64 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
mated, formed a positive and integral part of one infi- 
nite whole. Even now, many of those modifications 
of belief which distract the faith of modern Hindoos, 
may be looked upon as a number of currents, branching 
in so many meanderings from the one main stream. 
The notion that God is a universal principle, per- 
meating all things, both matter and spirit, in whom 
the latter is finally absorbed at the consummation of 
man’s destiny, seems to have been a doctrine imbibed 
by Pythagoras from those eastern sages. The esote- 
rick principles propounded by the Samian philosopher 
to his pupils, after a severe noviciate of years, was 
evidently adopted, with some modifications, from the 
Brahminical schools of theology ; and these doctrines, 
by passing through the alembic of his mighty intel- 
lect, were purged of much of the dross with which they 
were originally encumbered, and are no doubt the 
foundation upon which the fabric of pantheism was 
erected by the philosophic Jew of Amsterdam. 
The belief of many among the modern Brahmins at 
all learned in theology will be found generally to be 
a qualified deism, as may be seen from the writings of 
the late Rammahun Roy, who, though he differed in 
many respects from the theologians of his own coun- 
try, did so rather with reference to the forms of their 
worship, than to the spirit of their doctrine. Although 
he repudiated the absurdities which form the promi- 
nent features of their temple worship, he was never- 
theless essentially a Brahmin in faith whatever he 
might have been in practice. He was rather a rare 
instance of high moral feeling with a profound reve- 
rence for religion in the abstract, apart from all specific 
