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a rite so peculiar, and so universal, must have received its sanction 
from some positive command, and could never have been the dictate 
of natural reason/ 5 
“ The Vedas themselves, on some occasions, enjoin the obla- 
tions of men, as well as animals; and that the sacrifices of the 
latter were anciently practised, we have the authority of Strabo 
and Arrian. It is also well known, that one of the incarnations of 
Vishnfi, that of Buddha himself, is described by the Brahmins, as 
having taken place for the purpose of abolishing the sacrifices 
enjoined in the Vedas; and whatever difference of opinion may 
be entertained concerning the time, or the genuineness of this 
descent, it is a decided proof, that the custom of sacrificial offering 
must have been universally prevalent/’ 
“ In the Brahminical religion, we behold a system, subsisting 
at the present time in the same form, by which it has been known 
since the earliest period of authentic history. We have taken a 
review of its doctrines, from a comparison of foreign testimony 
with its own sacred records ; and these have afforded mutual 
illustration; and the one proves the veracity of the other. We 
have seen the regal government, which was established under this 
religion, long since overthrown; we have seen its hierarchy par- 
taking in the same destruction ; but even in this disjoined state, 
retaining those inherent seeds of vitality which have preserved its 
dominion over a vast and refined population. We have, in the 
first place, shewn on what a baseless foundation those claims to 
unfathomable antiquity, which its professors assume, must at 
length rest; that there is the strongest reason to suppose, that their 
chronological scheme, in its pure state, was not widely different 
