Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c17.s6.t1.1

v1.c17.s6.t1.1

and love of character will always afford free communication to those who respect his opinions and his prejudices, and who are devoid of that overweening opinion of self, which imagines that nothing can be learned from such friendly intercourse. The personal dissimilarity accordingly arises from locale; the mental similarity results from a grand fixed principle, which, whatever its intrinsic moral effect, whatever its incompatibility with the elevated notions we entertain, has preserved to these races, as nations, the enjoyment of their ancient habits to this distant period. May our boasted superiority in all that exalts man above his fellows, ensure to our Eastern empire like duration; and may these notions of our own peculiarly favoured destiny operate to prevent us from laying prostrate, in our periodical ambitious visitations, these the most ancient relics of civilization on the face of the earth. For the dread of their amalgamation with our empire will prevail, though such a result would be opposed not only to their happiness, but to our own stability.