of the Supreme Being, who is equally Lord of Gods and men."* * Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, 12mo. edit. de Paris, 1781, tom. ii. In a work published at the protestant mission press at Serampore in Bengal, in 1811, in four vols. 4to. and intituled, "Account of the Writings, Religion, and Manners of the Hindūs, by W. Ward," much minute information in regard to the festivals, forms of worship, customs and practices of the Hindus, will be found; but it is apprehended that forms have too much influence with Mr. Ward, and sometimes lead him to conclusions, which, we believe, no impartial persons, who have inquired into and considered the subject, will admit. Inventions artfully employed to impose on the public in matters of religion, and to excite superstitious and groundless fears in the ignorant, are undoubtedly highly reprehensible, whenever, or by whomsoever they may be practised. Such we must consider many of the practices of the Brahmins of India; but as their orthodox doctrines teach the belief of one God, or Supreme Being only; and as it has been repeatedly declared by the learned Pundits, that their mythology and use of images were only invented, and are employed to represent the different attributes of the divinity, we can, after such solemn declarations, no longer join with Mr. Ward, in representing the whole body of Hindūs, as " gross and monstrous idolaters," than we can join with some too zealous protestants in applying the same epithets to the whole body of Roman Catholics, for having crucifixes, images, and pictures in their churches. The Church of England admits of pictures being placed over the altars, and the members of that church, as well as the Roman Catholics, we presume, will be ready to declare, that nothing more is intended by those outward signs, than to commemorate what may serve to excite devotion in the beholders. CHAPTER VI. THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL OPINIONS OF THE HINDUS, CONTINUED. In the eleventh, and, unfortunately, last discourse of Sir William Jones, to the Asiatic Society, delivered the 20th of February, 1794, he says:-"The little treatise in four chapters, ascribed to Vyasa, is the only philosophical Sastra, the original text of which I have had leisure to peruse with a Brahmin of the Vedanti school: it is extremely obscure, and though composed in sentences elegantly modulated, has more resemblance to a table of contents, or an accurate summary, than to a regular systematical tract; but all its obscurity has been cleared by the labour of the very judicious and most learned Sancara, whose commentary on the Vedanta, which I read also with great attention, not only elucidates every word of the text, but exhibits a perspicuous account of all other Indian schools, from that of Capila, to those of the more modern heretics. It is not possible, indeed, to speak with too much praise of so excellent a work; and I am confident in asserting, that, until an accurate translation of it shall appear in some European language, the general history of philosophy must remain incomplete; for I perfectly agree with those, who are of opinion, that one correct version of any celebrated Hindū book, would be of greater value than all the dissertations or essays that could be composed on the same subject. You will not, however, expect, that in such a discourse as I am now delivering, I should expatiate on the diversity of Indian philosophical schools, on the several founders of them, on the doctrines which they respectively taught, or on their many disciples, who dissented from their instructors in some particular points. On the present occasion, it will be sufficient to say, that the oldest head of a sect, whose entire work is preserved, was, according to some authors, Capila; not the divine personage, a reputed grandson of Brahma, to whom Krishna compares himself in the Geeta; but a sage of his name, who invented the Saníhya, or numeral philosophy, which Krishna himself appears to impugn in his conversation with Arjuna; and which, as far as I can recollect it from a few original texts, resembled in part, the metaphysics of Pythagoras, and in part the theology of Zeno: his doctrines were enforced and illustrated, with some additions, by the venerable Patanjali, who has also left us a fine comment on the grammatical rules of Panini, which are more obscure, without a gloss, than the darkest oracle: and here by the way let me add, that I refer to metaphysics, the curious and important science of universal grammar, on which many subtle disquisitions may be found interspersed in the particular grammars of the ancient Hindūs. |