304 



ment will ere long be here ; when the humble and penitent in- 

 quirer, who has endeavoured to do the will of God, and by faith 

 to receive that stupendous grace which the doctrine of Christ re- 

 veals, shall be eternally saved ; while the merely speculative stu- 

 dent, whose secret love of sin, and wilful neglect of God, have led 

 to his disobedience to the gospel, shall, notwithstanding his barren 

 notions and schemes, his abortive designs of amendment, and his 

 presumption of final impunity, be for ever undone. In a word, 

 the hour will soon arrive, when every veil will be torn aside ; and 

 they that have done good, shall arise to the resurrection of life, 

 and they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation!" 

 I now come to the principal point intended in this conclusion ; 

 and with a desire to obviate any objection which may arise from 

 a seeming alteration of my opinion of the Hindoo character, from 

 that given in the former part of these memoirs, it may be neces- 

 sary to remark, that my sentiments changed progressively, as I 

 became more acquainted with the higher castes of Hindoos. There 

 was a time when I loved and venerated the character of a brahmin, 

 leading a tranquil, innocent, and studious life, under the sacred 

 groves which surrounded his temple. Few readers, perhaps, have 

 been more delighted than myself with Sir William Jones's little 

 " unvarnished tale" of Rhadacaunt, a pundit in Calcutta, who 

 refused to accept the office of pundit to the Supreme Court of 

 Justice, when offered by Mr. Hastings* even if the salary were 

 doubled. 



" My father (said the worthy pundit) died at the age of a hun- 

 dred years ; and my mother, who Avas eighty years old, became a 

 Sati, and burned herself to expiate sins. They left me little be- 



