310 L 1 
up, be bad a right to dwell with him under whofe roof he 
had fneltered himfelf; and to the new matter it was com¬ 
manded, that he Ihould not be oppreffed. Upon the whole, 
the fituation of the (lave was by the Jewitti law rendered 
as little grievous as it could be. Lev. xxxv. Dcut. xv. 
xxiii. Exod. xxi. 
The criminal law' was by no means fevere; and the elo¬ 
quent and pathetic charity of the Jewitti legittator can 
never he fufficiently admired. If there be among you a poor 
man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates, in thy land 
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou fall not harden thine 
heart, nor f tut thine hand from thy poor brother, but thou fialt 
■ open thine hand wide unto him, and fialt furely lend him fuff- 
iient for hie need in that which lit wanteth. Beware that there 
be net a thought in thy wicked heart, faying, the fever.Ik year, 
the year of rclcafe, is at hand, and thine eye be evil aoainf thy 
poor brother, and thou givef him nought. Thou [halt Jureiy give 
him, and thine heart Jhall not be grieved when thou givef unto 
him : becaufc that for this thing the Lord thy Godfall b/efs thee 
in all thy works, and in all that thou puttef thine hand unto. 
Deut. xv. 7. 
The kindnefs inculcated to ftrangers and fojourners is 
. no lefs frequent and impreflfive. The judgment of the 
ftranger was not to be perverted, his peace was guarded ; 
if he dwelt in the land he was to be conttdered as one 
horn among the Hebrews, who were commanded to love 
him as themfelves. The whole law breathes a fpirit of be¬ 
nevolence; a fpirit which, in fpite of the obloquy thrown 
upon the Jewilh people, has never been effaced from 
them. Their character is yet univerfally charitable and 
benevolent; and this and their other domettic virtues 
form the belt cenfure upon the intolerant illiberality of 
refined and Chriftian Europe in their regard. For the 
Liftory of their perfections, and their prefent ftate in 
different countries, fee the article Jew, vol. x. p. 805 & 
feq. It remains only to obferve, that upon the Mofaic 
civil inttitutions and their principles have been founded 
the belt of fucceeding ordinances, having been interwoven 
with every Chriftian body of laws. They contain, too, 
the code of the moft ancient, as well as the mod noble, 
race upon the earth: the molt ancient of which we have 
•any authentic unbroken records ; and the moft noble, if 
nobility confift in tracing a long line of defeent from the 
greateft and beft of men. Whilft the origin of Perfia, of 
■Greece, and of Rome, was clouded with fable, or loft in 
the night of time, the pedigrees of the Jewitti families 
were cautioufly preferved and handed down. Upwards of 
5000 years after the creation, the Jew could trace his an- 
ceftry and generations, marked at particular periods, to 
the head of his tribe, and from him through a long line 
of patriarchs to the firll man ; as a fpecimen of which, 
fee the pedigree of our Saviour, Luke iii. 23-38. 
Of the Hindoo Laws. 
From the Mofaic inftitutes vve pafs eaftward to thofe of 
Menu, the legittator of the Hindoos. No particulars con¬ 
cerning Menu himfelf remain; fome have attempted to 
blend him with Minos, the legittator of Crete; but this 
fuppolition is hardly reconcileable with the pofitive ob¬ 
servances commanded by him, which he mutt have vio¬ 
lated to have been enabled to get there. Sir William 
Jones obferves, that there is found reafon for believing 
the Menu of the code was the Adam of Mofes. From 
the firft Menu were produced ten lords, who again pro¬ 
duced ('even other Menus, and the feventh of them the 
Brahmins believe to have been preferved in an ark from 
the general deluge; the date of their births is not ftated, 
but the fuppolition of their being contemporaries, and not 
defendants one from the other, may in fome manner be 
accounted for by the longevity of the human race prior to 
the deluge, allowing at the lame time for the variations 
of tradition through many ages. Thelacred text reckons 
mine defeents down to and including Noah, whofe father, 
Lamech, lived iixty-three years contemporary witll Seth, 
the fou of the firft rnjui. 
. w. 
To the indefatigable and invaluable refearches of fir 
William Jones w-e are indebted for atranttation of the In¬ 
ftitutes of the Hindoo Law; it was completed by him from 
the original Sanlkrit,and is filled up with the concile but lu¬ 
minous commentary of Colluca Bhattaof the Brahmin caft. 
In the verlion of fir William Jones, the tranttation from 
the original Sanlkrit is printed in Roman letters, that of 
the commentary of Culluca in Italics. This the reader is 
requefted to bear in mind, becaufe we fliall preierve this 
diliinftion in our quotations from it. 
Viewing the Inftitutes of Hindoo Law in the ftate we 
now have them, either of two eras may be afligned for 
their antiquity ; the higheft places them about 1180 years 
before the birth of our Saviour, and the low eft about 880 
years before the fame period. In the opinion of fir Wil¬ 
liam Jones the latter is the moft probable date; though, 
upon perilling the ordinances of Menu, many perfons will 
be inclined to think them of a date confiderably later, be¬ 
caufe they contain a fyftem of legiflature for man in a 
very cultivated, nay almoft perfect, ftate of fociety ; but 
this will be found to be the better argument for its higher 
antiquity. Perfons well acquainted with the hiftory of 
India, and the beft writers upon it, have been of opinion, 
that it has for many ages been in a ftate of decline, in- 
ftead of advancement in fcience, particularly fince the ir¬ 
ruptions of the Mahometans. The natives of India are 
in polfeffion of aftronomical tables of various epochs, 
from a period as late as the year 1569 of the Chriftian era, 
to as high as the year 3102 B.C. the famous date of the 
Cali Yuga, their fourth or prefent age of the world; and, 
the more remote the period for which thefe tables were 
conftruffed, the greater is found to be their accuracy. 
The oldeft of thefe tables correfponds, upon examination 
by the ableft aftronomers of Europe, with their own cal¬ 
culations, to an aftonilhing degree of precilion, even feru- 
tinized as they were according to the molt exatt and belt 
theories of our lateft and moft improved ftate of aftrono¬ 
mical fcience. It is therefore fair to prefume, that fociety 
was in a high ftate of civilization at a very early period 
in Hindooftan; and we may venture to rejett the com¬ 
mon opinion, that beyond the fchools of Greece or Rome, 
the fuppofed wifdom of Egypt, and the computations of 
Chaldea, the higher fciences had anciently never flourilhed 
elfewhere. See the article Hindoostan, vol. x. p. 164.. 
The labours of the pandits, under the encouragement 
of Mr. Haftings, were prior to fir William Jones’s obtain¬ 
ing a copy of the Book of Menu; the difference of their 
Digeft in fome points from the Inftitutes, and the want 
of a more ample defeription of the originals from which 
they compiled, may be accounted for from their religious 
fcruples on the one hand, and the fear of promulgating, 
oti the other, what might fometimes excite the fmile of 
European incredulity, and not adlually bear the teft of 
moral or juridical criticifm. The long influence of Ma¬ 
hometan tyranny may likewife have effected a confidera- 
ble change in the opinions and cuftoms of the Hindoos. 
The Gentoo code is alfo compiled from no lefs than 
twenty different writers, though at the head of them ap¬ 
pears the name of our legittator Menu. The law has 
been retouched by fome hands at different times, as cir- 
cumftances have varied; and hence its contradidfions in 
places. The refearches of the learned Dr. Robertfon had 
fuggefted to him the exiftence of thefe Inftitutes among 
the Brahmins; and, from the intereft he took in them, 'it 
is much to be lamented that they did not appear until af¬ 
ter he had terminated his literary labours. 
The Hindoo code opens not unlike the Mofaic. 
“ Menu fat reclined, with his attention fixed on one ob¬ 
ject, the fupreme God. The divine fages approached 
him, and begged to be apprifed of the lacred laws and 
duties of man. He, whofe powers were meafurelefs, fa- 
luted them, and replied; Be it heard! This univerfe ex- 
iited only in the firf divine idea yet unexpanded, as if involved 
in darknefs imperceptible, undefinable, undifcoverable by 
reafon, and uudilcoverabl^ by \revelation, as if it were 
i wholly 
