514 



had not the skill to give the elegance of symmetry and proportion ; 

 he therefore left the form and delicacy of Venus to the imagination : 

 as Ovid says, is qua latent, ineliora putat. Tacitus observes, the rea- 

 son, whatever it be, is not explained ; whether it has any allusion 

 to the uncouth lingam, or any other almost shapeless stone altars 

 of the Hindoos, I am not competent to determine. 



In the out-skirts of Zinore, separated from all other inhabitants 

 of the town, were a number of poor Chandalahs, the outcasts of 

 society ; objects of compassion to every thinking mind, from the 

 deprivations and degradations they are compelled to submit to by 

 impolitic and inhuman laws. Their condition appears the more 

 humiliating, when contrasted with the luxurious brahmins, in their 

 calm recesses, surrounded by the ramjannees, and every kind of 

 indulgence allowed to their privileged caste: the one pampered by 

 voluptuous indolence, the other degraded below the monkeys 

 which surround them, and deprived of religious ordinances. 



How different is the conduct of these " transcendantly divine" 

 brahmins towards the poor Chandalahs, from that of Nehemiah, 

 when the Jews returned to Palestine, from the Babylonish capti- 

 vity, ignorant of the Mosaical law, and all the sublime truths of 

 their religion. " After repairing the walls of Jerusalem, rebuilding 

 the temple, and preparing the priests and Levites, Nehemiah and 

 Ezra assembled all the congregation of Israel, both men and 

 women, and all that could hear with understanding, and brought 

 the book of the law before them ; and the priests read in the book, 

 in the law of God, distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them 

 to understand the meaning ; and the Levites taught the people ; 

 and they wept when they heard the words of the law. And Nehe- 



