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a favourite retirement for that class of brahmins who spend their 

 lives in indolence, apathy, and a repetition of superstitious rites 

 and ceremonies, with which the generality of the Hindoos have 

 fortunately little connexion ; although the number of days appro- 

 priated to festivals and sacrifices for their respective deities, to 

 which the people allowed to worship at the temples are enjoined 

 observance, amount to nearly one third of the year. The Hindoo 

 religion has occupied so much of these volumes, that further dis- 

 cussion would be superfluous. Some queries were put to me by a 

 sensible friend, desirous of information regarding the recluse 

 brahmins in the sacred seminaries of Guzerat, which I shall not 

 withhold from those more capable of resolving them: a full deci- 

 sive answer would explain many difficulties which now occur in 

 the brahminical ethics and religion. 



Do the brahmins consider the universal Deity, and the sen- 

 tient, or conscious, principle in human nature, to be one and the 

 same Being? 



If they do, under what name, or as what attribute of the 

 Deity, or result of sense, do they respect and consider him as 

 forming inherently a part of human nature? For instance, 

 whether as Brahma, Visnoo, or Siva? or as love, power, or intel- 

 ligence ? 



Do the brahmins consider the essence, of which sentiment or 

 consciousness forms an inherent part, as it may constitute a part 

 or the whole of the Deity, and a part of human nature, as an 

 essence pervading the creation in all its parts and forms? For 

 instance, do they conjecture that stones or trees, or the elements. 



