435 
house of Israel pourtrayed upon the wall round about: and the 
worshippers therein had their faces towards the east, and they wor- 
shipped the sun toward the east. 
I am far from advocating the cause of Hinduism; but I 
confess, that a view of these excavations has often caused pious 
meditation and filled my mind with awe, though I was sur- 
rounded by idols. My opinion of modern Brahminism is appa- 
rent throughout these pages; but many circumstances authorize a 
conclusion, that there was a time when the more enlightened 
brachmans worshipped God in his unity; and perhaps in these 
very temples sung the praises of Jehovah, without the medium of 
subordinate divinities; which are said to have been introduced 
only for vulgar minds: however erroneous the principle, we must 
subscribe to the opinion of Sir William Jones, that “ the inextri- 
cable difficulties attending the vulgar notion of material substances, 
concerning which 
u We know this only, that we nothing know,” 
induced many of the wisest among the ancients, and some of the 
most enlightened among the moderns, to believe that the whole 
creation was rather an energy than a work, by which the Infinite 
Being, who is present at all times and in all places, exhibits to the 
minds of his creatures a set of perceptions, like a wonderful picture 
or piece of music, always varied, yet always uniform; so that all 
bodies and their qualities exist, indeed, to every wise and useful 
purpose, but exist only as far as they are perceived; a theory no 
less pious than sublime, and as different from any principle of 
atheism, as the brightest sun-shine differs from the blackest mid- 
