Our missionaries are very apt to split upon this rock, and in order to place our religion in the brightest light, as if it wanted their feeble aid, t… - Maria Graham

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Our missionaries are very apt to split upon this rock, and in order to place our religion in the brightest light, as if it wanted their feeble aid, they lay claim exclusively to all the sublime maxims of morality and tell those they wish to convert, that their own books contain nothing but abominations, the belief of which they must abandon in order to receive the purer doctrine of Christianity. Mistaken men! Mistaken men! Could they desire a better opening to their hopes than to find already established that morality which says, it is enjoined to man even at the moment of destruction to wish to benefit his foes, ‘as the sandal tree in the instant of its overthrow sheds perfume on the axe that fells it.’…

English
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About Maria Graham

Maria Graham (née Dundas; 19 July 1785 – 21 November 1842), later Maria, Lady Callcott, was a British writer of travel books and children's books, and also an accomplished illustrator. Her observations of how earthquakes can change the land surface proved controversial, but correct.

Also Known As

Birth Name: Maria Dundas
Alternative Names: Lady Callcott Lady Maria Callcott Maria Callcott Mrs. Maria Graham Miss Maria Dundas Maria, Lady Callcott Maria Dundas, Lady Collcott Graham

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Additional quotes by Maria Graham

In short, I consider morality like the sciences and arts, to be only slumbering not forgotten in India; and that to awaken the Hindus to a knowledge of the treasures in their own hands is the only thing wanting to set them fairly in the course of improvement with other nations.

…perhaps I should be ashamed to own that I had so far strayed from good-nature and good-sense, as to forget, that whatever reproaches may be deserved by some of the Hindus for their moral practices the fundamental principles of morality itself are so firmly implanted in the soul of man that no vicious practice and no mistaken code can change their nature...

Everywhere in the ancient Hindu books we find the maxims of that pure and sound morality which is founded on the nature of man as a rational and social being….

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