mighty. When we deface a picture, we naturally incur the re- 

 sentment of the painter; and justly has the poet said, " presume 

 not to arraign, or to scrutinize the various works of power 

 divine." 



It is well known the Hindoos admit of no proselytes to their 

 relioion : a man must be born a Hindoo, he cannot become one. 

 The preceding letter confirms the liberality of their sentiments to- 

 wards all other religious systems. It also establishes the fact, that 

 the enlightened brahmins firmly believe in the unity of the God- 

 head ; while at the same time, as just observed, polytheism, on as 

 extended a scale as ever entered into the Grecian mythology, is 

 the creed of the vulgar ; all unite in the belief of the metempsy- 

 chosis, but the ideas of the generality on this subject are vague, 

 unsatisfactory, and uninfluencing. Frequentty, when arguing 

 with the brahmins on this favourite tenet, I have stated, even on a 

 supposition of its truth, that it could have little influence on a set 

 of beinss who retained no consciousness of a pre-existent state, 

 whether virtuous or vicious : they generally declined the subject, 

 by saying such knowledge was imparted to a few highly-favored 

 brahmins, and twice-born men; but the doctrine of the metem- 

 psychosis was to be received by all the various tribes of Hindoos 

 as an article of faith. 



The doctrine of the metempsychosis, is not only of very re- 

 mote antiquity, but was widely spread among the most civilized 

 nations. Pythagoras, who travelled into Egypt, Chaldea, and 

 India, on his return to Greece confirmed those tenets which had 

 been previously introduced there by his master Pherecides. And 

 it appears that not only the doctrine of future rewards and punish- 



