They perform before the priests in
the pagodas; and the Brahmins and the Indian princes marry them. Can we
cry out against these poor creatures, or against the custom of their
country? It seems to me that young women in our world are bred up in a
way not very different. What they do they scarcely know to be wrong. They
are educated for the world, and taught to display: their mothers will
give them to the richest suitor, as they themselves were given before.
How can these think seriously, Arthur, of souls to be saved, weak hearts
to be kept out of temptation, prayers to be uttered, and a better world
to be held always in view, when the vanities of this one are all their
thought and scheme? Ethel's simple talk made me smile sometimes, do you
know, and her strenuous way of imparting her discoveries. I thought of
the shepherd boy who made a watch, and found on taking it into the town
how very many watches there were, and how much better than his. But the
poor child has had to make hers for herself, such as it is; and, indeed,
is employed now in working on it.
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