OF THE ASIATICS. I75 



and incontestable proof, especially by the orthodox 

 Bnifanens, who, as Buddha dissented from their 

 ancestors in regard to bloody sacrifices^ which the 

 Veda certainly prescribes, may not unjustly be suspect- 

 ed of low and interested malignity. Though I cannot 

 credit the charge, yet I am unable to prove it entirely 

 false, having only read a few pages of a Saugata 

 book, which Captain Kirkpatrick had lately 

 the kindness to give me; but it begins like other 

 Hindu books, with the word O///, which we know to 

 be a symbol of the divine attributes ; then follows, 

 indeed, a mysterious hymn to the Goddess of Nature 

 by tire name of A'ryd, but with several other titles, 

 which the Brdhfnens themselves continually bestow 

 on their Dcv). Now the Brdkmen$ 9 who have no 

 idea that any such personage exists as De'vi', or 

 the Goddess, and only mean to express allegoric:- 

 the fower of God, exerted in creating, preserving, 

 and renovating this universe, we cannot with justice 

 infer, that the dissenters admit no Deity but visible 

 Tiature. The Pundit who now attends me, and who 

 told Mr. Wilkins that the Saugatas were atheists, 

 would not have attempted to resist the decisive evi- 

 dence of the contrary, which appears in the very 

 instrument on which he was consulted, if his under- 

 standing had not been blinded by the intolerant zeal 

 of a mercenary priesthood. A literal version of the 

 book just mentioned (if any studious man had learn- 

 ing and industry equal to the task) would be an in- 

 estimable treasure to the compiler of such a h 

 as that of the laborious Brucker, But let us proceed 



CO 



