THE JAINS. 297 



to no otlier sect, which is known to have at ai;y 

 time prevailed in India. 



A similar description is more succinctly given by 

 Strabo. * It is said, that the Indian multitude is 

 divided into seven classes ; and that the philosophers 

 are first in rank, but fewest in number. They are em- 

 ployed, respectively, for private benefit, by those 

 who are sacrificing or worshipping, &c *.' 



In another place he states, on the authority of 

 JNIegasthenes, ' two classes of philosophers or 

 priests; the Bfachmcmes and Germanes : but the 

 Brackmanes are best esteemed, because they are most 

 consistent in their doctrine f.' The author then pro- 

 ceeds to describe their manners and opinions : the 

 whole passage is highly deserving of attention, and 

 will be found, on consideration, to be more suitable 

 to the orthodox Hindus, than to the Bauddlias or 

 Jamas : particularly towards the close of his account 

 of the Brackmanes, where he says, ' In many things 

 they agree with the Gi^ecks ; for they affirm, that the 

 world was produced and is perishable ; and that it is 

 spherical : that God, governing it as well as framing 

 it, pervades the whole: that the principles of all 

 things are various; but water is the principle of the 

 construction of the world : that, besides the four ele- 

 ments, there is a fifth nature, whence heaven and 

 the stars : that the earth is placed in the centre of 

 all. Such and many other things are affirmed of re- 

 production, and of the soul. Like Plato, they de- 

 vise fables concerning the immortality of the soul, 



raj (pi>.oa6(povi; iUoci. X. T. ^. lib. 15. 



vni (jUv Bfxp^aSivcii xctXiT, ra? ^t riff.»y»?. k. t. A. lib. 15. 



