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out of them : it is better to speak the plain truth on a subject where there is 
a great deal of unreality. There is a capital book which goes into the sub- 
ject in some detail, and compares Christianity with Hindooism in many of 
its phases in a very forcible way ; its title is “ Parameswara Inyana Goshthi,” 
and it is a series of discussions put out by the late Mr. Rowland Williams, 
one of the celebrated “Essayists,” — a man gravely misunderstood in his 
time, and who certainly has left behind him a reputation which will survive. 
I say this, of course, without at all endorsing his opinions. His book will 
give, to any one who desires it, a tolerably clear view of the subject, or that 
which more nearly approaches to a clear view than anything else which, as 
far as I know, exists at present in the English language. I could not recom- 
mend any one who wishes to have a usable outline of the subject to rest in 
the translations of the “Hymns of the Vedas,” by Professor Max Muller ; 
nor in his book on “ Science and Religion” ; and yet the question which 
Professor Max Muller could answer better than most men, and which I 
should like to hear Bishop Claughton speak about, is, what is the historical 
value of the Vedas? As to the Shasters, I suppose there is no historical 
value in them, and I doubt very much whether there is any in the Vedas. 
Their antiquity is most difficult to ascertain. I greatly doubt whether we 
can find earlier than, say the Macedonian conquest of Persia, any worthy 
historical basis for the Vedas ; and it seems rather gratuitous to call upon 
Christian people to compare these writings with the venerable writings of 
Moses and the prophets. The sublimity and the grandeur of our ancient 
Hebrew books have been felt by millions from the time of Isaiah and Moses ; 
while these V edas are brought forward but yesterday, and but for the efforts of 
our own countrymen, they would have remained, in all probability, unknown 
to the rest of the world to this day. So great is the contrast between the 
two sets of books — the J ewish and the Indian — that one can only be sur- 
prised at the remarkable mental constitution which can regard them for a 
single instant as in any sense parallel books of religion — parallel authorities 
in divine truth. That they have indeed been spoken of as in some degree 
parallel we all of us know, but the fact that they have been so mentioned 
will, I venture to say, be hereafter regarded as a curiosity in the history of 
the human mind. But we are concerned, no doubt, with another question 
closely connected with this which I am glancing at, namely, what is the 
historical importance of the Vedas in connection with the languages of the 
world’s ancient races. I believe it is admitted that languages were so imper- 
fect in primitive ages as not to have been able to give utterance at all to the 
higher ideas of theology and morals ; and yet they somehow reached the 
wonderful perfection of Sanskrit, and found expression in it, in pre-historic 
times, and attained a metaphysical perfection so great that there is no kind 
of controversy among Christians to which you may not find some parallel in 
that ancient literature of India. Here surely is a wonderful subject for the 
investigation of our savans ; they should aim to explain to us how that 
extraordinary civilization had arisen. We cannot indeed find the history, 
but we ought at least, one would think, to have a theory founded upon some 
