REVERIES. 457 



more solemn style of architecture ; or any other grand fane 

 fashioned by human art, when compared with the awful 

 magnitude and natural beauty of the creations around this 

 hallowed spot ? For hallowed it may certainly be termed, 

 as every place which is dedicated by any creed whatsoever 

 to the service of the one Supreme Being whom all acknow- 

 ledge ought to be. Yet, sad to say, there are some let us 

 hope they are few who ignore the sanctity of a Hindoo 

 place of pilgrimage, and who preach nothing but damnation 

 for the lame, the blind, and the poor infirm old devotee who, 

 to show his faith in the tenets of a religion in which he has 

 been brought up to believe, and to whom they have been 

 rendered venerable by the observances of ages, 1 trudges his 

 weary way from the uttermost parts of Hindustan, often 

 barefooted and enduring the most cruel hardships, all in 

 the earnest hope of being able to wash away his sins in the, 

 to him, holy hot-spring at Badrinath. Surely this faithful, 

 though in many respects misguided, pilgrim may, through 

 the infinite mercy of the Almighty, hope for salvation as 

 much as the uncharitable individual, calling himself a 

 Christian, who presumes to condemn him as a " heathen." 

 Does such an one ever think, when fulfilling his mission to 

 make converts to a better religion, that many professing it 

 have but the form and little of the real unselfish religious 

 feeling which is so fully manifested by many a poor Hindoo ? 

 Some such thoughts as these filled my mind whilst I sat 

 enraptured with the glorious scene before me. Not a sound 

 was there to disturb my reverie but the wild call of the 

 moonal pheasant echoing among the neighbouring crags, as I 

 watched the cold grey shade creeping slowly on, gradually 

 darkening each successive sunlit mountain tier, until it stole 

 over the highest peaks of eternal snow, leaving them weird- 

 looking and unearthly in their stern frozen dignity, their 



1 The Vedas the sacred books of the Hindoos are said to have been 

 written more than 1000 B.C. 



