I- A W. 341 
wholly immerfed in fleep. Then the foie felf-exifting 
power, himfelf undifcerned, but making this world dil- 
cernible, with five elements and other principles of nature, 
appeared with undiminithed glory, expanding Itis idea, or 
difpelling the gloom. He whom the mind alone can per¬ 
ceive, whofe effence eludes the external organs, who has 
no vifible parts, who exifts from eternity, even he, the 
foul of all beings, whom no being can comprehend, ihone 
forth in perfon. He, having willed to produce various 
beings from his own divine fubftance; firft, witha thought, 
created the waters, and placed in them a productive feed; 
the feed became an egg, bright as gold, blazing like the lu¬ 
minary with a thoufand beams; and in that egg he was 
born himfelf, in the form of Brahma the great forefather 
of all fpirits. The waters are called Na.rd, becaute they 
were the production of Nara, or the fpirit of God; and, 
fince they were his firft Ayana, or place of motion, he thence 
is named Narayana, or moving on the waters. From that 
which is, the firft caufe, not the objeft of fenfe, exifting 
every where in fuhjlance, not exilting to our perception, with¬ 
out beginning or end, was produced the divine Male, 
famed in all worlds under the appellation of Brahma.” 
Injl. of Menu, chap. i. i-io. 
Having burlt the egg by his thought alone, he formed 
from its two divifions the heaven above and the earth be¬ 
neath. From the fupreme foul he drew forth mind, exift- 
ing fuhjlantially, though unperceived by fenfe, immaterial-, 
and, before mind, or the reafoning power, he produced 
confcioufnefs, the internal monitor, the ruler. And, be¬ 
fore them both, lie produced the great principle of the 
foul, or firft expanlion of the divine idea; and all vital 
forms endued with the three qualities of goodnefs, paflion, 
and darknefs; and the five perceptions of fenfe, and the 
five organs of fenfation. Thus, having at once pervaded, 
with emanations from the fupreme fpirit, the minuteft 
portions of fix principles immenfely operative, he willed 
the exiftence of all creation. He gave being to time and 
the divifions of time, and for the diftinguifhing of ac¬ 
tions made a total difference between right and wrong. 
Injl. i. 11-16, 24, 26. 
That the human race might be multiplied, he cnufed 
the four cafs, the Brahmin, the Cfliatriya, the Vaifya, and 
the Sudra, (fo named from fcripture, protection, wealth, and 
labour,) to proceed from his mouth, his arm, his thigh, 
and his foot. And, having further formed every animate 
and inanimate thing, he, wliofe powers were incomprehen- 
fible, became again abforbed in the fupreme fpirit, 
changing the time of energy for the time of repofe. 
<3i» Si ) 
A full account of the above cafs, and of the mixed claffes 
proceeding from them, has been given under Hindoo- 
stan, vol. x. p. 121. It may not be amifs to obferve, 
that the divifion or allotment of the human race into 
tribes or claffes was an inftitution adopted in almoft all 
the early nations. In the Alfyrian empire profeffions 
were hereditary, and the children could not quit the oc¬ 
cupation of their fathers for any other. Goguet, tom. i. 
p. 58. The Egyptians were divided into three clalfes, the 
Sacerdotal, the military, and the cultivator and artifan. 
Ibid. 67. The ancient Parfees were divided in the fame 
manner. Solon arranged the citizens of Athens into four 
orders, according to the extent of their property. Rome 
was alfo claffed in a fimilar manner. 
All legiflators have decreed punifhments for crimes : 
but not all have propofed rewards in this life for virtue. 
Menu, well acquainted with human nature, held out 
both ; at the fame time he did not expeft that degree of 
perfection which in later ages Chriftianity has introduced. 
He was contented that man lhould do what was required 
of him from a motive of felf-love; and upon this he in¬ 
culcates, that, though felf-love is no laudable motive, yet 
an exemption from it is not to be found in this world ; 
eager defire is the root of expectation, and not a fingle aft 
here below appears to be done by a man free from felf- 
love ; whatever he performs, it as wrought frora a defire 
Vol. XII. No. 834. 
of reward ; and Menu feems to admit it as a fufficient 
principle, in the pupil, in ripened manhood, and in age. 
Inf. ii. 2-6. 
Reverence to age and to parents was (triCtly inculcat¬ 
ed ; the father might chaftife his fon, but only with a cane 
or rope, and that not upon the face or any noble part. 
The youth was taught that the pain and care which a 
mother and father undergo in producing and rearing chil¬ 
dren, could not be compenfated in a hundred years; by 
honouring his mother, he would gam this world ; by ho¬ 
nouring his father, the intermediate or ethereal; and, by 
afliduous attention to his preceptor, even the celeftial 
world of Brahma. Injl. iv. vii. viii. 
In the eighth year of the age of a Brahmin, the eleventh- 
of a Clhatriya, and in the twelfth of a Vaifya, the father 
was to invert his fon with the mark of his clafs; it might 
on emergency be done earlier. The ceremony of inveiti- 
ture mult.not be delayed in a prieft beyond his fixteenth 
year, in a foldier beyond his twenty-fecond, and in a mer¬ 
chant beyond the twenty-fourth year of his age, on pain 
of lofing his clafs and its confequent advantages. It was 
performed by facrifice, and the putting on of a girdle 
compofed of three cords, foft and fmooth, made of munjst 
upon the Brahmin, of one compofed of bow-ftrings of 
murva round the warrior, and of a triple thread of Jana 
round the merchant; and a facrificial thread of cotton in 
three firings for a Brahmin, of fana thread for a Clhatriya, 
and of woollen thread for a Vaifya, to be put on over the 
head ; and leveral other fmaller ceremonies. Women 
were not exempted from the necefiity of being inverted 
with their refpeClive claffes ; but the ceremony of the fa¬ 
crificial thread, according to Culluca, was to be omitted. 
The actual birth from the mother, and the ligation of the 
zone, formed what is termed, throughout the code, the 
twice-born man. Inf. ii. 36-44. 
Education was in the hands of the Brahmin, excepting 
cafe of necefiity. All the three upper claffes were dili¬ 
gently to read and learn the Veda; but in general, except 
in the cafe of necefiity before-mentioned, the Brahmin 
was the only perfon to teach it. The fuperiority of this 
clafs over all earthly beings is in the higheft degree in¬ 
culcated; way miift be made for him in preference to the 
female, the prince, or even the grey hairs of ninety. 
Upon the whole, the youth was well guarded in his mo¬ 
rals, and formed to that placidity and polifli of manner* 
which every European, who has been in India, aferibes 
in a fuper-eminent degree to the Hindoo. Mildnefs in the 
tutor is commanded: “Good inftrudtion mud be given 
without pain to the inftruiffed, and fweet gentle lpeech 
mull be uled by a preceptor who cherirties virtue. Inf. ii. 
159. The fecond chapter concludes with a recommenda¬ 
tion to the pupil to be liberal to his tutor, to the belt of 
his power, upon quitting him. Nothing could be de¬ 
manded as the price of tuition, though the pupil was re¬ 
commended to give fomething, according to his means, 
at the expiration of it. It might continue as far as thir¬ 
ty-fix years of age, or even for life, in the tutor’s houl'e; 
and we rauft admire the law that provided for the equal 
education of the poor and the wealthy, and permitted man, 
without injuftice to himfelf, to give a decided fuperiority 
to his tutor in return for the invaluable and gratuitous 
benefit of inftrudtion. Inf. ii.iii. 
The term of difeipline being expired, the ftudent, whofe 
rules had not been violated, might affume the order of a 
married man ; but even here the power or influence of his 
inftruttor follows him, and not without, his confent 
might he proceed to marriage. The early age allowed 
for the marriage of females was the confequence of cli¬ 
mate; but the mature age required for the male, was the 
ordinance of good policy. The male of twenty-four years 
fhould marry the girl of eight years of age; the male of 
thirty the female of twelve. Inf. iv. 94. Marriage was 
diftinguilhed into eight kinds; the four firft, by different 
modes of giving the daughter, the fifth was a fort of fale, 
the fixth proceeded from fenfual inclinations, the feventh 
4 S- • was 
