and books and newspapers in English and in the vernacular are everywhere
increasing. As far back as 1824 the American and English missionaries were
the pioneers of female education. The recent report of the Indian
Commission of Education deals particularly with this question, and
attributes the wide difference between the extent of male and female
acquirements to no inferiority in the mental capacities of women; on the
contrary, they find their intellectual activity very keen, and often
outlasting the mental energies of men. According to the traditions of
pre-historic times, women occupied a high place in the early civilization
of India, and their capacity to govern is shown by the fact, that at the
present day one of the best administered States has been ruled by native
ladies during two generations, and that the most ably managed of the great
landed properties are entirely in the hands of women. The chief causes
which retard their education are to be found in the social customs of the
country, the seclusion in which women live, the appropriation of the
educational fund to the schools for boys, and the need of trained
teachers.

Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, the first Asiatic writer in the
languages of the West who has made a literary fame in Europe is a young
Hindu girl, Tora Dutt (1856-1877), whose writings in prose and verse in
English, as well as in French, have called forth admiration and
astonishment from the critics, and a sincere lament for her early death.

12. THE BRAMO-SOMAJ.--In 1830, under this name (Worshiping Assembly),
Rammohun Roy founded a religious society in India, of which, after him,
Keshub Chunder Sen (died 1884) was the most eminent member. Their aim is
to establish a new religion for India and the world, founded on a belief
in one God, which shall be freed from all the errors and corruptions of
the past. They propose many important reforms, such as the abolition of