He is precipitated from the proudest elevation of respect and honor to a bottomless abyss of contempt,--from glory to infamy,--from purity to pollution,--from sanctity to profanation.

No honest occupation is open to him; his children are no longer his children; their parent loses that name; the conjugal bond is dissolved.

Few survive this most terrible of all calamities.

To speak to an Indian of his caste is to speak to him of his all.
But the rule of caste has, with them, given one power more to fortune than the manners of any other nation were ever known to do.

For it is singular, the caste may be lost, not only by certain voluntary crimes, but by certain involuntary sufferings, disgraces, and pollutions, that are utterly out of their power to prevent.