look upon a cow almost as a divinity, and think a person happy who has died with the tail of one in his hand. They believe that the waters of the Ganges, Indus, and Krislna, have the sacred virtue of purifying those who bathe in them from all sins and pollutions; and hence, while they are regular in prayers, and strict in the observance of every other tenet of their religion, they never forget the daily ceremony of ablution. An idea this, which, together with the lustrations and purifications which prevailed among the ancient heathen nations in general, clearly proves, that they were never left without some notion of the purity of the Deity, and of their own moral defilement.

"The religious creed of the Gentoos," says Dr. White," is a system of the most barbarous idolatry. They acknowledge, indeed, one supreme God: yet innumerable are the subordinate deities whom they worship; and innumerable also are the vices and follies which they ascribe to them. With a blindness which has ever been found inseparable from Polytheism, they adore, as the attributes of their gods, the weaknesses and passions which deform and disgrace human nature; and their worship is, in many respects, not unworthy of the deities who are the objects of it. The favour of beings, which have no existence but in the imagination of the superstitious enthusiast, is conciliated by senseless ceremonies, and unreasonable mortifications, which strike at the root of every lawful and innocent enjoyment. What, indeed, shall we

think of a religion, which supposes the expiation of sins to consist of penances, than which fancy cannot suggest any thing more rigorous and absurd; in sitting, or standing, whole years in one unvaried posture; in carrying the heaviest loads, or dragging the most weighty chains; in exposing the naked body to the scorching sun; and in hanging, with the head downward, before the fiercest and most intolerable fire? But it were endless to dwell on all their superstitious rites."* One most cruel and inhuman custom prevails among them, "by which the wife of the Gentoo is induced to burn herself on the pile which consumes the ashes of her husband; a custom, if not absolutely enjoined by her religion, yet, at least, so far recommended by it, as to render the breach of it, in some cases, subject to the utmost ignominy and detestation.”+

This practice of sacrificing living objects to the manes of the dead, continuing in opposition to the prohibitory orders of the Indian government; the Marquis of Wellesley lately instituted an inquiry, as to the probable number of these religious murders, with a view to make it, at some fitting period, the ground of some restrictive law; and his enquiries have established the horrid fact, that upwards of 30,000 widows are annually burnt with the bo

* Sermon preached before the University of Oxford, July 4, 1784, "On the duty of attempting the propagation of the gospel among our Mahometan and Gentoo subjects in India,” and published with his Bampton Lectures..

+ Dr. White, as above.

dies of their husbands;* besides which, numbers of women and children are every year cast into the river, as offerings to the goddess Gonza. When a woman gives birth to twins, one of the infants is generally sacrificed to this goddess, in acknowledgment for her bounty.

The Brahmin superstition rejected all converts; and but few have as yet been known to be converted from their religion to Christianity. Indeed, although our settlements in India occupy a far greater extent than the British empire in Europe, yet it was not till of late, that any efforts have been exerted to introduce the glorious light of the gospel into any part of these wide provinces, and to dispel the gloom which has, for ages, enveloped the wretched inhabitants. And now, that it is more seriously proposed, it must furnish matter of surprise to Christians in general, that the necessity, or propriety of this duty, should be called in question by any in a Christian land.

Their Bible, or the religious code of Brama, is known by the name of Vedam; and their priests, who are called Bramins, or Brahmins, form the first

* Caledonian Mercury, 29th March 1804.-I am told by an officer of rank in the East India Company's service, (not Major Scott Waring, nor the Bengal officer who endeavours "to evince the Excellence of the Moral System of the Hindoos," &c.) that this barbarous custom may, in his opinion, be done away, or its influence materially weakened, provided the attempt be gone about with prudence and caution.

of their four great casts, or tribes, into which the Hindoos have been divided, from the remotest antiquity; and to them alone it is allowed to read and explain the Vedam, so that they make a mystery of their faith. Benares is reputed the most holy city of the Hindoo sect; the rites and ceremonies of their religion are pompous and splendid; and their temples, or pagodas, stupendous and magnificent, in a very high degree. The code, which directs their belief, and influences their actions, has been translated into English, by Mr. Halhed; and much information on the subject of their religion may also be found in Orme's History of Hindostan. Recourse may also be had to the Asiatic Researches, and to Mr. Foster's Sketches of Hindoo Mythology, who was the actual spectator, as well as the faithful reporter, of their numerous superstitions.*

The primeval theology of the Chinese was comparatively pure and simple; they originally adored no sculptured images of the Deity; but their present religion is involved in so much mystery, that Father Amiot, after the most assiduous researches on the subject, comes to no decided conclusion respecting it. Confucius, perhaps the noblest and most divine philosopher of the Pagan world, was himself the innocent occasion of the introduction of the numerous and monstrous idols that, in after

* See also Sonnerat's Voyages, vol. i. Calcutta edit.; from whom it appears, that the Hindoos have some notions of a Trinity..

ages, disgraced the temples of China; for, having, in his dying moments, encouraged his disconsolate disciples, by prophesying, " Si Fam Yeu Xim Gin,"* they concluded, that he meant the god Bhood of India, and immediately introduced into China the worship of that deity, with all the train of abominable images, and idolatrous rites, by which that gross superstition was in so remarkable a manner distinguished. To what holy and illustrious personage about to appear in the West, Confucius, who flourished about 500 A. C., and seems to have inherited at once the sublime virtues, and the prophetic spirit of the old patriarchs, alluded, it is not very difficult to say.

Of the three grand Chinese sects, the first, and most ancient, is that called the sect of Immortals; from a certain liquor, which its founder Li-Laokum, or Lao-Kiun, invented, and which, he affirmed, would, if drank, make men immortal. He flourished before Confucius, or upwards of 500 A. C.; and though the principles of Epicurus have been attributed to this great philosopher,† and though the followers of Lao-Kiun are materialists at this day, yet, from the account of his writings given by the two French Jesuits, Couplet and Le Compte, there is the greatest reason to suppose, that his

* i. e. In occidente erit sanctus: In the West, the Holy One will appear.

† As that God was corporeal, that the soul perishes with the body, &c.