4. These sentiments for the first time ushered on the nation under the appearance of respectable sanction, were eagerly em-braced. The sceptical philosophers, particularly in France, hoped that they were true: and the learned in general were curious to explore this sacred mine of ancient literature. "Omne ignotum pro magnifico." Strangers to the language, they looked into the mystical records of the Brahmins as into the mouth of a dark cavern of unknown extent, probably inaccessible, perhaps fathomless. Some adventurers from the Asiatic Society entered this cavern, and brought back a report very unfavourable to the wishes of the credulous infidel. But the college of Fort William holds a torch which illuminates its darkest recesses. And the result is, that the former gloom, which was supposed to obscure the evidence of our religion, being now removed; enlightened itself, it reflects a strong light on the Mosaic and Evangelic Scriptures, and Shanscrit Record may thus be considered as a new attestation to the truth of Christianity, granted by the divine dispensation, to these latter ages.

*

5. The whole library of Shanscrit learning is accessible to members of the college of Fort William. The old keepers of this library, the Pundits, who would give no access to the translator of the Gentoo code, or to the then Governor of India, now vie with each other in giving every information in their power. Indeed there is little left for them to conceal. Two different grammars of the Shanscrit language are now compiling in the college, one by the Shanscrit professor; and the other by the Shanscrit teacher, without any communication as to each other's system, so absolute is their confidence in a knowledge of the language. The Shanscrit teacher proposed to the council of the college to publish the whole of the original Shasters in their own character, with an English translation. The chief objection to this was, that we should then publish many volumes, which few would have patience to read. Such parts of them however as are of a moral tendency, or which illustrate important facts in Eastern history or science, were recommended for publication.

6. It does not appear that any one work in Shanscrit literature has yet been discovered, which can vie in antiquity with the poem of Homer, on the plain ground of historical evidence, and collateral proof. It is probable that there may be some work of an older date; but we have no evidence of it. If ever such evidence should be obtained, the world will soon hear of it. As to the alleged proof of antiquity from astronomical calculation, it is yet less satisfactory than that from the Egyptian zodiac, or Brydone's lava.t

See Appendix L.

The editors of the Asiatic Researches in London have availed them

What use shall we make of the illustration of these facts, but to urge, that, since the dark traditions of India have confirmed the truth of divine Revelation, the benefits of that Revelation may be communicated to India.

CHAPTER IV.

The sanguinary superstitions of the natives, an impediment to their civilization.

1. ANOTHER impediment to the civilization of the natives is the continuance of their sanguinary superstitions, by which we mean those practices which inflict immediate death, or tend to produce death. All bloody superstition indurates the heart and affections, and renders the understanding inaccessible to moral instruction. No ingenuous arts can ever humanize the soul addicted to a sanguinary superstition.

We shall not pollute the page with a description of the horrid rites of the religion of Brahma. Suffice it to say that no inhuman practices in New Zealand, or in any other newly discovered land of savages, are more offensive to natural feeling, than some of those which are committed by the Hindoo people.

It surely has never been asserted that these enormities cannot be suppressed. One or two instances may be mentioned, which will shew that the Hindoo superstitions are not impregnable.

2. It had been the custom from time immemorial, to immolate at the island of Saugor, and at other places reputed holy on the banks of the Ganges, human victims, by drowning, or destruction by sharks. Another horrid practice accompanied it, which was the sacrifice of the first born child of a woman, who had been long barren.*

The Pundits and chief Brahmins of the college of Fort William were called upon to declare, by what sanction in their Shasters, these unnatural cruelties were committed. They alleged no sanction but custom, and what they termed "the "barbarous ignorance of the low casts." On the first intimation selves of the occasion of that work's being republished at home, to prefix a preface to the fifth volume, containing sentiments directly contrary to those professed and published by the most learned members of the Asiatic Society. They will be much obliged to the London editors of that work to take no such liberty in future; but to allow the Society to write its own prefaces, and to speak for itself. We are far off from France here. The Society professes no such philosophy.

• At the Hindoo festival in 1801, twenty-three persons sacrificed themselves, or were sacrificed by others, at the island of Saugor.

of the practice to the Governor General Marquis Wellesley, it was abolished.* Not a murmur followed; nor has any attempt of the kind since been heard of.

3. A similar investigation will probably soon take place respecting the custom of women burning themselves alive on the death of their husbands. The Pundits have already been called on to produce the sanction of their Shasters. The passages exhibited are vague and general in their meaning; and differently interpreted by the same casts. Some sacred verses commend the practice, but none command it; and the Pundits refer once more to custom. They have however intimated, that if government will pass a regulation, amercing by fine every Brahmin who attends a burning, or every Zemindar who permits him to attend it, the practice cannot possibly long continue; for that the ceremony, unsanctified by the presence of the priests, will lose its dignity and consequence in the eyes of the people.

The civilized world may expect soon to hear of the abolition of this opprobrium of a Christian administration, the female sacrifice; which has subsisted, to our certain knowledge, since the time of Alexander the Great.

4. An event has just occurred, which seems, with others, to mark the present time, as favourable to our endeavour to qualify the rigour of the Hindoo superstition.

In the course of the Mahratta war, the great temple of Jaggernaut in Orissa has fallen into our hands. This temple is to the Hindoos what Mecca is to the Mahometans. It is resorted to by pilgrims from every quarter of India. It it the chief seat of Brahminical power, and a strong-hold of their superstition. At the annual festival of the Rutt Jattra, seven hundred thousand persons (as has has been computed by the Pundits in college) assemble at this place. The voluntary deaths in a single year, caused by voluntary devotement,§ by imprisonment for nonpayment of the demands of the Brahmins, or by scarcity of provisions for such a multitude, is incredible. The precincts of the place are covered with bones. Four coss square (about sixty-four square miles) are accounted sacred to Jaggernaut. Within the walls the priests exercised a dominion without control. From them there was no appeal to civil law or natural justice, for protection of life or property. But these enormities will not be permitted under

See Regulation. Appendix C,

† From a late investigation it appears that the number of women who sacrifice themselves within thirty miles round Calcutta every year is, on an average, upwards of two hundred. See Appendix D.

the British government.

At the same time that we use coercion to prevent the superstitions of the natives, we permit a constant appeal to the civil power against injustice, oppression, and inhumanity; and it must have a beneficial influence on the whole Hindoo system, if we chastise the enormity of their superstition at the fountain head.*

CHAPTER V.

The numerous holydays of the natives an impediment to their civilization.

1. ANOTHER obstacle to the improvement of the natives is the great number of their holydays. These holydays embody their superstition. On such days, its spirit is revived, and its inhuman practices are made familiar: and thus it acquires strength and perpetuity. The malignity of any superstition may be calculated almost exactly by the number of its holydays, for the more the mind is enslaved by it, the more voluminous will be its ritual, and more frequent its ceremonial of observance.

2. In the Hindoo calendar there are upwards of an hundred holydays; and of these government recognises officially a certain number. In addition to the native holydays, the fifty-two Christian holydays, or fifty-two Sundays in the year, are (on Christian principles) generally allowed to natives employed in the public service. During those Hindoo holydays which are officially recognised, the public offices are shut up, on account of the festival (as it is termed) of Doora Puja, of

The rigour of the Mahometan faith coerced the Hindoo superstition; and was, so far, friendly to humanity. The Hindoos were prohibited from burning their women without official permission. Our toleration is celebrated by some, as being boundless. It is just to tolerate speculative religions: but it is doubtful whether there ought to be any toleration of practical vice, or of the shedding of human blood.

"All religions," says Colonel Dow, " must be tolerated in Bengal, except in the practice of some inhuman customs, which the Mahometans already have in a great measure destroyed. We must not permit young "widows, in their virtuous enthusiam, to throw themselves on the funeral "pile with their dead husbands, nor the sick and aged to be drowned, when "their friends despair of their lives." Dow's History, Vol. III. p. 128.

This passage was written by Colonel Dow upwards of thirty years ago. How many thousands of our subjects within the province of Bengal alone, have perished in the flames and in the river, since that period!

†The Brahmins observe two hundred and upwards.

Churruck Puja, of Rutt Jattra,* or of some other. But great detriment to the public service arising from the frequent recurrence of these Saturnalia, government resolved some years ago to reduce the number, which was done accordingly. It now appears that, on the same principle that a few of them were cut off, we might have refused our official recognition of any; the Pundits having unanimously declared that these holydays are not enjoined by their sacred books.

3. It may be proper to permit the people in general to be as idle as the circumstances of individuals will permit; but their religious law does not require us to recognise one of their holydays officially. To those natives employed in the public service, the fifty-two Sundays are sufficient for rest from bodily labour.t To give them more holydays is to nurse their superstitions, and to promote the influx of religious mendicants into industrious communities. In what other country would it be considered a means of promoting the happiness of the common people, to grant them so great a portion of the year to spend in idleness and dissipation? The indulgence operates here as it would in any other country; it encourages extravagance, licentious habits, and neglect of business among themselves; and it very seriously impedes the business of the state, and deranges commercial negotiation.

* An Englishman will be of opinion that the Rutt Jattra cannot well be styled a festival. "The rutt or car containing the Hindoo gods is drawn "along by the multitude, and the infatuated Hindoo throws himself down "before it, that he may be crushed to death by the wheels." This sacrifice is annually exhibited at Jaggernaut. Neither will the Churruck Puja be considered a festive occasion. At this Puja, "men are suspended in the "air by iron hooks passed through the integuments of the back." This is an annual exhibition at Calcutta. [See Appendix B.]

† No people require fewer days of rest than the Hindoos; for they know nothing of that corporal exertion and fatigue from labour, which in other countries render regular repose so grateful to the body and spirits.

See Appendix E.