HINDOO TEACHERS. 
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thing in this world to he compared with wisdom for 
purity. He who is perfected by practice, in due time 
findeth it in his own soul. He who hath faith findeth 
wisdom, and, above all, he who hath gotten the better 
of his passions ; and having obtained this spiritual 
wisdom, he shortly enjoy eth superior happiness ; 
whilst the ignorant and the man without faith, whose 
spirit is full of doubt, is lost. Neither this world 
nor that which is above, nor happiness, can be en- 
joyed by a man of a doubting mind. The human ac- 
tions have no power to confine the spiritual mind, 
which by study hath forsaken works, and which by 
wisdom hath cut asunder the bonds of doubt.” * 
We should form altogether a very unjust estimate 
of the intellectual qualifications of Hindoo teachers, 
if we tested them by those vulgar superstitions which 
are constantly presented to the traveller s eye in their 
numerous temples. These are frequently nothing more 
than the juggles of an interested priesthood, from 
which, indeed, the religion of Christian countries is 
not entirely free. The besotted notions so commonly 
instilled into the mind of the ignorant Hindoo are 
as far removed from the spirit of his ritual, as the 
mummeries sanctioned by the Roman Catholic priest- 
hood are from the purity of those doctrines promul- 
gated by the chosen ministers of the Christian Law- 
giver. Wherever religion is taught to be a mystery 
too subtle for the penetration of common minds, and 
thus kept from the mental scrutiny of the vulgar; — 
where it is left to be expounded by a few interested 
teachers, who derive more temporal profit from prac- 
* Bhagvat Geeta, Lecture IV. 
