Father, "the commission to come into the world for the salvation of mankind"; as judging the world by the wisdom of God; as being "empowered to perform wonderful works"; he speaks of his subordinate nature and receiving all the powers which he manifested from the Father; but also of his being "superior even to the angels in heaven, living from the beginning of the world to eternity"; and of the Father's creating "all things by him and for him"; and he dwells with great satisfaction (pp. 162-167) on the conclusion to which the instructions of Christ had led him, that the "unity existing between the Father and himself," is "a subsisting concord of will and design, such as existed among his Apostles, and not identity of being." "Had not experience (he concludes) too clearly proved that such metaphorical expressions, when taken singly and without attention to their contexts, may be made the foundation of doctrines quite at variance with the tenor of the rest of the Scriptures, I should have had no hesitation in submitting indiscriminately the whole of the doctrines of the New Testament to my countrymen; as I should have felt no apprehension that even the most ignorant of them, if left to the guidance of their own unprejudiced views of the matter, could misconceive the clear and distinct assertions they every where contain of the unity of God and subordinate nature of his messenger Jesus Christ."

The Second Appeal called forth another work from Dr. MARSHMAN; to which RAMMOHUN ROY published a reply in 1823, under the title of the Final Appeal.

His preceding works had been printed at the Baptist Missionary Press; but the acting proprietor declined, although in the politest manner possible," to print the Final Appeal; and RAMMOHUN ROY purchased type, and commenced an independent printing press for this and other similar publications. The imprint is "Calcutta : printed at the Unitarian Press, Dhurmtollah." He depended chiefly on native aid; and in consequence the original work has many errata. In the Preface he states that this controversy had prevented other publications which he had projected for his countrymen, as well as drawn him for three years from other literary pursuits; and that it had caused much coolness towards him in the demeanour of some whose friendship he held very dear nevertheless, that he did not wish he had pursued a different course, since, he says, "whatever may be the opinion of the world, my own conscience fully approves of my past endeavours to defend what I esteem the cause of truth.”

The Editor of the Indian Gazette, in adverting to this discussion, and to the other labours of this distinguished native, thus writes-"We say distinguished, because he is so among his own people, by caste, rank, and respectability; and among all men he must ever be distinguished for his philanthropy, his great learning, and his intellectual ascendancy in general." As to the controversy arising from the Precepts of Jesus, the Editor says that whatever other effects it may have caused, "it still further exhibited the acuteness of his mind, the logical power of his intellect, and the unrivalled

good temper with which he could argue:" it roused up

a most gigantic combatant in the theological field—a combatant who, we are constrained to say, has not yet met with his match here."

To the public testimonies already adduced, may be added that of the celebrated SISMONDI, who, in an article in the Revue Encyclopédique for 1824, after some important observations respecting the institution of castes and the sacrifice of widows, thus proceeds: "A glorious reform has, however, begun to spread among the Hindoos. A Brahmin, whom those who know India agree in representing as one of the most virtuous and enlightened of men, RAMMOHUN Roy, is exerting himself to restore his countrymen to the worship of the true God, and to the union of morality and religion. His flock is small, but increases continually. He communicates to the Hindoos all the progress that thought has made among the Europeans. He is among them, by a much juster title than the Missionaries, the Apostle of Christianity."

с

CHAPTER I.

ENGLISH IMPRESSIONS OF RAMMOHUN ROY,

Derived from documents which reached England
before his visit.

HALF a century has now elapsed since the attention of the religious public in Great Britain was first drawn to the wonderful man who is the subject of the present volume. Those who are acquainted with India at the present time, when the efforts of the British Government have long been directed to advancing the material resources of that great country, as well as to promote intellectual and moral improvement, and who are aware how gladly these efforts are seconded by the intellectual part of the native population, can hardly realize the difficulties which the first Hindoo Reformer must have had to encounter. This must be borne in mind when tracing the progress of the extraordinary individual, who, for so long a period, stood alone to encounter the hostility of a whole people sunk in the most degrading idolatry.

The first English notice we find of RAMMOHUN ROY occurs in the Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionary Society, Vol. VI., pp. 106-109, of the date of 1816

“RAMA-MOHUNA-RAYA, a very rich Rarhee Brahmun of Calcutta, is a respectable Sungskrita scholar, and so well versed in Persian, that he is called MOULUVEERAMA-MOHUNA-RAYA*: he also writes English with correctness, and reads with ease English mathematical and metaphysical works. He has published in Bengalee one or two philosophical works, from the Sungskrita, which he hopes may be useful in leading his countrymen to renounce idolatry. Europeans breakfast at his house, at a separate table, in the English fashion; he has paid us a visit at Serampore, and at a late interview, after relating an anecdote of Krishna, relative to a petty theft by this god, he added, "The sweeper of my house would not do such an act, and can I worship a god sunk lower than the man who is a menial servant?' He is at present a simple theist, admires Jesus Christ, but knows not his need of the atonement. He has not renounced his caste, and this enables him to visit the richest families of Hindoos. He is said to be very

moral; but is pronounced to be a most wicked man by the strict Hindoos."

Subjoined to this is a copy of RAMMOHUN Roy's Preface to his Translation of the Abridgment of the Vedanta. The passage closes as follows:

* In this and in other extracts, the original orthography is preserved.