BOOK have led to sanguinary retaliation; and they no longer act on the generous laws of war which are so conspicuous in Menu. But even now they are more merciful to prisoners than any other Asiatic people, or than their Mussulman countrymen. Tippoo used to cut off the right hands and noses of the British camp followers that fell into his hands. The last Péshwa gave to men of the same sort a small quantity of provisions and a rupee each, to enable them to return to their business, after they had been plundered by his troops. Cold-blooded cruelty is, indeed, imputed to Bramins in power, and it is probably the result of checking the natural outlets for resentment; but the worst of them are averse to causing death, especially when attended with shedding blood. In ordinary circumstances, the Hindús are compassionate and benevolent; but they are deficient in active humanity, partly owing to the unsocial effects of cast, and partly to the apathy which makes them. indifferent to their own calamities, as well as to those of their neighbours. This deficiency appears in their treatment of the poor. All feed Bramins and give alms to religious mendicants; but a beggar from mere want would neither be relieved by the charity of Europe, nor the indiscriminate hospitality of most parts of Asia. Though improvidence is common among the poor, and ostentatious profusion, on particular occasions, among the rich, the general disposition of the Hindús is frugal, and even parsimonious. Their XI. ordinary expenses are small, and few of any rank CHAP. in life hesitate to increase their savings by employing them indirectly in commerce, or by lending them out at high interest. Hindú children are much more quick and intelligent than European ones. The capacity of lads of twelve and fourteen is often surprising; and not less so is the manner in which their faculties become blunted after the age of puberty. But at all ages they are very intelligent; and this strikes us most in the lower orders, who, in propriety of demeanour, and in command of language, are far less different from their superiors than with us. Their freedom from gross debauchery is the point in which the Hindús appear to most advantage. It can scarcely be expected, from their climate and its concomitants, that they should be less licentious than other nations; but if we compare them with our own, the absence of drunkenness, and of immodesty in their other vices, will leave the superiority in purity of manners on the side least flattering to our self-esteem. Their indifference to the grossest terms in conversation appears inconsistent with this praise; but it has been well explained as arising from "that simplicity which conceives that whatever can exist without blame, may be named without offence;" and this view is confirmed by the decorum of their behaviour in other respects. Though naturally quiet and thoughtful, they are BOOK IJI. Comparison of the Hindú character in ancient and mo cheerful in society; fond of conversation and amusement, and delighting in anecdote and humour bordering on buffoonery. It has been remarked before, that their conversation is often trifling, and this frivolity extends to their general character, and is combined with a disposition to vanity and osten tation. In their persons they are, generally speaking, lower, and always more slender, than Europeans. They have a better carriage and more grace, less strength, but more free use of their limbs. They are of a brown colour, between the complexion of the southern European and that of the negro. Their hair is long, rather lank, and always jet black. Their mustachios and (in the few cases in which they wear them) their beards are long and strong. Their women have a large share of beauty and grace, set off by a feminine reserve and simplicity. The cleanliness of the Hindús in their persons is proverbial. They do not change their clothes after each of their frequent ablutions; but even in that respect the lower classes are more cleanly than those of other nations. The public parts of their houses are kept very neat; but they have none of the English delicacy which requires even places out of sight to partake of the general good order. Before coming to any conclusions from the two views which have been given of the Hindús, at *The military classes in Hindostan are much taller than the dern times. common run of Englishmen. - XI. the earliest epoch of which we possess accounts, CHAP. and at the present day, it will be of advantage to see how they stood at an intermediate period, for which we fortunately possess the means, through the accounts left us by the Greeks, a people uninfluenced by any of our peculiar opinions, and yet one whose views we can understand, and whose judgment we can appreciate. This question has been fully examined in another place, and the results alone need be mentioned here. From them it appears that the chief changes between the time of Menu's Code and that of Alexander, were the complete emancipation of the servile class; the more general occurrence, if not the first instances, of the practice of self-immolation by widows; the prohibition of intermarriages between casts; the employment of the Bramins as soldiers, and their inhabiting separate villages; and, perhaps, the commencement of the monastic orders. The changes from Menu to the present time have already been fully set forth; and if we take a more extensive review (without contrasting two particular periods), we shall find the alterations have generally been for the worse. The total extinction of the servile condition of the Súdras is, doubtless, an improvement; but in other respects we find the religion of the Hindús debased, their restrictions of cast more rigid (exSee Appendix III. III. cept in the interested relaxation of the Bramins), the avowed imposts on the land doubled, the courts of justice disused, the laws less liberal towards women, the great works of peace no longer undertaken, and the courtesies of war almost forgotten. We find, also, from their extant works, that the Hindús once excelled in departments of taste and science on which they never now attempt to write; and that they formerly impressed strangers with a high respect for their courage, veracity, simplicity, and integrity, the qualities in which they now seem to us most deficient. It is impossible, from all this, not to come to a conclusion that the Hindús were once in a higher condition, both moral and intellectual, than they are now; and as, even in their present state of depression, they are still on a footing of equality with any people out of Europe, it seems to follow that, at one time, they must have attained a state of civilisation only surpassed by a few of the most favoured of the nations, either of antiquity or of modern times. The causes of their decline have already been touched on in different places. Their religion encourages inaction, which is the first step towards decay. The rules of cast check improvement at home, and at the same time prevent its entering from abroad it is those rules that have kept up the separation between the Hindús and the Mussulmans, and furnished the only instance in which an idolatrous religion has stood out against the |