318 



from adding my evidence, however humble, to ihc mass of know- 

 ledge, and brilliant lights, lately thrown on this interesting subject, 

 from abler pens. The more we reflect on the degraded situa- 

 tion of the lower tribes of Hindoos, the more unpleasant are the 

 sensations in a mind of sensibility. This is probably the last lime 

 1 shall touch upon the theme. 1 therefore briefly give the senti- 

 ments of a mild, unprejudiced observer of the Hindoos; a man 

 of learning and piety, who made his researches amongst the people 

 he describes.* 



" The Hindoo superstition makes no provision for the instruc- 

 tion of the great body of the people. The vedas, puranas, and 

 other sacred books contain, it is said, a copious system of the most 

 unexceptionable morality; and from the specimens already trans- 

 lated, this must in part be admitted. But the canonical books 

 of the Hindoos have always been regarded as a bequest too 

 sacred to be committed to vulgar hands; to the far greater part 

 of society they are strictly forbidden, and are doomed to remain, 

 in the most emphatic sense, a dead letter. Nothing can equal 

 the ignorance of the great body of the people, on every subject 

 relating to religion, morals, or literature. Few of them can ex- 

 plain the genealogy or attributes ascribed to their deities. They 

 do not understand the meaning of the ceremonies they attend ; and 

 the nature and obligations of their duty they may obscurely feel, 

 but are wholly incapable to describe. The inconvenience of 

 ignorance, so gross and universal, is too obvious to require eluci- 

 dation: it renders the mass of the people not only dupes to the arti- 

 fices of priestcraft, but subjects them to the imposition of every 



* Dr. Tennant. 



