Deified men and women-Bramhuns, especially religious guides, 245. Daughters of bramhŭns, ibid. Wives of bramlıŭns, 246. A female, 247. Unutterable abominations practised, ibid. II. The Monkey, (Hŭnooman,) 251. Marriage of two given SECT. I. GUROORU. His image and descent, 256. A story re- This attachment encouraged by the shastrus, ibid. note. Anxiety of the Hindoos to die in sight of 261 263 * One of these stones, by a fall, being split asunder, was lately shewn to the author. The internal appearance of this strongly indicates, that these stones are not, as has been supposed, (see Asiatic Researches, vol. vii. p. 240.) perforated stones, but petrified shells: the shell in the inside of this was the Argonauta Argo.-May 8, 1815. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE HINDOO RELIGION, THE whole system of Hindoo theology is founded upon the doctrine that the Divine Spirit, as the soul of the universe, becomes, in all animate beings, united to matter; that spirit is insulated or individuated by particular portions of matter, which it is continually quitting, and joining itself to new portions of matter; that the human soul is, in other words, God himself; that the knowledge of this, leading men to seek complete deliverance from the degrading and polluting influence of material objects, is the only means of being reunited to the divine nature; that this deliverance from matter may be obtained in the present state by separation from human intercourse, the practice of There are two opinions among the Hindoos on this subject; some philosophers maintaining, that it is one soul which is united to sentient creatures; while others support a contrary opinion, and affirm, that human souls must be emanations from the Great Spirit, otherwise, when one person obtained absorption into the divine nature, all would obtain it at the same moment. The védantů philosophers teach, 'that God exists in millions of forms, from the ant to Brùmha, the grandfather of the gods, as one moon is seen at once in twenty different pans of water.' The agreement betwixt these opinions and those of the Greek philosophers is very remarkable :-' Almost all ancient philosophers agreed in admitting two principles in nature, one active and the other passive; but they differed in the manner in which they conceived these principles to subsist, Some held God and Matter to be two principles, which are eternally opposite; not only differing in their essence, but having no com bodily austerities, and entire abstraction of mind; and that, if not obtained in one birth, it is to be sought through every future transmigration till obtained. This doctrine is taught in many parts of the Hindoo writings, especially in the Dŭrshůnus; which works, though almost mon principle by which they can be united. This was the doctrine taught by Anaxagoras, and after him by Plato, and the whole Old Academy. This system, for the sake of perspicuity, we will call the Dualistic system. Others were convinced, that nature consists of these two principles; but finding themselves perplexed by the difficulty with which they saw the Dualistic system to be encumbered, that of supposing two independent and opposite principles, they supposed both these to be comprehended in one universe, and conceived them to be united by a necessary and essential bond. To effect this, two different hypotheses were proposed: some thought God to have been eternally united to matter in one whole, which they called Chaos, whence it was sent forth, and at a certain time brought into form, by the energy of the divine inhabiting mind. This was the System of Emanation, commonly embraced by the ancient barbaric philosophers, and afterwards admitted into the early theogonies of the Greeks. Others attempted to explain the subject more philosophically, and, to avoid the absurdity which they conceived to attend both the former systems, asserted that God, the rational and efficient principle, is as intimately connected with the universe, as the human mind with the body, and is a forming power, so originally and necessarily inherent in matter, that it is to be conceived as a natural part of the original chaos. This system seems not only to have been received by the Ionic philosophers, Thales and Anaximander; but by the Pythagoreans, the followers of Heraclitus, and others. Zeno, determining to innovate upon the doctrine of the Academy, and neither choosing to adopt the Dualistic nor the Emanative System, embraced the third hypothesis, which, though not originally his own, we shall distinguish by the name of the Stoical System. Unwilling to admit, on the one hand, two opposite principles, both primary and independent, and both absolute and infinite; or on the other, to suppose matter, which is in its nature diametrically opposite to that of God, the active efficient cause, to have been derived by emanation from him; yet finding himself wholly unable to derive these two principles from any common source, he confounded their essence, and maintained that they were so essentially united, that their nature was one and the same.' Enfield, p. 329, 330. |