34 PURITY OF HINDI ' DESCENT
Another advantage resulting from the caste system is the hereditary continuation of families and that purity of descent which is a peculiarity of the Hindus , and which
consists in never mixing the blood of one family or caste with that of another . Marriages are confined to parties belonging to the same family , or at any rate the same caste . In India , at any rate , there can be no room for the reproach , so often deserved in European countries , that
families have deteriorated by alliances with persons of low or unknown extraction . A Hindu of high caste can ,
without citing his title or producing his genealogical tree , trace his descent back for more than two thousand years without fear of contradiction . He can also , without any other passport than that of his high caste , and in spite of his poverty , present himself anywhere ; and he would be more courted for a marriage alliance than any richer man of less pure descent . Nevertheless , it is not to be denied that there are some districts where the people are not quite so particular about their marriages , though such
laxity is blamed and held up to shame as an outrage on propriety , while those guilty of it take very good care to
conceal it as much as possible from the public . Further , one would be justified in asserting that it is to
caste distinctions that India owes the preservation of her arts and industries . For the same reason she would have
reached a high standard of perfection in them had not the avarice of her rulers prevented it .
It was chiefly to attain this object that the Egyptians were divided into castes , and that their laws assigned the particular place which each individual should occupy in the commonwealth .
Their lawgivers no doubt considered that by this means all arts and industries would continue to improve from
generation to generation , for men must needs do well that which they have always been in the habit of seeing done and which they have been constantly practising from their youth .
This perfection in arts and manufactures would undoubtedly have been attained by so industrious a people as the Hindus , if , as I have before remarked , the cupidity of
their rulers had not acted as a check . As a matter of fact , no sooner has an artisan gained the reputation of excelling