236 
SCENES IN INDIA, 
much nonsense has been written by those who lay 
aside research for conjecture. There have even been 
found some who assert that it is a more recent 
religion than Brahminism, though the marks of its 
derivative character are stamped on every portion 
both of its faith and practice ; though its creed can be 
deduced from Brahminism by logical sequence. In 
the fifth section of Mr. Colebrook’s Essay on the Phi- 
losophy of the Hindoos, it will be seen that in the 
Upanishads or terminating sections of the Vedas, an 
ascetic and contemplative life is recommended as the 
true means of salvation. Such a doctrine produced 
a race of anchorites possessing more influence over the 
vulgar than the Brahmins, just as with the Jews the 
schools of the prophets possessed more authority than 
the descendants of Aaron. A consequence of the 
recommendation of contemplative life, recognized in- 
deed in the Vedas themselves, is that a greater autho- 
rity will be attributed to the interior revelations of 
the conscience, than to the revelations in the Sacred 
books, of which the priests are the hereditary guar- 
dians ; and this principle followed out, is manifestly 
subversive of caste, because it elevates the anchorite 
of whatever tribe he may be, above the Brahmin. 
In fact, some of the present Hindoo schools of phi- 
losophy have not hesitated to go the entire length of 
preferring the revelations within the soul, discovered 
by profound meditation, to the Vedas or Scriptures. 
The praise of asceticism, and especially the belief in 
the mysterious revelations made to the ascetic, neces- 
sarily led to the attribution of divine qualities to the 
sages who retired from the busy haunts of men, to 
