118 The Rev. Dr. Wall on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the 



taught ; — that induced their priesthood to imitate a foreign plan in the construc- 

 tion of a graphic system wholly different from that to which, as hieroglyphists, 

 they had been previously accustomed. 



But in reference to the subject of investigation more immediately before us, 

 we have to notice the great spread of Hindooism among the indolent and 

 voluptuous inhabitants of Southern Asia, — a circumstance which can be easily 

 accounted for. However Brahmanism, the form which this religion assumes 

 within India, and Boodhism, that which it takes outside, may otherwise differ, 

 they agree in a principle most conducive to their general diffusion. Their 

 supreme deity is the god of Epicurus of old, and the notion of him was most 

 probably derived from the Epicurean philosophy ; his beatitude consists in 

 " that he do nothing, understand nothing, desire nothing ;"* so that in the con- 

 ception of his worshippers he is, with respect to the moral government of the 

 world, an absolute non-entity. By believing in such a god it is evident, that the 

 warnings of conscience are drowned, and all restraint upon the passions is 

 removed. The consequence unfortunately is, that Hindooism, in one or other 

 of its forms, at present includes among its votaries nearly half the entire number 

 of the beings who compose the human race. But as far as ever this pernicious 

 superstition has reached, it is through the medium of the Sanscrit language that 

 its doctrines have been conveyed. It is, therefore, no way inconsistent with my 

 view of this language having originated in the contrivance of but one particular 

 caste, that it should become so widely diffused, as it eventually has been, among 

 the nations of the earth ; for the use to which it has been applied, suggests an 

 adequate cause for the vast extent of the field over which it has spread. 



But as the circumstance which has been just considered, does not bear against 

 the assigned origin of the Sanscrit tongue, so there are others which, I apprehend, 

 tell very strongly in its favor. Wherever this tongue is at present made use of, 

 it is employed only as the language of religion and learning ; and no country can 

 be pointed out where it can be shown, even with the remotest degree of proba- 

 bility, that it ever was spoken by the nation at large. What, however, I princi- 

 pally rely on is, the internal evidence which the language itself supplies upon the 

 point in question. Here a general consideration first presents itself, with which, 



* See Dr. Marshman's Clavis Sinica, page 165. 



