Commencement of the Modern Age.

IN the last chapter we have tried to give a brief sketch of Hindu life and civilisation at the close 01 the Ancien t Age from the writings of the great Hindu authors who flourished in the sixth and succeeding-centuries. But it is always a gain to see ourselves as others see us, and we propose in the present chapter to' draw a similar sketch of Hindu civilisation at the' commencement of the Modern Age, from materials supplied to us by a cultured and large-hearted foreigner, Alberuni, who wrote in the eleventh century. .