Chap. II 
of the East Indie s. 
particular and immediate Happinefs, to the preferving the 
Form of Government, under which they lived, in its full 
Vigour, in order to provide thereby for the Security and 
Welfare of their Pofterity \ 
The Sacifices they offered, were abfolutely pure, and 
confiftea chiefly in burning Incenfe, and other Perfumes, 
upon their Altars ; and, while thele were burning, they 
delivered in the moft pathetic Terms, a folemn Prayer to 
God, in the Name of the People. They like wife took 
i upon them the Office of Augurs , in which they delivered 
Oracles to the People, as they prefented their Petitions to 
the Deity; but, if it fo fell out, that a Man was thrice 
i miftaken in his Attempts to prophefy, he was thencefor- 
■ ward condemned to perpetual Silence ; which feems to have 
been a very wife Contrivance for preventing the Failings of 
particular Men from bringing their Order into Difrepute. 
Another Fundtion of their Miniftry confifted in Ablutions, 
when they waflied the People in the River Ganges , as a 
Token of their being cleanfed from all Impurity, delivered 
from the Stain of Sin, and rendered acceptable in the Eyes 
of God : This was an exterior Rite, fignifying a general 
■ Repentance of paft Offences, and a fincere Renovation of 
their Defire to fulfil the Will of God in every refped, 
agreeable to other fymbolical Inflitutions, which were com- 
i mon in the Religion of the Brachmans b . 
It was, by this regular Difcharge of their Duty, on all 
public Occasions, and by the Aufterity of their Lives, that 
they maintained their Influence over the People, and fup- 
ported that Dignity and Precedence which the Laws had 
given them, and which they would very foon have loft, if 
their Characters had been ftained by their Negligence, or 
their Vices. It was, without doubt, a very great Power 
that they enjoyed ; and we fhould fcarce credit what the 
f Antients have delivered upon this Subjeft, if the Remains 
of that profound Veneration and Refpedt did not, in a 
[ great meafure, fubfift even at this Day. The Brachmans 
; are ftill acknowledged the firft Caft among the Indians , are 
i yet confidered as their Priefts and Prophets ; and, infhort, 
the Prerogatives of which they are now poffeffed, are fo 
many rational and convincing Teftimonies of the Truth 
: of what thefe old Writers have delivered. 
4. As the Brachmans were poffeffed of all the Science in 
their Nation, and were, in a manner, the only Men of 
Learning in it, they, for the better and more effedtual 
1 Cultivation of Knowledge, applied themfelves to different 
: Branches ; that is, after they had firft ran through the 
N general Difcipline of their Schools ; for it was a Maxim of 
[ theirs, and that not at all ill-founded, that the Sciences de- 
f pended upon each other ; and that, to be perfectly Mafter 
l of one, it was neceffary that a Man fhould have a Tinfture 
j: of the reft. 
1 They ftuck to one Sort of Knowledge. Some of the 
Bractmans addicted themfelves to Philofophy ; and it was 
by them that Syftem was formed, which has been fince 
■ known in the World by the Name of the Indian or Pytha- 
gorean, and which is, in Truth, the Bafis of the new Philo- 
fophy, and, therefore, deferves to be particularly confidered. 
[ They thought that there was One neceffary felf-exiftent 
Being, from whom all other Spirits were derived, and all 
the Matter of the Univerfe created by his Will. They 
I reprefen ted this Being, as pervading the WTole, and yet 
! occupying no Space ; and, as they afcribed the Exiftence 
of the Univerfe to his Power, fo they acknowledged the 
J Prefer vation and Direction thereof to be the EffeCts of his 
| Wifdom. They had a very diftind Idea of the folar 
j Syftem ; though the Writers that have mentioned their 
1 Opinions, have reprefented them very confufedly ; fo that 
f we can gather from them is, that they regarded the Uni- 
f verfe as a Sphere ; of which, it is faid, they made the 
s. Earth the Centre ; but I rather think the Sun ; and that 
their dancing round his Figure, reprefented the Effeas of 
the Motion of the Sun round its own Axis. The Manner 
in which they fpoke on thefe Subjeas, and the Difference 
or their Opinions irom thofe of the Greeks , occalioned the 
■ Miftake. 
They held, that Water was the Principle of all Things, 
: t ^ iat ^ Heavens and the Stars were not compofed of 
Elemental Matter, that is, not of the fame Matter with 
our lower World. They made ufe of foirse odd Compa- 
risons, or rather of Parables, that were a little ft rained, to 
exprefs their Notions about Things that do not fo properly 
fall under the Cognizance of the human Underftanding, and 
will, therefore, appear dark and confufed, chef treated 
with the utmoft Care, and by Men of the moft diftmguiffied 
Abilities. In Points that more nearly concerned Mankind, 
they were explicit enough. They taught, for Example, 
that as the World had a Beginnng, lb it fhould like- 
wile have an End, and that by Fire. They were of Opi- 
nion, that all Countries produced whatever was requilke 
for making their Habitants happy ; and that reafonable 
Men ought rather to contract their Appetites, that they 
might be content with what Nature, in all Places, bellows, 
than augment the Inconveniencies, to which human Na- 
ture is fubjeCt, by defiring what is the ProduCt of other 
Lands. As to Spiritual Beings, they divided them into 
three Claffes, Angels, Daemons, and Men : The firft 
they were thought perfectly good, the latter abfolutely bad, 
the third capable of both ; and therefore, they delpiled 
Death, becaule they ftedfaftly believed a Regeneration^, 
the higheft Degree of whieh they took to be the Deli- 
verance of the Spirit from the Body, and its Affociation 
with the Angels c . 
The DoCtrine of the Metempfychojis they had in com- 
mon with all the Eaftern Philofophers ; and the Mean- 
ing of it feems to have been this : They conceived, that 
whatever grew, or had any Faculties, mull be endowed 
with Spirit ; from whence they inferred, that fuch Bodies 
were the Cafes of Spirits, or rather Prifons, in which they 
were confined till they purged or purified themfelves, and 
fo purchafed their own Redemption. Upon this Prin- 
ciple they built their Dodrine of Abftinence from Flefh, 
becaufe they thought that in all Animals Spirits, were in- 
cluded ; and that in fuch efpecially, as were ufeful and 
ferviceable to Men, refided thofe Spirits, that, though im* 
pure, had yet Principles of Good in them, the Souls of 
a worfe kind being thruft into the Bodies of wild Bsafts 5 
which, therefore, they permitted to be eaten by thofe 
who were not of their Sed or Clais : And they imagined, 
that in proportion as Men heightened or depreffed their 
animal Faculties in this Life, they ihould fare in the next ; 
that is to fay, fuch as gratified their brutal Paftions, paffed 
into Beafts ; and fuch as cultivated the Virtues of the: 
Mind, rofe, by degrees, through the feveral Claffes of 
Mankind, till, in the End, they merited an intire Freedom 
from Body, and were received into the Company of An- 
gels d . 
Such, as far as I am able to gather from the Lights left 
us by the Antients, were the Opinions of the Brachmans 
who taught Philofophy. Another Sort of them there 
were, who bent their Studies principally to the cultivating 
of Policy, or the Laws and Conftitutions of their Country ; 
it was to thefe that, in critical Conjundures, their Princes 
addreffed themfelves for their Advice, without which they 
were not at Liberty to ad in difficult Cafes. At fuch 
Times the Monarch had not the Power of fending for fuch 
as he defired to confult, but was obliged to go to the 
Grove where they refided, and where he was conftrained 
to comply with their Ceremonies and Manner of living* 
by laying afide all Marks of Grandeur, eating, as they dkff 
Herbs, Fruit and Puls, and liftening attentively to their 
Difcourfes. They did not permit fuch Converfations to 
laft above a Day and a Night, and the latter was generally 
the Time in which they gave fuch Audiences." There 
were a third Sort, that applied themfelves chiefly to Mo- 
rality ; in which they inftruded the People who came to 
vifit them, and to hear their Difcourfes e . It is highly pro- 
bable, that they paffed thro 5 thefe Offices in the different: 
Periods of their Lives ; fo that they were advanced in 
Years before they arrived at the Capacity of teaching in 
the School of Philofophy, at the Head of which there 
was always the oldeft and graveft Brachman of the Coun- 
try But thisds what I gather from comparing the Ac- 
counts we have of them, and is not pofitively laid by any 
Author ; fo that,, if the Reader thinks it improbable, lie 
is at Liberty to rejeCt it. 
5. The Brachmans pafs their Days in Groves, at, a 
a Strabo, lib, xv. Arrian in Indicts . Philojrat. lib , viii. b 
fc/m. Alex and. Stromata, lib . iff « Strabo, Arrian, Plutarch . 
5 . 
Strabo , Arrian, Philojlrat . c Strabo, lib, xv. Arrian, in Indicts . 
e Pa/lad. et S. Ambrof, de Moribus B rachmanorym. 
fro all 
