accepted of their own accord. The following welldeserved eulogy was passed upon their labours in the first report of the society :—

“The prudence and caution which these youthful reformers displayed in applying themselves to the laborious details of their self-imposed task were as admirable as the generous enthusiasm which sustained them throughout its performance. Carefully did they prepare themselves for their duties, by reading every work on practical education within their reach, and by holding frequent meetings to consider how they might best instruct the children that were entrusted to their care. Their design was not simply to teach reading and writing, but to

give such an education as would have an influence on the whole character.”

The schools being thus firmly established, the