The Village Community and Modern Progress (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from The Village Community and Modern ProgressPerhaps however the most important testimony to the character Of the Kandyan villager, and the value of the common culture of which he was a part, is given by Knox: Their ordinary Plowmen and Husbandmen he says, do speak elegantly, and are full of compliment. And there is no difference between the ability and speech of a Country man and a Courtier. There was a Sinhalese proverb, to this effect: Take a ploughman from the plough and wash Off his dirt, and he is fit to rule a kingdom. This was spoken, says Knox, of the people of Cande Uda because of the Civility, Understanding and Gravity of the poorest men among them. It would, I suppose, be hard to give stronger proof Of the value of a social system capable Of producing such results. This was indeed the spiritual feudalism whereby caste makes a peasant in all his poverty one of the aristocrats of humanity.We may or may not desire to transcend the idea and the ideal Of caste or aristocracy we may or may not regret the decay of the old and simple agricultural society, but if we are devoted to the future welfare of our own people, we must at least ask of the future that it shall be satisfied with no less a standard than the past attained. That standard involved the binding together of all men, independently of rank and wealth, by means of a common culture.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.