MERAT. 
231 
commences. Hence, they become an easy and unsus- 
picious prey to the craft of innumerable adventurers, 
who make a trade in the marvellous, arid ramble 
over the whole country, enriching themselves by the 
practice alike of the simplest or the grossest imposi- 
tions. That great and excellent monarch, Krishna- 
raia, whose whole heart was bent upon the happiness 
of his people, laboured with great diligence to discover 
the well of truth ; and although a vast accumulation 
of prejudice, ignorance, and bigotry, covered the 
entrance, he succeeded, by the aid of his buhkski , 
the wise and illustrious Apa-ji, in removing much of 
the obstruction ; and ultimately drew many copious 
draughts from that pure spring. 
Upon one occasion, Krishnaraia, having no matter 
of greater importance before him, put a problem to 
Apa-ji for solution, in presence of the court ; pro- 
pounding it thus : — ■ 
“ O ! Apa-ji ! The words of the wise have declared 
that the deep waters of the pool of reason are, in 
most persons, stagnant ; even though the surface may 
be rippled by a passing breeze, or slightly agitated 
by the fall of a shower — that men in their customs, 
whether civil or religious, are too apt to follow on 
in one beaten track, without inquiring the condition 
of the land to which they are travelling ; thus the 
form of religious usages, or of any conventional 
customs, being once established, will continue to be 
heedlessly imitated by the undiscerning multitude, 
however ridiculous or fatal it may be. I desire that 
