313 



band, so far is she exalted in heaven: and that no other effectual 

 duty is known for virtuous women, after the death of their lords, 

 than to cast themselves into the fire. This is enjoined to the higher 

 tribes; among the lower castes the women are included in all the 

 indignities offered to the men, respecting whom the Institutes of 

 Menu declare, that no Chandala nor Swampaca shall live in a 

 town, nor have any wealth besides dogs and asses; that their 

 transactions are to be confined to themselves, and their marriages 

 only between equals; that no man who regards his duty, religious 

 and civil, is to hold any intercourse with them ; and that whoever 

 is born a Sopaca is a sinful wretch, who lives by punishing crimi- 

 nals, and is ever despised by the virtuous. — Shall a law-giver who 

 issues such cruel edicts, or his priests and ministers who enforce 

 them, be compared with the Founder of that religion which 

 says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 

 with all thy soul; thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; and 

 whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 

 them ? 



Such being the laws and established usages of the Hindoos, of 

 what signification are the absorptions, reveries, and mystical inter- 

 course which the religious brahmins and twice-born men, are sup- 

 posed to hold with the Deity? Admitting that some of those' 

 devotees, soaring beyond idol-worship, and even above the adora- 

 tion of the Hindoo Triad, Brahma, Visnoo, and Seeva, (in the attri- 

 butes of creator, preserver, and destroyer) are b} ? solemn meditation 

 permitted to hold communion with the great mysterious spirit Om, 

 or Aum; that name, which, according to those best versed in the 

 Hindoo theology, is declared to be so sacred, that to hear it ut- 



VOL. IV. 2 s 



