x ADVERTISEMENT. 



tual fupport, though with mutual checks ; it is, 

 filled with ftrange conceits in metaphyfics and nar 

 tural philofophy, with idle fuperftition, and with 

 a fcheme of theology moft obfeurely figurative, 

 and confequently liable to dangerous mifeoncep- 

 tion ; it abounds with minute and childifh forma- 

 lities, with ceremonies generally abiurd and ridi- 

 culous ; the punifhments are partial and fanciful ; 

 for fome crimes, dreadfully cruel, for other repre- 

 henfibly flight ; and the very morals, though rigid 

 enough on the whole, are in one or two inftances 

 (as in the cafe of light oaths and of pious perjury) 

 unaccountably relaxed : nevertheless, a ipirit of 

 fublime devotion, of benevolence to mankind, 

 and of amiable tenderneis to all fentient creatures, 

 pervades the whole work ; the ftyle of it has a 

 certain auftere majefty, that founds like the lan- 

 guage of legillation, and extorts a refpeclful awe , 

 the fentiments of independence on all beings but 

 God, and the harih admonitions, even to kings, 

 are truly noble ; and the many panegyrics on the 

 Gdyatri the mother, as it is called, of the Veda, 

 prove the author to have adored (not the viiible 

 material fun, but) that divine and incomparably 

 greater light, to ufe the words of the moft venera- 

 ble text in the Indian Scripture, which illumines 

 all, delights all, from which all proceed, to which all 

 mitft return, and which can alone irradiate (not our 

 viiual organs merely, but our fouls and) our inteU 

 ledis. 



The writings of Moses too, are not totally ex- 

 empt from paffages which, to the mere reafon of 

 humanity, carry with them the appearance or fic- 

 tion or of cruelty. Thus the formation of woman 

 by throwing Adam ::::o a deep llcep, and taking 



a. rib 



