I.]
THE SRIMATS.
13
Indies than in France. Just as the sun was ready to supply the Srimats gratuitously with light, so the sun, the soil, and the climate, in the West Indies, perform gratuitously a great part of the work of producing sugar. This free gift the French might profit by if they would. But they say, "No; we won't be under such an obligation to nature, we will not take from her more help than she can give us in our own country." And so they refuse the greater and accept the smaller gift; just as the Srimats refused to take their light as a free gift from the sun, although they could not have grown their palm trees without his aid.
