1845."] Veddnta-Sara, or Essence of the Vtdanta. 109 



and methodical direction of the reflective power of the mind upon it, 

 and the Sankhya expressly asserts, that the religious ceremonies 

 and doctrines of the Vedas are not sufficient] for final salvation.* It 

 is, however, not surprising, that similar effects were not produced by the 

 philosophy of the Hindoos, as by that of the Greeks. In Greece no 

 caste existed ; men of science rose from all classes of the people, and 

 the work of the higher faculties of the mind was not restricted to the 

 priests. When therefore philosophers found the religious doctrines of 

 their people inconsistent with sound reason and morality, they did not 

 hesitate to pronounce them as such, and to demonstrate their pernicious 

 effects upon the moral and religious principles of the people.f In India, 

 on the contrary, the cultivation of science was incumbent on the priests 

 alone, and if the results of their enquiries were strongly opposed to the 

 religious prejudices of the people, their whole position most forcibly 

 recommended them to conceal what they considered truths, because 

 destructive of those very prejudices, whence they derived their privileges 

 and subsistence* Thus influenced on the one side by the power of truth 

 to the revelation of their opinions, on the other by worldly advantages 

 to their concealment, they followed a middle course, that is, they 

 endeavored to reconcile the tenets of religion with their philosophical 

 views, without deserting the consistency of their principles. By this 

 proceeding must religion, of course have been degraded from its state 

 of sublime agency, as advancing the best interests of mankind, to be- 

 coming the base instrument of delusion on uncultivated minds, while 

 philosophy lost its dignity and genuine character, being mixed up with 

 a corrupt theology, and the distance between the learned and the 

 people in general became the wider. It was only one of the conse- 

 quences of such a position, that the common people by nature and law 

 were unfit to enjoy the knowledge possessed by the privileged castes. 

 Owing to the exclusiveness of science it is another consequence, that 

 philosophy in India was more directed to theoretical contemplation 

 than to practical purposes ; the Greeks as well as the modern European 



* This is in fact also maintained by the Vedanta, absorption into Brahma being 

 the final end of an individual intelligence, and all efforts which are not directed to 

 this end, retarding it in a more or less degree. 



t Sextus Empir. Adv. Math., where he speaks about Xenophanes, and Clem. 

 Alex. Chrom. V. Xenophanes ; but the principal passage, and perhaps the best, what 

 has been said on the pernicious results of polytheism, Plat. Repub. Lib. IT. 



R 



