This religious and moral system is no doubt of great antiquity; 
but those who have deeply investigated the ancient and pleasing 
fictions in the Hindoo mythology, which bears a great resemblance 
to that of the Greeks, and may perhaps be traced to the same ori- 
gin, are of opinion, that the religious and civil laws of the Hindoos, 
called the Institutes of Menu, were compiled about eight hundred 
and eighty years before the birth of our Saviour; that the Vedas, 
or sacred volumes, were written three hundred years prior to the 
Institutes; and that preceding this period, every thing being 
handed down by oral tradition, the account was obscure and 
fabulous. 
But divested of extraneous matter, there appears to be a great 
degree of purity and sublimity in the genuine principles of the 
Hindoo religion, though now obscured by superstitious riles and 
ceremonies, and blended with gross idolatry: in their original 
simplicity, they teach that there is one supreme ruler of the uni- 
verse; who is styled Brahma, or the Great One: they inculcate 
also, that this supreme intelligence consists of a triad, or triple di- 
vinity, expressed by the mystic word Om; and distinguished by 
the names of Vishnu, Brahma, and Sheva; or the creating, pre- 
serving, and destructive power of the Almighty. Images of these 
attributes are placed in their temples; and worship and sacrifices 
are daily performed before them, and a variety of other statues, 
representing the different qualities of the Supreme Being: so that 
it is a complete system of polytheism, and a source of a thousand 
fables subversive of truth and simplicity. 
Yet it ever was, and ever must be difficult, for either Christians 
or Mahomedans, to convert a Hindoo: for with them theology is 
