129 
1877.] G. S. Leonard— The Mythic History of the God Viraj. 
already done in the minds of the vulgar and ignorant, had not the irresistible 
light of natural theology showed its superiority over every other scheme of 
religion to the saints and sages of all ages and countries, and preserved its 
relics among the learned and superior classes of the Hindus. The truth of 
the self-manifestation of the deity in the universe forms the pith and mar¬ 
row of the Virajian doctrines, (Viradmata) and is in unison with the true, 
rational, and natural religion of all mankind, whether deduced a priori from 
a pre-existent cause to his work, or inferred a posteriori, from the works of 
nature to a superintending agent. 
The deduction of Viraj ism from its fountain head of Brahmism by the 
analytical method pursued by the Vedanta like all other ancient schools, is 
not only too abstruse for common comprehensions, but too intricate and mazy 
on account of its concatenation of causes and effects to several successive 
steps or gradations of being. I have therefore followed the modern method 
of induction in the investigation of Viraj ism as it is presented to us, and then 
attempted to resolve it to the main source whence it sprung. “ The world 
subsists in and is the abode of God,” is a main tenet of the Virajian theolo¬ 
gy ; and the universe like a mirror not only reflects God’s image, but refracts 
it to every observer in it. The want of such a display of divine attributes 
either in the works of nature before us, or in the construction of our intel¬ 
lectual, mental, and bodily faculties, would undoubtedly lead us to form a 
very different ideal of divine nature—different from the light of nature, and 
therefore of truth, and as different from each other as those propagated by 
the false dogmas of pretended revelations, and as various and uncertain as 
those introduced by the endless speculations of philosophers. A religion or 
system of doctrines teaching the mysteries of divine nature inconsistent 
with the light of nature, may seem too grand and sublime to common capa¬ 
cities, too amusing to the speculative, and may be also very good in the 
abstract, but it can neither appeal to our comprehensions unless justified by 
the light of nature, nor be of practical use to us, unless it appeal to our own 
natures and the nature of things. The pure mysticism of the Vedanta and 
Sufism, and the ideal spirituality of a Plato, a Berkeley, and others, may be 
suitable to intellectual and spiritual beings of higher orders placed in other 
spheres as cherubs, seraphs, and other denominations of the holy choir; 
but a being of this material world, confined to this sublunary sphere, 
requires a religion adapted in every sense to his comprehension and well 
suited to his nature, as that inculcated by the Virajian or natural theology. 
The admirable Sir W. Jones has given us an extract of European 
theology from the writings of the illustrious Mr. Neckar which I shall 
quote in this place as best calculated to give a just idea of the Natural 
theology of Viraj in the glowing language of a modern philosopher. 
“ Considering themselves as an emanation from that infinite Being, they 
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