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around tables arranged in one length, if there be room for the whole; if not, the men very gallantly stand and eat behind their female friends, off plates which they hold in their hands. The bride and bridegroom sit at opposite ends of the table, and at a proper season, the bridegroom drinks to the health of the bride across. Then some friend, who is deputed for the service and has courage and words at command, proposes the first and last toast-the health of the newly married pair. Dancing is again renewed, till the peep of dawn, or till some riot-loving souls get fuddled, kick and cuff each other, and so disperse the company. Before the one or the other takes place, no egress is allowed; the doors are double-locked, and every one is made happy in spite of himself. When departure is authorized by the superintending madreeas and padreeas, a search is commenced for hats and shawls; and many a beau, who had entered with a span-new Borradaile or Moore, returns minus a chapeau, or takes up the shabby concern which has generously been left as a substitute for his superfine beaver.-Orient. Observer for February 1834.

Treatment of Natives.-A native correspondent of the Sumachar Durpun, observing that the object of the British Government, to establish "English ways and principles," will never be realized so long as the judges and collectors of the old school continue in the

Mofussil, describes the mode in which natives are treated there." In the Mofussil, no one dares go to the house of a judge or collector with his shoes on; nor can he address those gentlemen without folded hands and the appellations Jonabhuzoor, Jonabalee, Japuna, and Khodabund. Many of those gentlemen style themselves Huzoor, with their own lips. Thus, when they speak to the officers in attendance, they will say, Bring the box of the Huzoor.' 'Attend at the house of the Huzoor to-morrow at 10 o'clock, otherwise the Huzoor will be angry with you.' It is a custom with some gentlemen, when any person looks in their face, to say, 'It is exceedingly improper for you constantly to look in the face of the Huzoor whilst you speak; you are not worthy to salute the Huzoor.' No one has permission to enter with a palanquin the compound of a gentleman's house; and how shall I describe their dignity when sitting in cutchery! No one must cough, although he has a cold; his presumption will be immediately punished. All, great and small, stand with their hands together. The shiristadars of the Sudder Dewannee, the Sudder Board, the Court of Appeal, and other chief cutcheries, in Calcutta, receive chairs to sit beside the sahebs. The shiristadars of the zillah judges and collectors stand like the bird Gurooru from 9 A. M. to 7 P. M., and attend to business; and if their loins or bodies bend, it is reckoned a sign of rudeness."

247

DIALOGUES BETWEEN A BRAHMIN AND AN

EUROPEAN.

I.

EUR. These doctrines of materialism and necessity, for which you contend, must be regarded as heretical in your own country. To me, indeed, they seem almost equivalent to atheism.

BR. So far are they in my mind from being of an atheistical tendency, that I cannot but regard them as the only tenable forms of pure theism.

EUR. You surprise me! And, but for the general seriousness of your previous conversation, I should imagine you were inclined to banter; for atheists in this country are generally materialists and neces

sarians.

BR. They are so, perhaps, in all countries. Yet it does not therefore follow, that materialists and necessarians are, by means of those doctrines, atheists.

Rather, I think I can make it appear to you that these doctrines are the legitimate consequences of a belief in an Omnipresent and All-powerful Spirit.

EUR. I am prepared to hear your proofs with attention; but I do not anticipate conviction.

BR. I will coinmence, then, with the doctrine which you call materialism. Your idea of man is, that he is composed of two parts, body and spirit; that the body is visible, organized, sensible, perishable; that the spirit is invisible, and though created, yet not composed of parts, or liable to decay. You have not the idea of spirit as being a mere breath, or vapour, or like what the ancient Greeks called Jux?

EUR. Certainly not, for all these notions contain something material, and I regard spirit and matter as containing scarcely any principles in common. Now I cannot conceive it possible that two material substances should at one and the same time occupy one and the same place; yet there is no impossibility that a spiritual and a material substance should occupy the same place at the same time.

BR. You are of opinion then that matter may exclude matter, but that matter cannot exclude spirit?

EUR. That is my opinion; and I believe it is the general opinion of those who hold the doctrine of

the spirituality of the human mind, or indeed of the existence of spirit at all.

BR. You speak of spirit and matter occupying the same place at the same time; have you an idea of two spirits occupying the same place at the same time?

EUR. I have never, indeed, thought it necessary to form such a speculation; for as spirit is so essentially different from matter, it is almost, if not altogether, impossible to conceive of it as existing and occupying any given space after the manner of a material substance.

BR. Clearly so; but you have admitted, and must admit, that matter and spirit may be in the same place at the same time; now if spirit be in the same place as matter, it must be in some place. The question is, not whether spirit occupies place, as matter does, but whether it exists in place. It certainly does not occupy place to the exclusion of matter, but if it be where matter is, it must be in some place.

EUR. By conceiving spirit to exist in any limited space, you give it shape, which is one of the attributes of matter: and the idea of shape seems quite inconsistent with my notion of spirit.

BR. So it does with mine. But I do not see how you can get rid of the notion of some shape connected with a finite and limited spirit. Here am I, convers

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