110 SPECULATIONS. 



names of kingdoms and princes linger in the old 

 Javanese histories or romances, but hardly a single 

 authentic fact can be discovered.* The latest date 

 that can be assigned to these ruins is in the time 

 of our first Edwards ; — making allowance for the 

 difference of climate and of race, was the civiliza- 

 tion of England at that time more advanced than 

 that of Java? Was even the absolute civiliza- 

 tion, without any allowance, or the intellectual ad- 

 vancement much greater in the one people than 

 the other ? Even supposing that there was only an 

 approach to equality, how much of the subsequent 

 difference in their fortunes and condition is to be 

 attributed to innate difference in moral and intel- 

 lectual capabilities; how much to external influences, 

 to fortuitous or unavoidable circumstances ? Many 

 such questions and speculations as these naturally 

 arose in the mind while contemplating these ruins, 

 even while the senses were steeped in the delight of 



* See Crawfurd's History of the Indian Archipelago, vol. 2pd, 

 book 6th and 7th. From his account, as also from that of Sir Stam- 

 ford Raffles' in his History of Java, it appears that the style of the 

 Hindoo temples in Java is peculiar, and different in some respects 

 from those now existing in India, and that the religion of those 

 that built them must have been a modification of the Hindooism 

 prevailing in that country. Mr. Crawfurd thinks the Hindoo- 

 ism of Java was " a reformation of the bloody and indecent 

 worship of Siwa, brought about by sages or philosophers, by 

 persons, in short, of more kindly affections than the rest of their 

 countrymen, and perhaps to keep pace with some start in civiliza- 

 tion in the country where it had its origin." 



