gold, blazing like the luminary with a thousand beams; and in that egg was born the form of Brahmá, the great forefather of all spirits.

"The waters are called nárá, because they were the production of Nara, or the spirit of God; and since they were his first ayana, or place of motion, he thence is named Nárayana, or moving on the waters.

"From that which is, the first cause, not the object of sense existing every where in substance, not existing to our perception, without beginning or end, was produced

goras. Their title implied a pure devout life, free from violence. They abstained from eating any animal food, or eggs, as the Brahmins and devout persons in India have done from the remotest ages. In the orgies of Bacchus, the egg was consecrated and held in veneration as a symbol of the world, and of him who contains every thing within himself. "Consule initiatos Liberi patris in quibus hac veneratione ovum colitur, ut ex formâ tereti ac penè sphærali atque undique versum clausâ, et includente intra se vitam, mundi simulachrum vocetur."-Macrob. Saturn. vii. c. 16. (tom. ii. p. 275. ed. Bipont.)

the divine male, famed in all worlds under the appellation of Brahmá.

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In the egg the great power sat inactive a whole year of the Creator, at the close of which by his thought alone he caused the egg to divide itself;

"And from its two divisions he framed the heavens above, and the earth beneath : in the midst he placed the subtle ether, the eight regions, and the permanent receptacle of waters."

Then after recapitulating the different created things, it is said:

"He (meaning Brahmá) whose powers are incomprehensible, having thus created this universe, was again absorbed in the Supreme Spirit, changing the time of energy for the time of repose."

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He having enacted this code of laws, himself taught it fully to me in the beginning; afterwards I taught it Maríchi and the nine other holy sages.

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My son Bhrigu will repeat the divine code to you without omission; for that sage learned from me to recite the whole of it.

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Bhrigu, great and wise, having thus been appointed by Menu to promulge his laws, addressed all the Rishis with an affectionate mind, saying: 'Hear!'

"From this Menu, named Sway'-ambhuva, or Sprung from the self-existing, came six descendants, other Menus, or perfectly understanding the scripture, each giving birth to a race of his own, all exalted in dignity, eminent in power, &c. &c."*

The Laws of Menu are divided into eight chapters, the contents of which are: 1st. On the Creation. 2nd. On Education. 3rd. On Marriage. 4th. On Economics and Morals. 5th. On Diet, Purification, and Women. 6th. On Devotion. 7th. On Government and on the Military Class. 8th. On Judicature and Law, both civil and criminal, but which appear to be only a digest of others already in practice,

* "Ces Menous sont les mêmes que les Mahabad des anciens Persans." Observation by M. Langlès. See the notes, and Notice Chronologique, in the tenth volume of his edition of Chardin's travels.

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correcting and extending them according to present circumstances.

The inviolability of a Brahmin, is a fixed principle in the Hindu legislation it is ordained by law, and sanctified by religion: to deprive him of life, either by direct violence, or by causing his death in any other manner, is a crime which cannot be expiated. The person of the sovereign is also declared sacred.

"It is confessed on all hands that Hindū policy, both civil and religious, favours population, agriculture, and commerce."*

"It may be objected, that a tribe of military forms one part of the Hindū system; and that war implies oppression. Against this, however, the same code provides a remedy. The produce of the field, the work of the artisan, the city without walls, and the defenceless village, are declared sacred and inviolable.+ Those only who

* Vincent, vol. i. p. 82.

"Strabo, lib. xv.-Diod. Sic. lib. ii.-Paolino.See also Arrian."

used the sword, were to perish by the sword."* Nor did the order of priesthood produce obstruction to population; marriage in that class seems not only to have been admitted, but ordained. 66 A Brahmin cannot retire to the woods, that is to say, become Hylobius, or Jogee, till he has given children to the community."+

In the Laws of Menu we find regulations respecting interest on money, with a considerable latitude to those who lend it on bottomry, or adventures by sea. Previously to obtaining a knowledge of those laws, and other ancient Hindu writings, the

* Vincent.

+ The practice of exposing children to sale, legalised anciently in Greece, and still practised in China, Dr. Vincent observes, never existed in India. In Greece, says he, "a parent was allowed to expose every child; in China he may dispose of every female and every third male. This is a system that seems never to have entered into the conception of Indian legislators, civil or religious."-Vincent, vol. i. p. 85, and note to that

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