第 67 节
作者:垃圾王      更新:2021-02-24 22:52      字数:9322
  rticultural Committee which appeared in the second volume of the Transactions after his death。  He there records the great success of the cultivation of the West India arrowroot。  This he introduced into his own garden; and after years of discontinued culture we raised many a fine crop from the old roots。  The old man 〃cannot but advert; with feelings of the highest satisfaction; to the display of vegetables on the 13th January 1830; a display which would have done honour to any climate; or to any; even the most improved system of horticulture。。。The greater part of the vegetables then produced were; till within these last few years; of species wholly unknown to the native gardeners。〃
  When; in 1842; the Agri…Horticultural Society resolved to honour its founder; it appropriately fell to Dr。 Wallich; followed by the president Sir J。 P。 Grant; to do what is thus recorded:〃Dr。 Wallich addressed the meeting at some length; and alluded to the peculiar claims which their late venerable founder had on the affection of all classes for his untiring exertions in advancing the prosperity of India; and especially so on the members of the Society。  He concluded his address by this motion:'That the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India; duly estimating the great and important services rendered to the interests of British India by the founder of the institution; the late Reverend Dr。 William Carey; who unceasingly applied his great talents; abilities; and influence in advancing the happiness of Indiamore especially by the spread of an improved system of husbandry and gardeningdesire to mark; by some permanent record; their sense of his transcendent worth; by placing a marble bust to his memory in the Society's new apartments at the Metcalfe Hall; there to remain a lasting testimony to the pure and disinterested zeal and labours of so illustrious a character: that a subscription; accordingly; from among the members of the Society; be urgently recommended for the accomplishment of the above object。'〃
  One fact in the history of the marble bust of Carey; which since 1845 has adorned the hall of the Agricultural Society of India; would have delighted the venerable missionary。  Following the engraving from Home's portrait; and advised by one of the sons; Nobo Koomar Pal; a self…educated Bengali artist; modelled the clay。  The clay bust was sent to England for the guidance of Mr。 J。 C。 Lough; the sculptor selected by Dr。 Royle to finish the work in marble。 Mr。 Lough had executed the Queen's statue for the Royal Exchange; and the monument with a reclining figure of Southey。  In sending out the marble bust of Carey to Calcutta Dr。 Royle wrote;〃I think the bust an admirable one; General Macleod immediately recognised it as one of your much esteemed Founder。〃
  The Bengal Asiatic Society; on the motion of the Lord Bishop and Colonel Sir Jer。 Bryant; entered these words on their Journal:〃The Asiatic Society cannot note upon their proceedings the death of the Rev。 W。 Carey; D。D。; so long an active member and an ornament of this Institution; distinguished alike for his high attainments in the Oriental languages; for his eminent services in opening the stores of Indian literature to the knowledge of Europe; and for his extensive acquaintance with the sciences; the natural history and botany of this country; and his useful contributions on every hand towards the promotion of the objects of the Society; without placing on record this expression of their high sense of his value and merits as a scholar and a man of science; their esteem for the sterling and surpassing religious and moral excellencies of his character; and their sincere grief for his irreparable loss。〃
  CHAPTER XIII
  CAREY'S IMMEDIATE INFLUENCE IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA
  1813…1830
  Carey's relation to the new eraThe East India Company's Charters of 1793; 1813; and 1833His double influence on the churches and public opinionThe great missionary societiesMissionary journals and their readersBengal and India recognised as the most important mission fieldsInfluence on Robert HaldaneReflex effect of foreign on home missionsCarey's power over individualsMelville Horne and Douglas of CaversHenry MartynCharles Simeon and Stewart of MoulinRobert Hall and John FosterHeber and ChalmersWilliam Wilberforce on CareyMr。 Prendergast and the tub storyLast persecution by the Company's GovernmentCarey on the persecution and the charter controversyThe persecuting clause and the resolution legalising tolerationThe Edinburgh Review and Sydney Smith's funSir James Mackintosh's opinionSouthey's defence and eulogy of Carey and the brotherhood in the Quarterly ReviewPolitical value of Carey's laboursAndrew Fuller's deathA model foreign mission secretaryHis friendship with CareyThe sixteen years' disputeDr。 Carey's positionHis defence of MarshmanHis chivalrous seIf…sacrificeHis forgiveness of the younger brethren in CalcuttaHis fidelity to righteousness and to friendship。
  Himself the outcome of the social and political forces which began in the French Revolution; and are still at work; William Carey was made a living personal force to the new era。  The period which was introduced in 1783 by the Peace of Versailles in Europe following the Independence of the United States of America; was new on every sidein politics; in philosophy; in literature; in scientific research; in a just and benevolent regard for the peoples of every land; and in the awakening of the churches from the sleep of formalism。  Carey was no thinker; but with the reality and the vividness of practical action and personal sacrifice he led the English…speaking races; to whom the future of the world was then given; to substitute for the dreams of Rousseau and all other theories the teaching of Christ as to His kingdom within each man; and in the progress of mankind。
  Set free from the impossible task of administering North America on the absolutist system which the Georges would fain have continued; Great Britain found herself committed to the duty of doing for India what Rome had done for Europe。  England was compelled to surrender the free West to her own children only that she might raise the servile and idolatrous East to such a Christian level as the genius of its peoples could in time enable them to work out。  But it took the thirty years from 1783 to 1813 to convince British statesmen; from Pitt to Castlereagh; that India is to be civilised not according to its own false systems; but by truth in all forms; spiritual and moral; scientific and historical。  It took other twenty years; to the Charter of 1833; to complete the conversion of the British Parliament to the belief that the principles of truth and freedom are in their measure as good for the East as for the West。 At the beginning of this new period William Pitt based his motion for Parliamentary reform on this fact; that 〃our senators are no longer the representatives of British virtue but of the vices and pollutions of the East。〃 At the close of it Lord William Bentinck; Macaulay; and Duff; co…operated in the decree which made truth; as most completely revealed through the English language and literature; the medium of India's enlightenment。  William Carey's career of fifty years; from his baptism in 1783 and the composition of his Enquiry to his death in 1834; covered and influenced more than any other one man's the whole time; and he represented in it an element of permanent healthy nationalisation which these successors overlooked;the use of the languages of the peoples of India as the only literary channels for allowing the truth revealed through English to reach the millions of the people。
  It was by this means that Carey educated Great Britain and America to rise equal to the terrible trust of jointly creating a Christian Empire of India; and ultimately a series of self…governing Christian nations in Southern and Eastern Asia。 He consciously and directly roused the Churches of all names to carry out the commission of their Master; and to seek the promised impulse of His Spirit or Divine Representative on earth; that they might do greater things than even those which He did。  And he; less directly but not less consciously; brought the influence of public opinion; which every year purified and quickened; to bear upon Parliament and upon individual statesmen; aided in this up till 1815 by Andrew Fuller。 He never set foot in England again; and the influence of his brethren Ward and Marshman during their visits was largely neutralised by some leaders of their own church。  But Carey's character and career; his letters and writings; his work and whole personality; stood out in England; Scotland; and America as the motive power which stimulated every church and society; and won the triumph of toleration in the charter of 1813; of humanity; education; and administrative reform in the legislation of Lord William Bentinck。
  We have already seen how the immediate result of Carey's early letters was the foundation on a catholic basis of the London Missionary Society; which now represents the great Nonconformist half of England; of the Edinburgh or Scottish and Glasgow Societies; through which the Presbyterians sent forth missionaries to West and South Africa and to West