fuperior opportunities of knowledge enjoyed by Mr. Dow are thus mentioned by himself.

Talking of the whole body of modern travellers, he says, "They have prejudiced Europe against the Brahmins, and by a very unfair account, have thrown difgrace upon a system of

religion and philofophy which they did by no means investigate.” After this he tells us, (Differt. p. xxii.) "that converfing by "accident one day with a noble and learned Brahmin, he per"ceived the error of Europeans; and having refolved to acquire "fome knowledge of the Shanferita language, the grand repofi"tory of the religion, philofophy, and hiftory of the Hindoos, ❝his noble friend the Brahmin procured him a pundit (or teacher) " from the university of Benaris, well versed in the Shanfcrita, "and mafter of all the knowledge of that learned body.". Mr. Dow, however, confeffes, that he had not time to acquire the Shanfcrita; but his pundit, he fays, procured fome of the principal Shafters, and "explained to him as many paffages of thofe curious books, as ferved to give him a general idea of the doctrine which they contain."

Such an opportunity of fuperior knowledge as this, is certainly fingular. But though it is thus confeffedly partial, and entirely dependent on the truth of his pundit, the claims of authenticity alledged by other travellers (p. xxxvii.) are thus reprobated"They affirm, that they derived their information from the "Hindoos themselves. This may be the cafe, but they certainly "converfed upon that fubject only with the inferior tribes, or "with the unlearned part of the Brahmins: and it would be as

"ridi

tridiculous to hope for a true state of the religion and philofo

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phy of the Hindoos from thofe illiterate cafts, as it would be "in a Mahommedan in London, to rely upon the accounts of a

parish beadle, concerning the most abftrufe points of the Chrif"tian faith; or, to form his opinion of the principles of the "Newtonian philofophy, from a converfation with an English "carman."

Having thus established his own authority, our author proceeds to a view of the religion and philofophy of the Brahmins. But here it is proper to obferve, that having mentioned Mr. Holwell, Mr. Dow informs his reader, that he " finds himself "obliged to differ almoft in every particular concerning the religion "of the Hindoos, from that gentleman."

The Bedang or facred book of the Brahmins, fays Mr. Dow, contains various accounts of the creation, one philofophical, the others allegorical. The philofophical one is contained in a dialogue between Brimha and his fon Narud. God is here thus defined, "Being immaterial, he is above all conception; being "invisible, he can have no form; but from what we behold in "his works, we may conclude that he is eternal, omnipotent, "knowing all things, and prefent every where." This Mr. Dow informs us in a note, is literally tranflated, and," whether we, "fays he, who profefs Christianity, and call the Hindoos by the "deteftable names of Pagans and idolaters, have higher ideas of "the fupreme divinity, we shall leave to the unprejudiced reader "to determine." Yet furely God is not above all conception. Nor is his invifibility to his creatures a philofophical proof that he can have no form.

VOL. II.

Narud's

Narud's enquiries into the nature of the foul or intellect are thus anfwered- -It is a portion of the GREAT SOUL, breathed into all creatures to animate them for a certain time; after death it either animates other bodies, or is abforbed into the divine effence. The wicked are not at death difengaged from the elements, but cloathed with bodies of fire, air, &c. and for a time are punished in hell; and the good are abforbed " in a participa"tion of the divine nature, where all paffions are utterly un"known, and where confcioufnefs is loft in blifs." Mr. Dow

confeffes that a state of unconsciousness is in fact the fame with annihilation; and indeed it is, though he fays that the Shafter "feems here to imply a kind of delirium of joy." By this unintelligible fublimity we are put in mind of fome of the reveries of a Shaftesbury or a Malebranche, and that wild imaginations are the growth of every country.

Narud then enquires into the continuance and diffolution of the world. And here we have a legend much the fame with Mr. Holwell's four Jogues or ages; after which the world shall be deftroyed by fire, matter be annihilated, and God exift alone. Our year, according to the Brahmins, fays Mr. Dow, makes one planetary day. The first Jug or age of truth, contained four, the fecond three, the third two, and the prefent Jug, or age of pollution, is to contain one thousand of these planetary years. According to Mr. Dow, at the end of these periods there is not only a diffolution of all things, but between the diffolutions and renovations of the world, a period of 3,720,000 of our years. In the note on the Ptolemaic system in Lufiad X. we truft we have investigated the fource of these various ages of the Brahmins, and traced the origin of that idea into a natural planetary appearance.

In

It is

In Mr. Dow's, or rather his Pundit's tranflation of the facred Shafter, we have the following account of the creation. contained in what our author,, p. xlvi. calls the philofophical catechifm. Narud enquires, how did God create the world? and is anfwered; "Affection dwelt with God from all eternity. It "was of three different kinds, the creative, the preserving, and "the deftructive. The firft is represented by Brimha, the second "by Biben, and the third by Shibah. You, O Narud, are taught "to worship all the three, in various shapes and likenesses, as the "creator, the preferver, and the deftroyer. The affection of "God then produced power, and power, at a proper conjunction "of time and fate, embraced goodnefs, and produced matter. "The three qualities then acting upon matter, produced the uni"verfe in the following manner: From the oppofite actions of "the creative and destructive quality in matter, felf-motion first "arofe. Self-motion was of three kinds; the first inclining to "plasticity, the second to discord, and the third to rest. The "difcordant actions then produced the Akafh, which invisible "element poffeffed the quality of conveying found; it produced ❝ air, a palpable element; fire, a visible element; water, a fluid ❝element; and earth, a folid element."

Such is the philofophical cofmogony placed by Mr. Dow, but for what reafon we cannot difcover, in oppofition to the allegorical accounts which the Brahmins give of the creation.

The Shafters, according to Mr. Dow, are divided into four Bedas (i. e. the Bhades of Mr. H.). The firft, he says, treats principally of the science of divination; the second, of religious and moral duties; the third, of the rites of religion, facrifices,

!

penances, &c.; and the fourth, of the knowledge of the good being, and contains the whole fcience of theology and metaphysical philofophy.

"When a

And thus, the Brahmins avow, and their facred books contain, that most despicable of all pretenfions to learning, judicial astrology; that mother of superstition in every country, that engine of villainy, by which the philofophers of India, and the gypfies of England, impofe on the credulous and ignorant. "child is born, fays Mr. Dow, p. xxxiii. fome of the Brahmins "are called; they pretend, from the horofcope of his nativity, "to foretel his future fortune, by means of fome aftrological ta❝bles, of which they are poffeffed." They then tie a ftring, called the zinar, round his neck, which all the Hindoos wear, fays our author, by way of charm or amulet.

That the Gentoos are divided into two great fects is confeffed, though differently accounted for by both Mr. Holwell and Mr. Dow. By the latter they are diftinguished as the followers of the Bedang, the most ancient; and the Neadirfen, a later Shafter. This, which by its followers is held as facred, is faid to have been written, fays our author, by a "philofopher, called Goutam, near

66

4000 years ago." As a fpecimen of this most abstruse metaphyfician, take the following-Five things muft of neceffity be eternal, firft, the Pirrum Attima, or the great foul, which is immaterial, omniscient, &c.; the fecond, the Five Attima, or the vital faul; the third, time or duration; the fourth, space or extenfion; the fifth, the Akash, or heavenly element," which fills up the vacuum 66 or fpace, and is compounded of purmans or quantities infinitely

fmall,