paratively bold, enterprizing, and resolute; the Hindoo tender, 
humane, and timid : this distinction may in part be attributed to 
the mildness of the climate and difference of food, but still more 
to the doctrine of transmigration; since a religion, which teaches 
them that the dearest connexions they once enjoyed on earth, 
may, on the system of the metempsychosis, now animate the 
mortal form of a bird, beast, or insect, not only inspires them with 
horror at the idea of shedding blood, but, in a great measure, 
prevents every kind of cruelty. 
“ Where the human race is struggling through such mighty 
ills, as render its condition scarcely superior to that of the brutes 
of the field/’ Orme naturally asks, “ shall we not expect to find 
throughout Hindostan dreary plains, lands uncultivated, miserable 
villages thinly interspersed, desolated towns, and the number of 
inhabitants as much diminished as their miseries appear multi- 
plied? On the contrary, we find a people, equalling, if not ex- 
ceeding in numbers the most populous states; such as enjoy the 
best of governments, and the best of laws.” 
45 The effects of climate of Hindostan seem to counteract, in 
favour of the human race, the violences to which it is subject from 
the nature of the government. The sun forbids the use of fuel, 
and renders the want of raiment to be scarcely an inconvenience: 
the bare earth, with the slightest hut over it, affords a repose 
without the danger of diseases to a people vastly temperate: 
productions peculiar to the soil of India, exceedingly contribute 
to the ease of various labours; a convenient house may be built 
in three days, with no other materials than what are furnished by 
the bamboo and kajan ; a boat, with all its appurtenances, may 
