fpirits, fay the Gentoos, who at different times, under the various characters of kings, generals, philofophers, lawgivers, and prophets, have given fhining examples of fortitude, virtue, and, purity. Many of these incarnations took place in the former, Jogues, but in the present one they are very rare*; the good angels, however, are permitted invifibly to affift the penitent, and to afford them support and protection. When the 359,123, years yet remaining of the prefent Jogue are expired, all the obdurate

ration. But the groffeft impiety ftill remains. The restoration of the fallen fpirits, according to Mr. Holwell's Gentoo fyftem, flowed not from God. He is not there the fountain of mercy. The compaffion of the good angels alone produced this divine favour, after the folicitation of 426 millions of years. In Milton we have no fuch abfurdities, no fuch impieties, as thefe fuppofitions and affertions contain.

* The Devil and his chiefs, according to Mr. H. have often, as well as the good angels, taken the human form, and appeared in the character of tyrants; and corrupters of morals, or philofophers; who, according to Mr. H. are the devil's faithful deputies. The great engines of Satan's tempta, tions, fays Mr. H. (p. 160. ch. viii.) are the ufe of animal food, and vinous and fpirituous potations. "To give the Devil his due," fays he, " it must in "juftice be acknowledged that the introduction of these two first rate vices was a master-piece of politics in Moifafoor or Satan, who alone was capable "of working fo diabolical a change in rational intellectual beings." The fyftem by which Satan effected this change, fays Mr. H, was thus; "he began with the priesthood. He fuggefted the religious ufe of animal facrifices, and of vinous libations. The priests foon began to taste, and the laity followed their example. And these two vices, fays he, are the roots from which all moral evils sprang, and continue to flourish in the world." And, indeed, Mr. H. is ferious; nay, he hopes the time is near, when animal food will be totally difused, and very earnestly he advises the butchers to turn bakers; an occupation, which he affures them, will be much more agreeable to their humanity of disposition. And here we must remark that Mr. H. tells us," it is more than probable that Moses himself was the very identical spirit," deputed "in an carlier age" to deliver God's will "under the ftile and title of Bramah." But whence then the bloody facrifices of the Mofaical law? Why, the answer is perfectly eafy on Mr. H's fcheme.-As St. Peter by his fan&tion to kill and eat corrupted the pure doctrine of Christ or Birmab, fo Aaron the high priest by his bloody facrifices corrupted the pure doctrine of Moses or Bramah.

durate fpirits who have not attained the first region of purification, fhall be thrown into the Onderah for ever. The eight regions of probation fhall be then deftroyed. And when the fpirits in the seven planets of purification fhall have attained the highest heaven, these regions fhall also be no more. A long time after this, fays the Shaftah, there fhall be another creation, but of what kind, or upon what principles, the Eternal One only knows.

Such are the terms of falvation offered by the Shaftah as given by Mr. Holwell. Almost innumerable are the wild, fanciful accounts of the creation contained in the facred books of India. Some of them are moft horridly impure, (See Faria y Soufa, Tom. II. p. 4. c. i.) and almost all of them have a whimsical meannefs, or grossness of idea. The account given by Mr. H. as that of the genuine, infpired Shaftah is thus, "When the "Eternal ONE first began his intended new creation of the uni"verfe, he was oppofed by two mighty Ooors, (i. e. giants) "which proceeded from the wax of Brum's (i. e. Birmah's)

པ

ear;

and their names were Modoo and Kytoo. And the "Eternal ONE contended and fought with Modoo and Kytoo "five thousand years; and he fmote them on his thigh, and

46

they were loft and affimilated with Murto (earth).”

Birmah is then appointed to create, Bifinoo to preserve, and Sieb to change or deftroy.-Mr. H. thus proceeds, "And when “ Brum (Birmah) heard the command, which the mouth of "the Eternal ONE had uttered, he ftraightways formed a leaf of "beetle, and he floated on the beetle leaf over the furface of the "waters, and the children of Modoo and Kytoo fled from be

"fore

*fore him, and vanished from his presence: and when the agi"tation of the waters had fubfided by the powers of the spi"rit of Brum, Biftnoo ftraightways transformed himself into a "mighty boar, and defcending into the abyfs of waters, brought up "the Murto on his tusks. Then spontaneously issued from him "a mighty tortoife and a mighty snake. And Biftnoo put the fnake "erect upon the back of the tortoise, and placed Murto upon "the bead of the fnake. And all things were created and Mr. Holwell informs us, that all this

"formed by Birmah."

is fublime allegory; that Modoo and Kytoo fignify discord and confufion; that the boar is the Gentoos' fymbol of ftrength; the tortoife, of flability; and the ferpent, of wisdom.

And thus

the ftrength of God placed wifdom on ftability, and the earth But what the beetle leaf, and the wax of Brum's

upon

wisdom.

ear fignify, Mr. H. has not told us.

As an account of the doctrines of the Brahmins is a neceffary illuftration of the Seventh Lufiad, fome obfervations on their opinions are alfo requifite. Mr. Holwell talks in the higheft terms of these philofophers; he calls them " a people, who, "from the carliest times, have been an ornament to the crea"tion." At the fame time he confeffes," that unless we dive "into the myfteries of their theology they feem below the level "of the brute creation." Our first remarks fhall therefore be confined to that fyftem which is given by Mr. H. as the pure and primary revelation which God gave to the rebellious spirits by Chrift, at that time named Birmah.

"The creation and propagation of the human form, according "to the scriptures of Bramah, says Mr. H. are clogged with

« no difficulties, no ludicrous unintelligible circumstances, or inconfiften"cies. God previously constructs mortal bodies of both fexes "for the reception of the angelic fpirits-these were all "doomed to pass through many fucceffive tranfmigrations in the "mortal prifons, as a state of punishment and purgation before

they received the grace of animating the human form, which "is their chief ftate of probation and trial." This, however, without hesitation, (the reader, we fear, will fmile at the pains we take,) we will venture to call highly unphilosophical. Nature has made almoft the whole creation of fishes to feed upon each other. Their purgation therefore is only a mock trial; for, according to Mr. H. whatever being destroys a mortal body must begin its tranfmigrations anew; and thus the spirits of the fishes would be juft where they were, though millions of the four Jogues were repeated. Mr. H. is at great pains to folve the reason why the fishes were not drowned at the general deluge, when every other species of animals fuffered death. The only reafon for it, he fays, is that they were more favoured of God, as more innocent. Why then are these less guilty spirits united to bodies whofe natural inftin&t precludes them the very poffibility of falvation? There is not a bird perhaps but eats occafionally infects and reptiles. Even the Indian philofopher himself, who lets vermin overrun him, who carefully fweeps his path ere he treads upon it, left he should dislodge the foul of an infect, and who covers his mouth with a cloth, left he should fuck in a gnat with his breath; even he, in every fallad which he eats, and in every cup of water which he drinks, caufes the death of innumerable living creatures.His falvation, therefore, according to Mr. H.'s Gentoo fyftem, is as impoffible as that of the fishes.

Nor

Nor need we fcruple to pronounce the purgation of spirits, by paffing through brutal forms, as ludicrously unintelligible. The young of every animal has most innocence. An old vicious ram has made a ftrange retrograde purgation, when we confider that he was once a lamb, the mildeft and most innocent of

creatures.

The attentive reader, no doubt, has ere now been apt to enquire, How is the perfon and revelation of Christ and of Birmah one and the fame. Mr. H. thus folves the difficulty: The doctrine of Chrift, as it is delivered to us, is totally corrupted. Age after age has disfigured it. Even the most ancient record of its history, the N. T. is grofsly corrupted. St. Paul by his reveries, as Mr. H. fays, and St. Peter by his fanction to kill and eat, began this woeful declenfion and perverfion of the doc. trines of Christ.

A traveller, fays Mr. H. who defcribes the religious tenets of any nation, but does not dive into the mysteries of their theology, "difhoneftly imposes his own reveries on the world, and "does the greateft injury and violence to letters and the cause "of humanity." And here it must be again repeated, that Mr. H. affures us, that he received his inftructions from fome of the moft learned Brahmins, an opportunity which he deems fuperior to whatever had been enjoyed by any former enquirer.

A few years after Mr. Holwell's treatises were given to the public, Mr. Dow, who had also been in India, published also his account of the religion and philofophy of the Brahmins. The

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