ABSTRACT
“I think if any Englishman married a Hindoo or a Mohamedan girl, after the customs and beliefs of her sect, and in the good faith that such a marriage would be binding on him—why! have not many of our old dignitaries done this and lived happily all their lives?—and many others—. What a grand effect had the marriage of Akbar to a Rajpoot princess over the people at large! … but… I am putting the case hypothetically. I don’t suppose it will ever be; but for all that there is many a Hindoo girl like Seeta, who would be an ornament and blessing to any man … though perhaps it is best, after all, that it is not attainable … because of our social prejudices, which you and I can’t overcome … because our perceptions are narrowed with our isolated positions … and because if a man, one of us, married a native lady—married I say—he must exclude himself from society, which would require a strong mind.”
