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Nothing can more shew the strength of German scholarship, than that it should have beaten us on what ought to be our own ground. The Anglo-Indian who came nearest to it in his comprehensive genius, was Sir William Jones ; but CRITICAL AUTHORITIES. 303 in his time the &ct8 were less known than now. In the great work of Lassen the entire literature of the subject is surveyed in mass and in detail The more recent lectures of Weber (1852) have a clearness hardly to be expected, and that scholar's instinct, which is in its kind an inspiration. He brings down portions of Indian literature to a lower date than Lassen, but leaves the earlier Yedic hymns a remote antiquity. Nor is it likely that either the early hymns, when duly discriminated, or the period of the first Aryan settlements, will in that respect be ever much brought down. Portions of the Epic poems, the laws of Manu, and the drama, are much less clearly fixed. My citations fromColebrooke and Wilson shew that I am indebted to them for substantial aid ; as in some degree to Tumour. My obligations to the late very eminent scholar, E. Bumouf, have been already mentioned. Some tracts by Roth reached me too late to be of direct service. The following is a fair specimen of the Rig-Yeda, as translated by H. H. Wilson :— I. May auBpiciouB works, unmolested, unimpeded, and subversive of foes, come to U8 from every quarter — may the Gods, turning not away from us, but protecting us day by day, be ever with us for our advancement. 1. May the benevolent favour of the gods be ours ; may the bounty of the gods, ever approving of the upright, light upon us— may we obtain the friendship of the gods, and may the gods extend our days to longevity. 3. We invoke them with an ancient text, Bhaga, Mitra, Aditi, Daksha, Asridh, Aryaman, Yaruna, Soma, the Aswins, and may the gracious Saraswati grant us happiness. 4. May the wind waft to us grateful medicament ; may mother earth, may fikther heaven, convey it to us ; may the stones, that press out the Soma juice, and cause pleasure, bring it us ; Aswins, who are to bo meditated upon, hear our prayer. 5. We invoke that lord of living beings, that protector of things immovable, Indra, who is to be propitiated by pious rites, for our protection ; as Pushan has ever been our defender, so may he continue. 6. May Indra, who listens to much praise, guard our welfare ; may Pushan, who knows all things, guard our welfare ; may the son of Priktha. {morning), with irresistible weapons, guard our welfare 8. Let us hear, gods, with our ears, what is good ; objects of sacrifices, let us see with our eyes what is good ; let us, engaged in your praise, enjoy with firm limb and sound frame, the term of life granted by the gods. 9. Since one hundred years were appointed, interpose not, gods, in the midst of our passing existence, by inflicting weakness, so that our sons become our sires. —SHJUa, 89. 304 NATURE OF PERSUASIVES. CHAPTER IX. n^reiD History and Christianity. " Produce your cause, saith the Lord ; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen : let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come." — Isaiah xli. 21, 12. *' Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts ; I am the first, and I am the last ; and beside me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid : have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a Grod beside me? yea, there is no God ; I know not any." — Id. xliv. 6 — 8. " 1 form the light, and create darkness : I make peace, and create evil : I the Lord do all these things." — Id. xlv. 7. " For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens ; God himself that formed the earth and made it ; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited : I am the Lord ; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth : I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain : I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come ; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations : they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near ; yea, let them take counsel together : who hath declared this from ancient time ? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no Crod else beside me; a just God and a Saviour ; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : for I am Grod, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word 18 gone out of my moiith in righteousness, and shall not return. That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength : even to him shall men come ; and all that are incensed against him shall bo ashamed." — Id. xlv. 18 — 34. "But what sort of persuasives to a religion would you give us," here, after a little pause, Sadinanda asked, " or what would you require to be the substance of the thing itself?'* "Why, many things,'* answered Blancombe, "may appear persuasive to each of us from early training, and from association of our affections with things which might have been otherwise : but if we are to find such an exemplification of Divine truth in history SUPPOSED ANALOGY. 305 as may recommend it to the nations at large, or such a fulfil- ment of the best prophecies of our conscience as shall win the willing allegiance of mankind, we must go farther to look for it. Nor do I think it diflScult to conceive something more manifestly Divine in its fulness than anything yet spoken of. " Suppose, that, before the Brahmanical tribes left the land of the Five Rivers, there had been prophecies among them that it was their mission to overrun India, and their duty to keep alive certain truths in that country; but that, failing in this duty, they would give place in time to more faithful teachers of the highest Right, yet that God would still use them as witnesses or instruments in His kingdom, — suppose, I say, this, or, more directly, imagine a Rishi of the Vedic age saying, * You shall inhabit Oude, and shall spread from the five rivers to the isles of the southern sea; but you will change the glory of the unseen God into images of things that perish ; so you will forfeit in His counsels the rule of the country He is about to give you ; there shall come a people whose wings shall spread to the wind, and with the wheels of their chariots in the great deep ; they shall crouch like a lion in the cities you will have builded, and go forth like a young lion over the land you have yet to win,' — imagine, I say, predictions of this kind handed down in your most ancient books, and re-echoed or deepened by great teachers of righteousness, who might arise from time to time, and see more vividly the shadows of events to come, in proportion as moral decay or religious hoUowness both provoked and caused evil result — ; we should at least, I think, examine such a history carefully. Then, if the principles involved in it ap- peared broadly true, not only for India, but for all lands, so that by using them as a key we could better unlock the mystery of the world's story, and awaken in ourselves thoughts which should go forth into wholesome deeds for our own souls or for our coimtry, we should conclude, here is a divine lesson, worthy of all study. Nor would the significance of such a lesson be destroyed by particular questions about its mode or form. Some M. P. 20 306 NATURE OF PROPHECV — ESSENTIAL AND ACKJIDENTAL, might think that the predictions had been more external, and direct, or by distinct foresight of particular events.