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Sir William Jones, and other oriental writers on the Hindoo 

 mythology, agree with the narrations of Bernier, Chardin, La 

 Croze, and many celebrated travellers in former days, as to the 

 brahminical faith in the purity and sublimity of One Supreme 

 Being, under the name of Brahma, or the Great One; " that he 

 is the spirit of wisdom, the universal soul that penetrates every 

 thing; that God is as upon a sea without bounds; that those who 

 wish to approach him, must appease the agitation of the waves; 

 that they must be of a tranquil and steady mind; retired within 

 themselves; and their thoughts being collected, must be fixed on 

 God only." 



These are as sublime ideas as can enter into the soul of man 

 in his present state of existence; and that some of the brahmins 

 may attain to the enjoyment of such spiritual delight, far be it 

 from me to contradict; but we certainly may assert, that this at- 

 tainment is confined to a few, when compared with the millions 

 that form the great mass of Hindoos; and so far are the brah- 

 mins from wishing the inferior castes to acquire such knowledge, 

 that they keep them as much as possible in a state of ignorance. 

 And in the Code of Menu it is asserted that if one of the Sudra 

 caste reads the Vedas to either of the other three tribes, or listens 

 to them, heated oil, wax, and melted tin, shall be poured into his 

 ears, and the orifice stopped up; and that if a Sudar gets by heart 

 the Vedas, he shall be put to death. 



Shall we then, with modern sceptics and philosophists, com- 

 pare the religion of the Hindoos with that of the gospel? with 

 the blessed Catholicon, which, Avafted on wings of celestial love, is 

 spread forth for the healing of the nations, when immersed in 



VOL. III. E 



