334 



human race, throughout the annals of lime. We behold our first 

 ancestor fallen from innocence into a labyrinth of woe, living to 

 see one of his children murder the other. From that unhappy 

 commencement the page of history affords every variety of cha- 

 racter. Sailing down the stream of time, we view his posterity, 

 from Nimrod to the Macedonian hero, destroying their fellow- 

 creatures, and sometimes weeping because there were no more 

 worlds to conquer; from Alexander to Caesar, to Charles of Swe- 

 den, and to the present eventful period, we behold the conquerors 

 of the earth pursuing the same career, to end in the same disap- 

 pointment! In the revolving ages of near six thousand years, if 

 we except the wise and virtuous few, of whatever rank in life, or 

 under whatever religious dispensation ; as especially those, who, 

 like holy Enoch, walked with God, and were renewed in the spirit 

 of their minds, what a picture do we behold! 



" Sight so deform, what heart of rock could long 

 Dry-eyed behold ? Adam could not, but wept, 

 Though not of woman born : compassion quell'd 

 His best of man; and gave him up to tears." Milton. 



I cannot suppose the advocates for Hinduism intend to exalt 

 their favourites above the nations of antiquity. If this humble 

 essay is insufficient to prove their inferiority, many intelligent writ- 

 ers have established the fact ; nor can it be deemed irrelevant to 

 produce a few incontrovertible instances from ancient history on 

 this important subject. They are the sentiments of heathens, whose 

 doctrine and practice exalt them in the scale of piety and virtue 

 far beyond many who are called Christians in the present day. 



Xenophon thus records the solemn counsel of Socrates to Aris- 



