PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME. 



J. ii E farther the reader proceeds in the Life of the Eight Avatar, 

 the more he must be convinced of the absurdity and impiety of the 

 comparison, which has been so insidiously attempted to be made by 

 M. Volney, between the Christian and the Indian Preserver. As 

 he has already, in the two introductory chapters, been sufficiently 

 prepared to form a proper judgment on the subject of Creeshna, 

 I have permitted the sportive young deity to continue acting his 

 romantic exploits on the plains of Mathura ; only throwing an oc- 

 casional veil over the more licentious parts of the conduct of this 

 Apollo Nomius of India, whose amours are certainly not less nu- 

 merous than those of the Greek ; of whom, in many respects, he 

 appears to have been the studied exemplar. 



It cannot be denied, however, that, amidst all this licentiousness 

 which the Brahmins, in fact, are anxious to explain away, as if the 

 whole were a sublime allegory, resembling the Greek story of the 

 loves of CUPID and PSYCHE, there often issue from the lips of 

 Creeshna maxims and precepts worthy of a deity ; while many of 

 the apologues, occasionally introduced into it, impress the noblest 

 lessons of piety and philanthropy. Among these may be enu- 

 merated, Akroor's noble apostrophe to Creeshna, while bathing ; 

 Odhoo's instructive theological discourse with Nanda ; his subse- 

 quent sublime address to Ram ; the impressive relation intended 

 to inculcate the omnipresence of God, which represents the prophet 

 Nared visiting the golden palace of Creeshna, in Dwaraka, and 

 ranging its spacious apartments in search of its Lord, whom he 

 finds absent from no part of it; and the powerful dissuasive against 



Vol. in. A 



