and undeviating, whofe immediate benefits exift, and are confpicuously displayed in its effects, no ritual neceffity called for the commemoration of its first cause, or the propitiation of its future influence.

THE Hindoos believe implicity in predestination, and in the tranfmigration of the foul. The first, though it may operate in cramping the genius and obstructing it's progreffive powers, has a happy tendency in affuaging their misfortunes, and administering a comfort in all the wants of life. They fay, it is the hand of God, which for fome infcrutable purpose, directs and impels the actions of his creatures. The doctrine of Metempfychofis restrains them from the use of animal food,* an aliment not necessary in a hot climate, and often attended with pernicious confequences. This restriction may also have contributed to infuse into their minds an abhorrence of sanguinary acts, and inculcate the virtues of humanity and general philanthropy.

THE Hindoos compute their grand evolutions of time by epochs, called in their language Jogues, of which there are four, correfponding, in the ascribed qualities, with their golden, filver, brazen, and iron ages of the ancients. The prefent, they fay, is the Khullee, or the fourth Jogue; and that at the expiration of every age, the Supreme Being has destroyed the world, and that a

* This tenet is not, at this day, ftrictly adhered to; for the Hindoos of the fecond and fourth caft occafionally ufe flesh meat, and the Bramins of Bengal invariably eat fish. The Chriftian Era, 1787, correfponds with 4888, of the Khulle Taque.

continued

continued fucceffion of Jogues will revolve ad infinitum. The records of this ancient people teem fo profufely with fable, and abound throughout in fuch extravagant relations of their demigods, fimilar in their feasts to the Bacchus, Hercules, and Thefeus of the Greeks, that no rational or fatisfactory conclufion can be drawn, for any adjustment of chronology. A pundit will introduce into his legend a lack of years,* with as much facility, and perhaps conviction to himself, as our commentators of theological history would reduce to their standard, half a century.

THE principles of the Hindoo religion, with its most effential tenets, were compofed, it is afferted, by Brimha, and comprised in four books, entitled the Bairds or Vaids; a word in the Sanfcrit language fignifying mystery. In that part of the peninsula of India bordering on the Coromandel fide, these facred writings are named the Vaidums. The Talinghahs and Malabars make little distinction between the letters B, and V, and invariably terminate with an M, all Sanfcrit words. The Shaftre is a voluminious commentary on the Bairds, and has been written by various pundits, for the purpose of illustrating the Hindoo Mythology. From the Shaftre proceed those prepofterous ceremonies, which have been dragged into the Hindoo fyftem of worship; all tending to shackle the vulgar mind, and produce in it a flavish reverence for the tribe of Bramins. The privelege of reading the Bairds, and expounding

*An hundred thousand;

VOL. I.

F

its

its texts, is only allowed to them; and prohibited to the other cafts, under severe penalties, By the fole investment of this important authority, the priest is left at liberty to explain the original doctrine in the manner that may most forcibly confolidate the power and promote the interest of his order. In the tranfmigration of the foul into different bodies, confifts the various gradations of reward and punishment amongst the Hindoos. Conformably to their actions, they are tranfpofed into fuch bodies, whether of the human or brute fpecies, as their conduct, whilst they occupied their former tenements, may have merited. They do not admit of eternal punishments, and shudder at the idea of a belief fo disconfonant to the opinion which they have formed of the Supreme Being.

EVIL difpofitions, they say, are chastised by a confinement in the bodies of those animals, whom they most resemble in their nature, and are constrained to occupy them, till their vices are either eradicated, or fufficiently qualified to deserve the poffeffion of fuperior forms. The good actions of man, the Hindoo law-giver has written, will be rewarded by his admiffion into thofe bodies which enjoy the utmost human happiness; as that which the magistrate feels on the juft and merciful execution of the truft which has been committed to him; or that high sense of pleasure which the man of humanity participates, when he has alleviated the diftreffes of the unfortunate, or otherwise promoted the welfare of mankind. After a certain series of tranfmigration rendered acceptable to

the

the Deity by a purfuit of virtue, and when his foul shall be completely purified from the taints of evil, the Hindoo is admitted to a participation of the radiant and never-ceafing glory of his first cause.* The foul's receiving this act of bliss, is described by comparing it to a ray of light, attracted by the grand powers of the fun, to which it shoots with an immense velocity, and is there abforbed in the blaze of fplendor.

YUM Durm Rajah officiates in the fame capacity amongst the Hindoos, as Minos did in the infernal regions of the ancients. All fouls liberated from the body, are fuppofed to appear at the tribunal of Yum Durm, where their former actions are proclaimed aloud, and examined by this judge, who paffes an immediate sentence. Should the difpofition of a man, have been fo flagitiously depraved, as to be judged unworthy, even of an introduction into the body of the vileft animal, fuch coporal punishment is impofed on him, as may be thought adequate to his crimes; and the foul is afterwards placed in fome fuitable station on earth. According to the religious tradition of the Hindoos. Sree Mun Narrain, fince the creation of the world, has at nine different periods affumed incarnated forms, either for the purpose of eradicating fome terrestrial evil, or chastifing the fins of mankind. The Hin

*The union of the human foul with the divine etherial fubftance of the universe, is the ancient doctrine of Pythagoras and Plato; but it seems to exclude any perfonal or conscious immortality. See Gibbon's Hiftory, volume 4th, p. 202, in a note. + According to the Hindoo tradition, a tenth incarnation of the Deity is yet expected.

doos worship a fecondary species of deity, which they wildly multiply to the number of thirty-three crores,* who in their different functions, are designed to represent the numberless attributes of the Supreme Deity.

FROM the crowd of images which the Bramin has placed in the temples of the Hindoos, they have been branded with the appellation of idolaters. When this mode of offering fupplications or thansgiving to the Supreme Being is difpaffionately examined, it will be seen, that a personification of the attributes of the Deity is not unfitly adapted to the general comprehenfion, Those (and they compose a great portion of the people) who are not endowed with the ability of reading the praise of God, can with facility conceive a certain idea of his greatness, in contemplating a figure, fculptured with many heads and with many hands, adorned with every fymbol of human power, and beheld by all claffes of men with unfeigned reverence. The origin of emblematical figures has long preceded the use of letters. We find in the Spanish records, that intelligence of the first arrival of the Europeans on the coast of Mexico, was described to Montezuma by figures painted on cotton cloth. In a rude fociety, it was evidently a more easy operation to convey an idea through the medium of a figure cut in wood or moulded in clay, than to invent an alphabet, and out of it compose a regulated affemblage of words, neceffary for the formation of a written language.

*A crore is a hundred lacks.

THE