English
The reverence paid to this GO0 of Gods, is not that veneration which is a regulating princi- ple of a£tion, which is efFeftually calculated to produce purity of heart, and refilitude of conduct j but that mysterious reverence, which springs from superstitious fear, and which has always proved the destruction of the moral principle. The worship paid to him is said to be purely spiritual, consisting chiefly in devout meditation.. The following is considered as the wish of genuine piety. - " May that soul of mine, which mounts aloft in my viraking hours, as an ethereal spark, and which, even in my slurtiber, has a like ascent, soaring to a great distance as an emanation from the light of lights, be united, by devqut medi- tatiouj with the spirit supremely blest, and su- premely intelligent."; But this worship, although chiefly consisting " ExtraA from tbe V^das. 105 in abstra£led devotion, is sometimes expressed' by the siuppresSed utterance of the mystic word OM; a word never to be used by the devout Hindoo, without a particular preparation. The solemnities, which ought to precede the utterance of this, word, are carefully prescribed by their divine legislator. " If he have sitten on culms of sacred grass with their points tow;ards the East, and be purified by rubbing that holy grass in both his hands, and be farther pre- pared by three suppressions of breath, equal in time to five short vowels, he may then fitly pronounce OM."" It Is' not intended, in this place, to shew what resemblance these previous solemnities may bear ^ to the occult worship of the Egyptians, or to the cabbalistic mysteries of the Jews ; but the quotation is made to shew that this pra£i:ice, once so general throughout the world, of covering religious doftrines under the veil of mysterious secresy, bas always proved the bane of nioral virtue ; and has ever been applied to vicious and interested purposes. In every religion myste- ries must exist, or rather there are moral difiicul- ^ Menu, c. 2, v. ,75. 02 196 ties, inseparable from the present constitution : of the world, which religion cannot remove. But when the peculiar do£trines of any revelationVare jealously guarded by a favoured few, from the unhallowed tbucla of tlie vulgar, they become a source of absurdity and error. They are then converted into engines . of tyranny, or into in- struments . of licentious pleasure. In process of time they become obnoxious to the just condem- nation, which'the Apostle has bestowed on the rites of the 'Heathen world ; " it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret." Mysticism in science has always proved an infallible method of perpetua- ting the reign of ignorance : mysticism in religion ^has proved a method, n"6t less effectual, of fosteifing the seeds of immorality. They havei always disappeared, and disappeared together, ^wherever the light -of true learning and genuine piety have dispelled the mists of error and of barbarism. An awful veneration for the majesty ofj heaven, is not better preserved, by thus shrouding it in obscuritv, concealing it from cbmmon' obsetva- tion, and removing it to so great a distance, from the hopes and fears of man. By trye devotion it is always regarded without servile dread. No preparatory rites, no preliminary of 197 initiation is requisite, to raise the. devout spirit to God; no time, no place can exclude it from communion with him. Accordingly, by thus removihg the Supreme Being so far beyond the reach of ordinary con- templation. He is ahiong the Hindoos seldom the obje£t of any religious honor, and. Still less of religioiis adoration. He is now considered as an obsolete Deity, who has no interference in the affairs of the world. .,',, From this statement, it will appear, that the; dbftrine of the Unity and Spirituality of the Divine Being, has but little influence on the moral condufit of the Hindoos ; nor indeed is this coritended for, even by their warmest apologists. But it remaiqs to point out the praflrical effefls of their polytheistic worship, on which the opini- ons of miankind have been widely at variance. Experience has amply proved, not only that the bias of human nature, has uniformly tended to polytheism and idolatry, during times of ignorance; but also, that in an age of learning and refinement, the same bias has had the same tendency : since the writings of the most distinguished philoso- o 3 108 jihers in modern times, alike eminent for delicacy of taste, and strength of reasoning, have display- ed an unequivocal partiality in their favor. They have found apologists in the piety and erudition of Bacon'', as well as in the metaphysical acute- ness of Hobbes" and the cold scepticism of Hume. The latter has thus declared his opinion concerning their praftical influence. *' Where the Deity is represented as infinitely superior to mankind, this belief, though altogether just, is apt, when joined with superstitious terrors, to sink the human mind into the lowest submis- sion and abasement ; and to represent the monk- ish virtues of mortification, penance, humility, arid passive suflFering, as the only qualities which are acceptable to him. But where the Gods are supposed to be only a little superior to mankind^ and to have been advanced, many of them, from an inferior rank, we are more at our ease in our addresses to them ; and may, even without profaneness, aspiTe sometimes to a rivalship and emulation of them. Hence afitivity, spirit, courage, magnanimity, love of liberty, and all the virtues which aggrandize a people.".' * Advancement of Learning, b. 1. c. 7. '' Leviathan, ciS. * Hume, Natwal Hist, of Religion, ie&. 1ft ^99 "Without discussirig the general accuracy of this statement;: without contending that the qualities,, which the world has thought proper to deify, have been rarely such as to deserve emulation ; the religion of the Hindoos, may be fairly tried by this rule ; and we may be enabled to discover' how far their multiplied representations of the Deity, agree with this test; how far they are, adapted to produce energy qf mind, of to preserve purity of condutt. ' Although, in the Brahminical system, the original source of creation is ascribed to "the great soul" which animates the universe; yet this Sovereign essence, by his own thought or will, created another being, who diffused its a£tive powers. But even this secondary being has long since been divided into three, to express the creative, preserving, and destroying powers of universal nature. The chief objefts of adorations hdwever, at present, artiong the Hiiidoos, are^ now confined to the preserviiig and destru£tive povvers of the Divinity ; the creative power being seldom the objeft of their fear, or of their regard. But this separation of the different powers, soon led to a personification of them, by synibols expressive o 4 200 of their nature. That this distinfllon was made at a Very early period, is, plain, from the Vedas themselves : as well , as from the Institutes of Menu. To this succeeded ijiat distinftion be- tween the efficient and efFefiiiye powers of the Divinity, which at length, so essentially contri- buted to corrupt the mind. To unfold the, gross enormities, which, in after- times, arose from sentiments so degrading of the Divine nature, to disclose those licentious rites, which have been Celebrated under the name of religion, but which equally insult the common understanding of mankind, and are offensive to common decency, would be not less useless and improper, than disgusting ; neither would they have been hinted at, if sentiments had not been entertained, contrary to sound reason, and false in fa£l, that these rites, however abhor- rent from the sentiments of men instrufted in the principles of a purer faith, and accus. tomed to, notions more worthy the, Supreme Being, may yet have been pra£lised, without producing any pernicious efFefts on the cha- rafter of their yotaries ; that the .frequency of their repetition tends to diniiiiish their hurtful effects on the mind j and that objefls which are rendered thus familiar to the view, are at length regarded with indifference. 201 It will indeed be allowed, that aftlons, by con- stant repetition, become habitual, and produce a different effe^ on the chara£ler, f^om those which are indulged in for the momentary gratification of desire. Neither can it be xJoubtetJ-, that satiety and langour are the necessary consequen- ces of pleasures, strained beyond their proper limits, when they have been pursued rather; from custoi^ than inclination. But that the efFefts on the moral sense are less pernicious, when that sense is blunted and become incapa- ble of fa,rther incitement, is a dangerous error. Jt is with the mental as with the bodily consti- tution. That irritable temperament, in which the slightest touch ;thrijls through, every pore, and vibrates on every nerve, is less radically danger- ous, than that morbid apathy, that insensibility to external impressions, which is the constant har- binger of decay and dissolution, and the most lamentable state of perishing humanity. From observations which have; been made on the moral chara£ter of the natives of Hindoostan, this remark cannot but acquire new confirmation. , The Hindoos possess not that inflammatory tem- per, which prompts to excesses, dangeroiis indeed, but generally transient. They live in that total subjeftion of the mental faculties, which precludes 202 the necessity, and even the disposition, to exertion. They are properly described to " exist in a state of subordination, which knows no resistance, and to slumber in a voluptuousness, which knows no wants?