(logo)
(navigation image)
Home American Libraries | Canadian Libraries | Universal Library | Open Source Books | Project Gutenberg | Biodiversity Heritage Library | Children's Library | Additional Collections

Search: Advanced Search

Anonymous User (login or join us)Upload
See other formats

Full text of "Parameswara-jnyána-goshthi. A dialogue of the knowledge of the Supreme Lord, in which are compared the claims of Christianity and Hinduism, and various questions of Indian religion and literature fairly discussed"

Parameswara-jnydna-goshth t. 




A DIALOGUE 

OF THE 

KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUPEEME LOED, 

IN WHICH ABE* COMPARED THE CLAIMS OF 

CHRISTIANITY AND HINDUISM, 

AND VARIOUS QUESTIONS OF 

INDIAN KELIGION AND LITEEATUEE 

FAIELY DISCUSSED. 



li seeviant in vos, qui nesciant, quanto labore Veritas acquiritur. St Augusthie. 

Cum homines DEUM quserunt facillime debent ignoscere errantibus in tanti investigation*. 

Secreti.-M 



CAMBEIDGE : 

DEIGHTON, BELL AND Co. 
LONDON: BELL AND DALDY. 

1856. 



CAMBRIDGE : 

PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 



/" V 



NOV2S1966 
1143706" 



TO 

JOHN MUIR, ESQUIRE, 

LATE OF THE BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE, 

THIS BOOK, PROMPTED BY HIS MUNIFICENCE, 
AND AIDED BY HIS SUGGESTIONS, 

IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, 

IN TOKEN OF HIGH REGARD AND ESTEEM, 

AND IN HUMBLE HOPE OF ITS PROMOTING 

FAITH IN GOD, AND GOODWILL AMONGST MEN. 



CAMBRIDGE, A.D. 1847- 
LAMPETER, A.D. 1856. 



%* The word Muni should have been printed throughout unaccented, or with 
a short vowel. Words fully naturalised, such as Vedic and Brahman, are printed 
according to English custom. In other cases the speakers of the dialogue use 
generally Sanscrit, with one or two Pali forms. Thus, for the Aryan race, they 
say A ryas. It is hoped that any misprints which may have escaped correction are 
hardly important enough to affect the sense. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHAT THE SAUGATA MUNI THINKS. 



Characters of Dialogue 
Bauddhas disclaim Materialism 
Existence of Matter . 
Matter Atomic . 
Material World . 
Matter and Mind 
Bauddha Terms explained . 
Terms explained . 

Bauddha Religion 
Theory of the World . 
Causation .... 
Bauddha Affinities. Causation 
Causation .... 
Co-existent Intelligence 
Superintendence of Deity . 
Uses of Prayer . 
Prayer and Aspiration 
Objects of Worship . 



PAGE 

2 

3 
4 
5 
6 
8 

9 
10 
ii 

12 
14 

16 

18 

J 9 
20 

21 

22 
23 



PAGE 

Abstract Idea of Deity . .24 

Adi Buddha and Sakya . .25 

Revelation or Discovery . . 26 

Sakya s Characteristics . .27 

Religious Credentials . . .28 

Miracles not frequent . . 29 

Bauddha Development . . 30 

Tests requisite . . . .31 

Bauddha Scriptures . . .32 

Bauddha Miracles. Inspiration . 33 

Sakya s Career and Doctrine . 34 

Bauddha Scepticism . . .36 

Sacerdotalism. Variations . 37 

Shortcomings . . . . 38 

Common Ground . . -39 

Summary . . . . .40 

Notes. Authorities . . . 41 



CHAPTER II. 

WHAT THE VAISHNAVA SANKHYAST THINKS. 



Sankhya Priority . . .43 

Vishnu 44 

Popular Deities . . . -45 

Knowledge implies Truth . -47 

Hindu Sects . . . .48 

Sankhya Theology . . -49 

Cause or Source . . .50 

" The Subtle Person " . .51 

Primary Matter . . .52 

Intellect as Sensibility . -53 

Dramatic Analogies . . 54 

Personality and Soul . . 55 
M. P. 



Personality and Nature . . 56 
Diversity of Souls . . .57 
Deities . . . . .58 

Evolutions 59 

Sankhya Theism Illusory; or 

Physi-Theistical ... 60 
Nature evolving . . .62 

Tendencies of Doctrine . . 63 
Tendencies of Doctrine whether 

improving . . . .64 
Missionary Challenge . . 66 

Note. Authorities . . .67 

b 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

WHAT THE SAIVA VEDANTIST THINKS. 



FACE 

Vedantine Remarks . . .68 
Heterodoxy of Siinkhya . . 69 
Pracriti Creation Caste . . 7 
Vedic Deities . . . .71 
Siva and the Vedas . . -75 
Multiform Unity ... 76 
Hindu Quietism . . -77 

Theanthropism . . . 7^ 

Beatitude 79 

Caste Accommodation . . 80 
Unity of Soul . . . .81 
Soul and Life . . . .82 
Identity in Change . . .83 
Deity in all . . . . 84 
Though Consciousness repugnant 85 
The Three Qualities . . .86 
Ma>C_ Illusion . . . .87 
Ma"ya" Divine Energy . . 88 



Relations and Impressions . . 89 
Matter Intellect Humanity 

Deity Spirit . .90 

Deity Spirit Liberation . . 91 
Highest Liberation . . 9 2 
Transmigration . . . -93 
, Deity and World . . -94 
Conceptions of Soul . . 95 
Abstract or Personal . . .96 
Subject Object Agent Effect 97 
Comprehension of Opposites . 98 
Phenomenal Nature Divine 

Thinking . . . -99 
Va"ch Logos . . . .100 
Divine Outshadowing . . 101 
Apparent Inconsistencies . .102 
Siva Ee volution . . .103 
Note 104 



CHAPTER IY. 

HOW CHARVACAS MAY BE REFUTED. 



Approximation of Systems . 105 
Objections of Materialist . .106 

Cavils 107 

Difficulties 108 

Obscurity alleged . . .no 
Physical Influences . . .in 
Body Spirit Synthesis Na 
turalism . . . .112 
Christian Premises . . .113 
Sensation and Judgment . .114 
Laws of Thought . . .115 
Truth of Numbers . . .116 
Mathematics . . . .117 
Truth procreative . . .118 
Forethought in Creation . .119 
Atomical Combination . .120 
Natural Laws Divine Thoughts 121 



Mind of Man . . . .122 

Distinctness of Mind . .123 

Desire and Volition . . .124 

Strife of the Inner Man . .125 

Affections or Passions . .126 

Better Affections . . .127 

Religious Instincts . . .128 

Conscience . . . .129 

Presentiment of Futurity . .132 

Devout Experience . . .134 

Requirements of Humanity . 136 

Inference of Divine Object . .138 

Necessity of Positive Object . 139 

Whether Analogue to Mind or 

Body 140 

Possibly Transcendent . .141 
Yet Mental, rather than Material 142 



CONTENTS. 



Vll 



PAGE 

Moral Witness from Habit . 143 

Moral Government clear if 

Metaphysics doubtful . 144 

Metaphysical Hypothesis Reli 
gious Need . . . .145 
Inference of Ultimate Being . 146 
Attributes of Highest Being . 147 



The Positive and the Mystical 
Mysticism and Scepticism . 
Creation and Emanation 
Presentiment with Piety 
Religion exalting Instinct . 
Illustrations 



PAGE 

148 
149 
150 

151 
152 

153 



CHAPTER V. 

CRITICISM OF HINDU SYSTEMS, PARTICULARLY THE BAUDDHA AND THE 

SANKHYA. 



Siinkhyast Indifference . 

Vedantist s Apathy . 

Arguments for Inquiry 

Truth and Sentiment . 

Unity of Truth Hindu Pre 
diction .... 

Worth of Probabilities 

Aspects of Buddhism 

Difficulties of Buddhism . 

Unsatisfactory Miracles 

Tradition and Inspiration . 

The Odyssey in Ceylon 

Sa"kya Bauddha Scriptures 

Buddhism hardly Original . 

Sankhya Psychology . 

Resurrection and Immortality 

Responsibility Seat of Agency . 

Soul and Deity partly Correla 
tives ..... 

Motives of Creator . 

Law, Thought, Chance, Idea, 
Mind Moral Fitness . 

Moral Governor Causes of In 
consistency 

Refining Subtlety Vastness of 
Scale 

More Worlds, more Signs of God 

Infinity, Infinite Mind 



154 


Divine Attributes . . .178 


J 55 


Transcendency . . . .1/9 


156 


Hindu Passiveness . . .180 


*57 


Why not Activity? . . .181 




Activity of Intelligence . .182 


158 


Divine Retribution . . . 183 


i59 


What is Creation by "Igno 


160 


rance"? .... 186 


161 


ScCnkhya Defect of Science . 187 


162 


Soul and World not accounted 


163 


for ... . 188 


164 


Theory of Causation imperfect . 189 


165 


The Causer of Causes . .190 


166 


Cause and Causer. Making and 


167 


Maker . . . .191 


168 


Divine Design, and Difficulty of 


169 


Evil 192 




Extenuations of Evil . . . 193 


170 


Variety of Relation, Shortcoming, 


171 


Perversion . . . -194 




Evil of Things Negative Good 


172 


Positive . . . 195 




Carnivorous Creation . . . 196 


i74 


Conjectures . . . 197 




Moral Evil Positive . . .198 


i75 


Evil in Free Agents . . -199 


176 


Evil remedial .... 200 


177 





Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

FURTHER CRITICISMS OF HINDU SYSTEMS, PARTICULARLY OF THE VE- 
DANTINE DESIGN MORAL GOVERNMENT NEED OF HOPEFUL 
NESS PANTHEISM AND IDOLATRY TWO ASPECTS OF ONE EVIL. 



PAGE 

Argument from Design . .202 

Final Causes . . . .203 
General Types .... 204 

Special and General . . . 205 

Special, relative to Man . . 206 
General, modified providentially . 208 

Analogy of Potter . . . 209 

Typical Ideas Unity of Life . 210 

Sphere of Final Causes . .211 

Exceptions . . . .212 

General Providence . . .213 

Joint Working of Man . -215 

Divine Will self-conscious . .216 

VedfCntine Spirit and Letter . 217 

Whether Material or Spiritual . 218 



Weakening of Individuality 
Veda ntine Correspondencies 
A Geological Probability . 
Clearer Traces of Design . 
Shadowiness of Pantheism 
Temptations of Pantheism 
Moral Weakness of Hinduism 
Doctrinal Wants 
Inconsistencies 
Social Shortcomings 
Sins of India 

Need of a truer Religion . 
Whether truer to Intuition, 
by Proof . 



PAGE 
219 
221 
222 
223 
224 
225 
226 
227 
228 
229 
230 
231 

2 3 2 



CHAPTER VII. 

OUTLINES OF INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. 



Obstacles to the Discussion 
Moral Preliminaries . 
Use of external History 
National Accuracy 
Wonders, and Goodness 
Early Hindu Chronology extra 
vagant .... 
Period of ancient Dynasties . 
Ancient Dynasties 
Chandragupta .... 
Asoca Vicrama ditya 
Vicrama ditya s Era . 

Nandas 

Andhras 

Bauddha Chronology 

Dynasties before Chandragupta . 

Magadha Princes 



233 
234 

235 
237 
238 

239 
240 
242 
244 

245 
246 
247 
248 
249 
250 
251 



Sahadeva to Ripungaya . .252 
Date of Maha bha rata . .253 
Traditional Dawn of Hindu His 
tory 254 

Age of obscure Empires . . 255 
Families of Nations . . . 256 
Comparative Chronology . .257 
Greek Analogies . . .259 
Historical Scepticism . .260 

Foreign Influences . . . 262 
Brahmanism whether Ancient . 263 
Reply to Extreme Scepticism . 264 
Signs of Indian Antiquity . 266 

Notwithstanding Obscurities . 267 
Leading Dates .... 268 
Dates B. c. of early Indian and 

other History, Literature, &c. 269 



CONTENTS. 



IX 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HINDU LITERATURE CLASSIFIED AND FOUND WANTING. 



Hindu Literature 
Lateness of the Pura nas 
Gradual Growth of Vedas . 
Atharva-Veda . 
Epic Poems 
Code of Manu . 
Sa"nkhya Speculation 
Earlier and later Veda"nta . 
Age of the Vedas 
Changes of Indian Society 
Developments of Speculation 
Brahman ism 

Priesthood Caste Manu 
Steps of Development 



PAGJE 

273 

274 

275 
276 
277 
278 
279 
280 
281 
282 
283 
284 
285 
286 



The Two Epics (ItihsCsas), Drama 287 

Knowledge and Worship Ethics 288 

Purifying of Worship 

Vedanta and Vedas . 

Buddha and Brahmanism . 

Course of Buddhism 

Three Stages of Hinduism 

Literal Immutability fails . 

Theory of Divine Development 

Present Inconsistencies 

Inherent Persuasiveness 

Internal Failure of Hinduism 

Shortcomings 

Critical Authorities . 



289 

2QO 

291 
292 

293 
297 
298 
299 
300 
30i 
302 
303 



CHAPTER IX. 

HEBREW HISTORY AND CHRISTIANITY. 



Nature of Persuasives 

Supposed Analogy 

Nature of Prophecy essential 

and accidental 
Parsis. Gipsies. Hebrews 
Abraham. Israel 
Mosaic Law .... 
Spirit, Letter, Priesthood . 
Hebrew Prophecy 
Predication and Prediction 
Anticipation of better Kingdom . 
The King to come 
Jewish Nationality . 
Jewish Literalism 
Christian Spiritualism 
Body and Soul 
Historical Tendency, Divine De- 



304 

305 

306 

3<>7 
308 

309 
310 

3H 
312 

313 
3H 
315 
3i6 

317 
318 

319 



King, Prophet, Priest, in Letter 

and Spirit . . . 320 



Sacrifice in Letter and Spirit . 321 
Christian Prayer. Hebrew Law. 322 
Christian Prayer to One God . 325 
God s Holiness . . . 326 

Faith in God s Kingdom and Will 327 



Indian Analogies 

Faith. Revelation . 

Needs of Body and Soul . 

Forgiveness of Sins 

Forgiveness and Penance . 

Justification by Faith 

Justification. Sanctificatioii 

Sanctification Grace 

Grace .... 

Salvation 

Evil .... 

The Enemy 

The Kingdom Eternal 

The Kingdom Spiritual 



329 
330 
33i 
S3 2 
334 
335 
336 
337 
338 
339 
340 
342 
344 
346 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER X. 

CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES, AND THEIR DOCTRINE. 



Scriptures . -347 

Pregnancy of Judaism . . 348 

Christian Fulfilment . . 349 

Jesus Christ . -35 

Place and Time of Incarnation . 351 

Characteristics of the Age . 352 

Law and Gospel . . -353 

The Words of Christ . . 354 

The Works of Christ . . 35 6 

Incarnation . . . -359 

Rejection of Christ . . . 360 

Crucifixion . . . .361 

Sacrifice 362 

Suffering of Christ . . .363 

Fulfilment through Suffering . 365 

Spiritual Sacrifices . . . 366 

Love Seeking not its own . . 367 



Eesurrection spiritual and bodily 369 
Jesus the Christ. Christ s Coming 371 
The Apostles. St Peter . . 37 2 
St Peter. Promises to him . 373 
St James. Jewish Christianity . 374 
St Paul s Conversion . -375 

The Law. Freedom. Sacrifice. 376 
Justification. Gentile Christianity 377 
The Gospel predestinated . . 378 
St Paul s Christianity spiritual 

and historical . . -379 
Hinduism in the light of St Paul 380 
St Paul s Counsels . . .381 
St John. The Apocalypse . 382 

St John s Gospel . . . 383 
Recapitulation . . -385 

Search with Prayer . . .386 



CHAPTER XL 



SCRIPTURE CRITICISM, MIRACLES, CHURCH HISTORY. 



Harmony in Diversity . -387 
Scinkhya Shortcoming . .388 
Christianity and Biblical Criticism 389 
Christianity accepts critical Re 
sults .... 390 
Estimate of Jewish Judgments . 391 
Growth of Levitical System . 392 
Growth of the Bible by Steps . 393 
The Psalms. Daniel. Zechariah. 394 

Isaiah 395 

How Criticism affects Prophecy . 396 
Scriptural Knowledge and Sphere 

of Scribe coincide 
External Mention of the Law 
Pentateuch 

Compilation of Documents 
Spirit of Hebrew History 
Pentateuch. Joshua 



397 
398 
399 
400 
401 
402 



Book of Psalms . . . 403 
Daniel. Zechariah. Deutero 
nomy .... 404 
Nature of Prophecy. Isaiah . 405 
Revelation is an Unveiling . 406 
Providences of the Church. In 
carnation . . -407 
Incarnation historically attested 408 
New Testament Scriptures . 409 
Positive Authority of Christianity 410 
Old Testament Types . .411 
Types prophetical. (The Gospel) 412 
Inspiration foretold. Harmony 

of Evidences . . 414 
Church History . . .416 

Primitive Revival -419 
Power of Christianity, and its 

Instruments . . .420 



CONTENTS. 



XI 



CHAPTER XII. 

DOCTRINAL DIFFICULTIES AND EXPLANATIONS. 



Difficulty of Original Sin . .421 
Difficulty of the Atonement . 423 
Difficulty of Election . . 424 
Predestination. The Trinity . 425 
Questions as to Faith . .426 

Charge of Exclusiveness . 427 
Objection of Materialism and 

Localisation . . .428 
Hindu Spiritualism. Christian 

Eeply . . . .429 

Falling of Man a Reality, but 

not to be exaggerated . 430 

Relation, Aspect, Feeling, Sacra 
ment .... 432 
Doctrine of the Atonement . 433 
Doctrine of Election . . . 436 
Natural Difficulties of Freewill . 437 



438 

439 
440 
441 

443 



Predestination .... 

Divinity of Christ 

The Trinity . . . 

Christian Faith 

Highest Goodness exclusive of 

Lower .... 
Mosaic Ideas pregnant Brah- 

manism barren . . 444 

Historical Witness to Christ. 

Defence of Imagery . -445 
Imagery a Safeguard against 

Errors .... 446 
Resurrection Immortality 

Transmigration "Ages" . 447 
Day of Judgment. Retribution 448 
S^kya s Shortcoming. Sufficiency 

of Christ .... 449 



CHAPTER XIII. PART I. 

ON GENERAL AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCE, AND ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF 

REVELATION IN HISTORY LETTER AND SPIRIT INSPIRATION 

BIBLE CHURCH TRUTH FAITH SACRAMENTS SEEN AND 

UNSEEN. 



Hindu Concessions . . -450 
Difficulty as to the Jews . -454 
Christian Injustice to Jews . 455 
Faith s Foundation in God . 456 

General or special Providence . 458 
Analogy of Revelation . . 462 
General Law and Special Regard 463 
The Hearing of Prayer . . 464 
Suggestiveness of Prayer . 465 

Larger View of the Old Testa 
ment .... 466 
Hebrew Sacerdotalism . -467 
Judaic Sins of the Letter . 468 
Jewish Destiny . . . 470 
Inspiration Hebrew . . 471 
Inspiration within Providence . 472 
Providence within Nature . 473 



Secular Knowledge never un 
naturally communicated . 474 
Inspiration in general . 475 
Inspiration Gentile . -476 

Inspiration of Hebrew Prophets . 477 
Inspiration, Generic, and Chris 
tian . . . -479 
Province of the Holy Spirit . 480 
Inspiration Christian . .481 
Diverse Gifts of the Spirit . 483 
The Letter an Instrument of the 

Spirit .... 484 

Unity of Spirit. Scripture. Com 
munion of Saints . . 485 
Gospel of Christ, Freedom . 486 
Essence. Accident. Applicability 487 



Xll 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIII. PART II. 



PAGE 

The First Psalm . -. .488 
Second and Eighth Psalms . 489 

Eighteenth Psalm . . . 490 
The Psalms how far Messianic . 491 
Analogy of Prophecy . . 492 
Parallel of Human Life. Other 

Psalms . . . -493 
Other Psalms. Typical History . 494 
Hermeneutics. Christian Freedom 495 
The Church an inspired Body . 496 
The Bible the Voice of the Church 497 
Humanity in Church and Bible . 498 
The Promise to the End of the 

World .... 499 
Inspiration and Experience. Re 
ligious Truth . . .500 
The Truth. Incarnation. Faith 501 
Permanent Use of Scriptures and 

Sacraments . . -502 

Relation of Nature to Baptism . 503 



Baptism and Justification rightly 

coextensive . . . 504 

Sacraments are Symbols . -505 
Sacraments require Faith. Our 

Worship mental . . 506 

Water, or Bread, and the Word . 507 
Wisdom s Children diverse . 508 

Evangelical Freedom of Primitive 

Church . . . .510 
Grace not alien to Providence . 511 
Persuasives to Christianity . 512 

Relation of Christ to future Pu 
nishments . . .513 
Heaven, conceived after Sense . 514 
Heaven, conceived spiritually . 515 
Life to come, conceived ideally . 516 
Life to come, in God . .518 
God All in All .... 519 
Note ..... 520 



CONCLUSION. 



Sceptical Approximation . .522 
Sceptical Rationalism inconsistent 524 
True Rationalism devout . . 525 
Buddhist Objection, and Answer 526 
Buddhist Weakness . .527 

" Total Perishableness." Unsub 
stantial Flux . . .528 
Buddhism not a Divine Revelation 529 
Practical Evidences of Christianity 5 30 
Final Appeal to Buddhist Speaker 531 
S&akhya Conception of Progress 532 
Progress secular and spiritual . 533 
Final Answer to Sa nkhyast 

Speaker . . . .534 
Scepticism has no Progress . -535 
Vedantine Criticism of Christianity 5 36 
Veddntine Claim to Revelation . 537 
The Achaiya s Repugnance to 

Change . . . . 538 
Yet Failure of Hindu Literature . 539 
Greater Unity of Christianity . 540 
The Gospel a Fulfilment to He 
brews and to Gentiles . -541 



Christian Phraseology justified . 542 
Three Standing-points of Chris 
tianity . . . . 543 
Christ s Faith, Man s Highest 

Conscience . . . .544 
Argument from Experience . .545 
Law of moral Causation. Fruit 

and Tree .... 547 
Faith spiritual, Belief historical . 548 
Direct Signs of supernatural Origin 549 
Predication or Prediction. Won 
ders or Signs . . . .550 
Gospel most attractive as a Whole 551 
Practical Invitation . . .552 
Superiority of Gospel to Hinduism 553 
General Superiority. Partial Com 
patibility . . . .554 
Final Appeal to Vedantist . . 555 
Vedantist s Hesitation, and Final 

Issue 556 

Final Issue . . . -557 
End of the Dialogue . . . 558 
APPENDIX 561 



PARAMESWARA-JNYANA-GOSHTHI, 



What the Saugata Muni thinks. 

" Cependant, toute cette antique sagesse des Indiens est comme ensevelie 
dans une idolatrie." A. HEMUSAT. 



CHAPTER I. 

You have often asked me to give you a fuller account of the 
conversation which I once heard at Conjeveram between two 
Englishmen and some learned Hindus, who disputed about the 
true knowledge of the Supreme Being. I am better prepared to 
do so now, from having written down, as far as my memory 
enabled me, the longer among the speeches, with the names of 
the speakers opposite them ; some parts, however, I have only 
filled up roughly ; nor can I tell you precisely how the dialogue 
arose, since it appeared to have gone some way when I first 
ventured to become a silent listener. Some extraordinary cir- 
eumstance must have brought together so many men remarkable, 
each in his particular kind. There were two natives of Great 
Britain, both of whom I imagine must have been priests ; but 
one was much the more venerable of the two, and when he 
spoke, his language had a tone of calm authority. His name 
was said to be Mountain. His companion, who was called Blan- 
combe, treated him with great deference, and seemed glad to 
learn from him ; but he himself, the younger I mean, was more 
skilful in arguing, and undertook the greater part of the dialogue, 
He seemed to agree, as far as possible, with his opponents, as 
if he were in search of some common ground upon which they 

M. P. 1 



2 CHARACTERS OF DIALOGUE. 

might meet. It happened luckily, or as I now think, by some 
divine ordinance, that among those who took part in the dis 
cussion were two of the wisest men who could easily be found in 
India. One was a Dandi of the Brahmanical caste, and of the 
greatest reputation for sanctity and learning, called Yidyacha- 
rya. He had never in all his life done injury to anything that 
breathed, though some Englishman once tried to persuade him 
that in the water which he drank were swarms of animate 
beings; this however Yidyacharya denied to be true, and said 
the appearance was an illusion. He had been married, and had 
educated his children at Benares, but was then a Vairdgi, or 
rather, as I think, a Sanydsi, having entered upon that advanced 
stage when he practised little besides religious contemplation. 
In other respects he embodied more diligently in his life the 
observances of the religious books, with which he was well 
acquainted, than is now usual even among the Brahmans ; and 
no one could either better explain the nature of his religion, or 
shew a brighter example of its practice. What circumstance 
had now brought him so far south as Conjeveram, I do not 
know; but possibly it may have been some mission, either of 
friendship or controversy, regarding the second Hindu present 
on this occasion. This other was a Guru, or teacher of great 
dignity, who presided over a Matha y or a kind of College, some 
where in the neighbourhood, containing a vast number of dis 
ciples. His name was Sadananda, and he also enjoyed a high 
reputation, though rather for learning than for the devotion 
which was ascribed to Yidyacharya. But you will be able to 
judge him by his speeches. Together with these, although I 
somewhat wondered to find him in their company, was a con 
ductor of the worship of Buddha, who had come all the way 
from Nepaul, partly, as he said, to confer with his brethren in 
Ceylon about the differences in their sacred books ; but partly, 
as I suspect, to mediate, or re-arrange, matters in some religious 
uneasiness of a half political kind, with a dispute about the 
genuineness of certain relics, which had sprung up in the island. 



BAUDDHAS DISCLAIM MATERIALISM. 3 

At any rate he had now returned to the continent, having trans 
acted whatever may have been his business, and he was the 
speaker who happened first to attract my attention. He seemed 
to be called, if I understood aright, Saugata Muni. But I have 
forgotten to mention one other person, who occasionally took part 
in the dialogue. This was an European, named Wolff, but not an 
Englishman, though he had been employed by your Government 
to make some inquiry into the causes of the cholera. He was 
therefore, I suppose, a physician, and was certainly a very inge 
nious and observant person; but withal somewhat conceited, as I 
fancied, and with traces of an irritable restlessness in his manner. 
But the speaker, as I said, upon my first listening, was Sau 
gata Mum . It would seem that some one had charged him and 
other Bauddhas with being Sarva-vaindsicas, or holding the doc 
trine of " total perishableness ; " as if he thought that all bodies 
perished as soon as they were decomposed, and all life or soul, 
being merely a product of their organisation, flitted away. But 
such a doctrine he utterly disclaimed; saying, " We do indeed 
believe that all bodies which are objects of sensuous perception 
are themselves merely aggregates of atoms; and the atoms of 
which they are formed are constantly changing their places, some 
falling away and others being joined on ; the bodies therefore 
consisting of such changeable materials, are themselves changed; 
and whatever is changed, we can never know to exist, except so 
long as it falls under our perception ; so that the existence of all 
material objects is not unreasonably said by one of our sects (the 
Vaibhashicas) to depend only on perception." "Is that then 
your own opinion?" asked Blancombe. "Not exactly," replied 
the Saugata; "for I myself, being a Sautr^ntica, should rather 
say that objects themselves are not so much seen as their exist 
ence is inferred from the outward manifestations which strike our 
senses. As from seeing a tree grow we may infer a root, so from 
seeing a certain outside show I infer a particular arrangement of 
atoms to be for the time lying underneath ; but when the show 
vanishes, I have no longer reason to believe in anything under- 

12 



4 EXISTENCE OF MATTER. 

lying : existence therefore changes, and objects no longer per 
ceived ought not to be said to exist." " It is evident, then," 
here said Vidyacharya, interposing, "that the result of the 
doctrine which has been explained is total perishableness, and 
Sancara had reason on his side, when, on this as on other points, 
he refuted the whole system of the Bauddhas. For that which 
is apprehended, he said, such as a wall, a jar, or a cloth, can 
not be unexistent ; nor does the existence of objects cease when 
the apprehension does so. Nor is it like a dream, for the con 
dition of dreaming and waking is quite different. According 
to what the Saugata has told us, an object, such as a table, 
would exist while a person was in the room observing it ; but on 
his going out it would cease to exist, and again on his return 
recover existence. Moreover, since the Saugata believes not 
only all perceptible objects but our own organs of perception 
to consist entirely of these fluctuating atoms, it is evident that 
his doctrine would never allow us to be certain whether anything 
existed or did not exist. The whole doctrine, when tried and 
sifted, crumbles like a well sunk in loose sand." 

"You think, then, my venerable friend," said Blancombe, 
" that objects around us have a real existence, independently of 
their being perceived?" 

" We are taught," replied Vidyacharya, " in our sacred 
books, as interpreted by Sancara, that at least the existence of 
objects is not uncertain, or brought to an entire end, because 
they are composed of atoms. Sancara also remarks, that the 
doctrine of atoms is to be utterly rejected, never having been 
received by any venerable person, as the Sanchya doctrine of 
a plastic matter has been in part by Menu and other sages." 

"I should be glad," returned Blancombe, "to learn from 
you hereafter the mode in which Sancara refuted other Bauddha 
doctrines; but at present I agree with you, that we need not 
doubt of the external world having some kind of existence. 
Only it is not clear to me whether the Saugata will assent to 
all that you have said." 



MATTER ATOMIC. 5 

" Certainly/ said the Saugata, "I should feel a difficulty in 
doing so. But indeed I fear that I may not have explained 
what I wished to say properly ; otherwise I do not understand 
how the Acharya could assert that no venerable person had ever 
received the doctrine of atoms : for our opinion on this head does 
not differ very essentially from that which Canada has rendered 
famous throughout India; while again his school, the Vaise- 
shica, is confirmed in many points by the Nyaya of Gotama, 
Nor indeed do I see how any one who follows perception, which 
is one of the two great sources of all knowledge, can deny the 
sensible world to be in a state of flux, with life and death 
constantly succeeding each other, as the composition of various 
bodies is altered or modified ; so that growth and decay in the 
world are like the flow and ebb of a tide in the ocean of life. 
Some indeed may dispute how far these things proceed in their 
own natural order, or require an external guidance (though the 
signs of a guide are at least nowhere apparent) ; and Canada, 
either from want of subtilty or from deference to others, conceded 
that some forms and arrangements of atoms were eternal ; we, 
however, find no existing body which is not capable of being 
decomposed, as its parts are capable of being moulded again into 
a fresh form of life ; neither can we trace any discernible limit to 
this process. Nothing therefore prevents us from saying that 
existence changes, and bodies come to an end. But this saying 
does not mean either that the minute particles, or atoms, out 
of which bodies are composed, themselves perish, or again that 
the vast whole in which these things revolve, like bubbles in 
an ocean, is in any danger of being dried up, and becoming 
dead." 

BLAN. "We all, I may probably venture to say, feel much 
obliged to you for thus explaining your doctrine ; but permit me 
to ask, if it does not imply nothing but material nature to be 
eternal. Existence, you appear to say, depends only on an 
aggregation of particles, and each of its forms, when decomposed, 
loses its identity, or ceases to be ; though the atoms themselves 



6 MATERIAL WORLD. 

may be cast into another shape. The followers then of your 
religion would seem to be, as our venerable Hindu friend evi 
dently thinks, NastwaSj or disowners of any spiritual existence 
beyond the present." 

SAUG. " You must pardon me if I disclaim entirely the ac 
count you would give of us. Such a description would belong 
more properly to the Charvacas. They are materialists, and 
some of them believe that the purusha or person of a man is 
merely his body; others say that the soul is only the animal 
life ; or perhaps, with rather more subtlety, that it is the result 
of the bodily organs of sensation ; or again, that it should be 
called the faculty of thought, but considered to have been engen 
dered by the blending of different physical substances, just as 
spirit is produced by the fermenting of simpler liquors. But all 
such statements are merely different expressions of materialism : 
whereas the Upasacas, or worshippers of Buddha, diverge so 
entirely from such a doctrine, that one considerable division of 
us, the Y6ga"cha*ras, look upon all appearances of material things 
as utterly untrustworthy, and maintain that our internal sensa 
tion, or intelligence, is the only real being the eternity of which 
may be affirmed. Instead therefore of being materialists, they 
might rather be called spiritualists, or at least, believers in intelli 
gence alone, and not in matter." " But pray," asked Blancombe, 
"how do they arrive at such a belief?" "Partly/ answered 
the Saugata, "by following out the train of thought already 
explained, about the fluctuation of external life somewhat farther 
than is necessary. They remark that all the signs which we 
observe of external things are not the things themselves, but 
either the composite result of simpler parts, or coverings which 
like garments conceal the real body from us, or else inherent 
characteristics, and as it were belongings, just as it belongs to 
sunshine to be bright, or to water to be cool and soft. But now 
the bark of a tree, or the skin of a man, give but an imperfect 
notion of what the body is beneath ; and when you have penetrated 
to the body, you find it in one case consist of sap and fibre and 



MATERIAL WORLD. 7 

such things, and in the other of bone and flesh ; but all of these 
parts are again made up of simpler elements, and those of sim 
pler still ; and when you have divided down to the smallest 
divisible atoms, you have entirely got rid of the body of the 
man or the tree which you were inquiring about; for only the 
minutest chemical particles remain ; but of these particles again 
you feel only that they are hard, or sharp, or round, or whatever 
they may be in character ; but what they are in essential being, 
or whether they have any being in themselves, is as much a 
secret to you as in the case of the original body, the being of 
which escaped from your feeling for it while it was in your 
hands." "All that," said Blancombe, "cannot be denied; but 
although it turns out that we see things in their properties or 
their inherent characteristics, rather than in themselves, does it 
not still follow that there remains something behind, too subtle, 
perhaps, for us to apprehend, but still which we must infer to 
exist, and therefore know to be real. You remember what you 
said of the root of the tree." "Yes," answered the Saugata, 
" that is the belief as to the reality of matter which I rather 
prefer ; but then the Yogacha ras go on to observe, that this 
reality, so far as it is real, being known only by mental infer 
ence, is only a matter of belief, and therefore a creation of the 
mind. It therefore, after all, depends upon intelligence, which 
is the only thing of the being of which we are well assured. 
Moreover, in another sense, the same persons assert (and here, 
strange as it may sound, I should not wonder if the wise Sada- 
nanda were partly to agree with them,) the cause of the external 
world may be said to be ignorance. So long as we could trace 
the composition of various bodies, either of trees or men, we 
were in no danger of supposing them to have any real existence 
apart from the elements of which they consisted, which were 
very different from the appearance ; but when we had penetrated 
to the least traceable particles, our ignorance of what might or 
might not lie underneath or behind, started up in the form of 
knowledge, and said, Here you have the original forms of matter. 



8 MATTER AND MIND. 

Ignorance therefore creates matter, at the moment when we 
seemed to have discovered its non-existence." 

" I was not sorry," remarked Buncombe, " to hear you say 
that our knowledge of the material world rests after all upon 
mental belief, or at least you said what amounted to something 
of the kind ; only it is not clear to me how this doctrine of the 
Yogacharas, which you have been now expounding, differs from 
that of the total perishableness, which you did not like to be 
charged with." " Bather," said Vidyacharya, "it is clear that 
there is no great difference ; but the doctrines of Buddha make 
everything uncertain. Moreover, although the Muni here is too 
intelligent to maintain what had been so well refuted by Sancara, 
yet the doctrine of the external world having no reality, or rather 
even of an universal void, so that no reality can be held certain, 
is the original tenet of the Sutras of Buddha." " I am sorry," 
replied the Saugata, " that you approve as little of the doctrines 
of Buddha as he did of books which are by some considered 
venerable ; but perhaps the Yogacharas would not admit that the 
existence of things is rendered any the less certain by being- 
made to depend upon intelligence. Perhaps they might argue 
that as any man observes or infers external objects, using how 
ever mental intelligence, so when he is withdrawn, if the things 
continue to exist, they do so in virtue of being observed by some 
higher intelligence ; and so, upon the man s return, he may find 
them as it were in the same place, so far at least as the absence 
of change in material forms is possible. Again, some of them 
might say that the ultimate reality or latent substance of matter, 
which we trace only by inference, does not consist in the 
mere parts, nor even in their arrangement, but rather in the 
rule which binds them, or in the thought according to which 
they cohere, so as to be one thing rather than another; and 
thus their substance will be that principle which gives form to 
them, and, in fact, a sort of intelligence. Some such answer as 
this therefore might satisfy what you objected a little time back 
about the table s existing after a man left the room. Although, 



BAUDDHA TERMS EXPLAINED. 

indeed, if it were the true doctrine of our perfect teacher Sakya, 
that no certain stability can be traced by reason in the fluctu 
ating forms of life and matter, I am not able to see that it is our 
duty to falsify the facts of the case, in order to make perishable 
forms appear more certain than they really are." " Certainly 
not," here assented Mountain; "and indeed what you say re 
minds me of a Christian doctor, St Augustine, who teaches that 
God does not behold things because they are, but by beholding 
causes them to be ; only I am not sure if I yet understand how 
far this doctrine, for which you now suggest an apology, resem 
bles or differs from the perishableness of which we before spoke." 
"Only so far," replied the Saugata, "that the total perishable- 
ness then spoken of resulted from the decomposition of material 
forms, which we fully maintain, without on that account acknow 
ledging that the intelligence of which we partake perishes. Now 
at least the doctrine which we are at present discussing is the 
very opposite of the materialism of the Charvacas ; nor does it at 
all imply that the holders of it disown a future life, or what you 
call another world. But again, you are perhaps aware that the 
Sutras of Buddha, upon which my own belief is fashioned, do 
not maintain either an universal void, or the unreality of the 
external world, quite so clearly as the venerable Acharya sup 
poses." "Upon that point," remarked Blancombe, "neither 
my friend here nor myself can presume to judge confidently, and 
we shall be glad to learn from you. I had, however, a notion 
that the terms used in the Sutras were such as seemed to point 
in the direction in which you are unwilling to follow them. Do 
they not, for example, call matter ignorance ? and body (or sub 
stance) appearance ? and our senses the five roots ? while again I 
have some impression of having heard that they call spirit the 
void. So that, if they take away matter and body by calling 
them ignorance or appearance, and spirit by calling it void, and 
at the same time make the senses as it were the roots of our 
apprehensions, I scarcely know how they can be said not to 
have taken away the two things most commonly believed to 



10 TERMS EXPLAINED. 

exist, namely, body and spirit, and with these, all other certain 
ties." Here the Saugata fully acknowledged that such terms as 
those mentioned occur in the earliest Sutras, and that those who 
follow them most literally were considered by some the earliest 
Bauddha sect; "But I am not sure," he continued with a gentle 
smile, "that the natives of Europe in general, with the exception 
of a few, such as those happily present, are the fittest interpreters 
of the wise language of our sacred books. We do indeed call 
body appearance,, for which name I have already given some rea 
sons, and we call matter ignorance, which is not an inappropriate 
name for that which is unintelligent, and even comparatively 
passive, as opposed to mind, which is intelligently active ; and 
again, we call spirit void, because the very idea of spirit is to be 
unlike, and negative of, all colours and shapes such as we see or 
handle : by what better name therefore could it be designated 
than simply void? Whatever other name we selected would 
only lead the simple to confound it with outward and visible 
forms, whereas we judge it to be something far more mysterious, 
ineffable, and sacred." "You would not then, it appears, con 
cede," asked Blancombe, " that your system is one of absolute 
negation, or of mystical nihilism, as if you loosened in turns the 
several foundations on which the belief of everything depends." 
"Certainly not," answered the Saugata, "though such a descrip 
tion of it, as I have heard, has been given. Whereas the Bauddha 
faith, so far as I am capable of judging, reposes, as all true know 
ledge amongst mankind must ultimately repose, upon the two 
foundations of perception and intelligence, external things being 
perceived by the senses, and internal or spiritual things inferred 
by reasoning. Hence I both believe in the revolution of life and 
external forms, on some such evidence as to yourself appeared 
probable, and I also seek the sanctification of my intelligence 
by purity and knowledge, as well as by religious worship." 
: May I then ask farther," continued Blancombe, "with respect 
to Him whom we consider both the Creator of the external world 
and the Giver of intelligence, do you both acknowledge and 



BAUDDHA RELIGION. 11 

honour him ? in which case I suppose the Bauddha designation 
of Him must be explained on the same principle as those other 
terms already mentioned : or is it true, as some have said, that 
your religion is only a deification of the human reason, and 
thereby a putting of man in the place of God?" "You have 
asked indeed a hard question," answered the Saugata; "but 
assuredly we do not deify each man his own reason. On the 
contrary, we subject it to the necessity of practising virtue, of 
reverencing all life, of worshipping with pure oblations of honey 
or flowers, restraining the passions, forgiving injuries, doing good 
to all men, and especially promoting their eternal welfare, hold 
ing fast the faith, obeying the true priests, and honouring the 
relics of holy men. By persevering in such practices we trust 
finally to attain Nirvana, or the blessedness of a perfect calm, 
and freedom from the passions which attend a personality in 
volved in the errors and obstructions of this life : but we are 
well aware, that by passion the intelligence may become dark 
ened, and so entangled in the necessity of suffering, that it must 
undergo many transmigrations before it arrive at the blessedness 
of repose. Seeing then that we acknowledge the allegiance of 
piety and duty, and do not pretend that these are established by 
ourselves, it cannot fairly be said that we deify our own reason : 
least of all should such an account of us be given by any Chris 
tian : for many of our doctrines correspond so nearly, that who 
ever ridicules the one may be said to injure the other. You have 
sacred books or treatises upon retributive justice ; so have we ; 
you also recommend universal repentance, and so do we ; and 
if you boast of expecting everlasting life, we also entertain the 
same expectation." " These remarks of yours," said Blancombe, 
" interest me highly ; and I should be desirous of learning here 
after on what grounds the great expectation which you have just 
mentioned is entertained among yourselves ; but first it occurs to 
me to ask, since you have spoken of worship, to what Being in 
particular is your worship addressed?" "Evidently," answered 
the Saugata, "to the supreme Buddha." "And Buddha, if 



12 THEORY OF THE WORLD. 

I understand aright," interposed Blancombe, "means intelli 
gent." 

SAUG. " Precisely so." 

BLAN. "Well, since the Deity must be conceived to have cre 
ated and disposed all things by wisdom, and since the commands 
which he utters to his creatures must be the expression of intel 
ligence, I do not know that any better name need be given to 
Him who is properly ineffable, than the one you appear to have 
chosen," 

SAUG. " But here, if you please, we must go gently ; for 
although some of my friends would willingly acquiesce in even 
the appearance of agreement with one so much honoured as 
yourself, you must not suppose me to believe that the Highest 
of all intelligences is degraded by contact with such grovelling 
things as are employed in the fashioning of the world, or that 
his blessed calm is disturbed by anxiety about things constantly 
changing, and being destroyed. For, unless you think other 
wise, that would appear to me an impious lowering of the Most 
Blessed to our imperfect conceptions ; and again, there are many 
things daily happening, so full of passion, and darkness, and 
suffering, that we cannot piously make the Deity accountable 
for them, instead of rather laying the blame, as we ought, 
upon our own folly, negligence, and ignorance. As to creation, 
you may, if you think proper, suppose certain inferior intelli 
gences, or Bodhisatwas, either stooping from the higher blessed 
ness of the supreme Buddha, or, as I should rather say, not 
having yet attained to that highest tranquillity, though far 
above our troubled state, to have fashioned the existing form 
of the world, and arranged its contents in some such self-regu 
lating order as might work like a vast machine; so at least 
many Bauddha philosophers have taught, and I find no fault 
with their mode of conceiving the theory. If, however, you ask 
me what is necessary, I do not see in what respect an utter 
blank would be better than the world as it exists, or therefore 
why we should suppose a blank ever to have been ; nor again, 



THEORY OF THE WORLD. 13 

is it easy to explain, how out of nothing a complex fabric of 
things could ever have begun to be ; and once more, if this 
world had been contrived by a pure intelligence, the contrivance 
would probably have been more perfect, or at least not so 
liable to disorder from darkness and passion. So that, just as 
the life of each individual now begins, and, when it comes to 
an end, gives place by its very death to some new life in suc 
cession, in the same manner I suppose forms to have succeeded 
forms of life indefinitely ; but I dare not say the whole aggregate 
had ever a time when it was not in some phase, for fear such 
an assertion should be, as it appears to me, both irrational and 
impious." "Well," answered Blancombe, " you do right to avoid 
the assertion, if such is its nature ; but pray explain to us why 
it would be irrational ; or rather, if you please, how the opposite, 
which seems your own belief, escapes being irrational. For to 
many persons, a long string of beings in succession without 
beginning or end is the most inconceivable picture possible ; 
especially if those beings are like blind men, with little control 
over their own motions, and yet with no wiser hand to guide 
them." 

SAUG. "Perhaps it is to you inconceivable, because you take 
your notion as it were from a river which has its source in a 
mountain and its outlet in the sea, or because you conceive of 
time as moving straightforward in a line, to which your imagi 
nation, influenced by daily experience of little things, requires 
that there should be ends ; yet probably you have seen a circle, 
which has neither beginning nor end. Now since Time is, like 
space, a certain medium for mentally classifying objects, there 
is no difficulty in classifying the forms of life which succeed 
each other, as arising in a circle, rather than in a line. Nay, 
that this is the true conception, may seem suggested to us by 
the shape of the world, which wise men say is round. Just, 
then, as all the nations of the earth might follow each other 
round, some sinking in each country, and others rising in their 
place, supposing that a perpetual peregrination of men were 



14 CAUSATION. 

necessary, so in the vast round of time, life may follow life, 
and at each date, as if on each spot of space, some overwearied 
may sink down, and others rejoicing in fresh birth rise into 
their place in the ranks ; so that neither beginning need have 
been imagined, nor termination be apprehended. Nor here 
should that image of the river, which seemed in your favour, be 
left without a closer examination ; for it appears, no doubt, as if 
the river had a beginning and an ending ; but to those who 
investigate such things more closely, it becomes manifest that 
the moisture from the sea is drawn up by the power of the hea 
venly heat into the clouds, and from thence dispersed upon the 
mountains, which in turn pour it down in the form of a river 
along the thirsty plains. So that here too there is neither 
beginning nor end, although possibly if the drops were as easily 
deluded as mankind, they might dispute, as they rolled along, 
which was the more dignified of the number, or which should 
live the longest, fancying that they had begun to exist when 
they entered on the river s channel ; or again, not knowing that 
the individuality of each may be decompounded, and the parts 
severed as they are re-cast into new combinations of particles. 
Or again, with equal wisdom they might dispute what was life 
and what death, or which ought to be called the cause, whether 
the river of the ocean, or the ocean of the dew, and so on." 

BLAN. " Your answer shews so much as this, that there are 
circles now existing, which no one denies ; but that these circles 
can have been from eternity is quite a different supposition ; 
and perhaps indeed both those larger cycles of life and decay, 
and these smaller revolutions of water by which you illustrate 
the others, both bear in themselves unmistakeable traces of 
being in their whole circumference effects, and of its being 
impossible for them to contain in themselves alike cause and 
effect. For example, I should myself say that the revolutions 
of dew and river and tide were so framed as to testify both the 
wisdom and beneficence of some higher being by whom they 
have been arranged ; or again, I might remark that explorers of 



CAUSATION. 15 

the earth have discovered clear proofs of life, in its most ex 
tended career, having proceeded from a beginning in a line, 
rather than of its revolving in an infinite circle. Since however 
these things constitute in themselves an abstruse study, and I 
am at present rather learning from you your opinions, we will 
dismiss that particular point, only remarking that, if we find 
hereafter, or if any other persons should find clear signs of a 
beginning of life, that discovery will alone sweep away a consi 
derable portion of your theory. But at present please rather to 
explain by what sort of operation, if not agency, you suppose 
this wonderful ocean, as you call it, of life to ebb and flow, or 
the myriad forms of existence to succeed each other. For I sup 
pose you do not deny that a certain order may be observed, so 
that all things take place, in fact, as if some mind were governing 
them." 

SAUG. "I neither deny on the one hand, that there is a 
certain appearance of order, nor, on the other hand, have I disco 
vered it to be so perfect that I should say it was constantly 
watched, or even that it had been originally arranged, by any 
very perfect intelligence. At least it appears to be more pious 
to conceive of the highest and most adorable Buddha as neither 
vexed by the anxiety which must pain one deeply interested in 
what goes on in this fluctuating scene of change, nor yet respon 
sible for the misery, such as the mutual destruction and canni 
balism which exist among living creatures, and which, according 
to some venerable persons, from whose doctrine, however, I 
shrink, must be ascribed to the Creator. But how it arises, that 
things in the mass and in the rough proceed in something like 
order, just as stones roll down a hill, rather than upwards, I 
consider myself happily excused from explaining; since we 
have among us the justly celebrated Sadananda, who as a master 
of the Sankhya philosophy will explain everything, on nearly 
the same principles as myself, but with far greater sagacity ; 
while, as a professor of the Hindu religion he may perhaps be 
%tened to with greater acquiescence by the venerable Achdrya." 



16 BAUDDHA AFFINITIES. CAUSATION. 

Here then we all turned to Sadananda ; but he began gravely 
to decline the compliments offered him, as well as the task of 
explaining. " Rather," he said, "it belongs to the Muni to com 
plete the exposition of his own system ; especially since he has 
admitted his own habit of relying only on two sources of know 
ledge, namely, perception and reflexion ; whereas we include 
also a third, namely, the tradition of revelation, or holy writ ; 
so that confusion might arise if we attempted to blend together 
systems of discordant principles. Let the Muni therefore pro 
ceed with the same clearness which he has displayed hitherto." 
Upon this, Blancombe, turning to the Saugata, asked, " How 
is it that you now appeal to Sadananda here for confirmation, 
whereas some time ago I understood you to fraternise rather 
with Canada, the master of the atomic school, and Gotama, the 
Hindu logician ?" " Why," replied the Saugata, "it is not won 
derful that our system, being the truth, should have affinities 
upon different sides. For example, as regards the aggregation 
of atoms, we do, as already explained, approach to an agreement 
with Canada. So again in our methods of discriminating truth 
from falsehood, we do not shrink from the distinctions of Go 
tama. We have no objection to say, there are six paddrthas, 
that is, categories, or descriptive heads, under which all things 
may be reduced ; for all things may be described as coming 
either under substance, or quality, or action, or participation, or 
individuality, or association. But moreover all substances have 
some kind of inherent qualities, as things are either heavy or 
light, sweet or bitter. What we especially agree in, then, with 
the Sankhya philosophers, is this belief, that all substances act 
according to their qualities, and not against them ; and this 
quality, being also a tendency, is the reason of their so acting ; 
so that really the effect of every action or result is already con 
tained in its cause ; for otherwise it could not be superadded by 
any external maker. You would not yourself say, that a spin 
ster makes woollen yarn out of sand, but out of a fleece ; nor 
could a sculptor carve his statue except out of a block, which 



CAUSATION. 17 

already contained its capability. So the wise Sada*nanda here 
could tell us out of the treatises of his school, that oil is in the 
seed of sesamum before it is extracted; and milk, not water, 
must be taken to make curds. Just as any one seeing an 
earthen jar, would infer that a lump of clay had previously 
existed, or from a golden coronet would infer the virgin gold, 
or even on seeing a rigidly abstemious novice, imagine his 
parents or teachers to be of a sacerdotal tribe ; so, in all cases, if 
we look forward, we find materials must be selected which have 
in them a quality or aptitude for the purpose, and if we look 
backward, we must infer the cause to have contained already 
the effect; for the nature of cause and effect is the same. 

11 You now therefore probably begin to understand, how 
certain aggregations of atoms, being once constituted, have a 
quality or a tendency in themselves, the heavy ones to fall 
lower, and the lighter ones to mount upward ; and seeds, being 
once developed from earth, and moistened by water, and animated 
by air, and warmed by fire, tend to germinate, and the germs to 
branch out, and the branches to bear flowers, and the flowers to 
become fruit. Yet, in all such processes, no intelligent man will 
say that the germ and flower are conscious in themselves of their 
own destination, if even of their being ; nor, again, do we per 
ceive any interference from any external hand with their going 
on. Whether, indeed, you look at the immediate cause, which is 
the seed, or at the concurrent occasions which are the earth and 
so on, you in neither case detect a plan of forethought, such as 
you wish me to ascribe to your Creator. Again, if, upon the 
the same principle, you examined the human frame, you would 
find the same elements of earth, water, fire, and air, contributing 
each something to its parts, and each in turn acting upon their 
aggregate, so that sensation (ve dana), and longing (trishna"), 
produce effort (upadana), and effort produces merit or demerit, 
(dharma and adharma), and either of these has a consequence of 
reward or punishment ; while along with them all runs intelli 
gence, through which we observe what exists, and are alone 
M. p. 2 



18 CAUSATION. 

assured of its existence. While men follow true intelligence of 
things, as they really are or rather are changed, they tend up 
ward like air and light ; but if they follow passion, which comes 
of ignorance, they both bring misery through sin upon them 
selves, and beget in turn a race of children destined to go 
through the same cycle of delusion. You see then, how no 
external interference with the course of the world is necessary 
in order to give things what you observed was a certain appear 
ance of order. For all things act according to their qualities, 
while they possess them ; but the substance being changed, the 
quality changes, and life changes into death, or death into life, 
or either of them leads on to Nirvana, or else to renewed trans 
migration." 

BLAN. " Perhaps I hardly understand the nature of your 
argument; though many difficulties occur to me; partly, for 
instance, in the shape of a doubt about what you call causes, 
whether they are not more properly sources, and whether our 
tracing of a particular source gives us any real clue to a general 
or original cause ; and partly also about those qualities which 
you speak of, whether they are not merely attributed by your 
imagination, and so are figures of speech; or, again, if those 
qualities are real existences, how they became inherent, or who 
fixed the law of succession, whether progress or revolution, by 
which they guide, or, at least, the things to which you attribute 
them are guided ; while concurrently with this last doubt, or as 
a part of it, comes in my old difficulty about a beginning ; and 
that I can scarcely ask you to explain, because to you it appears 
a difficulty which need not even be raised." 

SAUG. " Certainly I must abide by what has been said 
about not ascribing to the whole ocean of existence a beginning; 
for, if there ever had been a time when the entire whole was 
a blank, neither then (as Saddnanda will demonstrate to you) 
could anything but a blank have begun to be. Moreover, such 
a supposition would make even the Supreme Intelligence, Adi 
Buddha, himself unnecessary. For, if there was no world, why 



CO-EXISTENT INTELLIGENCE. 19 

should we any longer suppose any Deity to be ? So that, although 
I have heard some Europeans call us Bauddhas atheists, which 
it seems is an ugly appellation with you, in my judgment, the 
true atheists are those who say the vast order of things and 
events ever began to be, or had a time when it was not, instead of 
rather, as is the reality, always being, and always becoming." 

BLAN. " Pray pardon me, if I have seemed for a moment, 
by mistake, to imitate those unwise persons who put all their 
arguments in the shape of reproaches. Such was not even for 
an instant my intention ; yet let me acknowledge that I don t 
quite understand how the benefit of this last argument belongs 
to you ; for you imply that the existence of the world is the 
reason from which we infer a Deity, which is a just inference 
with us who make the Deity the Creator ; but since you deny 
Him apparently any share, or at least any active and operative 
share, in creation or control, I feel a difficulty in seeing the sort 
of connexion which you imply between the eternity of the world 
and of the Supreme Intelligence." 

SAUG. " Well, we have never denied that the whole sub 
ject is, from its vastness, one of difficulty ; but you allow, I sup 
pose, that man in general has intelligence." 

BLAN. " Certainly." 

SAUG. " And you infer the real existence of what you call 
a mind from seeing a human body in full life." 

BLAN. " Exactly so." 

SAUG. " But yet you allow that some of the operations of 
the body, dependent on health or disease, go on pretty much 
mechanically, or with little aid from the mere volition of the 
mind." 

BLAN. " Partly I allow that." 

SAUG. " Well, then, partly you will comprehend how, in 
allowing the world to exist, I also admit the existence of the 
Highest Intelligence ; but to say, that this Supreme Being is 
cumbered about the ordinary processes of the world, would be 
like saying that the wisest or holiest of men has no better 

22 



20 SUPERINTENDENCE OF DEITY. 

employment than making his hair or his nails grow, all which 
sort of things proceed naturally, neither needing his aid, nor 
perhaps being much benefited by it. Our full conviction there 
fore that this universal frame has what, if you please, you may 
call a soul, or a Deity, or any other name, but which we have 
learnt to call the Supreme Intelligence ; and, again, our belief in 
numerous other beings, some nearer and some farther from the 
highest and most serenely blessed, are neither absurd, nor yet 
imply any necessity of troubling what is highest with the care 
of what is lowest." 

BLAN. " Perhaps I might remark, in passing, that the case 
of this universal frame and its Highest Intelligence, as you put 
it, differs from that of our body and our soul, inasmuch as what 
ever care our body may need, independent of our exertions, may, 
it is conceivable, be supplied by the forethought of a higher or 
external Being ; whereas the world must be either cared for by 
its Highest Ruler, or not at all ; or again I might argue, that 
because some of the lesser processes of our animal constitution 
go on without much aid from our mind, it does not at all follow, 
and it is an illegitimate extension of the facts of the case to 
suppose, that the mind has no share in guiding, controlling, 
and even preserving the body ; for surely we might find, even 
in this instance, the lower does not exist without the supervision 
of the higher ; but it is more interesting for me at present to 
ask, if the supreme Buddha be so tranquil as you conceive, not 
to call it what my countrymen in general would, so inert, why 
do you offer worship ? wherefore all your temples, and priests, 
and prayers, as well as your own anxiety, which I have observed 
is very great, not to act in any way against what you conceive 
to be piety, either in injuring animal life or otherwise? For 
piety, I suppose, means conformity with the will of Buddha, 
does it not ? or, at least, your prayers seem to imply a belief in 
some Being capable of answering them, and of whom you 
imagine that he may grant your petitions." 

SAUG. " Evidently it is not to be supposed that the 



USES OF PRAYER. 21 

Supreme Intelligence can will what is wrong, for then He would 
not be intelligent though neither do I see why we should 
encumber Him with much volition, supposing, as we believe, 
that to see clearly all things, as it were with a mental eye, is 
in itself the highest happiness ; but although the Deity neither 
wants anything, nor therefore should be said to wish anything, 
it is clear that mankind become happier in proportion as they 
draw nearer to what is most perfect. Now I suppose you will 
not deny that prayer is an instrument by which man is exalted 
and improved, his intelligence raised, and his passions calmed; 
so that by devotion we may draw ourselves nearer to that which 
is in itself immovable." 

BLAX. " Certainly ; we may walk, for example, towards a 
city, yet no man in doing so utters exclamations to the city to 
come nearer him, for he conceives of the motion as a thing de 
pending upon himself; whereas in prayer we ask for something 
which depends upon another; and, except for this mode of 
thinking, I imagine men in general would scarcely pray at all." 

SAUG. " Have I not, then, heard that your own great 
Teacher told you that your Heavenly Father knoweth what 
things ye have need of, as if it did not much concern the 
Supreme to hear from us a list of our desires, and yet he com 
manded you, I believe, to pray?" 

BLAN. " That means, that we are not to use pompous 
declamations, as if a true prayer to God was to be cast in the 
same mould as an harangue to men ; but it still leaves asking 
as a condition of our receiving, though not as a means of our 
Heavenly Father s learning." 

SAUG. " If you please, I am willing to allow that the 
distinction which you draw is correct, or, at least, intelligible; 
but still it is our belief that prayer is a part of virtue ; and, 
although we attach little value to devotional ceremonies, when 
put in the balance against doing good actions, we should still 
think it an unpropitious beginning for a teacher of religion to use 
arguments against prayer." 



22 PRAYER AND ASPIRATION. 

BLAN. ll Such, pray believe me, was far from my intention; 
only it occurred to me that devotions, if they are undertaken 
rather as the means of self-improvement than in the hope of 
obtaining any petition from a higher power, might, in our 
language, be called not so much prayers as aspirations." 

SAUG. "What is the difference?" 

BLAN. " Something of this kind. Prayers are, as it were, 
from a child to his father, asking for something. Aspirations 
are rather a lifting of the affections, as of a man gazing on 
some beautiful object, or rising in conception to some sublime 
idea, either of which he endeavours, as it were, to draw himself 
nearer to." 

SAUG. " Perhaps I understand." 

BLAN. " But it is also part of my distinction, that prayer 
to the highest of all Beings would most naturally be addressed 
by those who fancy they have some positive reason for knowing- 
it will be favourably received, and be of some service to them 
in bringing down an assistance from above, as the light and 
rain come upon flowers ; whereas aspiration will be rather the 
mental posture of those who by reasoning or inference have 
conjectured some higher intelligence to exist, but are either not 
persuaded of his hearing prayer, or deny his active government 
of the world. This, then, I would gladly ask further of you." 

SAUG. " What do you mean ?" 

BLAN. u What is your ground of belief that one kind of 
religious worship is better than another, or upon what is that 
expectation built, which you profess to entertain, of arriving 
by a certain course of conduct at Nirvana?" 

SAUG. "Our expectation is part of the faith taught us 
by the last Buddha, and our worship is also shaped according 
to his directions, or those of the saints who have followed in 
his footsteps." 

BLAN. " In saying the last Buddha, you denote that others 
had preceded him?" 

SAUG. " Certainly." 



OBJECTS OF WORSHIP. 23 

BLAN. " Then, I suppose, they are not all supreme?" 

SAUG. " They all enjoy the title of supreme, in token of 
their having attained the supreme perfection of intelligence." 

BLAN. "Am I to understand, by their having attained, that 
there was a period when they were in some lower state, and, 
perhaps, one of humanity like our own?" 

SAUG. "Exactly so. The twenty-four Buddhas had all 
lived as men, and, in turns, acting either singly or with each 
other, they regenerated the world from the effects of ignorance 
and irreligion." 

BLAN. " Then is it to any of these twenty-four Buddhas 
that you apply the title Adi Buddha, or is it these persons, 
who formerly were mere men, that you worship?" 

SAUG. " You ask rather a difficult question to answer ; for 
it may happen that all of us may not quite agree what is the 
fittest answer to give. For my own part, I humbly conceive 
of the single Supreme, Adi Buddha, as above all the others, 
and in a manner distinct from them. Perhaps, indeed, by Adi 
Buddha, I mean most nearly what in your language you term 
God the Father, since of him alone I do not presume to conceive 
as ever having been any other than he now remains, the highest 
and most perfect Intelligence, and I am afraid of irreverently 
ascribing to him any unworthy office ; whereas, both the twenty- 
four Buddhas already mentioned, and also Grotama, the last, 
as well as the numbers numberless whom I need not mention, 
have lived in the form of men not only once, but for numerous 
lives, until by vanquishing sin they escaped the necessity of 
being born again. With this highest Being, or Father of all 
intelligences, I ever associate Dharma, the law which comes 
forth from him, and Sanga, the Union, or Bond of Fellowship, 
in which all the saints are bound to Buddha and to each other. 
These, then, make up the three blessed ones. Nor do I myself 
see any use in a distinction, which is often practically drawn in 
Nepaul, between the more glorious deliverers, who are con 
sidered emanations of the highest Deity, and other saints who 



24 ABSTRACT IDEA OF DEITY. 

have acquired blessedness by striving and aspiring. For since 
Adi Buddha is highest, and best, and alone originative of good, 
he is the fittest object of prayer ; but since he is the source of 
all intelligence, so in worshipping it anywhere I really worship 
him ; and those who rise to partake of this perfection can only 
do so by being essentially akin to it. There are, however, 
among the professors of our religion, persons, with some of 
whom I have recently been conferring, who think somewhat 
differently as to the Deity." 

BLAN. " That is just what I supposed ; and you would 
confer on me one of the greatest possible favours, if you would 
convey to me even a faint notion of the difference between you." 

SAUG. " Perhaps it is something of this kind. They believe, 
as I do, in the eternity of matter, or of something out of which 
the world goes on renewing and fashioning itself, and they also 
believe in intelligence, which, as long as we admit the eternity 
of the world, we may also conceive to be eternal. So that there 
is, you see, as it were, a soul and a body ; only that by soul, 
perhaps, we mean something different from what you would. 
Now the persons, about whose opinions you inquire, entertain 
the same fear as I do, of ascribing to that Highest Intelligence 
any of the accidents which encumber the minds of ordinary 
men. They go, however, somewhat farther; and not only sepa 
rate it from passion, or terror, or anxiety, but even from volition; 
(lest, I suppose, wishing should seem to imply wanting, or to dis 
turb seeing;) and therewith, in a way, disengage it from all which 
you, perhaps, would call personality. It remains mere and pure 
intelligence, just as matter is mere ignorance. Now that which 
is thus pure, abstract, and spiritual, cannot be conceived by the 
impure and selfish, or even by those who are blinded in the 
conception of their having life in themselves, endeavouring to 
hold fast a perishing individuality, instead of knowing them 
selves parts in the great whole which has one life throughout ; 
but, on the other hand, the perfectly sanctified, who have van 
quished sins, and obtained power by prayer, may become par- 



ADI BUDDHA AND SAKYA. 25 

takers at length even of that most spiritual intelligence. They, 
then, as we say, obtain Buddhahood, or become themselves 
Buddhas; and, since nothing can be more perfect than the 
intelligence and the tranquillity of which they are alike par 
takers, there seems to many of us no necessity, even if it be 
possible, to suppose anything higher." 

BLAN. " Your friends, then, appear to have no difficulty in 
conceiving of many persons as united, in a way, in one Supreme 
Intelligence? 1 

SAUG. " Neither should I, so far, provided that our idea of 
this Supreme is not encumbered by any attributes of passion 
and volition, taken from what we observe in mankind." 

BLAN. u Then, I suppose, it is either to some of these 
Buddhas, or to the Intelligence of which they all partake, that 
the friends of whom you have been speaking direct either their 
prayers or their aspirations ?" 

SAUG. " Exactly so ; but chiefly to the last of all, the 
Saviour, Sakya, who, by the establishment of our faith, as we 
now hold it, regenerated the world, and delivered mankind from 
the miseries of sin." 

BLAN. " Then, again, they see nothing wrong in praying 
to one who was formerly a man?" 

SAUG. " Certainly not, any more than would the most 
venerable teachers among the Hindus ; for they many of them 
believe that their deities have been incarnate, though not with 
such good reason as we believe Sakya to have become divine 
and omniscient." 

BLAN. " But did I not understand that you prayed yourself 
to the supreme Buddha, which seemed to me at the time to 
mean Adi Buddha " 

SAUG. "Neither do I say that you understood wrongly; 
though, indeed, it appears of little importance ; for though the 
highest Being, who never was subject to the necessity of birth, 
may seem the fittest hearer of prayer, yet Sakya, as the vener 
able Tathagata, who has entirely gone beyond any such necessity, 



26 REVELATION OR DISCOVERY. 

and who partakes now a certain divine omniscience, is no 
less worthy of honour ; and as it would be impious in me to 
disparage either his faith or his holy relics, so neither do I 
refuse to invoke him with prayer. In fact, he may stand to me 
as the representative of pure Intelligence, which in itself, how 
ever, may be the thing properly worshipped; but the Saviour 
having escaped from the accidents of human personality may be 
identified with that truest Being." 

BLAN. " Here then is another question which I much wish 
to ask. Is this religion of yours to be considered on the whole 
as a revelation, or as a discovery?" 

SAUG. " Perhaps you will explain to me the nature of the 
distinction." 

BLAN. " By a revelation we mean generally a self-uncover 
ing, as it were, on the part of the Deity, as if by drawing aside a 
veil of mystery He disclosed to us things which otherwise we 
should not have known. Whereas a discovery in religion would 
be rather an advance of the human mind, either by the discipline 
of its own faculties or by a larger survey of regions hitherto 
unexplored, to some higher truth. Now I rather suppose that 
the first of these processes can only be expected by those who 
ascribe to the Deity, whether rightly or wrongly, agencies of a 
more personal and more active kind than you are inclined to 
place among the divine attributes ; so that the distinction, again, 
in this instance, will come to nearly the same as in the case of 
aspiration and of prayer. It is only, indeed, with some belief in 
a revelation that we in Europe generally associate the term 
religion; though we do not deny that much natural piety may 
exist without such a belief; but then we should call any opinion 
respecting the Deity in this case a philosophy rather than a 
religion. What I wish to inquire of you then is, whether Sakya 
professed to have a revelation, or whether he discovered by his 
own sagacity or merit the doctrines which he taught." 

SAUG. "Why it follows, as you have correctly inferred, 
from our conception of the Supreme Intelligence, that we do not 



SAKYA S CHARACTERISTICS. 27 

assert a revelation in the sense you have defined ; but it must 
not therefore be fancied that the religion of Sakya is either less 
true, or comes to us with less authority." 

BLAN. " Perhaps not, if he had attained, as you appear to 
say, a sort of divine omniscience. Only we should require some 
extraordinary guarantee to assure us of such an attainment." 

SAUG. " We wish no stronger guarantee than the pure life 
of Sakya in all its circumstances. First we have his self-denial, 
though he was a king s son, in leaving wife and palace and 
pomp, in order to become a teacher of mankind. Then come his 
tremendous austerities and his patient prayers, by which he both 
obtained power over nature, and forced even the Brahmans, 
whose scholar he had been, though he was only a Cshatriya, to 
do him reverence. Then again we read of the many wonderful 
miracles which he wrought, and of the thousands to whom he 
gave sanctification by teaching them the true faith. Such a 
personal career is alone sufficient guarantee of a teacher s sacred 
character. If we turn to the doctrine which Sakya taught, we 
find it eminently pure, and conducive to the happiness of man 
kind. He protested against the insolence of allowing men no 
escape from their hereditary castes, and declared the way of 
salvation open to the Mlechcha and the Chandala, no less than 
to the Brahman. The virtues, which he declared to be the six 
highest perfections, were bountifulness, righteousness, knowledge, 
activity, patience, and mercy; virtues, which, if you consider 
them severally, you will find to contain every essential of human 
excellence. Nor ought the wonderful success of Sakya s preach 
ing and the extension of his doctrine to be overlooked. Even 
in his lifetime he converted vast multitudes of disciples; and 
now the most populous nations, comprehending, as I have heard, 
a larger portion of the human race than follow any other religion, 
are believers in his name. Not that such a success would be an 
argument, if it had been attained by mere violence of conquest, 
as when Sultan Mahmud, or other Mahometans, spread their 
faith with the sword; but it is well known, both how Sakya 



28 RELIGIOUS CREDENTIALS. 

used no other weapons than simple preaching and miracles, and 
how the kings who first embraced his religion, such as the famous 
Asoca, practised the mildest maxims of toleration. No other 
reasons, then, can be given for the rapid progress of Buddhism, 
than the force of sacred truth, the divine character of Sakya 
himself, and the tendency of his religion to promote the happiness 
of mankind." 

BLAN. " Those, then, it appears, are the sort of things which 
you consider just evidences of the truth of a religion." 

SAUG. " Decidedly ; and we happily have abundance of 
them." 

BLAN. " Many of them, I own, are clear indications of good 
ness ; but it would be a considerable step farther to say that 
whatever proves a man good, proves him also to be a trustworthy 
teacher of all that falls within the compass of religion. For, 
whether the opinions which you have been explaining, about the 
being of the world, and the probability or certainty of a Deity, 
and the expectation of endless bliss, are held most correctly 
by you or by others, you at least observe that they relate to 
matters far removed from our daily experience; and therefore 
doubts of this kind may arise : if there be a state of happiness 
in another world, can any one either describe it to us or shew 
us the way there, who has not himself come from thence ; or 
whether the deepest guesses of the wisest men may not be as 
far from the reality as the dreams of an infant: and again, 
taking only the possibility of there being a Supreme Being 
somewhat more energetic than you conceive, whether any but 
Himself can teach us His willso distinctly as to save us from all 
danger of being like servants who run on their master s errand 
without having heard his orders ; so that, on the whole, we 
rather require in a teacher of religion some credentials different 
from those which might justify us in trusting ourselves to the 
hands of a physician or a lawyer." 

SAUG. " But do not you, then, allow miracles to be creden 
tials sufficient even for a teacher of a new religion?" 



MIRACLES NOT FREQUENT. 29 

BLAN. " You mean by miracles works greater than any 
human being ordinarily can perform, and somewhat out of the 
common processes of nature, so as to raise a probability of some 
higher power being concerned in them than either Nature or 
Man?" 

SAUG. " That description will suit my meaning tolerably 
well." 

BLAN. " But then of course it occurs to you that such 
things are rare, and" must continue to be rare, or else they would 
no longer deserve the description which we have given of 
them." 

SAUG. "Perhaps so." 

BLAN. " But have you quite determined in your own mind 
that for miracles to be rare, unusual, and not of every-day occur 
rence, is quite essential to their definition?" 

SAUG. " If you please, I have no objection ; though it 
would appear to me difficult to prove that divine teaching ought 
to be rare, rather than frequent." 

BLAN. " Then I am afraid this point about miracles being 
rare is one to which we ought to return hereafter. But it 
surprises me the more that you should not think so, because 
your conception of the Deity represents Him as less concerned in 
the affairs of this lower world than other wise men have believed. 
Upon your system, then, I should have imagined miracles ought 
to be rarer than they need be upon ours, since we believe that 
the Almighty cares for mankind." 

SAUG. " But then are you not forgetting that I have all 
along admitted the existence of intelligence, as a thing superior 
to brute matter ; and it is clear that both Sakya and all others 
among the supreme Buddhas, as also the Bodisatwas, or what 
ever other beings of kindred perfection may exist, undoubtedly 
partake of high degrees of intelligence ; it is, therefore, nothing 
incredible, if, in their indefatigable struggles upward, they have 
severally mastered the lower power of existing things, just as 
you would admit that thought controls matter least of all 



30 BAUDDHA DEVELOPMENT. 

should this be doubted, when the most perfect teachers have by 
their tremendous austerities given abundant proof of their 
triumph over whatever meaner things obstruct the fulness of our 
intelligence." 

BLAN. "What you now say enables me to understand 
rather better both what you mean by miracles, and in what 
sense your religion generally ought to be considered either a 
revelation or a philosophy. It does not seem to be a self-un 
covering of a power above, and distinct from nature ; so that it 
is not a revelation in our sense ; nor, again, is it a mere dis 
covery by one supposed not to partake at least a sort of kindred 
to the Highest Intelligence ; but it is a sort of up-growth or 
development of that intelligent principle which you conceive to 
reside in the world of nature, until, purifying itself as it rises, and 
approaching nearer to. that perfection to which it is essentially 
akin, it both acquires freedom for itself, and also power, either 
over the lower world, or to instruct mankind. Some such 
development of intelligence you appear to conceive was em 
bodied in Sakya. But now, I suppose, you believe that in pro 
portion to the great excellence of Sakya as a teacher, his works 
also were wonderful?" 

SAUG. " Certainly, I do." 

BLAN. "Well then, in exact proportion as anything is 
wonderful, it may also be considered less likely to happen, or at 
least to require more distinct and ample testimony. No one, for 
instance, wonders either at the daily recurrence of sunrise, or of 
the ocean tides, or of any other of the great and normal revolu 
tions of nature ; and therefore no one requires proof of any one of 
them having occurred. Whereas an eclipse, or an earthquake, 
which are somewhat rarer, though still in the natural order of 
things, we require to be informed of by some one well conversant 
with such matters, before we expect either of them to happen ; 
and as for the monsoons, which blow here, having their course 
altogether inverted, or as to men moving through the air upon 
burning carpets, it would require many testimonies from persons 



TESTS REQUISITE. 31 

not easily mistaken, in order to convince us of such things hav 
ing happened. You observe, I am not in the least arguing that 
any such things are impossible ; but all that argument of your 
own, about things acting according to their properties, comes in 
here sufficiently for me to remind you of it ; for if you saw a 
person making yarn without wool, or oil without sesamum seed 
for him to extract it from, you would consider it so rare as almost 
to distrust your own senses ; much more then, if other persons 
reported it, you would suspect some mistake to exist somewhere ; 
and so generally we shall find, in proportion as any thing is 
marvellous and out of the way, the more intelligent part of man 
kind would require clearer and more ample evidence of it. Pray, 
should not you think so ?" continued Blancombe, here turning to 
Sadananda. " For my part, I certainly should," he replied. 
" Then we see," resumed Blancombe, " that not only as regards 
the miracles of Sakya, but all miracles asserted everywhere, 
there is need to cross-examine our witnesses sharply, and inquire 
not only into their sincerity, but into their opportunities of obser 
vation, and their clearness of judgment. Perhaps, indeed, if we 
were discussing miracles which appealed to the whole world, we 
should desire them to have happened among a people of no 
credulous turn, but inquisitive and apt to test occurrences by the 
strictest methods. There is scarcely an art in the schools of 
Hindu dialecticians, Gotama and the rest, which in such a case 
must not admit of being resorted to. Hence not only the 
country, but the genius of the people, and the period of its 
history, and the predisposition of mind on part of the witnesses, 
should all be taken into account; and if the tradition of the 
miracles has been handed down for many generations, one would 
ask many questions as to the books in which it is preserved, and 
the persons in whose custody the books have been, and the 
authors to whom they are ascribed, and not least, as to the wit 
nesses by whom that authorship is asserted, and the number of 
years which may have elapsed between that assertion and the 
lifetime of the supposed authors, or the probability of their 



32 BAUDDHA SCRIPTURES. 

overhearing it. I do not here enlarge upon considerations of 
moral fitness, though it is obvious to persons of any gravity 
that amongst things wonderful those are most worthy of being 
received as credentials of a religious teacher, which are least 
capable of being called by any one either childish, or useless, 
or maleficent ; only, as you have mentioned the miracles of 
Sakya, I was willing to learn from you incidentally, how far 
y$ur system takes into account the necessity of greater evidence 
for a thing in exact proportion as it is extraordinary." 

SAUG. " What you say has a very reasonable sound, but it 
does not apply in such a way as to throw the slightest discredit 
upon the miracles of Sakya, which are handed down in our Holy 
Scriptures." 

BLAN. " But when were those Scriptures written?" 

SAUG. " Perhaps the different books at different times ; the 
earliest Sutras for instance by the immediate followers of Sakya, 
such as Ananda ; and the Abhidarma containing our philosophy, 
having been arranged at the first great council in the year when 
the luminary of the world was extinguished. But since the 
three Pitakas consist of different books, to which may be added 
the Atthakatha or commentaries on them, it is not unnaturally 
a matter of discussion among ourselves as to what date, or by 
whom, particular portions were written." 

BLAX. "Of what age may we venture to say the MaJid- 
wansa should be considered?" 

SAUG. " You mean the genealogies and histories of Ceylon ?" 

BLAX. " Exactly." 

SAUG. " According to the Cingalese, with whom I have 
recently been conversing, they were written about four hundred 
years after the death of the comforter of the world." 

BLAN. " It is in those books, I think, written about four 
hundred years after the death of Sakya, that we read of his 
flying through the air, of his astonishing the Yakkas with storms, 
and of various miracles being performed by his relics ; we also, 
I think, read of a princess being married to a lion, and of 



BAUDDHA MIRACLES. INSPIRATION. 33 

various beings, half serpents, and half something higher, all of 
which Sadananda here would say partook somewhat of the 
marvellous. Supposing then it should turn out that these sort 
of stories abound more in writings farther removed from the 
time of Sakya, while in the Sutras which can with more con 
fidence be traced to his immediate successors, such as Ananda, 
these stories appear less, but we find in their stead traces of 
your great teacher s wisdom and virtue, would that circumstance 
make such stories appear to you rather less certain, or less 
necessarily credible?" 

SAUG. " I do not see that it would ; for all our Scriptures 
were written before the age of inspiration had ceased. So long 
as inspiration lasted, it was less necessary that accounts should 
be written minutely; but when it was about to cease, though 
its influence was still felt, our Scriptures were written for the 
affliction of righteous men, if they compared the degeneracy of 
their own times, and their delight, if they looked back on what 
had preceded." 

BLAN. " Then I see, the whole question of inspiration ought 
to be considered by us. But pray how is it that you talk of 
Holy Scripture and inspiration, when it is generally imagined 
that Sakya was rather what we should call a sceptic, or a 
devout rationalist, throwing doubt upon the sacred books of his 
race, and professing to have secured the highest knowledge by 
the light of his own intelligence?" 

" That is a question," here Vidyacharya mildly interposed, 
" which it rather pleases me to hear asked ; for indeed the incon 
sistency both of Sakya and of his followers has always appeared 
to me wonderful. He made light of our sacred books, rejected 
sacrifices, and calumniated the Brahmans, teaching men to over 
throw all venerable distinctions, and permitting the Sudra, or 
even the Chandala, to boast himself against the wise and the 
honourable, so that both the natural and consecrated order of 
society was overthrown by him ; and not only this, but the justice 
of the Divinity was blasphemed, since those distinctions in life, 
M. p. 3 



34 SAKYA S CAREER 

which are in fact the due requital of whatever we have done in 
some former existence, were suffered to be lightly evaded, as 
indeed you have heard the Saugata here boasting ; yet after all, 
this man, whom the Vishnu Purana justly calls the great Illu 
sion, pretended to have been elevated to such a pitch, that his 
smile gave divine grace, and the effluence of his breath brought 
knowledge from heaven. Then we have heard even the reports 
of his discourses by his disciples spoken of as inspired, and con 
sidered as sufficient authority for any marvel. Thus, by over 
throwing a rightful and sacred authority, he was only paving 
the way for a greater despotism. Yet I do not deny Sakya to 
have been very eminent in knowledge and sanctity, but it sur 
prises me he should have taught such doctrines, that, according 
to Sancara, he may well be thought to have been an intentional 
deluder of mankind in the spirit of some Racskasa, rather than 
merely to have fallen into any human error." 

SAUG. " Well, how much may be said in favour of our 
Vanquisher of sins, has been already in part explained ; and also 
the sense in which his inspiration should be understood will be 
clear to any one who remembers how I shewed that men may 
become possessed of the highest and most perfect intelligence. 
But as for the accusation that he opposed the Brahmans, some 
thing more may be said. We read that before the conversion of 
King Asoca, he gave alms daily to sixty thousand Brahmans, 
and it cannot be doubted that in the earlier time, when the 
Comforter first taught the world his doctrine, the preponderance 
and the number of the Brahmans were equally great. Not only 
was it believed that men are born in particular castes on account 
of their merit or demerit in a former life, (which the Saviour 
never denied,) but they were excluded from the hope of rising to 
freedom through the highest knowledge. Sacrifices of blood 
were ordered in the books held sacred, and practised by the 
priests, though when the compassionate One beheld them, he 
blamed on that account the whole of the Vedas. In the mean 
time men cared only for themselves or for their caste, and not 



AND DOCTRINE. 35 

for mankind. While religious ceremonies had a great stress laid 
on them, good actions were little practised. Men had fallen 
through false conceptions into all manner of superstition, selfish 
ness, ignorance, and sin, with all that misery which such things 
must entail. Sakya therefore, the indefatigable straggler, had 
prayed to each of the supreme Buddhas, that he too might be 
come a Buddha, for the sake of delivering mankind from misery, 
and they all had foretold that he should succeed. In order to 
fit himself for his sacred work he studied first under the Brah- 
mans, nor did he at any time refuse them personal respect, 
though he extended to every man the free option of that sancti- 
fication by the highest knowledge, which it was previously 
thought must belong to the upper castes only. But by extending 
such benefits to others, he did no injury to the Brahmans. On 
the contrary, many of them became his disciples, and, assuming 
the yellow garb of mendicants, they not only forsook the world, 
but went about preaching the true faith, and inviting all men 
to be saved by the six highest excellencies. Then came those 
remarkable missions which spread our faith from Magadha over 
a large part of India, to Ceylon in the South, to Nepal in the 
North, and even to Thibet and China, and a large part of the world. 
The virtues of King Asoca, whose inscriptions remain to this day 
as an evidence of the truth of our faith, are well known, and not 
least was his anxiety for the souls of men. In all this, however, 
the Brahmans were not injured ; though it is true their bloody 
sacrifices were forbidden, and the books which enjoin them were 
considered on that account defiled." 

BLAN. " You appear to think, then, that a certain humanity 
of sentiment should be expected in all books which claim to be 
sacred." 

SAUG. " Certainly ; such for instance as we have in the 
inspired Sutras of Buddha. If, however, to resume my argument, 
Sakya from his victory over sin was called the Vanquisher, and 
from his benefits to mankind the Saviour, and from his complete 
liberation the Tathdgata, or if again the nations in their gratitude 

32 



36 BAUDDHA SCEPTICISM. 

honour his relics with worship in which they offer incense and 
flowers, or even if we address prayers to one who shares the 
perfection of the divine intelligence, such things offer no just 
subject for reproach, either against his sacred memory, or against 
our religion in general. Whereas on the other hand, the cruelties 
which our saints suffered at the instigation of the fierce Cumarila, 
when, after conquering India by persuasion, they were driven 
out of it by extreme violence, were such as I even shudder to 
remember." 

" But whatever may be said of Cumarila," here resumed 
Vidyacharya, " you do not deny that Sakya suffered himself to 
be considered as above our holy triad of deities, and to me I 
confess such presumption appears impious." 

SAUG. " Well, how far it was presumptuous, must depend 
upon how far those whom you term deities are true or eternal ; 
and perhaps on that point we are not agreed. Supposing then, 
as we hold, your deities are either creatures of the imagination, 
or so far as they exist, are only products of nature, and therefore 
destined to pass away like all other forms of the natural world, 
it is clear that the enlightened one, having overcome sin, and 
attained participation in the supreme intelligence, would have 
attained a superior rank. But this same rank he holds out 
as possible to be attained in turn by others who aspire to it 
through the same piety, knowledge, and excellence. It was 
not therefore arrogance, as you suppose, but the perfection of 
his knowledge which rendered the claim you allude to, on part 
of the Saviour, perfectly legitimate." 

Here Vidyacharya said nothing, but Blancombe resumed, 
"You conduct your argument in this part with as much spirit as 
you did with clearness in the former part ; and if our venerable 
friend here does not reply to you, neither shall I attempt it. 
Only, from what you relate of Sakya, I should augur, there 
must have been a great difference between his view of the 
sacerdotal caste, and the practice now current among you. At 
least I have heard, that in Ceylon the institution of caste is 



SACERDOTALISM. VARIATIONS. 37 

now pretty rigidly observed by the professors of your faith ; 
and it is certain that in Thibet, and elsewhere, you have a more 
thoroughly organized hierarchy than now exists among the 
Brahmanical Hindus. Your many monasteries, your temples, 
your chanting, and in short your abundant ritualism, all savour 
of something different from the humane yet fervently devout and 
somewhat mystical rationalism which it seems was the character 
of your founder." 

SAUG. " Well, it is not surprising that a religion thoroughly 
established should need somewhat different provisions from those 
which suited its commencement. Something even of human error 
may creep in. All those things however, to which you allude, 
have not come about among us at random, but were established 
by the wisdom of the saintly followers of the Saviour, when 
they assembled in various councils. There are three such 
councils which we especially venerate. The first already spoken 
of, at which the Holy Scriptures were arranged, took place in 
the year of the Saviour s death; the second, in order to ex 
tinguish schisms, a hundred years later ; and the third, in which 
it was determined to propagate the faith by missions throughout 
the world, after another interval of about one hundred and 
eighteen years, or not much more. In such councils then our 
wise men made various useful regulations ; and we are far from 
thinking as the Acharya here supposed, that all authority 
ought to be despised ; for in fact it does not follow, because the 
older Brahmans were blameable for using authority in order to 
exclude men from the truth, that therefore authority should not 
be obeyed, when it is used to establish and spread abroad the 
truth by holy men." 

BLAN. " I understand. But now I begin to fear you will 
think me very wearisome, if not almost as great a persecutor as 
Cumarila. Yet there is one, and I believe scarcely more than 
one question yet, with which I would venture to trespass upon 
your patience. You have spoken of the purity of Sakya s doc 
trines, and also of missions for the sake of propagating the faith. 



38 SHORT-COMINGS. 

Pray then, how has it arisen, that you have never yet converted 
some of those in Ceylon, and in the parts of India nearest to it, 
who might appear most favourably situated for the influence of 
your missions to operate upon them; and again, among those 
who profess your faith in both those countries, how is it that 
practices prevail, such as probably Sakya, as much as any man, 
would have condemned? Not that I here speak of personal 
vices, such as in the case of reckless men elude or defy the 
controul of even the purest faith ; but I allude to forms of belief 
and modes of worship, which stand in the strongest contrast to 
the purity which you have ascribed to Sakya. Need I tell you 
of the crowds who worship idols ? or of the homage paid in such 
absorbing excess to what you consider sacred relics, as to draw 
away the worshipper s mind from any thought of the high and 
holy one, by whatever name we style him, who, as we both 
agree, ought to be worshipped ? Or what shall I say of the 
devil-worshippers of Tinnevelly, who (if I understand their 
doctrine aright) endeavour to propitiate the spirit of evil ; and 
certainly their vicious lives, in many cases, prove they have 
fallen sufficiently below humanity for such a horrid kind of creed 
to correspond well enough with their practice? Then again, 
rites are spoken of in India, though, I believe, in parts which no 
longer fall within the range of your religious influence, in which 
unclean passions and the sensual vices, such as even bad men 
generally are ashamed of, are both practised and considered a 
kind of piety. But what a piety can that be, which thus arrays 
itself against the modesty of every pure conscience, and enters 
into alliance as it were with whatever is evil in man, against what 
ever aspiration he might raise towards the holy and the eternal ? 
Such a kind of religion in fact is on the side of passion and of dark 
ness against intelligence. Yet of those three things you fully 
admit the first and second to be evil, and the third to be good." 

SAUG. " Undoubtedly we do ; but of the persons you allude 
to, some are descendants of the old Yakkas*, or the demon race, 

The speaker uses here a Pali form, as quoting the MahaVansa. 



COMMON GROUND. 39 

who never fully received the Saviour, and we have not been able 
to make an impression upon their obdurate minds ; again, as to 
the others, the ignorance of mankind is always apt to degenerate 
from a pure religion, and I do not see that such degeneracy 
is the fault of the luminary of the world." 

BLAN. " Certainly not of Him whom we should call the 
true luminary ; nor again is it a fault in the personal character 
of Sa"kya, whom you probably mean ; but it remains to be 
inquired, whether the circumstances I have alluded to may not 
indicate some inherent weakness in his religion. But now I am 
so anxious to see men happier and better, by whatever name 
they call themselves, that I would earnestly entreat you in the 
name of Sakya, if you please, to consider with me how we can 
enlighten the intelligence, or purify the imaginations of those 
miserable persons we have spoken of; and this I promise, if 
your way appears the more likely, I will so far join it as to con 
sent at least to your giving these benighted people the purest 
form of your faith ; whereas, if any other way should appear 
better, you perhaps will not refuse to follow whatever method 
the most perfect intelligence may point out as the best?" 

SAUG. " Perhaps we will so consider it. At least I quite 
agree that the practice of virtue is the principal thing." 

BLAN. " It appears to my own mind there are several points 
we so far agree in, that it is worth while attempting to come 
nearer each other; especially I think we agree that whatever 
course the most perfect intelligence would approve, that ought to 
be followed. We are also agreed that bountifulness or benefi 
cence is a virtue to be practised, and that of all gifts we could 
confer upon men, the gift of salvation, or the knowledge of the 
true faith, would be the greatest ; for certainly we should be 
most anxious about their souls. You have spoken also of 
knowledge, and I suppose knowledge implies possession of the 
highest truth of all ; if this then is so valuable, we should 
not close our eyes against any beam of it, from whatever quarter 
it may fall." 



40 SUMMARY. 

SAUG. " To all tliat I see no objection." 

BLAN. " Shall we however try to sum up briefly what has 
been said, lest any one should have dropt as it were the thread 
from his hand?" 

SAUG. " If you please." 

BLAN. " It appears then that you distinguish the Bauddha 
doctrine from that of various Charvacas or materialists ; that you 
consider intelligence and matter as two things eternally co 
existent, of which the one, being visible in its properties, leads us 
to infer the other, though it is not clear how far either acts upon 
the other. Nor again, do you object to the opinion of your 
friends who deny the existence of anything except internal per 
ception or intelligence. In the same manner again, you think 
that a highest form of intelligence exists, answering more nearly 
to what we conceive of the Deity, but you do not censure those 
who think such a supposition unnecessary. Your own reason 
indeed for making it, seems to be chiefly an application of the 
analogy of body and soul, to the world and God ; or else a per 
ception of the fitness of giving symmetry to the various 
gradations of intelligence by admitting one form higher and 
more perfect than the rest ; and not in the least any need of 
attributing the world to a creator ; for life and death, decay and 
quickening, succeed each other, you imagine, in a cyclical series, 
which may be compared to bubbles and waves rising and falling 
in alternation around a ball. You are all agreed in resting your 
essential belief upon the last supreme Buddha, or Sakya ; and 
he, having been once a man, became so enlightened as to share 
the highest intelligence, and to have authority in matters of 
belief, though his divinity seems a kind of growth or develop 
ment rather than an original inheritance; and his doctrine, 
though superhuman, may more nearly be described as an aspira 
tion than as a revelation ; but on this point I found some difficulty 
in reconciling all that dropt from you. You conceive however 
of the standard both of your belief and practice as being some 
thing external to yourselves, and will not have it described as 



SUMMARY. 41 

a mere deification of any individual man s reason; and lastly, 
while you appeal to the authority of Sa"kya, you admit your 
religious practices in the present day to vary considerably from 
his doctrine. For while his life might almost seem a solemn 
mission against caste and sacerdotalism, its result seems to have 
been the establishment of a system more elaborately sacerdotal 
than the one against which he protested ; and among many of 
those who are called Buddhists, as well as the neighbours who 
should be converted by them, the grossest idolatry and super 
stition prevail. But such things you would probably say were 
no strong argument against the original truth of your religion, 
supposing its evidences, and especially its miracles, to be satis 
factory, and its sacred books to be written, as you believe, both 
in an humane spirit, and also by divine inspiration. In other 
respects you appear to agree with Hindus in general in the belief 
of the transmigration of souls, and in the endeavour to attain 
a certain tranquillity in a future life, as the reward of certain 
conduct here ; and this tranquillity appears from what you said 
of Sakya to consist in freedom from the necessity of being born 
again, so that some would consider it but a negative kind of 
enjoyment." 

SAUG. " As far as I observe, your summary is, for a brief 
one, tolerably correct ; though as we have seen that some of our 
terms are misapprehended by Europeans, so perhaps I should 
make allowance for the inadequacy of your language to express 
the fulness of our sacred truth." 



NOTES ON CHAPTER I. 

THE Bauddhas have many sects, of which the Saugatas are one. 
Those who wish to test the assertions of the speaker in this dialogue, 
may compare them with the numerous citations in Colebrooke s Col 
lected Works ; with Eugene Burnouf s splendid and critical Analysis ; 






42 AUTHORITIES. 

with Mr Hodgson s Account of the Nepaulese Buddhists, Trans. 
RA.S., Vol. II. ; with various notices in the Writings of Professor 
H. H. Wilson, especially in his edition of the Yishnu Purana ; with 
Mr Tumour s Introduction to the Cingalese Mahawansa; with A. 
Kemusat s Melanges Asiatiques, Yols. I. and Y. ; and with Lassen s 
Indische Alterthumskunde. Some of the above books may be con 
sidered as standing references for subsequent chapters in this volume. 
M. Y. Cousin has somewhere described Buddhism as un nihilisme 
dbsolu ; and Mr Hodgson as a deification of human reason ; while 
Mr Turnour argues that it should be rather considered as a revelation j 
and again, Lassen finds no clear intimation of a Deity, he says, in the 
primitive Sutras. On the whole, however, the citations in Burnouf 
and Turnour, with the statements of Colebrooke, and the ingenious 
criticism of A. Remusat, point to some such doctrine as that of the 
Saugata Muni in the text. For Bauddha history, Colonel (now Lieut. - 
General) Sykes s paper in the Royal Asiatic Society s Journal has also 
a real, though a controversial sort of interest. His results cannot 
be considered probable, but his reasons are worth reading. 



>SANKHYA PRIORITY. 43 



CHAPTER II. 

What the Vaishnava Sankhyast thinks. 

(( The historian ... will be painfully struck by the inferiority of the ethical deve 
lopment to the physical and merely speculative. The [German] mind appears 
overpowered by the contemplation of God as Nature and as Thought. His mani 
festation as conscious Spirit and Will is neglected : abstract reasoning absorbs the 
mystery of conscience, and the feeling of reality." BUNSEN, On German Thought. 

"The distinction which the Sankhya draws between the sensuous consciousness 
and the self -consciousness, is a proof of the very strong disposition to refer the inner 
development of our sensuous conception to a higher and more general force, and 
thereby to separate it from man s true personality." RITTEK, Hist. Philosophy. 

" IT appears then," said Blancombe, now turning to Sadananda, 
" that much of the doctrine which the Muni has been explaining 
finds its justification in the treatises of the Sankhya philosophy." 
" With respect to some portion of it," answered the other, " the 
case is so." " Well then/ continued Blancombe, " if your 
treatises are older than the time of Sakya, such a circumstance 
may be thought somewhat to detract from his originality as a 
teacher ; for there will be some tilings which he will appear not 
so much to have revealed or to have discovered, as to have 
borrowed from others." u Just so/ assented Saddnanda. 
"Well now," resumed Blancombe, "I am curious to know 
whether in virtue of this speculative affinity between your philo 
sophers on the one hand, and the followers of Sakya on the 
other, you consider yourselves as on the whole his allies and 
votaries, or whether you are still to be classed as professors 
of what is more properly the Hindu religion." " Evidently," 
answered Sadananda, " the fact of Sakya s having learnt from 
our treatises which is the case, for Capila our teacher is at least 
of far earlier date no more renders us Buddhists than the 
Brahmans themselves in general are so. For Sakya had Brah- 
manical teachers, some of whom he may have subsequently 
seduced, as the Saugata has asserted ; yet the great body retained 
their faith ; and in the same way our agreement or our priority 



44 VISHNU. 

as regards Sa"kya in some subjects of speculation has never 
led us to imitate him in rejecting the authority of the Hindu 
Sastras, and especially of the Vedas. You have heard that the 
Buddhists admit only two sources of knowledge, whereas we, 
not thinking that the knowledge enjoyed by mankind is too 
great as it stands, consider it prudent to retain the third source, 
namely revelation, or its tradition, as embodied in the sacred 
books of our race." 

BLAN. In fact then you practise the rites of the Hindu 
religion, and worship its deities." 

SAD. " Certainly, I practise the rites so far as my own 
weakness and the deplorable degeneracy of this Cali age will 
permit, and I do not intentionally omit due honour to any of 
the deities, but especially to Vishnu, the great preserver of all 
things." 

BLAN. Vishnu then, it seems, is your name for the Supreme ; 
and pray do you associate with him also his wife either as Sri, 
or as Saraswati?" 

SAD. " Certainly, as the goddess of plenty, Sri, and of 
prosperity, Lakshmi, but hardly as the Queen of eloquence, or 
speech, Saraswati ; for most think that this last name belongs 
properly to the wife of Brahma, nor do I quarrel with their 
mode of considering it." 

BLAN. " But I had imagined you, perhaps erroneously, to 
be in some things a disciple of Ramanuja s, and he I conceive 
worshipped Rama." 

SAD. " You say correctly, in some things, for we are not 
bound by his metaphysical opinions ; he however considered 
Rama as an incarnation of Vishnu, which is also our belief." 

BLAN. " You extend then the same incarnation theory to 
Crishna?" 

SAD. " Yes, I am inclined to consider the deity Crishna 
as a form of Vishnu, becoming incarnate in Rama." 

BLAN. Then what am I to suppose is your belief respect 
ing Siva and Durga, Indra and Sachi, Agni, Kartikeya, 



POPULAR DEITIES. 45 

Varuna, Yama, and all the other names which I sometimes 
hear spoken of with veneration ? 

SAD. " You may, if you please, suppose me to conceive of 
them according to the pious traditions usually current among 
my countrymen., of the general bearing of which I imagine you 
are scarcely ignorant. Vishnu, for example, as the preserver of 
all things, may well be considered the highest, and with him 
Sri, or Lakshmi, as his bountiful associate in giving pro 
sperity." 

" Again Siva, as the destroyer and rebuilder of various forms 
of life, has his place of worship, though I am not agreed with 
those who rank him above the preserver. With him, however, 
Durga, or Parvati the mountain-born goddess of terror, may be 
mentioned, though she has also a milder aspect, as Bhavani. 
Then Indra, the god of the sky, may well deserve grateful 
oblations, and worship, as well as his consort Sachi ; for with 
out the bounty of the sky, this Earth of ours would be barren 
and wretched. He may fairly also be called Maghavdn, the 
possessor of bliss. Nor again, do I suppose any one so blind 
or ungrateful, as to deny the benefits which men receive from 
fire, and air, and water. All these then have their deities, Agni, 
and Pavan, and Varuna, whom we honour as the lords of their 
several gifts or regions. So with Indra the god of heaven, I 
might have classed Surya the deity of the Sun, and the 
father of the twelve Adityas, who give us light in their 
turns ; or I might have spoken of Ganesa, who had once 
exclusive votaries, and whom now men chiefly invoke, when 
they commence any undertaking ; or of Manasa*, the healer of 
mankind from the wounds of serpents. But I do not wish 
to perplex you with the various names and attributes of the 
deities, respecting some of which and their respective ranks 
all our teachers are not quite agreed. Suffice it generally, 
that from whatever quarter mankind derive any especial benefit, 
we think it reasonable to ascribe the good to some benignant 
giver, and to honour the giver therefore with grateful offerings, 



46 POPULAR DEITIES. 

as well as with the prescribed prayers. But besides those 
gracious and more bountiful beings, whom we honour as our 
preservers or benefactors, it is evident that there also exist in 
nature many terrible agencies, the influence of which we may 
well tremble at. Kartikeya, for instance, is the god of war, and 
Kali the goddess of bloodshed, whose terrors we think it not 
unnatural to avert, without inquiring nicely, whether she is 
distinct from Durga, or only the same described as the dark 
goddess; but in either case, I do not see why it should be a 
mark of wisdom to ridicule us for deprecating the displeasure of 
a being powerful to injure. Then even beyond this life there 
is Yama the god of death, who as regards our certain removal 
may be termed inexorable, though either in postponing it, or in 
judging us mercifully when we stand before his tribunal, we 
hope he may be rendered propitious to us by prayer. Nor in 
deed can I blame those who think no other deity so fit an object 
of their exclusive devotion as this gloomy king. With him 
may be classed his messenger Chitragupta, who conveys us to 
Yam-alaya, the abode of death, and all the array of witnesses, 
who give account in that dread presence of all our words and 
actions; such as Swarga, Chandra, Pavan, and many others, 
there being no place either in heaven or earth, which does not 
send forth his embodied witness to give unerring testimony of 
what has been good or evil in each action of our lives." 

BLAN. " Any such tribunal as you describe must certainly 
be a tremendous one to stand before. But how do you know so 
much of its nature?" 

SAD. " Perhaps something may be known respecting it in 
many ways ; but amongst others it is said that some one having 
been carried off once by Chitragupta in error, before his time 
was fully come, he returned to life, and described all the punish 
ments which he had seen." 

BLAN. " Upon my word, if we had happened to fall in with 
that person, I think we should have agreed to ask him a great 
many questions. For the subject is one so momentous, that I 



KNOWLEDGE IMPLIES TRUTH. 47 

cannot conceive any rational man s not feeling an interest in it. 
But your notion generally of the punishments is, I imagine, the 
same as that of other Hindus. You made them consist in the 
necessity of undergoing some new form of existence, in which a 
man starts with advantages or disadvantages, corresponding in a 
way to his conduct in any previous life." 

SAD. " Very much that." 

BLAN. " Then the highest reward will be freedom from any 
such necessity?" 

SAD. " Just so." 

BLAN. " Then for the fortunate person who has obtained 
such liberation there will remain only the tranquillity which our 
friend the Muni has already described, as consisting in entire 
exemption from the anxieties of an isolated personality, and 
perhaps a communion in some way with the tranquil volition 
or the serene contemplation of the Supreme Spirit." 

SAD. " I will not object captiously to his way of describing 
it, or to your own ; only it is evident that the highest enjoy 
ment must be in thorough knowledge, and the way to it is also 
through growth in knowing." 

BLAN. " Does not this high estimation which you form of 
knowledge clearly imply that there is something to be known?" 

SAD. " Certainly." 

BLAN. " And therefore that there is such a thing as positive 
truth, or that external things are in a certain way so far as they 
exist, or that they have been acted in a certain way so far as 
they are facts, and a conception of these, according to the 
manner in which they really are or have been, must be know 
ledge ; so that truth in any man s thought or affirmation will 
require as its correspondent a certain external reality?" 

SAD. " I do not see how what you say can be denied." 

BLAN. " Then if any one assured us that the internal 
conceptions of the mind bear no clear relation, or need not 
correspond to external things as they either exist or have 
been enacted, or that there are no such spiritual realities as 



48 HINDU SECTS. 

true ideas, or mental views of external things, to which we 
ought, as far as possible, to make our own notions approximate, 
such a person would take away the very ideas of truth and 
knowledge, and consequently destroy the possibility of that 
highest liberation to which you think the human soul should 
aspire?" 

SAD. " Quite so." 

BLAN. " Then it seems clear that we should not suffer our 
selves lightly to be embarrassed by any difficulties which a man 
arguing for so despondent an opinion might possibly start ; but 
rather we should spare no effort to arrive at the truth, and keep 
alive in ourselves by all holy or wise methods a courageous hope 
of attaining it." 

SAD. " I certainly admit that by right methods the soul 
may learn to know, and it is the great triumph of the Sankhya 
philosophy to have devised such methods." 

BLAN. " Very well. But you profess in part to accept the 
doctrines of Ramanuja; and again you profess a certain alle 
giance to the religious books of the Brahmanical religion. Will 
then the venerable A chary a here approve of your selecting Vishnu 
as the main object of your worship, or will he admit that the 
Supreme Being is most properly considered as the preserver?" 

SAD. " Probably not, nor perhaps in some other things far 
more important, will he approve of the conclusions to which our 
philosophy leads us. He at least is, I believe, a worshipper by 
preference of Siva, and probably will not admit that human 
souls are each one essentially distinct from the other." 

BLAN. " These differences, however, do not seem to make 
your religion in its general idea a different one?" 

SAD. " Certainly they do not ; for we agree in appealing to 
the same sacred books, as the traditionary depository of a reve 
lation." 

BLAN. " Does it not then appear to you that the doctrine held 
is of more consequence than the book in which it is recorded?" 

SAD. >l Why, without affirming or denying anything upon 



SA NKHYA THEOLOGY. 49 

that point, it must at least be considered of great importance to 
hold fast the written depository of divine truth ; for so long as 
we both appeal to the same books, our difference will be only 
one of interpretation, and there may be a chance of our some day 
arriving at an agreement ; whereas, if we, like the Buddha, 
Sakya Muni, threw off all allegiance to the tradition or history 
of a prior revelation, we should have lost one of the great sources 
of knowledge, and be more hopelessly divided." Thus far Sada- 
nanda ; and Vidyacharya then assented to what had been said of 
the importance of appealing to the same religious books, at the 
same time that the difference of interpretation as between himself 
and Sadananda was exceedingly great. 

" May I then ask," resumed Blancombe, "why you have 
selected Vishnu in particular as the most worthy of all the 
Hindu deities to be ranged as it were at the head of things 
divine?" "Partly," replied Sadananda, "because the earliest of 
our Scriptures speak of him either in that character, or at least as 
not apparently inferior to Indra 1 . Although it may be true that 
the Yedic songs speak chiefly of the divine agencies of Nature, 
and of Heaven, or Indra, who encompasses all the rest, this may 
arise from that temporal or economic character which, I con 
tend, should be ascribed to Holy Writ. But still more," he con 
tinued, " we think Vishnu worthy of the highest honour, because 
nothing appears to us more wonderful than that in the constant 
flux of things and succession of forms, such as the Saugata has 
described, any power should seem to preserve the world from 
ruin, and enable us to enjoy long periods of happiness and 
opportunities of seeing nature as it were exhibit herself to our 
gaze. For this so great an instance of benignant wisdom we 
thank Vishnu, and honour him as Narayana, the great pervader 
of all life, and preserver of things that are." 

BLAN. " You do not appear to agree with the Bauddhas, 
then, in considering the world as self-preserved?" 

* In what sense Vishnu is a Vedic Deity, will be discussed lower down. 
M. P. 4 



50 CAUSE OK SOURCE. 

SAD. " Not in such a sense as to exclude the deities from 
any care of it." 

BLAN. " But yet you seemed to adopt, or even to be quoted 
as authority for, that doctrine of all things moving in a certain 
order in virtue of their inherent qualities, or because they are 
such as to do so and so." 

SAD. "Why, undoubtedly facts, when examined, lead us to 
that conclusion. You gather of every tree in nature the fruit 
which belongs to its particular kind, and you see born of every 
animal young ones corresponding to the sire ; so in the arts, the 
painting or the statue implies first the colours or the stone ; and 
for any man to go about an action with means utterly dispro- 
portioned to it because they did not contain in themselves some 
capacity for achieving it, would be reckoned justly a kind of 
insanity. This principle holds good alike, whether the soldier 
should attempt to have a sword forged without iron, or a village 
maiden to draw water without going to the well. You see 
therefore that in everything like begets like, or that the effect 
is already contained virtually in the cause, like the oil in the 
berry. All things thus act according to nature, or, if you please, 
according to their qualities." 

BLAN. " You speak of effects produced before our eyes ; and 
since we are not the earliest men, every one knows that whatever 
now is, has had some antecedent. We all acknowledge that the 
stream flows from a fountain; but what are we to say of the 
visible source itself; or of that which you call the cause, and 
which you say involves the effect ? Is it also an effect of some 
prior cause, or do your observations at all help us towards 
discovering that more primary and general cause, to which 
these things of to-day, whether effects, or causes, or sources, or 
only links, must ultimately be traced? I should be glad to 
hear from you a little more as to the farther bearings of your 
philosophy." 

SAD. " Since you wish it, I will proceed farther. But our 
teachers generally begin their explanation at the part farthest 



51 

from us, because it resembles most as it were a beginning of 
the things spoken of; whereas perhaps you will understand me 
better if I begin at the part nearest to us. You see then the 
outside of things. The colour of any fruit or flower is perhaps 
painted on it by the heat of the sun, yet it only becomes of such 
a tinge in virtue of the skin or the sap being already of a 
particular kind. Then as to the substance of the fruit itself, it 
evidently is composed of juices according to the nature of the 
plant. Break up, if you will, the fibres, and divide again and 
again the parts with all their smaller parts, whether moist or 
dry, then you will find all the atoms themselves ultimately 
resolvable into one element. Not that perhaps every one will 
be able to reach this ; for within the gross body which is per 
ceptible by our senses, and which suffers from rough collision, 
there is a more subtle modification of matter, in which all the 
parts are more refined and, as it were, transparent, like gold 
beaten out into a delicate leaf. This may be termed the inner 
body, and should be considered either as the fugitive essence of 
life, or as the vehicle wherein personal life resides ; but rather, 
I should say, the latter. Within this more subtle body, then, 
which is so far more refined than our gross body, that it extends, 
as we see by the presentiment of touch, to a little distance from 
our grosser organs, like the flame of a candle leaping beyond 
the wick with which it is connected within, I say, this subtle 
body dwells the personality of man ; and that personality we 
admit to be more durable than the gross body, just as air and 
water are not so easily injured by blows as earthenware ; but 
for this personality or life to conceive of itself as a distinct 
being is as absurd as for music to think itself distinct from the 
instrument by the combination of whose parts it is produced ; 
for in reality this "subtle person" or personal life can only act by 
material organs, whether of the more refined order among which 
it dwells, or the grosser kind which it throws around itself as an 
outer sheath ; and it is even itself the mere product of conscious 
ness ; and consciousness of intellect ; for it is evident that no 

42 



52 PRIMARY MATTER. 

one is conscious either rightly of existence, or wrongly of an 
imaginary personality, unless he has, first, intellect. Therefore 
intellect is the truly great one, and the first production of 
nature. It manifests itself even in darkness, and then changing, 
it becomes sensitive or passionate, and again changing, it shews 
itself as goodness. So that in three divine manifestations it 
remains one essential form; from which fact also we worship 
Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheswara, or Siva, the great ruler. But 
farther, even intellect (Buddhi), though it be the great prolific 
principle from which consciousness proceeds, and, through con 
sciousness, life, could itself have neither action nor being, unless 
there lay behind it a potentiality of organisation out of which 
it might be evolved, or an eternal bubbling, out of which the 
many-coloured waters of darkness, sensibility, goodness, life, 
organisms either more subtle and with only sentiment, or more 
material and therefore with sensuous feeling, and in short, all 
opposites co-operating, may flow forth, swelling and subsiding, 
according as various qualities are blended in mysterious com 
binations. So that behind or beyond all the other things 
spoken of, there is in fact Pracriti, or what men call the 
indiscrete or irresoluble, because it is the primary element which 
no one can resolve into minuter parts ; rather indeed no one 
reaches it, except by the necessary inferences of an acute under 
standing. You may, however, consider it as it were preforma- 
tive life, or the seed of life ; it flows like water, or like quicksilver, 
into all shapes and forms and combinations. Out of it is evolved, 
under some circumstances and in some compositions, one thing, 
and in others, another ; but its first and greatest evolution, or 
offspring, is intellect." 

BLAN. " May I here interrupt you for a moment?" 

SAD. "Certainly." 

BLAN. " I don t quite understand how you make intellect an 
evolution of Pracriti, even on your own system, I mean, or at 
least considering it in relation to its affinities. For the Bauddha 
Muni has made intelligence something eternally coexistent with 



INTELLECT AS SENSIBILITY. 53 

matter ; and you, I believe, consider soul as also eternal ; so 
that I should have expected you to speak quite as honourably 
of intellect as the Bauddha does of intelligence, which seems 
nearly the same thing, and I should have thought you would 
have made it an accompaniment of soul, rather than a mere 
evolution of matter ; for this Pracriti after all seems only to be 
the most subtle and plastic form of matter." 

SAD. " Pardon me, the facts do not lead us in that direction, 
and accurate knowledge must follow facts. You will readily 
acknowledge that intellect understands something. What does 
it understand ? Evidently it takes cognizance of objects before 
our eyes, of things that are born and decay. Again, by what 
means does it apprehend them ? Evidently by instruments of 
sensation, or organs more or less bodily, that is, either of the 
grosser or the more subtle body. What is intellect then, but 
something correlative and congenerate with these organs, which 
are themselves evolved out of the Pracriti, with the kindred evo 
lutions of which they are again conversant. Intellect involves 
sensation, and therefore the pre-existence of Pracriti, which you 
may term, if you please, primary or plastic matter. Whereas, 
on the contrary, soul is that observant and eternally existent 
principle, before the eye of which, if it be duly purged, nature 
exhibits herself like a dancer going through many postures, and 
twisting herself into a thousand shapes." 

BLAN. " It would seem then as if you meant by intellect 
something different from the Bauddha intelligence, while some 
thing more nearly resembling the latter seems implied in your 
term, soul ; although indeed the Bauddhas appear to make 
their intelligence capable of a certain development, whether it 
should be called refinement or evolution ; so that I am almost 
embarrassed by the resemblance of your doctrines and at the 
same time by their discrepancy. But pray tell me, is nature 
then in your theory soul-less, and does she move under the 
control of any higher principle, or independently, and as it 
were collaterally?" 



54 D11AMAT1C ANALOGIES. 

SAD. " If you understood clearly what I have already said, 
you would see that nature, containing in herself the plastic 
element of life, neither needs the control of soul, nor would 
indeed submit to it. But doubtless each stage in the self- 
evolution of Pracriti has a connexion with the stage which 
follows, as well as with that which precedes. Therefore intellect, 
being once evolved, exercises a certain influence on what follows, 
and becomes capable of inserting by its inherent power a certain 
modifying control, such as I should not wonder if you were to 
call creativeness, but which is with me rather a result, and 
again a relative cause to what follows." 

BLAN. " But on such a theory, where is the necessity for 
what you term soul ; or why do you encumber your system with 
such a supposition?" 

SAD. " Surely you would not have a theatre and many 
cunning performers without a spectator ? Evidently there must 
be a looker-on, in order to enjoy. Soul, then, is the enjoyer." 

BLAN. " I should like to ask, if I was not afraid of per 
plexing the statement of your opinions by extrinsic arguments, 
what is the meaning of that word must, or, again, of the 
corresponding word ought, and why one thing must or ought 
to be, rather than another. But I suppose you would send me 
back to your old answer about inherent qualities, though I am 
not at all satisfied that being is owing, or that is should be 
considered an equivalent for must be. Perhaps, however, you 
discern in the system of nature, or rather collaterally to it, 
certain evidences of the existence of what you term soul." 

SAD. " Indeed we do. For it is clear from our own con 
sciousness that soul exists, and that it is multitudinous. For 
although men are often blinded by a passionate conception of 
being something distinct in themselves, and doing something 
each man for himself, so that he says, I am the cause of such 
things, and, I will also effect others, it becomes, on the other 
hand, clear to any vision purged by knowledge, that it is the 
great working of nature in us which implants certain instincts, 



PERSONALITY AND SOUL. 55 

paints as it were pictures, and lures or propels us as parts of 
herself into whatever inclination or action we blindly fancy is 
some origination of our own. Nature, I say, develops herself 
in our being, exhibits herself in our form, and plays as it were 
a manifold drama in the series of our passionate struggles. So 
that the conception of a man s independent individuality, as if he 
could say in building kingdoms, or rearing children, I did, or 
I will, must be utterly discarded as an illusion ; for it is clear 
that we could do nothing of the kind, if such effects were no^ 
already involved in their causes ; and the causes operate in us 
from the unceasing evolution of nature. 

"But now, you will please to notice, that besides all this 
human development which flatters itself with the conceit of an 
independent personality, each man has also in him a certain prin 
ciple which observes, and reflects, and knows. Now this principle 
indeed may be so blinded by passion and darkness, the two great 
obstructions of knowledge, (though again these are capable in 
some combinations of giving forth a certain higher product, as we 
have farther back seen them to be phases of intellect,) that it con 
sents to the illusion I have already spoken of, and believes 
each man to stand himself as something apart from nature. But 
when this observant principle has risen clearly above passion and 
darkness, like a man on some mountain-peak, below whose feet 
the clouds roll heavily, it discovers itself to have been distinct ; 
it recognises as it were its own being, no longer as a mere 
human consciousness of a personal agent, but as a faculty of 
most bright and spiritual vision. Then it takes note calmly 
from aside of all the processes of life and action, and pronounces 
them to be mere displays of nature, which once disturbed it, 
but are now for its amusement. Nature then having been 
discovered in the dressing-room of the theatre ceases to delude 
with her imagery, and ceases even to be, according to the vulgar 
conception of being. For all her ordinary forms and manifes 
tations are resolved back by knowledge, which is the eye of the 
soul, into mere Pracriti, that is, as I have already said, into the 



56 PERSONALITY AND NATURE. 

mere essence of life sporting itself. The world therefore in a 
way no longer is ; that is to say, it no longer is the world, but 
only a play of nature ; the illusion is discovered, and the play is 
over, but the soul enjoys knowledge, and by knowledge, as it is 
written in the sacred Veda, obtains the water of immortality." 

BLAN. " This is a wonderful sort of drama which you de 
scribe. It is not however clear to me, why the whole perform 
ance is undertaken, since at the end the only result attained is 
the knowledge of the illusion." 

SAD. " Such a remark implies blame on the art of the poet ; 
and neither our great poems of the Kamayana and the Mahabha- 
rata would be written, nor would our famous plays, either the 
serious ones, such as the Prabodha Chandrodaya. or the more 
playful, such as the Mrichchakati, ever have been presented on 
a stage even before famous kings, if mankind did not feel a 
pleasure in observing them, and also in discovering the illusion. 
For you know, men often rejoice in observing things represented 
dramatically, which, if they conceived of them as real actions, 
would be considered painful and horrible. Even so to the 
blinded individualist, who thinks himself and all other men are 
independent persons, each doing or suffering I know not what 
in a personal freewill, the crimes and sufferings, which abound 
through the world, must necessarily be a source of pain; but 
when soul has triumphed over such an illusion, and, on looking 
back, sees only the sport of Pracriti developing itself, just as 
water flows into any vessel or crevice of any possible shape, 
without being injured or anxious, soul then rejoices, and is 
pleased both with the drama, and also with having dissipated 
the illusion." 

BLAN. " If such a knowledge be ever actually attainable, 
it must be, I conceive, because the things really are as you 
imagine; but then such a picture would almost dazzle the 
mental gaze, and its very idea would be too tremendous and 
overwhelming for any finite soul to apprehend. But possibly 
you may conceive of the soul as partaking somewhat of the 



DIVERSITY OF SOULS. 57 

divine infinity, or perhaps you think in some way approaching 
to the Vedanta doctrine, that all souls are one." 

SAD. " The two suppositions of which you offer me an 
option are neither identical, nor does one necessarily imply the 
other. We admit the soul to be in a way infinite, for no bounds 
can be set to its knowledge, either of things past in time or 
distant in space ; so that it is present as much with things 
supposed to have been acted a thousand years ago, as with 
things appearing to pass before our eyes. Each soul then is 
infinite in the sense that no limits can be assigned to its capacity 
of knowledge. But, on the other hand, we are as far as possible 
from conceding to the adherents of the Vedanta philosophy that 
all souls are one. On the contrary, one of the ends of the more 
discriminating system, which we call Sankhya, is to dissipate 
such an error, and bring men back to the simpler truth affirmed 
by our consciousness. It is almost self-evident that, if all souls 
were one, all men would be simultaneously feeling alike ; and if 
one man married, and another lost his father, they would both 
be rejoicing and both be mourning in the same instant. Many 
other absurd consequences would also follow. But, as the case 
stands, we find the soul of one man rejoicing, and that of another 
afflicted ; one enlightened by knowledge, and another ignorant ; 
nay, even the different conceptions which the Vedantists and we 
ourselves form of the same opinions, sufficiently prove our souls 
to be distinct. Neither again do I, myself, follow Patanjali and 
other doctors, who have partly taught the Sankhya wisdom, and 
partly departed from it, in making mere devotion, or mystical 
contemplation, the best way of liberating the soul from such 
illusions as have been described. On the contrary, Capila has 
more correctly taught us, that the soul is to be liberated by 
knowledge ; and to this opinion, even the Vedas, already quoted, 
partly assent." 

BLAN. " Souls then, it seems according to you, are many, 
and they are to be liberated by knowledge rather than by 
mystical contemplation. Your method then is scientific, rather 



58 DEITIES 

than devotional. But am I to understand that those deities, 
whom you mentioned with respect, and especially Vishnu, the 
preserver, are at the head of all souls ; or what conception am I 
to form of them?" 

SAD. " Clearly from what has been said, it follows that the 
deities are not above soul ; for then they would no longer be 
preservers. Soul, I must remind you, is the enjoyer, the ob 
server, or the recipient ; and it is the excellence of soul to be 
liberated from anxiety about this lower world, or any other 
interest in it, except such enjoyment as a contemplation of the 
play of self-fashioning nature may reasonably afford. But the 
deities are employed in regulating and controlling all sorts of 
lower processes. It remains then only that they be high forms, 
and probably very glorious and eminent forms, of intellect." 

BLAN. "But I understood you that intellect is the first 
evolution of nature." 

SAD. " Rightly so; for it is clear that intellect is so evolved 
out of the plastic energies of the lively principle." 

BLAN. " But who then is your creator, your Iswara, or 
your supreme Lord? Can any less than such a one be the 
preserver? Who then put the drama of nature on the stage, 
or built the theatre, on which those wonderful evolutions display 
themselves? You know the earthly poem implies a poet, and 
every building, whether intended for a drama or for other things, 
must have had a builder. Supposing then all nature to be, as 
you imagine, a certain divine or world-long drama, we require 
for so grand a performance a master-manager, and a builder as 
much above earthly architects as this framework of the heavens 
and the earth is above all earthly mansions and theatres." 

SAD. " Your question shews the danger of introducing into 
scientific discussion ornamental imagery. When our treatises 
speak-, as they do, of nature exhibiting herself like a dancer, 
they mean only to illustrate an abstruse subject by a common 
image. You must not, however, push a metaphor beyond the 
purpose for which it was intended. We have already seen that 



EVOLUTIONS. 59 

all visible effects in nature are resolvable into one infinitely 
subtle element. Now as to any creator, he could (as a matter 
of possibility) bring nothing out of this element which was not 
already involved in it, for effects must be contained in causes ; 
and again, (as a matter of necessity,) no external care seems 
particularly needed to produce what goes on reproducing and 
fashioning itself; though I do not mean, as already has been 
made clear, that intellect as an evolution of nature is not an 
efficacious principle in helping forward the various processes as 
they continue up to a particular point of the cycle, and then, 
being resolved, re-enact themselves. Now if, as you appear to 
wish, we represented soul as a creator, we should first disturb 
soul with unworthy anxieties, instead of leaving it the serene 
contemplation which is its highest excellence ; and secondly, 
we should assign it an impossible task of creating ; and thirdly, 
an unnecessary trouble of guiding. Whereas, by the scientific 
analysis of principles, we find all that is required to be contained 
in these two things, nature the blind worker, and soul the 
enjoying spectator. As to the deities then which we honour, 
different opinions may perhaps innocently be held ; but we see 
no harm in considering them as glorious and eminent links in 
that grand cyclical series of living things, in which nature by 
her mysterious power is developed. They pervade, they con 
trol, they preserve. Their destiny perhaps is higher, and 
their existence more protracted that that of man, in proportion 
as higher or subtler intellect has evolved itself in their sacred 
forms ; but in the infinite roll of ages they, like ourselves, must 
become subject to the eternal law of change ; their wisdom and 
their power have bubbled up out of the froth of the abysmal 
ocean as it heaves with existence, and in time they will subside, 
and give place to others, whether better or worse. For time is 
hard to overcome. Many things have been, and many will be, 
but the grand whole suffers neither increase nor lessening. You 
have seen a spider throwing out a hundred threads along the 
dewy branches of the lotus in the early morning, and again the 



60 SA NKIIYA THEISM ILLUSORY ; 

same spider draws in the same threads, neither losing nor gaming 
any particle in its vital totality. Thus the Vedantists teach ; 
and, without confusing, as they do, Soul and Matter, we agree 
so far as to say, thus the world of nature puts forth threads of 
existence. Some are longer, and some are shorter, but all are 
alike resumed into the capacious form of the universal mother." 

So far, or at some such point as this, for perhaps I have not 
the exact words, Sadananda had arrived, when Blancombe ut 
tered, as it were involuntarily, an exclamation of astonishment, 
and said he had neither expected, nor could he quite understand, 
on what principle it could be held that divine beings could pass 
away. Then after some discussion how far the deities ought to be 
held to have souls, which Sadananda declared had nothing to do 
with their personality, but so far as souls were attached to divini 
ties, he said they would enjoy the same capacity of liberation 
by knowledge as the souls of human beings, Blancombe pro 
ceeded : "I cannot conceal from you that this Sankhya doctrine, 
if it be the most scientific, is also to my weak faculties the most 
awful, not to say alarming, of any I have heard. For, in listen 
ing to our Bauddha friend, I cherished a sort of hope that his 
Supreme Intelligence, however apparently tranquil, might still 
have arranged matters for our happiness by some far-seeing 
wisdom, or at least, in any extreme peril to poor mankind, 
might be so far roused as to put forth some energy for our help ; 
but with you soul is apparently passive, and nature blind, and 
those deities, to whom we might look up for succour, are them 
selves mere evolutions of nature, divine plants, as it were, 
blossoming for an hour, and fading. So that, whether the jaws 
of extinction yawn for me, or whether any error springing from 
passion or darkness obscure the glance of my soul, and lead 
my footsteps astray, there is no provider of help for me mentally 
to lean upon. Nor again, can I quite reconcile your doctrine 
with the professions of allegiance which you made some time 
back to the received deities, and your worship, for example, of 
Vishnu." 



OR PHYSI-THEISTICAL. 61 

"That indeed," interposed Vidyacha"rya here, "is very dif 
ficult." Sadananda however answered, "We neither wish to 
annoy any one by obtruding our knowledge on those who have 
been educated in different notions (and I have not attempted to 
change the religion of England), nor again would we withhold 
correct knowledge from those who inquire, as you seemed 
yourself to inquire for it. But this alarm of yours proceeds 
partly from your having learnt differently elsewhere, and partly 
from your not considering how vast are the periods of time 
over which we recognise the existence of the gods as ranging. 
When we speak of a day of Brahma, we mean a period of 
2,160,000,000 years, and perhaps a full hundred of days of that 
length may go to make up the existence of Brahma or of 
Vishnu the upholder. Now, beings whose wisdom preserves 
them so long, may well be more powerful than man, and may 
play an important part, even as any very eminent man may, in 
the great drama of Nature. They may reasonably be conceived 
therefore to give assistance to lower beings, who are like our 
selves in part, products of the same plastic force. Our doctrine 
therefore does not discourage piety, though we lay more stress 
upon accurate knowledge of things than upon mystic dreaminess. 
But as to our conclusions, they are forced upon us by the state 
of the case. For, if there had ever been a time when an Iswara, 
all-wise and all-sufficient, such as you imagine, existed alone 
without a world, he being happy in himself would have had no 
inducement to create, nor again could he have created without 
materials ; and, if even he had created a world, being all-wise, 
he would have made it more perfect far than the state of things 
around us. Living things would not have preyed upon life, nor 
man have injured man. But now consider again this argument. 
You think that the world is sufficiently good to imply an Iswara; 
we ourselves think otherwise. But your argument sufficiently 
shews that a certain order is observed, and that too very much 
such an order as would arise upon our theory of like begetting 
like, or causes containing their effects. For all things you see 



62 NATURE EVOLVING. 

proceed in the gross, and as it were by waves of the tide, rather 
than by droppings from the hand. The more perfect then you 
conceive this order to be, we make no objection so far, but 
advise you to derive consolation from the comparative certainty 
of things in respect of cause and effect. Such a certainty may 
well assure you, that by adapting your conduct (if you believe 
that a man is a free agent) to the revolutions of nature, or, as 
we should say, by contentedly suffering the unavoidable, and 
liberating the soul so that it can rejoice in the grandest of all 
spectacles, you will both secure such a happiness as it is in the 
nature of things for you to enjoy, and also act consistently with 
piety, whether your notions or ours may be the more correct. 
Not, however, that I venture to offer you the above counsel, 
as if I thought our opinions doubtful. For you have already 
seen them to be founded upon scientific investigation. 

u You may also please to consider one argument for their truth, 
which is not generally given in our books, and which therefore 
I have not yet mentioned. Many people imagine that the world 
is daily becoming better. That, indeed, is not our own received 
belief, either as derived from our religious books, or as dependent 
upon reasoning. Let us, however, for a moment entertain the 
opinion as not an absurd one. Why then should the world 
become better? Is it not clear that nature is daily struggling 
through her manifold forms of activity, so that, upon the opinion 
we are now supposing, there is an upward growth, and an 
evolution of higher forms of being ? Whereas, on your theory 
of a creation once for all, the world would remain as it came 
from the hands of its Iswara. But the course of things, evolving 
daily life and novelty, especially if, as some suppose, the evo 
lution is of the nature of a higher development and aspira 
tion, shews that Pracriti must be considered as the primal 
element, which is the fruitful womb of many successive births. 
Let it however be remembered, that the analogy which I 
above borrowed from the Vedanta, of the spider putting out 
its threads and drawing them in again, is a more instructive 



TENDENCIES OF DOCTRINE. 63 

illustration of what we consider in general the nature of the 
world." 

"Perhaps," rejoined Blancombe, "it would not be proper 
for me to deny that your system may turn out to be founded, as 
you believe, upon systematic investigation though, as far as we 
have hitherto gone, I observe only illustrations or analogies, 
rather than arguments, adduced for its groundwork : but at least 
the reflexions, which you suggest as consolatory, do not remove 
from my mind the overwhelming awe with which I contemplate 
a theory in which the universe seems whirled on a blind career 
without compass or guide. Supposing however, upon greater 
familiarity with your views, this alarm of mine should subside, 
as you imagine it would, I almost fear that it might give place 
to even a greater disease of the mind." 

" What might that be?" asked Sadananda. " Why perhaps 
scarcely less," answered Blancombe, " than an incurable reck 
lessness of the difference between right and wrong, or a readiness 
to indulge whatever vicious temptation, either the promptings 
of Pracriti, or of whatever is lowest and most bestial in man, 
might engender. Not that probably such an effect is produced 
in persons like yourself, in whom it may be neutralised by some 
better disposition ; but with many men your doctrine would at 
least tend, either to alarm, or to corrupt ; either taking away 
the stay of their mental hope, or the safeguard of their moral 
conduct : and that this latter apprehension is not merely imagi 
nary may seem proved by some of the sectarians whom you 
do not willingly acknowledge as associates, and who, indeed, 
appear ashamed of their own secret worship. For you are 
aware, and indeed I have heard pious Hindus lament, that 
bodies of men exist whose worship is addressed merely to the 
productive powers of nature in their animal aspect, and who 
therefore indulge secretly in a licentious ritual ; while, although 
the opinion of other men tends somewhat to check their vile 
propensities, it can scarcely fail but that their belief must act 
injuriously upon their general conduct in the relations of life. 



64 TENDENCIES OF DOCTRINE 

You call such persons, I believe, left-handed worshippers of 
Sakti ; their sacred books, if such books can in any propriety 
of speech be designated sacred, are the Tantras ; and they are 
themselves so ashamed of their degrading ritual as rarely, if 
ever, to profess it in public; thereby shewing that evil shrinks 
from the light. Now I think it quite needless, in arguing with 
yourself, to condemn such men ; but it seems not irrelevant to 
remark that their conduct might derive some sanction from your 
opinion of the all-absorbing activity of Pracriti, and from the 
passive character of the soul of man. For thus you appear to 
degrade mankind from accountable beings into machines ; and 
to leave thereby little room for either praise or censure. At 
least you allow, I apprehend, that praise and blame imply at 
any rate volition, and probably also some kind of sequence 
between volition and action ; whatever therefore magnifies the 
mechanical power of nature, and so lessens the sphere of volition, 
seems to leave bad men a greater liberty of obeying whatever 
evil impulse a good man would, by the energy of conscience 
and will, endeavour to restrain. So that, on the whole, your 
doctrine, if it does not create uneasiness of the saddened spirit, 
seems to encourage a licentiousness of the animal appetite. 
Whether then that can be true knowledge, which tends to such 
evil results, appears to me at least a question." 

" Say rather," here answered Sadananda, " that there 
ought to be no question of such evils as you describe being 
due to ignorance and passion rather than to knowledge. 
The first form of intellect is virtue (dharma) : and knowledge 
(jnydna) is followed by dispassion (vairdgya) ; for he who 
knows the practice of the pious is animated thereby to 
strain after their felicity; and having distinguished the ex 
cellence of soul from the elements of whatever partakes of 
tamas (darkness), a man accomplishes its liberation. Whereas 
for want of knowledge, not only lower temptations may 
corrupt a man, but even the scriptures (sruti] may become to 
him the means of entanglement. Thus, for example, a man 



WHETHER IMPROVING. 65 

who reads of bloody sacrifices in the Vedas, is tempted to shed 
blood; whereas by knowing that such ordinances were only 
temporary or faulty, he will learn to respect life. Thus you see 
that all true knowledge has a constant tendency to improve, 
even to an indefinite extent, until man becomes truly divine, 
and so enjoys the highest blessedness. By no lower means, 
such as human works , could he aspire to such a reward, for it is 
evident that, as they are themselves finite, so their recompence 
must have an end ; but since knowledge is capable of indefinite 
expansion, and since the soul enjoying it is completely extricated 
from the trammels of Pracriti in any of her manifestations, so it 
alone renders perfect and eternal. But even venerable persons 
who suffer themselves to be fettered by scripture without true 
knowledge, must find impediments to their onward progress ; as, 
for example, they may feel compelled to sacrifice blood, or 
authorised to practise incantations against the life of their enemy, 
because such actions are enjoined or sanctioned in the Vedas. 
Much more then, such left-handed worshippers as you alluded 
to, sin not from knowledge, but from ignorance. Thus you will 
find the Tatwa-samdsa justly class intoxication, sloth, and im 
purity, with atheism, as fruits of tamas." " Very well," 
answered Blancombe, " but the proper remedy for ignorance is 
instruction. How then shall we proceed to give those benighted 
persons of whom we have spoken true instruction ; or by what 
method of enlightenment would you propose to reclaim them 
from their errors? For surely we could do them no greater 
service, than by imparting to them that knowledge upon which 
you believe the salvation of their souls depends." " Why," said 
Sadananda, "we have not been wanting in efforts of the kind." 
"But to what then," asked Blancombe, "are we to ascribe the 
vicious practices, the low idolatry, and the ignorance, which 
prevail among so many men who may naturally be capable of 
better things?" " Perhaps the reason may be," replied the other, 
" such men are not really capable of improvement. They may 
have committed sins in a former life, for which their present 
M. p. 5 






66 MISSIONARY CHALLENGE. 

degradation is a just punishment; or they may come of some 
stock hopelessly incurable. We have already seen that all things 
act according to their qualities; and in certain families there 
are hereditary diseases; for which reason our wise lawgiver 
Manu forbids the Brahman youth to marry into any tainted 
family, however large may be the dowry he might purchase by 
doing so. If then persons are for any reason cursed with in 
curable blindness, it is not wonderful that the wisdom of our 
Sankhya teachers should not have been able to rescue them 
from an inevitable lot." "But at least," said Blancombe, 
" you must feel that it would be a great triumph of benevolence 
and enlightenment to succeed in such a task ; perhaps, indeed, 
if any doctrines should appear more capable of such success 
than others, that circumstance would alone go far to prove the 
superior excellence of the doctrines which so prevailed. What 
then if we both try, by disseminating the highest truth, to lift 
up a larger portion of the benighted children of Manu into the 
enjoyment of knowledge? It will be no mean testimony either 
to our sacred books, or to your profound and subtle doctrines, 
if either of us renders a whole community of men purer in life 
and more enlightened in understanding than they have ever 
hitherto been. There are parts of India, as I have heard, where 
men murder their children newly born under the impression 
that such murder is an act of piety ; nor need I enumerate to 
you a thousand acts of wickedness which we daily observe, and 
which are forbidden even by the laws of Manu. Tell me then, 
how you would proceed in such a benevolent undertaking as the 
reformation of the moral sentiments among vicious or ignorant 
men. Or if, as you imply, your efforts in that direction have 
not hitherto been successful, may not such a failure imply some 
want of adaptation in your doctrine to the eternal conscience of 
mankind. At least let me repeat here some such declaration as 
I have already ventured to make in reference to the duty of 
searching after Truth. Just as there it was admitted that we 
should not lightly despair of finding that treasure, the existence 



AUTHORITIES. 67 

of which somewhere is implied even in the term knowledge, so 
here let all the virtues of which the Miini has spoken, and which 
you also endeavour to practise, persuade us to think hopefully of 
the possibility of enlightening large masses, even though they 
consisted of the Sudra and the Chandala, and let us not desist 
from this inquiry, until we have decided, either what is truest, 
or at least most likely to lead men into the paths of knowledge, 
and to the waters of immortality." 



NOTE ON CHAPTER II. 

IN addition to Colebrooke may be mentioned as authorities for 
this and for the following chapter, the texts and lectures published 
for the use of the Benares College, on the Vedanta, Nyaya, and other 
philosophies ; the Rig- Veda hymns, translated by Professor Wilson ; 
the same eminent scholar s lectures, his account of Hindu sects in 
general, and his editions of the Vishnu Purana, and of the Sankhya 
Karika. 

For the Benares College texts I am indebted to the kindness of 
Mr Muir; and I understand that the comments, by which the 
difficulty of the original texts is so much mitigated, are due to 
Dr Ballantyne. They tend to place Hindu thought in a more 
favourable light than some works more generally read ; such as the 
meritorious, but far from penetrating, work on Missions, by the Rev. 
Dr Buff. Many of the Hindu deities are described by Sir William 
Jones ; whose account, however, should be tested by the more accurate 
ideas derivable from the Rig- Veda and Professor Wilson s other publi 
cations, such as that on the sects of India (published in the Asiatic 
Researches, and reprinted at Calcutta) and the analyses furnished in 
Colebrooke. 

A friend tells me that the infanticide occasional among the 
Rajputs is not connected with religion ; but that at Ganga Sugar, 
at the mouth of the Hooghly, it was so. The challenge in the text, 
however, might be applied to either. 



68 VEDANTINE REMARKS. 

CHAPTER III. 

What the Saiva Veddntine thinks. 

"It must be clear, from all that has been said, that such a system, if it be even 
perfectly comprehensible, cannot be represented by language, but must be inferred 
by the mind from the principles." SIR GRAVES HAUGHTON. 

"The highest point of speculation is that in which thought and existence, for 
mally considered, become one ; and the logos, or reason, as an emanation of the 
Divinity, reigns alone, at once the essence of all being, and the content of all thought. 
Every complete system of philosophy, accordingly, rests in GOD, as its highest idea 

and its final aim Thus it is the goal, that God should be ALL IN ALL." 

MORELL. 

"The Supreme Being has no feet, yet He extends everywhere; has no hands, 
yet holds all things ; has no eyes, yet sees all that exists ; has no ears, yet hears 
everything that passes His existence has no cause He is the most subtile of 
things ghostly, and the greatest of things great ; yet is He in reality neither small 
nor great." RAM-MOHUN-ROY S Exposition of the Veddnta. 

HERE Sadananda, after a little pause, replied, " What you say 
has a very reasonable sound ; but we cannot alter true knowledge, 
for the sake of gratifying the prejudices of men, who, after all, 
may perhaps be incurably blinded by passion and darkness." 

Blancombe then was silent for a little, seeming to be either 
weary or discouraged ; and "Vidyacharya took the opportunity of 
making some remarks upon what had been spoken. " It ap 
pears to me," he said, "not wonderful that the wise teachers 
whom our friend here represents should fail in endeavouring to 
reclaim men from errors possibly of a darker kind. For if the 
remedy which they themselves bring forward is somewhat 
vicious, or at best is but imperfectly drawn from the only in 
fallible source of enlightenment, how is it likely that they 
should be able to enlighten others ? Now true knowledge must 
be of God 5 and we are well taught to pray, in the sacred words 
of the Gayatri, May the adorable light of the divine ruler 
enlighten our minds. But Sadananda has himself confessed, 
and therefore it is not harsh to say of the Sankhya philosophers 
generally, that they set aside many passages of holy scripture 
as not consistent with their own human speculations; hence 
although I am pleased with the acknowledgment, which indeed 



HETERODOXY OF S^NKHYA. 69 

truth extorts from them, that the Vedas are to be respected, 
I cannot recognise the Sankhya teachers in general as faithful 
interpreters ; nor is it wonderful that, as they wilfully set aside 
some parts, so they are strangely mistaken in others. Now I do 
not complain of what Sadananda here has told us, that he con 
siders Vishnu as a supreme object of worship preferable to Siva ; 
for on such points many things are held differently by wise men, 
even of similar schools, and the wisest are thoroughly aware 
that the Deity whom they worship is at last essentially One ; 
but it seems to me a graver matter of complaint, that Sadananda 
loosens the authority of the Vedas ; and that his friends generally 
consider our sacred revelation of the supreme Being as a thing 
merely relative, or as instructing mankind, as if for a temporary 
purpose, in their duties or sentiments towards each other 1 and 
towards the Divinity. Whereas it surely ought not to be 
doubted that our sacred books have the fullest inspiration, as 
indeed some of our Rishis have held that they proceeded from 
the very body of Brahma ; and those who have not affirmed so 
much, must still admit the revelation to be of positive, and un 
alterable truth. For want of paying due honour to our religion, 
by such a recognition, even the wisdom of Sadananda is betrayed 
into lamentable errors. He thinks, for example, that all the 
forms of life may be resolved back into one fluid of a most 
subtile and irresoluble kind, which therefore has been called the 
indiscrete, but which still he considers a material fluid ; though 
indeed soul is distinguished by him from matter, but yet 
rendered impotent by the passive character assigned to it as 
compared to the active powers of nature ; and I could scarcely 
refrain from exclaiming aloud, when that plastic fluid was re 
presented as more permanent in duration than even the heavenly 
rulers, and as having been apparently the mere cause by which 
all things come into existence. Against such a blind nature, 
then, we affirm that God the Almighty is the Creator; for 
the scripture calls him soul (dtman) ; and against the conceit 

1 See Aphorisms of Vcdanta, IV. 5. 



70 PKACKITI CREATION CASTE. 

of magnifying human knowledge above scripture, we also affirm 
that God the all-seeing is the teacher. He was alone; he 
thought, I will be many or, I will create 1 worlds; thus he 
created these worlds ; namely water, (which means heaven,) 
light, mortal earth, and the waters. Although then the theory 
of a plastic fluid, or Pracriti, may have appeared to some wise 
men probable, and I do not dispute in this place how far it may 
be a way of conceiving of the divine energy, or Maya, yet at least 
I speak moderately in saying that the all-embracing Deity to 
whom the sacred Veda ascribes both volition and soul, ought 
rather to be taught to mankind, than the mere play of this 
Pracriti. Nor again do I blame the Sankhya teachers for despair 
ing, as you say, of large masses of mankind : since whatever 
sounding phrases Christians may use about the brotherhood of 
mankind, any observant person must admit there is a difference 
between races, and this difference our hereditary laws have 
taught us to observe as the institution of caste. What then 
we observe out of pious obedience to our ancient laws, Europeans 
themselves take sufficient account of, when it suits their pride 
or their interest to do so ; for they behave very differently in 
the usages of life to men differing in rank or in country. In 
one or two points then I rather agree with what has been said 
by Sadananda. But whoever may be the persons addressed, it 
is quite necessary, that the doctrine inculcated should be true; 
and in order to prove its truth, we must find it in harmony 
with the sacred Vedas." 

Here for a moment the A charya paused, and Mountain, 
the elder of the two strangers, appeared much interested by 
what he had heard. "It seems then," he said, "that the 
Sankhya teachers respect the body of Yedas in word, rather 
than follow its guidance in forming their sentiments of doc 
trine. Or, at least, you conceive there are considerable dis 
crepancies between your religious books, and the philosophy 

1 See the Aphorisms of the Vcdanta, 24, and Colebrooke, Vol. I. pp. 33, 47, 
57, 64, 338. 



VEDIC DEITIES. 71 

which we have just heard expounded?" "That is precisely the 
case," answered the Acharya, " and we are of opinion that no 
human conjectures ought to be put in comparison with the 
teaching of divine inspiration." "In that sentiment," said 
Mountain, "we are entirely agreed; and I expect from this 
beginning to be able to concur with you more nearly than with 
Sadananda. But let me venture to ask, for what reason you 
appear to select Siva by preference as the especial object of your 
adoration?" "I do so chiefly," answered the A charya, u on 
that principle upon which we are agreed, namely, that scripture 
should be followed; for I understand Siva to be the form of 
Deity which is mainly, though manifoldly, alluded to in the 
Vedas, and I gather the same truth with greater distinctness of 
enunciation from the Puranas." 

"Your answer somewhat surprises me," remarked Mountain; 
" for as far as I remember what appeared to be spoken of in 
the Vedas, those books, which you so highly honour, consisted 
of many hymns to a great variety of beings, among whom I 
hardly recollect that Siva is so much as mentioned. Far more 
frequently, at least, it is manifest that the hymns are addressed to 
Indra, who seems to be what in our language we should call the 
Heaven. He chiefly, as the slayer of Vritra (whatever that may 
mean 1 ), appears to be mentioned with honour; and besides him, 
I remember particularly Agni, whose name seems akin to the 
Latin ignis, and to denote what we call fire, while Siirya, and 
Vayu, and Aditi, and Piishan, with Mitra and Varuna, the 
Aswins, the Maruts, the Ribhus, and Ushas, not to mention 
Twashtri, and perhaps some others who o not now occur to me, 
are also addressed in strains of poetry or adoration. One of the 
Vedas indeed abounds in hymns, of which by far the larger 
number are apparently in honour of Soma ; and Soma, if some 
one informed me rightly, means the sacrificial libation of the 
juice of a certain plant. But perhaps you will tell me if that 

1 Vritra is the obstructive mass of dark clouds, which Indra, as heaven, dissi 
pates, thereby giving the earth rain, and so .slaying the hostile giant. 



72 VEDIC DEITIES. 

interpretation be correct." " Certainly it is," answered Vidy- 
a*charya. "And may I then continue to ask," proceeded 
Mountain, "what is meant by some other of the names or 
deities mentioned? For example, what is Siirya?" " The word 
Siirya, in its simplest sense," answered Vidyacharya, " means 
naturally the Sun, as also does Savitri, though perhaps the 
words may often designate emblematically something still more 
divine." "I thank you; and what is Aditi?" he continued 
asking. " Perhaps by Aditi/ answered the other, " is meant 
mother earth, or the Universe, who may very prettily be repre 
sented as the parent of the Adityas." " I see ; but who are the 
Adityas?" "If you remember, there are twelve Adityas, and 
these are the twelve manifestations of Savitri, or the months of 
the revolving year." "A certain light begins now to dawn 
upon me ; only I should like in the same manner to ask who is 
Vayu?" "Clearly Vayu is the god of the wind." " But what 
then are the Maruts ?" " The Maruts are the winds in general, 
and therefore they are with great propriety called the allies of 
Indra in his contest with Yritra." " Pray why so, or what is the 
meaning of the contest?" " The contest is between the divinely 
blue heaven, as you have yourself not amiss interpreted Indra, 
and the sullen mass of clouds which, like a hostile giant, with 
holding the rain in their lap, threaten mankind with dearth. 
Indra then, the beneficent and the divine, makes war against 
the sullen giant; the genial winds, who are his friends, and 
indeed his offspring, as well as the sons of Prisni, or earth, come 
to his assistance against the withholder of rain; so Vritra, or 
Ahi, who may well be called the king of hostile Asuras, is 
slain ; and hence it is divinely sung : 

RIG-VEDA. 

First Ashtaka. Fifth Adhyaya. Varga XXX. XXXI. 

Thy thunderbolts were scattered widely over sixty and nine 
rivers; great is thy prowess; strength is in thy arms, manifesting thy 
rule, 



VED1C DEITIES. 73 

A thousand mortals worshipped him together ; twenty (priests) 
have hymned his praise : a hundred (sages) again and again laud him : 
so, Indra, is the offering lifted up, manifesting thy rule. 

Indra by his strength overcame the strength of Yritra : great is 
his manhood, wherewith, having slain Yritra, he made the waters 
flow, manifesting his rule. 

This heaven~and earth trembled, thunderer, at thy wrath, when 
attended by the Maruts, thou slewest Yritra by thy might, manifest 
ing thy rule. 

( Yritra stayed not Indra by his trembling or his clamour : the 
thunderbolt of many-edged iron fell upon him ; Indra manifesting his 
rule. 

When thou, Indra, didst encounter with thy bolt Yritra, and 
the thunderbolt which he hurled, then, Indra, thy strength determined 
to slay Am was shewn in the heavens, manifesting thy rule. 

At thy voice, wielder of the thunderbolt, all things moveable 
or immoveable trembled : even Twashtri, Indra, shook with fear at 
thy wrath. 

So again in another place," continued the Acharya, " it is sung, 
Indra upholds, and has spread out the earth ; having struck 
the clouds, he has extricated the waters. 

"In fact, then," here remarked Blancombe, u some of the 
most striking hymns in the Big-Yeda describe merely the slay 
ing of Yritra, in the sense of making it rain ; and if that is the 
language in which you metaphorically describe the operations of 
nature, it is not difficult to conjecture why the Sankhya philo 
sophers yield only a partial assent to the Yeda, or perhaps inter 
pret it in a peculiar manner." " But we have not finished the 
explanation which you are kind enough to give me," resumed 
Mountain, "and I have not yet asked you who is Ushasf" 
u Ushas," answered the Acharya, " is the goddess of the dawn." 
"Then again, who are Mitra, and Yaruna, who are called, as 
I observe, dispensers of waters?" " That," answered the Acha 
rya, " will not be obscure to you, if only you notice that one 
is called the ruler of day, and the other of night. Mitra also is 
called one of tlie Adityas, and hence it is clear that he is either 
the sun, or a manifestation of the sun ; and similarly Yaruna, 



74 VEDIC DEITIES. 

though in modern times he is considered merely as the regent of 
the waters, must properly have been the moon l . You see, there 
fore, how divine wisdom instructed us thus early in our scrip 
tures of that which Europeans were many centuries before they 
fully discovered ; namely, how the heavenly bodies govern the 
movements of the vast ocean below." u But I observe," re 
marked Mountain, " that the words Pushan and Aryaman are 
also applied apparently to the sun, and yet in a way contrasted 
with each other." u That arises," answered the other, " from 
the difference of aspect under which the same thing may be 
considered. When we call the sun Pushan, we consider him as 
the nourisher, or the great vivifier by heat and moisture ; but 
again as Aryaman he is represented as the god of twilight, or 
the divider, there being a period at which the sun seems to 
separate day from night." " Very well; and now the Aswins?" 
"That," said the Acharya, "is not altogether an easy question 
to answer. But you may remember that the Aswins are called 
the sons of Sindhu, or the sea ; they are also termed physicians 
of the gods, since they bring healthful alternation ; and they are 
said to pervade all things, one with heat and the other with 
moisture. Hence, although some have explained them either as 
Heaven and Earth, or again as Sun and Moon, I should myself 
more gladly consider them as Day and Night, who with pleasant 
alternation heal all living things. Thus they are very fitly 
termed Dasras, or destroyers of diseases ; and Ndsatyas, having 
no untruth, since their promise of return is never broken, like 
that of unfaithful friends, but they come day by day." " Once 
more, then, what do you mean by the Apr-is, or who is Twash- 
tri?" " Why, the Apr is have been understood to mean deified 
objects in general, but especially Agni, of whom I have much to 
say : and again, Twashtri is called the workman or artisan of 
the gods ; and since he is also represented as an Aditya, perhaps 

This inference is the speaker s own. But WEBER S comparison of ovpavos 
seems to have etymology in its favour, and may remind us of the ovpavbs, 
darp ev alOepos 



SIVA AND THE VEDAS. ? 

it would be not improper to consider him as another phase of the 
sun: if, for example, the sun were contemplated as performing the 
behests, or executing day by day the vivifying functions of the 
gods, then probably he might in that aspect be termed Twashtri." 
" I am exceedingly obliged to you," here resumed Mountain, 
u for giving me a clearer notion than I had before of those among 
the names in the Rig- Veda which just now I felt a curiosity to 
inquire about. Only all this time there has been no mention of 
Siva ; and indeed, since my friend Blancombe here happens to 
have a copy of the Veda, if you do not object to take it from 
him, perhaps you would be good enough to turn to some passage 
in which the Maheswara, or great lord, is pointed out as the 
Deity to be especially worshipped." "Just at present," replied 
the Acharya, " perhaps you will be good enough to excuse me ; 
though many wise men conceive that Siva is in the Veda called 
Rudra ; but indeed the question is not of any such importance 
as you appear to imagine : for the Puranas, which are also a 
portion of our sacred scriptures, clearly set forth Siva in the 
sense which I humbly adopt. If you wish an instance of this, 
perhaps it may be allowed me to quote to you the Linga Parana, 
in which we read how Brahma and Vishnu contended together 
for the superiority, but were put to shame by the appearance of 
the fiery column. In vain they botli attempted to traverse the 
extent of that mysterious emblem of lifegiving power ; and after 
observing it to have neither beginning nor end, but that upon 
its extent was written the triple monosyllable AUM, and that 
from it proceeded the Veda of inspiration, they learnt that the 
destroyer is also the restorer, and that neither the creator, who 
indeed only seems to create what has really been before, nor the 
preserver whose thousands of years, during which he upholds 
the perishable, are but a moment compared to the larger circle 
of death and life, are worthy of veneration when compared to 
Siva, who was before Brahma, and who swallows up Vishnu, 
the puller down and also the rebuilder, who drinks up the worlds 
and breathes them forth again. Such are the conceptions of the 



76 MULTIFORM UNITY. 

primeval and archetypal Deity which we gather from the Linga 
Purana, and which might be confirmed by reference to other 
Puranas, such as the Matsya and the Kiirma. Nor are they 
inconsistent, as some strangers appear to insinuate, with the 
general tenor of the Vedas : for all the hymns in those venerable 
books are addressed either to some of the divine agencies in 
nature, as we have already seen, or to some holy beings in whom 
the excellence of the all-embracing Deity has more especially 
manifested itself. Nothing then hinders us from saying that 
Siirya, or Savitri, whether he nourishes or whether he divides the 
seasons, and the Dawn, and the Stars, and the Skyey Influences 
in general, as well as Heaven which embraces them all, and 
Holy Men who by prayer or contemplation have become worthy 
of a like serene felicity, are all alike manifestations, if our friend 
here prefers it, I will say of Vishnu, or if any other follower 
of the Vedas should so require it, I would say of Brahma, but 
this or these again both, of Siva, from whom we come, and to 
whom we go, who was before all thought, and who although he 
is eternally modified, or rather because he is so, will be for ever 
one. Satisfied with the calm contemplation of this great truth, 
I am not much disturbed by little differences, though in them 
selves persons who introduce such things may be blameworthy, 
and they should beware of the invisible witnesses who will 
accompany them to the house of Yama ; but leaving all such 
things, I endeavour to take refuge with the Eternal, that I may 
escape further contact with this disturbing world, and pass into 
participation of the unspeakable blessedness of Swarga." 

Here the A charya paused, but Mountain made no answer, 
seeming to be either satisfied with what he had heard, or rather 
perhaps to be considering it inwardly; so Blancombe asked, 
"What, then, is Swarga?" "By Swarga," answered Vidy- 
acharya, " we mean nearly Avhat you term paradise, or heaven. 
It is the name of one of our places of blessedness ; only you need 
not understand me as if I intended to assign local limits to either 
that presence of Deity which is universal, or to the abode of 






HINDU QUIETISM. 77 

spirit which ought not to be confined. Since, however, men in 
general approach divine things only by means of parables and 
images, our scriptures are mercifully adapted to the needs in 
this respect of people in general ; and, if this seemed expedient 
to divine wisdom even in former times, much more it must be 
needed in this degenerate age." "I understand," said Blan- 
combe ; u but this loss of the local appropriation as it were of 
the term does not appear to deprive you of the happiness which 
should be connected with it ; for you evidently enjoy a tranquil 
lity of mind in the prospect of an hereafter, though in the 
uncompassable sort of extent of the revolution of life and decay 
which you speak of, as in the somewhat analogous one mentioned 
by Sadananda, my own frail intellect sees matter for awe and 
blank prostration rather than peace." u Certainly," replied the 
A chdrya, " I enjoy tranquillity, which indeed seems to be the 
gift of our religion in a greater degree than of any other I have 
heard of: for in the first place we are taught to subdue all the 
turbulent passions from which war and misery arise among man 
kind. To refrain our senses, and to keep them low, has been in 
all ages the virtue of the Hindus, as you may read it to have 
been a characteristic of the heroes in our earliest poems. Again, 
although Manu, our wise legislator, has taught us to consider 
the duties of life and family as having a certain claim on our 
regard, we are still permitted after a proper time of life to retire 
into a state of contemplation. Most indeed of my countrymen, 
even of the better sort, are prevented by the circumstances of 
these times from enjoying such a retreat ; but to those who do 
so, what can be happier than to prepare for a higher union with 
the Eternal Spirit from whom we come ? Yet indeed something 
of the same happiness belongs to every regenerate man ; for in 
the first place he is bathed from sin, since his daily bath repre 
sents the purification of his mind ; hence Medhatithi, son of 
Kanwa, divinely sings in a hymn of the Rig- Veda : 

Waters, take away whatever sin has been in me, whether I have 
done wrong, or have pronounced imprecations or untruth. 



78 THEANTHROPISM. 

< I have this day entered into the waters : we have mingled with 
their essence : Agni, abiding in the waters, approach and fill me, thus 
bathed, with vigour. 

Soma declares, that all medicaments are in the waters. (Sukta, 
xxiii.) Compare Elphiiistone s Hist. Ind. Book I. Chap. iv. 

Secondly, the regenerate man who is duly instructed in 
our religion, has the consolation of knowing that the divine 
benevolence has often been incarnate to deliver the world from 
evil ; hence, whether he worship Rama or Crishna, or whether 
he judge otherwise, still he holds in reverential regard that 
which pious persons declare to be their divinity, and in which 
he himself also perceives something divine ; then again , what 
ever accidents befall him, he knows them to be the divine rule, 
and thus lie has an unfailing source of tranquillity. With 
respect, however, to the grandeur of the scale of that vista of 
things eternal, opened by our religion, we readily confess not 
every gaze to be so purged that it should sustain the con 
templation without being appalled. Surely, you would not 
yourself say that eternity can be a little thing, or that men 
whose souls are laden with sins and absorbed in evil passions, 
can look over such a precipice unamazed. Rather the power 
of so doing must be the reward of many prayers, and much 
meditation, and a lifelong struggle; thus to the devout, the 
resigned, and the passionless, the great God gives justly as a 
reward the capacity of that divine vision in which all things are 
very good ; and so they return, like sparks re-absorbed into a 
parent flame, into that one everlasting and unutterable Being, 
from whom they were separated only by ignorance and then 
blown about through existence as if by gusts of wind. Why 
should any one not think such a prospect happiness ? To those 
indeed who separate the divine from humanity or the human 
from divinity, many things must happen terrible in the progress 
of this present world. They may lose friends, or suffer pain, 
and see mankind subject to war and oppression; while it is 
certain that many living things destroy life, and the wrong in 






BEATITUDE. 79 

many ways seems to triumph. Then again, if a man seeks for 
a reward through human works alone, it is clear that he builds 
upon the sand, for such things pass away with time, and leave 
no trace behind. But when a man has learnt that what appears 
free-will (Swdtantrya) is really the operation of the Deity, or 
divine grace (Iswara-prasdda) in each part of the whole, and 
that what seems an individual is really not distinct, then by 
faith (Sraddhd), and by devotion (Yoga) resigning what ap 
peared himself more entirely to the guidance of God, he is 
lifted beyond the reach of accident ; and even in this life we 
think it not absurd for him to be believed to perform super 
natural acts 1 (jivan-mucti /) then when his soul quits this body, 
it ascends to the supreme light which is Bralim, and comes forth 
identified with him, being conform and undivided, as pure water, 
dropt into the lake, is such as that is. 

You in this fair world 
See some destroying principle abroad j 
Air, earth, and water, full of living things, 
Each on the other preying ; and the ways 
Of man a strange perplexing labyrinth, 
Where crimes and miseries, each producing each, 
Render life loathsome, arid destroy the hope 
That should in death bring comfort. Oh ! my friend, 
That thy faith were as mine ; that thou couldst see 
Death still producing life, and evil still 
Working its own destruction ; couldst behold 
The strifes and tumults of this troubled world, 
With the strong eye that sees the promised day 
Dawn through this night of tempest ! all things then 
Would minister to joy : then should thy heart 
Be healed and harmonised, and thou shouldst feel 
God always, everywhere, and all in all. " 

"All that you have said," here again remarked Blancombe, 
" about the happiness which you conceive to be connected with 
your views, only renders it more wonderful to me, that you should 

1 Colebi-ooke, Vol. I. pp. 369, 376. 



80 CASTE ACCOMMODATION. 

not attempt freely to impart a knowledge of them to all man 
kind. No man s light is lessened because his neighbour s candle 
is lighted, and goodness should not grudge to others a portion 
of the happiness which it enjoys. Yet you distinctly agreed 
with Sadananda, that it was unprofitable, if not wrong, to give 
all men a knowledge of the sacred books of your faith." " How 
far it is wrong," replied Vidya*charya, " ought to be settled by 
those sacred books from which the knowledge of our religion 
proceeds ; and it might suffice to observe, that we are forbidden 
in the Kig-Veda to give a knowledge of its contents to a Sudra. 
But it is more in accordance with my own disposition to remark, 
that the attempt to raise the mere masses of men, in the manner 
you recommend, has not been successful. So far indeed as 
very gross and dangerous errors are concerned, the great San- 
cara exerted himself with more than human wisdom and energy 
to root them out ; you can scarcely be ignorant, how for ex 
ample he refuted the worshippers of Sakti, or the mere female 
principle in nature, as well as the Sauras, the Charvacas, and if 
it were not for the Muni who is present, I might truly add the 
Saugatas. In short, it may be said that every heresy of his 
time was refuted by him, and that his own doctrine was alike 
pure and lofty, being a revelation of Brahm, or the eternal 
spirit, as the one cause and supreme ruler of the world. But 
in the present impure age, he said, the bud of wisdom being 
blighted by iniquity, men are unable to apprehend pure unity ; 
they will be apt therefore again to follow the dictates of their 
own fancies, and it is necessary for the preservation of the 
world, and the maintenance of civil and religious distinctions, 
to acknowledge those modifications of the divine spirit which 
are the work of the supreme 1 . These reflexions having 
occurred to Sancara, he sanctioned the many varieties of 
worship which may be found innocently subsisting among us. 
The reason however of such sanction, you see, is the necessity 
which arises from the ignorance or fancifulness of mankind." 

1 The passage is quoted in Wilson s Hindu Sects, Calcutta, 1846. 



UNITY OF SOUL. 81 

" But is this reason so invincible as you suppose?" here again 
asked Blancombe ; " or how does such a notion agree with what I 
understood of your doctrine that all men come from God, and to 
him, I think you said, they return ? Can there be any radical or 
insuperable difference between persons of one origin, and perhaps 
of a destiny ultimately alike ? Or, are we to retract this doc 
trine of the unity of the human race, inasmuch as we despair of 
a large part of it?" " Your question implies," answered Vidya- 
charya, " that there is some inconsistency in deducing all man 
kind from the divine Being, and again, in making a difference 
between them. We do however the first, because religion 
teaches us so, and the second, because experience compels us. 
Many men appear born into this world under a necessity of 
sinning and suffering, as the just consequence of their guilt in 
some former state of existence ; and hence they differ widely from 
those who by holy living had already almost attained libera 
tion (mtfcsha), and who perhaps are only travelling with pure 
feet the last stage before their deliverance from earthly life, and 
their absorption into Spiritual Being. Yet there is nothing in 
the fact of such difference to interfere with the identity of their 
original source. In a thousand drops of water you may find 
a thousand degrees of purity or of muddiness ; yet they may 
come nevertheless from one fountain, and be slowly or quickly 
filtering again into the ocean. Just then as one water may be 
sprinkled in many different-coloured vessels, or as one string 
may support many beads of coral, thus one soul is diffused 
through many forms of nature, and supports the bodies of all 
living things. Or again, as the Moon, though but one, appears 
multiform in many vessels of water ; thus in all living things, 
movable or immovable, dwells only one soul, by which this 
universe was spread out. It is one alike in the Brahman, the 
worm, and the insect; in the Chandala, the dog, and the 
elephant ; nor is it deprived of its identity in the goat or the 
cow, the gadfly, or the gnat. Yet these humbler creatures no 
one, I suppose, blames us for not teaching: on the same principle, 
M.P. 6 



82 SOUL AND LIFE. 

then, among men, it is no defect in our religion that the 
Mlechha differs from the Brahman, or that vicious persons obscure 
with impurities that in which they participate of the divine 
soul. Yet for doing so, they will render each man his account." 
" Are we then to understand from you," asked Blancombe, " that 
the one divine soul dwells actually in brute creatures, or perhaps 
by soul do you only mean what we call life, and therefore 
possibly you assert a certain similarity or unity in kind of the 
vital principle everywhere ?" " If you prefer," answered Vidya- 
charya, " to mean by soul merely jivdtmd, or the vital principle 
of animated beings, certainly I shall be slow to contradict you ; 
but the doctrine of the Vedanta-sara, and, as we believe, of 
the Vedas, is very different. Not but that I know Madhwa 
Acharya, though a great teacher, erred in this point, for he 
distinguished between jivatma and Paramatma in such a way 
as to make life different from soul, and communicated to matter 
by God, therefore so far indissolubly connected with him, but 
still not identical with him. * As the bird and the string, said 
Madhwa, as juices and trees, as rivers and oceans, as fresh 
water and salt, as man and the objects of sense, so are God and 
life distinct, and both are ever undefmable. " "What you say 
of Madhwa," here remarked Blancombe, " makes me desire 
hereafter to learn more of him ; but at present it will be more 
agreeable that you should proceed to explain how you differ from 
his doctrine, which appears at first sound not to be an unreasonable 
one." " We then on the contrary hold," proceeded Vidyacharya, 
" that whatever is the internal check in man, and whatever is 
seeing in man, and whatever is breathing in any man or animal, 
and whatever is etherial above, and whatever is light in heaven or 
earth, must each be truly and in its innermost being soul, and soul 
is in one word God*; for it can be nothing less, since all things 

Slightly varied, but essentially the same, is the doctrine of the Bhagavat- 
gita, in which part of Crishna s speech has been prettily rendered : 
I am the Best ; from me all beings spring, 
And rest on me, like pearls upon their string; 



IDENTITY IN CHANGE. 83 

save itself are inferior to it, and it can be nothing greater, for 
God is the greatest of all things." " But when you say," asked 
Blancombe, "that all other things are inferior to soul, you 
admit a difference in things. Does it not then appear strange 
to you that such vast diversities and differences of objects should 
all contain one identity, and that the most divine ? When some 
beings are ignorant, and animals brutish, and light is ex 
tinguished before our eyes often, does not it become manifest 
that God cannot be in all, for their qualities are not such as 
you would ascribe to Him?" "You have exactly hit," said 
Vidyacharya, " the same objection as Madhwa, only he applied 
it more to the future. He argued that from the difference 
between omniscience and partial knowledge, omnipotence and 
inferior power, supremacy and subservience, the union of God 
and life cannot take place. But then he must have failed to 
notice, that cause and effect are often dissimilar ; yet you see 
hair and nails, which are without sense, grow from a sentient 
body ; and vermin which have life spring every day from sub 
stances without life. The same food is transmuted in the animal 
frame into all sorts of flesh, blood, and bone ; so the same soil 
produces different plants, and the vast bosom of earth, which 
is one, becomes pregnant with every variety of vegetable and 
mineral. There is nothing therefore absurd in saying, that as 
milk changes into curd, and water into ice, so spirit assumes 
different shapes ; and as the spider spins a thread, such as you 
might not expect, out of its own substance, so Brahm, being 
omnipotent, puts forth the world and all that it contains, in 



I am the moisture in the moving stream, 

In sun and moon the bright essential beam; 

The Mystic Word in Scripture s holy page, 

In men the vigour of their manly age ; 

Sound in the air earth s fragrant scent am I 

Life of all living good men s Piety 

Seed of all Being Brightness in the Flame 

In the wise Wisdom in the famous Fame. 

Griffith s Specimens of Old ffindti Poetry. 

62 



84 DEITY IN ALL. 

the infinite modifications of the form which he has thrown 
around him." 

" Perhaps we may consider by and by this answer of yours," 
said Blancombe ; " but in the mean time if the unlikeness of 
earthly objects to the Divine Being does not compel you, as it 
compelled Madhwa, to discriminate between them, tell me if a 
certain reverence towards the Supreme Ruler, whom you justly 
invoke as the Giver of knowledge, does not teach you to shrink 
from treading, as it were, upon Him, when you confound that 
Divine Majesty, to which the wisest of mankind can never even 
allude without a certain sobering awe, with the meanest of things 
under our feet ? And especially, is it not a matter of trembling 
that we should make our Master as it were our servant, or our 
Judge the agent, and therefore a criminal answerable as regards 
every impure or bestial action into which animals or men may 
fall?" 

"Your question," answered Vidyacharya, "being a double 
one, will require a double answer. First, then, our doctrine is so 
far from being an irreverent one in its tendency, that it rather 
leads us to reverence every living thing upon this very ground, 
because it contains in it a particle of the Divine breath. That 
gross abuse of life, and sensual indulgence in horrible eating of 
even any animal, which some nations do not scruple to practise, 
is with us an abomination. As one of your own poets says, 

All shapes that creep, swim, fly, or run, 
Are of the same clear substance spun ; 
The elemental heavens are one. 

Therefore, instead of lowering Grod, our doctrine ought rather to 
be represented as raising all things below. But, secondly, with 
respect to impurity or sin, which guilty persons may commit, 
this is not, in so far as they know themselves to be partakers of 
the Divinity, but in so far as they are ignorant of it. Blind in 
the darkness of ignorance, the individual soul sympathises with 
body through its association with it, and although it is guided 



THOUGH CONSCIOUSNESS REPUGNANT. 85 

by the universal soul of which it is a part, even as being a 
branch of that great soul-tree which stands firm in the heavens 
with faces in every direction and embracing all, yet that guid 
ance, you see clearly, can only make it act according to its own 
acquired propensities; just as the same fertilising rain causes 
one plant to bear good fruit, and another to grow up barren 01 
poisonous." 

" Your answer," said Blancombe, " is certainly very in 
genious ; but yet it seems to betray the existence of something 
in the world separate from God, as for instance those very pro 
pensities, or whatever it is which produces, or enables the indi 
vidual soul to acquire them. Here then possibly we ought to 
inquire what that something is; or perhaps it may lead us in 
the same direction if I venture to ask, whether the conscious 
ness of every man and all men does not utter an audible protest 
against all this theory of our imperfect intelligences being iden 
tical with the Omniscient, or our weakness, folly, and sinfulness, 
with the Divine ? Do we not feel and know that we are flesh 
and blood ; that the animals around us are even lower than our 
selves in the scale of creation ; and that the earth we tread is 
solid matter?" 

"Why, that we feel something of the kind, need not be 
denied," answered the A charya, "but that we know it, is quite a 
different assertion; for, in fact, that very feeling is partly ajndna 
and partly May a" 

BLAN. " By ajndna you mean probably ignorance." 

VID. " Certainly." 

BLAN. " But what is Mdyd? " 

VID. " Clearly, Mdyd is illusion." 

BLAN. " Are we then illuded, when we affirm ourselves to 
be here present, and to be conversing, as in fact we are?" 

VID. "Why, that our souls are here present, I am not 
obliged to deny ; but that they are only present in virtue of the 
presence so far of the supreme soul, is what I steadfastly main 
tain ; and again, that we are flesh and blood, as you seemed, 



8(5 THE THREE QUALITIES. 

perhaps without duly considering it, to say, as if these limbs 
which may be mutilated in all sorts of ways without destroying 
ourselves, made up our actual self, is what no pious person could 
concede. But now, how much of ignorance or mere ajndna there 
must be in all the conceptions which you have rapidly glanced 
at, is clear even from the tenor of our conversation; for the 
Muni, in expounding the opinions of the Saugatas, has both 
made the soul to consist in intelligence, which rather belongs 
to bodily organs, and also has avowedly rejected all our sacred 
revelation; and again, Sadananda, because he thinks natural 
objects act according to their inherent properties, removes all 
necessity of an Iswara, or supreme Lord ; and again, to me that 
which he calls pracriti, or plastic nature, appears to be purely 
May a: so that somewhere among us there is certainly ignorance ; 
and no one has yet shewn, at all events, why it should not be 
ignorance, as I contend, for the individual soul to conceive of 
itself as distinct from the supreme, rather than to think in what 
ever way other persons may prefer." 

" Well," said Blancombe, " I have to thank you for correct 
ing me as to the flesh and blood; by which, however, all I 
intended to say was, that there is an external world patent to 
our observation and consciousness, which I am not able to iden 
tify with the essence of the supreme soul." 

"Neither do 1 wish you to do so," answered Vidyacharya; 
" but if you wish to avoid ignorance, you must conceive of the 
external world as Maya." 

" Once more, then, will you be good enough to explain to me 
more distinctly," asked Blancombe, " what you understand by 
Mayd?" 

" I will endeavour to do so," answered the Acharya, "though i 
indeed the subject is a very difficult one. But now you are 
aware that whatever we feel or perceive externally may fall 
under some one of three descriptive heads, either under goodness, 
or passion, or darkness, or possibly under a blending of more 
than one of them ; for either we rejoice, or at least acquiesce in; 



MAYA ILLUSION. 87 

things around us, or again we are irritated or roused by them, or 
again we are stupid and bewildered as regards them. These 
three, then, are the three Grunas, which make up what I have 
heard certain Europeans, in attempting to explain our doctrine, 
have called the limitations of human thought, but by which I 
seem to myself rather to mean the conditions of sensation, or the 
circumstances within the range of which all outward sensation or 
perception must necessarily fall. You may, if you please, call 
them impressions, or the three catagories of impressions. Most 
briefly, perhaps, Maya, which comprehends the three, may be 
termed the seeming of things so and so, however they may seem. 
That objects, however, seem to us as they are, or even that they 
are at all in any true sense of being, we have nothing to assure 
us; for change, fluctuation, misconception or false appearance, 
and insubstantiality, seem to be their characteristics. This fol 
lows as a consequence, partly from what you have heard in the 
reasonings of our friends here about the difficulty of reaching 
any substance underlying the manifold appearances of the outer 
world, and partly from what I have heard European philo 
sophers have argued with more or less subtlety in a similar 
direction. The existence of a stone or a tree consists, as far 
as we know, in certain sensations only which we have of its 
hardness, or its solidity, or its growth ; but what is underneath, 
hard, or solid, or growing, no one has ever manifested, so that 
in fact it may be called Maya or appearance. Thus the Muni 
almost proved to you that matter is ignorance. If ever, then, 
the individual soul fancies itself to consist of such appearances, it 
is as much in error as a man who, seeing a rope coiled up, mis 
takes it for a serpent." 

" But if I understood you aright some time back," Blan- 
combe here said, " you objected to the doctrine of the Saugataa 
or of the Bauddhas generally, that it made the existence of ex 
ternal objects uncertain, and you relied upon our perceptions as 
sufficient proof to us of such existence. How then do these two 
positions of yours agree together ? 



88 MAYA DIVINE ENERGY. 

" They agree well enough," answered Vidyacha rya ; "for 
the Bauddhas, in taking away the substantial existence of ex 
ternal objects, are not careful to put in their place the visible 
Maya. Now we do not so much annihilate external appearances, 
or the results of our perceptions, as resolve them into Maya. You 
will perhaps understand me better if I tell you what I once saw 
on the esplanade at Calcutta. Some Italian stranger, who had 
come to India by one of your vessels, took whoever chose of the 
passers by into a darkened chamber. In the middle was a plain 
white table, and upon this table we were made to see the figures 
of men, horses, and carriages moving to and fro, as if they had 
possessed a real life. Yet all this was Maya; for though the 
figures moved regularly, yet the table was a plain white surface. 
Something of the kind again takes place in what you call a 
magic lantern. There, too, the beholder sees pictures, which if 
he is simple he may take for realities. Now I do not say that 
the pictures of the visible world do not exist in some sense, but 
that they are simply pictures." 

" But pray does it not occur to you," again asked Blan- 
combe, " that in the darkened chamber the figures which 
you saw were reflexions of persons outside, who were actually 
moving, as you saw their reflected shadows move ? So that the 
Maya there had a substantial something which it represented." 

" Similarly, I doubt not," answered Vidyacharya, "has the 
Maya of the world." 

"What, then, is that?" asked Blancombe. 

"What can it be," answered the other, "but the picturing 
energy of the Divine Being?" 

"Then if I understand you aright," remarked Blancombe, 
" all this world is a sort of pictured reflexion of the thought of 
the supreme Iswara" 

1 You probably are not far wrong," assented VidyacMrya. 

" But, then, why call it Maya?" asked Blancombe; "for if 
the Divine Being is Truth, the reflexion of His thought must be 
true." 



RELATIONS AND IMPRESSIONS. 9 

" So far/ answered Vidyacharya, " as men apprehend it for 
what it really is, the manifestation of the Divine energy, it is 
true enough; but so far as they take it for a reality in itself, it 
becomes illusion. In fact, it is appearance caused by God ; and 
this meaning is properly expressed by Maya. Now if I pro 
ceeded to say that the world is a sort of dream, I should do 
violence to the sacred power of sleep : for really in sleep the soul 
is free from many external illusions, and being undisturbed by 
the external world, rests in the quiet of the supreme Spirit. But 
since perhaps you apprehend, as many men do, that sleep is less 
real than a waking state, you may understand the matter better 
if I compare the life of an unthinking man to a person dreaming. 
Just as a dreamer sees things which you would say were only 
pictures, so the ignorant man awake sees a world of appearances? 
which he fancies to have some real existence of their own." 

" Perhaps I understand you," said Blancombe, "though the 
very explanation is difficult to me ; so that I almost begin to 
doubt what you mean by existing, and what by appearing. I 
suppose, however, you admit the same things cannot both exist 
and not exist ; which then ought we to affirm of the world?" 

"On the contrary," answered Vidyacharya, "we hold that 
things may both be in a way, and not be in a way. What, for 
example, are we to say of a thing pictured ; or again, of a whole 
series of things ever fluctuating and changing? But of the 
world this much is clear; so far as any thing truly exists, it 
does so by virtue of the Divine energy manifesting it; and so far 
as it does not partake of the Divinity, it is at best mere appear 
ance." 

"In the next place, then," asked Blancombe, "are we to 
say that the world is created on the whole by intellect, or by 






ignorance? 



" By both in a way," answered Vidyacharya. 
" Pray explain that to me," said the other. 
" We have already seen," proceeded Vidyacharya, " that all 
appearance, or Maya, is made up of three kinds of impressions : 



90 MATTER INTELLECT HUMANITY DEITY SPIRIT. 

now to apprehend these impressions requires a certain kind of intel 
lect; but to mistake the impressions for substance is again a kind 
of ignorance. The mere human intelligence, then (prdjna) , being 
very defective in each individual, both apprehends the impressions 
and unduly substantiates them, so that it both understands and is 
ignorant. Now it is evident that, as a wood is not different from 
the trees which constitute it, so any whole whatsoever is not 
distinct from all the parts which it contains: therefore all the 
intelligences of individual men make up one intelligence, and 
all their ignorances make up one ignorance : again, the high< 
intellect (Chaitanya} of the Divine Being which presents th( 
impressions above spoken of, may be called Iswara, but still 
so mixed up with its representations that they become its sheath 
or its covering; the aggregate then of impressions or ignorances 
may be called the body of Chaitanya ; but now farther, just as 
a wood occupies space, and all spaces require an absolute space, 
or illimitable expanse, which comprehends them, so even this 
Chaitanya is intelligent only in virtue of that which I despair of 
expressing in words. It is what we call the FOURTH. Possibly 
you may rise to a conception of it in this way. A very ignorant 
person will say when burnt by a mass of ignited iron, that the hot 
iron burns him ; but he means that the heat in the iron burns him. 
Thus then Intellect, when associated with Maya, that is, external 
impressions in general (or when considered together with the or-, 
ganisations which produce those impressions) is indeed Iswara, 
and him we address as Brahma. He is the Creator and the 
Ruler; but then as heat would not be in the iron, if there 
were not absolute heat apart from the iron, so neither could 
Intellect have created objects, or have become associated with 
Maya, unless it had for its ground an absolute and pure Intel-. I 
lect, which is Bralim, or eternal Spirit, the blessed, the tranquil, 
the single without duality, and the unutterable God. But again, 
beware of understanding me as if I thought the trees or the 
water were distinct from the wood or the pool which contains the 
aggregate of each ; or as if there could be any intelligence dis- 



DEITY SPIRIT LIBERATION. 91 

tinct from, and not in virtue of, the One and indivisible, even 
that beyond the supreme Soul. That then is Brahm, but our 
sacred books wisely call it That (Tad), because of the difficulty 
of expressing it in words. It is the unseen and ungrasped, there 
fore inexpressible. In your language probably you would attempt 
to expound our doctrine in some such way as this : There are the 
impressions of the natural world, which make up one ignorance ; 
there is the individual intelligence of man, which is overpowered 
by those impressions ; there is also the creative or representing 
intelligence of God, which being possessed of omniscience, om 
nipotence, and superintendence over all, imperceptible, and all- 
pervading, is rightly called the Lord (Iswara) ; this is Brahma ; 
and beyond these, but containing these, or dwelling in these, is 
the potential or the pras-creative, (and if such a thing may be 
said in your language,) the prse-eternal Spirit., before all thought, 
and itself the possibility of any thinking. That is Brahm. 
Again, to invert the process, consider it in this way. Out of 
Brahm comes Brahma. By Brahma, associating himself as Chai- 
tanya with organisation, and throwing before himself various 
modifications of Maya, some grosser, and some finer, all things 
and beings whatsoever there are, consist. Existing by Brahma, 
and also his offspring, the human soul shines more faintly, like a 
spark detached from a fire over which there is a veil, and hence 
it even supposes in its ignorance that the clothing of organisation 
given it is something more than an appearance thrown around 
himself by Brahma, or the reflexion, as we have already said, of 
his thought. Otherwise, if the immortal soul within us were 
mindful of the Being from whom it comes and to whom it is 
kindred, all earthly actions, and their consequences which are 
connected with earth, would perish from it; alike its past sins 
would be blotted out, and its future offences would be prevented. 
Thus in the UpanisJiad of the Chdndogya it is written, As water 
wets not the leaf of the lotus, so sin touches not him who knows 
God ; as the floss on the carding-comb cast into the fire is con 
sumed, so are his sins burnt away. Thus again it is said, i All 



92 HIGHEST LIBERATION. 

sins depart from him; and again, The heart s knot is broken, 
all doubts are split, and his works perish, when he has seen the 
Supreme Being*. For indeed, my friend, we are not ignorant 
any more than yourselves, that neither sin, which is of passion 
and darkness, nor any earthly act, which must be of imperfect 
goodness, can abide in the heart and consciousness of him who 
has looked upon the unveiled being of the blessed and indivisible ; 
but rather such things are burnt away by gazing on that 
heavenly presence, as alloy is purged by fire out of gold. Only 
perhaps the consequences of past sins may remain even with pure 
knowledge for a little time in life, as a wheel continues turning 
from some former impulse even after the hand which turned it is 
removed. But at least, when liberated from the body, the soul of 
one who has attained such blessedness of knowledge goes straight 
by the shortest way, whether it be, as some hold, through the 
solar rays and the realm of fire, to the abode of the Gods, and 
from thence, being helped at each stage by the presiding dei-* 
ties who for that object chiefly dwell at convenient distances, it is 
conducted, like a faint person by a guide, until it enters the realm 
of Indra, and thence attains the very abode of Prajapati, who 
is no other than pure Brahm or even if the path of spirit should 
be in any respect different from that which our sacred books have 
presented to the imagination in wise parables still in any case 
the soul which has never prostrated itself in worship to any 
meaner or more earthly being, but gazed steadfastly with the eye 
of devout knowledge upon That ineffable, which is without stain 
as it is without duality, goes straight whatever may be the 
shortest way, to reunion with the pure and divinest being of 
Brahm, and having been long ago freed from every trammel, 
or impression, or personality, is restored to Oneness, becoming 
therein not a thinker, but thought; not omniscient, but om 
niscience; not joyful, but very joy. Not indeed that I myself, 

* These striking passages are quoted in Colebrooke s Essays, Vol. I. On the 
Veda"nta. 






TRANSMIGRATION. 93 

my friend, (would that it were so !) profess to have attained as 
yet the certainty of this blessedness, but rather shall count 
myself happy if I gain possession of the lower liberation which 
belongs to the humbler feelers after immortality. Yet the im 
pediment alike to greater achievement by myself, and which 
prevents so many men from even thinking of these things, or 
suspecting their own glorious capacities, resides chiefly in that 
which we have already spoken of as the first when we began 
with the outer world, but which now having begun with That 
ineffable, we shall inversely and less properly call the fourth, 
namely, Maya : for the human soul, being cased in a body, as 
in a succession of sheaths, the first of which is intellectual or 
apprehensive, and the second affectionate or capable of joy and 
grief, and the third merely psychic or vital, unites itself with 
these so as to form a personality, and thus individualises itself 
in isolation from the supreme soul; therefore also in its many 
passages from life to life the unhappy soul of man carries with 
it this subtle body above spoken of, and thereby is constituted 
what we call a person, being subject to many pains and be 
reavements, as well as necessities of sinning, each of whic \ in turn 
entails, by the righteous decree of the Gods, a necessity of also 
suffering; so that for many ages, to which I dare not ascribe 
either beginning or ending, it is possible for a wretched soul, 
thus carrying with it that subtle body which makes it a person, 
"o be born in various stages of less or more degradation, as well 
is between each birth renewed to undergo whatever scourges the 
.nvisible Justicers may inflict. But besides this subtle body is 
ilso the grosser frame, which perhaps the very ignorant or animal 
imong men would consider as our true body, by which men feed 
ind grow, and do all things animal, whether seemly or unseemly. 
3f course it is evident that of such bodies as this outer frame, 
me soul may inhabit many in turns, being born either among 
he brutes, if it has so deserved, or again in the human form 
imong Mlechhas or Chandalas, if it be somewhat better; or 
igain, among those races which have not fallen so far from the 



94 DEITY AND WORLD. 

Divinity, and whose bodily frame is somewhat less coarse, and 
affects less injuriously the operations of the soul. We need not 
then wonder if any particular soul, being incased in so many 
sheaths, becomes obscured so as to burn dimly; or if, in its 
ignorance, it converts the impressions, whether dreams, or pic 
tures, or shadows, or by whatever name you please to call them, 
of the outer world, into substantial realities, thereby creating 
what some men absurdly call matter, fancying perhaps that the 
primeval Spirit is inferior to Pracriti ; or even dreading, with the 
Charvacas, lest, consisting itself of mere material atoms com 
bined, it may perish, when the grossest and most external of all 
its bodies is dissolved. Such and so great may be the ignorance 
of any particular soul ; and the ignorances of all human souls 
together compose, as it were, what they call the world, out of 
Maya; whereas the world is really, if you can apprehend it, only 
the body of Brahma ; that is to say, it is the aggregate of ap 
pearances, which He, the Creator, the Lord, and the Omniscient, 
has thrown around Himself as the embodiment of His thought, 
and even associated Himself therein, as intelligence, with all the 
forms of organisation. Supposing, therefore, any one chooses to 
call what some persons call matter by the more philosophical 
term of ignorance, I see no objection to such a mode of desig 
nating it. Perhaps also now you begin to understand with what 
meaning I declared the world to be created in part by intellect 
and in part by ignorance. Just as it was the heat contained in 
the iron which burnt, so it is intellect expressing and embodying 
itself in appearance which creates ; or in other words, that which 
is truly creative is either Brahm, or partakes of Brahm ; yet as 
man might affirm, the heated iron burns, so it may be asserted 
that ignorance, that is, what some call matter, being impregnated, 
or more correctly it should be said animated, by intellect, bodies 
forth the world; and here you will no longer doubt that you 
have together the body and the soul of Brahma the Creator; nor 
will I run the risk of confusing you, as perhaps I might do by 
many distinctions, if I paused to explain nicely how, as the 



CONCEPTIONS OF SOUL. 95 

human soul has four sheaths of body, so the Creator also has 
various bodies, more or less subtle or gross ; [and indeed some 
wise men represent four forms of intellect, all distinguishable 
from Maya, namely, the feeble in each man (prdjnd), and the 
collective in all humanity (vaiswdnara) , and the divine intellect 
pervading creation ( CJiaitanya, as Iswara) and then the Fourth, 
which is That unutterable One, nor do I say that such is not the 
most correct distinction ;] but it is now clear to you in what sense 
ignorance as well as intellect creates the world." 

" I have been humbly and sincerely endeavouring," here said 
Blancombe, "to understand you; but I fear that the partition 
wall is not yet broken down between the British and the Hindu 
intellect, or else perhaps you use the word ignorance in a some 
what different sense from any we are accustomed to, such as 
possibly putting an active substantive for a passive verbal, and 
by the term unknowingness meaning rather what we should call 
unknown. Shall I, however, understand you to mean a doctrine 
of this kind ; that collective Mdyd which comprehends the three 
gunas, or descriptions of appearances in the natural world, is in 
regard to man s senses illusory, unsubstantial, and fluctuating, 
but in itself, so far as it is any thing, or rather perhaps, since 
you call it unsubstantial, I should say in its relation to the 
: Deity, it is the play of the Divine energy, and scarcely even so 
: much as the dress of thought, but the very thought of spirit 
made visible : for from the very grand and meditative character 
. of a large part of your doctrine, I am sure you do not imagine 
that the Deity is illuded." 

" Very far from it indeed," answered Yidyacharya ; " nor do 
I know that any stranger has ever penetrated our meaning better 
than you now appear to have done. It is a pleasure to me to 
- converse with a sober person, who, instead of cavilling at our 
: language before he understands it, will endeavour to penetrate its 
meaning in a spirit amicable towards ourselves, and reverential 
: towards the great Being of whom we inadequately reason. Hence 
forward you at least will be in no danger of misapprehending 



96 ABSTRACT OR PERSONAL. 

our doctrine of the nature of soul, as if we imagined its true 
being to be fully expressed by the mere metaphors applied to it 
in the Vedas, as for instance when it is compared to a favourite 
son ; nor will you accuse us of confounding it with the gross 
body, as some Charvacas do; nor again, as others, with the more 
subtle organs ; nor of making it the mere breath of life ; nor of 
substituting for it the sensuous and affectionate mind; nor yet 
will you regard us as making the soul what many Bauddhas 
make it, our own intelligence or self-consciousness; nor, as cer 
tain Prabhacaras say, that ignorance or substratum in which our 
intelligence dwells changefully, being more or less from time to 
time ; nor again, which however would be rather more plausible, 
and not far from the truth, will you consider us to compound 
soul out of our own intelligence and the ignorance or substratum 
animated by it ; nor, lastly, will you accept the term void which 
certain Bauddhas offer you as an adequate description of the mys 
terious nature of the soul ; but deeper than all these, and beyond 
these, and finer than these, yet bodying them all forth so far as 
they have body at all, you will clearly apprehend soul to be 
unseen and ungrasped, being thought, knowledge, and joy, and 
no other than very God." 

"I listen thankfully to your explanation," here said Blan- 
combe, " though not without a kind of awe at your conclusion. 
It also rather puzzles me that you speak of intelligence (buddhi) 
in the sense perhaps of what we generally term apprehension, 
and again, you speak of knowledge and joy, without clearly 
defining to whom each of them belongs. For example, whose 
property is intelligence?" 

"Intelligence," answered Vidyacharya, "resides in organ 
isation." 

" And organs?" asked Blancombe. 

" Organs," proceeded the other, " invest soul." 

* Then soul," argued Blancombe, " seems to be your sub 
stratum of all things, which, considering what you have assumed 
soul to be, is not unreasonable. Only you added that the soul is 



SUBJECT OBJECT AGENT EFFECT. 97 

very thought ; but thought must belong to some one ; who then 
is the thinker?" 

"The thinker," answered Vidyacharya, "and the thought 
are One." 

"Here, then, I am puzzled," resumed Blancombe, "and 
perhaps you will be good enough to remove my difficulty." 

"What is it?" asked the other. 

" Something of this kind," proceeded Blancombe: "in saying 
or doing any thing you start from some point. That point is 
placed, or put down as the beginning. In short, it is the subject. 
Thus a subject in speaking is the name which goes before the con 
necting-speech, or the nominative case to the verb ; and again, 
a subject in action is the agent which looks at or acts upon some 
thing else. The subject, then, is not the same as that some 
thing else beside it, which may be called the object. Still less 
is it the same as its own action or contemplation, for it may 
cease to act or contemplate, and still be in its place. It does 
not then appear easy to understand people who compress the 
subject, and either the characteristic which may be asserted of 
it, or the object upon which it acts, or its action as regards that 
object, all into one identity ; for they seem virtually to make no 
difference between cause and effect, or between agent, acting, 
act, and thing acted upon ; so that, if the realities of the world 
corresponded to such men s reasonings, all opposites and dis 
tinctions, such as fathers and sons, friends and enemies, rulers 
and men ruled, would be confounded together. Some such 
difficulty as this appears to me to wait upon your conception of 
the thinker and the thought being all one. Or, again, if the 
thinker be merged in thought, so as to have no other self-sub 
stantiality, I fear our metaphysics will be in the same danger 
as that ingenious fable which is in some of your Indian books, 
about the earth resting on an elephant, and the elephant on a 
tortoise with nothing under it ; for we shall have reasoned so 
as to make all things, without being balanced too against each 
other, hang upon nothing." 

M. P. 7 



98 COMPREHENSION OF OPPOSITES. 

" Then it appears/ resumed Vidyacharya, " that I must go 
somewhat farther. It is curious that you should have fallen 
upon the same difficulty as Canada and other doctors of the 
Vaise*shica philosophy, which is employed about the particular 
parts of nature. They too, being ingenious men, but unable 
to grasp either nature or divine wisdom as one whole, thought 
it necessary to divide all things under certain descriptive heads, 
(paddrthas) such as, perhaps, you would call categories. Thus 
they came upon the notion of there being what they called 
substances, and these substances they made nine in number, 
such as earth, water, light, soul, and the rest. Here, if it were 
necessary, I might remark how their own ingenuity deceived 
them, when they enumerated among such substances even time 
and space ; to which it is only wonderful that they did not add 
nonentity, or classification, or arrangement ; for these would be 
evidently as much substances as those. But it is more to the 
purpose for me to illustrate your difficulty by remarking, that 
although the Veda says distinctly, Brahm is eternal knowledge 
and joy, yet the followers of Canada interpret this text as 
meaning that Brahm is the possessor of knowledge and joy ; 
for they fancy that they must have what you call a subject, or 
a sort of substance, in which these things may reside as qua 
lities, or to which they may belong as properties. Their diffi 
culty then seems to be pretty much the same as your own. In 
the particular objection too, which you apparently have to the 
identification of Deity and his outshadowing, because you think 
there must be a certain chasm between the subject and object, 
or as in this case you would say, between the maker and the 
thing made, you again resemble Madhwa, and perhaps come 
very near indeed to the Pasupatas. They have just such a 
conception of the creature being distinct from the Creator as I 
gather from your difficulty must reside in your mind. Yet pro 
bably you would allow that the flowing stream may be consi 
dered as one with its fountain, and that any person s preferring 
to distinguish them by two names does not distract their essen- 



PHENOMENAL NATURE DIVINE THINKING. 99 

tial oneness. Nor, again, is it to be denied that the calf, whether 
an embryo or just born, may justly be called one with the cow, 
of whose substance in a way it comes. We, for our part, con 
sider that there are two sorts of meditation, (Sarnddhi) ; namely, 
one which recognises distinctions such as this between the 
knower and the thing known (Savikalpaca) , and another, which 
sinking all such distinctions (Nirwkalpaca) , lays hold of the 
essential oneness in the projecter and the thing projected, or in 
the thinker and the thought. Now this last kind of meditation, 
which is the highest, is neither disturbed nor puzzled by mere 
modifications of that which it knows to be essentially one. 
For instance, cold and heat are only different degrees of what 
is essentially one thing, namely, temperature. Or you may 
take for a good example, speech, and that which you call 
action. What underlies and animates speech is thought, for 
without thought it would be no longer speech, but merely noise. 
He then who recognises the oneness of speech and thought, 
preserves both, yet as one ; but he who separates speech from 
thought, thereby annihilates while he endeavours to make it 
independent. Similarly action, if it be not animated by thought, 
is no longer acting. But we must also acknowledge farther, 
that the same Being may think of himself ; he then being one 
becomes two, that is, two as the thinker, and the thing thought, 
yet remaining essentially one. He is no more multiplied in 
essence than any human body is changed by the modification 
of what is called time, or by change of place, or by accident of 
colour. Just as neither time, place, nor colour, change essence ; 
so neither does modifying self-contemplation, or appearance, 
multiply the Supreme. The case is not unlike that of a man 
gazing in a mirror, and beholding himself so that he becomes 
both the subject seeing and the object seen in one ; only that 
you will readily allow the primeval Spirit could have no mirror 
save his own thought which he threw forward out of himself. 
Here then we come back to that same appearance in three kinds 
of modification, which has now been several times spoken of, 

72 



100 VACH LOGOS. 

namely, Maya. Have you still, my friend, to apprehend that 
the same appearance, which to men from their ignorance is 
illusion, is also on the side which more nearly resembles sub 
stantial reality, that which the Big-Veda calls Vdch, namely, 
the speech of the primeval Spirit, the eternal yet transitory 
daughter of Brahma. 1 1 uphold, she says, both the sun and 
the ocean, the firmament and fire, and both day and night. 
Me the gods render universally present everywhere, and per- 
vader of all beings. Even I declare this self, who is worshipped 
by gods and men ; I make strong whom I choose ; I make him 
Brahma, holy and wise. For Rudra I bend the bow, to slay 
the demon foe of Brahma ; for the people I make war ; and I 
pervade heaven and earth .... Originating all beings, I pass like 
the breeze ; I am above this heaven ; beyond this earth ; and 
what is the great one, that am I. This same VdcJi, many wise 
men say, should be understood by Sachi, the wife of Indra; 
for her name too signifies speech. Yet speech, we have seen, 
is nothing without thought. Hence it cannot be wrong to say, 
with our religious books, that, before any of these worlds, or 
sky, or aught above it, before day and night, and before death 
or immortality, the same Vdch was sustained unshaken within 
the primeval Spirit, who was alone, breathing without breath. 
Besides Him nothing was yet, which since has been. First in 
his mind then was formed desire, which the wise recognise by 
the intellect in their own hearts, as the link of being where as 
yet is nothing. This sustained within Brahm, therefore, 
(Swadhd) becoming Vdch, the daughter of Brahma, presents 
herself throughout all worlds as Maya; so that whatever is 
anywhere seen in creation is the voice of the creating God, and 
His voice is the thought of the eternal Spirit. The appearance 
of all creatures is the voice of the Creator, and that again the 
volition of the Eternal." 

While Vidyacharya was uttering the last three or four 
sentences, Blancombe appeared to be listening most attentively, 
and yet to be half lost in wonder ; for he exclaimed to himself 



DIVINE OUTSHADOWING. 101 

unconsciously, yet half aloud so that I could hear him, " How 
wonderful ! wonderful alike in its resemblance, and in that, 
resembling so nearly, it still differs so much !" But at the pause, 
he said, " So far I have no great difficulty, however much in one 
respect you may astonish me ; but still the essential difference 
between the thinker and the thought is a sort of chasm which 
to my feeble apprehension is not quite bridged across." " Per 
haps, then/ resumed Vidyacharya, "you have not sufficiently 
noticed how the same man often thinks of himself in different 
lights, and as it were from different points of view, according 
as he rejoices or mourns, justifies his own conduct or condemns 
it, and conceives of himself again as contemplated by other 
persons who pass their several judgments upon him. Yet many 
a man s mind is in reality a sort of inward drama, in which he 
being one plays in himself many parts, and sees in himself 
many apparent objects. So the Deity, throwing forth His own 
thought, throws forward Himself, and as on one side He con 
templates Himself, so on many other sides all human beings 
contemplate the reflexion or the embodiment of his thought in 
a thousand various modifications as it happens to be presented 
to each ; so that hence they call the world what is truly ap 
pearance, and the appearance is the outshadowing of the pro 
jected self of the Eternal Spirit. Just then as one man gazing 
upon many figures fashioned in clay might affirm, These are 
elephants, or tigers, or cows ; but another might as truly say, All 
these are porcelain or clay ; so the truly instructed will say of 
all living forms in creation, These are the appearances of the 
thought of the Eternal as He comes forth from Himself, and 
modifies Himself in infinite varieties of outshadowing. He 
then is not only the potter, but also the clay ; for out of His 
thought the world is fashioned ; by His life things live ; and 
in Him everything rejoices. Only these appearances in which 
He dwells are indeed subject to the limitations already spoken 
of as the gunas; whereas no one can piously ascribe any such 
fetters, or sensations, or conditions, to the Supreme ; and Him 



102 APPARENT INCONSISTENCIES. 

therefore we call Nirguna, the free from all qualities. Here 
then, lest you should repeat to me the old difficulty which you 
have in common with Madhwa and the Pasupatas, how things 
subject to the gunas can be the same as the one Nirguua, 
let this suffice for an answer ; it is the necessary condition of 
Knowledge coming into contact with Ignorance ; or, in other 
words, the Illimitable can only mirror forth His thought by 
making its reflexion subject to limitations. Just then as one 
sun being reflected in many parts of water, has his brightness 
agitated in many or in fewer of them, as may happen at any 
time, yet is free from agitation ; so the Supreme Soul putting 
itself forth in subjection to the trammels of feeling, whether 
goodness, or passion, or darkness, is yet free from trammels, 
being tranquil, and without duality. That human soul, there 
fore, which would be reunited, as a ray of light with the sun, 
must become daily more independent of all earthly sensations, 
and doing good acts rather than bad ones, yet not resting in 
any earthly acts soever, since all are alike perishable, must take 
refuge alone with the Eternal." 

" I seem now," remarked Blancombe, " to have come as 
nearly perhaps to an understanding of your doctrines as it can 
well be in the nature of things for me to arrive; and after 
troubling you with so many questions, I will not weary you 
farther at present with doubts how far all your own expressions 
and those of your religious books cohere together in a system. 
In some respects, indeed, it appears to me there is less difference 
between your doctrines and those of some Indian speculators, 
as for instance, the Bauddhas, than you apprehend to be the 
case ; for particular words seem to be used by you in different 
senses, rather than opinions radically different to be intended. 
But let that point now stand over. Yet here is a little difficulty 
which occurs to me. You began, if you remember, by explain 
ing to me some of the sacred names in the Rig- Veda, and also 
you magnified Siva as the deity to be especially honoured. 
But in all this latter part of your discourse, in which you have 



SIVA REVOLUTION. 103 

unfolded to me the profounder philosophy of your belief, all 
those names of the Eig-Veda have entirely disappeared, and not 
only is Siva left unmentioned, but the room which he might 
occupy seems assigned to a far earlier tenant. At least I under 
stand that the province of Siva is to destroy what exists, and 
in destruction to reconstruct. Surely then creation must have 
gone first, as indeed you appear to lay down, when you make 
Mayai the earthly appearance of Vach, the heavenly daughter 
of Brahma, and again identify her with the volition of that 
Spirit whom you consider so absolutely primeval, that to de 
scribe the absence of anything else you lavish phrases expressive 
of nothingness. Surely you meant me to understand all this of 
a beginning prior to any manifestation of the power of Siva?" 
"Certainly, you are quite right," said Vidyacharya, "in 
your conception that I spoke of a beginning." " Then why 
not worship the author of that beginning?" asked Blancombe. 
" I have no objection to do so," answered the other, " and I 
trust you do not understand us to reverence under the form of 
Siva any other spirit than that which has been distinctly set 
forth to you as supreme, and without duality." "Very well; 
yet why as the destroyer, rather than as the Creator?" asked 
Blancombe. "You seem to think," answered Vidyacharya, 
" that we have started from the wrong point of the cycle ; and 
certainly we are not unaware that the beginning of this Cali 
age, for example, has already been, and its end is not yet 
arrived. But what, my friend, must have been before it be 
gan? Surely there must have been an end of all the former 
ages. You have travelled, as I believe, in that mountain range 
which our inspired ancestors happily termed in Sanscrit the 
abode of snow; or, at least, you have been in your lifetime 
upon other mountains. You have observed, then, how each of 
the lower peaks appears to you in turn to be the last ; yet upon 
reaching its summit, there is perhaps a short descent, and then, 
peak upon peak again, each perhaps of greater altitude and dif 
ficulty ; just so is it then with the successive creations of the 



104 SIVA KEVOLUTION. 

world. But still more justly, perhaps, we may compare them 
to a succession of circles, of which we ourselves stand in one of 
the innermost, and perhaps the smallest; whenever the line 
which bounds our immediate vision is broken down, we say, 
Lo, a beginning; and indeed things begin again and again. 
But beyond each circle to which the horizon of our contemplation 
expands, there is again another circle, and another. No Deity, 
therefore, or, to speak more accurately, no manifestation of the 
Eternal Spirit in any form can better represent the fluctuation 
of our worlds, or more worthily receive our homage, than the 
breaker down and the re-constructer of all things in succession ; 
who Himself never ends, because He is the end of all things, 
and in Him all things begin again. From this explanation you 
will already have perceived, both why we worship principally 
Siva, and why all the benign powers, which are represented in 
the Rig-Veda as animating the lively agencies of nature, may 
be considered as forms of Him who is eternally changing, and 
in change remains the same *." 

* Vidya"charya seems to unite in his speech the philosophy of a Veda"ntist, and 
the mythology of a worshipper of Siva things difficult logically to combine. But 
such inconsistencies ought not to surprise us. 



NOTE ON PAGE 74. 

In considering whether Varuna be ovpavos, we should remember 
that in early Hindu cosmogony the heavens are called the waters, (as 
the Hebrews spoke of the waters above the firmament ?) and hence 
Varuna may possibly have got his function as " regent of the waters." 
Thus some think, that from the ambiguity of the word Rishi the seven 
stars became the seven wise men. 



APPROXIMATION OF SYSTEMS. 105 



CHAPTER IV. 

HOW CHA RVA CAS MAY BE REFUTED. 

es els TOV oupavbv KO! TO d<ppa<rTOJ> ai/rou /cdAXos, {px6/j,e0a ets twoiav roO 
AT}/j.iovpyri<rai>Tos } ws (j>r]<rl H\drwv. Vet. SchoL in Aristot. Op. Compare the 
TimcKus, p. 47, a, b, c, d, e, (p. 40, ed. Tauchnitz.) 6\f/ts 8rj /carao-r^afyiefla. 

There is a spirit in Man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him 
understanding. Book of Job. 

Bene adhibita Ratio docet quid optumum sit ; neglecta, multis implicatur 
erroribus . Cicero . 

"WELL," said Blancombe, "there is one consolatory result 
from all that has been said hitherto, however much the three 
doctrines which we have heard expounded may differ, they 
agree in a confession that there is something immortal in man, 
for the future happiness of which it is at least part of our busi 
ness upon earth to provide. For although the Muni seemed to 
make his tree of eternal intelligence have its root in earth or 
nature, while the A charya rather conceives of his soul-tree as 
fast rooted in the heavens with its faces in all directions, yet 
the first conceives of what is rooted in earth as branching up 
into the illimitable expanse of immortality, and the second 
makes his heavenly outgrowth drop its pendant boughs along 
all the worlds, so that, like a venerable banyan-tree, it becomes 
rooted frequently, and all living things grow, as it were, in its 
growth. Then again, although our wise friend Sadananda might 
seem to have departed much from all others, in that he removes 
farther from our visible world any need for a presiding and 
controlling intelligence, yet he too is warned either by nature, 
or by some monitor either inward or external, of the necessary 
existence of something, which must survive every possible dis 
location of our earthly frame, and which should disengage itself 
therefore, in time, from whatever may disqualify it for entering 



106 OBJECTIONS OF MATERIALIST. 

into the mansions of the blessed. Moreover, in the stress which 
our wise friend justly lays upon knowledge, I recognise an 
important testimony to the existence and to the value of un 
changeable truth." 

" Suppose then/ proceeded Blancombe, " we all start toge 
ther from these points on which we agreed, and add to them, if 
you think proper, any others which are not disputed among us, 
such as that the Divine Being whom we worship cares at least 
for man, and has even dwelt either once or oftener in human 
form upon earth; but in any case let us endeavour both to 
assure ourselves and to persuade others of the immortality which 
is reserved for man, and endeavour to spread the knowledge of 
whatever Divine Wisdom may enable us to lay hold on eternal 
life. For I suppose there is no danger of any Chdrvdca, such as 
those whom the Saugata refuses to associate himself with, being 
able to cheat us out of this hope ; or to persuade us that, when 
this body is dissolved, there remains for the soul no hope of an 
inheritance to come." 

" But, if you will excuse me," said Wolff, about whose 
lips there had been for some time an occasional twitching, 
as if he was itching to put in a word, " I am not quite 
sure that the materialism, as it is termed, of the Charvacas 
ought so lightly to be set aside. There are at least a few 
difficulties which they probably would allege if any of their 
abler champions happened to be present; and such as, if you 
have no objection, without at all pledging myself as one bound 
personally by them, I should like, acting only on their behalf, 
to throw out for your consideration." " They will have in you, 
I am afraid," remarked Blancombe, somewhat drily, "as I 
thought, quite as able a champion as they could have found 
in their own ranks ; but pray what are the considerations which 
you allude to as things which should be taken into account?" 

"Why it appears to me," responded Wolff, "that a large 
portion of what has been brought forward by each of our friends, 
either in explanation or defence of their several opinions, would 



CAVILS. 107 

be taken hold of by any perverse Charvaca, as throwing weight, 
so far as it goes, into his side of the balance. He would assent, 
for instance, to all that the Bauddha doctor suggested in dispa 
ragement of the Brahmans, and their sacred books, while he 
would embrace, with still greater eagerness, the Sankhya doc 
trine, expounded by Sadananda, of all things acting according 
to their properties, and especially the notion that intellect, or 
perceptive apprehension, is only an evolution of matter ; while, 
again, he might take occasion from the Vedantine subtleties 
about non-duality (Adwaita), to reject so clumsy a contrivance 
for explaining the world as that of matter and spirit; only 
instead of refining away the positive, and taking refuge in the 
impalpable, as the A charya has done, he would rather take his 
stand upon the solid substratum of the visible world, and desire 
farther proof before he assented to the necessity of anything else 
existing than that sensuous matter, which is evidently capable 
of being refined into sentient life, and which, when duly com 
prehended, seems alone to furnish as probable a solution as any 
one is, of the riddles of the world." "To be quite candid," 
proceeded Wolff, "we must observe, that whatever has been 
said of the fixed character of natural processes, and of the 
regular order in which all things proceed, or revolve, might be 
made to tell strongly on the side of any thorough materialist. 
If the control of any Deity is, as the Bauddha tells us, unne 
cessary, why should we imagine such a Being even to exist ? 
Again, if things act according to their properties now, why 
should not they always have done so ? Or why do we talk of 
beginning and ending ? where, perhaps, there may be no room, 
certainly I see no necessity, for either." " But how do you 
account for the world s being?" some one here asked. " I might 
just as well inquire of you," replied Wolff, " how would you 
account for its not being, supposing there was no world. For 
there are only two contingencies open to supposition. Either 
the world was to exist, or not. The chances may have been 
equal either way, and I am no more bound to account for the 



108 DIFFICULTIES. 

one, than you are for the other. There are many things difficult 
to explain ; but we must not therefore have recourse to an unten 
able explanation. For example, upon the principles of most of 
the persons here present, the existence of a Deity is a mystery, 
which they cannot explain ; but they do not therefore deny it. 
What if in the same manner I fully admit the existence of 
matter in general to be difficult of explanation ; yet as a neces 
sary preliminary to my own body I may consider it as necessary 
as others consider a supreme Spirit, and I may assume the one 
as my starting-point, just as priests in general may assume the 
other. Not that again I see any radical objection to admit of 
the Spirit of life as pervading matter ; though, since life is not 
everywhere, it seems to be rather a product of particular forms 
and conditions of matter. But if we only assume existence in 
any sense, things must exist in some way ; and that the way of 
their actually existing in our world is not the most intrinsically 
spontaneous, or the most likely product of the doctrine of 
chances, you would find it, perhaps, more difficult to make good 
than you may expect." 

" Not that I am ignorant," proceeded Wolff, " of all that 
has been said by pious people on the subject of design ; for they 
conceive themselves to find in the world certain traces of con 
trivance, which they argue must imply necessarily a designing 
or creative mind. Upon the whole of this topic, however, I am 
entirely agreed with the wisdom of the Sankhya philosophers. 
They justly observe, that if a minute design had either arranged 
the several parts of our system, or if a special Providence con 
trolled them severally in their motions, the result attained in 
each case would be far more perfect. For whether you suppose 
that goodness, or happiness, or anything else, is willed by the 
Creator, you do not find it produced so as to correspond with the 
will which you imagine. Nor do I speak here of what you 
would say results from the wickedness of man, but of things 
which would be parts of what you consider the original scheme. 
The seeds of life, for example, are scattered upon barren and 



DIFFICULTIES. 109 

inhospitable shores, where they languish or perish ; desires are 
implanted in man, which in many cases he can never hope to 
gratify, but without the gratification of which he cannot be 
happy ; and if, by some perverse logic, you resolve this neces 
sary disappointment into the fault or sin of mankind, you still 
observe the rest of the animal creation, without any such sin, are 
liable to similar sufferings; nay, they seem even appointed to 
prey upon each other ; and thus mutual rivalries and lusts and 
slaughters, such as one of the speakers to-day has termed canni 
balisms, come in aid of that stock of pain which was already 
engendered by the unequal operations of nature storm and ship 
wreck, earthquake and pestilence, tropical fevers and Arctic 
freezings, with all the accidents of fire and water which confirm 
what our friends here believe of Nature being blind, rather than 
any theory of her manifesting a creative design. 

" But, indeed, the pious people to whom I have alluded do not 
seem to reflect, that what they call proofs of design should rather 
be termed conditions of existence. Either water is to flow, or it 
is to stand still ; if it is upon a declivity, I want no design to 
account for its flowing down, rather than up, or for its cleaving 
itself a channel, which in time will be a torrent, and which men 
will call the handiwork of God. Thus, if a plant is to live, it 
must struggle forth into the light; and all the organisation, 
which botanists explain, of stem and bark and leaves and calyx 
and blossom, with the moisture feeding it from below, and the 
air from above, are only circumstances, or conditions, within 
which alone earth and air and water could be refined into a tulip 
or a rose. The case, as regards the higher forms of life, is essen 
tially the same. There is no chemist who cannot explain to you 
the proportions in which various earths are mixed, or ought to 
be mixed, together in our bodies ; and there is no part of our 
intellectual functions which may not be sufficiently explained by 
reference to the organs of which we are made, and the order in 
which they are disposed. Not that I deny the organising breath 
of life, as it is the last refinement of nature, so to be most subtle 



OBSCURITY ALLEGED. 

in its operations, and most difficult to apprehend. There is no 
reason, however, for making it different in man from what it is 
in the elephant, or for supposing it to be any other than a pro 
duct of sensuous matter. But so much of the systems of some 
one or other of our three friends might here be quoted in his 
favour by any materialising Charvaca, that it is needless for me 
to dwell longer on that point. 

" Perhaps, indeed, with reference to any supposed author of 
the conditions of life already spoken of, it might be safer to 
observe a guarded neutrality, not very unlike that of the Saugata 
Muni, than either to adopt the direct negation of Sadananda, or 
the positive dogma of Vidyacharya. All that need be said on 
this branch of the subject is, we have no evidence of a supreme 
and designing Iswara so cogent as to justify us in making it an 
article of necessary belief, instead of rather leaving the whole 
question, as being a very intricate one, to the researches of specu 
lative men. But the weak point in each one of the systems 
which has been expounded, is evidently that at which they begin 
to insist on a future state, as a thing either of certainty, or of 
imminent concern. As to those arguments indeed of an histo 
rical kind, which may be drawn from a supposed revelation, 
perhaps I am not quite competent to deal with them. But on 
this head it may be sufficient to balance the Saugata and Vidya 
charya against each other. When they have fully agreed, which 
of their opposite revelations has the greater claim on my accept 
ance, it may be time for me to consider it. But upon what 
ground the philosopher Sadananda should agree with them in 
such a general principle as that of a future state, fairly passes 
my comprehension. The same life which dwells in man is also 
the vital principle of beasts, and since we do not find it careful 
to reanimate in their case the forms which it has once tenanted, 
and which have perished from its grasp, why should we imagine 
it to act differently in the case of man? 

" We can have done nothing, as two at least of the speakers 
already agree, to merit a renewal of that life which it is sufficient 



PHYSICAL INFLUENCES. Ill 

for us to have once enjoyed. The foundation for a hope of its 
revival seems either to be a certain knowledge which we are 
supposed to attain as an immortalising principle, or else the 
identity of our souls with the supreme Being. If then that 
knowledge be a dream, and that fancy of identity a delusion, 
what becomes of the inference which has been drawn from them ? 
In fact, if our perception be the product ofPracriti, as Sadananda 
informs us, or, as perhaps we should say, of organisation, there 
is no manner of reason, as Dr Blancombe justly suggested, for 
importing the supposition of a soul. For why humanity, or its 
life, should be like a stage-play, I cannot pretend to understand. 

" Upon the whole, the simplest mode of belief appears also 
the more rational ; or so at least the Charvaca might argue. He 
might plausibly enough urge, that no sufficient ground has been 
shewn for suppositions which are unnecessary either to the 
happiness of life, or to the logical completeness of our theories 
respecting it. Say anything that you please, of man being a 
higher and a more conscious form of life than a vegetable, or a 
being of nobler destiny than the short-lived beasts of the field ; 
but any firm arguments for removing him out of the same great 
order of nature, and placing him apart, as a sort of supernatural 
visitor in this life, and by right an heir of immortality, are as 
yet to be adduced by the defenders of that theory." 

Some such sentiments as the above were propounded by 
Wolff, half in the person of a Charvaca, and half (as it appeared) 
in his own. But I confess that I may not have done full justice 
to him, for his speech was longer than I have reported. He said 
a great deal about the influence of climate and soil upon man 
kind; how some men under the sun of the Tropics became 
negroes, and others amid Northern snows were bleached and 
stunted into dwarfs ; how the thoughts of men were as much the 
creation of circumstances as their forms ; how imagination in all 
ages had been active, and all religions were so blended with 
error, that it was difficult to disengage the modicum of truth ; 
how again, if spirit and matter were distinct things, it would be 



112 BODY SPIRIT SYNTHESIS NATURALISM. 

impossible for the two ever to come into intelligent contact ; how 
some might consider the two as eternally incompatible, and 
others make form an out-bodying of spirit, and others fuse the 
two into one self-modifying and self-contemplating consciousness, 
or activity; but how all difficulties were best solved by the 
simple expedient of considering matter as the starting point of 
speculation, and then imagining this matter to be refined into 
various forms of life ; which, having enjoyed their day, might 
be again recast into new forms of inertness or activity, as the 
case might be. In some parts of his argument it nearly re 
sembled that of the Saugata, except that he entirely rejected the 
religious teaching of Sakya, as a rule of life; but again he 
allowed a certain weight to the humane affections and aspira 
tions after good in general, which he represented as being in man 
something like flowers upon trees, the legitimate, and perhaps 
ornamental, outgrowth of our development. All such things, 
however, he contended, ought to be rigorously restrained within 
limits, lest, being natural in some men, they should be enjoined 
as a law upon others, who had no such tendency, and in whom 
it could only be a weakness or a servitude. 

From these hints you will readily conjecture the nature of 
the man. Perhaps also you will be able to divine how each of 
the native disputants endeavoured to refute him. For example, 
they each and all appealed to their various sacred books, of 
which there is more to come hereafter. The Saugata seemed to 
lay much stress upon the necessary tendency of good men to 
grow upwards in a kind of devout intelligence. Sadananda 
again urged the general need of some worship, and appealed to 
the consciousness of mankind for proof that soul exists within us 
as a spectator, and that it is something different in kind from 
the material agencies of life ; nay that it is even known by 
itself with more certainty, as of self-recognition, than they can 
be observed. But the more difficult arguments were those of 
Vidyacharya. They turned partly on authority, and partly on 
moral grounds, but still more upon some subtle metaphysics, by 



CHRISTIAN PREMISES. 113 

which he shewed all this material world to have no more solid 
existence than pictures or shadows in a dream, so that the only 
remaining substantiality was, as he argued, the eternal thought, 
or all-embracing spirit, of which he had before spoken. But, I 
must confess, that in listening to all this discussion, I lost occa 
sionally the thread, and became so confused with over-strained 
attention, as not always to know upon which side any one of 
the party was arguing, or what he intended to prove. 

After some time, however, Blancombe again spoke. " Well," 
he said, " it would not be easy for me to profess entire adoption 
of the sentiments of any one of the speakers hitherto. But, if my 
vote were to be given with either of the two parties into which 
this stage of the discussion is splitting us, it would certainly be 
with those who maintain a hope beyond the grave, rather than 
with the saddening ingenuity, which has endeavoured to take it 
away. Perhaps, after all the wisdom which has been exerted 
on the same side, it may be of no great use my speaking ; yet, 
since there are some considerations which have not been brought 
forward, and which, without being distinctively Christian, still 
harmonise with the faith which we entertain, perhaps you will 
not refuse to take them into the general reckoning." Being here 
encouraged by the company, who were evidently disposed to be 
attentive, Blancombe then proceeded : 

" As we are sitting with our eyes more or less directed to 
each other, it is sufficiently clear, how much of our knowledge is 
gained through the faculty of sight. Nor would there be much 
use, in the presence of persons who have analysed the human 
frame pretty exactly, if I were to enlarge upon the other senses, 
such as our power of hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling, if 
indeed these three last, or rather the whole five, are not simple 
modifications of one, namely, touch ; or rather, of nervous 
sensation. All these, however, may be called the five mes 
sengers, as in some of your books I have seen them called; 
for by their means all kinds of intimations from the external 
world are conveyed to whatever constitutes our self, or, as 
M. p. 8 



114 SENSATION AND JUDGMENT. 

some of you say, mimics a personality within us. But we feel 
in ourselves at least one kind of knowledge, sufficiently dis 
tinct from perceptions derived through the senses, though not 
unconnected with them. For we not only record and classify 
our perceptions, but we form judgments upon them ; and draw 
all sorts of inferences from them. This internal faculty of 
judging, which seems to me what I should call my self, but 
which any one who pleases may call the subtle person, or by 
any other name, does not always accept appearances as they 
strike the eye, but brings them as it were to its own tribunal, 
and judges them by a law of its own. Often, even although the 
bodily senses may affirm them positively, it rejects them as not 
true, or condemns them as it were to annihilation, if they con 
tradict this mental law, which is in whatever way established." 

"But may I interrupt you for a moment?" here interposed 
Wolff. " If you please," said the other. " Suppose then," said 
he, " our reason (as you think) rejects things manifestly contra 
dictory or irrational as untrue, however strongly a diseased vision 
may paint them, still is this law of reason anything more than a 
collective inference, or a generalisation from things already 
observed? Or what is reason itself, but taking account of 
things perceived? Ratiocination comes out of counting, and 
perhaps counting from the formation of our fingers. So that, 
in fact, is it not the majority of appearances, after all, which 
being treasured in the memory, overbear the minority? Your 
mental law then, as an offspring of the mind, vanishes." 

"Why," answered Blancombe, "there are wise men who 
hold, in opposition to what you have advanced, that pure reason, 
or the very power (and perhaps I may call it the ghostliness) of 
the mind, sees truths with as direct an eye of its own, as the life 
in the body apprehends external objects ; and this directness of 
vision may be called intuition. All the highest and most 
general truths, either of a moral or an intellectual kind, are, as 
such persons conceive, presented to that power in the soul, 
which is the most godlike and illimitable element in its being, 



LAWS OF THOUGHT. 115 

so that it seizes upon them intuitively, and, in virtue of such 
appreciation of primal truths, becomes able to talk with the 
unseen destinies, which have moulded the remotest Past, and 
will direct the course of the Future for ever. But for my own 
part I must confess a suspicion, that what is often called intui 
tion, is, in fact, only a rapid inference ; and I have not argued 
as if the law, by which our mind tries appearances, would have 
been apprehended as it is in the present life by the mind itself, 
if it had not been first educated for the scene with which it is 
here conversant through those very perceptions which furnish it 
with facts to reason upon, though certainly not with the power 
which reasons. But even the act of comparison, without which 
the mind could not classify things, putting like to like, and 
setting inconsistencies asunder, alone implies a faculty quite 
distinct from any bodily organ. If indeed any one likes to say that 
it involves mental intuition, I will not object to it. Only it is 
sufficient for me to observe, that the necessary order in which 
perceptions must be noted and brought to account, so as to 
mould their results into truth, is not itself a product of sensation; 
but is either some instinct which may be educed from the mind, 
or rather perhaps a portion of that higher order, which the mind 
observes to embrace both itself, and all things whatsoever w^ith 
which it comes in contact, and which it naturally conceives to 
imply a Thought, not to say at present a Thinker, presiding 
over the course of the world. You will perhaps catch my 
meaning more clearly, if you remark the different use made 
of the same appearances by a man in his sound senses, and a 
madman. There is such a thing as madness, and the sensations 
of persons suffering from it are often very acute. Yet they, 
seeing the same things as other men, draw most absurd and 
distorted inferences, for want of that controlling faculty which 
compares and arranges according to the law apprehended by the 
mind. Without then venturing to say that ideas are innate, or 
even inherent, in the mind, I certainly ascribe to any reasoning 
man a kind of knowledge, or at least an internal law and a 

82 



TRUTH OF NUMBERS. 

method of dealing with knowledge, distinct from that of the 
senses, and I conceive your objection extends only so far as to 
indicate a part of the instrumentality, just as one may point to a 
mason s scaffolding or his bricks ; but you no more negative the 
existence of something higher, than in the other case one could 
argue that a builder had no power of contriving and measuring. 
" If now you ask for specimens of the kind of knowledge 
referred to, I fully believe that clear instances of it may be 
found in the general rules of right and wrong, and in all the 
broad principles connected with the conscience and the affections 
of man ; yet many persons will conceive there to be more evi 
dent signs of it in the positive sciences which regard number, 
quantity, and space. You will tell me, as before, that arithmetic 
depends upon counting. But you may detach any sort of num 
bers you please from all sorts of visible objects ; and you can 
deal with them as pure abstractions of the mind. Now it is 
only when thus abstracted, or set apart from sensation, that 
numbers acquire that certainty which all the world ascribes to 
them. People may differ by scores in counting a flock of sheep, 
and by much more in numbering cowries or sand ; but remove 
your figures out of the range of sensible objects into the intellec 
tual region of pure knowledge, and immediately you have the 
means of arriving at results, which our clever friend Sadananda 
would not hesitate to adopt, and which persons differing from 
him widely in other things, and in countries far apart, still 
would never venture to impugn. There is then such a thing as 
truth, and it can be most irrefragably affirmed of things most 
within the range of the mind. If I had studied the measure 
ment of space as thoroughly as some neighbours of mine in 
Britain, I could multiply a number of apposite principles, such, 
however, as Saddnanda will be good enough readily to recollect 
for me ; for example, that any two sides in any triangle must 
exceed the third, though we may not have measured with our 
fingers the particular triangle spoken of; or again, that some 
kinds of figures, and some numbers, are commensurate; while 



MATHEMATICS. 117 

others (setting aside the unit) are not so ; or again, that parallel 
lines will never meet, which we foresee, though we cannot test 
it to infinity; or that the whole is more than its part, or that 
the equal of one of two equals must be equal to the other. For 
these very simple instances will perhaps serve my argument as 
well as more abstruse ones. Now all these, and a thousand 
other such things, are truths intellectual, rather than sensible, 
though the senses may help in leading us up to them. We are 
also more certainly persuaded of them, in proportion as the pure 
intellect has more to do with them. When such things are 
taken hold of by men of deep thought and patient calculation, 
they grow up into vast sciences, such as are utterly remote from 
the ordinary perceptions of mankind, and yet such as are quite 
indisputably certain, even while they startle us most. You 
know that the mathematicians and astronomers of India were 
not uncelebrated in former times. It is related of Bhascara, 
who is believed to have lived six hundred years ago, that he 
gave clear solutions of some problems in algebra, which were 
not known in Europe until four hundred years after his time ; and 
the same priority is claimed for him as regards a certain method 
of calculating ; and yet as soon as the result and the method 
of Bhascara are known in Europe, the truth of the one, and the 
merit of the other, are immediately recognised for it does not 
depend on local differences, or on any choice of our own, whether 
we shall acknowledge such truths, or deny them ; because they 
are evident. You can therefore appreciate the kind of intel 
lectual certainty of which I am speaking. 

" Then again it may be worth noticing, that such general 
truths as are apprehended by the intellect in science, may also 
be applied to all manner of useful contrivances in the external 
world. All the practical arts and manufactures flourish most 
wherever science is cultivated by their side. Whether men 
make fire and water their servants, compelling them either to 
draw their chariots, like horses, or to put in motion all kinds of 
machinery, so as both to lessen human toil and increase the 






TRUTH PROCREATIVE. 

comforts of life, or whether they extract from the earth minerals 
and medicines such as ruder ages never dreamt of, you have the 
intellectual process of knowing in every case supposed as a 
preliminary. By such means the face of countries has been 
changed, and nations have attained power or civilisation. 
Whereas other nations, among whom intellectual knowledge 
languishes, either gradually lose whatever useful inventions their 
fathers may have possessed, and fall back into the state of 
savages, or at least they are outstripped in the race of greatness 
by more intellectual nations. 

"Here then I doubt whether to argue, or only to prepare you 
for my arguing hereafter, that general principles, or truths of 
the most intellectual kind, may be observed by us as clearly 
involved in the very fabric of the world. You see, already, to 
how great a conclusion this idea points the way. I am not in 
this place employing the old argument from design, in the sense 
of adaptation of means to ends, though probably we shall see 
hereafter that it is a thoroughly sound one. Only, as you have 
attempted to explain that away, and the refinements of our 
Sankhyast friend on the subject of Pracriti, as well as his obser 
vation of irregularities in the world, will render him unwilling 
to admit it, so I here suggest to you a distinct idea. The 
argument from design will apply to such a thing as a watch, 
or whatever is made with art, by hand. It holds good for the 
world therefore, so far as any one can reduce the world within 
that description of things. But now, suppose an artist could 
throw down the materials of a watch apparently at random, yet 
really in such definite proportions that they should unite and 
begin to proclaim the time, the process would be still more 
wonderful. Or again, suppose he threw on the ground a vast 
and apparently infinite quantity of materials, with silver, steel, 
glass, and so on, or even their ruder elements, all in confusion ; 
yet suppose he had so contrived these, that, although the mass 
was indefinite in quantity, its several parts should unite in 
clearly defined proportions, so that in each case either a watch, 



FORETHOUGHT IN CREATION. 119 

or something like a watch, should be produced ; and this not so 
much by special contrivance in each case, as either by the 
affinities and tendencies skilfully imparted to each kind of com 
ponent element in the general admixture of materials, or else, 
if you please, by the unseen hand of the artist associating what 
ever might duly correspond, you would certainly say, this 
forecasting power, which implied an intelligence acting upon the 
most general laws or universal truths, was also a more manifest 
exhibition of Mind. That then which I would here observe in 
passing is, if the world does not shew special design in each 
particular case, it shews something more wonderful. It shews 
general laws, which imply ideas or thoughts in a mind, which at 
any rate must be to the whole expanse of the universe nothing 
less than the mind of a man in proportion to the house which 
he builds by his mechanical knowledge. An ancient Greek, 
whose thoughts were somewhat akin to the better wisdom of 
India, said that God works by geometry ; and in the same sense 
another said, Mind must be the arranger of the world ; for both, 
as I imagine, found the most positive and yet the most general 
ideas to which science leads us, involved as principles in the 
combination and evolution of the universe. No one, for example, 
would ascribe a balance on the grandest scale, or the power of 
maintaining the universe in equilibrium by a combination of 
opposing forces, to chance ; or imagine it possible without such a 
knowledge of mechanical principles, as cannot be without Mind. 
But surely I need not instruct you whose ancestors 1 are said to 
have suspected the key to the solar system, while the centre of 
its gravitation was yet inverted in Europe, how wonderfully the 
planets, of which our Earth is one, revolve around the central 
orb of the Sun, being at once attracted to him by his greater 
weight, and yet repelled by the swing of their own career, so 
that they persist in regular revolution throughout countless 
years. Why then should I stay to argue, except by a passing 

1 Compare Colebrooke s Essays, and Elphinstone, Book III. Chap. i. and the 
authorities there quoted. 



120 ATOMICAL COMBINATION. 

suggestion, that this wonderful balance, even if it did not 
minister to purposes of life and beneficence (which however 
makes my inference stronger), still would come of a law, which 
implies thought, and that by thinking we are led up to Mind ? 

" Or again, to take a case, which will fall in tolerably with some 
of your atomical philosophy to which the Saugata has alluded ; 
though Canada and his followers among you have very ingeniously 
reduced the existing forms of life to minute atoms, they were 
apparently not aware that such atoms combine in certain fixed 
proportions. For they are not mere particles, consisting all alike 
of an indiscrete mass, and differing only, or resembling, in size. 
But they are of different kinds, harder or softer, and heavier or 
lighter, with different properties of all sorts, such as metals or salts, 
and so on. These kinds are perhaps upwards of fifty in number. 
Some of them do not appear to admit of combination, so far as 
I know ; but most of them may be combined and mingled, so 
that from their mingling, some third thing results as a compound. 
An atom of hydrogen, for instance, and eight times its weight 
of oxygen, whether this weight come of one atom or of more, 
combine in water; or again, an atom of hydrogen and sixteen 
times its weight of sulphur, give you hydrosulphuric acid. Now 
these proportions in which the atoms, estimated by weight, are 
found to combine, are neither arbitrary nor variable. Wherever 
you have water, you have the same proportion in its elements ; 
and whatever elements combine, do so either in one or more 
proportions, as the case may be, but not indefinitely, or without 
a limitation tending to some result, as a mean tends to an end. 
Again, if two kinds of atoms combine with a third, then they also 
combine with each other in such degrees or quantities as admit 
of being compared and measured against the degree of combi 
nation with the third ; or in such quantities as can be measured, 
for example, by the numbers one, eight, sixteen, and thirty-two. 
Perhaps this proportion may be more nicely traced in the 
rolling fluid of bodies melted and made volatile by heat, or in 
what are called gases, than it can in bodies of a more solid kind. 



NATURAL LAWS DIVINE THOUGHTS. 121 

But so fixed are the proportions of combination, and so evidently 
natural, that if in experiments you put the right quantities of 
two kinds of atoms together, they will all mingle, and be mutually 
absorbed ; but if you put too much of one, the other will take 
up so much as is naturally due to it, and leave the rest un 
affected. So again, when you have learnt the proportion or 
degree in which single atoms of certain kinds combine, you 
may calculate the ratio which the whole mass of the one kind 
will bear to the other in any given compound. All this may 
be followed out by close observers of such things into very 
complex combinations. But you must allow, that nothing is 
traceable as a system by thought, but what thought first devised. 
For the observer s method is the author s design. Chance, if 
there be such a thing as chance, has no rule ; and mystery, so 
far as things are really mysterious, admits only of imperfect rea 
soning upon whatever law it conceals, or dimly hints to us. 

" Here then I say, that to have embodied even in the primary 
processes by which particles in nature combine, the traces at 
least of a law, which thought can investigate, is a thing which 
implies ordaining Mind. It has also been found, that the more 
widely men extend their glance over nature, and the more 
minutely they pore over each part, the more vividly are they 
struck everywhere by such marks of intelligence, forecasting 
as well as preserving, though the range of the forecast may 
be too vast, and with too many aspects, for us to be able to tell 
out all its counsel. 

" While then good men in general prefer, and perhaps wisely, 
to find those apprehensions of the Deity which they consider 
necessary, planted deep in the affections and aspirations of Man, 
I could not refrain from urging, that no less positive and bind 
ing testimony to the same need is furnished also by the naked 
intellect. So that, without denying that the lively and believ 
ing agent within us, may be in general most wholesomely 
appealed to, in virtue of its hopes and sympathies, as the Soul, 
I still think a heavenward aspect may be won, not merely from 



122 MIND OF MAN - 

what it hopes or fears or is willing to embrace, but also from 
what it is convinced of in its unbiassed understanding, as the 
Mind. 

" But we ought not to be here anticipating the question about 
a Creator, so much as inquiring whether, apart from our bodily 
organisation, we have what is properly called Mind. It has 
sufficiently come out, as, at least in my own judgment, a necessary 
inference, that from our having a non-bodily or suprasensual 
knowledge, we have also a non-bodily knower; and I should 
not wonder if, just as our most intellectual science is if compared 
to the sensations of the moment, so our immaterial intellect may 
be when compared to the bodily machinery with which it is 
associated for awhile. Our most vivid sensations, and even the 
most violent passions of love or suspicion, pass away so entirely, 
that we almost wonder at ourselves for having ever entertained 
them. But the acquirements of the intellect are, at least for 
mankind as a whole, a more durable property ; the deep thoughts 
of the mind fly upon the wings of speech, from father to son ; 
and the sacred inheritance of knowledge is often transmitted, 
through the wreck of empires and the entire subjugation of races, 
to regions remote in time and space from the explorer with 
whom some great discovery began. It seems then to me not 
natural that an immortal fruit should grow on a perishable tree j 
and I conceive that, whatever element within us acquires or 
prolongs the kind of knowledge above spoken of, will at least 
outlive the bodily frame, whose sensations manifestly perish 
with itself. It confirms me somewhat in this opinion, that I 
observe no animals lower than man appear to enjoy anything of 
this kind of knowledge, or to have any higher guidance than 
blind instinct, and accordingly they leave no work behind them, 
or only such things as nests, which the storm of any year may 
sweep away. However difficult it may be to make good against 
your Indian ingenuity, so wide a gulf as we conceive to exist 
between Man and all other animals, you must admit the above 
difference to be a striking one. Man improves and perpetuates ; 



DISTINCTNESS OF MIND. 123 

the lower animals follow each their species, and work, as they 
live, for a day. 

" One more remark I will here make, and then I have finished 
with this section of my argument. Just as the knowledge 
above especially spoken of, is most intellectual when it is most 
abstracted from combination with material objects, so the know 
ing principle which corresponds to it, or our mind, seems to use 
the bodily organisation as a necessary accompaniment up to 
certain points, rather than to consider it as any part of itself; 
and as the catastrophes which destroy men or nations often fail 
to extinguish the light of their knowledge, so the injuries which 
mutilate our body seem to have no correspondent power of 
crippling our mind. We find, for example, that a man loses 
one limb after another, without the power of thought being 
necessarily impaired ; and even after death, no cunning of the 
anatomist has ever demonstrated any organ which constituted in 
itself the essential power of thinking. Kather indeed we observe 
that every limb may remain entire, but the whole bulk of the most 
comely or gigantic form takes no cognisance of either friend or 
foe, if that far more subtle and etherial spirit, which no one has 
ever touched with scalpel, or weighed with scales, has vanished 
into the unsearchable embrace of Him from whom it came. As 
then our knowledge, in proportion as it is purely intellectual, is 
permanent; and yet in this life it cannot be altogether disengaged 
from things which perish ; so I trust the intellect which entertains 
it, will, when, separated from things corruptible, be itself immortal. 

" But secondly, as in the first place, I have attempted to 
sever the intellectual from the sensuous, so now let me distinguish 
the will from the appetites, which may also be called the lusts. 
Now here, again, it is very evident that men are prompted by 
natural instincts to seek certain things, for which they stretch 
out their hands greedily, as conceiving them to be either neces 
sary or pleasant. For example, I mean the appetites or lusts of 
meat and drink, or any kind of seeking to which our bodily 
desires prompt us. It seems ridiculous to say that such things 



124 DESIRE AND VOLITION. 

are altogether wrong in themselves ; for how without them 
would mankind exist ? Yet to you least of all men living need 
I explain the calamities which men bring on themselves and 
others by over greedy indulgence in all sorts of appetites. 
Hence it is often said by men who do not much reflect on such 
subjects, that the will of man is depraved. If indeed by will 
they mean merely futurition, or what a man is likely to do, 
their statement might be correct enough. But pray consider, 
whether by will we do not rather mean choice, or that which a 
man chooses either to do or to have done, supposing he be free 
from any kind of coercion as regards his own conduct, or can 
guide the course of events as to what he wishes to obtain. 
Perhaps, indeed, we may conveniently apply the name of 
wishing to the desire of objects which are at the disposal of 
others ; and so we may retain the term will as denoting rather 
choice in relation to our own conduct. But now what a rational 
man wills to do depends very much upon his knowledge. There 
can be no motives applied to the will stronger than those which 
result from our knowing how things really are. I should not 
then wonder if what is most properly called the will should be 
the determination of our reason, or that inclination to act in a 
particular way which arises from knowing truth. If then the 
eyes of the understanding are darkened, so that a man fancies 
whatever any lust may persuade him is pleasant for the moment 
to be also for his permanent happiness, the will is perverted by 
a wrong bias, and the man perishes for lack of knowledge. But 
very often, where the will is thoroughly informed, and is deter 
mined in itself upon full vision of the truth to choose the right, 
there arises a conflict against it from all sorts of lusts and temp 
tations which endeavour to overbear its purpose, and make a 
man against his will embrace perdition. In such struggles a 
man cries out, What I will that I do not, but what I will not 
that I do. He is conscious that his true humanity and his will, 
or his innermost self, are on the side of Good, but all manner of 
appetites associated with the senses beset him so as to form the 



STRIFE OF THE INNER MAN. 125 

mimicry of a will, or a spurious personality not unlike that 
consciousness which Sadananda has called the subtle person, 
and which he distinguishes somehow from the innermost soul. 
Probably all men feel often in the course of their lives many 
symptoms of the conflict to which I allude ; but the difference 
between good and bad men is that, in the first, by some power 
or assistance, the true will, which was the offspring of truth, 
triumphs gradually more and more ; while in the second, I mean 
the bad, the lust thrusts itself step by step more into their inner 
being, and so darkens their perceptions of right, that it becomes 
at last the very will of the sinner, the light which God gave 
him of a purer knowledge, which should have kept alive a holier 
inclination, being at last utterly extinguished. What power or 
what help that may be, whether inherent, or supravenient, which 
keeps alive in the happier man a true knowledge and an un- 
depraved will, perhaps here we need not stay to inquire. But 
it is clear, that whatever such power may be, it belongs to that 
which is most godlike, either in the original kindred of the soul, 
or in some heavenly alliance which it contracts ; and what par 
ticularly strikes me is, that such a struggle being carried on, 
and often brought to a triumphant issue by the soul, against all 
the temptations with which perishable things encompass it, may 
furnish one testimony, and that not the slightest, to the proba 
bility of some better destiny s awaiting it hereafter. 

" Thirdly, however, the will of man, which, in so far as it 
knows the truth, chooses life and goodness, is not only distracted 
by a false inclination from the lusts already spoken of, but is 
also associated with other desires and feelings, which perhaps 
generally we may class as the affections. By an affection we 
perhaps mean any lively personal feeling, of which one is con 
scious in regard to something external. For whether a man 
has something pleasant happen to him, so that he rejoices, or 
painful, so that he grieves ; or whether he receives kindnesses 
or the contrary, so that he feels gratitude or resentment; or 
whether he regards his neighbour for any cause with either love, 



126 AFFECTIONS OR PASSIONS. 

hatred, or compassion; or lastly, whether he hopes for some 
uncertain advantage, or fears some possible evil, or looks upward 
with aspiration to whomever he regards as highest and best, in 
all these and in any similar cases, which come within the class 
of affections, there is implied both a lively activity, and also a 
reference to something external. Perhaps also the affections 
take hold in some measure of the entire personal consciousness, 
so that the mind, or whatever appears to us mind, claims a 
larger share in them than in the mere appetites. Whether then 
the affections are right or wrong, that is, whether they are 
exercised as they are due to their several objects, seems either 
to determine, or depend upon the question, whether the man 
owning them is good or bad. I need not prove what all man 
kind allow, as for instance, in the case of filial piety, or of 
unnatural hatred. Only here let us put aside those among the 
affections which are least dependent upon the will, such as we 
generally call the Feelings, because a man feels them involun 
tarily. Nor do I wish to include at present those of a religious 
kind which seem higher, since at least they aspire to the highest 
object. But of the great mass of affections remaining, some 
have the greatest power to torment, and some to bless. The 
furious paroxysm of anger, and the scowling brow of discontent, 
with all the pale pining, the restlessness, and the crime, which 
make bad men scourges no less to themselves than their neigh 
bours, have been often described by poets, and are proverbial 
among mankind. The man who harbours such guests in his 
mind, if ever he awaken from the madness which they inspire, 
confesses himself miserable under them, but he seldom knows 
how to escape from their control. Yet there was, probably, a 
time in his life when he might have done so. But when such 
affections have waxed mighty, so that one suffers in constraining 
them, they are properly called passions, and the same change of 
name might have been applied to the appetites. When however 
any conflict, such as has been mentioned, takes place, it is far 
more terrible with an emotion which absorbs the whole personal 



BETTER AFFECTIONS. 127 

being than with an appetite which only torments the body. 
Here then, as before, I wish you to observe, that if any man 
comes off triumphant in the struggle with the worst enemies 
that ever assail his peace, and with calm brow leads resentment 
or jealousy a silent captive, he obtains this deep joy only 
through the religious sentiment which the theory of the mate 
rialist tends to obliterate." 

"Is that altogether the case?" asked Wolff, "or do not 
scenery, music, and in general either quiet or distraction calm 
the disturbances of the mind?" " Perhaps in such things there 
is a mitigating power," replied Blancombe; "especially in the 
roar of ocean, or the deep stillness of the mountains. For in 
such places there dwells silently something of the majesty of 
their Maker ; but after all, it is chiefly in virtue of the religious 
solemnity with which such things imbue the mind, that they 
have power to tranquillize it. Otherwise, the mere physical 
relief through any variety of silence or of noise can only divert 
for a time, and does not reach the deep sources of the more 
turbid passions. Or at least the case is so with many men, 
though possibly not with all. Whereas in prayer, which is the 
expression of the religious feeling, men find a wonderful relief. 

" But turn to our more pleasant sensations of mind, such as 
hope and love. These are things so necessary to us, that the 
springs from whence their instincts flow can never utterly be 
dried, but if they are denied a healthy outlet, they turn into 
dangerous bitterness. Yet all these either seldom or never con 
tinue pure and blessed throughout any man s life, unless he has 
mingled them with that higher sentiment, which all along now 
we are beginning to have in mind. Who is a faithful friend, or 
who is righteous in all the temptations of love and hatred, or 
whose hope is unshaken in distress, and his calm trust in some 
unfailing resource continued throughout all the changes and 
chances of this mortal life ? I will render for myself no answer, 
but only desire any one who has experience of the world to 
observe, whether such a description does not invariably apply 



128 RELIGIOUS INSTINCTS. 

to persons who will be found on our side in this stage of the 
discussion, and not on that of the Charvaca. Go on now, if 
you please, to what I have called the higher, or more heavenly 
affections. We all know, there are such things as awe, and 
reverence, and trust, and love of that mental kind which fastens 
itself on unseen or ideal things. It would require many days 
for me to enlarge upon these affections, as each of them deserves. 
But any one can easily see, how one of them gives soberness, 
and another gentleness to a man s character ; or again, how to 
trust in any friend essentially free from limit of time and dis 
tance, and darkness or dungeon, may strengthen an afflicted soul 
against every fleshly or mental enemy ; while indeed none but 
those who have had experience can imagine, what deeds of 
self-devotion, and suffering, and charity, have been gone through 
by men who, in loving God, seem thereby to have imbibed 
somewhat of His nature. Whereas, on the other hand, these 
very feelings like the others, if they are not rightly directed, 
seem to fall back and harden in corruption. One becomes re 
morse, and another shame, and another a torturing superstition. 
So that, in short, all the affections of man, which, trained in a 
particular way would either have begotten religion, or have 
cherished it, and in that case would make a man happy, useful, 
and honoured, all these, if they are not allowed to grow into 
religion, harden and corrupt themselves into divers forms of 
misery. What conclusion then can I draw, but that, for some 
reason or other, religion is as necessary to a man s mind as the 
light of heaven is requisite to aid his bodily vision ?" 

" But I have never denied," here remarked Wolff, " that for 
a man s feelings to be rightly directed, is a very happy circum 
stance ; nor have I so much argued against any general devo 
tion, in which the instincts find a satisfaction, towards whatever 
mysterious Power may encompass the world. It is the unne 
cessary minuteness of dogmatism, and the unwarranted assump 
tions about a soul and a future state, with which my Charvaca 
client would find fault." 



CONSCIENCE. 129 

"You have reminded me," replied Blancombe, "of what I 
doubted whether it should not be mentioned immediately after 
the Understanding and the Will I mean the Conscience. But 
since the affections have much to do with it, and, in my own opi 
nion, contribute essentially to its operations, it seemed right to 
defer it ; yet principally the Conscience is a product of the Under 
standing and the Will, especially when these are biassed against 
their choice by an inclination from any passion. I must not, 
however, omit to mention with due honour what the venerable 
A charya will esteem a wiser opinion. Many have imagined 
that conscience is a sense of the clash between divine know 
ledge and our own guilty remembrance; as when our sense of 
doing a thing wrong, and God s sight of the wrong, come in 
collision. But, again, here it suffices me, if, either from want of 
penetration, or from a fear of thinking unbecomingly of the Most 
Blessed, any one will consider our conscience as ourself judging 
ourself ; or as the Mind discriminating right and wrong, such 
discrimination being most keenly sensitive as we become con 
scious of wrong. Still please to observe, that conscience pre 
supposes knowledge: and what kind of knowledge? Surely the 
most spiritual form of that higher kind which we have already 
seen belongs to nothing grosser than Mind; for neither the most 
abstract numbers or measures, nor the most subtle consequences 
ever deduced from any combination of them, imply a knowledge 
so little dependent on the bodily senses, as this faculty of forming 
moral judgments even on the thoughts of the heart, and awarding 
praise or blame according to a standard higher than even lan 
guage can express. Much more then, I say, the whole power of 
conscience is an argument for greater faculties in man than 
belong to the brutes, and for a higher destiny awaiting him. 
If any one told us, he found a jury of tigers met to try any 
animal who had violated the laws of life, we should reject the 
story as not only a fiction but absurd; but there is no nation 
among men in which the power of conscience has not shewn 
itself so far as to devise some methods of aiming at justice and 
M. p. 9 



130 CONSCIENCE. 

arresting crime. You see then how much better we are than 
the brutes; and better in virtue of a power which implies a 
knowledge, such as only a spiritual faculty could support, and 
perhaps only the Highest of all possible spirits keep alive." 

" But, if conscience were all that you say," interposed Wolff, 
"men of all nations would hear its voice alike, whereas there are 
all sorts of differences between the moral judgments of men." 

"Different applications, no doubt," answered. Blancombe, 
"but all men agree in the fact of judging; all men have some 
right, and call some things wrong. The words praise and blame 
are nowhere unintelligible. Then observe how the more that 
knowledge increases the more men agree in attaching praise and 
blame to the very same objects. Two thousand years ago the 
Saxons thought, as some of the wilder Tatars may think now, 
that cunning and cruelty were venial proceedings; but the 
English, who are partly descended from these Saxons, though 
mingled with gentler races, have learned to think, as our Hindu 
friends here, that humanity is rather to be praised and encou 
raged. Probably, if the Tatars are better taught hereafter they 
will also change their judgment. There is then a certain stand 
ard, though I have not said that ignorance follows it. Kather 
I argue all along, that our acceptance of that standard depends 
upon our knowledge; though in some things perhaps the voice 
of the human heart speaks alike in every clime. Again, it is 
very remarkable, how the faculty of Conscience, being en 
lightened by knowledge, tends constantly to clear itself from 
false associations. For example, it distinguishes easily betweei 
accidental or involuntary actions, and things done with treachery 
or with guilty forethought ; nor does it acquiesce in any condem 
nation of a crowd, if it perceives the censurers either to be preju 
diced, or not to be aware of the turning events of the case; noi 
again, is it appeased by mere flattery, or ignorant praise. S 
intimately does our Conscience seem to be acquainted with th 
deep places of our being. It animates all through life the gene 
rous and the good; nor can any ingenious pleading about Pra 



CONSCIENCE. 131 

criti, or nature and organisation, or any theory of man s not being 
morally accountable, altogether deprive it of its power to punish 
the wicked; but much more its power is apt to increase towards 
the end of life. You remember the story of the Emperor 
Alamgir (Aurungzeb) ; he certainly was a most utter hypo 
crite; and, after many crimes, strode over his father s corpse to 
a throne: but it might have been supposed that with long 
villany he might have hardened his heart so as to be at ease. 
Whatever empire and wealth, or revenge, or pleasure, or employ 
ment in strengthening himself against enemies and controlling 
the destiny of nations can confer, was all at his disposal, who 
reigned from Delhi over India. Probably also wise men could 
have told him that to deceive his brother or murder his father 
was only the operation of Pracriti, and that all his soul need do 
was to enjoy the spectacle; or again, a deadlier wisdom still 
might have taught him, that the belief of his having a soul was a 
delusion. Yet this most able and powerful Emperor could never, 
with all his knowledge or his armies, appease the sting of 
remorse, or persuade himself, as death approached, that he had 
no penalty to undergo; on the contrary, in those remarkable 
words, which are not the least striking in the history of India, 
ne exclaimed, Wherever I look, I see nothing but God. I have 
committed numerous crimes, and I know not with what punish 
ments I may be seized. The agonies of death come upon me 
fast. Such a vision of wrath to come sat before his guilty 
mind. If you remember this instance of so powerful an Em 
peror, you will more readily believe me when I add, that in 
many countries there are well-attested instances in which the 
conscience has shewn that its power increases as death ap 
proaches. Such a circumstance does not appear as if then it 
spoke for the last time; for if any one observes two different 
cavalcades of persons, of which the one journeys with unfaltering 
step, and the other with blind or palsied imbecility, so long as 
both are in sight, he will not easily believe that the strength and 
attitude of both are changed, the moment that a distant mist 

92 



J32 PRESENTIMENT OF FUTURITY. 

settles on the path which they have gone. So in beholding 
good men enjoy a peace of mind which increases as they grow 
old, and great criminals suffer, on the contrary, as their life 
advances, with growing restlessness, we do not readily imagine 
that when they enter the unseen world the progress of either 
will come suddenly to an end. All that we see clearly in this 
life is a group of figures coming suddenly out of unknown dark 
ness, and again vanishing, after a few strides, at the entrance of 
the great Hall of Eternity; but, in the little interval of visible 
life, acts have been done, habits contracted, and the conscience 
and affections of man go severally with their burden of report 
before the Unseen Judge. 

" Now, since conscience thus terrifies men often with a dim 
foreboding of some spiritual recompence in the world to come, it 
might be fancied that persons in general would wish no other 
life to be probable, and so that the doctrine of the Charvacas 
would become generally popular; but it is wonderful to remark 
how little such a kind of consolation accords with the unbiassed 
instincts of mankind; on the contrary, we all seem to shrink in 
stinctively from annihilation. The forces of decay and darkness, 
as their stealthy footsteps make inroads upon our consciousness 
of life, are felt to be enemies which, if it were possible, we would 
repel; nor is our sensation, in this respect, confined to a mere 
animal feeling, such as a shrinking from gloom or a love of en 
joyment. For men who contemplate with calmness the idea of 
their body being laid under the sod, still consider their inner 
self as having a kind of property in a conscious futurity; nor 
does this presentiment hold good of ourselves only, but still more 
vividly as regards our friends. For my own part, I have never 
been able to imagine that the persons whom I have known 
familiarly, and who have been taken from me by death, have 
therefore ceased to exist; their bodies, I know, have mouldered 
in the grave, but that better part of them, which was capable of 
thinking, and loving, and adoring, seems still to be a living 
dweller in some part of the unseen world, though I know not 



PRESENTIMENT OF FUTURITY. 133 

in what part. You will perhaps smile at what you will call 
a fanciful dream ; but the great concurrence of so many men and 
nations in some thoughts of the kind, appears to bring me the 
confirmation of many witnesses. There is no country or climate, 
however far apart and differing in manners, as well as separated 
from the probability of a one-stemmed tradition, in which some 
such great hope has not supported men in the prospect of death, 
and mitigated the pain of bereavement. Although then I dare not 
say a strong wish is itself an evidence, yet this widely-spread 
community of feeling, on so great a question, seems either to 
attest a natural instinct, in which case the instincts of mankind 
may be expected to prophesy a fulfilment, as much as those of 
the bee and the ant who lay up stores for a winter, or those of 
the bull-calf which butts with yet unarmed brow, or else that 
feeling has found everywhere common grounds of reasoning, such 
as I have myself partly indicated; and, in this case, the concur 
rence of so many thinkers in one conclusion will approximate to 
the most convincing kind of evidence which on any moral ques 
tion is possible. Perhaps, indeed, it may have seemed best to 
whatever higher power has ordered the degree of our knowledge, 
that some obscurity should rest on our anticipations, in order 
that, by dwelling oftener and more anxiously on the possibilities 
of the unseen world, we might be roused to a far keener interest 
in whatever concerns it, just as the imagination has more play in 
gazing on some great painter s sketch of a new country than in 
copying the literal plan of a surveyor; for most of you will con 
cede this, that mankind everywhere are ultimately governed 
through the medium chiefly of absorbing ideas, so that whatever 
method gives the amplest range to ideas of a wholesome kind, 
must therefore be the best. 

" But although I have introduced here the strong wish of 
mankind, whether it be instinctive or whether it arise from a train 
of reasoning, or from anything else, yet you will have observed 
that its main force as an argument consists not so much in itself 
solely as in its connexion with conscience; for it becomes doubly 



134 DEVOUT EXPERIENCE. 

remarkable when these two things, which might be expected 
rather to clash, both co-exist together, and act each upon the 
other so forcibly, that there seems a certain kindred between 
them. Though I do not think the conscience alone generated 
the expectation of a future state, yet it constantly leads men in 
that direction, both by the presentiment which each one cherishes 
of some result awaiting his own thoughts, and by the require 
ment of some future arbitration to set right all the inequalities 
of this world. We see all things tending towards the confirma 
tion of a rule of Right, and our heart and our wishes, no less than 
our conscience and our reason, cry out that Right ought to pre 
vail; yet all things are not yet put under its absolute sway, so 
that it remains, as we hope, for the tendency, which hitherto has 
been interrupted by many exceptions, to be realised hereafter. 

" At such a junction of our thoughts with our feelings, or of 
that knowing faculty within us which apprehends the most de 
monstrable science with the purer class of our affections, we 
find the whole man as it were crying out for an immortality, 
and refusing to be deprived of its great hope. Here also must be 
remembered what I will venture to call the tentative experience 
of the best and holiest men. Some persons may mock at the 
expression experience, as applied to what has not yet come to 
pass; but it is easy to know by numbers of experiments under 
what kind of expectations men live holily or happily, as well as 
the contrary. There are thousands of instances in which men 
have either recorded the course of their mental thought in books, 
or embodied it in actions, or in some way made it manifest. We 
cannot indeed come familiarly in contact with men, without 
forming some kind of judgment on their belief and the influence 
it has on their happiness, neither of which can be altogether 
hidden. Just then as before I ventured to ask, whether the 
materialist and irreligious tone of sentiment, or the contrary, did 
most to chasten the affections ; so here I ask, and I do not wish 
the answer to have any controversial bias, which carries to the 
mind of any one entertaining it the fullest witness of its being 



DEVOUT EXPERIENCE. 135 

true? You have spoken as if in praise of the purer affections; 
"but theories like yours do not enable men to practise them. But 
now take the experience of praying men everywhere, and see 
whether it confirms their faith or militates against it; or consider 
that groundwork which exists in our mind for the affections of 
hope and trust, and observe whether these do not peremptorily 
require some object to fasten upon, and whether every attempt at 
religion, and every defiance of religion, has not been alike unsa 
tisfactory, which did not encourage them to believe in the reality 
of such an object. We shall find here, as before, that the 
feelings and the intellect correspond. On the one hand, the mere 
act of praying earnestly, or singing devoutly, and, in short, any 
exercise of the religious affections, seems, either by eliciting an 
immediate answer, or in virtue of some general law of Providence, 
to be a great instrument of mental peace; and, on the other 
hand, persons who have enjoyed such a consolation could not 
retain it, unless they believed in the positive reality of that Being 
whom they address. It is not like the rage of a passionate 
child, which is soothed after it has vented itself, or like the me 
chanical pattering of a mystic, who, with closed eyes or mind 
excludes from his piety all intervention of his reason. But reli 
gious people in general, and at least in so far as they are intel 
ligent or sound-minded, require intellectual belief as well as 
emotional faith; and when such persons have, from any clash 
of opinions in speculative times, or from any waywardness or 
sensual vice on their own part, lost hold of what they once 
firmly apprehended, they almost all agree in confessing that they 
suffer a sorrow to which no other earthly sorrow is comparable 
for magnitude. I do not here speak of mere animal men, who 
seem never to have risen into any conception of the great capaci 
ties of their souls, for indeed of such I know not what to say, 
except that one would no more envy them than one envies a pig 
or an elephant; but of all who unite intelligence and affections 
such as we call humane, it may be affirmed that they seem not 
to retain this standard of humanity uprightly and blessedly, 



136 REQUIREMENTS OF HUMANITY. 

without acquaintance with that higher Being upon which man 
depends." 

" Then I am to understand you to argue," here asked Wolff, 

"that because religion is desirable, therefore it is true." "I 

beg your pardon," replied Blancombe, " certainly that is not my 

argument, in such a sense as to bear being put nakedly and apart 

from the other considerations with which I have connected it. 

But to Man, considered as a being who naturally aspires to 

make the best of himself, either for happiness or beneficence, or 

whatever nobler end he may be capable of conceiving, it seems 

no slight argument that a particular class of sentiments require 

his most earnest cultivation, if he finds that without them the 

very nature of which he is possessed cannot otherwise thrive, or 

put forth its best powers. Of course this argument would have 

infinitely more force to persons already persuaded that the 

world s order is under the direction of Mind; for they would 

feel convinced, that whatever is necessary to carry out a design 

of the grandest magnitude, must have entered into the plan of 

an intellectual contriver, and it would be a part of natural piety 

with them to infer a high moral probability of such conceptions 

being true, as God s creatures cannot be good and happy without 

conceiving. Whereas at present without such aid, I am compelled 

to throw myself upon the deep necessities of our being. Nor 

indeed does this issue frighten me; but even if it should be 

conceded, to a greater extent than any philosopher has ever yet 

proved, that all things act, as Sadananda tells us, according to 

their inherent properties, or that those acts which appear to us 

the free offspring of volition are only minute links in an infinitely 

subtle and all-embracing chain of causation, for that men are 

a kind of human vegetables, only influenced by more delicate 

modifications of Pracriti, because w^e consist of such ourselves, 

even so, my friends, I despair neither of morality nor of faith, 

which seem the cause of God amongst mankind. For I observe 

among plants too, that they are liable to disease, and that some 

things cause health to them, and others decay. The hyacinth can- 



REQUIREMENTS OF HUMANITY. 137 

not lie long torn from its stalk, without withering : and I suppose 
no flower or herb can live without some kindly influence from 
the light of heaven. At least I observe that plants enclosed in 
any dark closet grow lank and pale ; and if there should be any 
crevice through which a fragment of light enters, they stretch 
their consumptive stalks towards it, so as to imbibe a dubious 
life. Pretty much in the same way I observe men who in 
savage places are shut out from opportunities of sound know 
ledge, throw all their passions with more desperate swing into 
some wild or abnormal form of superstition: and generally it 
may be said, the religious sentiments of which we have spoken, 
are, at least in some form, as necessary to man s mind or nature, 
as the light and breath of heaven are to the flower of the field. 
So that, whatever is the cause of our being so, the fact of our 
being such as to require the mental nourishment of piety cannot 
be denied. Prayer, as our Bauddha friend here most truly 
observed, is a necessary part of human virtue, which the very 
relief it gives us in many ways sufficiently proves. We have 
also seen, that together with this experience we have others of 
the kind. For, not to repeat yet my first argument about Mind, 
we have seen the innermost will of man protesting against any 
grosser appetites, as well as any unruly passions which attempt 
to overbear our more righteous choice ; thus also knowledge, in 
that it tends daily to more and more of concurrence everywhere 
in the purest standard of morality, is a witness against any blind 
materialism which makes virtue or vice a matter of caprice or 
organisation. More strongly still, it may be said the conscience 
refuses to be persuaded that sin is no evil ; and in like manner 
the purest feelings of man, which agree with conscience, cry out 
aloud against the denial of a God to be worshipped, or against 
a surrender of our being voluntarily to annihilation. So that, 
on the whole, what is wisest and best in our nature seems to be 
on one side, with which also happiness takes part in experience ; 
while what is most brutish, selfish, and miserable, only is left 
for the other. At this point, then, I should say to any Sankhyast, 



138 INFERENCE OF DIVINE OBJECT. 

or other speculator who makes the apparent freedom of a man 
only a deceptive form of necessitarianism, Be it so, if you please, 
but then at least religion is a necessity of our nature there is 
either some heavenly influence, or at least the capacity of belief 
in such an influence, which is to the virtue, the peace, and the 
permanent happiness of Man, pretty much what the physical 
dew and light are to all plants that grow. Even then upon your 
principles, I must still turn the eyes of my mind to that light 
without which all my moral perceptions are in danger of being 
obscured, and my hope, of languishing away. 

"Now, however, arises a farther question, Can we stop here? 
For my own part I cannot ; and probably few can, if they only 
consider. Surely it seems absurd to find prayer necessary for 
man s mental health, yet to imagine there is no one to pray to. 
Even logic, although the most remorseless of sciences, cannot 
refuse to recognise here the existence of the heart, and its prac 
tical needs. For the logician can only argue upon facts, and if 
he does not take them into account as they are, his art becomes 
useless. Again, it would be very strange if the same cast of 
sentiment which is most for the honour of a Divine Being should 
also be most for the benefit of all mankind, and yet that Being 
should have no consciousness whether this sentiment is enter 
tained. Still more does my own impression of the strangeness 
of such an imagination grow, if I extend my thoughts from each 
man individually to men assembled in societies. For whatever 
happiness springs from a pious regard to the Deity, and what 
ever wickedness or misery creeps on with the reverse, it becomes 
in either case multiplied, when its effects extend over a family. 
Neither affectionate care for the helplessness of infants, nor again 
filial gratitude, nor in general the due reverence for the sanctity 
of life, and all the ties necessary to its improvement, seem to 
retain a firm hold upon society, except where each man considers 
himself accountable to a Divine Kuler, who has fixed the duties 
of his place. I should only weary you by attempting to follow 
out at large the same idea, as applied to the destiny of nations : 



NECESSITY OF POSITIVE OBJECT. 139 

though indeed it is in the history of the kingdoms of men that 
the principle for which I contend is exemplified on the grandest 
scale. Not that in politics the nature of religion should be 
different from what it is in any man s secret prayer. Only, as 
the field extends, good and evil principles have a more compli 
cated play. The history of India alone would shew that when 
nations are strong they believe firmly in God, as if not only 
virtue, but strength and success, could not exist without that 
principle to animate them. For if you mount up to that re 
mote period when the Brahmanical tribes were extending their 
dominion from the Punjaub over Southern India, you will find 
a religious faith was then strong in them ; and whether you 
modify the test by examining the progress of Sakya Muni s 
principles, to which our friend here has alluded, or whether again 
you read of the incursions of Sultan Mahmud, or, later still, of 
the establishment of the Mogul Empire, you would find a 
strength of religious belief animating in each case the conqueror. 
Again, at a period nearer to our own times, when the Sikhs 
organised a mixed multitude into a formidable kingdom, the 
great bond of union was a fervid glow of faith, which one might 
justly call fanaticism. But yet, if any one says to men, Let us 
believe, and in the strength of our belief succeed, such an 
exhortation, without reasons or disinterested motives to believing, 
has no sort of tendency to realise its effort. Kather indeed, those 
who have talked most loudly of the force of belief relatively to 
man s mind, without having an adequate object to propound, 
only fall into the greatest imbecility of heart and mind. For it 
is the very nature of faith that it cannot be purchased, but 
must be fixed on some one who has a right to it. Shew to 
mankind the person or the being who has that right, and they 
require neither bribery nor compulsion to believe ; but discourses 
upon the energy of belief signify nothing. The case then stands 
thus. Not only the affections of every man severally require a 
Divine Being to trust in ; but the whole history of families 
and nations everywhere involves the same requirement. Even 



140 WHETHER ANALOGUE TO MIND OR BODY. 

language bears the impress of that general feeling ; and it may 
be added that all righteous laws are intended to embody prin 
ciples such as men conceive to be the will of the Supreme Ruler 
of the world. Who or what however that Ruler may be, indeed, 
there are different conjectures, and we have still farther to in 
quire ; but that he is some one, and that we ought to think of 
Him as far as possible as He is in reality, and not to dream of 
making Him be in a particular way by thinking of Him in that 
way, are points on which the sound-minded among mankind 
have long ago agreed. Here then let me revert to that first 
argument, which in recapitulating about the affections I omitted. 
" The question here is, whether we have any reason to take 
for our beginning either Deity as Mind planning and governing, 
or Nature as matter blindly evolving itself. You may try it 
either by the existence of the world, or by its history ; that is, as 
men generally say, either by Nature or by Providence. Certainly 
the second of the two will be stronger, but even the first appears 
absolutely binding. For every one allows that Thought is more 
motive than any of the physical agencies which it employs, and 
it is in virtue of thinking, and in proportion as he thinks, that 
man makes and disposes. Thought on man s part underlies all 
the greatness of mankind. Just then as a child, who had lost 
its parents among mankind, and went about searching for them, 
would certainly not begin with stones, or even with brute beasts, 
so, if ever mankind are to find their first Parent and Author of 
their being, they must begin with nothing lower than them 
selves, nor with the lower and less active principle in themselves. 
Whatever intellectual knowledge we have, certainly to the Deity 
we must ascribe more ; and whatever we call Mind as that to 
which our higher knowledge belongs, far more eminently must 
that be attributed to Deity. You say it makes no difference, 
whether we start in our speculation from mind or matter, that 
is, from God or the world. I answer, fully as much as whether 
we say the living horse draws the dead chariot, or whether he 
is drawn by it. It is true that animal life can generate simply 



POSSIBLY TRANSCENDENT. 141 

its like ; but we see only one kind of Being anywhere which can 
produce a multiplicity of things, some of which therefore are 
unlike: and this manifoldly creative being is merely Mind. 
Now that our conceptions of the Supreme Mind which is above 
all things, as an architect is above a house, must be inadequate, 
I most readily allow ; and I will endeavour to explain hereafter, 
why the argument from design probably appears to you not so 
convincing as it does to men in general. But, though such a 
feeling of inadequacy may well induce one to wish for more 
light on the subject, and perhaps none could ever duly image 
the Eternal without its throwing forward some likeness of 
itself veiled in flesh, and so coming in contact with our earthly 
humanity, yet to the common sense of mankind there remains 
the conviction, that after all our researches in the world of matter 
and sense the Eternal Upholder remains behind. He may be 
higher than heaven, so that we know nothing, and deeper than 
hell, so that we understand Him not ; yet the certainty of His 
being is as clear as that of an architect to those who observe a 
house, or of a poet to those who read a well-constructed poem. 
Willingly indeed we confess that our frail reasonings have need 
to be enlightened farther, and we shall gladly accept any inter 
vention which, by bringing man more face to face with Deity, 
may open a fuller assurance ; but however difficult it may be to 
settle what exactly man ought to believe, the necessity of some 
such belief as we contend for, is a matter of most solid reasoning, 
and not only of gentle feeling. The very language of all 
nations, as a record of their instinctive logic, bears testimony 
to what I am saying. You spoke, (here Blancombe directed 
himself towards Wolff), of a fixed order, and a regular order, 
and a character in nature. How remarkable that you could 
discover no words usual among men which were not fatal to 
your theory ! For the very word fixed implies a thing done, 
which must have had a doer; so a character is something stamped, 
and an order is something arranged, and again, by the word 
regular, you lead us to a rule, which cannot be without a ruler. 



142 YET MENTAL, RATHER THAN MATERIAL. 

It is not then the same thing as yon suppose, whether we start 
with a conception of nature or of creative mind. 

" But if you ask what difference it makes, I answer first, 
that we have seen mankind want an object to believe upon, and 
yet are not able to believe merely because it is good for them to 
do so, unless the object proposed is satisfactory to the intellect. 
But our mind, of whatever it may be made, can rest in no 
cause for the universe less than mind. It observes a thousand 
energies, which may be called causes, in daily operation ; but 
although you may magnify any one or all of these together to an 
infinite extent, neither one, nor all, will upon any scale satisfy 
the mind when alleged as a creative or governing principle. For 
no one of these blind forces is capable of weighing and mea 
suring, but the world is evidently made by weight and measure; 
it is made therefore clearly by some being capable of conceiving 
laws and thoughts; but these we do not find entering into the 
conception of a blind nature. That my distinction here is prac 
tically a correct one, is in fact clearly and thoroughly proved by 
the very names which are current in India for soul and for 
matter. We have heard the Saugata calling our soul by the 
term intelligence ; and again, many Hindus call matter simply 
ignorance (afndna). They feel instinctively that the one has know 
ledge, and the other ignorance ; hence they describe the things 
by their characteristics ; for such seems to my mind the simplest 
explanation of this way of speaking ; though more subtle reasons 
are also given for it. In those two phrases, then, the Hindus 
supply us with a practical proof that in all speculation about the 
world, pure intellect cries out against matter, for the necessity of 
some governing principle more akin to itself than any material or 
sensible object. Mere intellect therefore associates itself with all 
those yearnings of the affections upward of which we have before 
spoken. But secondly, I observe that it cannot disdain to take 
them into account, as in turn it is purified by them. For when 
it observes them act over the range of nations and centuries, with a 
recurrence nearly uniform enough to admit of their effects being 



MORAL WITNESS FROM HABIT. 143 

grouped in masses, and classified under heads, it says of these too, 
they must have a cause, and it finds no cause worthy enough, ex 
cept some being which must be to all the hopes and aspirations of 
man either as analogous as the fountain is to the stream, or else as 
transcendent as the fashioning thought is to the material wrought. 
" Nor here probably will the intellect be able to avoid 
taking notice of what we call habit. I mention it, because you 
will not be able to say of it, as you implied of the affections, 
that it is a mere sensation or sentiment, implying no law of 
mind. At least, if any one were to imagine beforehand what 
sort of bias from the force of habit he would wish for the 
benefit of mankind should be given to our actions, he might 
perhaps despair of any such bias being made wholesome, ex 
pecting it to be the same probably in every kind of action. But 
if he were told that good actions would, however disagreeable at 
first, become easier and pleasanter as they were persevered in ; 
while bad actions, being the perversion of some capacity for 
better things, might for a little time seduce, but would gradually 
lose the outside varnish of honey which gilded them, so that 
good men would become stronger or happier, while the ob 
stinately bad would become more and more loveless and misera 
ble to themselves and others, so that at last goodness would be 
the greatest blessing, and wickedness turn out to be the greatest 
punishment, I humbly conceive, any purely spiritual thinker, in 
considering from a remote world the possibility of such a law of 
moral recompence being established, would find in it manifest 
trace of some being who is to our conscience, what the highest 
Mind may be to the worldly fabric, or an infinite Love as com 
pared to the holy affections of man. Especially also would such 
a conclusion be drawn, supposing it was seen that young sinners 
would, on their first going wrong, have many checks from vio 
lent emotion, and a tenderness of shame, like the blush on a 
maiden s cheek ; but yet that all these sanctities, being again 
and again violated, might fade away, and the safeguard involved 
in them be destroyed. But now I need scarcely argue at large 



144 MORAL GOVERNMENT CLEAR IF METAPHYSICS DOUBTFUL. 

that such is the principle of moral recompence, which by means 
of the force of habit is intertwined into the constitution of the 
world. For if you either observe or reflect, you will find it to 
be so ; and I should only weary you by illustrating in detail 
every step in this long argument. Finding then, as we do, that 
modesty as a safeguard against recklessness is only destroyed by 
obstinacy ; and that all the holier and purer affections grow up 
into habits, which become a second and a happier nature to a 
man, while on the contrary, selfishness, in all its forms of 
insincerity or crime or sensualism, becomes an avenging scourge, 
must we not say that the logical reason in man consents to 
whatever element in us apprehends righteousness, and whatever 
feeling rejoices in things amiable, that both some being is to be 
worshipped, and that such being must be intelligent, holy, and 
lovely ? Something like that, I suppose, is what most men in 
tend by an Iswara, or what we call God. Was I not therefore 
right in saying, that the hard as well as the soft in man, or the 
masculine understanding no less than the feminine love, cries out 
for some such religious sentiment as your argument disparages ? 
" I say here some religious sentiment, or some worship of 
God, including therefore the belief in God ; for let that suffice as 
our principal object of proof just now. It has come to light 
incidentally more than once in my discourse, that I conceive the 
common cause of my friends here and of myself against you, 
(here Blancombe turned to Wolff,) is best supported by argu 
ments which they are not quite agreed about. Yet it is not 
impossible for some of my arguments to be wrong, yet for our 
main cause to be right. Suppose, for example, all the ideas 
which I have suggested on the subject of mind as distinct from 
matter, were to be so far mistaken that one substance in many 
modifications should turn out to be the cause and the material 
without duality of all possible causes or effects ; still, the modi 
fication which this substance would undergo in its thinking stage 
and its wrought stage, would be so important as to render it for 
all practical purposes two distinct things, as to the popular 



METAPHYSICAL HYPOTHESIS RELIGIOUS NEED. 145 

apprehension of mankind it undoubtedly seems. If then you 
prefer still to understand the term mind as meaning matter 
sufficiently refined to be the organ of mental powers, do so. Not 
but that, with such a change in our mode of viewing that of 
which the world consists, I confess, a strong argument for the 
revival of our personal being in an immortality after this life, 
would appear to me lost ; but again, many pious persons, of 
whom our friend Vidyacharya may partly serve as an illustrious 
instance, think quite differently upon that point ; and whatever 
became of a personal immortality, I conceive that at least the 
necessity of worshipping and loving God in this life would 
remain. We should not be a bit more able to do without 
religion, though it would be more difficult to say in what 
manner we ought to be religious. Again, in the same way, 
I remark, that if the attributes of wisdom, righteousness, and 
goodness, have been assigned by me to the Deity with more 
confidence than they ought, yet at the very least you acknow 
ledge that we are surrounded by tokens of superhuman power. 
What that power may be, in at least its relations to ourselves, 
and how we ought to feel mentally towards its intelligent 
wielder, if such be its origin, or how mould to our purpose 
whatever may be permitted of its lesser agencies, and triumph 
over any dread attached to them, are still questions of awful 
interest, and may well invite our most devout attention. Only 
I cannot look at such questions without including among the 
elements of the problem to be solved the moral experiences 
of mankind. From those experiences it appears that prayer 
is an instrument of obtaining peace, and of what to its possessors 
appears knowledge, whether, as we should say generally, because 
the prayer is answered by some higher power, or, as your theo 
ries would imply, because it is itself a mental effort of the most 
intent and aspiring kind. We must then take in prayer together 
with our inquiries as to either the being of God or our eternal 
destiny. Then it seems to me already self-evident that no kind 
of natural piety will allow us to deprive the Deity of whatever 
M.P. 10 



146 INFERENCE OF ULTIMATE BEING. 

attributes we should think holy, or pure, or lovely, in the higher 
forms of being ; nor can I shake off a presentiment, which goes 
upon sufficient ground to deserve the name of a conviction, that 
we shall find at last the mass of mankind have anticipated with 
their feelings, what the keenest searchers may for a time make 
difficulties about, but must at last admit is a necessity of their 
understanding. So that it may be with spirit as with matter. 
We have already heard how difficult it may be made to prove 
that any solid substratum underlies the objects which our senses 
deal with ; yet at last the thinker says by inference that some 
thing must be there, whether he make that something material 
or mental ; a body or a form ; an underlying solid or a combining 
principle of law ; and, by saying this, he returns, in effect, to 
what simple people never doubted. In fact, even our positive 
knowledge of geometry, and perhaps all our cognition of the 
material world, may be said primarily to rest upon faith, or 
ultimately to revert to faith ; although the most sceptical rea- 
soners admit it would be absurd in this case not to have such 
faith. For any reasoning or knowledge which made this prac 
tically doubtful would make everything doubtful, so that it 
must be itself doubted. By being so universally destructive 
it would destroy trust in its own process. Even sceptics thus 
come round in mathematical science to agree with those who 
accept in a kind of faith the preliminary axioms and postulates. 
Just so, I conceive, will be the case with what we call Mind, 
which, at least so far as our common consciousness is a guide to 
any truth, we recognise as distinct from bodily objects; for it 
seems properly active, while they are comparatively passive. 
Perhaps we call by its name some appearances which may 
not be mind ; but, beyond all or within, I know not how many 
subtle sheaths, as our friends would call them, either mind rea 
soning or soul feeling must dwell. Either of these seems a name 
for what is immortal in us ; and so long as men believe that the 
highest lord of all is infinite in all which they feel highest in 
themselves, so long they have what we call a religion, whether 



ATTRIBUTES OF HIGHEST BEING. 147 

it be recorded in histories, or expressed in prayers, or in any 
other way embodied and directed to some one infinitely better 
than ourselves. Upon this condition only does a religion seem 
to satisfy all those portions and capacities of Man of which we 
have spoken, or exercise a ruling and wholesome influence. For 
whatever wonderful things may be said of Pracriti, no one is 
raised, or awed, or comforted by dwelling on an infinite fluid, or 
infinite electricity, or, in short, by the application of the idea of 
infinity to anything else than Mind in the highest and largest 
sense of whatever may be Mind. If instead of mind you would 
prefer me to say thinker, with the understanding at present that 
it is not settled how far a subtle modification of matter can think , 
I have no objection. Only, on your part again, there must be 
no hesitation in ascribing to this unknown author the most abso 
lute infinity as regards all the higher powers of man, or, what 
would be the same thing here, as regards a power capable of 
creating those. You must not, therefore, exclude government, or 
providence, or dread majesty, or anything else which is noblest 
in man, except you do so by putting something nobler still and 
transcendent, because creative, in any one of their places ; for it 
will be absurd to seek the Deity in anything less than ourselves. 
Moreover you will hence understand why, just as we exclude 
earth and water and electricity, so also I reject the mere range 
of human affections as adequate expounders of the sentiments 
which here we ought to entertain ; and as they themselves 
cannot cling kindly, unless they are justified, or as it were up 
held, by strengthening intellect, much less can that highest and 
illimitable object, which is to satisfy our whole affectionate and 
intellectual being, be less than infinite itself in all wisdom and 
majesty as well as goodness. Nor is any kind of worshipping 
belief worthy of being properly called a religion, as embracing 
what men in general mean by that sacred word, unless it have a 
positive and intellectual element referring to God, not merely as 
life, or as order, nor perhaps even as law, though indeed he is all 
these, but also as a providential governor. 

102 



148 THE POSITIVE AND THE MYSTICAL. 

Of the truth of what I am now saying many countries afford 
sad experience. Probably it is not unknown in India how men 
who have once believed intellectually in the historical traces of 
mankind being governed by an unseen governor, have fallen into 
strange crimes or delusions when that belief was lost or dreamt 
away. At least, in other countries, men have been brought up 
to fear the God by whom their religion has been ordained and 
history governed ; yet, either from waywardness, or from finding 
that accidents of human error had clung round the essential 
belief, they have fallen away from their religion, until they knew 
not what belief to hold, beyond a vague confession of signs of 
power and life encompassing us. But then it is also found, that 
when men thus exchange the definite belief of intellectual beings 
in One who is mighty, good, and wise, and by whose laws they 
must shape their lives, for vague surmises about the sources of 
beauty and marvel, they appear generally also to exchange a 
calm and equable trust in one who is the upholder of their steps 
in life, for a feverish over-bubbling of the emotions, which may 
be called an animal enthusiasm. Thus, as their belief becomes 
imagination, and their religion mysticism, so their prayers be 
come patterings, and flow from the affections of joy and grief; or, 
as they themselves would phrase it, from the spirit, but not from 
the understanding. Then, if they even continue in such a state, 
their reason is no longer hallowed, nor their entire manhood a 
sacrifice, but they have fallen back into such worship as is com 
mon to animals and vegetables; for these things also exult in 
the beauty of creation, and the beneficence of its author, as they 
look up towards his all-embracing light. But oftenest by far, 
man, who has had a higher guide assigned him than the mere 
impulses of even the most amiable temperament, is not able, after 
letting go the higher guidance, to sustain himself by means of 
the lower, in a firm balance of the capacities of his mind ; but, if 
he is depressed by natural sorrow, he carries despondency into 
things heavenly; or, if doubts are presented to him, he accepts 
them as certainties; and especially if some strong temptation, 



MYSTICISM AND SCEPTICISM. 149 

like a despot rising amidst anarchy, come over the unsettled 
feelings of his fluctuating mind, he bows himself in sinful acqui 
escence to its lawless rule ; and then again, if his conscience 
awaken from heavy sleep, he suffers unspeakable pangs of re 
morse and bewilderment, like one of weak eyes unbearably 
scathed by lucid gleams across a shipwreck in darkness ; and 
perhaps at last the man struggling back to the home of certainty 
from which he had strayed, takes shelter in some cave of the 
most abject superstition, having thus passed in turns through 
many phases of imagination rather than of faith. For it is the 
sentence of eternal righteousness, that when any kind of per 
versity has shrunk from even moderate constraint, it must bow 
itself at last to a heavier yoke. But many, not even so fortunate 
as we just now imagined, fall through bewilderment into mon 
strous sins, and suffer accordingly a greater abandonment of 
God. As they do not choose to retain him in their knowledge, 
he gives them over to an undistinguishing mind. Such as these 
are antinomians, anarchists, criminals without remorse, and, in 
general, they who stride on in an unblest career, ruining either 
their own bodies, or families, or the countries which nurtured 
them, owning no other guidance than self-will, and acknow 
ledging no restraint, until, the hand of the Eternal laying hold 
of them, the retribution of their sin finds them out. Yet how 
heavy a scourge they have carried, though unacknowledged, all 
along in their minds, is clear even from the restlessness of their 
face and gestures, as well as from that rudeness which so often 
creeps over their manners, as the offspring of unhappiness rather 
than of intention ; though indeed benevolence is generally weak 
in such men, if it be not altogether extinct : but especially we 
see the heaviness of the scourge appear from the violence of 
death, to which such men have often had recourse, because life 
had become unbearable to them in a world of which they dis 
dained to serve the only righteous Ruler. 

"I do not then myself doubt, that of the two alternatives 
propounded farther back, it suits truth and humility best to 



150 CREATION AND EMANATION. 

consider God as our Maker, and therefore as transcending even 
our spiritual conceptions, rather than as a source from which 
we might be said to have spontaneously bubbled into light. 
Yet so long as any one retains the spirit of subjection suffi 
ciently to acknowledge the Governor, I will not presume to 
agitate much this question of Maker or Source. Indeed, I 
had rather abstain from it, out of reverence to him of whom we 
reason; as well as partly from respect to my venerable friend 
here, who deserves a distinct consideration of his views; and 
partly also I cannot help observing, that very devout persons 
.are able to acquire modes of expression, which imply a nearness 
and a sort of acquaintance with God, such as I can scarcely 
describe by any less name than kindred, and which goes far 
to justify men in calling the Divinity a mysterious fountain, 
from which Humanity is a visible stream. Only such persons 
do not lose, and it appears to me we must not waive, the idea 
of government as belonging to God. Nor again do they throw 
away that positiveness of belief which belongs to things on 
which the intellect lays hold, and without which religion cannot 
fill the mind of the whole man. But some arguments, which 
here suggest themselves, cannot have justice done to them with 
out going into those historical records, the discussion of which 
you have waived. For with the clear positiveness which we 
require, there must be a regard to the facts of history. Here, 
if you will excuse me, I observe you are ready to remark, that 
the variety of claims made by discordant histories presents a 
difficulty. But to this the reply is obvious, that such claims are 
so many reasons for inquiring more diligently; since they all 
agree that there is something to be inquired about. 

" Here then perhaps we might proceed to discuss the claims 
of religious records. The mention, however, of devout persons 
leads me to consider the especial confidence with which they 
seem to entertain the belief of a future life as a certainty. We 
have seen the instincts of mankind rather pointing to such a 
hope, and the purer affections unwillingly letting it go. Con- 



PRESENTIMENT WITH PIETY. 151 

science also, though a faculty belonging to the scientific, quite as 
much as to the affectionate element in our mind, throws almost 
without hesitation its weighty vote into the same side of the 
scale; and pure intellect, without affirming that hope is demon 
strative, encourages rather than checks the aspiration, both by 
the nature of its own processes and acquirements, and by the 
firm conviction which it is compelled to embrace of there being 
to the world and to our life some Author, among whose attributes 
must be contriving intellect, or wisdom, and who cannot be 
without the power of restoring what he made. But now let it 
be remarked, that all the above grounds of hope, either receive 
an important accession, or else are sublimated into a form more 
glorious than they naturally wear, in the experience which de 
vout persons believe themselves to acquire by prayer and trust. 
It was not uninteresting to me to notice in the discourse of the 
venerable Acharya, that he distinctly affirmed such hopes to 
become more vivid in proportion to a man s sanctity of life. 
But much more, it appears to me, may devotion have a natural 
tendency to generate such confidence of hope, when it is directed 
to a personal Being whose power and goodness admit, on our 
hypothesis, of neither doubt nor limit, and to whose very like 
ness men appear to be in a way transformed, when they are both 
persuaded of the goodness of his moral attributes, and endeavour 
by prayer or effort to partake of like qualities. For such pro 
perties as righteousness, truth, and love, appear to fall away 
from that range of things to which accident or death can be 
fatal, and are in common with that Being to which we ascribe 
immortality. At least I suppose that in some such way, and 
perhaps in other ways, as for example by being brought nearer 
to Him who is emphatically the Life-giver, and whom nothing 
can approach without being quickened by His contact, but at 
any rate in some way, though possibly by thoughts more 
mysterious than I have fully apprehended, men imbibe a con 
viction of their souls being destined not to pass away. Perhaps 
they feel, that as they have contracted a sacred friendship, and 



152 RELIGION EXALTING INSTINCT. 

are become children of one who is alike all-mighty and all- 
truthful, he will not, either as their friend or as their father, 
give over to extinction those who have loved him and become 
akin to him. But certainly, for some reason or other, a pious 
confidence of everlasting life seems from experience to spring up 
in men who have a knowledge of the living God. For my own 
part, I neither dare to speak, or even to think, over-confidently 
in such things; nor is it my own business to assert the suffi 
ciency of pious aspirations without the warrant of some historical 
groundwork, such as we have not yet laid in the present dis 
course. Only, I could not forbear from mentioning what is 
thought to be the experience of more saintly men; and I will 
add one more remark upon it. There is no doubt, that both 
individual men are happier, and also that human virtue flourishes 
most in communities, in proportion as the expectation of a future 
life is strong; so that undoubtedly men seek such a hope. Sup 
posing, then, such an assurance as we have spoken of should 
exist among the best men, what would it be, but a crowning 
answer, and a satisfactory supplement, such as both our dramatic 
instincts and our trust in divine providence suggest as probable, 
to all those deep longings of the affections, that crying out of 
the heart against annihilation, and that inextinguishable fore 
boding of the rational conscience, which we have already found 
to pervade mankind. Or, if such an assurance were destined 
anywhere to exist, who would be so likely as men of deep piety 
to obtain the privilege of concluding these natural prophecies, 
and throwing the notes of joy amidst the uncertain sounds which 
divine influences seem ever calling forth from the strings of 
humanity? That such confidence may exist only among the 
few, appears to me, from the nature of the case, no clear argu 
ment against the probability of its being well-grounded. 

" It suffices me, however, to mention these things only as 
reasons for seeking more earnestly what religion is true and 
acceptable to God. For that all human beings, if true humanity 
is to survive in them, have need to fear, love, and obey, some 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 153 

divine object of worship, and that this object must be a being 
who has a right to their worship, and therefore can command it, 
are points which have been clearly established." 



NOTE ON CHAPTER IV. 

With the above Chapter, and with portions of the next, may be 
compared the first part of Butler s Analogy ; the Natural Tlieology of 
Paley, especially its concluding chapter ; Dr Whe well s Bridgewater 
Treatise, and the extracts from it, published as Indications of the Crea 
tor; the first book of Hooker s Ecclesiastical Polity ; and the works of 
Samue] Clarke, including his correspondence with Butler. For readers 
of Greek, and even for thoughtful persons who have access only to 
translations, the Republic of Plato remains still a work worthy of 
being studied, as a very wonderful blending of the appeal to intellect 
and to conscience, though with some fantastic disfigurements. Cud- 
worth, with Mosheim for his commentator, as a vast repository of 
ancient faith and speculation, I would rather recommend to the few, 
than expect to be read by the many. More succinct arguments may 
be found at the commencement of Pearson, and of Burnet, and in 
Thompson s Bampton Lectures ; where, however, the argument from 
design in creation is not quite forcibly enough dwelt upon. Nor are 
the better among the English Deists, and others who have approxi 
mated to them in reasoning, such as Tucker and Culverwell, without 
some useful suggestions. But their general defect is, that they set 
positive history too much on one side; and, in attempting a sort of 
demonstration, not warmed by the affections, they make faith a dry 
problem, instead of a living spirit. Much better, therefore, are some 
of the life-experiences and confessions of great men, such as those of 
Sir W. Ealeigh in his History of the World, Burnet, at the end of 
the History of his own Time, instances, in short, where feeling, 
thought, and experience, seem to converge in a confession from Man s 
life to his Author, Preserver, and Governor. 



154 SA NKIIYAST INDIFFERENCE. 



CHAPTER V. 

Criticism of Hindu Systems, particularly the Bauddha and the Sdnkhya. 

"Deus non est seternitas vel infinitas, sed aeternus et infinitus; non est duratio 
vel spatium, sed durat et adest. Durat semper, et adest ubique; et existendo 
semper et ubique, durationem et spatium, aeternitatem et infinitatem constituit." 
Sir /. Newton. 

"Tanto a te longius, quanto dissimilius ; neque enim locis. Tu, Domine Deus 
omnipotens, in Principio quod est de Te, in Sapientia tuft, quse nata est de substan- 
tia tua, fecisti aliquid et de niliilo. Fecisti enim coelum et terram non de Te ; nam 
esset sequale unigenito tuo, ac per hoc et tibi ; et nullo modo justum esset ut sequale 
tibi esset, quod de Te non esset. Si Augustine. 

AFTER Blancombe had finished, there was silence for some 
time, as if the company were thinking over his speech. Then, 
on some one s asking him, " Which religion, since we have need 
of one, is the best?" "There," he answered, "is the question 
which we have to inquire about; for it is clear that none can 
be best, which is not also the truest possible." " Or, rather," 
here asked Sadananda, " is not the question an unnecessary 
one?" "What? do you, who think knowledge the liberation of 
the soul," answered Blancombe, "conceive it unnecessary to 
inquire what ought to be known? If truth is a thing so in 
different, how is the soul to be liberated?" "Why, perhaps," 
rejoined Sadananda, " the knowledge which sets free the soul 
is not so dependent as you imagine upon what is generally 
termed religion. For there are many devout Hindus, who are 
far from having attained true knowledge, because they start by 
wrong methods ; so in other religions, which in themselves are 
mistaken, or at least only fit for the countries in which they are 
professed, I do not say that liberating knowledge may not be 
attained." "But surely," said Blancombe, "it is a part of 
religion to have a right belief; and we have seen already, that 
the intellect refuses to believe anything which it supposes to 
fall short of truth. Either then you must take truth into your 
religion, or else you must strike the intellect out of it; and the 
first plan appears to most men the best; for unless we know the 



VEDANTIST S APATHY. 155 

truth, our piety may even offend that highest Being whom we 
profess to worship; nor can men in general be persuaded to feel 
devoutly, unless they have also reason to be in some measure 
intellectually satisfied." "Well," said Sad^nanda, "I feel no 
objection to the inquiry which you propose." 

" But I must confess," here interposed Vidyachdrya, " that 
to me, too, the question now arising appears not perhaps indif 
ferent in itself, but, as regards the different natives of countries 
far remote from each other, not very necessary. We are abund 
antly convinced, as it is our duty to believe, that we possess in 
our sacred books a revelation divinely given to the people of 
India. If you think otherwise, we are willing to concede that 
perhaps your religion may be better suited to your country. 
We are often obliged to tolerate the sight of practices, which, if 
you will excuse my saying so, appear to us profane and bar 
barous, in the conduct of foreigners. Yet to you such practices 
appear right; and we endeavour not to blame you. Perhaps 
the mode in which the Supreme Spirit has instructed you is 
different from that which he has employed towards ourselves. 
And as I have already acknowledged that there is a great 
diversity of names and attributes among the deities which our 
tolerant creed permits to be worshipped by different men, yet 
under all these disguises the twice-born man who is well- 
instructed worships one eternal Spirit, so perhaps under your 
different names it may have been permitted you to express 
something of the one spiritual truth. So far, at least, as you fulfil 
the duties enjoined by your own religion, I am willing to hope 
you may have, not absolutely the best, but yet a sufficient form 
of piety; and such, you may be aware, is the sentiment which 
our wisest* teachers entertain towards you." " Why, however, 
do you require of us, that we should be faithful in certain 
duties?" asked Blancombe. " That I need hardly teach you," 
replied the other; " for it is clear that there are virtues of justice 
and mercy, which all mankind agree to respect; unless, therefore, 

* Elphinstone, B. VI. Sekander Lodi. 



156 



ARGUMENTS FOR INQUIRY. 



you practise these, you are condemned by your own rules." 
"You would not then permit us to inflict wanton cruelty?" 
asked Blancombe. " Certainly not," answered the other. "Nor 
to practise treachery, nor theft, nor adultery?" "Certainly 
not." " Nor again, to pray with an outward show of devotion, 
but with an absence of sincerity and purity of heart?" " Cer 
tainly not." " And you would forbid all these things," con 
tinued Blancombe, "upon an idea that they were highly dis 
pleasing to the Deity?" " Precisely so," answered Vidyacharya. 
" Do not you then observe that our conceptions of the Deity 
are at least so far alike; and the reason of our agreeing so far 
is probably that, notwithstanding other differences, we have yet 
in this respect the truth ? What then should hinder this agree 
ment from being extended farther? For I suppose the truth 
must be one; and if either of us could teach the other what is 
truth throughout, we should then agree entirely." " I do not 
see," answered Vidyacharya, " why the truth should be one. 
Two witnesses may see things differently, yet both relate truly 
what they have seen." "Truly, perhaps, as they think," said 
Blancombe ; " but not in truth as the things are. But for a man 
to have ever so much truth of intention, in the sense of sincerity, 
will not save him from suffering miserably, if he mistakes for 
food what is truly poison; or if in many other modes he con 
ceives of outward things otherwise than as they are. So, 
perhaps, as regards this question of religion, if a man have 
an unworthy conception of God, he may, by so conceiving, 
deprave his mind, or insult the Majesty of Heaven; or again, if 
he associate his conception with untrue accounts of facts which 
have not really occurred, it may become gradually warped; or 
he may lose all anxiety about historical truth in the sense of 
reality, and all power of distinguishing it from falsehood. But 
if a particular fact happens only in one way, or if a being is of 
any definite kind, it is clear that one account only of either can 
be the truth." " I know," said Vidyacharya, " that it is difficult 
for your countrymen to conceive of this matter as we do; and, 



TRUTH AND SENTIMENT. 157 

perhaps, that very difficulty shews we were intended to be 
different. That things, however, have happened to you, we do 
not deny; but that the same things have happened to us, we 
are certain is not the case. What, however, should prevent 
your accidents from being a vehicle for teaching you the spiri 
tual truth which purifies the heart, and our accident -s also from 
leading us in the path of ultimate liberation? or, if you wish 
me to use your term, I have no objection to say redemption. 
That we agree in praising certain virtues, and in making them 
moral requisites, is with you a reason for seeking farther agree 
ment; whereas to me it shews clearly that anything farther is 
unnecessary." " You imply," said Blancombe, "that we may 
have the essential sentiment of piety in common, though we differ 
as to the facts or images which we associate with it." 

VID. " Possibly so." 

BLANC. "Just as the sentiments of love and hatred may 
be expressed in many different languages, with every variety of 
sound, and yet they will be essentially akin in every case." 

VID. " That is very much what I mean to say." 

BLANC. " Then we may notice, even in this illustration, that 
no one loves or hates, except under the belief that the object of 
either sentiment is really lovely or hateful, so as either to attract 
or to irritate. Probably then there is no such thing anywhere 
as feeling without an accompaniment of supposed fact ; and be 
lief, either true or false, must, after all, go along with sentiment, 
and be the mould in which our very affections are cast. But 
now consider our question in this way. Have you not a prayer 
which you call the Gayatri?" 

VID. "Certainly; we pray in that sacred text that the 
adorable light of the Divine Ruler may enlighten our minds." 

BLANC. " Thank you ; and by the Divine Ruler in that text 
you mean the spiritual sun or the divine enlightener ? " 

VID. " Whom else could we?" 

BLANC. " Then I should be afraid of asking you whether 
this divine being teaches truth or falsehood; but have you 



158 UNITY OF TRUTH HINDU PREDICTION. 

considered sufficiently that whatever he teaches must be true alto 
gether, and that you have in this prayer no feeble testimony to 
the sacred duty of searching for the highest knowledge we can 
attain of the only true God ? Surely, my friend, that which he 
is to one man he must be also to another. You, who have such 
grand conceptions of infinity and spiritual omnipotence, can 
never think that our little differences of skin, and hair, and tem 
perament, are worthy of mention, when compared to the deep 
thoughts of our souls in the sight of that pure Being whose 
thought, you say, is the world, and to whom you also imply 
that time and space are only conditions of his action, and infinity 
the range of his creative will. Especially, if we come forth 
from him, as you say, like sparks from a flame, we must be all 
capable of remounting to our source ; and this affinity is a 
greater reason for our seeking alike the eternal truth than any 
external accidents can be for our acquiescing in distorted frag 
ments of it. I can hardly, indeed, conceive how variety of 
country is to alter truth, unless it can first alter the very being 
of the eternal God; but as he has given to all mankind one 
reason, though from imperfect education they partake unequally 
of it, so I augur that he has for all men one revelation of him 
self, though from moral backsliding or inadequate teaching 
many men have as yet fallen short of learning it. Have I not, 
indeed, had a passage shewn me in one of your sacred books, 
which not only declares faith in Vishnu to be universally possi 
ble, but prophesies that it shall be brought about and rendered 

universal?" 

1 1 
; You may," answered Vidyacharya, "have seen a passage I: 

to that effect in the Sri Bh&gavat*." 

" Well," proceeded Blancombe, " that is a far more cheering 
anticipation, than the dreary prospect you held out of many 
races being doomed to almost hopeless ignorance. Suppose we ._ 
start on this more hopeful track ; and let us consider whether I 
you or I can do most to improve those among the natives of | 

* Wilson s Analysis, Pref. V. Pur. 



WORTH OF PROBABILITIES. 159 

India whom you lament as sunken in ignorance or vice, and 
whether also either of us can convince the other." " Why," 
said Vidyacharya, " I am far from pretending to equal you either 
in enlightenment, or power of argument; but as regards our 
religion, I have partly explained it, and, if you wish it, I am 
ready to do so farther." " Well, we have gained something," 
remarked Blancombe, "if it has appeared, either from reason, 
or from your own sacred books, that as God is one, so truth is 
one, and that the tendency of mankind hereafter will be both to 
improvement in other things, and also to unity in the knowledge 
of God." 

" Before we go farther," asked Sadananda, " should not the 
stranger tell us what he thinks of the systems which he has 
heard expounded, and since he agrees partly with them all as 
opposed to the Charvacas, which of the three he prefers?" 
"You mean," said Blancombe, "which of the three I prefer 
in itself, apart from the authority of the sacred books?" " Pre 
cisely so," replied the other. "Whether then am I quite 
justified in making such an attempt?" said Blancombe, hesi 
tatingly, and half to himself. " For many things about the 
Deity may appear to our feeble capacity strange, which yet if 
taught us upon proper authority, we could not venture to deny. 
It is true that any immorality in a doctrine would shock the 
conscience, and self-contradiction would repel the reason; and, 
according to my own argument, our mental perceptions have 
quite as great authority to persuade, as our sight or hearing. So 
that there may be inherent in a religion a sort of internal evidence 
of its truth, so far as it is good or the contrary. Still, if I re 
flect, how inadequate all our faculties must be to comprehend 
the Infinite Being from whom they came, and how negative our 
ideas become, either of mind as a thinking principle, or of spirit 
as a creative power, the moment we attempt to describe their 
character, instead of contenting ourselves with asserting their 
reality, then I must confess that any uncovering of Himself by 
the Deity would easily outweigh all our refined speculations ; and 



160 



ASPECTS OF BUDDHISM. 



I am half inclined to wait for some command to believe, instead 
of determining beforehand what is believable. There are, how 
ever, limits to this predisposition in favour of assent; since the 
laws of thought, or what perhaps my friends here might call the 
spiritual limits applicable to mind, seem to give us a primary 
revelation of God, which, as coming from himself, we may be 
confident he will not set aside. I particularly hesitate," he con 
tinued, now raising his voice, "as to offering any criticism upon 
the doctrines of our pious friend the Saugata Muni. For he 
appeals expressly to the authority of Sakya or Gotama, though 
he considers him as an aspirant in the course of human develop 
ment, rather than as a divine revealer. Now, certainly, there 
are parts of this Bauddha doctrine, which would not be incre 
dible in themselves, if the authority which guaranteed them to 
us were sufficient; as for instance, that more than one agent 
may co-exist in the same Divine Being, and again, that one who 
lived in the weakness of humanity, sin only excepted, may now 
be exalted so as to be our representative of Deity, and a proper 
object of worship. Then, again, as to miracles, or acts of 
preternatural power, if they were also acts of goodness and 
beneficence, I see no objection to admitting them as divine 
credentials ; and, again, that religious doctrines may be ex 
pressed in writing, or even important facts recorded in books, 
by men under the influence of a divine teaching, so that they 
may hand down after death the truths with which they were 
inspired, appears to me highly credible, and indeed only a result, 
such as spiritual feeling, which we ascribe, like you, to heavenly 
grace, would naturally produce, when once brought in contact 
with the practical understanding of mankind, which we also 
ascribe to divine providence. If the words of any living teachers 
were worth listening to, their writings after death will be about 
equally so. Then, again, it must be fully allowed, that the 
spread of the Bauddha faith by the innocent means of missions 
and preaching, may stand for one of the most remarkable facts 
in the history of the world. 



DIFFICULTIES OF BUDDHISM. 161 

" When, however, we ask, what was the authority of Gotama, 
very great difficulties arise in the way of proving it satisfactorily. 
In the first place, if we examine the miracles you have alluded 
to, I certainly have read extraordinary things in the Mahawansa, 
but they are of a kind which repels rather than persuades me. 
For instance, Mahinda, as the missionary of Ceylon, is said to 
have travelled through the air ; and something similar is related 
of his predecessor Gotama. Certain demons, or Yakkas, are 
represented as shivering around the Bauddha teacher, and as 
being alternately terrified and pitied by him. Then there are 
certain alliances of a strange kind. There is a king, for ex 
ample, married to a female Yakka ; I mean Vigaya ; and per 
haps one ought not to wonder at his marriage being strange, 
since his descent was extraordinary; for he is made the grand 
son, I think, of a lion. Then, probably, you remember strange 
stories about serpents; and how a king, called Susunaga, ob 
tained his name from a serpent s watching over him, and being 
frightened (Su, Su) by the people of the city. You may, in 
deed, object, that I am quoting from a Ceylonese book, of some 
what less authority than your Nepaulese Sutras, or the three 
Pitakas. But so far as I have seen the Sutras, they also abound 
in stories of a marvellous kind; or at least the legends of Sakya s 
birth and life, of his contest at Sravasti, and general career, are 
different from ordinary history; but this is implied in your own 
appeal to miracles. 

" Now, of all such narratives we may say generally, that if 
they are brought within the range of that Sankhya philosophy 
which you praise, their credibility will be in danger. For men 
moving through the air, and sitting on fiery cushions in the 
midst of demons, and princesses marrying lions, are effects 
which would not be contained in any cause with which we are 
acquainted. You do not find such things happen now-a-days, 
because in fact there are no causes in nature likely to produce 
them. Why then should they ever have happened? If a 
supernatural power introduces a new cause we may expect an 

M.P. 11 



162 UNSATISFACTORY MIRACLES. 

extraordinary effect; and you have ingeniously remarked, that 
there is no reason why the Deity should not teach mankind 
often. But first, this argument from supposition of the Divine 
interference is somewhat less open to you, venerable Muni, than 
to people in general ; since you are not strongly convinced of 
there being a Deity, and if there be, you think he suffers Nature 
to take care of herself. The more then you fall back upon mere 
nature, the more imperatively are you bound, by the Sankhya 
wisdom which you praise, to make all your assertions of results 
consistent with the most regular operation of causes clearly inhe 
rent in nature. 

" But secondly, if the Deity works wonders in order to teach, 
we cannot doubt that such wonderful lessons will be instructive ; 
they will have something in them calculated to teach men. 
Whereas, except so far as some of the stories in the Pitakas may 
tend to magnify the personal renown of Gotama, the wonders 
I have alluded to in your books have in general no moral 
meaning ; they do not set forth the connexion of human suffer 
ing with moral disorder, or shew the Divine mercy healing pain 
in proportion as it removes sin, or, in short, do anything but strike 
us as something extraordinary. Then why should our scrupulous 
friend Sadananda here believe effects to have arisen of which he 
finds no causes in nature? you say, because they are written in 
your books. Then, excepting only from my next remark those 
moral precepts which many believe to have made up the original 
Sutras, as containing the doctrine of Sakya, and supposing all 
those, so far as they were arranged at your first council, to be 
genuine, I must take a great objection to mere records of won 
derful incidents in books written confessedly some hundreds of 
years after the date of the supposed event. Such an interval of 
time is allowed in the case of the Cingalese Mahawansa, though 
I do not know how far in respect of some of the continental 
Pitakas. 

You will see how great a difficulty such a fact involves, if 
you consider the tendency of all stories to grow (especially if 



TRADITION AND INSPIRATION. 



163 



they are wonderful) in passing almost from one mouth to another. 
Mere oral tradition thus constantly expands itself even in a few 
hours, and in the course of a few years may do so indefinitely. 
How much more then in the interval of a century or two, when 
a whole generation has both caught from its father s lips all the 
expansions of their fancy, and had time to superadd those of its 
own ? Nor does your answer satisfy me, that your sacred books, 
although in some cases removed from the date of the events, 
were still written in the age of inspiration. For although we 
believe firmly that the Holy Spirit of God enlightens the mind 
of man, we yet observe such enlightenment to have its most 
proper sphere as regards heavenly things, or spiritual doctrines, 
rather than the record of earthly events ; and so far as it acts 
even upon this latter order of things, it does so by an extension 
of its purifying influence through the legitimate faculties of the 
understanding, rather than by setting them arbitrarily aside. 
For example, it would deepen a sacred writer s perception of 
the Divine dealings as shewn in earthly events, and by awaken 
ing in him a more reverential attention would also fortify his 
powers of memory, and perhaps might act in other ways of this 
kind. But as to any dream, that events which have happened 
in former generations of men are first suffered to be forgotten, 
and then revealed over again in circumstantial particularity in 
order to be recorded in writing, I have as yet found no clear 
instance of such a revelation in the history of mankind any 
where, and shall never admit it except upon very clear proof. 
For, hitherto, in proportion as any one has preferred on behalf 
of sacred books claims of this latter kind, either error or impos 
ture has been found to prevail. Pardon me if I point out to 
yourself what a learned man (Mr Tumour) has shewn in refer 
ence to the Mahawansa. He there finds a prediction by Gotama 
of the conversion of Ceylon to the Bauddha faith. This book 
was written for Ceylon. But on referring to the continental 
Pitakas the whole passage containing that prediction does not 
occur. If it does, you can shew it me now. But if it does not, the 

112 



164 THE ODYSSEY IN CEYLON. 

inference becomes too clear, that the prophecy was one inserted 
after the event, not having been in the original books. Con 
sider also that very curious story of Vigaya marrying the female 
Yakka. His companions have been bewitched by her. He by 
wisdom and firmness resists her blandishments, until with drawn 
sword he has both compelled their deliverance, and extorted 
from her a sacred oath of true alliance. Now all this story is 
not written in Ceylon until about 440 years after your first 
council (or as we should say, about 104 B.C.), whereas it had 
been sung in heroic verse among the Yavanas some eight 
hundred years earlier, being in fact an episode of the Odyssey. 
Now you may urge, I cannot prove that the Greek bard did 
not get the groundwork of his story from India; but you will 
observe, even if he did, the author of the Mahawansa is still 
necessarily wrong in placing the transaction so near his own 
time as the life of Vigaya, who preceded Mahinda by only three 
generations. Such an error in time must be considered as con 
firming the mistrust which the marvellous character of the story 
is itself calculated to inspire ; not to mention, what some critics 
would say, that the Greek poet was perhaps the inventor, and 
the Bauddha annalist a borrower." Here Wolff, interposing, 
said, " That would be precisely my own opinion." " But, how 
ever that maybe," resumed Blancombe, "you see, my friend, 
the difficulty of asking persons so scrupulous as your half ally 
Sadananda to believe miracles ascribed to Sakya, on the strength 
of any inspiration which has first to be proved of books written 
long after his time. 

" Here then it is impossible to avoid a doubt, how far stories 
of the kind alluded to may have been exaggerated by error, or 
by the overgrowth of later times. This suspicion will haunt 
us more, if we see reason to believe that the very doctrine and 
practices of Sakya have undergone some change. From what you 
have yourself told us, and from what I recollect of other accounts, 
Sakya appears to have been impressed with the transitoriness of 
all earthly things, and indignant at the exclusiveness practised 









SA KYA BAUDDHA SCRIPTURES. 165 

by the Brahmanical priesthood. Hence he threw open the doors 
of his religion to every caste ; and although it is disputed how far 
he acknowledged an Adi Buddha in some such reserved manner 
as yourself, it is clear that his faith had no artificial order of 
priesthood. His very word for religious rites, I have been told, 
was P&jd, or worship, as distinct from the older Brahmanic 
Yqjna, or sacrifice. Thus he appears to have been a democrat in 
religion. Whereas, those successors of his who enjoyed the favour 
of king Asoca, or some who followed them, appear to have sought 
the transfer of sacerdotal dignities, rather than their annihilation. 
Thus their yellow-robed fraternity planted itself in the place of 
the Brahmans ; and the number of priests who came over, as 
soon as this transfer was affected, helped to change the character 
of your faith. At least, I conceive, the gentle nature of Sakya 
would be surprised at the pomp of yellow robes, and incense, 
and chants, with which your temples are now filled ; certainly, 
I think he would forbid the relics, consisting of his supposed 
bones, to be worshipped ; and in many things, if Sakya was a 
Divine teacher, you have need to return to the first principles of 
his faith. To myself it appears probable, that as his practices 
have been changed, so the story of his life has been magnified." 
" But," here the Saugata threw in a reply, " you would not 
retain that supposition, if it appeared that our sacred books were 
arranged by the early councils of our Church, before any such 
developments as you conceive to be corruptions had taken place 
in our practice." " In that case," answered Blancombe, "part 
of my objection would be removed; for wonderful events are 
better attested the nearer competent witnesses stand to them." 
" Well, but you know," rejoined the Saugata, " our Pitakas, 
were arranged at the very first council, in the year when Buddha 
entered on his blessedness." " On that account," resumed the 
other, "I feel compelled to admit the probability that such 
books give a sufficiently faithful account of the original doctrine 
of Buddha; but I have been alluding to the case of interpo 
lations, and of wonderful stories in books of a later date. Now, 



166 BUDDHISM HARDLY ORIGINAL. 

if we examine that doctrine of your teacher Buddha, or Sakya, 
or Gotama, in its authorised records, has it such a character of 
novelty as to deserve properly the name of a revelation ? You 
scarcely yourself affirm that it has." "Pardon me," said the 
Saugata, " we call Sakya the intelligent, or rather the en 
lightened, (Buddha,) in order to denote the fulness of Buddha- 
hood, or Divine intelligence, which came upon him, as I have 
partly explained." " Yes," answered Blancombe, " and so the 
professors of any religion may consider Divine enlightenment 
necessary in order to apprehend spiritually their acknowledged 
truths ; but that is a different sort of enlightenment, or at least 
is generally conceived to be so, from the one which commu 
nicates truths not previously known. For example, the A charya 
has appealed to the Vedas as the doctrinal standards of his faith, 
but yet he has spoken of Divine grace as necessary to each 
believer; and I apprehend most Christians to make generally 
the same sort of distinction. Am I not right, my lord," con 
tinued Blancombe, here turning to his elder friend Mountain. 
" Certainly," replied the other, " the revelation of a new truth 
to the world, and a revealing to each person of grace to appre 
hend that truth, are distinct things." " Well," resumed Blan 
combe, when we ask what was that doctrine which Sakya 
taught, and in virtue of which he claimed to be a Divine teacher, 
we find it very much the same as the Sankhya philosophy. 
If at least we were to take the old maxims of this meditative 
sect, and superadd to them a certain devout contemplation of the 
IL oga kind, we should have the original of Sakya as a founder 
of a religion, sufficiently explained. We should have a devout 
mystic endeavouring to raise himself by contemplation and 
benevolence above the illusions of this transitory world, while 
also he would possess in his philosophy a weapon keen enough 
to assail the received religion of his contemporaries. You will 
observe, I am not denying the personal virtue of the man ; and 
we may admit that the rapid progress of his religion was due to 
something good in it ; a re-action, as it were, of spiritualised 



SA NKHYA PSYCHOLOGY. 167 

humanity against the zealous sacerdotalism of the Brahmans. 
There is no longer, however, so much as a shadow of a pretence 
for considering the system of Sakya as an original downdropth 
from Heaven; and the very possibility of its having Divine 
authority at all depends upon whether your theory is correct, 
that nature or humanity can develope themselves, either by 
prayers or otherwise, into a kind of Divine enlightenment. But 
such a theory is the offspring of the Sankhya philosophy. I 
shall, therefore, do you no injustice in classing you with our 
wise friend Sadananda, and in considering both your theories 
as one. Or rather, I will look at the offshoot in its stem. 

" Notwithstanding many things which puzzle me in this 
Sankhya system, it contains some which rather attract me. At 
least, I am not startled disagreeably by the subdivision of man into 
different parts which are called the gross and the subtile person, 
and the latter of which we are said to carry about with us into 
different forms of existence, though it consists, like the grosser, 
of matter, but of matter in most subtile and primary form ; for 
in such a doctrine, when it is coupled with the idea of a soul 
entirely distinct from matter, I recognise a sort of confession of 
the truth, that the personality of Man would not exist as a whole, 
nor what we call humanity be entire, without two elements. 
Thus, in one respect you, Sadananda, seem to be nearer the truth 
than either the Vedantine reasoner, who resolves everything into 
spirit, or any one, on the other hand, who approaches nearer to 
the Charvacas, by making man consist only of sensuous body. 
Whatever our souls may be, there seems some reason in your 
belief that the consciousness we have of ourselves as a whole in 
cludes an organic development, or a balance of powers depending 
partly on the play of those natural forces around us, which yet we 
hesitate to call part of ourselves. Perhaps then you here supply 
an escape from a difficulty which some have keenly felt as re 
gards the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body. It 
is the creed of Christians, that not only their souls will live, but 
their bodies be raised again. Some ingenious persons, who 



168 RESURRECTION AND IMMORTALITY. 

think the immortality of the soul probable enough, have still 
cavilled at the resurrection of the flesh, as thinking it too humble 
and gross a conception ; but if, as you say, the soul is so distinct 
in its kind from every particle of earth, that we cannot even con 
ceive of ourselves as human beings, nor be what we are without 
some combination which is developed out of matter, and enables 
us to apprehend things material as we do, then it will be clear 
that any restoration of our full identity in a new life will require 
the revival of this sensuous companion of the soul ; and as you 
see no difficulty in the conception of this subtile person s being- 
revived, so the Christian doctrine of the body which was sown 
corruptible being raised incorruptible, and therefore in some way 
spiritualised, turns out not to have been a gross conception, but a 
profoundly refined one. So far I have therefore to thank you 
for a sort of confirmation of a Christian doctrine. 

" Again, I am still more pleased to find you acknowledge so 
decidedly the immortal soul of man as something distinct in 
itself, not dependent on things earthly, and not liable to death, 
nor yet flowing out of an undefined source of spirit, but as indi 
vidual and immortal. The careful way in which you isolate this 
soul from any combinations or processes of matter has also an 
interest for my mind, as recalling somewhat the language of 
St Paul, an apostle of Jesus, and a bishop of his Church. For 
he also confesses that there was a something in him by which 
he was affected with passionate feelings, and which he disliked 
to call himself; yet without which his consciousness of his own 
being would have been other than it actually was ; yet, again, 
inside he had a deeper something which he felt to be more truly 
himself, and which consented to the law of Eight, though yet his 
whole being did not, but was at variance. I delight, he says, 
in the law of God after the inner man ; but I find another law 
in my members*. Only there was one difference between your 
doctrine and that of the apostle. You wish the soul to be re 
minded of her distinctness until she becomes indifferent not 

* Epistle to the Romans. 



RESPONSIBILITY SEAT OF AGENCY. 169 

merely to the events of the outer world, but also, if I understand 
you aright, to the very actions of the entire man. Whereas 
St Paul wishes that inner being, in virtue of which he says, I, 
to suffer patiently losses or wrongs, as things both imposed on him 
by a Heavenly Father, and also as of little import to one who 
expected an eternal inheritance; as regards all actions, however, 
his feeling is very different; he does not attempt to persuade 
himself that whatever he does is the blind doing of Pracriti, in 
such a sense as to make him not personally responsible for it. 
On the contrary, he blames himself for whatever in his per 
formance comes short of the idea on which he has fixed the eye 
of his mind. Here then is a difference as to which I could wish 
you to reconsider your doctrine. For although you call the soul 
puruslia, and perhaps rightly, as if it were more truly ourself ; 
yet if we are only conscious of our entire personality, or, in fact, 
only become men in virtue of a sensuous though subtile orga 
nism, it will seem to follow that whatever we do as one being we 
may suffer for as one. Remorse, shame, and despair may ac 
company our humanity revived in some new world, for the actions 
it either was guilty of, or suffered itself to be betrayed into, while 
it lived here. So far then I do but partially agree with your 
doctrine about the soul; nor indeed is the fitness of rendering 
the soul indifferent to moral actions a doctrine agreeable to the 
sacred books for which you profess not to have shaken off your 
reverence. Perhaps you will consider whether the human con 
science, if properly cultivated, and the very instinct of right and 
wrong which the soul displays, if she is truly educated, instead 
of misguided, would not make your doctrine here nearer to St 
Paul, and also make it more consistent with itself. 

" It seems to me rather extraordinary that you should make 
knowledge in the highest sense reside in the soul, but agency 
generally in the body as a product of Pracriti. For surely it is 
clear that where there is knowledge there is power, or, as an old 
proverb says, to ken is to can. For although by power some 
men may mean brute force, we know that such things yield to 



170 SOUL AND DEITY PARTLY CORRELATIVES. 

contrivance, which comes of sagacity and mental perception. 
I cannot therefore admit it to be reasonable that Pracriti should 
be said to do everything and yet be ignorant, while soul is said 
to know everything and yet to be impotent these two concep 
tions do not well agree. 

" But now, what surprised me most in your system, as it 
seemed also to shock the A charya, is this. You give the human 
body a soul, but you are not convinced that the vast frame of 
the world has any supreme soul, except so far as forms of power 
and intelligence may have been developed out of the sea of life, 
like other productions of nature. You made it clear that the 
beings you call gods should be described as having souls ; but 
still you represent their divine personality, in so far as they are 
objects of worship, to be entirely a transitory thing, since it is an 
efflux of nature, and everything except soul must pass away. It 
does not in the least console me, that you talk of such vast periods 
of time ; for how do I know they will be so long ? or who told 
you anything about them ? I certainly could have wished you 
would have persuaded our Vedantine friend that each human 
soul is distinct in itself, as we believe; and that he in turn would 
persuade you to believe in Deity as the Highest Soul, and that 
Deity exists at least as independently of nature, as primaeval 
before her life, and as eternal throughout her every change or 
annihilation, as you conceive the human soul to be in relation to 
our body. Seriously, I would ask, can you think the soul of 
man so godlike as to have life in itself, and to survive easily 
any multitude of bodies until finally it exists as soul, though not 
as humanity, apart from flesh or blood; and do you think the 
supreme Deity could have no being apart from earthly shapes, 
or the moulding of nature ? 

" You say that an independent Deity could have no induce 
ment to create a world ; but can we easily limit the range over 
which either the ambition, or the beneficence, or the desire to 
expand himself in any way, of even an ordinary human being 
may extend? One might as well argue that Alexander of 



MOTIVES OF CREATOR. 171 

Macedon, or Mahmnd of Ghazni, having Greece and Afghanistan 
to dwell in, could never have wished to overrun India. Yet the 
first is said to have wept for another world to conquer, and the 
history of the second I need not remind you of. But surely 
beneficence is with good men as strong a passion as the love of 
conquest is with kings. You see instances of it sufficiently in 
your own missionaries, such as those of the Baudclhas formerly, 
or in the life of Sancara who went about teaching. How can we 
venture, then, in either modesty or soundness of mind, to say 
that an Intelligence which must be to all others nothing less than 
the aggregate of worlds is to a peasant s cottage, can have the 
range of its beneficence restricted, or the depths of its motives 
fathomed, by guesses which our ignorance makes in the dark ? 
Pray observe, that the motives of any supreme Mind creating 
and ordering the universe would, from the necessity of the case, 
transcend our comprehension. On my theory, therefore, I am 
not bound to explain the divine motives ; for they may have been 
either any out of many such as may be piously attributed to an 
Object of the highest reverence, or they might even be of a kind 
beyond our conjecture. Having once reached the footstool of a 
Supreme Father, I can most reasonably believe His will a mys 
tery, and acknowledge a point beyond which I despair of pushing 
the inquiry, yet without, on that account, being vanquished in 
our great argument ; whereas, upon your theory of nature, you 
are bound to explain everything. If science would prove the 
world to have been made by ignorance, or by itself, she must 
shew how either of them made it. Take, for example, that pri 
mary plastic matter of yours, which I can compare to nothing 
but infinite quicksilver, but which you describe as a sort of ubi 
quitous fluid, and as being in fact the bubbling seed of life. 
Much more I ask, as even the greatest of physical inquirers have 
asked, where did such a fluid get its motive ? could it even be 
moved at all, if law as the result of design or thought did not 
underlie its movements ? You will readily admit that it moves 
in subjection to certain rules, and that however truly all the 



172 LAW, THOUGHT, CHANCE, 

forms of matter may perhaps be resolved back into one primary 
fluid, that fluid has at least been varied into a thousand forms of 
life, according to the conditions under which it has moved. 
There has been heat melting, cold condensing, liquid flowing, 
lightness flying up, and gravity tending downward these things 
are not more facts historically, than the order in which they are 
on the whole arranged is metaphysically a thought. Indeed, 
I humbly conceive, metaphysically, that it would not be possible 
to trace back the process by thought, unless its arrangement, in 
fact, had been orderly, and such as proceeds from design. For 
if ever you arrive at things which are literally the work of chance, 
though it is not very easy to find such, no one then ventures 
to predict an order, or attempts to trace one. Thus, as to which 
of the myriad drops of salt water will wet each grain of sand on 
the shore we give no account, for it seems to be chance ; but the 
great body of the tide we predict, and that seems to be law. 
The same remark of the utter uncertainty of pure chance may 
often be made as to the units, even when we have no doubt as to 
the aggregate. Thus we do not know which pigeon out of a 
flock will get a particular grain of corn when we throw a handful 
at random, though we may be certain the corn will be all eaten, 
and the pigeons in the mass fed. I have, in talking to Dr Wolff, 
already glanced at the idea of fixed proportions, according to 
which the primary forms into which we actually trace nature 
become combined together. If all these are evolutions, as you 
suppose, of one indissoluble fluid, they must have been evolved 
out of it, on some law of combination equally implying arrange 
ment. Again, it seems a favourite theory with some of us, that 
time is the mental order of events, and space the capacity of 
arranging objects. So far as I at all understand* such an imagi 
nation, it seems very consistent with my argument for a creative 
mind, though not perhaps necessary to it. For just as time 
would be nothing to us if we did not notice it and devise ways 
of marking it, so that, in fact, we create human time by thinking 

Confiteor tibi, Domine, me nescire adhuo quid sit tempus. St Augustine. 



IDEA, MIND MORAL FITNESS. 173 

about it, and imprint it as an order upon our lives, thus the 
absolute idea of time would perhaps be an impossibility if the 
Highest Spirit had not designed an order, and marked out a suc 
cession either of causes and effects, or of days and nights and 
seasons in which events should happen. Similarly, I suppose 
the absolute idea of space implies a potential arrangement of 
objects by the creative spirit. What shall we say then? If 
time and space, and I suppose similarly many such mental clas 
sifications, such as causation, and gravitation, and combinations 
of number, are quite necessary in order to enable us to understand 
the world we live in, which, without them, would be a confused 
chaos yet all these in their largest reality, which has certainly 
something external to ourselves, imply an eternal thought as the 
only thing which can give them substantiality have not we 
already an Eternal Spirit as the Creator of all things standing 
out as visibly to the eye of the mind, as the world itself does to 
our bodily sense ? Not but that an easier answer to those who 
doubt of a creative Iswara may be drawn for people in general 
out of special instances of design, to some of which I may pre 
sently refer; but to you, who en* rather by boldness than 
timidity in your metaphysical speculations, some such argument 
as the above from thought shewing itself as law in the creation, 
may be properly addressed, and ought to be convincing. Per 
haps you will permit me to remind you here of your own argu 
ment for the distinct existence of soul. I did not, when you 
used it, see why such an argument should convince you ; but 
was too glad of your conclusion on that point to quarrel much 
with your mode of arriving at it. You said, as there is a spec 
tacle in nature so there must be soul as a spectator. But why 
must or ought one thing to be rather than another? This in 
ference of yours implies moral fitness ; and it would be ridi 
culous to talk of fitness as regards the very nature of mun 
dane existences, without a Supreme Mind to settle, or at the 
very least to judge of it. For you did not mean fitness in the 
sense of a key fitting a lock, though even that would imply, as 



174 MORAL GOVERNOR CAUSES OF INCONSISTENCY. 

every one allows, some mental design ; but you meant fitness in a 
far more delicate and truly spiritual sense, of the correspondence 
between two things being such as to recommend the plan for 
admiration, or even its possibility for credence. Consider what 
far higher conditions of mental thought this latter problem in 
volved ; and then tell me whether your theory did not uncon 
sciously assume a moral governor, even while you professed to 
deny one. At least there seems to have been here a practical 
inconsistency in your argument. It is true that others whose 
wisdom is based on piety often reason from the fitness of our ex 
pectation as regards the moral government of the world to the 
probability of future events on the grandest scale ; but then the 
instincts which lead them to do so seem to be a testimony which 
God has planted in their mind of his own great being, and either 
a kind of faith, or at least a foundation on which a more perfect 
faith may be built. You, however, are open to the sneer of 
Dr Wolff on this point ; since there is no reason why the drama 
of the world s history should be wrought out in goodness unless 
its Author and Exhibitor be good. 

" But now, if any one were to ask me why you, in spite of 
all your wisdom, are betrayed into inconsistencies almost as 
great as those of the Charvacas, for you in effect put matter 
before mind, and the thing made before the Maker, as they do, 
I should answer that perhaps the reasons are chiefly these. 
Both you, and all other Hindu thinkers on these subjects for I 
may now include the venerable Vidyacharya are very desirous 
of carrying your inquiries about the Deity to the most subtile 
point of refinement. You observe with great justice that none 
of the phenomena of nature give an adequate representation of 
one whom we can suppose to be their author. He is neither 
Tempest, nor Fire, nor Ocean, nor Sun ; and though rude nations 
may have fancied the thunderbolt to be brandished by his hand, 
or the clouds to conceal his chariot, yet these and all other 
things in nature prove empty, the moment we search in them 
for the incommunicable signs of a right to our worship. For 






REFINING SUBTLETY VASTNESS OF SCALE. 175 

they all obey something higher or deeper, and have nothing 
which answers to our heart. Thus, although they "betray an 
order disposed by Divine wisdom, they shew no signs of par 
taking that very wisdom. One by one then we mentally separate 
from these things that which we believe to be very Deity. But 
the natural train of thought in such an investigation has been 
happily glanced at by the Saugata Muni. For thus at last there 
remains nothing in nature, that is, nothing we can touch, or 
hear, or see, by means of our bodily senses, which we either 
dare or condescend to address with prayer. To what then shall 
we liken our God ? The mind, which by its refinements seems 
to be ever removing Him farther and farther backward, despairs 
of perceiving what He is, and because it cannot describe the 
fashion of His being, becomes in danger of disbelieving its rea 
lity. Here, then, is a terrible error. For although the veil of 
the flesh prevents us from seeing what sort of thing is behind 
the scene of nature, we should not the less infer there is some 
thing just as the Bauddha infers a solid matter, or others would 
say, a combining principle, to underlie what we feel and see and 
handle in external objects, though these apprehensions on our 
own part may not be infallible clues to what the solid or essen 
tial and formative principle is in itself; so we must much more 
infer an eternal spirit to underlie what we conceive of spiritual 
things. Yet certainly it is not wonderful that the mere explorer 
of nature, being accustomed to measure things local, and weigh 
things solid, should not know where to place the more mysterious 
being of the Deity, and should therefore gradually lose sight of 
him. From the language used by the Saugata, I gathered that 
he did not wish to deny a Deity so much as to subtilise our 
conceptions of the Divine Being, by excluding as far as possible 
everything earthly. With that desire I so far sympathise as to 
go some way in that direction myself. If, however, something 
of vagueness thus creeps in around our idea of that great First 
Cause, which as yet perhaps we have not denied, we become in 
danger of obscuring it still more by apprehending the vastness 



176 MORE WORLDS, MORE SIGNS OF GOD. 

of the scale upon which all his doings are conducted. Here, 
indeed, is the second great peril of Hindu wisdom. You notice 
that the generations of living things have been by thousands 
such as no man can number. Perhaps, also, if something of 
European science is superadded, or if your own ancient astrono 
mers should have gone so far, you learn that the earth we tread 
is but one among innumerable worlds; and vast as it appears to 
our limited senses, must yet be reckoned by the gaze of science 
as only a speck in the immensity of all the starry worlds which 
exist around us. Thus you learn to talk of infinite periods of 
time, and of boundless worlds, and of cycles recurring as if it 
were without beginning or end. The mind then amazed, and 
as it were stupified by the extent of a scheme which it cannot 
grasp, is in danger of acquiescing in the mere order which it 
observes near it, or even fancies that because this order is large 
in relation to our weakness, there can therefore be nothing 
beyond it. Whereas, if our faculties were enlarged, as our 
horizon extended, we should find at last that the necessity of a 
Governor and Preserver to the utmost whole of all smaller circles 
is as real and vital as it appears to be to some child or to some 
simple old woman, who perceiving only a part of what science 
reveals, infers rightly that this part could not exist by itself, 
but must depend upon something higher, even as it is connected 
with something larger. We ourselves have heard Sadananda 
speak of Vishnu as preserving our world. But if this little 
speck of ours must be preserved by some intellectual being from 
falling into vague confusion, and undergoing physical or moral 
anarchy, how much more must the vast whole of space, and the 
infinite periods of time which belong to its career, require to be 
preserved and upheld by some supreme and eternal and all-em 
bracing Intelligence. If order in little things implies design, 
how much more in great ones. Multiply as much as you 
please in imagination the extent of space or time, you do not 
therefore lessen, but rather increase the necessity for that higher 
and deeper Being, without which they could not consist. The 



INFINITY, INFINITE MIND. 177 

mind truly disciplined will easily overleap therefore whatever 
interval of generations any sort of history may multiply, and 
ascend in thought to the great Father, without whom there 
could be no offspring. The Saugata Muni points out the cycles 
of water as it is generated in dew, or descends in rivers, or col 
lects itself in seas. Does he not then perceive, that these cycles 
depend upon our connexion with the heavenly "bodies. It is the 
sun which by its heat attracts the dews, and the moon which by 
the attraction of her substance lifts up the body of the tides, 
so that they proceed in order and by method, as if the designer 
of them had entered into covenant with mankind, that His pro 
vidence should not fail them, but afford daily proofs of His own 
wisdom, as well as marks by which we should shape our course, 
and take note of things by which life may be assisted. Now 
just as the earth depends on something higher, even so do we. 
Again, Sadananda speaks of infinite cycles, and here I am sorry 
to observe, that Vidyacharya, by the account which he gives of 
his preferential worship of Siva, appears too nearly to agree in 
considering creation in its largest sense as a vague infinity, with 
neither beginning nor end, but an eternal revolution of life and 
death. But do not you both perceive, that although a circle 
returns upon itself, yet every circle has a circumference? It 
has, therefore, a limit. Nor are our minds able to conceive of 
any circle, as a possibility, which is not thus defined, and which 
has not been drawn upon some design. But where there is 
design, there chance is excluded. Now if I was to say that the 
circle of all life and of all worlds has a circumference, I might 
appear either impious or unwise, in limiting the infinity of the 
Creator. But what shall we say If anything is designed, has 
it not so far at least a mental beginning ? and if anything attains 
its object, has it not so far an end ? Or do we believe the circle 
of space to be infinite for any other reason than because we also 
ascribe infinity to the Supreme Mind, which has disposed, and 
which therefore (if we consider it as an appearance) underlies it 
as its unseen Cause ? May we not then revert to that doctrine 
M. P. 12 



178 DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 

of Madhwa, which was before alluded to, and endeavour to clear 
up the controversy between him and Sancara ? Our most vener 
able friend here, as the follower of Sancara, whom he believes 
a true commentator on the Yedas, denies that the Deity has any 
Gunas, or qualities. I also agree with him, that we cannot 
piously ascribe any such limits to the Deity, as those of space 
or time, and whatever qualities we may venture to ascribe, 
should be in the way of reverential conjectures, and only attri 
buted as pious suppositions, rather than assumed to express the 
ineffable Being of the eternal I AM. But Madhwa says the 
Deity has all good qualities, though not bad ones. I humbly 
understand him also to say that the Deity is limited by such 
Gunas as are consistent with perfection, though not by others. 
Here, again, I agree with Madhwa, that nothing done by the 
Deity is done at random, or by caprice, but by wisdom. Is not 
then wisdom in itself a limitation ? for surely it excludes from 
its owner the arbitrariness of evil and, again, is not all per 
fection a Guna ? Would you then not agree with Madhwa, that 
the Deity is Saguna, or limited by excellence, supposing in 
turn he should concede to you, that the Deity is Nirguna, in 
the sense of our not being able to ascribe to Him any of the 
limitations of passion and darkness which fetter us creatures of 
an hour? I have some hope of your agreeing with him and 
with me so far, since I observed that you contend against Sada- 
nanda for the full certainty and correctness of that revelation of 
the Deity which you believe to be contained in the Vedas. For 
I need not explain to you, there could be no certainty in any 
revelation, unless it were certain that the Deity will abide by and 
make good that which He has revealed of Himself, whatever 
it may turn out to be. Agree therefore with us, that the Deity 
has Gunas, so far at least as to be bound by faithfulness, and 
by the truth of the declaration which He has made of Himself." 
Here Yidyacharya, appeared, as I understood, to give some kind 
of assent. Well, then," resumed Blancombe, " the Deity is 
not in such a sense infinite, as to be diffused in a vague atmos- 



TRANSCENDENCY. 179 

phere of shadowy immensity, but sufficiently positive and definite 
for us to trust in Him and pray to Him, and search after His 
truth, if haply we may find it. Having obtained this great 
practical concession, I am not anxious to push farther my own 
conception, which, however, appears to me not an unimproving 
one, of all space, however infinite it may appear to us, having 
still bounds in such a sense that it is all conceived and compre 
hended by the Supreme Mind which upholds it. There is, 
therefore, no infinity, except so far as He chooses perhaps of the 
volition of His divine wisdom to make it so. The worlds, there 
fore, throughout all space have metaphysical limits, inasmuch 
as they are subject to Providence, though whether in fact they 
have bounds of space, I confess myself not to know. For, on 
the other hand, I most freely concede to you, that whatever law 
of the Creator s wisdom may limit His creation or His doings, 
we cannot, except so far as He reveals it to us, compass it within 
the embrace of our faculties ; and as even our own thoughts run 
to and fro and forward and backward in space and time, without 
being limited by the detention of our bodies in one spot, or by 
the number of years and events which may intervene, much more 
the absolute Mind of the Supreme Foreseer and Governor must 
have infinite knowledge of things above and below, and of yes 
terday, to-day, and to-morrow. Nor dare I ascribe to Him any 
limits drawn from our conceptions in general, though His own wis 
dom may come forth assigning to Him the voluntary limit of law. 
" Indeed, that thought which Sadananda has started with 
reference to the Vedas, that they may contain sufficient truth for 
human guidance, though not the highest truth absolutely, may 
be applied fairly enough to my own argument. For though in 
a history of facts, which must have been in one way or another, 
we require strict correctness, and though a distinct revelation of 
truth is not to be explained away, yet it is probable enough that 
our conceptions of heavenly things may be so imperfect as to 
resemble them only by way of picture, and may be true relatively 
to us, inasmuch as they guide us adequately on our way, while 

122 



180 HINDU PASSIVENESS. 

yet the reality may in absolute truth be something transcending 
our thoughts, just as a mariner s chart serves to guide him, 
without representing to the eye the depth and majesty of the 
ocean. It seems, indeed, to be a necessary condition of exhibit 
ing on the stage of our apprehensions a Being properly infinite, 
that it should empty itself as it were of its glory by assuming 
limits, and being subjected in our thoughts to that without 
which we can hardly recognise life. Only, is it not still an act 
of reasonable faith to believe, that the unseen reality corresponds, 
not of course exactly, but sufficiently for our guidance, with the 
fashion of it which we have conceived ? It may be regulatively 
wholesome, though not speculatively adequate. 

" For example, I can thus imagine the divine agency in 
either creating or preserving may differ much from what we 
term action in man. Yet I would not, therefore, lose sight of 
the idea of a divine agent, or an Iswara, properly so called. All 
the Hindu theories I have ever heard, either now, or on former 
occasions, appear tinged with that love of quietude which is 
characteristic of your people, as well as by the refinement already 
spoken of. Both Sadananda in what he said of the soul, and 
others in reasoning about the Deity, seem to think it would be 
a degradation or a misery for any immortal being to be actively 
employed. Hence you leave neither the soul nor the soul s 
great Author anything but the passive enjoyment of extreme 
tranquillity. Not such, however, is the conception of happiness, 
which either men or nations would frame in their vigorous prime. 
I will not argue the point from pictures which Northern nations 
have imagined of gods delighting in war and the chase ; for you 
would smile at them as inspirations of the blood rather than of 
the soul. Yet consider a little what sort of man is considered 
noblest, whether one who lives in passive enjoyment, even of a 
harmless kind, or one who serves his generation by undergoing 
peril, or achieving exploits, even at the cost of pain?" " Every 
one will admit the second is the nobler," said Sadananda, after 
a little pause. "Then consider," said Blancombe, "what part 



WHY NOT ACTIVITY? 181 

of our lives we look "back upon with most pleasure. I believe, 
at least, so far as I can judge or observe, it is not the hours of 
ease, but the day of toil, or even of peril, and in general the 
scene of some duty well performed, which the mind lingers upon 
with instinctive satisfaction." " That may be so," said Sada- 
nanda. " But certainly," proceeded Blancombe, " no one doubts 
which is most useful to mankind, for we all acknowledge that 
the active man benefits both his family and his country, while 
the indolent, in so far as his example is followed, becomes the 
ruin of everything. Supposing then beneficence to be an attri 
bute of the Deity, I should doubt whether we do wisely in ima 
gining the divine happiness to consist in a listless quietude. 
For if honour, inward satisfaction, and thanksgiving, belong- 
most to the active, why should we remove from the Deity either 
these things or their cause? Yet please to understand me as 
not speaking of exertion, but of agency. 

" I should agree with you in not imagining the Highest 
Being as painfully toilsome, but I see no reason for conceiving 
of him as helpless. On the contrary, it is not mere power which 
would command our homage, so much as the purposing agent. 
There are many physical things in the world about us more 
powerful than man. An elephant is stronger, a volcano and a 
storm more terrible, and the sea more ample; perhaps, too, a 
steam-engine may be called more useful ; but no one of them 
engages our respect or veneration so much as a man who acts 
justly and beneficently. 

" Perhaps we may consider thus what a good action implies : 
it has moral purpose in designing ; it has intelligence in adapt 
ing ; it has skill in performance. But the Being who exhibits 
these virtues, would be nobler than one absorbed in Nirvana. 
As regards action, therefore, on the whole, I am inclined to say 
something like what Madhwa would probably have said : we 
must not ascribe to the Deity actions in such a sense as they are 
limited and tinged by human imperfection, but we may piously 
ascribe to Him an infinite life of agency in all wisdom, justice, 



182 ACTIVITY OF INTELLIGENCE. 

and beneficence, such as calls for humble adoration and obedience 
with thanksgiving. Two remarks only I would add on this 
point, that agency such as proceeds through the instrumentality 
of intelligence or providence is both the noblest in itself of all 
that we can conceive, or at least more so than any activity of 
physical force, and also such is the most consistent with that 
refinement of speculation, which you love, respecting the 
subtile and eminently spiritual nature of the Supreme Being. 
Again, it seems to follow from the very idea of agency that it 
presupposes an agent. For though in a steam-engine, for example, 
you have force, yet you have not properly agency. Thus for 
our Parameswara we clearly require a Being as personally in 
telligent and as sovereign by way of design, in His relation to the 
blind forces of nature, as the maker or guide of a steam-engine 
is in relation to the material force which he directs, and of whose 
instrumentality he avails himself to do his pleasure, yet doing 
so according to fixed laws. Moreover I think we need not fear 
to ascribe to Him agency in some such sense as I have mentioned, 
since to act is the property of those beings whom we instinctively 
reckon highest in this world, and to act well or beneficently 
excites veneration. Only if any one chooses to insist more on 
the possibly transcendent character of all divine agency, as 
being probably beyond our conceptions, I have no objection, so 
long as thereby he exalts the reality instead of lowering it. He 
may consider the process to be as subtile or as refined as he 
pleases, only he must not altogether take it away. Perhaps it 
may help him to retain his belief in it, if I remind him, that 
the more eminently the Deity works by intelligence, or anything 
higher, the more silent and mysterious will be the moving 
springs of His operation. It is only brute force that betrays 
itself by effort ; pure mind is able to produce effects which strike 
us, without thrusting its very finger as it were before our eyes. 
For some such reason, I suppose, the divine agency, though clearly 
inferred by the understanding, is witnessed only by faith, and 
not by sight. 



DIVINE RETRIBUTION. 183 

" Again, what I have to suggest to you on the twin subjects 
of judgment and of moral retribution will be something of the 
same kind as what has just been said. When mankind punish 
criminals, they frequently do so, either from revenge, that is the 
desire of inflicting pain in return, or else from fear of suffering 
again ; but yet we recognise a justice in the punishment of crime 
apart from those somewhat selfish motives ; and we also consider 
that justice to be most perfect in proportion as the Judge is 
least affected by any such working impulses, and deals out his 
sentence according to the merits of the case in righteousness. 
We do not then suppose the Deity to judge or punish, as being 
warped by any such selfish passion or fear; but yet the con 
science of all mankind points by its forebodings to the fitness 
of a recompense for actions, even when they have been secret 
from man. The course of this world confirms such forebodings, 
to a considerable extent, by the unhappiness which in a thousand 
ways of natural consequence waits upon guilt ; and where ex 
ceptional cases appear of what seems to be an escape on part of 
the guilty, we shew by remarking such cases that they are 
contrary to what is usual, or to what we consider fitting. Perhaps 
we know not how rare they are, for the punishment in sore 
stripes of soul may be as secret from us in some cases as guilt 
is in others. Perhaps again, those general tendencies which we 
observe stamped on the course of this world for guilt to produce 
misery, may in some future life be more fully and in every case 
carried out, and justice deal its abundant doom. Our friend 
Vidyacharya has told us that he thinks inequality and suffering 
in another life are the appointed penalties of sin in a former 
one. Sadananda too speaks of the abode of Yama, and of 
witnesses to every portion of our life, and of dread avengers to 
come. Only it is obvious that he does not ascribe such 
sentences to the original providence of any supreme and creative 
Iswara. Even Vidyacharya too appears to think such assign 
ment of doom not consistent with the serene beatitude which he 
considers the lot of the praecreative Brahm. But why all this 



184 DIVINE RETRIBUTION. 

imaginary intervention of inferior beings, unless it is that you 
are afraid to lower the Supreme Being by making him cognisant 
of such things ? May it not then be reasonably suggested, that 
the justice of the most High God may be free from the trammel 
of every imperfection such as clings to man, and yet be from 
everlasting to everlasting, without disturbance of passion, but 
wise in fore-ordaining, calm in observing, and mercifully inex 
orable in suffering the wicked to eat by way of natural conse 
quence the fruit of their own doings. I can imagine no other 
Being to whom the train of moral consequences in the Creation 
can be so reasonably ascribed, as to the Creator. I do not lessen, 
but rather magnify Him, by deeming Him to excel in that 
justice without some element of which no human being is other 
than contemptible ; yet I am far from saying that our mental 
conception of justice is better than a faint picture of that which 
probably is bound up in the eternal Being of the Most High. 
It is not anger I ascribe to Him ; not indignation at mistakes ; 
nor such disproportionate judgments of the true value of com 
plicated actions, varying as they do in all their circumstances 
of knowledge and intention, as we often find sully the sentences 
of man ; but that calmness of justice, which by way of image 
you may assimilate, if you please, to your fancied Nirvana, but 
to which you must leave as it were the unsleeping eye, and an 
obedience of all powers in earth and heaven having the effect 
of a thousand swords in an ever outstretched arm. Truly His 
thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways. 
Often perhaps, as we would willingly hope, He may choose to 
reclaim by mercy, where man in the paucity of his resources 
would have had no remedy but to strike. Yet 7 considering how 
much greater offences are when committed against the greatest 
of benefactors than Avhen against any ordinary person, we must 
expect the justice of the Deity, when it strikes the irreclaimable, 
to be terrible in its stroke. Perhaps also, as regards the interests 
of mankind, we require even from the love of our Universal 
Father some security for retribution upon secret and injurious 



DIVINE RETRIBUTION. 185 

crimes, such as wicked men madly fancy they can escape the 
consequences of by stealth or by dying. Nor do I think we are 
without such security in the very framework of the world. For 
it has been already noticed, that the tendency of sin on this 
earth of ours is to produce suffering of some kind. But astro 
nomers also tell us, that the same law of gravitation which 
suspends our earth in its course about the sun, controls also 
the orbit, and upholds the substance of every world. Supposing 
then it were possible for any atheist or wicked person to pass by 
dying into another world, he would be within the range of the 
same physical law, and clearly therefore of the same moral 
justice from which he thought to escape. Whereas indeed it is 
probable that by putting off the veil of the flesh he would only 
pass into more naked and undisguised proximity to that clear 
Spirit, from which no secret is hid, and which here too is about 
our path and about our bed and spieth out all our ways, but 
which we apprehend most distinctly when our sensations no 
longer disturb us with the noises of earth, or dazzle us with the 
colours of an hour. I will not ask, what imagination can 
measure the horror, which the remorse of all evil memories when 
brought into clear contact with judicial purity may awaken in the 
distracted spirit; for you too agree with me that there is in 
some form a judgment to come ; only I could wish no metaphy 
sical refinement to embarrass you, as if it were not possible for 
God Himself to judge the world, and yet be free from every 
trammel which attends what men call justice. 

" Moreover, just as I hope some of your difficulties in be 
lieving what is justly credible may be removed by considering 
the difference between our conceptions of the Deity and the very 
realities which lie perhaps behind our thoughts, like some unseen 
substance which throws a shadow with but an imperfect resem 
blance of itself, so I think some of the doctrines which you or 
your allies have advanced imply an entire forgetfulness of this 
great distinction between what is true enough relatively to us, 
and what may be absolutely true in the external object. For 



186 WHAT IS CREATION BY "IGNORANCE?" 

example, the Acharya talks of the world s being made by Avidyd 
or ignorance. This singular way of speaking puzzled me exceed 
ingly, only that the Saugata explained it in part, and other por 
tions of your systems throw some light upon it. If, indeed, by 
Avidyd it were meant only that matter made the world, because 
matter may be called ignorance, just as mind is called intel 
ligence, that would be only another way of saying that Pracriti 
made it, which is the very theory we are gradually discovering 
to be so irrational ; but again, if it is meant that ignorance 
makes the world, I beg to ask whose ignorance ? You give me 
no answer ; and indeed, after what Vidyacharya has said about 
Maya, I could not expect one; but it is clear that he means 
our own ignorance, or that of mankind in general. All this mys 
tery about Avidya then means only that, if we are not mistaken 
in supposing the world to exist, we do not know, how it was 
made. Naturally, my friend, we do not ; but it does not hence 
follow that other and higher beings do not. This internal dark 
ness of ours does not call into existence an external and praa- 
mundane darkness which has the power too of creating light. 
Such an argument is just as if an Englishman who had never 
been in India were to exclaim on seeing Hindus, these men 
come out of ignorance, because he did not know the land from 
which they came. Yet the solid land of India, Bharata-varsha, 
as your wise men call it, would not the less exist, nor would 
the Englishman s ignorance be anything more than a name 
for his not knowing. Very much of the same kind, again, is 
your account of the soul s resolving back all creation, by me 
ditating upon it, into the primary and indissoluble element of 
Pracriti. For you mean only that the imagination can so fix its 
mental gaze on things as to see no longer their manifold variety 
of forms, but to take notice only of that primary principle which 
runs through all in common. Now such a meditation on our 
part may alter the look of things to us, but it makes no difference 
in the things themselves ; although if it did, I must confess to 
you the gain thereby is not to me so evident. For I had rather 



SA NKHYA DEFECT OF SCIENCE. 187 

see the world in all its beautiful variety of mountain and sea, and 
shrub and flower, than have it all resolved into some moveable 
fluid, which you say is blind, therefore it has not the wisdom of 
mind ; and is not separable into elements, therefore it has not the 
beauty of nature. Such a kind of liberation of the soul, in which 
I should see nothing but such a dull kind of universal quick 
silver, appears to me so far from being a victory worth striving 
for, that I would pray to avoid it as long as possible. But, in 
fact, it is clear, and I think some of your doctors admit, that the 
connexion of soul with nature in being will continue, so that the 
liberation turns out to be an imaginary one ; and you seem to 
me altogether to have overlooked the difference between concep 
tion and reality, or as people who make plain things hard in 
Europe would say, between the subjective and the objective. 

" The great calmness with which you listen to me encourages 
me to ask, Vhere after all is the science in that system of yours 
which professes to be so scientific ? You surely have lived near 
enough to the disciples of Gotama and Canada to learn that a 
mere illustration drawn from comparison between some points of 
resemblance, which may be either unreal or partial, has not the 
force of an argument which follows necessarily from proved 
sameness of being. Yet all your system seemed to me built 
upon such probability as may be drawn from illustrations, that 
is to say, upon mere comparison, which may be ever so fanciful. 
Again, there are in the Nyaya* logic careful distinctions be 
tween different kinds of causes, such as the material, the condi 
tional, and the instrumental. But you Sankhya philosophers 
appear to argue that every effect is involved in its cause, as 
the oil in the olive-seed ; therefore the world must have pre 
existed in Pracriti, as you say with Capila, and I suppose also 
the followers of Patanjali would, unless they evolve it out of 
their Supreme Soul, for I do not see that they attribute creation 
to their Iswara, though guidance f they do. Some affinity, or 

* Nydya Aphorisms, Parts u. and in., and Dr Ballantyne a Lecture, Allahabad, 
1853 54. -f- See Yorja Aphorisms, 22 25. 



188 SOUL AND WOULD NOT ACCOUNTED FOR. 

unacknowledged sympathy with your premises, appears so far to 
influence Vidya"charya that he too makes the world come in a 
way out of the very substance of God. 

" But I must here ask, in what sense are you using the words 
effect and cause ? for the wheelbarrow is not in the carpenter, nor 
is the statue in the sculptor, except so far as either may excogit 
ate his idea. You cannot mean that the material is in the agent, 
though Vidyacharya argued as if it were so. Nor yet should I 
understand that you find the effect in the instrument; for the 
sword-blade is not involved necessarily in the blacksmith s ham 
mer and anvil. Rather, I suppose, you mean that the capacity 
must be in the material, which again you confound with the 
instrumental. As regards the world, this is much as if you 
had said that the stream is in the source, or the plant in the 
seed ; for you have chosen here arbitrarily to exclude the sup 
position of agency. But then who told us that the world was 
a flux or a growth? whatever signs the world betrays, either 
in its fabric of agency, or in all its history of an overruling provi 
dence, are all so many arguments against its being a mere flux, 
and, consequently, against your supposition of its origin having 
been in Pracriti. Here I should like to bring you and my vene 
rable friend the Acharya together, and ask each of you simulta 
neously a question. If the effect is in its cause, I ask you to what 
element in the indivisible Pracriti shall we trace back that which 
is truly spiritual in man, his conscience for example, or his purest 
aspirations, and again his guilty forebodings. These things 
certainly exist in us and not in Pracriti ; therefore Pracriti is not 
our cause. Again, to Vidyacharya I would put the question, if 
the Deity made the world out of His own substance, from what 
element in Himself did He make the passion, the darkness, and 
the guilt, which constitute the existence of so many depraved 
beings ? You both agree, that in the world are contained good 
ness, passion, darkness ; to you then I say, flux out of Pracriti 
will not account for the first, and to our friend here, creation out 
of the divine substance leaves the two others unexplained. 



THEORY OF CAUSATION IMPERFECT. 189 

" In one sense, however, I fully admit to you that the effect 
is implied in its cause, that is to say, every effect must have an 
adequate cause. But it is the necessity of this argument which 
leads me far and deep beyond the veil of Nature to a divine 
Iswara, who has created the world by mere choice of will and 
upholds it by wisdom. For though on this supposition I may 
not know how Pracriti came into being, I can give a credible ap 
proximation to an account of it ; for you see I attribute it to an 
adequate cause, since any design conceived by power and wisdom 
(which perhaps are two names for one thing) is sufficient to have 
involved all the effects of Pracriti. The thoughts of a Deity 
may in a purely spiritual sense have contained, inasmuch as they 
forecast, the appearances we behold in nature. Here then we 
have a self-moving cause. Whereas, by observing capacities in 
the material of nature we trace no cause but only observe links. 
Even as regards nature, then, I humbly conceive nothing could 
be a cause in the sense we are seeking for one, unless it an 
swered to the idea of a creative mind or an overruling governor. 
The cause we want must be an efficient or originating one. In 
the Nyaya* logic I rather think the efficient and the instrumental 
kinds of causes are not clearly distinguished, whereas surely they 
ought to be ; for the wielder of a tool is one thing and the tool 
wielded is another ; just as the material wrought from may be a 
third, or may be so constructed as to be an instrument to itself. 
Neither then the tool nor the material are properly causes, but 
only the first or the efficient is the true cause, for only the first 
originates the action ; but, if you please, I must here go a step 
farther, though on difficult ground, and must maintain that there 
is no true efficient, and therefore nothing which is properly 
termed a cause, as regards an action done, except where there is 
a personal agent. Perhaps person is not the happiest word to 
use, but I mean one who has a self-determining activity ; and 
this, I suppose, requires an unity of self-consciousness; just as the 
Nyaya admits that knowledge can only reside in soul. Common 

* Dr Ballantyne s Lecture, pp. 2838. 



190 THE CAUSER OF CAUSES. 

sense shews such an activity does not reside in the chisel or in 
the marble, and the reason of its absence is that these things do 
not possess consciousness, or understanding, or choice. Whereas 
the sculptor conceives a design, and proposes to himself an idea 
of his future work, which he might make differently if he chose. 
In him then we have, as far as humanity admits of such a thing, 
a true cause, for we have an originator of an action ; nor does he 
owe us any account of his making his work one thing rather 
than another, except so far as principles of beauty or fitness 
guide his will ; and these again depend, like everything human, 
upon some higher law, which the sculptor apprehends in virtue 
of his understanding. Every true cause, therefore, must be an 
efficient, and differs from capacities, or means, or any other things 
termed causes, just as the sculptor differs from the marble or the 
chisel with which he works. A circumstance which obscures 
this otherwise obvious truth from us, when we reason about the 
world, is, that as the divine work is by way of intelligence, so it 
betrays nothing of what we should call effort, but uses what we 
call capacities as not only instruments of its will but also as 
signs, if we are wise to read them, of its unseen forethought. 
Hence the silentness of its operation makes you liken it to a 
stream from a source, rather than a work from a worker. But it 
does not any the less really follow from what I have just been 
saying, that the only true cause even of a system of generations 
of life and death will be properly a causer of causes, or one to 
whom we may not only trace all intermediate links, as to a 
beginning, but to whom we may ascribe that self-determining 
activity which belongs to nothing less than mind, and which we 
call personality ; that is to say, our true origin must go back to 
or imply an originator. I am not sure that a persuasion of this 
truth is not thrown around us as it were direct from God our 
Maker, by the natural experiences which we acquire like second 
instincts through the daily contacts of life more vividly than by 
any laboured arguments. Perhaps you see in the structure of 
languages, as obviously as anywhere, the common confession to 



CAUSE AND CAUSER. MAKING AND MAKER. 191 

this effect. You have in Sanscrit, as well as in all the languages 
akin to it, from Persia to the Himalaya in the East, and to the 
extreme shores of Portugal and Ireland in the West, a kind of 
noun applied to the Maker or causer of anything, distinct either 
in gender or in termination from nouns which describe instru 
mental agencies. Brahma the creator is with you a masculine 
noun, though Brahm, or potential spirit, is neuter ; but all your 
names as applied to any one whom you suppose as creator are 
masculine. So are ours, and with us too in general they have a 
termination which is among nouns that which the active voice is 
among the inflexions of the verb. How well this unconscious 
testimony of language falls in with what I have said both of 
causation and of proper agency. It is not the thing done or 
made, nor the power of doing or making, but the doer or maker 
whom we reverence. It is only in the deep volition and the 
range of motives, whether more or less, which may be ascribed 
to a doer, that we find an adequate explanation of anything 
done. Perhaps also the wisdom of the Vaiseshica may here be 
alluded to as being somewhat to the point. You remember how 
in their aphorisms it is argued that there can be no quality 
without a substance, or no property without an owner, and, for 
example, we cannot call the Deity either power or thought, but 
must acknowledge Him powerful and thinking. Thus, even by 
the necessity of logic, no less than by the instinctive affirmation 
of our hearts, we find ourselves led on until we ascribe person 
ality to the Divine Being, and find it impossible to acquiesce in 
any vague pictures of infinity. For we cannot remove from our 
notion of the Deity anything essential to a personal agent (unless 
indeed we suppose something transcendent in place of it), with 
out removing what would alone be an adequate cause of effects, 
for which your theory requires some cause as much as mine does. 
Thus it seems that all our thoughts on the nature of agency, and 
even logic, whether philosophical or instinctive, lead us beyond 
Pracriti to a true Iswara or divine Creator. But I have been 
somewhat long upon this argument from causation, which perhaps 



192 DIVINE DESIGN, AND DIFFICULTY OF EVIL. 

in its naked thorniness comparatively few persons will find 
attractive. Certainly it would become much stronger if it were 
applied at length, not to mere physical life, but to the history of 
mankind and the moral aspects of the world. Here, however, 
all that was said to Dr Wolff applies sufficiently for me to 
pass lightly over this part ; only, if we find in ourselves traces 
of justice and the love of mercy, with forethought and the 
power of moral action, it would be absurd for us to perform 
Srdd dha, under the idea of knowing our first parent, to any 
being which did not possess these qualities in at least an equal 
degree. It is not mere power, considering it as blind, nor fer 
tility, nor expanse, nor, in short, infinity of anything less than 
that which is noblest in us as moral agents, before which I could 
bring myself to bow down and worship. You also, I conceive, 
will admit that if the world is governed by Mind at all, in the 
sense of a moral agent, that Mind will be of the highest kind 
and truly adorable ; for, in fact, we have not so much disputed 
on the point of power or of infinity, as on the point of conscious 
providence. 

"There seems to be only one reason of weight, in addition 
to those already mentioned, which leads you to deny such a 
creator and governor by foresight as I contend for. You said 
that if the world had been designed by divine wisdom, we 
should not have found such evil in it as now exists in manifold 
forms ; especially you seem to be repelled by the fact of animals 
preying upon each other. The allegation of evil, however, in 
some shape, has been the difficulty all the world over with those 
who refused to find in the world evidence of a Creator. Are we 
then to suppose that the critics who thus censure the course of 
nature are themselves free from the general taint of evil which 
they find around ? You probably would not say so, for you con 
ceive the actions of a man to be so influenced by Pracriti as to 
be not quite his own, or so at least as not to concern his soul ; 
but since they partake of Pracriti, they partake of its passion and 
darkness. What then if these judgments which condemn the 



EXTENUATIONS OF EVIL. 193 

world should themselves be dark and passionate. I confess 
I think one who attempts to charge the handiwork of the 
Supreme Being with crookedness should himself be perfectly 
straight ; or, at least, he should consider how liable his opinion 
must be to error, not merely from the limited field of his vision, 
but from the absolute distortion which may be inherent in his 
way of viewing things. In order to ascertain if this is so, 
I should like to ask what is evil, or whether anything is meant 
by the word more than the absence of good. Suppose, for ex 
ample, you were going to Benares, you might find hindrances in 
the way, which might make your walk slower, and give you 
occasionally labour without progress. Yet I do not know that 
such hindrances need be evil in themselves, except so far as they 
impede your journey ; but I can even conceive they may be very 
useful for some other end, or in their bearing upon something 
else. But, if there is to be any stability in the world at all, it 
would not be possible that things should be arranged for one 
purpose, and be simultaneously done away with, because they 
did not suit another. The help in one way may be a hindrance 
in another, or, in fact, one man s meat may be another s poison : 
but though in the multiplicity of uses to which objects may be 
put, some may be contrary to our wish, it does not follow that 
the things themselves are evil. Again, you might have a weak 
ness in your limbs, which, together with such impediments, might 
make you hang back and even recede from your object. Here 
then would be not only hindrance, but backsliding. You will 
say there is something positive ; yet I cannot for the life of me 
see what weakness is, except the absence of strength, just as the 
Nyaya truly teaches, that lightness is the absence of weight. It 
would not, therefore, be life, but it would be not having enough 
of life, or, in other words, not having enough of that which I say 
comes of divine support, and which you say is evil, that you 
would really be suffering from ; so that, according to your doc 
trine, the absence of evil is an evil. Again, in going forward, it 
might happen to you to miss your road and step aside. Of course 
M.P. 13 



194 VARIETY OF RELATION, SHORTCOMING, PERVERSION. 

you would not do this intentionally if you were Ibent on going to 
Benares, but from want of knowledge ; but, in fact, this turning 
aside would be only evil, because it was not in the right di 
rection; the wrong-doing would consist in missing the mark, 
and this would come from the absence of knowledge, or from the 
absence of that which I have all along argued it requires mind 
to entertain, and supreme Mind or Deity to support. I cannot 
therefore see, in your suffering from the want of knowledge, that 
the whole system should be arraigned as having any sign of 
positive evil. Again, in any plan so large as to contain many 
things for many different uses, there must I suppose be the pos 
sibility of accident, or, as I said before, of one wave falling on 
one pebble and another on another according to chance ; and 
especially if part of the plan imply dependence upon the facul 
ties of any living beings, that they will do what they are 
intended to do, particular units amidst the mass may possibly 
injure themselves by not complying or not attending. I do 
not suppose, for example, it proves any positive evil in a bath, 
if a man who is careless gets drowned in it, for it may be his 
own fault : or it is such an accident as has its possibility implied 
in the fact of there being water to bathe in. If I was talking to a 
person less considerate than you, I should be afraid of his ridi 
culing these remarks as all very simple ; yet if you please to 
change the scene from a journey to Benares into any other action 
of human life, you will find there is hardly any mischance or 
calamity such as we call evil, but it may be resolved either into 
shortcoming, or backsliding, or perversion of some good capacity, 
or, lastly, accident. We may have difficulty in realising any 
plan ; yet the strain may help us somewhat forward. We may 
even fall back altogether from the object we aim at, yet the 
hindrances which thwarted us may have been for broader ends 
beneficial. We may, again, pervert, or suffer from the per 
version of, what in themselves may be capacities of great good ; 
but of course power in one direction implies power in another, if 
it is to be in any sense a living one, not to talk here of mental 






EVIL OF THINGS NEGATIVE GOOD POSITIVE. 195 

choice. Nor lastly could even the most consummate guide or 
general we can ourselves conceive, exclude the operation of 
chance among units, if not only the bodies handled were nume 
rous, but the manifold bearings and relations of their parts in 
every possible aspect were innumerable. Hence, whether there 
appear to be much or little of chance in the world, it seems to 
me rather a condition of all action, or a necessary accompani 
ment of circumstance, than a reason for denying supreme agency. 
But you are well aware that the more even our knowledge of 
causes is enlarged, the less and less any effect appears properly 
chance ; so that perhaps I have allowed too much for it, because 
our limited minds consider it a necessary accident to essential 
stability in the recurrence of phenomena on a large scale. You 
would not yourself expect day and night to have their duration 
altered because to some particular person s harvest it might be 
convenient; nor, again, some winter s cold which arrested 
cholera to be softened for some delicate invalid ; nor similarly, 
the storm which purifies the elements into health to halt over a 
crazy fishing-boat. Out of wisdom comes law, and to law 
belongs either uniformity or something like it, and hence must 
arise the appearance to us at least of chance. But in all such 
things as I have mentioned there has been yet no sign of positive 
evil, or none at least of any which could be charged on the Ruler 
of the Universe as entering probably into His primary design. 
Partly the things we call evil are accompanying conditions, and 
partly the negation or abortion of something which the Divine 
Wisdom seems bent upon bringing to birth more fully from time 
to time. You do not blame an architect because the window 
which is opened for the air may admit the rain ; nor can you 
accuse him of building your house positively dark, because the 
shutters may be occasionally for some reason closed against the 
light ; nor do I know that evil can be better explained than by 
asking what is darkness ? Some may say of a dark closet, there 
is darkness in it ; but you readily understand that to mean there is 
a want of light there ; so of many things which happen otherwise 

132 



196 CARNIVOROUS CREATION. 

than we would wish, it may be said there is a falling short in 
them of that good which is desirable rather than positive evil. 
In short, it seems verily to me, as if everything everywhere was 
blank, until those attributes of Intelligence which we have traced 
to Mind as a creative principle, supply or hold under the elements 
of good in any of its possible forms ; then, by the wisdom of 
God good comes about, and evil is the want of something 
we might wish, or the imperfect realisation of something we 
might fancy the Supreme Mind to design, rather than anything 
positive such as could alone bear to be made an argument 
against a Creator. Very often indeed it means only the necessary 
condition of circumstance by which all actions as we conceive 
them must be limited. I do not mean to say such conditions 
need not be considered by the conceiver of any design, but only 
to distinguish them from that which seems to be aimed at. 

" You may here say, that this apology cannot comprehend 
the destruction of life by living things, which you appeared to 
regard as a kind of cannibalism. I grant it does not, for such a 
mode of shortening life in some forms and sustaining it in others, 
seems to be part of the original plan of the world, being in 
wrought (one may say) into the very constitution of nature. But 
then, will you let me ask, did you expect that insects and beasts 
should live for ever ? Or, is any wrong done them because they 
receive a gift for a time, and are then expected to restore it? 
You would hardly expect, I suppose, a perpetual miracle to 
prolong existence for such creatures beyond the date when the 
weakness of their fabric, and the whole conditions of its tenure, 
would make it a burden to them. But probably you object to 
the mode in which their life is liable to end. Yet as you seem 
by a kind of dramatic instinct to enjoy what you term the spectacle 
in nature, I should have expected you to observe that many ends i 
of combination and opposition and mutual stimulus may be gained j 
by the plan we find actually adopted. Perhaps you could not 
have the strength and activity of the tiger, which, in some of your 
heroic poems, is made a complimentary epithet of character, 



CONJECTURES. 197 

unless you had also tlie shrinking speed of the hare and the 
deer. Perhaps again the passion of fear, though we justly 
account it despicable when it makes men shrink from their duty, 
may yet be the instinct out of which the virtue of prudence is 
trained, and may in many other ways be needed to stimulate the 
forces of life. It seems to me probable that a system in which 
fear did not exist as a motive to vigilance or action, might be in 
many ways less perfect, and in particular less so morally, than 
we now have. Then again if you made a world, and deter 
mined to people it with mortal creatures, I suppose you would 
have some method of cleansing it from their carcases. For if the 
bodies of all things that live and die, were to lie rotting around 
us, I am afraid the fevers and pestilences which would arise 
might shorten rather the days of the survivors, even if the stench 
and disease did not render the world uninhabitable. Nor do I 
think exposing bodies to the Ganges the most prudent or rea 
sonable mode of getting rid of them. In what mode then, pray, 
would you dispose of the bodies of creatures whose kind have 
not reason enough to bury them ? Fire, you see, would not be 
self-governing. Nor can I imagine any mode, so well calculated 
to renew the earth for successive generation, as the provision by 
which brute creatures act unintentionally as scavengers for the 
world. That some idea of the kind underlies the fact which I 
imagine it may justify, seems probable from this ; it is only in 
the case of mankind, whose reason suggests to them burial, and 
whose nobler sympathies should render mutual destruction hate 
ful, that people in general abhor the practice of preying on one 
another ; whereas, with those carnivorous beasts to whom it is 
natural, few think of blaming it. 

" Not but that I must fully admit, if my conception of life 
was the same as that of Vidyacharya, it would seem to me 
horrible for even animals to prey upon each other. If all life 
were, as you imagine, the very substance of the Divine Being, 
I could not even think patiently of all that we see around us. 
But if two conceptions are incompatible, I must give up the 



198 MORAL EVIL POSITIVE. 

least likely of the two ; and certainly, as far as probability of 
reasoning goes, I see nothing to support the A chaiya s theory 
of life. It seems born out of a confusion between the spiritual 
passing of thought into action, and the materialistic transfor 
mation of the Maker s mind into the thing He makes. Or, even 
if that be not so, our daily experience of life being given for a 
while and then resumed in such ways as it is, seems to justify 
us in considering it as properly a gift rather than an emanation, 
and distinct, as Madhwa conceived it to be, from the ineffable 
being of the life-giving God. 

" Now suppose for a moment, that evil, either considered 
positively, or as I have represented it to be, the mere negation 
of good, were far greater than it is in reality, still you would 
admit that sinful creatures could not feel justified in murmuring 
at it with the confidence of perfect beings. For if our need of 
forgiveness is a reason, as you Hindus appear to admit, for our 
forgiving injuries from men, much more it may suggest to us 
patience under any evils which our Maker might impose. I say 
this would be a fair view of the case, even on the theory that 
human sinfulness were only an accidental accompaniment of 
pain, and not at all a cause of it. Whereas, we have next to 
observe, that all the possibilities of the idea of good being im 
perfectly realised, which I have enumerated above as forming 
the appearances of evil, must be infinitely multiplied, when the 
scheme of the world is seen to contain not only things but 
persons; that is, not only objects and physical contingencies, 
but thinkers and doers of right or wrong, such as technically are 
termed moral agents. For if all these are to act, in any real 
sense of action, they must enjoy some degree of freedom, or 
apparent choice. With the freedom then of every living man, 
there is imported into our practical problem a new element, and 
that one of some degree of uncertainty; for whoever makes a 
choice must be supposed capable of choosing otherwise, though 
the motives on one side or the other may preponderate. Any 
man then choosing wrong, may be expected, on the supposi- 



EVIL IN FREE AGENTS. 199 

tion of the world having a moral Governor, to bring on himself 
pain, or some other kind of evil ; and perhaps here is the first 
footstep we have found of anything which can properly be termed 
positive evil, and this is of such a kind, as not to be any argu 
ment against a good and wise God, but rather to follow from His 
being such. But again, whoever chooses evil for himself, is 
likely to persuade others to follow him ; for every one desires 
companionship ; and thus the freedom of every moral agent, 
which originally admitted of being somewhat biassed by motives, 
may receive a decided impulse for evil instead of for good, by 
having its motives tampered with, or that knowledge of truth, 
which is the strongest of all motives to the reasonable will, 
debased. Suppose then, we took all these things, and wrought 
them into a sum in a kind of moral arithmetic. If we took all 
those necessary conditions, and all the drawbacks, chances, and 
contingencies, which might impede the realisation of any idea, 
even in dealing with malleable matter, and multiplied them 
tenfold by a like idea of uncertainty as applied to the motives 
and choices of free agents, and again multiplied whatever possi 
bility of error, crime, and pain might thus arise, by all the 
corrupting contacts with each other of men who do wrong, we 
should have rather a formidable amount of either evil, or ten 
dency to evil, which yet might form no part of the design legible 
in the constitution of the world, and therefore no impeachment 
of the wisdom of a Creator, still less a reason why we worms of 
an hour should shut our eyes to His existence. 

" To sum up briefly this part, allow something for the pro 
bability of our judgments being mistaken ; allow very much for 
what I will venture to call by a word of my own, circumstan- 
tiation, which I conceive to be what many old speculators have 
intended when they spoke of the perversity of matter; and 
again, allow still more for the possible self-perversion of all free 
agents, and subsequently for their mutual corruption; then I 
think the result of our speculation will approximate somewhat 



200 EVIL REMEDIAL. 

to the Christian doctrine of original sin, or at any rate justify 
us in ascribing wisdom to our Creator, notwithstanding certain 
marks of crookedness in the creature. One remark only, which 
was half implied, I wish to draw out a little, and I have done. 
Just as fear may be an instrument not only in curbing, but in 
educating the world, thus many other pains, may be not only 
punishments of our moral disobedience, (which would be a 
sufficient account of them,) but they may be even benevolent 
remedies for the same mischief, considered as a disease. You 
fancy the c indiscrete or primary element straining itself into 
all possible forms. I, for my part, fancy the Mind of man 
straining itself under the influence of many sufferings which 
appear grievous to it, into far higher conceptions either of con 
trivance and ingenuity, or else of manly fortitude and patient 
meekness. Many men have become greater through suffering, 
and I believe also, some far happier, than if they had not so 
learnt either to do, or dare, or endure. Do not then let us be 
frightened by things, which after all, perhaps, are to real evil 
that which you suppose the spectacle of nature may be made by 
the soul, or what the A chary a would call Maya, a mere passage 
of shadows, below which may lie a substance of blessedness 
upheld by wisdom. To me evil, considered as a positive element 
in the constitution of the world, appears to become more and 
more shadowy the more we examine it. That only is true evil, 
which comes of voluntary doers starting aside from duty, and so 
failing in that part of the plan which devolved upon them as 
fellow-workers with God. Perhaps even this may not be with 
out remedy; for certainly in remorse and in forgiveness, even 
among men, we find instruments to both sides of moral health. 
But whether my account of evil be correct, or whether any one 
has anything better to advance, the utmost inference which can 
be drawn from its appearance is, that our view of the world s 
design, as a merciful one, may require to be less hopeful, and 
not, as you seem to argue, that there has been no design at all. 



EVIL REMEDIAL. 201 

Nothing, in short, which can be argued on this subject, ought 
to obscure the proofs of a Supreme and Wise Creator ; I humbly 
trust, for myself, that nothing need shake our confidence in a 
righteous Governor and a merciful Father." 



NOTE ON CHAPTER V. 

The Yoga Aphorisms explain the Theistic section of the Sankhya, 
which is probably an accretion upon the older and more negative 
system. For Vigaya, see Turner s Mahawansa, pp. 52, 53. For 
Sankhya sources of Buddhism, Lassen, B. n. p. 830, B. 1, and pp. 
66 80, B. 2. For the legends and maxims, E. Burnouf ; and as 
regards Ceylon, the Missionary Hardy. For Chinese comparisons, 
A. Remusat s Melanges. The Virgin-birth was ascribed to Sakya as 
early as St Jerome s time : but the age of the Bauddha legends gene 
rally is an unsettled, and a highly interesting question. Will not 
some scholar in India investigate it ? 



202 



ARGUMENT FKOM DESIGN. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Farther Criticisms of Hindti Systems, particularly of the Veddntine Design Moral 
Government Need of Hopefulness Pantheism and Idolatry Two Aspects of 
one Evil. 

"A little philosophy inclineth man s mind to Atheism ; but depth in philosophy 
bringeth men s minds about to Religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon 
second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no farther ; but 
when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate and linked together, it must needs 
fly to Providence and Deity." Bacon. 

"Our Morphology ought not to prejudice our Teleology." Wheivell. 

" You have not forgotten I hope," said Wolff, as there was here 
a slight pause in Blancombe s speech, "your promise to explain, 
why the argument from design, which you still hold by, does not 
appear to me so satisfactory as you think it ought." "Perhaps," 
answered Blancombe, "this will be as convenient a time as any 
for me to do so. The first impression, I suppose you will allow 
with people in general, which we derive from the varieties of 
animal life, is, that they are designed so as to carry out some 
purpose, or that their structure is full of means applied to ends. 
The wings of birds, for example, seem intended for flying: 
just as the webbed feet of water-fowl and the fins of fishes are 
for swimming; our own hands, with our thumb, as you see, 
placed conveniently opposite the fingers, appear designed on 
purpose for us to have the power of grasping, and certainly if 
our thumb with its complicated arrangement of joint and muscle 
had been differently placed where our little finger is, we should 
have been comparatively helpless ; and much more so, if the 
hand had ended, as on any principle of chance it might, like a 
serpent s tail ; just so the claws of fowl in general are arranged 
with an eye to convenience of walking, or of clinging to their 
perch ; while the solid hoof of the horse, and indeed his whole 
shape, points him out as fitted for the purposes upon which men 
actually employ him. Nor is it only the general varieties of 



FINAL CAUSES. 203 

animals which we find adapted to their abodes in air, earth, or 
water, whether they are beast, bird, reptile, or fish ; but there 
seems to be even special provision for cases of a peculiar kind. 
The double stomach of the camel, and its power of enduring 
privation for a length of time are not only wonderful in them 
selves, but appear particularly adapted to the deserts which the 
creature has to traverse, and have often stirred the admiring 
gratitude of men who must have perished but for what they 
hence considered as signs of a providential care. So the long neck 
which enables the Giraffe to reach its food from branches of trees, 
and the bodily organisation which enables the Sloth to live on 
trees, have been remarked as instances of the same kind. But 
illustrations innumerable, or at least as numerous as the species 
of living things, might be mentioned. For it is scarcely possible 
to look at any of the more remarkable kinds of animals, without 
observing that each has some gift, which perhaps another has 
not at all, or has in a different form, while each has generally 
some fitness for its abode, and apparently some purpose to 
subserve, whether work to do, or only happiness to enjoy. 

" While however we are making reflexions of this kind, two 
difficulties occur to disturb us, which though some persons may 
exaggerate their force, are not without reason. 

" In the first place it turns out, as we look more closely at 
animals, that these differences, which seemed intended to adapt 
each for its special position, are variations or deflexions from 
something radically common to all. An ostrich or a flamingo, 
for example, is unlike enough to an elephant, or a man. But if 
you look as it were with an unifying eye at what they all have 
in common, you will find not only a great backbone running 
through them all, and serving as a channel for the nervous fluid 
which, as it culminates in the head, we call in each case the brain; 
but also the wings of one, and the arms of another, correspond 
in the idea of their outline to the fore legs of a third. Perhaps 
also something of the same kind may be observed of the fins of 
fishes. Certainly the web of waterfowl is the growing in a 



204 GENERAL TYPES. 

particular way of animal fibre which is common to other 
creatures. So the formation of the human scull out of many 
bones, which seem multiplied and consolidated into a joint-work 
of such a kind as to give the amplest room for the swelling of 
the brain, and the best protection for its delicate tissues, turns 
out to be on the very same principle which obtains also in fishes, 
which we should have thought would have no need of such 
special protection. The people indeed who cut up animals and 
observe their structure, appear to have agreed, that all living 
things come under four classes, such as firstly creatures with 
back-bones, and secondly soft pulpy animals, then thirdly the 
dwellers in jointed shells, which seem almost distributed over 
bodies half jointed ; and fourthly those which branch out like 
a wheel or a star, pretty much in the manner of a vegetable moss 
growing from a centre. Thus instead of infinitely numerous 
special forms among animals, we seem at most to have only four 
great outlines or types, according to the model of which the 
animal kingdom seems to be distributed ; and some persons even 
augur that these four classes will ultimately turn out to be 
mere modifications of one type of animal life; which for my 
own part I see nothing to prevent our acknowledging, if the facts 
should happen to turn out so. To all which it must be added, 
that there seems no wide leap between what we call animals 
and vegetables, but intermediate beings partake somewhat of the 
nature of each, drinking in moisture like mosses, yet stretching 
out their venous limbs, as if with an animal presentiment of 
nourishment. So that even modern science does to a considerable 
extent support the favourite theory among Hindu thinkers of 
life being everywhere one. I have barely indeed hinted at an 
argument on which much more might be said, if one were to 
consider professionally the processes of digestion, and respiration, 
and the circulation of the blood, with other things of the kind. 

"But now, since the mind of man is so limited in its range, 
that it is hardly able to consider both sides of a question at 
once, so on observing the primordial unity of type, out of which 



SPECIAL AND GENERAL. 205 

all special provisions appear to have proceeded, many persons 
become so absorbed by the general, as to forget and overlook 
the specially distinctive, which does not, however, become any 
the less real. Not indeed, that they absolutely deny creatures 
to differ from each other ; but this difference no longer seems to 
them a substantial thing, as having its root in some Divine 
forethought, but only an accidental result from the circumstances 
into which the young life, or its seed, is cast. Things become 
such and such, they say, by habit, or by the effect of place, 
climate, or food, or even by the instinctive appetence of food, as 
any or all of these influences, and others such, may act over 
vast periods of time. Hence although such men are obliged to 
confess, if they speak truly, that the origin of life remains to 
them as mysterious as ever, yet they fancy they understand the 
processes by which life is adapted in its various manifestations. 
Hence possibly there may appear to them less need of a super 
natural Being, either as Creator or Governor, when like the 
Sankhya philosophers they find existing effects contained in causes 
which are close at hand, and which appear adequate. Or again, if 
from natural piety, and soundness of reason, they hold fast the 
belief in a providential Governor, they still apprehend but faintly 
the argument from design, as urged in application to special 
instances of what we term contrivance. The world becomes to 
such speculators a flux, rather than a creation. 

" So far I conceive myself to have stated fairly one reason 
why the argument from design may be obscured to your mind 
consciously, and perhaps also to our Hindu friends, without how 
ever their being ready to give a distinct account of the process." 
"Yes," here said Wolff, "I think you have stated it well 
enough." "Then again I suppose," resumed Blancombe, "that 
there comes in simultaneously the observation of many instances 
of failure as regards special provision. Desires, for example, 
the gratification of which is ordinarily attended with pleasure, 
and which so far we should allege as instances of the Divine 
goodness, are often frustrated, so as to cause in particular cases 



206 SPECIAL, RELATIVE TO MAN. 

exceeding pain, and even madness or death. All such things 
as famine, pestilence, and shipwreck, might here come in ; but 
especially such sufferings as seem to be least probably traced to 
any individual transgression, and such as imply a neutralisation 
or defeat of what is generally alleged as the Divine plan. Now 
I conceive myself to have described your second difficulty as 
regards the doctrine of design." "Certainly," said Wolff, 
" things of that kind have been urged by one of the native 
speakers, and, it appears to me, not without a certain force." 
"I too," replied Blancombe, "have thrown out some general 
reflexions, in considering the nature of evil, which go a great 
way, as I conceive, to remove the difficulty ; and I have also 
something to add about the largeness of the scheme in which we 
live. First, however, we must consider the effect of discovering 
that special provisions in animals are deflexions from a more 
general outline. 

" Have you ever reflected, why it is that we draw our in 
stances of design from our own bodies, or those of other animals, 
rather than from the grander structure of heaven and earth? 
Probably day and night, when taken in connexion with our 
need of alternate labour and rest, are as clearly convincing 
proofs of a benignant care being extended over the world, as 
any we could easily find. Or I might go a step farther, and 
remark, that all the genial processes of nature, as personified and 
deified in the hymns of the Rig- Veda, are in reality sufficient 
instances of a heavenly providence, supposing only we refer 
them to a more living power than dwells in the things them 
selves. Yet, somehow or other, it seems as if all persons who 
want instances of special design look for them not so much in 
the grand laws of the natural world, as in our own limbs, or 
beings, or experiences. Again, so far as they do take such in 
stances from the larger laws of the universe, it is chiefly from 
the points at which those laws come in contact with our per 
sonal wants or constitution ; so that the mutual fitness or corre 
spondency becomes the ground of inferring design. That light, 



SPECIAL RELATIVE TO MAN. 207 

for example, corresponds to the eye, and fragrance to our sense 
of smell, and other things to our senses severally ; just as dark 
ness also to our need of sleep, and the seasons of the year to our 
appetites for food, and the recurrence of variety in beauty and 
sensation, are all remarks which have often been made, yet 
which we need not be ashamed of repeating. So it is said that 
if the earth were all rock, it would not admit of vegetation, or 
much softer than it is, it would not admit of free movement; 
if the air had much more oxygen than it has on the whole, it 
would madden us ; or if much less, it would not animate us ; 
so if the water were not pretty much what it is, it would neither 
admit of inhabitation by the tribes of fish, nor of navigation by 
men; so that, in short, the whole world seems in the mass 
adapted for man, and such creatures as are the servants or com 
panions of man, to live in. But now in all such cases our favorite 
instances of design are drawn from the larger, at points where it 
comes into contact with the lesser; that is, with ourselves. I 
apprehend, moreover, such a practice is quite right ; for the great 
scheme of the heavenly bodies is far larger than we can com 
prehend in its ultimate design, though we may observe clearly 
enough that an order traceable by Mind, and therefore devised 
by Mind, is pursued in its conservation. Hence, as regards day 
and night, we might be puzzled by some laborious sophist, who 
should prove to us that these recurrences of light and darkness 
depend on causes very remote in space, and affect perhaps pri 
marily regions very much more important than our speck of 
earth. We might, it is true, answer that the largeness of a 
scheme does not destroy its particularity ; or that one who gives 
ourselves light is not less to be thanked by us, because he gives 
it simultaneously to a hundred others. Still this kind of ex 
planation would be rather less gratifying to our natural egotism ; 
our grasp of mind might be scarcely firm enough to take hold of 
the conception that we may be minute parts of a much larger 
plan, and yet abundantly cared for; and, in short, we might 
become bewildered. Whereas, that other class of things which 



208 GENERAL, MODIFIED PROVIDENTIALLY. 

falls within our own experience of daily movements, wants, 
satisfactions, and conveniences, with all that we see more or 
less corresponding to us in creatures of the same fleshly natures 
as ourselves, we cannot be well mistaken about. No man in his 
senses has any serious doubt that feet are intended to walk with, 
and hands to take hold of things. So it is with other parts of 
our frame. And so all our capacities mental, no less than bodily, 
persuade us that we are intended to be social beings, and duties 
and affections thrust themselves in, as being in practice even 
more necessary to our happiness than appetites, and hence, 
according to our instinctive logic, as parts of a plan which some 
higher Being intended us to fulfil. Is then this inference of 
design, I ask, vitiated, either as regards our bodies or our souls, 
by any discovery of our special powers being a deflexion from 
some general type. It appears to me, we have only discovered 
that ends are attained through means ; or that the Divine work 
ing is on a far larger scale than we had ignorantly supposed. 
Nothing is more common than to see all sorts of figures, cups, 
and jugs, made out of metal or clay. Some one may perhaps 
have fancied such things were fashioned by man s hand ; then 
he may have discovered that they are made in moulds, into 
which the fused metal or earth flows like liquid fire, and there 
takes whatever shape it was intended to take. Such a disco 
verer may thus find such things made with a far more wonderful 
freedom, and in larger abundance, than he had previously thought 
possible ; in fact, the operation may acquire in his eyes a look 
of comparative spontaneity ; but he does not therefore really 
doubt that it is under control ; nor is his perception of the 
uses to which the vessels may be applied, when made, for a 
single moment obscured. Whereas a philosopher of your stamp 
might here as well step in and say, the chances were equal 
whether these jugs should assume their present shape or any 
other ; if they were to hold water, they must be rounded rather 
than flat ; but I don t feel bound to account for their holding it, 
any more than I should for their not doing so; in short, he 



ANALOGY OF TOTTER. 209 

might finish, I can trace no marks of design, or of contrivance ap 
plied to an end, but only necessary accidents to the fact of there 
being jugs at all. Just of this kind is really the entire reason 
ing with which people deny the marks of design in the world. 
They begin, with saying, If a thing was to exist forgetting 
that the existence of a thing such as the world implies a Creator, 
as much as the jug implies a potter ; then they go on to observe 
the general modified into the special ; and they forget that this 
power of transforming one thing into another, or of adapting 
means to ends, is a proof of what devout persons all along con 
tend for, namely, of a Maker who works by wisdom and not at 
random ; and surely they must be cursed with a moral blindness 
not to see that existing diversities or species, however brought 
about, imply the pre-existence of Divine thoughts or creative 
foresights*, to which things severally correspond, as the statue 
.to the sculptor s conception ; or, again, if they do not under 
stand that all varieties of climate and place and circumstance 
are to the great Moulder of life, that which the moulds are to 
the earthly potter, that is, instruments of his process, but in 
struments which would not even exist, still less be arranged in 
order, if he had not first willed them. Just as the unity of the 
material in the metal or clay does not prevent the jugs and 
vessels from having different shapes and being intended for 
different uses, so the unity of life does not destroy the tokens of 
design in the various adaptations of species. Rather, indeed, I 
should say, that the doctrine of grand outlines or types in the 
animal world, not only consists very well with our humbler 
argument from design, but it gives a new phase of the same 
argument, and thereby transmutes rather than destroys it, by 
removing it into a higher region of generalisation. For such 
great types are even more manifestly the expression of thoughts ; 
and as plain people say, that a special provision implies con 
trivance, so the deepest observer, without denying this true 

* Something of this kind was meant by the truly philosophical Realists, from 
Plato to Abelard, though they were often misunderstood. 

M. r. 14 



210 TYPICAL IDEAS UNITY OF LIFE. 

remark, will superadd the broader conclusion that the general 
types, from which the special is deflected, represent pervading 
ideas. Nor do I see that any obscurity is thereby introduced 
into the argument, except so far as I all along acknowledge that 
the Divine idea may in everything transcend that faint human 
apprehension of it which is as it were its earthly shadow. 
You recollect what I said about the doctrine of Madhwa, and 
how far the Deity is in respect of our apprehensions, Nirguna, 
which I touched on with reference to justice and moral attributes, 
the same thought being equally true of power and intelligence 
as Divine attributes. But we should have no thoughts of justice, 
if God were not first just ; nor of contrivance, if He had not first 
contrived ; nor of marrying and giving in marriage, if He had 
not first balanced the sexes, though individual marriages (we all 
know) may be unhappy ; nor, again, should we either have great 
outlines pervading the animal and vegetable kingdoms, if pre- 
formative thoughts had not first sprung from Creative Mind ; or 
special contrivances, for the bird to fly, and the fish to swim, 
and the camel to traverse the desert, if the Creator had not with 
more or less of pre-arrangement or supervision adapted the crea 
tures as He apportioned their abodes. 

" Need I now do more than add, that the primordial unity 
of life is only what might be expected by any one who started 
with the right conception of the unity of God? And again, 
it ought to serve as no inconsiderable argument in leading one 
who needs it up to that conception. If there were as many 
deities as are imagined popularly in the Hindu Pantheon, there 
might be many originations for life; but the true idea is, that 
the Will, the Wisdom, and the Omnipresent Life-giving which 
ever manifest themselves simultaneously and reciprocally in the 
world, are still of one Mind; for God is fundamentally One. 
The fact that life appears more mysterious, and becomes a less 
explicable riddle, the farther we trace it backward into its primal 
unity, should only teach us a wholesome modesty, as implying 
that we are not competent to judge of the scheme of God in its 



SPHERE OF FINAL CAUSES. 211 

large integrity, though we may observe sufficiently things with 
which we are ourselves conversant, to obtain practical principles 
for our guidance. Thus the special provisions of life remain for 
ever witnesses to mankind of a higher Being who cares for 
them ; and the force of such witnesses will be multiplied the 
more that any right-minded man considers them not merely as 
regards his animal wants, but in the deep things which belong 
to the soul, his affections, his prayers, his sins, his sufferings, and 
his better aspirations. But if out of a mere desire of knowledge, 
rather than of the wisdom which endeavours to serve God, we 
constantly push back our inquiries about life into its primal type, 
and the mysterious provisions for modifying it, or bewilder our 
selves over the design aimed at by our Maker for His creatures 
as a whole, instead of rather considering the part which falls 
within our own clear cognisance, we then involve the laws and 
processes of life in the same mystery which envelopes the being 
and design of all the worlds ; for we then thrust them into that 
larger field, in which our limited vision no longer grasps the 
circumference, and therefore cannot comprehend the design. Yet 
even as regards sea and land and heaven with its stars, you will 
clearly understand me to say that all we lose is comprehension 
of the design, and not in any degree the reasonableness of be 
lieving that God has still a wise and beneficent thought, though 
it may transcend all thinking of ours. For even in the obscurest 
regions, and the most magnificent expanse of nature, we still 
observe links of causation everywhere prevailing ; and causation 
is really the manifestation of a presiding thought. Nor ever 
can any one be justified in thinking that this causation is with 
out an end proposed by design, until he finds the argument 
from design fail him in that narrower field which concerns our 
own bodies and souls. But there it never does fail ; for every 
man, by accepting the evidence of his senses in things to which 
the senses properly apply, and his mental judgment in things 
which belong to it, and conscience in the things which it for 
bids, and advice in things where others have the duty or right of 

142 



212 EXCEPTIONS. 

informing him, and the moral instincts or sentences of his purer 
mind in aspiration and prayer for guidance, in short, I say, 
every man, by accepting the evidence of his body and soul that 
he is designed for certain ends, and by attempting in dutiful 
humility to carry out those ends, arrives at the highest happi 
ness of which man in this life is capable and probably enters 
into a new life with the firmest hope whereas, on the contrary, 
by refusing to perceive the Divine design in his own bodily and 
mental being, and therefore living a lawless life, he is very apt 
to bring down on himself tangible penalties, and certainly fails 
of attaining that peace which good men enjoy at heart. You 
see then, the argument from design does not fail us, so far as 
we can trace it, but turns out eminently true for ourselves ; we 
have therefore no reason to doubt that higher spirits behold it 
equally true for all creation. Possibly in some future existence 
it may please God to give us, as the reward or climax of our 
struggling here, a far clearer vision of all things which now 
perplex us, and so justify His own ways to us, by merely 
shewing them as they really are in all their largeness of 
extent. 

" Entertaining, as I humbly do, so great a hope on the 
witness of things open to me, I can afford to wait for the clear 
ing up of things too high for me. For the same reason I am 
not much perplexed by the number of apparent exceptions to 
the realisation of a beneficent design, which some persons per 
versely rather than wisely would throw in my way. It may 
appear strange, or to our thoughts undesirable, that many lives 
should be swept away in a pestilence; but I cannot tell how 
many of the number deserved death as a penalty, or to how 
many it came as a mercy, and how many were fully prepared 
for it. So a shipwreck may be in itself a deplorable event ; but 
the storm which causes it may have arrested pestilence else 
where, or the natural conditions of safety may have been neg 
lected by those who perished, or they may be taken away from 
some greater evil to come. At worst they only resign in one 



GENERAL PROVIDENCE. 213 

way a life which they had received on condition of resigning it 
at any time in some way. Again, earthquakes are terrible, but 
they may be in part wholesome outlets for those subterranean 
forces which were necessary to vivify and warm the earth ; and, 
in part, it may be observed, that when such things burst upon 
dissolute cities, the cry of whose vices, mingled perhaps with 
idolatry, had gone up to heaven, they do not negative, but 
rather confirm, that belief in a moral Governor of the world, 
which is the main point for which I all along contend. Again, 
it certainly has an uncomfortable sound, that our fellow men 
may die of famine, or suffer madness, and other terrible inflic 
tions, from the want of things requisite to satisfy the cravings 
of their nature. Yet, how comparatively rare, and therefore 
exceptional such cases are, is almost proved by the notice we 
take of them ; as we forget to give thanks for health, but com 
plain of sickness. One reason why such misfortunes disturb our 
general reasoning more than they ought, is, that we overlook the 
abundant affluence of the Divine scheme, in which even human 
beings are scattered almost like seeds floating from the thistle ; 
and, again, another reason is, that we expect the ideal or the 
best conceivable shape of things to be everywhere realised in 
performance ; whereas, the sculptor labours much with his mar 
ble, and makes many rude essays, before he accomplishes his 
highest work ; and so in the great striving of things upward, 
there must be many shortcomings before the whole body can be 
stamped with the glory which the Spirit would impress upon it. 
But in no case anywhere do we observe such a shortcoming of 
the Divine providence, as that anything of which we can posi 
tively say it is important, perishes out of the world without 
working some good, or leaving some seed of itself behind it. 
You may say that whole species of animals have perished ; but 
I answer, never any species which was largely useful to others, 
or which was capable of falling in with the new conditions which 
the great training of the world upward from time to time re 
quired. We see wild and savage races both of beasts and men 



214 GENERAL PROVIDENCE. 

daily tend to extinction. But why do they so? Clearly because 
they are either pernicious or useless, and unfit to be tamed; 
though, in earlier stages of the Divine plan, they may have been 
competent enough to enjoy a happiness after their kind, and to 
fill a place not yet prepared for better things. But, as a general 
rule, no noble or remarkable species perishes. Certainly, none 
fails, for want of the Divine bounty contributing largely to its 
sustentation. Suppose, for example, all males had been born in 
one part of the world, and all females in another, which is a 
result that on principles of chance might have come about. 
Then, indeed, we might have desiderated the Divine forethought. 
Whereas, in fact, like is born to suit like in all parts of the 
world. Nor is it less true of the nobler correspondencies of the 
mind, than of those of a more animal sort. When thoughts take 
so strongly hold of a man, that the expression of them becomes 
necessary to his mental peace, he generally finds, if he has 
courage by faith to make the experiment, that many other minds 
have been teeming with a growth sufficiently similar for him 
not to fail of finding sympathy. So ample is the embrace of 
the Divine forethought and instruction which encompasses us, 
although unseen. Or even if a man appear to speak so prema 
turely, that he suffers for it, yet, if his words are true, they do 
not die barren, but take root in corresponding minds and bear 
fruit abundantly. Thus the tears and blood of the witnesses for 
truth become the cement of a nobler society in the time to come. 
The man himself, if he is a teacher of truth, will be the last to 
regret his own sufferings, for they will be abundantly overpaid 
to him by the consciousness that he is a fellow-worker with God 
his Father in building up a better world. But again, are we 
not apt to overlook, how much of such shortcoming as seems to 
exist in the world arises from our neglect of the part allotted 
us in the drama? For we, my friend, may rightly be called 
fellow-workers with God; and this the more evidently in pro 
portion as any one believes us to be either akin to the Deity, or 
as the A charya says, ourselves emanations from Him. But if we 



JOINT WORKING OF MAN. 215 

were intended both to take cognisance of each other s wants, and 
to relieve them, as being all children of one Father, it is very 
evident that a forgetfulness of this holy brotherhood of mankind, 
and an attempt to struggle on in selfish isolation, or in the pride 
of caste, must leave the wants of many without that aid which 
God intended for them, and in turn deprive us, who refuse the 
aid, of much sympathy and inward joy. I believe, indeed, it is 
a matter of world-long experience that whoever labours in the 
way I have suggested to aid his fellow-men, as trusting that it 
is part of the Divine plan for him to do so, becomes thereby less 
and less apt to complain of the world as being imperfect; for he 
finds such a satisfaction in doing good, that his eyes are opened 
thereby to behold more good existing than he would otherwise 
have thought probable. Indeed, I venture to say, the complaints 
of suffering in the world do not generally proceed from men 
who actively relieve what suffering there is, but from indolent 
dreamers. This is an assertion of sufficient importance for it to 
be well worth your while either to verify or refute it by close 
observation. For you see how much it involves. If the case be 
as I state it, then God is justified of His own ways to the good, 
though not to the evil. 

" By such thoughts, I conceive, we are led on more and more 
to a lively apprehension of the personality of God. However 
grand all that Vedanta speculation may sound, about abstract 
thought, and joy, we, being led on to a conception of the Deity 
as one who justifies Himself to the affections, are led to conceive 
of Him as one whom we can trust; and such a one is a living 
agent, or what is commonly termed a Being with personality. 
Observe then how far I am obliged to break away from my 
venerable friend the A charya. All that he has said about Vach, 
as the voice of God creating, and about Maya, as being the 
representation of the Divine thought by nature, appeared to me 
not only grand but credible, so far as it traces the visible world 
justly to creative Mind. But, when he speaks of Brahm becom 
ing Brahma, I don t understand how mere potentiality could 



216 DIVINE WILL SELF-CONSCIOUS. 

ever become person, except so far as his theogony is a lively picture 
of the progress of the human mind in speculation. We may, in 
our attempts to grope backwards towards a beginning, figure to 
ourselves a time when God had not yet created ; when, therefore, 
it may be said, the Creator was not ; and the relative conception 
our flesh-bound minds are apt to form of a Deity in such a pre 
dicament, is that of something potential, or capable of thereafter 
coming forth. But then to think for a moment that the Deity 
must have been in that way, because our conception may be so 
speculatively fashioned, is to me an astounding childishness, put 
out in a guise of wisdom. Even the representation of Brahm, or 
mere spirit, as the object of worship, does not appear to satisfy 
the conditions which our heart and mind require. For mere 
spirit, if you take away from it personality, or ruling unity of 
consciousness, becomes as truly a mere power or agency, as fire, 
or steam, or electricity, though it may be a more wonderful 
agency than any one of them. Yet still it is just as little a 
ruling agent as they are. How then can we pray to it? We 
have lost the Father, the Governor, and the Judge, all of which 
attributes characterised our God, and we have got instead a 
dumb abstraction, only better than an idol, so far as the pictures 
of the mind may be somewhat higher than those of the senses. 
Now if there remain any difficulties in the world, either from 
suffering, or from exceptional shortcoming of design, I can no 
longer trust in such an abstraction, that either there are good 
reasons for such difficulties, or that they will be cleared up here 
after. Whereas, if the Vedaiita philosophers had not, in their 
over-subtle fondness for abstraction, taken away the unity of 
consciousness and will, which denote personality, from the 
supreme Being, I should have been able to bring faith to the 
aid of my reasoning. Knowing some things, we can take some 
on trust, so long as there is a God to trust in ; but if you leave 
me only a mental abstraction, it becomes almost doubtful whether 
I shall oscillate in the direction of the Vedanta, which says that 
spirit is everything, or that of the Sankhya, which says that 



VED^NTINE SPIRIT AND LETTER. 217 

nature does everything, or in that of the Charvacas, who make 
man a vegetable. 

" Again, there is something curious in what was said about 
Vach passing into Maya, or about the world being made out of 
the thought of Brahma. If, indeed, this were only a parable, 
(as perhaps it may have been,) to represent that thought must 
underlie nature, or that the world must have been created by 
wisdom, then I should perfectly agree ; but then true doctrine 
might as well be stated in plainer terms. But there is a certain 
sound about the statement, as if it materialised the Divine 
thought into a sort of clay, out of which the world might be 
fashioned ; and I can quite understand how this apparently 
subtle conception of the Vedantists may in some hands have 
become a materialism almost as gross as that of the Charvacas. 
Indeed it is certain that some texts of the Vedas do apparently 
speak of the Deity as being the clay no less than the potter ; 
but whether those are right who take such language more 
literally, or whether the A charya here is right in spiritualising, 
it may be difficult to decide. Judging, however, from the text 
itself, I should say the materialistic interpretation was the more 
obviously literal, and the one which any plain reader would 
affix to the text. You know, for example, it is said, This 
whole is Brahm, from Brahma to a clod of earth. Brahm is 
both the efficient and the material cause of the world. He is 
the potter by whom the fictile vase is formed ; he is the clay 
out of which it is made. Everything proceeds from him, with 
out waste or diminution of the source, as light proceeds from the 
sun. Everything merges into him again, as bubbles bursting 
mingle with the air, as rivers fall into the ocean; everything 
proceeds from him, as the web of the spider is thrown out from, 
and drawn back into itself. So far the Veda, which is still 
more explained by the Vishnu* Purana, This world was pro 
duced from Vishnu ; he is the cause of it ; it exists in him ; he 
is the world. Such words appear, at first sight at least, clear 

* These passages are quoted by Wi]son in his Oxford Lectures on the Hindus. 



218 WHETHER MATERIAL OR SPIRITUAL. 

enough." " Those words," here interposed the A charya, " cer 
tainly occur, but why should you give the least favourable in 
terpretation of them, rather than the one we assert to be correct ? 
I have told you that what seems the world is the thought of 
God, and so is God." "Well," answered Blancombe, " there 
are the words; let any one judge of them; but I was chiefly 
pointing out to you now, how this Maya theory of yours, though 
apparently at the opposite pole from a pantheistic materialism, 
had nevertheless something akin in its language. It seems also 
worth noticing, that your theory of creation, on the most favour 
able interpretation of it, is very difficult to understand. For we 
certainly do not think out our own bodies ; we rather, if any 
thing, think them to pieces. Nor, seriously, can we take a 
thought and make it palpable to the senses in the way that 
nature is palpable. There seems to be such a process as crea 
tion, which is unique in its kind, and the attribute of God alone ; 
nor do I quite see why you should deny it to have intervened 
between the creative thought of Brahma, and the outshining of 
Maya ; unless, perhaps, it be that the Vedic texts already 
mentioned compel you to have only one substance, and that 
a Divine one ; and then, starting from this premise, you see no 
other mode of avoiding materialism as applicable to the Deity 
for your conclusion, except by saying that the visible world 
exists only as the embodied thought of the Deity. I should 
like if you would shew me the Maya passage in the Vedas, 
for there I have never seen it." " The account of Vach 
there," said Vidyacharya, "comes from the Veda." "Or rather," 
answered Blancombe, "is it not from the Chandogya Upa- 
nishad?" " Yes, that is a correct distinction," said the other. 
"Perhaps also it is a very important distinction," resumed 
Blancombe ; " for I confess myself quite unable to see, how the 
mere nature-worship* psalms of the Eig-Veda harmonise with 
all that metaphysical theogony which you enlarge upon, and 
which does appear in the Upanishads. But if the Upanishads 
* Compare North British Review, No. XL1X. p. 218. 



WEAKENING OF INDIVIDUALITY. 219 

are a few centuries later than the Yedic songs, then I can 
understand how one arose after the other. Perhaps also those 
of your countrymen, my friend, who consider the Vedic Deity 
as making the world literally out of his own body, may be able 
to shew that their interpretation is the one agreeing best with 
the general tenor of the Yedic Worship. But, however that 
may be, I must confess that even the improved sketch, (or, if you 
prefer my saying so, the more primitive portrait) which you have 
given me of your religion, does not satisfy those anticipations 
or wants of the human mind which, on the side of natural 
reason, most crave a religion, or stand most opposed to either 
atheistic impiety or sensual indifference. For although your 
system appears more reasonable than the Sankhya, in that it 
makes Divine Spirit precede nature, yet its mode of doing so is 
either embarrassingly mystical, if it means to assert a Creator, or 
else, if it does not, it seems liable to subside into a materialising 
notion of a flux; and then it would let us drop into all the 
dreary hopelessness of those who make life a seething cauldron, 
and mankind mere bubbles blown upon it for a moment. Then 
as regards the individuality of each man s soul, it is certainly 
harder to agree with you than with Sada"nanda: for so far as 
we can trust our own mental experience at all, we are conscious 
of a certain unity in ourselves ; and though all humanity may 
be called one kind, that sort of aggregate oneness is very different 
from the clear self-consciousness by which every man knows him 
self to have a unity of being of his own. I grant you an aggregative 
unity for all life : and this too as an unity of type which be 
tokens an unity of idea in the Divine foresight : but you must 
grant me in turn a multiplicity of individualities for all sorts of 
living things. This multiplicity seems proved both by what we 
are conscious of in ourselves, and also by our observation of the 
different experiences of men, such as life or joy to one, and death 
or suffering to another ; and again it is no less proved by the 
type in plants and animals. You may say anything you like of 
the same earth and air contributing to the growth of trees : yet 



220 



WEAKENING OF INDIVIDUALITY. 



indubitably there is a peculiar form, and so a oneness of life, 
according to which each tree shapes itself. Whatever that 
secret germ or type of life may be, which makes the fig-tree grow 
differently from the cedar, it sufficiently isolates each kind from 
other kinds, and again individualises each specimen. For if 
that mysterious germ dies, the whole tree dies. So in man, we 
are separated by the law of our kind from all other species ; and 
yet each man is driven into himself to find that mysterious 
dweller of our flesh*, which is born alone, and dies alone, and 
which in most of the experiences of life has no partaker of its 
bitterness, or intermeddler in its secret joy. This mysterious 
power of self-consciousness, which we call each man s soul, is 
that for which you allow immortality, and for which we also 
claim an individual unity. Nor, indeed, will any doctrine which 
denies that unity, satisfy the better hope of man ; for the strong 
desire of doing something worthy to be remembered, and the 
expectation of looking back with great gratitude on our own 
experience, and with adoration on the unfolding work of God, 
must all be lost when the individual man merges in a kind of 
spiritual ocean ; and though this Ocean of yours is better than 
the Bauddha one of physical life ; yet, in that it has no unity 
of consciousness on which we can rest as on that of a doer 
capable of caring for us, it is still vague and appalling in its 
unsatisfactoriness. For your spirit is not truly a God, but a 
kind of stream of potentiality. Indeed, my friend, it is no 
wonder to me that nations among whom so dreamy a belief is 
dominant, should neither have the wholesome energy, nor the 
indomitable tenacity of purpose, which belongs to men conscious 
of their own identity, and holding fast a faith in the living God. 
For mankind, not having some one above them to obey and 
trust in, seem naturally to deteriorate, like a hound who has 
lost the master who encouraged him, or the plant which dwindles 
for want of wholesome light. Yet better still, I might say they 
are like children, who having lost kingly parents, go and gather 

* So Manu. Institutes, iv. 240. (Sir W. Jones s Works.) 



VEDANTINE COERESPONDENCIES. 221 

their impressions of tli ought and manners from the wild 
creatures of the forest, which are naturally of a lower kind. 
Then, again, the hopelessness of your scheme strikes me more 
strongly, when I consider the grounds you give of your pre 
ferential worship for Siva. For when you relapse as it were 
from trust in the creative or preserving God into adoration of 
the destroyer and renewer, you seem to fall from a clear con 
ception of directing providence into some such sense of the vast 
revolution of life and death, as the Saugata has explained to us 
on the part of the Bauddhas. He also believes in a kind of 
Divine intelligence, but he has not made up his mind whether 
that intelligence directs the world. Hence the belief in it 
becomes, except so far as his better conscience may bias his 
theory, an inoperative opinion. When indeed you refused to 
call the soul mere intelligence, I understood you to mean that 
it was something more Divine than any apprehensive perception, 
which some might make the result of our bodily organisation. 
So far I had no objection to go with you ; but when you ex 
plained the soul to be a very portion of the Divinity, I rather 
trembled at your boldness ; but when you went farther, and 
resolved your deity into mere spirit without clear self-conscious 
ness or dominant will, I no longer saw in what respect either 
the soul or the deity is practically better with you, than when 
the Bauddhas make them mere intelligence. The more now, 
indeed, that I consider your Saiva doctrine of revolution, as 
one s thoughts grow with speaking, the more I doubt whether 
practically, and to any real end, you do put thought under 
nature ; or at least, whether you are sufficiently careful to believe 
that the world is working out the design of a Divine thinker. 
For your Siva does not appear properly an Iswara, or a lord of 
life and death, so much as a vast circle comprehending meta 
physically all revolutions and contingencies that either have 
been, or may come about, or can be conceived. He seems 
changeful eternity, rather than the eternal ; and in such a cyclical 
recurrence it is difficult to say what comes before, and what 



222 A GEOLOGICAL PROBABILITY. 

comes after. It is a perpetually mutual following. You seem 
then dangerously to re-approacli the error of the Bauddhas. 

"With respect to both you and them, on this point, an 
argument of some probability might be drawn from the gene 
rations of former living things, which have left vestiges in the 
structure of the earth. You are aware, that our mountains and 
plains are found not only to contain, but in parts to consist of, 
the bones of animals long dead, and the changed elements of 
plants decayed. We do not know how long ago such and such 
a species of animals lived; but we know whether each came 
before or after, or at the same time with, another unlike it, 
since the oldest for the most part lie lowest in the earth. I do 
not mean that violent convulsions may not often have disturbed 
the order, but for the most part we trace an order. Now it has 
been observed, that we find, from the vestiges of human bones, 
man must have existed in the more recent stages of the earth s 
development ; but at a period anterior to man s existence there 
were creatures which do not now exist, yet which so far re 
sembled him as to have backbones, and other similarities of 
structure ; whereas in other successions of periods, farther and 
farther back, there were different kinds of creatures, until at last 
you come to a stage, in which there does not appear to us any 
vestige of animal life at all. In all this succession there is 
manifest arrangement; since many of the successive races of 
animals lived in places where the climate was adapted to them, 
though now it would not be so, for the placing of sea and land 
and climate appears to have undergone many changes in the 
course of countless ages. Nor yet do we trace only arrange 
ment, but to a considerable degree progress. Higher races of 
animals for the most part come after lower ones, and last of all 
man the noblest of all. So far then as this progress is made 
out, it marks not only design, which would sufficiently appear 
from arrangement of any kind; but it also marks something 
opposite to that hopeless revolution of life and death which 
belongs to the Saiva no less than to the Bauddha doctrine. It 



CLEARER TRACES OF DESIGN. 223 

conveys to us an impression of something which we may compare 
in a way to a line, as being an onward course in something 
like a career of the world under the guidance of its Divine 
ruler. Nor here need I stay to refute at length Sadananda s 
ingenious attempt to wrest this idea of progress onward into 
a theory of the blind striving of nature. For that is both 
negatived clearly by whatever appears of arrangement ; and also 
by what most of us admit about the necessity of thought 
underlying nature ; as well as by my own argument for the 
personal consciousness of the first Cause, which although used 
against the Cha*rvacas, will apply equally to the followers of the 
Sankhya. I do not even build upon this idea of progress as de- 
ducible from geology, anything more than an argument applica 
ble to our present state of knowledge. It is conceivable that here 
after life may turn out to have extended deeper below the earth s 
crust, or farther into the abyss of ages, than we now consider pro 
bable ; for even a small part of the Divine doings, if they happen 
to be disclosed to a greater extent than is generally apprehended, 
might well appear to us endless ; but yet very much larger parts 
beyond those, and even the entire whole, cannot be without clear 
end and pervading design, (whether a growing and unfolding 
design, or a fixed one,) to that eternal Mind which arranges all. 
But of this I have already spoken in discoursing about Infinity, 
which I only admit as an expression of an Infinite Mind. 

" Leaving then that argument from geology , I take refuge rather 
in the reasonings already urged ; for if it was difficult for me to 
refute the Charvacas, without using thoughts which are equally 
adverse to this vague and potential Deity of yours, it is clear that 
you too fall short of satisfying me. The world only becomes intelli 
gible when we consider it as coming from the providence of a crea 
tive Iswara, and going on under his guidance to fulfil his design. 
We, my friends, are happy in proportion as we concur in work 
ing out that design, for ourselves or others ; but since we cannot 
do so without the courage which comes of faith, unhappy is the 
man or the nation, whose Deity has melted away from their 



224 SHADOWINESS OF PANTHEISM. 

gaze into the shadowy abstraction of a spirit^ or the dim clouds 
of scepticism. It would not surprise me, if men, finding 
themselves in a world thus become orphan, should suffer any 
strange kind of phantom to assume the likeness of their heavenly 
Father. If the more speculative class of men, in endeavouring 
to fill an unnatural void, should become bewildered with throw 
ing their inquisitive thoughts into all possible regions of meta 
physics, that would be only such a result as I should expect. 
Nor will you take it ill, I hope, if I say that all the systems 
which have been explained to us here, have something of so 
cloudy a character, that we seem transported by them out of the 
region of realities into dreamland, and not only our sensations 
and their results are made uncertain, but all our mental per 
ceptions become confused, and the laws of our being and think 
ing fall into a kind of anarchy. It is no wonder that many sects, 
and many modes of apprehending the Deity, which differ from 
each other so much as to be in effect different religions, should 
hence arise ; and if they appeal to the same books, they must 
have very discordant interpretations ; or if each successive line 
of thought has in its day left the record of its expression in 
writings deemed sacred, there must result inextricable confusion 
in the attempt to reduce the whole mass of such writings to one 
system. Then again, persons who cannot speculate profoundly, 
but who feel the instinctive necessity of worshipping some Divine 
Being, will be too apt to seize on the nearest emblem, however 
unworthy an emblem it may be, of that Ineffable One whom 
they know not otherwise how to bring near them. On this 
point, my venerable friend, let me earnestly beg your attention. 
It is very sad to see throughout India men and women bowing 
down to idols, or setting up dumb stones as objects of worship. 
But what is still more sad is, to find learned Brahmans often en 
courage, or at least palliate it, by arguments drawn from this 
very theory of yours about the Universal Spirit. Thus they 
carry out your doctrine to the worst side of its results. The 
world and all its parts, they say, are only the embodiment of 



TEMPTATIONS OF PANTHEISM. 225 

Brahma s thought; nay, they are his body; therefore, why not 
worship him in that stone, where he is present, as well as 
anywhere else ? But what an infatuated materialism is this ! I 
feel confident, you did not resolve everything into spirit, for 
the sake of having God thus resolved into "brute matter. I do 
not myself even think that the omnipresence of God should "be 
understood to imply local ubiquity, in such a sense that the 
very Being of the most High can be said to reside in stones. 
For omnipresence, as we ascribe it to the Deity, seems to 
mean the embrace of all things within the providential will of 
an overruling and clear intelligence ; whereas, ubiquity, such 
as the defence of idol-worshippers implies, would make the 
Deity dwell in everything senseless, unhappy, and unclean. But 
at all events I am certain that the making of a thing by our 
thought does not convert that thing into our body ; or else you 
might as well pray to the ragged coat of a soldier in a dust- 
closet, as present a petition to the Governor General of India, 
by whose orders probably the soldier s uniform was made some 
years before. But in fact, when you called the world the body 
of Brahma, you could only mean it properly as a metaphor; 
it was a figurative way of saying, that the world shews us in a 
visible shape the Divine design. Yet the application of your 
doctrine by those who encourage idol-worship, may shew that 
I was not without reason in noticing the materialistic tinge in 
your language ; nor perhaps even they who impute such mate 
rialism to the old Vedic text." 

" But we are not justly responsible," here interposed Vidy- 
acharya, " for the way in which ignorance perverts our doctrine." 
"That depends partly," answered Blancombe, "upon how far 
the practice blamed flows naturally out of your language, and 
partly upon the pains you may take to prevent the practice, 
whether it be a perversion or a natural consequence. You re 
member what your doctor Sancara said about the necessity of 
suffering people to worship all kinds of deities, whether truly 
conceived, or wrongly. Even you have yourself spoken with 
M, p. 15 



226 MORAL WEAKNESS OF HINDUISM. 

some indifference on that point; although you have said no 
thing in praise of idolatry. But I could wish you not to "be 
indifferent about who is the true God, and by what name He is 
most rightly called ; for then perhaps you would be better able 
to aid me in rooting up all perversions of His truth. The plan 
of Sancara appears from experience to be so far from wise, that 
it suffers many thousands of human beings to make their very 
religion a mean of moral debasement ; while it often repels the 
more intelligent by a sort of recoil into utter disbelief of all 
religion. This is the penalty of teaching men falsely with good 
intentions ; they reject the falsehood, and then cast away the 
truth with it. Thus, in fact, the common sort of people give 
practically the lie to whoever says that wisdom could not be 
imparted to them ; and some such result for evil might have 
been predicted from any plan which began with doubting 
either the truth or charity of God, or the great brotherhood 
of mankind. How far what I am saying has actually taken 
place in India, you all are better judges than I am. But at 
least it seems as if there was great difficulty in reconciling 
the higher education which your countrymen are in many 
places receiving, with any real respect for the popular wor 
ship, either of idols, or other things of the kind. Nor does 
it seem as if there would be any remedy in such a metaphysical 
spiritualising of the common worship as learned Hindus are 
apt to substitute; for, in fact, the esoteric pantheism and the 
common polytheism fall in together like two sides of one system. 
They are as two faces of one wandering from the living God. 
Thus on the whole, while simple piety of the more intelligent 
kind is repelled, the metaphysical searchers entangle themselves 
in a system so shadowy that it is apt to end in the very opposite 
of what they intended ; and again, with bad men, who rather 
seek encouragement for their vices, the end of attempting to 
behold God in every part of nature is, that they obey and fear 
Him nowhere. The endeavour to deify the world ends rather 
with sensualising the Deity as Ma"ya, 



DOCTRINAL WANTS. 227 

" Whereas, on the contrary, I think happier results might 
have been predicted, if instead of letting men set up idols, you 
had been able to persuade them to set ever before their minds 
the image of a spiritual Father. Not that I mean this, as if the 
mental picture of a God could, as some of your books seem to teach, 
save us, unless the true God in Himself correspond. But if we 
had any knowledge from without, such as is properly termed 
revelation, of the Supreme Ruler of the world being one to 
whom we are personally responsible, then we should seem to have 
a great safeguard over our secret actions ; or if we were to con 
ceive of Him as a friend, that might be a great encouragement 
in our distress ; or again, if He could be known to have exhi 
bited any lively likeness of Himself, as for instance, if the 
Divine wisdom had taken body and dwelt among us, giving us 
thereby an example of life, and a. personal assurance of the 
Divine sympathy with all our struggles and experiences ; or 
even if we had any certain hope of an appointed mode in which 
we might lay down our sins mentally, and be cleansed from the 
penal memory of the past, as well as strengthened with exceed 
ing might against temptations for the future, such a religion 
would supply some deep wants which your subtle theories 
leave in the heart, and would correspond to those yearning 
anticipations in the better instinct of humanity, which I have 
insisted upon in arguing with Dr Wolff, as a kind of pro 
phecies of some faith to be. But you understand me all 
along, as not meaning that such things are good, if they are 
imaginary, but that they would be very good if we could be 
satisfied by clear witness of their reality. 

" Here then I should not have been displeased to find you 
lay more stress upon those old stories of the Deity becoming 
incarnate, which in some form or other have been prevalent in 
India. For it is quite conceivable that by exhibiting the Divine 
thus clothed in humanity the supreme Iswara might have given 
us such an image of Himself, as would be a true medium of 
conceiving Him, and a most blessed substitute for the idolatry 

152 



228 INCONSISTENCIES. 

which degrades. Only I should not be quite satisfied, if such 
incarnations were supposed to have taken place in the form of 
a lion, or of a dwarf, or even of a great conqueror ; for neither 
as bestial, nor as dwarfish, nor even as delighting in bloodshed, 
can we holily conceive of God. It may indeed be said that 
conquest becomes sometimes a removal of greater evils, as a 
tempest may be of pestilence ; yet it is not as imaging his power 
in the storm, nor yet as giving free range to the terrors of the 
sword in necessary war, that we find the Deity most attractive 
to our affections, or most powerful to touch the conscience of 
man with that thrill of love which passes into meek obedience. 
Unless therefore your Indian stories of incarnation are some 
what better than the sort of things I have alluded to, they 
ought hardly to satisfy us ; yet some idea of the kind, if it could 
be substantiated by historical experience, might be full of com 
fort and instruction. 

" You have not however attempted to apply such an idea. 
You have alluded to your own sacred books ; but it is evident 
even from your indirect admissions, that there is a vast discre 
pancy between divers portions of those books. Above all, it 
is impossible to doubt that the worship described so far as it 
is embodied in the hymns of the Vedas, which are the earliest 
and most sacred of your books, was very different from the 
metaphysical cosmogony which you have been good enough to 
explain to-day. That point may seem rather one for discussion 
between Sadananda and yourself; or at least is premature 
for me here to dwell upon; but I cannot forbear saying, that 
your subtle metaphysics have the air of subsequent explanations, 
which pious learning appears to have devised in order to meet 
the less spiritual, but more literal interpretation, which the 
Sankhyasts and other philosophers gave to the Vedic hymns. 

Then we have seen, that all your elaborate result does 
not prevent either idolatry, or other degrading forms of worship. 
May I not add, that it seems almost a suicidal admission, for 
you to acknowledge that you despair of improving the vast 



SOCIAL SHORTCOMINGS. 229 

masses of your countrymen? For, just as you said, that the 
Divine soul is in the Brahman and the Chandala, so have we 
need of a religion which shall bring near to God not only the 
priest, the king, and the noble, but which shall raise the humble, 
enlighten the ignorant, and bind all mankind into one body 
by intersecting veins of sympathy and intelligence under the 
headship of a heavenly Father. Believe me, no religion can be 
truly of God, which fears to speak good news to the poor, or 
which has not a home for the outcast, and a possibility of 
rising by renovation of the heart and spirit for even the most 
abject of mankind. In that sense, but in no other, I accept 
your doctrine of one soul-tree, whose branches embrace the 
world. 

" Least of all should I think that a true religion would leave 
women comparatively little taught, and liable from ignorance 
to become idle toys, or the mere victims of sensuality. If that 
Divine soul which you speak of, either in your sense or in any 
sense, animates alike with men the gentler partners of their 
being, the religion which is to train them in the sight of God, 
must begin early both by purifying the affections and also 
by awakening and enlarging the intelligence. Those early 
marriages which almost forerun the instincts of nature, 
and at least obstruct education, would be somewhat checked. 
It would become the duty of intelligent women to aid in making 
the home of man a natural temple, from which the unbought 
incense of piety and affection would ascend, and in which the 
Eternal Spirit Himself would not disdain by His instinctive 
teaching to dwell and be felt. Then, among other improve 
ments, the conversation of common people would not be, (as 
I have heard some of your countrymen* complain, for this is 
their saying,) such as to repel women by indecency, or else to 
vitiate their simple modesty. It is not by keeping the two 
sexes apart, but by instructing both and purifying both in 

* Strictures on Hindu Polytheism, in Bengalee, by Bruja Mohun. Essays on 
the Hindus. London, 1823. 



230 SINS OF INDIA. 

the knowledge and fear of the true God, that all social virtues 
are to be best preserved. 

"But such a knowledge would indeed change many other 
things in India for the better. It would above all teach and 
induce men to speak the truth candidly one with another, both 
as believers in a Judge who calls to account for the secrets of 
the heart, and as members of one great spiritual brotherhood, 
animated therefore by a common life, and each interested in 
preserving the just rights of his neighbour. Nor do I suppose 
that you would then see men irrationally praying against each 
other for success when they go to law, and perhaps attempting 
to ensure that success by false-swearing, instead of rather en 
deavouring that each should be in the right, and praying for 
their cause to be determined by justice. If they had even an 
intelligent conception of God, they would not pray to a blind 
idol ; and if they had a moral feeling at heart, that the true 
God must decide things in truth and righteousness, they would 
never try to bribe Him by unholy prayers to an unjust de 
cision. 

"I say nothing here of caste as a mere social distinction; 
but so far as it implies spiritual pride, it would tend to fade, in 
proportion as men felt themselves brothers from their common 
bearing to one Divine Saviour, In the same manner also, I 
conceive, sectarianism and all its marks, with vertical strokes or 
horizontal strokes, and whatever rivalries may thus be cherished 
among men, would die out before the light. Much more, all 
barbarous practices, like the bloody sacrifices of the Khonds, the 
child-murder of other tribes, and may I not add, any inclination 
to restore the burning of widows, or encouragement for fanatics 
to throw themselves under the car of Crishna, as Jagannatha, 
would become as repulsive to people in this country, as they 
now appear to more educated nations. All the abominations 
sanctioned by the Tantras, the left-handed Sa"ctas, and the festival 
of the Holij which I remember seeing celebrated last February, 
with obscene verses and disgusting attitudes in the open streets, 






NEED OF A TRUER RELIGION. 231 

as well as the singing-girls, which are described as an unholy 
appendage to some temples, would all go the same road. You, 
my venerable friend, would rejoice at heart, I feel confident, to 
see all such things utterly vanish. Yet you might still practise 
the old Hindu virtues of gentleness and patience ; you might 
respect life to whatever extent your conscience prompted you, 
though I confess I don t see why the life of a cow is more sacred 
than that of any other animal equally useful. You might also 
train up families in virtue, and still build water-tanks, and plant 
trees for the benefit of travellers, since these things are good and 
profitable for men ; but you would find (I think) any true re 
ligion quite in harmony with what you have distinctly laid 
down, that mere human deeds* cannot in themselves merit, as 
of right, either the forgiveness of sins, or everlasting life. I 
could wish you would persuade all your countrymen to think 
even on that last point, as you do yourself. 

" But, in any case, we can entertain no sanguine hope of 
improving the people of India, unless we are able by the bless 
ing of the true God to become the means of imparting to them 
that knowledge of Himself, which would alone go far to lift up 
the lowly. Your system seems in every possible sense stricken 
with the plague of despair ; and as it has on it the marks of 
hopelessness, so I have shewn it to be contradictory to reason ; 
and I doubt if even it is in harmony with the very scriptures 
from which you profess to extract it. We seem then still to 
have our faith to seek. For I fully acknowledge, it would be no 
use teaching another system as more hopeful, unless we had 
more grounds of either reason or experience for believing it to 
be true. Yet, again, some would say, true fitness of a belief for 
man s mental system might alone prove it to be true ; but I am 
here rather arguing the converse, that what is truest is fittest ; 

* The paramount efficacy of faith is a doctrine of the Bhagavad-gfta", and 
of modern hymns : but not ancient in India, and thought to be borrowed from the 
Persian Sufis. Colebrooke, Vol. i. p. 376 ; Wilson s Oxford Led. pp. 30, 31. But 
it may be a native, though late, development. 



232 WHETHER TRUER TO INTUITION, OR BY PROOF. 

though probably the two will at last correspond. I allow in 
deed for the evidence of the mind at least as much as for that of 
the senses, and probably more. Hence it often occurs to me in 
speaking, that instead of labouring to prove a proposition, as if 
my side were the more doubtful of the two, I ought rather to 
say in virtue of that which we feel and necessarily believe, O 
come, let us fall down and kneel; and worship the Lord our 
Maker." 



OBSTACLES TO THE DISCUSSION. 233 



CHAPTER VII. 

Outline of Indian Chronology. 

" The Hindu passes as it were a kind of spiritual existence in ages long since 
gone by." Heeren, As. Res. 

" Bei den Hindu hat die Religion alle Geschichte zerstort." Benfey, in Lassen. 

WHEN Blancombe had got so far, there was a kind of half- 
complimentary assent from the greater part of the company. 
It seemed also to be agreed that farther inquiry should be 
made about religious books, with a view of either seeing 
whether they had valid claims on our acceptance, or how far 
they warranted religions which professed to be extracted from 
them. " But here," said Vidyacharya, " I can go no farther. 
You are all going to discuss the claims of different religions, 
and I am already fixed. Not that 1 should not be glad to 
profit by your superior wisdom, and ready to learn anything 
from you. But I foresee that you are going to overlook the 
great source of our knowledge on the subject. Or, at least, 
you are going to balance other books against the four Vedas, 
which we know to have come from Brahma"; while it is not 
possible that our earthly disputations should be able to teach 
better than what he has inspired. If, then, you are willing 
to take them as the foundation of your argument, good; but 
otherwise, I may as well be silent." " Well, I too have a 
difficulty in beginning this argument," said Blancombe, "and 
it is of the same nature as yours, though not exactly the same 
thing." "What is your difficulty?" asked Sadananda. "It 
is a doubt," answered Blancombe, " whether we are going to 
begin rightly." "How so?" asked the other. "Why," he 
replied, " every place, and in the same way every truth, seems 
to have a road leading to it, and many which lead away 
from it. Just, then, as a man would not reach Benares by 



234 MORAL PRELIMINARIES. 

walking towards Seringapatam, so we are not likely to find 
the true religion if we look for it in an irreligious manner." 
iYou mean in an irreligious spirit?" again asked the other. 
"Just so," he answered, "that is part of my meaning; for one 
reason why mankind so often miss the truth seems to be 
that they set out with some principle of falsehood in their 
minds ; and when they have called their corrupt passion, what 
ever it may be, by some holy name, they think it religion." 
" Then you mean to say," asked Sadananda, " that we must 
try to purify our minds of prejudice, and to come with a 
sincere love of truth, though it may happen to contradict 
whatever we have been accustomed to believe?" "I mean 
that," replied Blancombe, "and something more. For even 
our past belief, if it has led us in any way to worship God, 
must have been to us, in some measure, a way of access to 
Him. Supposing, then, we should lose such a belief without 
opening up any better way in the course of our inquiry, there 
may be danger of our becoming more remote from God than 
before. Hence, I would hardly advise any man anywhere to 
enter upon intellectual speculation as to the religion which 
has hitherto controlled his thoughts, without earnest prayer 
that the eternal and unseen Being, whom we confess to be 
imaged by all sorts of worship, though in a distorted mirror 
by most of them, would either enable him to hold fast what 
ever is good in his present faith, or else lead him into some 
thing far better. Let the Brahman, for example, use the text 
of the Gayatri, praying for the most spiritual light of the Divine 
Ruler to illuminate his mind; and do you in the same way 
entreat the Preserver of the World to preserve you from mental 
evil, and to purge the gaze of your soul ; and let the Saugata 
also endeavour both to purify his intelligence, and to associate 
it with deep feeling of that which is most Divine about us. 
For not without such prayers and aspirations do I think it 
either safe or holy to go about criticising the objects of our 
faith, and comparing those of other men. But amidst all 



USE OF EXTERNAL HISTOKY. 235 

these, the more vividly we can fix our mind s gaze upon 
the certainty of a supreme Iswara who will hear and guide 
us, and the more clearly we can conceive of Him as the Spirit 
of very truth, therefore as something disengaged from all 
fictions, and idolatries, and compromises, the more likely we 
are to obtain from Him availing help. Yet this is not all. 
For supposing that He whom we seek should already have 
given, in any region of the world, a true revelation of His 
own being, we cannot well escape the blame of pride and 
negligence, if we disdain examining all the credentials of 
such a revelation; or if we suffer ourselves to be ignorant of 
the history which records it. We could not consistently pray 
for light, or expect to have such prayers favourably heard, 
unless we avail ourselves of whatever light is already given. 
Hence I do not see how we are to discuss the sacred records 
of any religion, without first laying a sound historical foun 
dation." "But why is that so important?" asked Sada"nanda; 
" for if the books are good they will teach us of themselves." 
" Perhaps they may," replied Blancombe, "if we give them 
an opportunity of doing so by taking them fairly in our 
hands. But if we set out with a prejudice that one set of 
books is as good as another, and read false rather than true 
ones, or if we accustom ourselves to say there is no more 
confirmation in the outward world for a Koran than a Purana, 
or for a Bible than a Koran, the best books in the world may 
then have no chance of teaching us. Hence it may be very 
important for us, and especially for learned inquirers, to have 
some knowledge of history, and not to mix all nations and 
generations into a confused mass, but to know what came 
before, and what after, and who lived in countries where 
sacred events are said to have happened, as well as who lived 
in other countries at the same time. For thus we may acquire 
tests of natural probability, and be able to say whether events 
are in themselves credible, whether the persons recording them 
were true witnesses, and whether any collateral testimony can 



236 USE OF EXTEKNAL HISTORY. 

be derived from other nations whose prepossessions may have 
been of another kind. So important is all this kind of external 
probability, that any books which do not answer such tests 
may fairly be suspected, or, at least, cannot be put on the same 
ground of credibility as books which do answer them. Espe 
cially books may become very suspicious, which are of so 
uncertain an origin that their date may be conjectured, without 
violence, to have been a thousand years earlier or later. In 
the same way, books in the hands of a whole people, and 
especially of any community extending over many nations, 
are, on the first look of things, less likely to have been altered, 
either to insert prophecies, or for any other wrong motive, 
than a volume in the hands of a mere priesthood ; and yet if 
the priests were either obliged or accustomed to read and 
expound their volume at short intervals to the people at large, 
this distinction need not be so emphatic. Then, again, as to 
the internal contents of religious books, we have to inquire 
whether they agree in character with the manners of the times, 
and especially in narrative with the accounts given more or 
less by other nations as independent witnesses ; for the tes 
timony of a stranger is one of double strength. But such an 
inquiry can never be satisfactorily conducted, unless we have 
first our groundwork of history laid out as a map before us. 
Hence, I almost venture to say, that nations in whom the 
historical instinct is not strong, or who have no conscientious 
and clear record of facts in their own history, can never claim 
to have been the depositories of a Divine revelation, at least 
for mankind. You see yourself, such people furnish us with 
no data by which we can test their books; or probably such 
data as they give bear record against them. Indeed, the very 
fact of not having been inspired with a conscientious regard 
to truth in recording events, may be said to put men out of 
the court of the nations as witnesses. Thus, if I read anywhere 
that a prince had brought all the earth under one umbrella, 
when other authorities informed me that many independent 



NATIONAL ACCURACY. 237 

kings lived even in the same country, I should be afraid that 
the imagination of such a writer might carry its exaggerating 
tendency into religion, and paint a common event as a miracle, 
or any mendicant faquir as a great saint. Again, if I found the 
ordinary teachers of any religion represented not merely as 
earnest and conscientious, but as gifted with superhuman infalli 
bility, and free from the common accidents of men, I should 
regard any reality answering to this description as at least 
sufficiently rare to be unlikely, and as requiring, therefore, 
more than usual testimony. The same rule would apply to 
events so strange as not to be traceable to the ordinary links, 
of causation in nature. For although the Saugata justly argues 
that the Divinity may teach men often, and I should add 
always, yet, if we have discovered by large induction, that 
the Divine method of teaching men is by providence and 
blessing upon experience and aspiration, we may expect that 
method to be maintained with some such regularity as other 
great processes in nature and history, except where extraor 
dinary results may seem called for by extraordinary need, and 
again certified by no common witness. Moreover, such wonders, 
as I have before hinted, will be less probable, in proportion 
as they are less instructive. For instance, if a religious book 
should tell us of an incarnate Divinity holding up a mountain 
as a parasol, merely in order to protect certain Gopis* or shep 
herdesses from a thunder-shower, we ought in all soberness 
to ask whether such a story is credible ; what moral lesson 
can it convey ; or with what sort of stories is it mingled, and 
by what curious contemporaries attested, that we should believe 
a thing so much at variance with the Divine government of 
the world ? What, indeed, should we be better for believing it ? 
" It is only in passing that I throw out the suggestion, if the 
doctrines about the Deity recorded in sacred books are very 
obvious, the fact of their being trivial will rather detract from 
their value ; or, again, if they are quite contradictory to our 

* This is told of Crishna in the Sri Bhdgavat Purdna. 



238 WONDERS, AND GOODNESS. 

reason, or if they tend to any impurity, such a character of in 
struction is not likely to have proceeded from the Author of our 
mind and soul, or of our intellectual and moral being; for I 
suppose we are not seeking any other Deity than the One who 
inspires us to conceive and feel our best thoughts or emotions. 
Yet I have already admitted that religious doctrines may trans 
cend, and even be expected to transcend, our comprehensions; 
hence for religious books to contain things different from what 
we should have expected, is not alone a just ground of objection 
to them. But we may reasonably accept such statements in 
-things beyond our judgments, if all that accompanies them in 
things falling within the ken of our minds is both credible and 
easily verified. That is to say, if the writers of the books lived 
among a people accustomed to scrutinise facts ; if they never 
disguise their own faults or ignorances ; if they give you place 
and time and number, with evident desire to be accurate, and so 
as to be consistent with what we know from other quarters, or 
can reasonably conjecture, in such a case our general acceptance 
of the history for sound reasons may extend to some things 
which, if they had stood alone, or not in such good company, 
might have startled us as extraordinary. 

" You see by this time why we must require in a religious 
discussion, which is carried on so systematically as the present 
is, a firm ground- work of history. Will you then permit me to 
ask you, since no persons are able to inform me better, what has 
been the course of your stream of history in India, and what 
are the great epochs which you set up in it as landmarks?" 
" Do you mean," asked Yidyacharya here, " to inquire about 
the Divine ages?" "Why no," answered Blancombe; "for 
that might not only revive the difficult question, which we 
before glanced at, how far the idea of Time can apply to the 
eternal Spirit, but it would also provoke you to mention 
periods, which can have little to do with the history of man, 
being formed possibly upon observation of the stars, and which 
moreover are so vast as utterly to bewilder me. I remember, 



EARLY HINDU CHRONOLOGY EXTRAVAGANT. 239 

for instance, reading in a quotation from one of your books * that 
a human year is only a day with the gods, and that four thou 
sand years of the gods, each (I suppose) consisting of about 
three hundred and sixty such days, make up a Divine age, and 
four Divine ages make an age of the gods, while it requires a 
thousand such Divine ages to make a single day of Brahma , and 
as many to make his night. Again, some have said that it re 
quires a thousand of Brahma s days to make an hour of Vishnu, 
and six hundred thousand such hours to make a period of Eudra. 
Now, since you, my friend, have instructed me that Kudra 
means Siva, whom you especially worship, it is clear that any 
account you might give me of the Divine ages would be rather 
alarming, even if after all we escaped the question about the 
nature of Time itself. But such periods have evidently nothing 
to do with human history, or at least nothing with history so 
far back as it is likely to concern us, or we to remember it. 
Hence, if you please, I had rather waive all discussion of those 
Divine ages, in which some say that thousands of years are put 
on or off at pleasure, while others again think that they trace 
astronomical calculations in them ; and we will start more mo 
destly with some striking event in the generations of men. 
When, for example, would you place the events of the Maha- 
bharata, or the great war between the sons of Pandu and Kuru?" 
"It is generally agreed," answered the A charya, "that the great 
war took place at the end of the Brazen (Dwdpara) age, or at the 
beginning of the Kali age, which is now in progress. That would 
be just four thousand nine hundred and fifty-five years ago, the 
present year (i. e. 1854, A. D.) being the seventeen hundred and 



* Compare Sir Win. Jones s Works, Vol. I. pp. 280 360. Colebrooke, 
Vol. ii. pp. 474 5. H. H. Wilson, Vishnu Purdna, and Lectures. Lassen, 
I. A. B. ii. p. 500. 

The aggregate of the four ages would be, 4,320,000 years ; out of which the 
Kali age has 432,000. The identity of the figures, excepting cyphers, is worth 
noticing. But a Manwantara, (or a dispensation of humanity) is, according to 
Wilson s Sanscrit Lexicon, 308,448,000 years, and the Calpa, or period of fourteen 
such dispensations, would be 4,318,272,000 years, or nearly three cyphers more. 



240 PERIOD OF ANCIENT DYNASTIES. 

seventy-sixth of the Saca, or Salivahana s, era." " But you see, 
I suppose," observed Blancombe, " that even this is a very long 
time." "Perhaps so," answered the other. "When I say long," 
proceeded Blancombe, " I mean long as compared to any other 
human history; for this great war is of course not the earliest 
event in the annals of India." " Very far from it," answered 
the other, " for Kama, the great king of Oude, who extended 
his conquests to Ceylon, and was, indeed, an incarnation of 
Vishnu, lived before the Brazen age, though after the Silver had 
ended ; and from Rama up to Icshwaku, who is the first de 
scendant of Vaivaswata, recorded as having reigned at Oude, 
there are fifty-five according to the Ramayana, but according to 
the Vishnu Purana more than sixty generations of princes. The 
Vaivaswata, whom you mention, is also, if I mistake not, called 
Manu?" here asked Blancombe. " He is," answered the other, 
" the last of the Manus, to whom Brahma has committed the 
peopling of the world, and therefore the father of the present 
race of mankind." " He stands then, apparently for Adam," 
proceeded Blancombe, " or rather, perhaps, for mankind con 
ceived generically, since I recollect that when the word enters 
into compounds, it clearly means man. From Icshwaku then 
to Rama you have about sixty generations of solar princes 
reigning at Oude (Ayodhya), beside a parallel lunar dynasty 
reigning at Vitdra (Pratishthana) . What then may we suppose 
to have been the interval between Rama and Yudhishthira?" 
" Clearly from what has been said," answered the other, "the 
entire Brazen age appears to have intervened. For, the Brazen 
age begins after Riima, and ends with Paricshit, the successor 
of Yudhishthira. During that interval, there appear to have been 
twenty-nine kings who were descendants of the Sun, whether 
they reigned at Oude, or rather perhaps at Canouj, and their 
reigns are said to have lasted about eight hundred and sixty- 
four thousand years." "You mention the number with as 
perfect tranquillity of mind," observed Blancombe, smiling, 
" as if it was usual for men to live about thirty thousand years. 



PERIOD OF ANCIENT DYNASTIES. 241 

Suppose, however, we merely strike off the thousand, and con 
jecture the number tentatively to have been eight hundred 
and sixty-four years. We shall then have between twenty- 
nine and thirty years for a generation, which is a sufficiently 
common duration of life elsewhere, and quite as long, I 
think, as the average of a generation at the present day in 
India. By the aid of some such expedient your genealogical 
table might hold its ground among possibilities ; otherwise, I 
fear, it would be very difficult for either of us to persuade the 
nations of the world in general, that your history is reconcil 
able with what is believed of the progress of mankind from the 
most authentic annals elsewhere." " But it seems to us only 
natural," answered Vidyacharya, "that our history should in the 
holy land go back farther than that of profane nations ; and the 
earlier fathers of mankind may well have lived longer than 
their degenerate descendants. You have, I think, in the books 
which Christians acknowledge as sacred, the latter principle 
fully admitted. But why should our accounts be tried by those 
of other nations, and not rather theirs be tested by ours?" 
"Well," resumed Blancombe, "if you will not bring your 
Sastras to the test of comparative history in general, at least 
you will admit that they ought to be consistent with themselves. 
After, therefore, that very long interval between Rama and the 
heroes of the great war, such as Arjuna and Yudhishthira, I 
suppose these latter ought to be many generations lower down 
in your lists of the Lunar dynasty, than Rama is in those of the 
Solar kings. But pray, is it so?" "Not exactly," answered 
the A chary a; " for it is believed that some of the Vitora kings 
in the Chandra- Vansa (Moon-dynasty) had their lives super- 
naturally prolonged." " Then your lists do, as I had been 
told," asked Blancombe, " make Rama full sixty generations 
from Manu in the Oude dynasty, while those heroes who lived 
so many thousand years after him, according to your reckoning, 
are placed even earlier, or barely fifty generations from Manu, 
in the list of the kings of Vitora?" "What you have been 
M. p. 16 



242 ANCIENT DYNASTIES. 

told of the lists is true," answered the Achdrya. "Well, yon 
see," resumed Blancombe, " the more improbable a statement 
is in itself, the more one is apt to cross-examine the witnesses ; 
and if their story goes on becoming less probable, or less con 
sistent apparently with itself, at each step, you know what con 
clusion the lawyers draw. So, I confess, it appears to me the 
mildest course we can take here is to conceive either that names 
have dropt out of some of your lists, or else years been inserted 
without sufficient warrant; and in either case the chronology 
becomes so doubtful, that it can hardly stand alone, unless we 
have some confirmatory accounts from other countries on which 
it may lean. In fact, it is difficult to say, which out of incon 
sistent accounts ought to be preferred ; only, if all men, as you 
seem to say, sprang from Vaivaswata Manu, or from Adam, it is 
probable that their history in one country would not go inde 
finitely farther back than in countries of the world generally ; 
and hence, if your chronology for the earliest period should be 
brought, by leaving out the thousands, or by subdivision of 
multiples, into a range of parallel with that of other nations, it 
might be easier to believe. Or perhaps at a later date, we might 
be able to fix some point of coincidence, on which we might 
take our stand, and look about us. Have you not, for example, 
in your lists, a king called diandrayuptaT" " Certainly," 
answered the A chary a, " there was among the kings of Magadha, 
one of that name. He was first of the Maurya dynasty, which 
succeeded to that of the Nandas." " Before we go farther," 
said Blancombe, " let it be made clear what places or lists of 
kings we are taking into consideration. You have mentioned 
the Sun-dynasty of Oude and Canouj, with its sixty generations 
down to Kama, and about thirty more down to the Great War. 
Then there is the Moon-dynasty of Vitora with barely fifty 
generations, supposed to extend over the same time as the other 
column of ninety. But who are these kings of Magadha?" 
" They are the descendants," answered the other, " of Sahadeva, 
who lived in the time of the Great War, and, going into the 



ANCIENT DYNASTIES. 243 

country now called Behar, founded there the city of Magadha*. 
He was himself tenth from Kuril in the Moon-dynasty. From 
him down to Ripunjaya, there reigned in Magadha about twenty 
kings for a thousand years; then, after Ripunjaya, came five 
of the Pradyota-dynasty ; and then Sisunaga, the first of a 
dynasty of ten, who, I suppose, is the king you alluded to 
as having a fabulous account given of his name in the Bauddha 
chronicles. At least the fifth of his dynasty is Bimbisara, 
in whose reign the great deluder, Gautama, or Sakya, was 
born." " But Sakya was not of Magadha, I think, was he?" 
asked Blancombe. " No," replied the other, " he was son of 
Suddhodana, whom I, following the Vishnu Purana, call king 
of Ayodhya, or of whatever city may then have been the capital 
of that region, but whom the Bauddhas call king of Capila- 
vastu." " This interests me exceedingly," said Blancombe, 
" for now, by putting things together, I think I see a glimpse 
of light. But first, please to finish with your list of kings." 
" It is prophesied in the Vishnu Purana," proceeded the other, 
" that after the Saisunagas will come Nanda, the son of a 
Sudra mother ; he will bring all the earth under one umbrella. 
Accordingly, the event happened so ; and then after nine Nandas 
came the new dynasty of the Mori tribe, which the Brahman 
Kautilya brought about, and of which Chandragupta was the 
first king. His son was Vindusara, and his grandson, as pro 
bably you are aware, was Asoca." " I am much obliged to you 
for all this information," said Blancombe; "and I suppose this 
Asoca is the king whose Bauddha inscriptions were so confidently 
appealed to by our friend the Saugata Muni, who has now been 
silent so long?" " He is so," answered the other. "And pray, 
my friend," said Blancombe, now turning to the Saugata, " when 
should you, according to the most moderate chronology in any 
of your books, such as the Mahawansa, place either your first 
Council, or the death of Sakya ? In what year, that is, of the 
Saca era?" "Why," answered the other, " it was six hundred 
and twenty-one years before the Saca era begins, or two 

162 



244 CHANDRAGUPTA. 

thousand three hundred and ninety-seven years before the one 
now current; (therefore it would be 543 B.C.). You agree also 
in making the age of Chandragupta about five generations 
lower." "Yes," answered the Saugata, we make him reign 
from four hundred and fifty-nine to four hundred and twenty- 
five years before the Saca era begins." " That is not exactly 
what I hoped to hear," remarked Blancombe, "but it comes 
within a very few years, at least within few, as compared to 
the vast periods we have been discussing. For I no longer 
doubt that this Chandragupta is the same as Sandracottus, who 
is mentioned by more than one Greek writer as having made a 
treaty with Seleucus Nicator. You have often heard of Alex 
ander, the great Yavana conqueror, who established a king 
dom in Bactria, of which we have still the coins remaining, and 
did battle with the Indians of the Punjaub. You can readily 
understand how in his age history had been well fixed among 
the Greeks, by an inquisitive people, who learnt accuracy in the 
course of political rivalries, and were obliged to study it in their 
narratives. So we are able to fix precisely the date of Alex 
ander s dying at Babylon as B.C. 322, and the reign of Seleucus, 
one of the kings among whom his empire was divided, as com 
ing down to B. c. 310 ; that is, three hundred and eighty-eight 
years before the Saca era commences, or within thirty-seven 
years of the date at which you fix Chandragupta. Again, 
Megasthenes*, an ambassador and writer among the Yavanas, 
actually visited the court of Asoca, Chandragupta s grandson, 
and from him very many of the notions entertained in India by 
the later Greeks were derived. His time also corresponds suf 
ficiently with what, from the clue you have already given me, 
you would naturally make the date of Asoca. This date, indeed, 
is partly fixed even by the inscriptions already spoken of; for 
they have the name of Ptolemy, and since they have also the 
word Magas, it is probable they mean Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
whose brother was so called, and his date is about three hundred 

* Megasthenis Indica, ed. Schwanbeck. Bonn, 1846. 



ASOCA VLCKAMA DITYA. 245 

and forty-two before the Saca era commences. So that Asoca 
thus becomes contemporary of Antioclms in Syria, and Ptolemy 
Philadelphia in Egypt. Upon this firm basis, therefore, we can 
proceed to argue. For the triple coincidence of the Greek ac 
counts, which are both numerous and reputable, of the Cingalese 
Bauddha books, and again, of the Rock inscriptions, which, 
although also Bauddha, yet having been but recently decy- 
pliered, came up with all the freshness of an independent witness, 
is far too remarkable to have arisen, except upon the supposition 
of the statements being, so far as they agree, correct. 

" Now let us go back to the Vishnu Purana. When would 
you, my friend " here Blancombe turned to the Acharya 
" place the last king of Magadha who is eminent enough to be 
clearly traced ?" " We place him," answered the other, " three 
hundred and ninety-six years before Vicramaditya, the great king 
of Malwa." " And Vicramaditya s era begins, I think," resumed 
Blancombe, "one hundred and thirty-four years before the Saca 
era, or fifty-six before the Christian?" "Exactly so," replied the 
other. " Then here," said Blancombe, " we have standing-ground 
again. You have several dynasties, I think, between the Maurya 
and this last, which you call the Andhra, and the space of time 
required for them is probably considerable? Is it not so?" 
"Certainly," answered the other; "for there are ten of the Mori 
family, who extend over one hundred and thirty-seven years, 
ten of the Sunga dynasty, who reigned for one hundred and 
twelve years, and four Kanwa kings, whom we affirm, if you have 
no objection, to have reigned between them three hundred and 
forty-five years. Then begins the Andhra dynasty, which ends 
with its twenty-first king, Chandrabija, four hundred and fifty- 
six years from its commencement." " And after him you make 
three hundred and ninety-six years to Vicramaditya?" asked 
Blancombe. "Exactly so," replied the other. "Well," said 
Blancombe, " I have no objection to the kings being described 
as reigning, whatever number of years may really have been the 
fact; but these things cannot be altered at our pleasure; and 



246 VICRAMA DITYA S ERA. 

now we are landed in an inextricable difficulty. For, not to 
mention that the Kanwa kings appear unusually long-lived, you 
have given me as the entire interval "between Chandragupta and 
Vicrama one thousand four hundred and forty-six years ; or, in 
other words, you make the first Maurya king one thousand five 
hundred and two years before the Christian era, whereas we 
have already seen, from the irrefragable coincidence between 
thoroughly independent accounts, that he really lived only three 
hundred and ten years before it. Here then is an error in a 
comparatively narrow portion of your annals, amounting to about 
twelve centuries. How much greater then may be the errors in 
those vast and indefinite periods which have been spoken of 
above, if we only had similar means of testing them ! How do 
you answer this, my friend?" "I don t deny," answered the 
A charya, " that you understand these things better than I do ; 
but we have received it as I stated it." 

" I say not a word against receiving ancient accounts, either 
upon sufficient authority, or when they are consistent with them 
selves," said Blancombe; "but when chronological errors of so 
large a range can be demonstrated in a system received as 
historical, it becomes no longer what accurate people understand 
by history. Moreover this difference of twelve centuries may 
lead to some important questions. For either the number given 
may be arbitrary, and possibly wrong, or else the last Andhra 
king may have been long after Yicramaditya ; or again, he may 
really have been before Yicrama, and still the numbers be right ; 
only in this latter case we must bring down the famous era of 
Vicramaditya some centuries later than you have supposed. Nor 
should I wonder, myself, if in reality we ought to do so. But 
now, just observe, what important consequences would follow. 
For Vicrama is your great king, under the protection of whose 
court at Malwa* Hindu literature attained its brightest acme, 
and many famous scholars flourished. Supposing then it should 
happen that they had appeared to invent any famous saying, 

* With Malwa Gesenius connects /i6Xu/35os, the Greek for lead. 



NANDAS. 247 

such as Christians may, perhaps, claim for the Founder of their 
religion, it makes a great difference whether these famous Hindiis 
lived some half century before Christ, or an indefinite number 
of centuries after him. Suppose even that he lived only a 
century and a half later than you imagine, that difference alone 
opens up a vista of many possibilities. Then again, so great 
an error in so small a tract of time suggests the likelihood of 
general error on a large scale, and, in fact, throws doubt over 
the whole system. More particularly it should be observed, that 
pretensions to anything like prophecy hence suffer exceedingly. 
You have quoted a prophecy from the V. Purana that Nanda 
should bring all the earth under one umbrella. But Megas- 
thenes, the Yavana writer I have already quoted, relates that 
India contained one hundred and eighteen nations, without at all 
mentioning that Asoca was lord over them all ; yet Asoca was 
probably more powerful than Nanda. Or, if we looked upward, 
instead of downward, the Greeks who describe Alexander s 
empire or that of his successors, represent the Prasii and their 
king as eminent, but do not at all ascribe to them an universal 
dominion. Hence it would seem that Nanda did not exactly 
bring all the earth under one umbrella ; and if the passage 
saying so in the Purana be a prophecy, it had the misfortune 
not to be fulfilled ; or if it be a description, in case the Purana 
should turn out to be of a later date, then it is not historically 
accurate, but sins by exaggeration. Yet, if there were nothing 
in Indian history more hyperbolical than this, it might be com 
paratively trustworthy. 

" Since, however, you have mentioned the Andhra dynasty, 
let us attempt a kind of conjecture. We will assume that Chan- 
dragupta must have lived until B. c. 305, and may have reigned 
previously perhaps thirty years. We will then take all your 
dynasties, only we must shorten hypothetically the reigns of the 
four Kanwa princes." " I should have told you," VidyachaYva 
here interposed, " that in the Vishnu Purana the time assigned 
to these is only forty-five years, though in other books of ours it 



248 ANDHRAS. 

appears from a variety in the figures to be three hundred and 
forty-five." " That will help us materially," said Blancombe, 
" and with this deduction if we sum up the dates of your dynas 
ties, and bring the Andlira kings forward accordingly, we shall 
find their epoch extend down to four hundred and ten, or possibly 
four hundred and forty, of the Christian era. This argument is 
perhaps rather more plausible, since it makes their dynasty 
comprehend the time during which the Eoman naturalist Pliny 
the elder lived*, for he tells us, about A. D. 60, that in the 
neighbourhood of the Ganges and it seems to be implied not 
far in order from Palibothra there was a powerful tribe called 
the Andaras ; and, without disputing that there was an Andhra 
kingdom farther South on the Godaveri, I agree with those 
learned men who think there is some reference here to the 
Andhra kings of Magadha". But perhaps their capital may not 
have been Palibothra itself, but some city in its neighbourhood, 
and somewhat to the South. Still they would probably be rulers 
of Magadha. Here then we seem to have something that looks 
like corroborative testimony. Again, Chinese authors have been 
reported to me as saying, that in the year A. D. 408, ambas 
sadors arrived in their country from the Indian king Yuegnai. 
If that name means Yajna, which seems likely enough, then it 
will exactly correspond with the last but two of the Andhra 
kings, whose dynasty we have been supposing to end somewhere 
before A. D. 440. As this coincidence is not my own discovery f, 
I may venture to praise and rejoice in it. Now, you see, we are 
on tolerably steady ground." 

" Then ought not you, even at the worst, to allow that at 
this point our annals are strictly historical?" asked the Acharya. 
"Why, my friend, it is very awkward," answered Blancombe, 



order of the names implies anything, it points to the vicinity of the Ganges, 
rather than of the Godaveri. But compare Lassen, Yol. n. pp. 271 345, and 
Vol. i. p. 178, with Wilson in the Vishnu Purdna on the Magadha" dynasties, 
t De Guignes, i. 45, quoted by Wilson in V. P. and Journal As. Soc. Bengal, 
, 1837. So the Puloman of Magadha" becomes in Chinese, Ho-lo-mien. 



BAUDDHA CHRONOLOGY. 249 

41 that as yet we have not been able to fix any one chronological 
point satisfactorily, without calling in the aid of other than 
Brahmanical documents. However, we have some farther in 
quiries to go through." "But you admit, that our Bauddha 
documents have been of use?" asked the Saugata. " Certainly," 
answered Blancombe, " and to the Bauddhas, as far as I am 
able to judge, belongs the praise of having first introduced 
a properly historical element into Hindu literature*. Yet this 
praise must be accompanied by the blame of having also intro 
duced a great many childish legends, some of which I alluded 
to a little time ago, and others I have reason to believe are 
worse. There is also an error of about forty years in your 
placing of Chandragupta, which Mr Tumour thought could 
hardly have been accidental ; but, as compared to Hindu chro 
nology in general, it appears to me accurate." 

"Then what course would you now suggest to be taken," 
here asked Sadsinanda, "in order to extract something like 
probability out of those earlier generations, over the history of 
which a certain confusion seems to prevail ?" " Why, if one may 
venture," replied Blancombe, "to employ a sort of conjecture, 
I should go back to those twenty-nine kings of the Sun-dynasty, 
whose reigns were reported by our venerable friend as extending 
over eight hundred and sixty-four thousand years between Rama 
and the Great War ; and just as with the four Kanwa kings of 
Magadha, it turned out that we were right in striking off the 
hundreds, so, in this case, I think we might easily dispense with 
the thousands of years, and so reduce their period to eight 
hundred and sixty-four years. Nor does this appear to me 
altogether an arbitrary licence ; for thirty generations of men 
might be expected on the average to extend over about nine 
hundred years. It is true, indeed, that a reign is seldom so 
long as a generation, and, if we were working without any clue 
at all, I should not in conjecture allow it so long : yet some 

* Lassen finds general causes in the state of India for the more accurate genius 
of Bauddha history, B. n. pp. i 15. 



250 DYNASTIES BEFORE CHANDRAGUPTA. 

reigns may have been longer ; and since here the Hindu annalists 
give us the number eight hundred and sixty-four, which may 
possibly have been a statement for which they had traditional 
reasons, I am inclined hypothetically to accept the number. 
For at least it is within the range of possibility that thirty 
kings, with, as we may conceive, some time lost in interreg 
nums, may altogether have occupied that period. Let the 
conjecture that they did so, therefore, stand for a few moments 
as an hypothesis. Only it must be understood, that the true 
time is likely to have been shorter, rather than longer ; for we 
have lengthened the supposed time out of deference to the Hindu 
annals. 

" We shall then have to consider, in the next place, the 
thirty-six kings of Magadha, exclusive of Nanda, between Saha- 
deva and Chandragupta, or between the Great War, whenever 
that may have been, and the period of Seleucus Nicator, which 
is B. c. 310. Now a little lower down at Magadha* we find 
thirty Andhra kings occupy only four hundred and fifty-six 
years. This fact we are certain of, because it is not only stated 
so in the Vishnu Purana, but it also coincides, as we have seen, 
with notices of the Roman Pliny, and of the Chinese annalists. 
Now you will please to observe, that the average of reigns, when 
taken over this large number of kings, is only about fifteen 
years. In other words, it is just half a generation ; and this is 
very much what, on general grounds of probability, we should 
expect to be the case. In peaceful countries, like Great Britain, 
kings may reign longer ; but in troubled ones, as we see in the 
case of the emperors of Home, they reign less ; and I would not 
venture to affirm more than that, for such stages of society as we 
find exemplified in the Indian Magadha, fifteen years is a fair 
average duration for a king s reign. Is there, then, any reason 
why the thirty-six kings between the Great War and Chandra 
gupta should have reigned longer?" "We at least believe," 
here remarked Vidyacharya, "that the twenty kings who followed 
Sahadeva reigned for a thousand years." " But, if they did," 



MAGADHA PRINCES. 251 

replied Blancombe, "they must have lived very much longer 
than men in general do; for even the reign of every one 
must have extended over one whole generation, and two-thirds 
of another. Now, if such a supposition is in itself improbable, 
it does not become less so from our having already observed 
what errors creep into your chronology. Moreover, you allow, 
I think, only a like space of a thousand years to thirty kings 
who follow Paricshit in the Sun-dynasty either at Oude, or 
Canouj, or Capila-vastu, or whatever may have been the 
capital of the Solar A ryans after the Great War. Why, then, 
should twenty kings of Magadha be supposed to have reigned 
as long as a parallel chain of thirty in the Sun-dynasty else 
where? Such a contradiction is so improbable, that, in the 
absence of proof, we may set it aside as impossible. You 
must forgive me, then, if I say, that we have a right to ignore 
your theory of a thousand years for the first twenty kings of 
Magadha, especially as it seems to have been imagined only to 
give the Tables a look of symmetry ; and we must group the 
whole number of thirty-six kings in a mass, reckoning back 
ward from Chandragupta, who is a certain point, to SahadeVa, 
who is an uncertain one. We can then allot to the entire 
thirty-six, by way of conjecture, whatever number of years it 
is probable they might reign. I treat Nanda and his family 
apart, thinking them approximately fixed." 

" But may you not," here the Saugata asked, " throw light 
upon at least the later of the Magadha kings, such as the Saisu- 
nagas, from our Bauddha annals?" "You remind me," re 
plied Blancombe, " of what had for the moment escaped my 
memory. Only you must not ask me to take in the story of the 
serpent, or others among your accounts which have a decidedly 
legendary air." " But you admit," said the Saugata, " that 
our chronology from the time of Sakya, or Bimbisara s reign, is 
tolerably correct?" " Why we found there," said Blancombe, 
" an error of nearly forty years ; and it does not follow that a 
system tolerably correct for a contemporary period is equally so 



252 SAHADtiVA TO RIPUNGAYA. 

for an age more remote. But I am quite ready, since we are 
treading after all upon conjectural ground, to accept your chro 
nology of the Saisunaga princes, so far as it agrees with the 
genealogies of the Vishnu Purana, because so far we appear to 
have a concurrence of two independent witnesses. We will 
therefore allow not only for Nanda, but for his sons, who must 
be added to the thirty-six kings we had to consider, and we will 
admit the round number of one hundred years which is claimed 
for the Nanda family. There will then be no difficulty in re 
cognising the place of Ajatasatru, in or near whose reign Sakya 
died, as about 550 B. c. ; and we may admit, as not involving 
any great extravagance, the three hundred and sixty-two years 
claimed for the ten Saisunaga princes, and one hundred and 
forty-five for Pradyota and the four other Saunakas. We have 
gone back, therefore, without improbability, six hundred and 
seven years from Chandragupta ; though part of the period, 
especially about the Nandas, and any interregnum which may 
then have been, is far from certain, and I suspect also that the 
duration of the reigns of the earlier Saisunaga princes is esti 
mated too highly. I accept, however, the figures. But now the 
old question recurs, what average we are to assign the twenty 
remaining kings from Eipunjaya up to Sahadeva? You will not 
be angry, if I observe, that the ten Maurya kings, a little lower 
down, reign only one hundred and thirty-seven years, as the 
thirty Andhra lower still last only four hundred and fifty-six ; 
and I can see no reason why the earlier kings of Magadha should 
have been longer lived. Taking therefore the names, which are 
probably a better clue than the round number of one thousand 
years, which seems thrown in for the sake of symmetry, I 
should assign them conjecturally three hundred years, thereby 
allowing them to reign, on the average, as long as any Indian 
dynasty which we can trace clearly in any age when the Indians 
managed war and politics after their indigenous fashion. But 
even if their reigns were full generations, they would require 
only six hundred years. 



DATE OF MAH^BH^RATA. 253 

" We may now then come to a summary Chandragupta is 
305 B. c. Nanda and his family extend over one hundred years. 
Ten Saisunaga princes have three hundred and sixty-two allowed 
them. For the five next princes of the Pradyota dynasty, what 
number do the Puranas say?" The Acharya answered, "One 
hundred and thirty-eight." " Be it so," proceeded Blancombe. 
" Then for the twenty earlier kings up to Sahadeva, until better 
data are supplied to us, we may allow as a conjecture three 
hundred years, or not much more. This would make Sahadeva 
about nine hundred years earlier than Chandragupta, and place 
the Great War somewhere about twelve centuries before the 
Christian era. The dynasties of Magadha, with some help from 
the Bauddha chronology, and from impartial notices of India by 
foreigners, will have supplied our clue to this probable result. 

" Then, if we were right in our manner of treating the earlier 
twenty-nine kings of Oude from Rama to the Mahabharata, to 
whom, by striking off thousands, we allowed eight hundred and 
sixty-four years, it will follow that the date of your great con 
queror, Rama, and of the events imaginatively depictured in the 
Epic of Valmiki, will be rather more than two thousand years 
before the Christian era, or if you like, I will say, fully two 
thousand before the date you assign to Vicramaditya, (which is 
56 B. c.) If then one might venture to go farther, and treat the 
sixty generations or reigns from your Adam or Mann to Rama, 
in a similar spirit of conjecture, one might say that the earliest 
gleams of Hindu history, as yet in its most legendary form, ap 
pear to fall rather more than three thousand years before Christ. 
If, however, you persist in saying, that men in those early ages 
lived longer, or if you think that the reigns of kings, being free 
from modern treacheries and disasters, should be calculated then 
as fully equal to generations, I have no objection to throw you 
in another thousand years for that dim patriarchal period which 
preceded Rama. This is allowing each of those earliest reigns, 
or rather generations, upwards of thirty years. Only it must be 
remembered, that for those earlier stages, we do not profess to 



254 TRADITIONAL DAWN OF HINDU HISTORY. 

recognise a history, so much as an hypothesis, upon which 
scanty and traditional notices may be tolerated. Nor would 
I deny that the period beyond what we have clear historical 
accounts of, may have been longer and more varied in its fea 
tures than many persons would suppose. Perhaps some in 
ferences respecting it may be drawn by ingenious men*, either 
from Vedic or other earlier songs, or from traces of common 
origin in languages which we know must have been long 
separated. Let such questions be here left by me undefined. 
I have only ventured to criticise such elements as you present 
to me of your own earlier history and chronology. Whether 
then I consider the vast vagueness of the numbers, or the lists 
of names, not to mention here the poetical character of some of 
the authorities, which must be touched on hereafter, I see no 
reason, which will stand the daylight of criticism, for supposing 
that any history of the Hindu race, or even any tradition be 
longing to them in your written monuments with the nature 
of history, need be placed farther back than about 4000 B. c. 

" Kather, indeed, there are many stray features in the general 
aspect of the comparative history of nations, which lead me to 
think, the chronological sketch I have attempted is right so far 
as it is positive, and not wrong so far as it hesitates. Not but 
that I am aware, that the interpreters of the Hebrew records in 
the Byzantine Church would put back the first dawn of the history 
of mankind as far as 5502 B. c. ; and although British scholars 
have, for the most part, considered this date too remote, I should 
scarcely myself call it so; and again, I am aware, that those 
who consider the dynasties recorded by the Egyptian priest 
Manetho as having been chiefly consecutive, rather than con 
temporary in different cities, would make the kingdom of Menes 
in Egypt as early as 3626 B. c. ; moreover, I am bound to re 
mark, by way of concession, that we can dimly trace the ex 
istence of certain obscure empires in Central Asia during a 

* Compare Max Miiiler, in the Oxford Essays for 1856, and in Bunsen s 
Philosophy of History . London, 1854. 






AGE OF OBSCURE EMPIRES. 255 

period at least previous to 2000 B.C., and that some theories 
would, partly from the analogy of Egypt, (supposing the date 
of Menes proved,) and partly from the dubious fragments of 
Assyrian and Chinese chronicles, make that period extend back 
for fifteen hundred or possibly two thousand years farther. For 
they say, that both the cities and the arts of the age we have 
assigned to Rama, and such things as the use of fine linen, 
with a trade in spices, such as appears to have existed between 
Eastern and Western Asia, all require a long growth ; and they 
conceive themselves to find, in the antiquities of various Asiatic 
nations, stronger testimony to such a period than we in Britain 
generally admit. 

" But, on the other hand, I have to remark, that so far as we 
can trace those early empires, previous to 2000 B. c., they seem 
to have been for the most part of Semitic or Asiatic affinities, 
or at least not of that Indo-European race, to which you in 
common with ourselves belong. But since these words are used 
in different senses by different people, let me briefly explain 
what I mean. You remember that in the hymns of the Big- 
Veda the Hindus are called Aryas, and as such, are opposed to 
the Dasyus, who are enemies, or such as by Manu would be 
classed under the head of Mlechchas, or barbarians. The first are 
called performers of religious rites ; the latter, disturbers of them. 
The first are lighter* of complexion,* and come from the North ; 
the latter are dark, and indigenous to the South. So it is said, 
that the thunderer divided the fields among his white-complex- 
ioned friends, having slain the Dasyus, and the Simyus, with 
his thunderbolt. (Sukta. 100.) Again, that the Aryas, your 
ancestors, came from the North-west, and were invaders of India, 
is clear from their sacred names ; since Saraswati, the name of 
your goddess of eloquence, is also the name of a river in the 
Punjaub ; and the holy land of the laws of Manu is also in the 
same country. The same sort of testimony to the quarter 
from whence you came, is also furnished by your language in 

* Varna, caste, means properly colour. 



256 FAMILIES OF NATIONS. 

general; since its oldest form, I mean the Sanscrit, is most 
clearly akin to the oldest form of the ancient Persian. You 
might, therefore, be called a Medo-Persic race ; and the name 
A ryas seems properly to comprehend the people of Iran, or of 
central Asia, South and South-east of the Caspian sea, as well 
as the Hindus. But this affinity of language also extends more 
or less closely through various nations and tribes, radiating, as it 
were, from Iran to the extreme West of Europe, on the one hand, 
and to India on the other. All the people, then, falling under 
that class, whether Persian, Pelasgic, Sclavonian, Gothic, Cim- 
brie, or Gaelic, may be called Indo-European, or. from the ancestor 
ascribed to them in the Hebrew records, lapetic. But, besides 
these early European ramifications in Asia, there are also at least 
two great Asiatic families of nations ; the one called Semitic 
in modern times, under which are included all whose language 
is akin to that of the Hebrews ; and another, which the great 
Hebrew genealogist speaks but faintly of, as having had less to 
do with it; I mean all the Mongolian and Chinese nations; 
and if it were necessary to be complete, I should also have to 
mention the mountain tribes to the North-west of Iran, who are 
rightly termed Caucasian, and the place of whose languages is 
not yet fixed. Certainly, however, they are not lapetic, in the 
sense of Indo-European; but possibly of some older stock, or 
perhaps a strongly localised offshoot of the Mongolian*. 

" But it may suffice us at present to have distinguished the 
two more important Asiatic families from those white-com- 
plexioned A ryas of whom the Hig-Veda speaks, who, although 
they have extended themselves over India, yet have on the 

* The speaker could not have seen Bunsen s Philosophy of Universal History, 
in which the term Turanian is proposed for the Allophyllic or Mongolian races ; 
and which contains many weighty and novel illustrations of the ethnographical 
subject here sketched independently on narrower data. Caucasian means, in com 
parative philology, as in geography, the tribes of the Caucasus ; but in Eomance, 
with some colour from physiology, it has been made a general term, compre 
hending Shem and Japhet. Compare Latham s Varieties of Man, with Bunsen s 
great work. 



COMPARATIVE CHRONOLOGY. 257 

whole their affinities rather towards Europe. Now, the earliest 
kingdoms of which we have anything like distinct know 
ledge, belonged to that Semitic race, which is of all Asiatic 
stems the most nearly akin to the people of Africa. It is in 
Egypt, the middle point, I may say, between the sons of Shem 
and the descendants of Ham, that we first find a civilisation of 
higher antiquity than any which can be shewn elsewhere. It 
was from Sidon, a city which I will here call Semitic, on 
account of its language, though without disputing whether it 
might not be attributed more properly to the descendants of 
Ham, whom I regard as philologically akin* but anyhow, it 
was from Sidon that the most famous navigators went forth in 
remote antiquity. So the earliest kingdoms of Assur, and Babel, 
and Syria, if not Elam, are shewn by their names and their deities 
to have been either Hamite or Semitic ; and, in either case, they 
belonged to races which may be roughly compared with the 
Dasyus of elder India, rather than closely akin to the white- 
complexioned A ryas. We find no lapetic or as it were Aryan 
kingdom in central Asia, until, at the very earliest, 2234 B. c., 
even if we accept a broken testimony of Berosus t to so early a 
date for a Median dynasty in Babylon; while people more 
sceptical than myself in early Gentile history, would recognise 
no Median power until that of Deioces in the eighth century 
before Christ. 

" Since the Chinese also are said to have a dynasty begin 
historically about 2205 B. c. we will suppose the earlier date for 
the Medes to be not incredible, and allow Elam to have been a 
kingdom of the same race. But, even thus, you see that a full 
two thousand years before your era of Vicramaditya, is the 

* Races seem to be classified in Genesis x. according to colour, rather than 
language. Kenrick s Phoenicia, Ch. in. 

t Lassen, Book II. pp. 751, 752, where the Babylonian and Chinese syn 
chronism is suggested. Very recently, traces have been imagined or found by 
Colonel Rawlinson of early Mongolian or Turanian dynasties in Babylon. But 
such a discovery would be against general probabilities ; and if it were confirmed, 
it would not weaken the argument as to the Arians. 

M.P. 17 



258 COMPARATIVE CHRONOLOGY. 

earliest date at which any of your fraternity of nations can make 
good a place on the stage of history. 

" Can any reason be shewn why the history of the Aryan 
race in India should be supposed to begin earlier? We have 
seen that your received chronology is of too arbitrary and legen 
dary a kind to be such a reason alone ; and such probabilities as 
we could extract out of the number of generations, would lead 
us to place the great conqueror Rama about the same time as 
Chedorlaomer and Abraham in Syria, the shepherd kings in 
Egypt, the supposed Medes in Babylon, and the Hia dynasty in 
China. 

" There would be at least a certain air of congruity in our 
conjectures about your history with what we know elsewhere. 
For if the Aryan race really radiated, as many learned men 
believe, from the regions of Iran eastward and westward, there 
is a general probability that the date of their Indian conquests 
might be not very remote from that of their establishments else 
where. The same sort of probability rather confirms our con 
jecture that the Great War (Mahabharata) should be placed 
about 1200 B. c. For there are many points of sympathy, if not i 
of contact, between the histories of India and Greece, sufficient, 
at least, to suggest the experiment of comparing their chrono- j 
logics together tentatively, without confounding points essen- j 
tially unlike. I need not repeat here, what Sir William Jones 3 
and others have said, perhaps too sanguinely, on the resemblance j 
between mythological stories in the two countries* ; but when I 1 
read what is fabled about Piiriiravas, the son of Ila, having to I 
choose between Wisdom, Wealth, and Desire, and being per- i 

* Subsequent in time to this Dialogue is Professor Max Muller s Essay on 
Indian and Hellenic Mythology. Wonderful as is the union in it of depth and j 
beauty, does it not ignore too much the heroic element in legend ? Ought not I 
too Sanscrit to be made so very much the elder sister, as to be almost a mother- j 
tongue to Greek ? The immediate subject did not call for exposition of the radical j 
affinity between the Semitic and A ryan languages, as shewn in words by Gese- J 
nius, and in forms (truly, I believe,) by Ewald. But there is yet room for an -ii 
analytical comparison of Hebrew with Sanscrit on the one side, and with some | 
African tongues on the other. 



GREEK ANALOGIES. 259 

secuted by the two whom he rejected, I cannot help being re 
minded of the fatal choice of Paris the Ilian shepherd. Then 
I notice too, that Sakya in India precedes somewhat the move 
ment of Pythagoras and the life of Socrates in Greece. Again, 
the most brilliant period of Hindu literature is placed by your 
selves as somewhat subsequent to the conquests of Alexander, 
which must have given some kind of impulse; and perhaps 
something might be said about the same Saracen power, which 
in its inheritors overthrew the Byzantine empire, having ex 
tended itself, with another wave of its tide, over India. It would 
not, therefore, seem unnatural, if your Great War between the 
sons of Pandu and Kuru should be connected with that which 
the Yavana legends described as having been waged against 
Troy ; whether the two events really happened in stages of society 
nearly corresponding ; or whether one was moulded by poets out 
of dim echoes which had reached them through traditions of the 
other ; or whether both may have been once parables of some 
thing different, but translated by legend into actual wars. In 
any case, it is to me rather satisfactory than otherwise, that as 
Greek chronologers placed the Trojan war about the twelfth 
century before Christ, so we have been led by purely Hindu 
authorities, though treating them in our own way, to place the 
events of the Mahabharata about the same period. 

" If now I were to make any use of that grand period of four 
millions three hundred and twenty thousand years, which is 
assigned to the aggregate of the Four Ages, it would be only to 
ask, whether by striking off the last three cyphers, we might 
not reduce it to a figure, which your earliest chronographers 
may have intended to denote their conception of the utmost 
duration of Hindu history down to the period at which they 
first began systematically to review it, or perhaps to the era 
of Vicramaditya. But the want of a fixed date as a terminus 
at the lower end of such a speculation forbids me to dwell 
on so mere a possibility. But I trust you will allow that 
there is great reason for reducing Hindu chronology in general 

172 



260 HISTORICAL SCEPTICISM. 

to narrower limits than those in which you have represented 
it." 

Here Wolff, at whose long silence I had begun to wonder, 
interposed with some remarks. " It appears to me," he said, 
" that you have been far too liberal in your concessions. For 
when once you had shewn the unhistorical character of the 
Hindu pretensions to records, you had no right afterwards to 
build upon them, as if they contained something solid. The 
demolition of part destroys the whole. Or, even if the later 
genealogies, such as those of Magadha, should have some truth, 
this proves nothing for the far earlier stages of tradition. We 
may grant Queen Victoria s British pedigree as likely up to 
Owen Tudor, without condescending to reason upon it farther 
up to King Arthur, or to some remote Cadwaladr. Again, I 
cannot help noticing, that this Vicramaditya, who is to pass for 
the Augustus of India, is not even mentioned in the Vishnu 
Purana. What becomes, then, of his brilliant court, and of the 
antiquity of the Hindu drama? This is not a light question. 
For in what language, or even with what alphabet, I beg to 
ask, were either the dramatic plays, or much more those portions 
of the literature, for which so far higher an antiquity is claimed, 
originally written ? The common alphabet is the Devanagari. 
Some say this is developed out of old Pali alphabets. It seems 
to me a debased Greek*. But it is confessedly modern. I 
should like to see copies of those which were before it, and to 
know on what principle they were deciphered. It is only the 
other day that the ingenious Prinsep deciphered certain inscrip 
tions called ancient. They were as recent as Asoca s time, or 
two hundred and fifty-nine years before the Christian era. Who 
would answer for alphabets claiming to be fifteen centuries older. 
The first thing certain in the history of India, even if I grant 
the certainty of that, is the rise of Buddhism. What is the 
language of this religion and its most characteristic literature ? 

The fact of Sanscrit letters opening towards the, left, though read towards the 
right, suggests the question of a possibly Semitic origin. 



HISTORICAL SCEPTICISM. 261 

Not Sanscrit, such as is called pure, but Pali ; and Pali calls 
itself the root (mula), or the oldest Hindu tongue. I have yet 
to see evidence proving that it is not so. All the earlier Brah- 
manic period and literature may Ibe either imagination or im 
posture. What external history attests any Brahmans earlier 
than the sixth century before Christ? Even if Megasthenes, 
from whom our best Greek accounts flow, were as early, his 
descriptions of certain philosophers* appear to comprehend rival 
ascetics, some Brahmanical, and some Jains or Bauddhas, whom 
he calls by almost the Hindu word Sramanas ; but this does 
not imply organised caste on the one side ; and therefore it need 
not on the other. Was caste even in the time of Alexander 
known? Arrian says that all Indians were free. Diodorus oi 
Sicily thought the same. These are unbribed witnesses, living, 
one in the first, the other in the second century of our era. 
Could they have heard of Sudras and Chandalas ? Or, if I grant 
that the division of classes, peprj, mentioned by Strabot, (pp. 703 
708 C,) means castes, and not mere occupations, how little will 
this go towards building up the vast antiquity of the Brahma 
nical system ! If I maintain, as a probable hypothesis, that 
Buddhism is the oldest religion, and that its books contain the 
oldest religion of India, who can prove the contrary ? The Pali 
language would be in my favour. For certainly it is ruder, and 
more likely to have grown into the Sanscrit, than out of it. 
Then what is the hair, or complexion, with which Buddha is 
represented in his images ? Clearly dark, or negro ; and this is 
more nearly the characteristic of the older races of India, than 
of the immigrant Aryas. We know that afterwards, say about 
A. D. 700, the poor Bauddhas were expelled. Nothing could be 
easier than for Cumarila Bhatta and his associates then to get 
up a representation of an earlier pras-Buddhist period. A large 
part of Sanscrit literature falls in very well with such a supposi 
tion. Its advocates boast of its many stages and periods, which 

* Fray. 41, 42, 43, ed. Schw. 

t Strabo, Lib. xv. pp. 703 708, o. Schwanbeck s Megasthenes, p. 41. 



262 FOREIGN INFLUENCES. 

they say require a development of centuries. But here are a 
thousand years and upwards from the eighth century to our own 
time. Considering the fervor of the Indian imagination, and 
the rapid transitions which religions and politics have run through, 
how many stages of letters does not this admit of? Many of the 
Puranas are undoubtedly very modern. They mention not only 
Mahometans, but other events or names within six or eight cen 
turies from our own date. Even the Jesuit Missionary Kobertus 
de Nobilibus*, in the sixteenth century, invented one which 
passed current for a time. This shews the vagueness of tests of 
Sanscrit antiquity. You have yourself shewn how variously the 
date of Vicramaditya may be placed. Why should he not have 
preceded Mahmud of Ghazni by a hundred years, instead of by a 
thousand? If, again, we turn from literature, which may be 
modern, to the more fixed testimonies of inscriptions and temples, 
where is anything of this kind belonging to that supposed period 
of early Brahmanism ? All the earliest instances I am aware of 
are Buddhist f. Such a hard fact is worth a thousand theories, 
not to say frauds. For if the literature and creed of the Brah- 
mans had been as old as is pretended, we should have had 
ancient inscriptions and temples belonging to them. Just as 
very ignorant Europeans fancy the Taj Mahal at Agra is charac 
teristic of the Hindu architecture, whereas it was built for the 
Emperor Shah Jehan, by a Frenchman, about 1650, so may 
others in a somewhat obscurer region trace to early Brahmans 
what may really come of Greek or Roman influence. You must, 
at least, allow it to be remarkable, that the Hindu drama, and 
the supposed brilliancy of the court of Malwa, come out, on your 
own shewing, almost contemporary with the Augustan age at 
Rome, and considerably posterior to contact with the Greeks 
under Alexander. The age of the Ptolemies was the most likely 

* Asiatic Researches, Vol. xiv. Calcutta Review, Oct. 1844. Grant s Bampton 
Lectures, Maurice s Preface to Lect. Ep. Hebrews. Dr Mill, Christa Sangita. 

t Colonel Sykes, Journal R. As. S. No. XII. London, 1841. Foe Koue Ki, par 
M. A. Re"musat, Paris, 1836. Ferguson on Indian Temples, in Journal R.A.S. 



BKAHMANISM WHETHER ANCIENT. 263 

ever known to be a hot-bed of foreign influences, and rapid lite 
rary growth, with possibly spurious pretensions. How late even 
may have been the immigration of the Aryan race into India, 
it is difficult to say. We may admit them to have hovered about 
the Punjaub for some generations before the time of Buddha, 
and still contend that their Brahmanical religion did not de- 
velope itself until after the Christian era. But it is significant 
that Herodotus* makes the Indians all black. The negro re 
presentations of Sakya may therefore be true. The reigns of 
the Achasmenian princes, or from Cyrus to Darius Hystaspes, 
supply as probable a date as any for an unfixed immigration 
from the Persian provinces. Such names as Yadu, Puru, Madhu, 
in the Vishnu Purana may denote a Medo-Persian connexion, 
and might fall, as I rather fancy, not far from the time of Darius 
Hystaspes. Again, India is called the land of Bharata, and the 
genealogies make Bharata descend from Puru. Those who say 
the Persian descent thus implied was prior to any aggrandise 
ment of the Persian empire, or even to its existence, should shew 
ground for their belief. But you see we have found nothing 
Brahmanical which can be called clearly older than Buddha. 
Buildings are against a higher antiquity; language and the 
features of races are not for it ; literature is doubtful ; and who 
ever considers how vague dates are, both in Sanscrit matters, 
and in the kindred traditions of Persia, for which so high an 
antiquity has been claimed, but which can be traced no higher 
than Firdusif, the poet of Mahmud, A. D. 1000, will probably 
agree with me in saying, that you have allowed Hindu chro 
nology far too ample a range. If I had been arguing for you, 
indeed, I should rather have asked whether Buddhism itself 
be not a degenerate offshoot of a Nestorian form of Christianity. 
Nor would Chinese travellers, such as Fa Hian, deter me from 
this, because they say, as late as 412 A. D. that they found 

* B. in. c. 101. 

t That Firdusi gives traditions of Vedic deities, transformed into fanciful 
history, is shewn by Mohl. See M. Miiller s Results of the Persian Researches, 
in Bunsen, Phil. Un, Hist. Vol. T. 



264 KEPLY TO EXTREME SCEPTICISM. 

Buddhism prevalent in India. The testimony, however, of Fa 
Hian, when he finds Buddhism everywhere, and calls the Brah- 
mans strangers in India, becomes of weight against the claims 
of the Brahmanical system to a remote antiquity. There is no 
proof that we ought to place either the development of that 
system earlier than Cumarila, (A. D. 700,) or the spread of the 
Arian race in India earlier than the dynasty of Cyrus in Persia. 
Nor would it surprise me, if their immigration about that period 
should turn out to be the vague foundation of fact, for what was 
afterwards expanded into the Great War of the sons of Pandu 
and Kuru." 

Thus far Wolff stated his objections in a peremptory sort of 
manner, without noticing, perhaps, how much several of his 
hearers seemed to be disturbed by his discourse. When he had 
finished, however, Blancombe said, " It always appears to me, 
that whoever rejects exaggerated claims, should be careful to 
allow what is just in them ; otherwise, he only falls into an 
opposite error. Thus, if we are bound to make large deductions 
from the swollen chronology of the Hindus, we should not the 
less admit their claims to a very early civilisation and a most 
interesting literature. In the first place, the origin of Buddhism 
can be fixed beyond reasonable doubt. Even the Christian 
saint, Clement of Alexandria *, mentions the worship of Buddha 
within the second century of our era. Legends respecting him 
are appealed to as ancient by St Jerome f. The date of Asoca, 
in whose reign the Bauddha faith prevailed greatly, is not 
doubtful ; for we have seen it fixed by inscriptions, and by the 
synchronism of Chandragupta. But when Buddhism began, 
Brahmanism had been before it ; for the early Bauddha books 
are full of terms, such as Brahmacharya (devotion), borrowed;}: 
from the older ritual. Sakya himself had been the pupil of 



Strom. I. If indeed he is not quoting the words of Megasthenes. Cf. 
Frag. XLIII. Schwanb. 

t Hieron. c. Jovin. I. 44. 

I E. Burnouf, Buddhisme, where the question of priority is well argued. 



SIGNS OF INDIAN ANTIQUITY. 265 

Bralimans. One of his most characteristic doctrines was a 
protest against the inexorable perpetuity of caste ; which must 
therefore have been of far older date. This renders it unne 
cessary to examine what is pretended about the Greek authors 
not mentioning caste ; though I think it clear that they do, for 
they speak of it as a thing of birth, or generation*. The negro 
hair and features ascribed to Buddha seem to me most easily 
explained by the circumstance that his doctrine of the equality 
of souls tended to raise the earlier races, and hence he was con 
sidered their patron. Thus it was in the reign of Asoca, the 
grandson of a man of mixed blood, and who had been preceded 
by a Sudra dynasty, that the Bauddha faith became established 
at Palibothra. Thus too, the language f niay naturally have been 
Pali; that is, not the language of a Brahmanical caste, though 
akin to Sanscrit, and not of any necessity prior to it; for rudeness 
is far from implying priority in linguistic development, but still 
the language of the lower classes, or of the people. If, however, 
as has been strangely suggested, Pali had been the language of 
the older races only, (whether they are to be called Dasyus or 
Nishadas^,) it would never have been so nearly akin through 
Sanscrit to Persian and Zend, which are manifestly Arian tongues. 
All that shew of philology, therefore, goes for nothing. As to 
alphabets, I am willing to wait for more light on that difficulty : 
but there is no reason why alphabets should not have changed 
often, as we know they have in Europe, and even with the Jews, 
a people not easily given to change. We may admit that an air 
of uncertainty hangs over much of Sanscrit literature. Yet, 
certainly, it implies vast periods, not only of literary develop- 

* yevear Arrian, HiM. Ind. Sykes, p. 365. Schwanbeck, pp. 4149- 

t But Tumour, on the Mahawansa, may be compared with Lassen, B. II. 

PP- 49 493- 

+ Dasyus seems to me the Vedic term. Nisha"das has been recently proposed 
in Bunsen s Latest Researches, &c. It seems taken from the Kama yana. Lassen, 
B. IT. pp. 534 797, but may be older in a different sense. 

Le Pali est ddrive du Sanscrit il n est pas besoin d admettre 1 influ- 

ence d aucun idiome Stranger. Burnouf and Lassen, Essai sur le Pali, pp. 138 9. 
(Paris, 1826.) 



266 SIGNS OF INDIAN ANTIQUITY, 

ment, but of religious and social change. Things which are 
late in its course, are yet early, if tried by the history of many 
nations. The poets of the Augustan age in Latium mention 
the burning of Hindu widows ; yet all this custom is a modern 
innovation upon the Yedas. The Periplus of Nearchus mentions 
the name of C. Comorin ; and this comes from Cumdri, a name 
of Durga ; but her worship, (even if the Acharya will not let me 
say the same of her consort Siva,) is, if compared to the Vedas, 
quite modern. There has been an allusion to the expedition of 
Alexander. The Greek writers who describe either that, or the 
voyages subsequent to it, give glimpses of a picture of India, 
such as one might conjecture to follow not very remotely upon 
the laws of Maim. It is beyond fair doubt that they speak 
of caste, though not perhaps* in its most rigid form. But over 
how many a generation must have extended the growth of that 
system, which Sakya, in the middle of the sixth century before 
Christ, found overshadowing the energies of human life ! Then, 
again, we saw that his system had been partly borrowed, though 
with an infusion of a mystical glow of his own, from the Sa*nkhya 
philosophy. But philosophy belongs not to the infancy of lite 
rature. Both Capila and Patanjali must come long after the 
Vya*sa of the Vedas. By reasoning of this kind we may cer 
tainly shew that Sanscrit literature is not a thing of a day s 
growth, whatever uncertainty may rest on portions of it. If our 
tests cannot always be minute, they become more so in pro 
portion as our materials increase. If the Jesuits forged a Purana, 
which they called a Veda, the forgery was found out ; and if 
a higher date than ought to be is claimed for some to which 
we would not apply so harsh a name, the contents will often 
enable us to bring them down. But that the Aryan race had 
extended itself in India as early as a thousand years before 
Christ, is clearly demonstrated by the Hebrew Scriptures. For 
when we read of king Solomon s trade with Ophir (1st Kings 
ix. 2628; x. 11, 12; 22, 23), we find the wares mentioned 

* Compare Elphinstone, Appendix, Vol. I. 



NOTWITHSTANDING OBSCURITIES. 267 

are algumwi, and Jcophim, and tucMm; but these are in effect* 
Sanscrit words for sandal-wood, and apes, and peacocks. There 
fore the speakers of Sanscrit had been settled in India long 
enough to organise a trade in the native wares of the country. 
Here is a strong confirmation from independent witnesses of the 
claims made by Hindus to at least a far older civilisation than 
the extreme school of sceptics is willing to allow. How much 
may be exaggerated in those claims, is a different question ; and 
why the name of Yicramaditya is omitted in some genealogies, 
is for our Hindu friends to explain. But whether he is suffi 
ciently fixed by the chronicle of the kings of Cashmir, which he 
is said to have conquered, or whether there is a possible con 
fusion between him and the later Bhojaf king of the same name, 
we may here accept the date usually current for his era. Nor 
have I ventured to approach the earlier dynasties of kings other 
wise than in a spirit of conjecture. But surely Rama lived and 
conquered Ceylon, as even the great Epic of Yalmiki, after allow 
ance for its poetical form, may convince us. If he did not, some 
one did ; and that other one may as well be called Rama. There 
is nothing gained for true philosophy by approaching even dim 
traditions in a spirit of unreasonable scepticism. We have proved 
at least a Brahmanical period long prior to Buddhism and both 
its duration and its features may be understood better by who 
ever will examine critically the various stages of Sanscrit lite 
rature. Our own business is to proceed with such an outline 
of chronology, as may serve for a scaffolding to the religious 
edifice we have yet to raise." 

Vidyacharya seemed to be rather re-assured by parts of 
Blancombe s speech ; and Sadananda, as before, asked how he 
proposed to proceed. 

" I conceive," replied Blancombe, " we are sufficiently agreed 
as to the great landmarks of the stream from about the Christian 

* Lassen, /. A. R. n. p. 538. 

t Compare Lassen, B. II. p. 409, and p. 760, with Weber, Vorlcaunyen, 
pp. 1 88 206. 



268 LEADING DATES. 

era to our own time. We need not dispute nicely as to the date 
at which Scythians or Parthians curtailed the Greek influence 
in Bactria; nor does it concern us whether the pedigree of 
certain Jats and others about the Indus* is to be traced to 
such invaders, or whether they are indigenous. But we accept 
the date 78 of the Christian era as famous from the overthrow 
of certain Scythians by Salivahana. We are agreed that the 
Mahometan arms under the Ommiyade caliph Walid in A. D. 
707 approached India. Sultan Mahmud in 1000, Zingis Khan 
in 1224, Timur-leng in 1398, Baber in 1526, Akbar in the same 
century, Aurungzeb towards the end of the next, the rise of the 
Sikhs about 1700, and Clive in 1757, are sufficiently known. 
We may now therefore construct a rude table with great land 
marks of events, and afterwards fill in the literary epochs, so far 
as we are able to agree about them." 

Here Blancombe took a piece of chalk and sketched out a 
picture of this sort, putting only a few figures at first, and then 
filling up the intervals with smaller ones. He began with the 
events, and only after the next stage in the discussion added the 
books ; though I have copied them all together. 

* Elphinstone, Hist. Ind. Appendix, Vol. I. 






3 





~ 

3 $ 8 
~ * 



sj 










.5 

1 

43 

3 




vd 










o 










j* 


J 


" 


^ 


e^ 


S3* 
O 


C5 

ef 
S3 


JP 

o 


52 


& 

If 

, 


1 

.s 


ct 

S 

5 


& 

O 


13 
o 


>> 
[3 


g 


<r 

h 


1 


- 
S 

M 


T" 


1 


""3 

4 

* 


EH 
Q 

v <1 


o 


W 




-3 


!Zi 


g 

<1 




o 








W 




o 




c 




O 




p 

W 









M 





CO. fe 



1 


e 5 S 






c^>. 

fc 
* 


a 

vo 


d 
ff> 






ri 


1 


4? 


r^ 




CO 




oo 


<D 


|3 
PH 3 


> 
^ S? 




^ 


Tt- 



M 

Tf 


1 


"S 
II 

!- s 


fl ^ 

2 !* 

.S MH 
r^ 13 


I 


ian s trave! 


03 

&0 
S3 

a 

s 


I 

^ 
H 


|l 
PH 


I I 

O P4 


1 


W 

& 


1 
9 


a 




s! 4 !^ 



w 




a a ^ : S ^ & 

SI!! 1 !! 

& P^ cc H? 




fi 



HINDU LITERATURE. 273 






CHAPTER VIII. 

Hindu Literature classified and found wanting. 

"Die Indische Literatur gillt allgemein fur die alteste, von der wir schriftliche 
Dokumente besitzen, und das mit recht ; die Griinde aber, die Man dafiir bisher 
geltend gemacht hat, sind nicht die richtigen. * * * 

" Sind wir aus ausseren, geographischen, und inneren, religionsgeshichtlichen, 
Griinden berechtigt fiir die Indische Literatur ein hohes Alter anzunehmen, so 
steht es auf der andern Seite schlimm genug, wenn man nach chronologischen 
Daten fur dieselbe sucht." WEBEK, AJcademische Vorlesungen. Berlin, 1842. 

" WHERE now," said Blancombe, turning to Vidyacharya, when 
he had gone some way with his table, " shall I put in the 
Vishnu Purana?" " The eighteen Puranas," answered Vidya 
charya, " are traced to the Suta (bard) Romaharshana, who 
received them from Vyasa. Their name means old, and they 
are parts of our most ancient revelation." " Then where shall 
I put the Vedas?" asked Blancombe. " They also," replied 
Acharya, "were compiled by Vyasa." "Do you say the same of 
the laws of Manu?" " They were given by Brahma to the first 
Manu (Swayambhuvan), for the instruction of mankind; so that 
they are of the most venerable antiquity." " But," asked Blan 
combe, " does your account of the Puranas extend to such as the 
Vayu, Vishnu, Bhagavat, and Matsya?" "Certainly," replied 
the other, " for it includes the whole eighteen." " Then here is 
an enormous difficulty," resumed Blancombe, " for let us look in 
the first place at the Vishnu. It professes in the outset to be 
taught by Parasara to Maitreya ; but Maitreya is mentioned in 
the Mahabharata as contemporary with Duryodhana, who is 
about the time of the Great War, therefore many centuries later 
than the primeval date you have been suggesting. This, how 
ever, is not all ; for the four Puranas I have just mentioned 
give an account of Indian dynasties far down into the Christian 
era, as we have seen in the case of the Andhras. Your theory 
M. p. 18 



274 LATENESS OF THE PURA NAS. 

is, that such things are prophecies. Nor do I deny that the 
Allwise God might, if he had so thought good, have inspired 
Vyasa or Romaharshana* to utter such predictions. But this 
minute sketching of history beforehand is not so ordinary in the 
course of the Divine government, that we can assume it to have 
taken place, unless the books which pretend it are remarkably 
well attested before the events come to pass. Can you quote 
any such testimonies to the Puranas, as they now stand?" 
" The name," answered the Acharya, " is very ancient." " But 
we should want," resumed the other, " some precise verification 
of the identity of the books. Whereas, in fact, we have rather 
the contrary. For the celebrated grammarian, Amara Sinha, 
who was one of the nine gems in the court of Vicrama, defines 
a Purana as a book of five topics, and then he mentions topics, 
such as imperfectly correspond to what are found in the works 
now called Puranas f. For they now consist of little beyond 
religious instruction, with some names of dynasties. How can 
we then assume them to have been written many centuries 
earlier than the dynasties which they mention ? We are rather 
compelled by historical criticism to bring down the date of their 
composition. Nor is it necessarily wrong for us to do so, even 
according to your own doctors. For your treatises, I think, 
contain rules for discriminating between the sruti and the smriti, 
or between the earlier Scriptures and later traditions. It seems 
to be acknowledged in the Mima*nsa, that a mistake may be 
made, and the work of a human author may be erroneously 
received as part of a sacred book by those who are unacquainted 
with its true origin |. As to the Sri Bhagavat Pur&na, the story 
goes that Vyasa gave it not to Bomaharshana, but to Suka, his 
son. Does not this imply a difference of origin ? Some Hindu 
scholars have gone so far as to ascribe its composition to Vopa- 
deva, who lived A. D. 1200 or 1300. This may seem to you 

* A various writing of the same name is Lomaharshana. 
t Colebrooke, Vol. I., and Wilson, Pref. V. P. 
+ Colebrooke, Vol. I. pp. 306, 307. 



GRADUAL GROWTH OF VEDAS. 275 

a very modern date: but when I remember that the Brahma 
Parana celebrates the temples of Orissa, which were not built 
until 1300 A. D., while both this and the others which mention 
comparatively modern dynasties have no appearance of being 
the most recent in the body of the Puranas, I cannot help think 
ing you should reconsider your whole theory. Judging partly 
from what I have read, and still more from what is told me by 
men who have made your sacred literature their life-study, it 
seems to bear clear signs of falling into periods, divisible by 
great epochs of time. Even the language of the Vedas is different 
altogether from that of the Puranas. There are letters, words, 
grammatical inflexions*, and idioms of speech in the one set of 
books, which are not in the other. Good scholars call the 
language of the Vedas prior to Sanscrit, rather than very Sanscrit. 
Still more evidently, the forms of faith, the objects of worship, 
and the range of ideas are different in the two. Nor is it only 
your sacred books, but Hindu literature in general, which carries 
marks on its face of having grown by steps, rather than sprung 
with unnatural impulse into life. Even the Vedas themselves 
have some variety. First, we have the Mantras, or hymns in 
honour of certain deities, who have been mentioned, destined pro 
bably to be sung at sacrifices. Then there are the Brdhmanas, 
i. e. (what we might call rubrics, or at least) ritualistic comments 
and directions. Probably the Upanishads, or episodical specu 
lations, should be considered much later than the simpler hymns 
of the old nature-worship. Much later down will come a stage, 
(which must have been after a long interval) when all these 
things will require grammatical explanation ; and, accordingly, 
the grammatical systems, first of Yaska, and later of Panini, will 
be developed. Again, some of your own traditions, and even 
the laws of Manuf, speak of three Vedas, and the Atharvan is 
not universally ranked so high as the other three. Scholars 

* Wilson, Sanscrit Grammar and Lexicon; Lassen, /. A. B. n. pp. 734 86-2 ; 
Weber, Indische Studien, and Vorlesungen, (quoted above) ; M. Miiller, in Bunsen s 
Latest Researches. 

t Manu, B. I. 23. 

182 



276 ATHARVA-VEDA. 

who have compared it with the others critically*, notice that its 
style is more formally liturgical. It no longer expresses the 
fresh burst of devotion, as of poetry, poured forth on the feeling 
into song ; but it mutters ritual as a sort of charm, or formal in 
cantation. Depend upon it, the Vydsa (arranger) who arranged 
all such diverse elements under the head of the four Vedas, must 
have been not one man, but many ; or else must be of a date far 
more recent than the hymns of the Big- Veda. Good scholars 
think, they can even trace changes of place indicated in the 
hymns, as the Aryan race pushed forward its conquests into 
India. Hence they conclude, that the earlier kings of the solar 
race did not reign in Oude, but more to the North-west. It is 
sufficient for my purpose to make you notice, that the collection 
of books, which you call the Yedas, is not the work of a day, 
and not primeval. Nor do I ask you to believe this on my 
authority, but on that of your sacred books, which proclaim this 
of themselves. Ask the hymns of the Rig- Veda to tell you, if 
their authors were not older than those who altered them some 
what into the kindred hymns of the Yajur- Vedas, and then of 
the Sama, and still later, of the Atharvan. Ask them especially, 
whether they lived in the same land, or knew the same customs 
and laws, as either the legislator Manu, or the bards of the 
Mahabharata. 

" If we continue this sort of investigation, the question arises, 
where are we to place the great Epic poems ? The Mahabharata, 
again, has its Vyasa ; but it must be written later than the war 
it celebrates, and therefore much within twelve centuries of the 
Christian era. Again, it bears traces of having been traditionally 
recited. It has vast episodes of religious speculation and cos 
mogony ; and it is exceedingly difficult to fancy that the Bhaga- 
vadgita was explained by Crishna to Arjuna in the intervals of 
a battle. This seems rather to be a highly imaginative mode of 
introducing in poetry some religious speculation. Nor is it easy 
to say, how far such introduction of matter comparatively modem 

* Lassen and Weber, as before. 



EPIC POEMS. 277 

may have been carried. But the narrative, or heroic portion of 
the poem, speaks a different spirit from that of the Yedas. It is 
not shepherd or priest hymning the genial influences of nature, 
but is the warrior caste putting forth their strength, and 
disputing in its consciousness the palm of priority with the 
intellect of the Brahman. Or rather, perhaps, we see the kings 
unwillingly accepting a yoke their fathers had not known, but 
which the Brahmans fastened first on their subjects, and then 
on themselves. The struggle of Viswamitra, as the soldier king, 
with Vasishtha, the ascetic Brahman, shews us Indian society 
fermenting, and not yet settled in its sad immobility of form. 
Yet, as a whole, the Mahabharata is thought by good judges* 
to be a more rounded composition, and to betray a greater de 
velopment of the Brahmanical system than the older Rama- 
yana. The older poem is a simpler narrative of a legendary 
conquest, and has more of popular life, with signs of having 
been sung at feasts and sacrifices. You would tell me, it should 
be traced up to Valmiki, who is called contemporary with Rama; 
but the interval of time must have been pretty long, for imagi 
nation to have magnified the heroes of the poem into a size 
which betokens the dimness of distance. When men are de 
scribed as of superhuman size and prowess, and their exploits 
as the work of enchantment, and their enemies as now demons 
and now monkeys, this does not mean that the things were 
literally so, but that the describer sees them through a haze of 
distance and imagination. Speaking generally, however, we 
may say that the two great Epic Poems attest the growth of 
the Hindu mind out of a state in which the forces of Nature 
exercised a paramount influence over life, into one which had a 
fuller consciousness of human activity, and a series of struggles 
and developments, yet with the genius of the older time mould 
ing the new. 

* There is some discrepance between the judgments of Lassen and Weber as to 
the two poems : but it is allowed that the Mahabharata contains materials of very 
different ages, with more of formal speculation than the Ramayana and less of 
popular legend. 



278 CODE OF MANU. 

" Something perhaps analogous may be said of the laws of 
Manu. It is very difficult to believe as literally correct, what 
you seemed to say of these laws having been given to the father 
of the human race, (and that too in a former Manwantara,) unless 
you meant it in a parable, that God wrote on the heart of man 
kind principles which should work themselves out into such a 
form. But as the book now stands, it bears clear marks of hav 
ing been compiled much later than three out of the four Vedas. 
Its scene is in proper India, yet in the Northern part, with little 
knowledge of the Southern. The society which it sketches in 
the form of precept is more formally developed than that of the 
hymns. It shews more of king, and priest, and city, and fixed 
occupation. The entire system of caste has taken absolute form. 
You see also how this arose. Partly it depends on race ; for the 
two higher castes, and in a less degree the third, are Aryas, as 
having sprung chiefly from the dominant invaders of India. 
The fourth consists of Siidras, their name being that of an in 
digenous tribe, which is described in the Mahabharata as dark 
and small, and clothed in cotton. Again, the men below the 
four castes are Chandalas, and this seems the name of an in 
digenous race, whom the Greek geographer Ptolemy * places near 
the Bhils of modern times. Partly again, caste comes of religious 
distinctions, for the upper castes are described as twice-lorn, or 
as having been initiated in religious privileges, and the charac 
teristic of Brahmans is, that they know the Vedas f. Perhaps 
in the legislator s injunctions to marry only in certain families 
there is, joined with moral precaution, something of antipathy 
of race or sect. More distinctly, we see in the honours which 
kings are directed to confer on the Brahmans, the full-grown 
power of the religious caste. Whereas, an earlier stage in its 
growth is rather indicated in the Ramayana by the bounty of 

* 2%of Kcu/SaXor $>v\\iTai. Ptol. vii. i, 6 1 66 ; VI. 10 3 ; Manu, X. 15 ; 
Lassen, B. n. pp. 799 820. 

t The passages referred to are found in Manu, B. I. 23, 31, 88 ; n. 17, 38, 62, 
249; in. 145; vii. 37 136; viii. no; ix. 87; x. i 16, 20, 45 108 ; xi. 
51 60, 78, 85, 265, 266 ; v. 3039. 



S^NKHYA SPECULATION. 279 

Dasaratha to the same persons, and lay their mode of receiving 
it. Again, the Deities of Manu are neither for the most part the 
Vedic, nor yet those of the Pur a" n as. He speaks comparatively 
little of all the elementary agencies, which make the bulk of the 
elder divinities, but more of Narayana or of Brahma, who in the 
later portions of the Vedas is by a personifying generalisation 
made the Supreme Ruler ; nor does he mention Vishnu, either in 
the subordinate sense of the Yedas, or in the magnified form of 
later times ; nor yet Siva, who, at the time of the earlier 
Bauddha Sutras, was held in honour ; still less the later deifica 
tions or incarnations, such as those of Kama and Crishna, which 
are the favourites of the Pur anas. If now you consider that such 
change of language is the mirror of changes in society, which 
must have been long in coming about, you will understand why 
the laws of Manu belong to a period long after the earliest Vedic 
hymns, though before the rise of Buddhism. 

" Our friend Sadananda is so critical, that he will readily 
enter into what I will offer conjecturally about Capila. There 
is in the Sankhya philosophy an acknowledgment of the might 
of Nature, which might well enough spring out of the Vedic 
worship. But the abstract tone of the philosopher s speculation, 
and his way of reducing the deities into natural forces, is unlike 
the simple fervour of the old devotional song. We must blame 
Capila for not having substituted any clear conception of an 
overruling mind; but we must acknowledge he had reason for 
taking away that worship of blind elements which the older 
faith involved. Perhaps it was his mission, as a rationalist, to 
work out freedom for the human mind from undue subjection 
either to the material world, or to that elaborate system of the 
religious caste, which had become a superstition to some, and a 
policy to others. Thus he paved the way for Sakya, who added 
devotion to speculation, and extended to masses of men that 
freedom which Capila had given only to the few. Since how 
ever the faith of Sakya must have been to many a painful 
revolution, there would arise men desirous of a scientific freedom, 



280 EARLIER AND LATER VEDA NTA. 

yet anxious to reconcile it with the orthodox religion. This 
seems to have been attempted by Patanjali the grammarian, who 
lived some time after Panini, and therefore later than Sakya. 
The interval then between the two stages of the Sankhya 
philosophy comprises the rise of Buddhism. Later than these, 
though I dare not fix a precise date for it, must have been that 
orthodox wisdom, which the venerable Acharya represents. For 
though attempts to explain the purpose of the Vedas may have 
begun early, and some of them may have been called the earlier 
Mimansa, yet they evidently received an impulse from the 
opposition of less approved systems. The very phrase A-dwaita 
(non-duality) implies that the distinction between spirit and 
matter had been taught by others ; and some elements in the 
A chary a s system are traced by himself to Sancara. Nor should 
I wonder if some of them are even later. But Sancara lived not 
earlier than 800 or 900 A. D. How different this newer Vedantine 
system is from the older Vedic worship, we have partly seen, 
and shall see farther. But all this stage of philosophical de 
velopment occupies a middle ground of vast extent between the 
old poetical faith, and the new burst which gives the religion of 
India another form, as evident in the Puranas. It is in nearly 
the same middle region that we are to place the rise and fall of 
the Bauddha faith in India. Only there is this difference ; a reli 
gious creed is so antagonistic to its rival creed, that we can fix defi 
nitely its date ; whereas tendencies of thought may be at work when 
unacknowledged, and stretch over into their opposites, so as to be 
hardly disentangled. Thus the philosophical spirit may have 
anticipated its fuller consciousness by certain portions of the Epic 
poems, as well as interpolated episodes in the later of the two ; 
and again it reaches on into the Pauranic stage, both giving a 
meaning to the legends, and suffering itself to be fancifully trans 
formed in them. Again, as the philosophical sects supply the 
middle ground in speculation, so do the Epic Poems in both heroic 
legend and physical parable, between the hymns of the old Vedic 
ritual, and the modern mythology of the Puranas. 



AGE OF THE VEDAS. 281 

" But we must not let our collateral inquiry overshadow our 
great object, which is now beginning to clear before me. I have 
been trying to familiarize you with the notion that Hindu 
literature has great epochs. If any portion of it is Divine, its 
Divinity does not depend upon its having come bodily from the 
mouth of Brahma, nor upon its having been given to Manu by 
Brahma; nor must you fancy that books, removed from each 
other by diverse customs and generations, were all arranged by 
one Vyasa. This vast tree of Indian thought has put out a 
succession of branches in many ages. Nor would I venture to 
fix all the steps of its growth. But even in the sacred Vedas 
we saw signs, that whatever power inspired them must have 
extended its influence over no little time. And if some of the 
hymns attest occupation of the valley of the Ganges, while 
others go back to that of the Punjaub, and if Kama be the 
great A ryan overrunner of India, then the age of Rama will be 
a probable centre for the period over which we may suppose the 
growth of the hymns to have ranged. As, then, we have already 
placed Rama about 2000 years B.C., we may imagine the devo 
tional feelings of the Aryas to have been taking shape in the 
Vedic songs from about 2500 B.C. to about 1500. Some such 
theory is also confirmed by the astronomical notices in the 
collected books. For the Vedas contain a calendar, with the 
old Indian circle of five years. In this the ratio of solar and 
lunar time is given. The zodiac is divided into twenty-seven 
asterisms, beginning with the Pleiades. The solstitial points are 
reckoned to be at the beginning of the constellation Dhanisht ha, 
and in the middle of Aslesha; and this, according to astronomers, 
was the case in the fourteenth century before Christ*. The 
three earlier Vedas therefore were arranged by some Vya"sa 
about 1400 B.C., and although this date may be more recent 

* Colebrooke, Vol. I. p. 106, states this argument on astronomical grounds : 
and Lassen, B. n. Vol. I. pp. 739, 747, seems not altogether to reject it ; but 
Weber (to whom the Indian astronomy appears borrowed from the Greeks) gives 
it up, as based on calculations backward. I cannot judge of its value, but think 
its correspondence with general data justifies its retention. 



282 CHANGES OF INDIAN SOCIETY. 

than you are prepared for, yet it falls in with the results of fair 
criticism, whether you look at the probabilities of our historical 
conjectures, or at the positive evidence of the stars, as implied in 
the books themselves. There is an interval of perhaps 2800 
years from the Vyasa of the Yedas to him of the Puranas. For 
the latter can hardly, after what we have said of the Brahma 
Purana, and of the Sri Bhagavat, be placed before 1400 A. D. 

" If you are now prepared to entertain the idea of growth in 
your literature, we may here consider two great results which 
come out with a review of the whole subject. The first result 
is, that Indian life has not, as is often thought, been fixed in 
immutable form from the beginning. See, how this comes out 
in a general review. The earliest hymns of the Rig- Veda shew 
us the Hindu not yet having earned his name by long dwelling 
on the Indus, but in the country of the Five Rivers, worshipping 
all the skyey influences, hailing the dawn in song, and per 
sonifying the dark cloud which withholds, as well as the blue 
heaven whicli liberates, the rain. His deities are Devas, the 
bright elements, which seem to bless him. He has not yet 
built temples, nor bowed down to idols, nor become the instru 
ment of priests, nor does he fancy anything of the transmigration 
of souls, nor probably of the incarnation of deities, nor has he 
yet suffered the brotherhood of mankind to be outraged by 
division into castes. Nor again does he make the pitiless 
demand for widows to be burned. It is very remarkable that 
none of these things are originally Vedic. Whether the horse- 
sacrifice (aswamedka) was merely symbolical, as your commen 
tators say, or whether the later symbol represents an earlier 
usage, of perhaps Persian or even Tartar origin, I will not 
determine. But at least sacrifices were common enough, and 
the flesh of them* might be eaten; so that the modern horror of 
eating flesh can hardly have existed. So far the earliest Hindu 
we read of had rather the advantage of his descendants. On the 
other hand, his hymns shew no deep feeling of the moral evil of 

* So, even mManu, sacrifices may be eaten, but meat otherwise not. V. 23 34. 



DEVELOPMENTS OF SPECULATION. 283 

sin, nor reverence for the deities as moral governors. Some 
have fancied that they can trace in the Vedas vestiges of an 
earlier belief in one supreme God*. But no texts have yet 
been shewn me, belonging to the earliest stage, which bear 
clearly such meaning. On the contrary, physical nature seems 
to present the objects of worship, and animal nature to suggest 
the prayers. Man seems as yet the first among animals wor 
shipping the elements. By degrees, however, the shaping mind 
modifies its impressions into an unity; and a deeper sense 
appears of the mystery which underlies the agencies of nature, 
with a feeling after some spirit which formed them. It is 
chiefly in the Upanishads, so far as I have observed, that this 
tendency develops itself; therefore not in the earliest time. 
Thoughts, however, of Atman the great Soul, or Self, or Person, 
without whom it is as unnatural to conceive the world, as a 
human body without a mind, may have had many indistinct 
utterances before they grew into such reasoned poems, as that 
about Vdch which you quoted to me. There seems also to have 
broken off from the A ryas, while yet in the country of the Five 
Rivers, a section which carried westward some Yedic traditions, 
and ripened them in Bactria, or Persia, into the Zoroastrian lore. 
This remigration must not be confused with the original advent 
of the A ryan race from Iran, still less must the ebb be made 
to account for the earlier flow. In the mouth, however, of 
Zarathastra, the mere nature-worship took a deeper tone, and 
spoke of strife no longer between cloud and sky, but between 
evil and good, or the malignant serpent and the Son of Heaven. 
Thus he divorced, in a way, mankind from physical nature, and 
brought out a deeper moral consciousness, with both its sense of 
suffering, and its manlier struggle. Whereas with the true 
Hindus remained longer, and almost remains still, something 
of the old childhood, which felt itself cradled in the elements of 

* Colebrooke, Essays, Vol. I. ; M.Neve, Essai surlemythedesRibhavas,~Pa,ris, 1847. 
The striking hymn about Atman belongs to the roth book, "in einem der spatesten 
i," says Lassen. 



284 BRAHMANISM. 

the world and only asked their bounty, looking on it almost as 
a right. I need not stay to trace nicely how many hymns of 
the Big- Veda reappear in both the Yajurs, and again in the 
Sama, or how they are somewhat modified. But in the Brah- 
manas we have the signs of a priesthood or caste arranging and 
explaining the songs which were already ancient ; and this 
tendency is said to reach a more elaborate formalism in the 
Sutras. Before the Atharva or fourth Veda had been compiled, 
the Aryas must have spread into India. It speaks more directly 
of the aboriginal races, among whom it mentions the Siidras* 
as hostile. It has words which are said to betray symptoms of 
Prdcrit, or at least of the older language already assimilating 
itself to indigenous idioms. It gives prayers, no longer as 
natural eifusions of the religious feeling, but as formal charms 
against sickness. It deals more, in its episodes, with meta 
physical questions, as about death and the spiritual world. It 
is the expression, in short, of a religious revolution, which 
already the Brahmanical caste was conducting. We may esti 
mate both its comparatively recent date, and yet the antiquity 
of Manu, from remembering that the legislator recognises only 
three Yedas, though it is possible the fourth may already have 
been framed. Some also find in the Atharvan astronomical signs f 
of B.C. 1100, rather than 1400, but these I will not venture to 
argue from. 

"When we pass on to the laws of Manu what a stride the 
Brahmanical system has made! The purohita, who merely 
presided on great occasions of sacrifice, is now an hereditary 
priest. The families of singers, to whom early hymns were 
ascribed, are now sacerdotal clans. The Brahmans, who are 
not named as such in the earlier mantras, are now an exclusive 
caste. The Siidras, who in the earliest Veda were not known, 
and in the latest were enemies, are now the lowest class. The 
Dasyus, once hostile, have become vassals. The term Vaisya, 

* Roth, quoted in Weber, Vol. I. pp. 142, 143. 

t Lassen, p. 745, but compare Weber, pp. 224 227. 



PRIESTHOOD CASTE MANU. 285 

which once meant earthly, or human, (so that Vispati might 
mean king in general) is now applied to mere cultivators ; and 
these are partly, no doubt, the indigenous possessors of the soil. 
The mere tribes of A ryan shepherds are grown into organised 
nations. The king must no longer sacrifice, but give presents 
to the Brahmans. The character of Teacher is brought forward 
as having especial claim to reverence. The religious bath and 
the sacred cord are made important. Though sacrifices are 
still eaten, the rules for general diet are more precise. Oblations 
to the spirits of ancestors seem to be a new custom. The 
military art has been developed, and the use of elephants, 
chariots, cavalry, as well as archers and swordsmen, is described. 
Cities, and the mode of besieging them, are alluded to. The 
prices of markets are to be regulated. Many of the regulations 
are good enough, but the punishments are not always in propor 
tion to the true character of acts. There is an excessive stress 
on the sanctity of the highest caste, and severe penalties for 
whatever tends to lessen it. There is an attempt, in short, 
to arrest society, and fix it in a mould, chiefly of priesthood 
and partly of race; while such minuteness of regulation in 
common actions may be natural for a speculator to devise, but 
has never been found wholesome in practical life. Here and 
there, too, appear allusions to Viswamitra, and, perhaps, others 
who vindicated the kingly freedom for a time, though the fatal 
victory, in the struggle, was, to their own cost, with the Brahmans. 

" Yet, however different the polity sketched in the Mdnava- 
dharma-sdstra may be from that of the earliest time, I would 
not affirm that it has no prefigurement in the Sutras, which 
have been mentioned as appended to the Vedic hymns. It has 
been noticed, that the same names are given as authorities for 
some of the Sutras, and of the Laws. The tendencies of the one 
find their fulfilment in the other. But this only affects the 
question, where the difference begins. 

"What now must have happened between the two social 
stages we have glanced at? We should guess at once some 



286 STEPS OF DEVELOPMENT. 

sucli course of event and imagination as is described or implied 
in the two great Epics. We are, in fact, able to infer from 
these poems a career of conquest on part of the Aryan race, 
however far the Ramayana may be, as some conceive, from the 
time of its hero, and however scanty a nucleus of history may be 
involved in its fable. We see in them the clash of races, the 
older of which are represented in fastastic forms *. We have the 
hermit life of the Brahmans beginning in the wild forests, where 
they must have been pioneers of civilisation. We have the 
conflict of king and priest, already spoken of. We have the rise 
of new heroes, whose memories are likely to be famous, though 
we should hardly have foreseen how entirely some of their 
names would take the place of the older divinities, as objects 
of worship. Perhaps in the oldest, and truly heroic part of the 
Mahabharata, Crishna is not yet represented as an incarnation 
of Vishnu ; just as, when his name is mentioned in the Vedic 
Brahmanas, it is only as that of a man who needed himself to be 
instructed by Ghoraf, a descendant of Angiras. We have, how 
ever, in the two great Epics, forecasts not merely of Manu, but 
of the Puranas. Nor is it easy to say how much in the form of 
episode and speculation is of later insertion. Nor, again, does 
it follow, because the Epics portray that long ferment of the 
Indian mind, which settled down in the polity of Manu, that 
therefore the poems themselves were written before the laws. As 
regards their fullest form, we must rather suppose the contrary. 
In the episode of Nala, for example, we have four Vedas men 
tioned, instead of three, as in Manu. But I have said enough to 
shew the significance of the Epic poems for our present point of 
vast developments in the Hindu mind, and must leave more 
learned persons to fix dates in a region so uncertain, that while 
your traditions make Valmiki a contemporary of Rama, 2000 B.C., 

* Eama s conflict is with Ka"cshasas, or demon people, whose king, Eavana, 
has ten heads ; and with monkeys, whose king s name is Bali. He crosses to Ceylon 
by a bridge. His earlier adventures have a tinge as if of the Odyssey. 

t .Colebrooke, Vol. n. p, 197. 



THE TWO EPICS, (iTIHA SAS), DRAMA. 287 

some critics would bring down the authorship of his poem to 
almost the Christian era. If one must offer a conjecture, there 
is some reason for fancying that the Mahabharata in its shortest 
form expresses the poetical youth of the people, soon after the 
consolidation of their settlements in India, while the Ramayana 
ought, from the date of its subject, to be older. As a special 
argument that this is so, we have the fact that in the Bama*yana 
widows not only survive, but reign as queens ; whereas in the 
Mahabharata the fatal Satt, or immolation by fire, unknown in 
earlier ages, has already begun. But again good critics have 
ventured to bring down the Mahabharata to the first reaction of 
the popular mind against Buddhism, such as we may suppose 
to have existed partially just before the Christian era; and they 
place the other poem even later, as fancying that the spread of 
A ryan civilisation to the extreme South was later. If we knew 
for certain, what the first Bauddha missionaries or princes found 
in Ceylon, we could estimate this argument better. 

" But if I can only give as doubtful the earlier date for the 
Epic poems, still less would one fix the Drama in point of time. 
We see clearly that it must have been subsequent to the Epics ; 
for its subjects are sometimes taken from them, and its language 
is more modern. But the mere question, whether the court at 
which Kalidasa flourished is that of Vicramaditya at Malwa 
56 B. c., or that of another prince at Ujjiyini, nearly a thou 
sand years later, shews the uncertainty of most things in 
Indian literature. Here also comes in the suspicion, which Dr 
Wolif has suggested, of the Hindu Drama s having profited by 
hearsay of Grecian models; and this is possible, whichever 
chronology we prefer. 

" The mere literary question has carried me for a moment 
from what was more important. Just as in the Brahmanas, or 
rubrics* of the Vedas, and in the Sutras, which are their sup 
plement, we have the first footsteps of the later Brahmanism, so 

* The Hebrew titles to the Psalms, and the early Rabbinical comments, might 
serve as a rough parallel to the Brahmanas. 



288 KNOWLEDGE AND WORSHIP ETHICS. 

in these and in the Upanishads, we have the beginnings of 
speculation. It is the office of reason in religion, to question 
the religious instincts as to their meaning, and so to restrain 
their wanderings, by directing them ever to the highest object. 
Unhappily, it has often been more skilful in criticising the im 
perfect, than in substituting a more excellent way. Yet we 
must not deny its real services. At one time it disengages the 
religious sentiment from irrelevant theories which, on the side of 
intellect, encumbered it. For example, it does not allow men to 
make their faith in God depend upon those conceptions of the 
mode of His working, which may at any time have been imper 
fect. Thus the views of earthly science, by which a sense of 
heavenly things is accompanied, may at any time be disengaged 
from what is more essential. Your great astronomer Bhascara 
rightly teaches, that in mathematical science holy tradition is 
authority so far only as it agrees with demonstration; and 
accordingly this mathematical science has no end in eternal 
time*. But still more important is the service to religion 
which reason renders by bringing out its ethical element, or by 
associating the glow of devotion with the sense of duty to man. 
It comes of human weakness, that because God controls our 
destiny, we are tempted to make our service of him a flattery; 
or, in milder cases we become so absorbed in the need of 
faith and devotion, that we lay too little stress on moral right 
eousness. Forgive me, if I say, that in the religious history of 
India, as of other countries, we find too many instances of the 
religious instincts thus absorbing the duty of right. But reason, 
which cannot be sound, unless it comprehends in itself that 
feeling of an eternal law which we term conscience, sees that 
God is not so bribed, for that the highest might must be in 
righteousness, and hence it purifies the impulses of religion, by 
sifting whatever had been merely emotional in their operation, 
and sets our duty to man ever by the side of our faith in the 
unseen God. Take an instance of this from your own Mimansa. 

* Colebrooke, Vol. II. pp. 380 381. 



PURIFYING OF WORSHIP. 289 

When its thoughtful framers reasoned of true righteousness, 
they felt unable to approve of those incantations to hurt the 
life of an enemy, which appear in your older religious books. 
Hence, although such practices have what is deemed Yedic 
authority, they are yet rightly forbidden by the Mimansa". 
Perhaps another instance may be found even in the Purusha- 
medha. For that this was not always symbolical, seems to 
me proved by the hymn of Sunah-sephas * in the Eig-Veda, as 
well as by the legend of his having been bound for sacrifice. 
Probably there was a time when the dread of an overruling 
Divinity made your ancestors shed even human blood ; but as 
the conscience or reason of men under Divine guidance awoke to 
its full function, such a misjudgment of the religious impulse 
was set aside, and the rite turned into a symbol. Some such 
purifying process was perhaps intended by Capila. But as 
our weakness rarely attains in each man that great harmony 
which perhaps the eternal Iswara rejoices in seeing maintained 
on the whole by the partial jarrings of mankind, so Capila 
obscured the Deity by Nature. His successor Patanjali at 
tempted to restore the religious balance, but went so far on the 
other side, that he obscured the reason, and fell into a devotional 
mysticism, which is called the Y<5ga. In such cases Nature 
revenges herself by suffering a quietude of the nerves, which is 
animal rather than spiritual, to obscure the vision which boasts 
of seeing direct into heaven. Nor under such a system can the 
mind of man attain its full stature, however specious may be 
its show of more rapt devotion. For our Maker has intended us 
to strive and contrive, as well as to pray. Of the later philo 
sophical schools of logic, or of physical atoms, I need only say, 
that I should be glad to see you employ their processes in 
education. For the more reason is trained by method and ob 
servation, the better will she be able to judge, if her heart be 
pure, of the more directly religious revelation which the supreme 
Iswara gives us of Himself. 

* See Vishnu Purdna, pp. 404, 405. It is also referred to in Manu. 
M. P. 19 



290 VED^NTA AND VEDAS. 

" It might have been hoped that the Vedantists, either 
earlier or later, would work out a better harmony of faith and 
reason. But if your school did on the one hand the work of 
the Yedas by maintaining their authority, you did on the other 
that of the speculators by explaining the purpose of the Vedas 
in such a way as to be hardly reconcilable with the original 
text. Those psalms of a physical nature-worship were never 
conceived upon a theory that nature is only the play of the 
Universal Spirit manifesting its energies. What indeed can be 
less likely to give men a spiritual faith, than the practice of 
hymning Fire, and Sun, and the Winds ? There is something 
pretty in making Agni, or Fire in its different forms, either as 
Sun, or Heat, or Flame, a sort of Priest of the Gods in the 
universal temple of Nature ; but then, who are the Gods to 
whom he ministers? We want some clear spiritual Being, 
such as the earlier hymns at least do not clearly shew, who 
shall be superior to all these agencies; and these which are 
properly ministering, should not be made themselves the supreme 
objects of worship, as they apparently are in the hymns. Again, 
when your theory has embodied the Spirit in Nature, so as to 
take away the just contra-position of creature and Creator, 
prayer and its Hearer, mankind and his Judge, there is no 
more room for priest, as there is no worship except a Divine self- 
contemplation. If men like Angiras and Sakalya had foreseen 
your theory, they would not have sung or arranged hymns to 
Ushas and Agni. What your school originally meant, I suppose, 
was to dissociate the Deity from all fetters of time and place and 
matter, until they got themselves confused, as I tried to shew above. 
But here I want you to notice the greatness of their departure 
from the Vedic text. This is so wide, that your relation to the 
text is only in name rather than in effect, much more friendly 
than that of Sakya. You have alike that profound sense of the 
transitoriness of things earthly, which has come of later specu 
lation, rather than of the Vedas. You believe alike in the 
transmigration of souls, of which they say not a word; and 



BUDDHA AND BKAHMANISM. 291 

even if your return of the soul to ineffable union with the primal 
Spirit can be speculatively distinguished from the Bauddha 
nirvana which it resembles, at least neither of them is Vedic. 
I say nothing yet of apotheosis, or incarnation, or of the names 
of deities. 

" If now we turn to Sakya, we see that he was willing to 
proceed some way in the old path of the Brahmans. He was 
evidently their pupil, and his early speculations have the 
Hindu cast of gentleness, a vague vastness, and asceticism. But 
he seems to have learnt that lesson, which has so often come to 
religious men elsewhere, that external restraints are rather a 
nursery for the soul, than the proper atmosphere for it to breathe ; 
thus that asceticism beyond temperate limits is neither a virtue, 
nor even wholesome ; while, if human life is bound in the fetters 
of minute ordinances by a dominant caste, neither true religion 
nor happiness flourish in such loss of freedom. Thus he be 
came in the strongest sense a reformer, yet partly a mystic, as 
well as democrat in religion. It is no wonder that masses of 
men crowded eagerly to a teaching which had life and eman 
cipation. Rather, I think, whenever Almighty God in any 
country raises up such teachers by way of reaction against 
spiritual bondage, he will always win them hearing in proportion 
to the need of them. But it may be feared that Sakya, in refining 
away (as the Sankhyasts had done before him) some popular 
notions of Deity, did not hold fast enough his sense of the 
everliving God as moral Judge of the world. He felt life and 
spirit, but saw not clearly Him in whom they are, and by 
whom they stand. There seems however some uncertainty about 
Sakya s own faith in this respect. But it is very sad to observe, 
how soon after his death his doctrine grew into a system as 
elaborately formal as that which it had superseded. Many of 
the priests, we are told, in king Asoca s time, came over to the 
faith. They soon made it something of a priestcraft. Then 
came the many legends, which probably are accretions upon a 
simpler truth of the life of Sakya. Then relics were worshipped, 

192 



292 COURSE OF BUDDHISM. 

and Buddhism grew into what it is. If you, my friend" here 
Blancombe turned to the Saugata " wish to defend it, you can 
best do so by starting it afresh after the rnind of its founder. 
Its strength was then in that freedom, which is now what you 
have least of. And as for your friends*, who are not firm, as 
some think Sakya was not, in the belief of a God who governs 
the world, their faith is not worth keeping, except as a partial 
protest against something possibly distorted in a different di 
rection. If Buddhism be really hollow on this point, we can 
understand its fading out of India after about a thousand years 
of establishment. We can also imagine that the zeal of the 
Brahmans, represented perhaps by Cumarila Bhatta, may have 
stimulated reaction; and the people themselves may have 
wished for the old traditions which were more knit up with 
Indian history. They may even have thought the new Bauddha 
priesthood more exclusive than the old caste of the Brahmans. 

"At any rate, Buddhism seems to have disappeared from the 
greater part of India about the seventh century of the Christian 
era. Then comes that new period of Hinduism which has as 
its expression in literature the Puranas. This is the age of 
Cumarila, of Sankara A charya, and somewhat later, of Madhwa, 
and of Kamanuja. I have hitherto dwelt chiefly on those develop 
ments which come of speculation modifying worship. But by 
their side was also the popular feeling, which found voice in 
legend and poetry, as in the Epics already glanced at. From 
such sources will now come new objects of worship, and the old 
Vedic deities will tend to disappear. Long ago their first stage 
had been gone. Agni and Ushas and the Maruts had given 
way to Brahma as the representative of a more intelligent con 
ception of the creative power coming out of nothing less than 
Spirit. Indra had been degraded from his apparent supremacy ; 
and Vishnu, who in the Vedas is merely subordinate, had either 

See above, p. 24, for the distinction of the Nepaulese and the Cingalese 
Buddhists, the first being thought to have a firmer belief in the Divine self-con 
sciousness and government. 



THREE STAGES OF HINDUISM. 293 

from admixture of races, or from the clinging of the popular 
sentiment to his name understood in a higher relation, been 
lifted into a place hardly second to the highest. By the time of 
Buddhism also Siva had become recognised as one of the three 
great Deities. Both Vishnu and Siva seem admitted to equal 
rank with Brahma, from a sort of compromise on part of the 
Brahmans with the popular feeling, which perhaps hardly rose 
to the more abstract conception of the Creator, or refused to 
abandon names more native. These three, however, with 
their wives, Saraswati, Sri or Laksmi, and Durga or Kali, 
stood long at the head of the Hindu Pantheon, and make 
the second great stage in the development of your religion. 
They compose, I presume, the Trimurti, which ill-instructed 
persons have represented as if it were the Christian Trinity, 
whereas the conceptions, beyond the coincidence of mere number, 
are very different. How Siva can be termed the same as Kudra, 
except in so far as conceptions of the god of the storm, with 
those of Agni as the god of fire, may have been taken up into 
the more metaphysical conception of the Destroyer and the 
Restorer, I cannot understand. Nor is Vishnu the preserver the 
same, except in name, as the sun-god of the older hymns. The 
theory of his avatars, or incarnations, is as novel as his change 
of rank, or more so. You allow this, do you not?" here he 
asked Vidyacharya. " Why no," answered the other, "for the 
strides of Vishnu across the earth are mentioned in the Rig- 
Veda, and this must refer to the Avatar as a dwarf; and again 
in the Yajur-Veda Vishnu is mentioned in the form of a boar, 
which is the Vaiaha Avatar*." " But how far," resumed Blan- 
combe, " do these things go towards establishing what you 
suppose ? If we consider the Pauranic legend of Vishnu s step 
ping, we find that he stepped only twice, there being no room 
left for a third stride : whereas in the Veda it is said, Thrice 
did Vishnu stride. The legend may have grown out of the 
text, but it involves a different conception. The Veda probably 

* See Vishnu Purdna, end of ch. i. ch. iv. and Preface, Colebrooke, Vol. I. 



294 THREE STAGES OF HINDUISM. 

refers to tlie three stages of the sun, as it rises, culminates, and 
sets ; whereas the Pauranic story sets forth in a parable the 
omnipresence of the Deity. So the Yajur-Veda text of Vishnu 
as Viswa-karman appearing in the form of a boar, seems to 
indicate the elevation of the earth physically out of water, or 
into space, and may have been also applied to the extrication 
of the world from evil ; but in neither case did the text mean a 
gross incorporation of the Deity in a boar. There is a confusion 
constantly recurrent in India between the meaning mystically 
conveyed in certain stories, and the grossest acceptation of their 
literal sense. So the enthronement of Indra in the Veda was 
meant, I presume, as an allegory, though hard to explain ; but 
many of your countrymen take such things in the grossness of 
the letter. So the traditions of Vedic Deities which I mentioned 
as carried westward in early times, were twisted in Bactria into 
stories of earthly kings, and your Yama, the god of death, 
appears in Firdusi as king Jemshid, and the serpent Ahi, once 
the dark cloud, as the tyrant Zohak *. Thus in India, too, the 
old physical parable was sometimes exalted into a more meta 
physical conception, and sometimes literalised into a marvellous 
story. 

" On the whole, I think we are justified in saying that no 
clear signs of incarnation (or of the avatars) had appeared in 
the genuine Vedic hymns. This idea came in rather with the 
Epic poems. When the great exploits of Rama and Crishna 
were to be accounted for, it was natural to suppose that some 
Divine force dwelt in them. Upon the question whether such 
force was truly Divine, or was magnified by imagination, will 
depend the farther question, whether such avatars are only a 
deification of what was properly human, or whether there was a 
real indwelling of Deity. With such questions is connected too 
your theory which identifies the human soul and the Divine 
Spirit, or blends God and mankind into one. Our own faith, 
and I think also any true humility, would forbid accepting all 

* Lassen, 7. A. p. 517. Weber, Vorlcs. p. 36. 



THREE STAGES OF HINDUISM. 295 

that you have said on that subject ; but 1 would willingly 
explain it as obscurely meaning the great nearness of the 
Father of our spirits to all those who approach him in prayer, 
together with the true feeling, that every human excellence 
comes in a way of the Spirit of God. But however your incar 
nations are to be explained, their belief comes in with the 
period of the Epic poems, and associates itself with Rama, and 
with Crishna. These, you now hold, were manifestations of 
Vishnu. Yet it was long before this theory made such way as 
practically to encroach upon the honours of the three great 
Deities. 

" Perhaps in the reaction against Buddhism the more human 
heroes, as taking hold of human passions, were brought more 
vividly forward. Perhaps again the defenders of Brahmanism 
felt the theory of incarnation necessary to present some con 
tinuity in a system which had been so changed. In the time of 
the Puranas, however, which may range from about A.D. 700 to 
A. P. 1400, this new Hinduism develops itself. One of its 
differences from the older religion is the stress it lays upon 
Divine grace* and faith, and this may possibly come of in 
directly Christian influence. Or again, it may be a native 
growth in the progress of religious zeal, and have been some 
what stimulated by the rivalries of sects. In either case, we 
can only allow it to be wholesome in so far as it is joined with 
purity of heart, and recognises the Almighty for a righteous 
Governor, as well as for the Giver of all good gifts to body and 
soul. Its working, as a doctrine, must be less pure from the 
sectarian rivalry with which it is mixed. For amidst all the 
emulation between the worshippers of Rama or Crishna, or 
those who choose Vishnu or Siva by preference for honour, a 
passionate devotion to either name seems exalted above that 
upright life and clear conscience, which are chiefly acceptable to 

* See the dose of Wilson on Hindu sects, and Colebrooke s account of the 
later Ved;inta ; and for the possibility (hardly more) of Christian influence, Lassen, 
Vol. II. p. 1099. 



296 THREE STAGES OF HINDUISM. 

God. This tendency appears even in the Vishnu Purana, and I 
am told also in others. Much more, I suppose, it must come 
out in the Tantras, or the devotional books of impure sects. 
But of such facts you can judge better than I can. It is, how 
ever, indisputably clear, that many features of the third period 
of Hinduism are not at all to its advantage. You would hardly 
defend idolatry, though your metaphysics have been abused to 
palliate it. Yet it is now the common practice. Temples need 
not in themselves be blamed ; yet they are probably an innova 
tion upon earlier practice ; and as the earlier Brahmans did not use 
them, no one need wonder that the Bauddha temples are amongst 
the oldest we find. The worship of the Vedas was chiefly 
domestic. The reverence for the Linga is also modern. Far 
older, because it is mentioned in Manu, but probably not Vedic, 
is the custom of sacrificing to the Pitris, the progenitors of the 
human race. On the other hand, Brahma, once the great Deity 
of the most educated caste, has receded into the background. 
Whether Vishnu or Siva should take his place is so disputed 
that six Puranas pronounce for the one, and six for the other. 
But neither of them enjoy such popular acceptation as the 
human heroes, who are termed manifestations of them. On the 
whole, the modern worship is more sensual, more sectarian, 
more idolatrous, and has a greater multitude of divinities, for 
whose worship there seems little reason in your oldest books, 
and which must turn men s minds away from the living Spirit. 
Nor perhaps is it altogether accidental, that the Hindu Drama, 
with its Pracrit speech and occasional licentiousness, has its 
fullest growth in the time of this New Hinduism, just as the 
Epics are nearer to the middle stage of the three great deities, 
and the earliest Vedas represent the simple nature-worship of 
old time. Yet by the side of the now popular idolatry, I readily 
admit there has been a great development of metaphysical or 
mystical speculation, and I only wish that it had been used by 
Sancara to reform rather than palliate popular errors, or that it 
might be so employed by yourself now. It is not wonderful 



LITERAL IMMUTABILITY FAILS. 297 

that such men as Kabir should subsequently have made attempts 
at a spiritual reform, whether some of his ideas were borrowed 
from Christian sources, or whether they were entirely native. The 
sober distinctions of Madhwa between the Divine and the human 
spirit are also in some respects worthy of being considered. 

" But now, the great variety we have seen in the three 
stages of Hinduism leads me to the second result, which I wish 
to urge upon you. What has become of the positive communi 
cation from Heaven, which you laid so much stress upon ? The 
vast differences we have now seen, forbid us to believe that the 
books which embody them came forth simultaneously from the 
mouth of Brahma, or were arranged by one Yyasa. The entire 
system, consisting of parts so different, and developed in suc 
cessive ages, cannot all have a primeval authority, or one im 
mediately Divine." When Blancombe had got thus far, the 
A charya said nothing, but the Saugata threw in this kind of 
speech. " You have proved thoroughly," he said, " that the 
whole of the Hindu Sastras has not been from the beginning, 
and thereby you have justified Buddha in rejecting them. But 
you have not shewn, that the religion may not be Divine, or that 
it had not a true germ in the earliest time, which may have 
grown up into something more perfect, whether the perfection is 
the doctrine of Buddha, or, as others would say, some modern 
form of Hinduism. For, as you have allowed intelligence to 
reside in man, and as you term the Deity intelligent, why should 
not He, on your own theory, speak from time to time to that in 
us which is most kindred to Himself, rather than to the outward 
organs by speech ? Or, from our point of view, why should not 
the human intelligence have grown up in expansion, and the 
truth have been developed in mankind ? The term Revelation, 
I suppose, will as properly apply to this latter process as to any 
more external one. For this may, even better than any other, 
be an uncovering of Divine truth to our minds." 

"Your questions," replied Blancombe, "are very ingenious. 
Nor would I deny that Divine Revelation may be by spiritual 



298 THEORY OF DIVINE DEVELOPMENT. 

development, rather than "by sensible signs. It might be a 
teaching by experience, as well as by prediction ; and by steps 
of growth, rather than by discontinuous leap. But if this is so, 
there must be a connexion in the steps of growing, so that an 
unity of idea may be discerned, at least afterwards, to have pre 
sided over the process. Again, the changes forward must be for 
the better, and not for the worse. As life has decay, so religion 
may have degeneracy : or it may have wild and fantastic off 
shoots. Your own worship seems to have degenerated from that 
of Sakya, and that of the Hindus in general to have taken many 
irregular shapes. These are wanderings, rather than develop 
ments. However true, then, may possibly be your suggestion, 
as applicable to what is really growth, it has no clear place in 
apology for a scheme like that of Hinduism. For here, when 
we reach the latest stage, we find the worship more idolatrous 
than in the earlier, instead of more spiritual; and the speculation 
more extravagant, instead of more defined. Or even if in some 
things the Hindu intellect has outgrown signs of childhood, 
yet on our friend the A chary a s own principles, I may ask him 
whether his religion is in the Yedas or in the Puranas ? If it is 
in both, how does he reconcile them ? If it is in the older, why 
does he sanction the later? Or even amongst the later class, 
how can he reconcile the books which exhort to worship Vishnu, 
with those which prefer Siva?" 

"But," said the Acharya, " I have already explained, after 
Sancara, that it is of little importance which deity we prefer as 
representative of the primal and ineffable Spirit, which is the 
true object of worship. Again, as to supposed discrepancies 
between the Puranas and the Vedas, we are enjoined by Sancara, 
in such a case, to prefer the Yedas. They are our oldest, and 
our emphatically sacred books." "My dear friend," here re 
sumed Blancombe, " I wish you would then, so far as your own 
intelligence permits, return in such things to the Yedas. For, 
I suppose, after speaking of that clear Spirit, which foresees and 
governs all things, you would hardly worship the winds and the 



PEESENT INCONSISTENCIES. 299 

flame, or the dawn. But will you persuade your countrymen to 
rise above the use of idols? They are not authorised by the 
Vedas. Are you prepared to give up caste ? That is not origi 
nally Yedic. Still less is any such limitation of priesthood, as 
would confine it to a clan. I will not ask as to the Sati, or 
burning of widows by fire, for it is happily abolished ; but how 
many lives might have been sooner saved, if your Pandits had 
dealt frankly with our Government, and confessed that in the 
Vedas no such thing is enjoined; and that even in Manu* the 
only Sati spoken of is a widowhood spent in pious austerity. 
Since also incarnation is not in the Yedas, will you reconsider 
its principle so far as to beware of deifying any unworthy object? 
The idea may somewhere have its fulfilment ; but yet your 
reasoning presentiment of it should not be rashly applied to 
inadequate representatives of the Divinest Thought. The 
A charya will not readily allow that the distinctness of immortal 
souls is taught in the Vedas, though some have thought so ; 
but if it should be found there, will he accept it ? In short, will 
you all start from the Vedas, so far as to discard any evil in 
your later religion, which they are found not to sanction, and 
yet superadd those deeper thoughts of eternal and spiritual 
things, which peril aps by some inward development are being 
revealed to you from time to time ? Then, I almost hope, you 
would not be far from the kingdom of God. 

" Now consider this. There are chiefly two kinds of proof 
possible for a religion as Divine. One is external authority ; the 
other, inward excellence. This latter may perhaps have a 
spiritual authority of its own in the form of persuasion. But 
the first, as regards Hinthiism, has been found utterly to break 
down. For obviously it requires history as its vehicle ; but in 
history, native India eminently fails. You can hardly fix any 
early date or person, without help from more accurate observers. 
But where there is no sure history, still less can there be argu 
ment from prophecy, in the sense of prediction, which very 

* Mann, v. 160. 



300 INHERENT PERSUASIVENESS. 

many persons consider also necessary to the external authority 
of a religion, and which, I think, you seem rather to claim. 
Just as little can miracles (or such wonderful displays of Divine 
power as confer authority) be brought into argument, where 
facts have not been carefully observed, and habitually recorded 
without exaggeration. All ground therefore for that positive 
belief of yours in the external authority of Hinduism, as being 
revealed with sufficient sanctions to overbear all human reason 
ing, has vanished from under your feet. Nor has it merely 
vanished, but its very opposite has come up in our critical 
proofs of Hinduism having gone through many stages, and been 
subject to all the accidents of human development. If your re 
ligion is to be defended, it must be on very different ground 
from that of its external guarantees, or the immutable authority 
of the Sastras. 

" But there may remain the second possibility of inherent 
goodness. Indeed, I think, God has made it so natural for men 
to pray to Him, and the manifold pleadings of His Providence, 
or of His Holy Spirit, so encompass us on every side, that any 
mode of approaching Him must be better than none. But yet 
He may in His unsearchable wisdom have taught mankind a 
more excellent way. Suppose now, that I wished to become 
a Hindu, or, which is more nearly the case, that I wish you 
to help me in lifting up that mass of your simple countrymen, 
whom we see whelmed in ignorance, what would you recom 
mend out of your religion, as means of improvement ? We have 
in England books of all sorts and sizes, which we give to the 
children of all ranks, after teaching them to read. Which of 
your Sastras should we distribute in that manner ? Would the 
history of Kama be improving? Not, if my impression of it, 
with its legends of monkeys and Racshasas be correct. Still 
less would that of Crishna, with the stories of his playing with 
the Gopis, and holding up the mountain as an umbrella. Nor 
even out of the Yedas do I think that many hymns could be 
extracted, which would awaken men s moral nature, and teach 



INTERNAL FAILURE OF HINDUISM. 301 

them to lead a righteous and sober life. There are certainly 
pretty hymns enough about Uslias, and about the liberation of 
the rain ; and I remember some to Brahmanaspati, whose title 
as the hearer of prayer, pleases me. But how little a way would 
these things go towards building up the inner stature of the 
spiritual man ! As to the invocations of the natural elements in 
general, I fear they would injure rather than improve. They 
would increase that tendency to a sensuous worship, and that 
forgetfulness of moral government, which some of your country 
men are prone enough to. Nor probably, would you, more than 
myself, wish to hear them invoking again Agni and the Maruts, 
any more than to see them bowing down to idols. The most 
hopeful part of your literature would be the laws of Mann. But 
these are not the most directly religious books ; and although 
wholesome precepts might be extracted from them, a very large 
part of the code is now impracticable, and not even attempted. 
Nor would such portions of it as we could use go far in the way 
we wish for education. Again, in some of the Puranas, I grant 
that very grand descriptions may be found of the spiritual nature 
of the highest Deity, and that metaphysical thought may be 
quickened by them. But all these are so mixed up with trans 
parent fable, so confused in their own associations, if even they 
have not the graver fault of a pantheistic mysticism which effects 
the opposite of what it intended, that I fear little use could be 
made of them. Nor should I know which of the rival Puranas 
to recommend. Nor is it so little a thing as you suppose, for 
contending deities to be thus brought forward. Surely, if the 
true and only wise God has given us in any way a revelation of 
Himself, He cannot have left it doubtful, whether the strange 
legends of Siva, or Vishnu, or Crishna, give the truest picture 
of Him. Bather, I think that when the holiest truth comes 
forth among men, all imperfect forms of it will droop their 
heads to our mind s eye by the Divine original, even as Nala in 
the poem appeared faint and earthly by the side of the deities 
uncovering themselves. If we saw God as most worthily He 



302 SHORTCOMINGS. 

might shew Himself, we should no longer think patiently of 
Him as incarnate in boar or dwarf, nor readily involve doc 
trines in such guise of parable, lest men be degraded by taking 
it literally. Least of all can such strange passages as you 
quoted me out of the Linga Pur ana be put forth wholesomely 
as lessons for the young, or lights to the simple. 

" Now if I am right in believing that Hindu literature has 
a dearth of things we could use to improve men, and if this 
literary dearth be but an index to a want in the religion ; and 
if, as we have already seen, education, morality, and spiritual 
religion require training throughout India, while your subtle 
metaphysics are impotent as means of moral restoration, what 
conclusion, my dear friend, must we arrive at? Surely this 
religion of yours cannot, in its present form at least, be destined 
to fulfil the prediction of the Sri Bh&gavat, which speaks of all 
nations coming to one faith ; but there must remain something 
better, which God has yet in store for you. The older way may 
in His manifold providence have been permitted as a sort of 
training ; it may have many fragments of truth ; it may have 
disciplined your minds into that contemplative wisdom, which 
should enable you to apprehend something at once higher and 
simpler. Nor would I blame you for following such light as 
you have been brought up in, until something kindred, but 
better, shall have been given you. But yet I would willingly 
shew you a more excellent way." 



NOTE ON CHAPTER VIII. 

Most of the data in this and the preceding Chapter are due to 
Englishmen; but the application of philosophical criticism to them is, 
I am sorry to say, chiefly German. 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 j but 



CRITICAL AUTHORITIES. 303 

in his time the facts 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. Burnouf, 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- Veda, as translated by 
H. H. Wilson : 

I. May auspicious works, unmolested, unimpeded, and subversive of foes, 
come to us from every quarter may the Gods, turning not away from us, but 
protecting us day by day, be ever with us for our advancement. 

2. 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 
father heaven, convey it to us ; may the stones, that press out the Soma juice, and 
cause pleasure, bring it us ; Aswins, who are to be 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 Priksha (morniny), 
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. 
Stikta, 89. 



304 NATURE OF PEKSUASIVES. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Hebrew 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. ci, 22. 

" 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 God beside me? yea, there 
is no God; I know not any." Id. xliv. 6 8. 

" I 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 aro 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 God 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 God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word 
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, arid 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 be ashamed." Id. xlv. 18 24. 

" BUT what sort of persuasives to a religion would you give 
us," here, after a little pause, Sadananda 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 difficult 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 hollowness 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 country, 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 PROPHECY ESSENTIAL AND ACCIDENTAL. 

might think that the predictions had been more external, and 
direct, or by distinct foresight of particular events. Others might 
conceive them to have arisen rather through the forces of expe 
rience and conscience; say, to have been suggested in part by 
observation of what the Almighty had done before, or to have 
been foreboded by a feeling of the righteousness which must run 
through the eternal counsels; and so to be bound up with a 
faith in the unseen, with a moral instinct, and with a trust in 
the Allholy ; yet by no means therefore to be dissociated from 
earthly affections, or even from misconceptions as to the events 
and persons through which the eternal truth should find its way 
to fulfilment. Such differences of view as to the ancient predic 
tions need not, I say, destroy their moral significance, which 
might even come out more strongly with the second view than 
with the first. Again, if a great lesson of Divine providence 
were taught us in the way I have imagined, we should not be at 
all disturbed by errors of human agency, or even by short 
comings in the sacred records through which the lesson was 
derived to us. We should not care whether India was rightly 
described as having nine dwipas (circles) and seven chains of 
mountains, or whether it had more or less. For we could con 
ceive such things indifferent to goodness of life, and the know 
ledge of them left to natural means ; while, again, the more 
important truths of justice and mercy and soberness would find 
an echo from that which is holiest within us ; and this internal 
witness would not be easily persuaded that the things most vital 
to itself depended on external accidents, or that the great Author 
of our holiest thoughts could ever be found a liar. Such disso 
ciation of the eternal truth from its temporal or written vehicle, 
would be still more justified, in proportion as the sacred record 
should all along put the Divine wisdom above its human dis 
ciples, and make the diviner breathing of godliness a thing but 
slightly connected with pride or even strengh of intellect. Only 
of course there must be a ruling forethought in the history, and 
a true or blessed result arrived at in its course ; otherwise there 



PARSIS. GIPSIES. HEBREWS. 307 

would be no lesson taught by it. Do you understand what I 
have been saying?" " Certainly I do," answered Sadananda, 

"You are familiar," resumed Blancombe, "with the Parsis 
of Bombay. They are descended from the Persians who took 
refuge in India when the first flood of Mahometanism swept 
over their country. They retain their ancient faith and its 
symbols, with books and rites, which however they hardly 
understand. Again, you may have heard of the gipsies, a people 
of Hindu affinity, who seem to have been displaced in some of 
the commotions which attended the conquests of Zingis Khan, 
or of Timur, and who, finding the nations of the West too 
firmly settled to make room for them, have wandered through 
Europe, with no fixed home. They are probably the latest in 
stance of the old tendency of nations to migrate from the East ; 
but time and place did not allow them to find room. But there 
is another people, of whom specimens may be found in India, 
though perhaps you know less of them. They have an ancient 
faith, and books of their own, like the Parsis; and they are for 
the most part wanderers, with no national home, like the gipsies: 
I mean now the Jews, or descendants of the ancient Hebrews. 
They often adopt customs either natural to the countries in 
which they dwell, or forced upon them by the necessities of 
trade, and its ingrained habits. In so far, however, as they 
remain true to their ancient genius, they have a faith embodied 
in sacred books, which they call the Law, the Prophets, and 
the Scriptures, and which are grouped together as the Old 
Testament. In these books is a history of this kind. About 
nineteen centuries before Christ, there was a Hebrew, named 
Abraham, who became divinely impressed with the evils of 
idolatry, and of all impurity in worship or in life. The only 
true and eternal God spake to him in whatever way God who 
is Spirit can speak to man encompassed with flesh and blood, 
and bade him leave a land of unholy rites, and go forth in 
hope, though it were to dwell as a pilgrim among strangers, 
promising to be with him and his seed. Fear not. Abraham, 

202 



308 ABRAHAM. ISRAEL. 

said the Lord, I am thy shield, and exceeding great reward. 
Accordingly Abraham obeyed, his heart and conscience, I sup 
pose, witnessing to him that the pure service of God was better 
than any earthly gain ; and this faith of his in shaking off lower 
attractions, where the love of a holy God or any duty might be 
against them, is a sort of model, after which true men in all 
ages should shape themselves. By doing so they partake the 
mind of Abraham, and may be called mentally his children, 
whether they are of his blood or not. Nor need we doubt, that 
since the true God is eternal, therefore such promises as He 
made to Abraham must for ever come true in fit measure to 
whoever in love of things unseen, or in faithfulness to the call 
of duty, vanquishes any temptation to do wrong. First, how 
ever, the promise was to be made good to the natural heirs of 
Abraham s body, so far as they came within the mental con 
dition of it. Therefore, according to the history, God by won 
derful methods brought them out of bondage in Egypt, and 
gave them the land of Canaan, just as He gave India to the 
Aryan tribes. Out of the power of the tyrant Pharaoh, through 
the sea and through the wilderness, across the river Jordan, and 
through many enemies, God led the victorious ranks of the 
people, who had been slaves, into cities which they had not 
builded, and gave them the fields to till, over which their 
ancestors had wandered as strangers with their tents. Such a 
deliverance and triumph would naturally take strong hold of 
the imagination of the people, and accordingly became the 
theme of many famous songs, which were both expressions of 
the feeling of the nation, and chants in honour of the God who 
had preserved it. For to the Israelites* was given the true 
feeling that nothing happened to them by chance, but that the 
God who doeth wondrous things had in His eternal counsels 
brought about what they seemed to win by sword or spear, and 
that His name must be honoured among them in truth. 

The name Hebrews seems to mark the race ; Israel the people in its religious 
aspect, and Jacob nearly synonymous, but less usual. Jewish meant properly 
belonging to the kingdom of Judah. 



MOSAIC LAW. 309 

" But the Giver of our lives is also their Master and their 
Judge. So in raising up Moses as a deliverer of the Israelites, 
God made him also their lawgiver. In the famous law of Moses 
are some things taken from that wisdom of the Egyptians* in 
which Moses was learned ; there are some merely temporary, 
and regulations of ritual or convenience : but there are also 
wrapt up in the precepts unchangeable truths, such as should 
enter into the life of every man, and the law of every nation. 
These main truths are chiefly in the Ten Commandments, of 
which I shall speak hereafter. There are also appointed sacri 
fices of animals, not as the most perfect or final mode of worship, 
but partly as witnesses that all life is the gift of God, and that 
its service is due to Him in whatever way He may please to 
employ it ; partly as symbols of devout penitence, by which the 
offerer should express his contrition for sin, and acknowledge 
his own life to be forfeit, if God were severe to exact the utter 
most ; and again, some sacrifices were mere expressions of joyful 
thanksgiving, and might be eaten both in homage to the Giver 
of all good things, and in participation both with the priests 
as ministers of God, and with the poor who might have need. 
There are also in the law of Moses many purifying rites, such as 
Hindus should readily understand, intended to take away any 
stain, or rather, as I should say, to express and keep alive a 
mental carefulness both as to holiness and cleanliness. Through 
out the law there runs a constant acknowledgment of the Eternal 
God as the source of all right : and many duties to the poorf, 
to the slave, to the vanquished, the stranger, and the fatherless, 
and the widow, are taught in His Name. The neighbour s 
beast must not be suffered to lie under his burthen without 
helping him. The harvest is not to be reaped without some 
sparing for the poor gleaner. No Israelite s land must be bought 
away from him, still less must he remain a slave for ever. Even 

* Acts vii. 22 : Josephus, Jewish Antiquities. Spenser, De Legibus ffebrceorum. 
-f- Exodus xxiii. i 12: Leviticus xii. 12; xix. 9, 10: Deuteronomy xv. i 15; 
xxii. i 7. 



310 SPIRIT, LETTER, PRIESTHOOD. 

the stranger must have no injustice done him. The land of the 
enemy is not to have its fruit-trees wantonly injured. The bird, 
sitting over its young, must be spared for its affection and for 
its offspring s sake. Nor is any fear of man to make faint the 
feeling of that Divine presence which mirrors itself to our 
conscience as the Right, and which ever pervades with a kind 
of awe any congregation of true men. 

"You can readily understand how men who apprehended 
vividly the principles involved in such regulations, would be 
trained by them to a righteous life: whereas, if men neither 
loved the thing intended, nor felt it strongly, they would take 
refuge from it in a formal observance of the letter; and by 
degrees might think there was no reason for the letter beyond 
the mere will of an imposing power. Thus the true spirit of 
the thing might fade away from among them. The law would 
become an external restraint, dreaded for its penalties, or for the 
power which imposed it, but no longer an expression of blessed 
truths, nor an instrument of awakening the soul of man to a 
true sight of things Divine. Especially this evil would grow, 
if the priests or teachers of the law, who ought to have known 
themselves its instruments, should become its masters, and lay 
stress chiefly on whatever nourished their wealth or power, 
while they neglected the weightier matters of justice and mercy. 
Something of this kind happened among the ancient Hebrews ; 
but you should read it described in the Bible. The people 
yielded to all those temptations which surround men from flesh 
and sense and ignorance ; and the priests, whose lip should 
have kept knowledge for them, turned their eyes only to ritual 
expiations, and taught a fierce zeal for the name*, or the 
temple*, or the bookf of Jehovah, or even for the nominal 
sanctity of the people of Israel f, while they did not awaken 
them to do justly, and to love mercy. 

* Jeremiah v. 30, 31 ; vii. 4 10: Hosea vi. 6 9. 

t Jeremiah viii. 8: Psalm 1. 16: St John vii. 49: St Luke iv. 27, 28: Acts 
xxii. 7i, 11. 



HEBREW PROPHECY. 311 

" But as in other nations we have already noticed that it is 
the mission of conscientious reason to prevent worship from 
losing morality, so especially in Israel we find great teachers of 
righteousness raised up, whose work was kindred, but more 
direct than that of such sages elsewhere. These are the Hebrew 
prophets and sweet singers of the temple, who might be com 
pared roughly to your Eishis, or partly to the authors of the 
Vedic hymns, and partly to your religious reformers. It was 
the mission of these men to rouse in their countrymen a deeper 
sense of the eternal meaning of the law, or of that spirit which 
the letter was intended to realise. Thus on the one hand, they 
cry aloud against the sins of king and people, and on the other, 
they bring deeper remedies than the selfish policy or stupid 
formalism of the priests could devise. For these prophets are 
themselves full of that eternal Spirit of God, which breathes in 
some measure through every well-meant effort to realise right 
eousness on earth. Thus while they refer men to a study of 
the law, they express also its life in fresh forms of their own. 
They lay less stress on its external ceremonies, but they cry 
out for that which it expresses, even a conformity of mind, and 
by consequence, of life, to the unwritten Word which stands fast 
in the counsel of God. Thus temporary accidents fade from 
their thought ; customs become changeable ; outward ceremonies 
have their value only from the feeling which they embody, 
though in this feeling may be comprehended obedience as well 
as love ; and in short, the sacrifices of God become the contrite 
spirit, the trustful heart, or the love going forth in righteousness 
to man. Only, as all things durable must be by method and 
order, so to the prophets the solemn services of the temple are 
dear, and the ancient words of the law retain sacredness : but 
the living mind of man is ever turned by them from resting in 
such things to the unseen harmony which lies behind them, to 
the shaping Will of God, and to the willing obedience of the 
entire man as dwelling in that presence apprehended by the 
mind. 



312 PREDICATION AND PREDICTION. 

"Certainly as events come not without Divine Providence, 
so neither do utterances like those of the Hebrew prophets come 
without the moving of the Divine Spirit, although its movement 
may be grandly general, and through links of order in the 
world of spirit, even as His visible works are regulated by law 
throughout the world. You would not be able to read such 
books as that of Isaiah, and of the Psalms, and then to consider 
calmly over what a number of generations this solemn utterance 
of prophecy extends, without concluding for yourselves that an 
eternal Providence has thus given the world an evolution of 
Truth. You would catch, as it were, a contagion of like spirit 
from studying such words, and enter into an unity of fellowship 
with the holy breathing which animates them. 

" But, if lessons of the Judge of the whole earth are given 
in vain, there comes thus an undesigned disorder into His 
scheme of governing, and with disorder through human fault 
comes suffering, such as we call punishment. For man being 
once free to choose, if lie chooses wrongly, must take suffering. 
Thus, as the prophets spoke mostly in vain, the predications ot 
Truth became predictions of evil to men who rejected them. 
From time to time therefore the earnest command, Do justly, 
and love mercy, becomes joined with cries of mourning and 
woe. Already in the law of Moses*, though I know not whether 
in the earliest part of it, there had been a promise to the people, 
that God would raise up prophets of truth among them ; and it 
had been threatened, that, if they followed sensuous diviners, 
or juggling teachers of evil, instead of the teacher of spiritual 
truth, they should perish from off the good land given them. 
There had also been solemn warningf, that if the iniquity of 
the people became extreme, God would raise up conquerors 
against them ; even nations from the end of the earth, swift 
as the eagle flieth, and nations of fierce countenance, who should 
besiege their cities, and make an end of their realm. These 
sort of warnings reappear in the books of the prophets, and 

Deuteronomy xviii. 151822. f Ibid, xxviii. 48-59. 



ANTICIPATION OF BETTER KINGDOM. 313 

become deeper from time to time. So that, on the whole, the 
burthen of Hebrew prophecy is an utterance of profound spiritual 
truth, a condemnation of the people to whom it is spoken, and 
a prediction of their being scattered over the face of the earth. 

" But this is not all. For, by the side of warnings of evil, 
we find a clear foresight that the cause of good, which is that of 
God, must triumph in the end. Though man is perverse, yet 
his shortsightedness must not defeat an eternal predestination of 
the good of his race. Although therefore individuals may cut 
themselves out of the kingdom by unfitness for it, the Divine 
kingdom of truth and holiness and right must go on fulfilling 
itself in the earth. Even therefore if the Israelites by blood 
should fall away, God will work out for himself an Israel* of 
the mind, in whose heart the old sayings of His righteousness 
shall find an echo, and bear fruit in their lives. It is true the 
prophets speak mostly as Hebrews, and they naturally rejoice 
in hoping the Divine kingdom may come out chiefly in con 
nexion with their own race. Their tone is national as well as 
religious. But they foresee clearly that no accidents of blood 
or place will interfere with a perfect fulfilment of the thought 
which the Divine Governor is bringing to pass in mankind. 
Thus they foresee that many things will pass away. Their 
kings then rejoiced in war : but the prophets look forward to a 
triumph of peace. Their temple was, according to the Scrip 
ture, a place of sacrificing beasts ; but they foresee a time when 
the consecration of man s heart (which the other only sym 
bolised) will be held far better. Nay, while they foretell that 
their own people will be scattered f throughout the nations of 
the world, yet the nations who afflict Israel will not them 
selves escape, but in whatever degree they resemble her sin 
they will partake her punishment J, with the aggravation of 

* Isaiah xlix. 5, 6 : St Luke iii. 8: St John i. 12, 13 : Romans iii. 1218. 
t Deuteronomy xxviii. 64: I Kings viii. 46 49 : Jeremiah v. 1519: Ezekiel 
xxii. xxiii. 

Ezekiel xxv xxxii. 



314 THE KING TO COME. 

having their haughtiness humbled. For all violence and wrong 
doing must make way for a moral kingdom, which through the 
lapse of generations shall go on perfecting itself. However 
unlikely it may seem that all these nations of Ammon, Moab, 
Assyria, Tyre, Elam, should fall, they will all be swept away 
before a better order of things. However strange might seem 
a king, without pomp of chariot or sword, there shall arise a 
King, representing the majesty of God, but reigning in meek 
ness, and swaying men purely by a dominion of holiness and 
goodness. Strange things seem to be spoken of this King, who 
appears as a servant of God, and even as a servant of men. He 
is rejected, smitten, counted a sinner; all men turn their face 
from Him; yet to Him all nations shall come; He shall mould a 
new Israel, nay, a new heaven and earth ; for so different will 
be the qualities He will require of His subjects from the warlike 
pride now held in honour, that the world will renovate itself 
under His sceptre. The change will be like that of all wild 
and poisonous things becoming harmless; swords shall be 
beaten into ploughshares; the dominion owned by men will be 
not that of Force, but of Thought and Eight ; old things will 
pass away alike as regards evil, and the external remedies 
of law applied to it ; the meaning of the law must be appre 
hended in men s consciences, or written on their hearts; the 
sensuous visible kingdom and priesthood will give way to that 
of the unseen King, the spiritual priest, and God will make all 
things new*. 

Such are the sayings of the Hebrew prophets, which are 
collected in the Book I wish you to study for yourselves. Now 
their descendants carry with them everywhere the Book, and 
hold it in honour. They believe for the most part its history, 
and acknowledge that their fathers sinned, and were cut off from 
their land. So far there is no room for dispute. For these 
Hebrew books have now been in the hands not only of the 
Jews, but of their bitterest enemies, for more than 2000 years, 

Psalms xlv. Ixxii. Ixxxix : Isaiah liii. xi. xxv. xxxiii. : Jeremiah xxiii. xxxi. 



JEAVISH NATIONALITY. 315 

and no one supposes that any part of them was written later 
than a full century and a half before the Christian era, at latest. 
The earlier parts can be traced up to a far more remote antiquity. 
It is also agreed, that the Koman Titus utterly destroyed the 
great city of the Jews, A.D. 70, and that the emperor Hadrian 
extirpated them from Palestine in A. D. 135. And as the Jews 
acknowledge what is written of their past history, even when it 
tells against themselves, so they generally look forward to a 
fulfilment of the happier promises in their prophecies. But, in 
so far as they hold the stricter religious view of their race, they 
connect this hope of fulfilment with much of that external and 
formal view which belonged to their ancestors observance of the 
law. There may, indeed, be differences among them. But the 
Jewish view, to describe it generically, seems to be a notion that 
Israel still means the descendants by blood of Abraham. If 
then Israel is to enjoy the Divine favour, this means to them a 
restoration of their race to their own land. If their law is to be 
observed, this ought in consistency to mean that the temple 
will be rebuilt, and the fat of rams smoke on its altars. The 
King, too, ought to be of the race of David, and to have a tem 
poral throne in Jerusalem. Now I dare not set bounds to the 
counsels of the Almighty, or to the possibility of a national 
instinct fulfilling itself by His permission. But, you see, all 
this kind of expectation has a local and national air ; it dwells 
on outward circumstances rather than on such deeper truths as 
the Father of our spirits and the equal Judge of all may be 
supposed to embody in his designs ; it belongs, in short, to that 
cast of mind, which valued formal observance of the Mosaic 
law, rather than penetrated the depth of the human conscience 
and the truths of sanctity or righteousness which the Eternal 
by His Holy Spirit writes within it. May I not say, such a 
hope is of the earth, earthy? it does not pass within the veil of 
forecasting thought and of sanctifying truth ; hence men who 
so read their ancient scriptures with a dim feeling of the life 
embodied in them, may be said to have a veil before their minds. 



316 JEWISH LITERALISM. 

At least, for eighteen centuries the Jews have more or less 
cherished this local and national or sensuous hope, with no appa 
rent sign of its coming to pass. And although God forbid we 
should speak harshly of men who by suffering and by fidelity 
to their own principles deserve our respect, while many noble 
spirits* among them have risen above the faults of their race, 
yet I may fairly argue that they carry in the Bible which they 
value their own condemnation. For by restricting themselves 
to the national and the literal, they do violence to the deeper 
element which it contains. Hence their Rabbins have become 
proverbial for playing formally with words and texts. Their 
national exclusiveness also (not to speak here of the wrong 
persecutions which have deepened it) would somewhat harden 
them to the broader humanity, which considers all men the 
children of God. But especially we may argue, if their narrow 
and exclusive view of their ancient prophecies be right, then 
their hope has failed. Here, however, is the wonderful spectacle 
of a people homeless, yet boasting a land as the Divine gift; 
and carrying with them everywhere a Book, the spirit of which 
condemns them now, as they acknowledge that its history records 
their punishment of old. I do not however wish to make you 
blame the Jews, who have their own Master in Heaven, but to 
study these ancient writings for which they are witnesses. 

" But now notice this. By the side of the Jews has arisen 
in the world a religion appealing to their books, but giving a 
new interpretation of them. That ancient law of Moses must 
be owned to have stood much in outward precept, and by the 
very minuteness of its ordinances tended to fetter the human con 
science, and so to overlay the perception of deeper truths, which 
requires a certain freedom for its play. There is now a faith 

* Many a Jew may be a truer follower of Christ than formal and literal 
Christians; and whenever "the mind of Christ" is realised in them, there St Paul s 
inversion of the old blessing of Jew and Gentile will apply now to Christian and 
Jew: see Romans ii. 26 29. A little book called "A few Words to the Jews, by 
one of themselves " (London, 1855), seems as if its author read the Old Testament 
by the light of the New. 



CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALISM. 317 

in the world, which acknowledges a holy meaning in the Mosaic 
law, but lays its mental grasp upon the very principles of 
righteousness, reverence, purity, and contrition, which were ex 
pressed in that law in a form suited to the infancy of Man, 
rather than upon the outward adaptation of these things in the 
letter. It fully acknowledges the religion of the Israelites to have 
been divine in its inner mind, yet affirms that the Jews are 
wrong in now clinging to its outward letter. Incidentally, 
indeed, we Christians who hold this newer faith, affirm the 
Israelites of old to have fallen often from the mere letter ; as for 
instance, they were guilty in some stages of their history of 
idolatry, and in others were betrayed into the common sins of 
men, which were aggravated by express command against them. 
But more especially, we say the Jews have never risen to a full 
conception of the ultimate tendency of their system in the 
Divine design. They think there was some especial favour in 
tended to their race, either for the merit of their ancestor Abra 
ham, or from Divine election. We say they were elected only 
as instruments in carrying out a great drama for the good of all 
nations, who are alike dear to the Father of all. This purpose 
of God, we argue, was veiled from the elder Hebrews in the 
natural course of things, but it came to light in the fuller un 
veiling of His own love which the Eternal God has by spiritual 
development or by fresh communication since given to us. 
They dwell with natural fondness on visible displays of the 
Divine power in leading them wonderfully out of bondage, and 
through enemies, and rivers, and seas, into a promised land. 
We think that wonderful as may be the Providence of God in 
outward act, yet it is far more marvellous in things of the mind. 
The inheritance for which we look to Him is rather the power 
of coming mentally into His presence, and knowing the grace 
and truth of things unseen with which He encompasses our 
spirits. Our greatest enemies are not Ammonites and Moabites, 
so much as evil passions, and all the forms of sin and of 
suffering which come together. It is not what happens to the 



318 BODY AND SOUL. 

body which we dread so much as what hurts the soul. Our 
warfare is not so much in time and in external act, as in the 
presence of eternity, and in thought and intention of will. It is 
not by change of place that we draw near, so much as by 
opening the eyes of our understanding to that which is about 
our path and about our bed, but which without holiness no 
man sees. Instead of local temple, we put the power of lifting 
up pure hands in prayer everywhere. Our sacrifice is not 
bloodshedding, but consecrating ourselves and our lives to do 
the will of God. And as His will may often be the subjugation 
of something evil in us. so our victory must often be over 
ourselves, or consist simply in yielding. Our most perfect 
Priest will be He who most thoroughly makes this offering; 
Not my will, but thine. Our Prophet will not be one who 
predicts external events, except so far as these are bound up 
in Divine righteousness, but rather one who utters truths to 
which the heart makes answer. So our highest King will not 
be one ruling by might, so much as some representative of a 
dominion over mind ; one who rules by thought, or by truth, 
or right. And although we believe that they who accept such 
a spiritual rule, will by meekness give least offence to man, and 
so inherit any land they are cast upon, yet our inheritance of 
highest promise must be something which concerns the immortal 
in us, whether a place of sight, or rather a state of mental 
fellowship with One w r ho upholdeth our souls in life. All 
earthly things become sacred to us, in proportion as they are 
witness or symbols of that which is eternal. Thus, however 
wonderful the history of the Jews was in itself, we find its 
higher significance even for outward life in those truths which 
lay behind its precepts, and for the inner life of the soul, by 
translating its events into thought, or taking them as signs of 
mental things, which more truly concern our peace. Not that 
thus we undo the facts, but we enter into the meaning of the 
great Spirit who permitted them, just as we learn a man s mind 
by studying its expression in his conduct. We take the letter 



HISTORICAL TENDENCY, DIVINE DESIGN. 319 

as a comment on Divine Providence in outward act, and find in 
the spirit an index to thoughts which concern the soul. 

" The promises to Abraham, then, belong, as we think, to 
whoever reproduces the type of Abraham s faith. The Israel 
of the future is, in the Divine goodwill, all mankind ; and in 
effect, that company of upright men which suffers itself to be 
guided by the Divine Spirit. The Messiah, or truly anointed 
in meaning, is not any one set apart by external ceremony, so 
much as one consecrated by a gift of power from on high to 
a holy mission, and fulfilling it with devoted mind. It may be 
be argued against us, that the language of the Old Testament 
was not intended by its writers in this largeness of meaning. 
But we cannot help seeing that there would be a natural ten 
dency for thoughts such as theirs to grow up and enlarge them 
selves. They could not conceive deeply of goodness and equity 
in God, but such conceptions, when once put forth, would become 
extended to all objects capable of benefiting by these Divine 
attributes, as well as to the persons whose consciousness of them 
had embraced only a narrower circle of operation. It may be 
that the human agents or speakers saw but a little way ; and 
so the fullest sense entertained by them may be but human 
imagery of the Divine plan, which yet extended itself by their 
means. Their consciousness, however, does not limit the Divine 
intention, which is not to be measured by what they said, so 
much as what their sayings tended to, and by what has actu 
ally come about in the world. For there is nothing done for 
good on a large scale, but what the Governor of the world first 
thought. Now it is manifest that the sayings of the Hebrew 
prophets have had a large development in fact ; and it is upon 
our spiritual extension of them that the widest belief of the 
world is being fashioned. And as this actual result is to firm 
believers in the foresight of the Almighty no slight indication 
of what He must have designed, so, on finding it evidently 
better for the welfare of mankind, we judge it most consonant 
with His goodness ; and we assent from goodwill, as well as from 



320 KING, PROPHET, PRIEST, IN LETTER AND SPIRIT. 

necessity. For what if a powerful Hebrew nation were built 
up in Palestine, and their king extended his sway over the 
world? We should be none the better for another great con 
queror, nor would an universal monarchy, which must produce 
all the faults of prosperity in the dominant nation, be any bless 
ing to others, even if it were to themselves. Or what if one or 
more prophets should give minute pictures of earthly events to 
come? This would at best gratify mere curiosity, and perhaps 
impede exertion; thus complicating human affairs, while it would 
turn our thoughts from things eternal. Or what if priests should 
offer sacrifices of blood on altars at Jerusalem ? We see man 
kind already grown, under Divine guidance, out of the thought 
that such a slaying is the truest hallowing in the sight of God. 
Your case of Sunah-sephas is not uninstructive here. I do not 
doubt, on comparing the Rig- Veda with the Vishnu Purana, 
that human sacrifices were practised by your very remote 
ancestors, and that the story of Sunah-sephas points to a time 
of their being abolished. Nor is it without meaning that the 
hymn which promises the release of the human victim is said 
to have been taught him by Viswamitra. For this is the name 
of a king who opposed the Brahmanical caste ; and it is by a 
kind of revolt of humanity, under the Spirit of God, against 
the professional formalism of a priesthood, that steps in the 
purifying of religion are gained. The Greeks have something 
of the same kind implied in their story of the princess Iphi- 
genia, who in the older accounts was said to be slain ; but as 
growing humanity revolted at the thought, she was said to have 
been snatched by Heaven from the altar. So when the Hebrew 
Abraham was tempted to sacrifice his son, his willingness to 
surrender to God his dearest was tested, but his fatherly instinct 
was not shocked, because such offerings of human victims were 
common in the land. But he was justified, that is, God was 
well pleased with him, not because of finishing a bloody deed, 
but because of his faith*, and by faith he knew the love of God, 

* Romans iv. 318: Psalms xl. 6, 7 ; 1. 8 14; li. 16: Hebrews xiii. 15, 16. 



SACRIFICE IN LETTER AND SPIRIT. 321 

and that He is pleased with other sacrifices*. Thus, in many 
countries we see manslaughter, which had been intended as the 
offering of the best, giving way first before a higher conception 
of God our Father ; and in most, as in India among yourselves, 
this improvement continues, until no blood of any animal is 
shed in worship, but the life of the worshipper is dedicated to 
welldoing, and the incense of his heart goes up as prayer. 
Only among barbarous Mlechchas, such as the Khonds, ruder 
notions find still a more bloody expression. 

" But now, how much better for mankind is the Christian 
growth into that thought and feeling which suggested the 
Hebrew prophecies, than the Jewish attempt to stand fast by 
the written law ! All nations must be happier in proportion as 
a dominion of the highest right and goodness extends itself over 
their thoughts, thereby fulfilling on earth the kingdom of God. 
All men must become wiser in proportion as a clear mental 
sight of the Divine laws takes the place of anxiety about external 
events, and as a speaker of truth in meekness awakening the 
answer of conscience, and urging the heart to action, is allowed 
to be emphatically a prophet or forth-teller of the mind of the 
Heavenly Spirit. So in proportion as we come, with a feeling 
of the sanctity of life, to do the Divine will in ourselves and to 
others, we become a spiritual priesthood. These three fulfil 
ments of the king, the prophet, and the priest, whom the old 
prophets described as having an unction of office, are far better 
than falling back upon force, or curiosity, or ritual. These also 
are being fulfilled in event daily, and were therefore the things 
essentially intended by the Divine author of the drama, however 
imperfectly the human players understood it. 

"What then is the substance of this Christian religion, 
which we contend to be the natural fulfilment to which the 
religion of the Jews had a tendency of old? Or, to speak 
differently, what were the thoughts with which Judaism was 
pregnant, and which have come to birth in Christianity ? We 

* Hebrews x. 9 ; xiii. 16. 
M. P. 21 



322 CHRISTIAN PRAYER. HEBREW LAW. 

cannot answer this better, than by taking the prayer which all 
Christians everywhere use, and which expresses the thoughts 
of the Founder of their faith in His own words. This prayer 
Jesus Christ taught His followers : 

Our Father, which art in heaven, 

Hallowed be thy name ; 

Thy kingdom come; 

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven : 

Give us this day our daily bread ; 

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass 
against us ; 

And lead us not into temptation, 

But deliver us from evil : 

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever 
and ever. Amen. 

" The meaning of this prayer will come out more fully, if 
we look at the principal commandments in which the will of 
Jehovah was expressed by Moses. They are these : 

1. Thou shalt have none other Gods but me. 

2. Thou shalt not make images to worship. 

3. Thou shalt not lift God s name over falsehood. 

4. Keep holy the day of rest. 

5. Honour thy father and thy mother. 

6. Thou shalt not kill. 

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

8. Thou shalt not steal. 

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness. 

10. Thou shalt not desire what is thy neighbour s. 

" Like the wise Hindu, who told the Athenians that it was 
not possible to know human duties without knowing Divine 
things, you see, Moses begins with the fear of God. His God 
is the Eternal Being, by whose will all things stand. And as 
there is no greater sign or cause, than idolatry is, of men s 
losing the conception of pure Spirit, so this is the first thing 
jealously forbidden. For this entails a blindness from fathers 
to children, which degrades nations both in worship and right 
eousness. But where there is a pure mental conception of our 



HEBREW LAW. 323 

Divine Ruler, it begets a sense of responsibility fruitful in 
virtues. So out of sanctity will come truthfulness ; and thus 
the legislator goes on to forbid false-swearing as not only deceiv 
ing man, but as mocking our invisible Judge. Again, a part 
of religion is humanity ; and so a convenient day is appointed 
for the labourer to rest, and for all men to reflect, and for earthly 
anxiety to have intermission of thoughtfulness and prayer. Then, 
as God has made our parents both the first ministers of His gifts 
to us, and our first teachers in things wholesome, so that the 
life of men, and consequently of nations, will take a tinge from 
them at its commencement, so human duty is made to begin with 
honouring them. Then come the great sanctities of our social 
state ; the life which God gives us, the marriage which He blesses, 
the property which He sanctions, the character which He bids 
us respect both in ourselves and others, being all hedged round 
with prohibitions of wrong. Certainly these simple command 
ments are more striking to the general mind of a nation than 
any wise speculations about morals ; and yet, though a little 
child understands them, they imply principles which a philo 
sopher might draw out, and acknowledge to be deep in the 
nature of things. These principles were indeed the cement of 
Hebrew society ; and in their strength the nation maintained its 
unity, with partial interruption, for about fifteen centuries ; while 
even now its descendants have a bond of coherence, and a 
capacity of personal (or even of national) revival, in the re 
membrance of these things, and in the moral strength which 
comes of them. Nor is it a slight consideration, into how many 
lands these precepts have been carried, and how many realms 
have adopted them, not only into their laws, but among the first 
principles to which the rest of the code must conform itself. So 
that, though the Hebrew polity has passed away, that which its 
framers felt of the eternal breathing of God lives on, and passes 
into the intellectual being of nations yet to be. Now it is not 
easy to suppose that words of such power did not come out 
of something deeper ; or that the feelings which they tend to 

212 



324 HEBREW LAW. 

awaken were not apprehended by whoever originally spoke 
them. But yet, so long as you look at the words themselves, 
they have something negative in their tone. They prohibit evil, 
rather than express good. Thus they dwell in the sphere of 
external law, which limits with threats, but does not implant 
life by goodness. Even of the Eternal God, there is little 
written, beyond His name, which should draw us to Him. Only 
there is a warning not to stray from Him. The second and 
third precepts have each a sanction of penalty, appealing to 
fear; and though fear may be a necessary step among our 
motives, yet it is a low one. The fourth precept speaks merely 
of keeping the day holy, instead of pointing out the good uses 
it may be turned to. We need not wonder, therefore, that to the 
old Jews, who were worshippers of the letter, one day seemed 
holier than another, though to Christians, whose law is the Holy 
Spirit, it never can appear so. Even the fifth precept, though 
expressing one of the deepest natural truths, has yet a mere 
temporal reason attached to it. The four next are merely pro 
hibitive, and it is only in the last that there is a dim prophecy 
of the truth, how all our actions have root in thought, and how 
out of an evil or good heart proceed the issues of death or life. 

" Look now at the more hearty rendering of the above things 
into prayer, which appears in the great devotional symbol of the 
Church of Christ everywhere. Our Father, which art in heaven. 
Who does not love his own father, of whom he comes, and of 
whom he has everything, and by whom he is loved beyond 
expression? But we have in the pure world of thought, One, 
of whose counsel all earthly fathers come, and in whose un 
searchable depth all the fountains of human compassion have 
their rise. Nothing is greater than its only Source; nor can 
the love or wisdom of Man be more loving or wise than God. 
How then can we have any other gods but this One, who in 
vites us by such a name ? Thus He persuades us more strongly 
to abide by Him, than any penalty for leaving Him. There 
could be no greater loss than to lose Him. We want no other 



CHEISTiAN PRAYER TO ONE UOD. 325 

God than one who both fills our affections, and enables us to 
feel them. Thus the faith of Christ fulfils the spirit of the 
commandment, and abolishes its letter. Again, no Christian 
can well say, My Father, for He is to all of us Ours. Thus 
we are assured, that He loves not only each of us, but all. So 
long then as we remain His children in the cast of our minds, 
we cannot wilfully injure those whom He joins with us in a 
brotherhood, as saying alike, Our Father. Hence alone might 
come every duty and love to man. This the Hebrew prophets 
began to feel, when they said, l Have we not all one Lord and 
Father? why deal we treacherously every man against his 
neighbour*? But this doctrine of love was in the Divine 
thought before the enactment of law, and goes beyond the 
sphere of written law in development. Then, lest human 
images should mislead us, and we should forget soberness in 
prayer, we are reminded that God is our Father in heaven. Here 
might come in all your reasonings about time and place and 
limit, as inapplicable to that which is above, and beyond, and 
before them. But in the Hebrew prophets it is also written, 
Do not I Jill heaven and earth ? saith the Lord "f . Nor is any 
doctrine more fundamental to Christians than that God is a 
spirit : and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit 
and in truth. "We therefore transplant the Divine presence 
into thought, no less than yourselves ; but how could we convey 
to others an impression of the ineffable majesty, except through 
words which have images to the senses ? You have spoken of 
Swarga, when you meant rather blessedness. So I suppose, our 
own Master, in teaching us to say, Our Father, which art in 
heaven, meant to invest the great God with every attribute of 
tenderness and sublimity, bringing Him near to sustain us, but 
leaving Him far off to understand. Thus if Christian faith has 
confidence, it has also reverence. 

"We see this more in the second petition: Hallowed he thy 
name. The Law had forbidden to lift up the name of the Lord 

* Mai. ii. 10. t Jer. xxiii. 24. 



326 GOD S HOLINESS. 

over falsehood. But the Christian prayer teaches more widely 
that God is in Himself the Holy One, and that what belongs to 
Him should be hallowed. With such a feeling we become fully 
aware of His presence ; and since from this and from His govern 
ment nothing is excluded, so all things assume in one sense a 
consecration in so far as they do what He intended them for, 
and in another sense are subordinated, so that we dare not give 
them what belongs to Him. In His light we see light, and all 
things put on their proper forms and bearings. This petition 
then renders needless both the second commandment of the 
Jews, and the two next which followed it : for we cannot while 
we gaze mentally on the Eternal Spirit, and bear His image in 
ourselves, bow down to idols of wood or stone, nor can we, even 
though not uttering His name, speak falsely within the illimit 
able range of His consciousness, seeing that He is the eternal 
Truth ; nor can we either think one day in itself holier than 
another, since all days are the Lord s ; nor yet can we forget 
those blessed ends of quietness and thoughtfulness and prayer, 
for which one day was of old consecrated, and for which it may 
be convenient that pious consent should persuade us still to 
make fit occasions. But we carry everywhere and always, with 
the echo of this prayer in our heart, an aversion to whatever 
worldly thing would blind us to the most Holy Spirit, and a rever 
ence for truth, and a consecration of all our time and thought. And 
as the Jew set some things apart to be called holy by outward 
consecration, we make all things holy inwardly, and then leave 
them to be naturally called so. Nor yet is this extension of 
sanctity a thing of gloom ; for He who loves us, and calls Him 
self our Father, and who gives even the kitten its play and the 
bird its song, leaves to our manhood as well as to our childhood 
whatever refreshment is innocently wholesome. Only, as inno 
cence is but for a short time and imperfectly the lot of men, so 
they learn to deepen it with watchfulness into holiness. So the 
Christian prayer fulfils more widely the prophetic tendency of 
the old Hebrew precept, both having come from one Holy 



FAITH IN GOD S KINGDOM AND WILL. 327 

Spirit, but the riper growth having a deeper drinking into His 
meaning. Our life has become a sabbath, and our heart an 
altar, and the whole world a temple, in which the living God 
dwells. 

" Our two next petitions are, Thy kingdom come; thy will be 
done in earth, as it is in heaven. Here especially comes out that 
great principle of faith, which is the mainspring of Christianity. 
For here we are led beyond things visible which surround us 
with imperfection, into the thought of things intended, and to 
come. The first petition deals more with morality, or doing 
right to man, and the second more with religion, or the love of 
God. We cannot pray either of them rightly, so long as violence 
and fraud and superstition and sin and pain seem to us truly 
natural, or as having a divinely-appointed place in the world of 
God. They both imply that the higher and more blessed 
thought of our Maker is destined to overcome all hinderances, 
or to vanquish every enemy, by shaping the course of things 
seen more into the harmony of things eternal. The tyrant must 
not always oppress ; the slave must one day go free ; the 
worship of the Father of our spirits must not for ever be mingled 
with lies ; ignorance must not cover the nations ; men must not 
by sin entail suffering and shame, and charge their own short 
comings on the design of Him that made them : but freedom 
and truth and peace must go forth evolving themselves, and 
conquering, with subordination only to the law of the Highest 
Being ; and the knowledge of whatsoever things are pure and 
amiable and of good report, must cover our earth, as the waters 
cover the sea. Then truly God will reign, not in visible pomp 
of earthly monarch, but by pervading men s thoughts with a 
knowledge of truth, and a willing obedience to right. The 
coming of such a kingdom we pray, and by praying bind our 
selves to strive for. Thus by faith we vanquish the imperfec 
tions of sight, and become fellow-workers with a most loving 
Master in bringing about that good of men, which He desires, 
and which will turn to His glory. In some such hope of faith 



328 FAITH IN GOD S KINGDOM AND WILL. 

the Apostles of old went forth preaching, the prophets spoke 
truths which the world will not let die, .and all holy sufferers 
for righteousness sake have fought a good fight. Thus they 
have thrown a fire upon earth which has not been quenched, 
and their winged thoughts have been seeds in the minds of men. 
But it is especially in the second of these two petitions that we 
rise by faith out of the region of sense, into that of pure mind. 
We here see as it were, though we speak in simple words, those 
heavenly shapes after which earthly beauty is moulded, of which 
Plato in his parables spake ; for we conceive of the holiest will 
of God as having thoughts creative of good, and as forecasting 
happiness with right in His world ; and in whatever degree the 
largeness of the scale, or the clash of relations, and impedi 
ment of circumstance, or, not least, the perversity of evil spirits 
working in men, may have prevented the good design from 
coming to perfection like rugged marble which has not obeyed 
the shaping hand of the sculptor we pray to God that all these 
things may be overcome, and that He would not cease working, 
until all His thought comes to light in act, and the trial of 
truth ends in victory. Doubtless, by such prayer we help for 
ward the design in at least ourselves ; for we become more con 
scious of the fitness of obeying the holiest dominion, and the 
madness of resisting it even in thought. Those who pray such 
prayers so as to mould their own mind in like shape, have no 
need of any of the remaining commandments of the Jews; for 
they could neither dishonour parents, nor violate life, or marriage, 
or property, or good name, without sinning against the manifest 
design of our Maker, and tampering with the play of the better 
motives, which He has appointed fruitful tendencies to good. 
Their life has regard to all such sanctities, because it has at 
heart a seed of living law which compels them by love. 

" But until the kingdom fully come, since things which 
oppose it are not evil in their own essence, but become so 
by misapplication, or confusion of relation, so we trust that 
God will overrule even the working of these to good. Thus 



INDIAN ANALOGIES. 329 

of pain, the capacity of winch must be coextensive with that 
of pleasure, we trust that it is often a remedy, or at least a 
warning. Perhaps even sin*, though it must have remorse 
before it can be healed, yet is bound up with the knowledge of 
good as well as of evil, the tree which bears two opposites 
having one stem ; and at least of all other things, except sin, 
we hope that their seeming clash will be harmonised, and the 
play of opposites be a development of what is best. Thus, if 
our prayer teaches striving for the will of God in action, it leads 
also to submission in suffering; and our faith is in one sense 
a lifelong stretching forward with earnest expectation to some 
glory to be revealed, yet in another sense a bowing down in 
meekness under the will which we desire done, not only around 
us, and by us, but even in us. 

" Such a faith as this has much in common with the best 
wisdom of India, It owns with Capila, that the world which 
now is, represents but imperfectly the goodness we would gladly 
ascribe to the highest Iswara ; but then it refuses to conceive 
of these things as the end. For it has unlimited trust in the 
illimitable God ; and feeling that the past we see of His works 
is but a speck in the contemplation of eternity, it finds the 
highest reason in stretching itself forward beyond sight into 
that holier kingdom which is yet coming, and which must come 
more perfectly. It believes again with the Vedantists, that 
even now nothing truly exists but what has a root in the 
shaping thought of One Supreme Spirit ; but it refuses to think 
that the clash of evil men s evil wills, and the madness of wrong 
doing, and all ignorance or passion, can have had a place in the 
eternal will of the most Eighteous, and contends rather that all 
such evils come of rebellion or misplacement of that which is 
for an hour, and which has no existence in eternity. For the 
kingdom of God must come. The thought of His will must be 
fulfilled in deed. Nor is such a faith altogether adverse to what 
the Saugata believes of a certain development of intelligence. 

* Sunt, quibus expeclit cadere. St Augustine. 



330 FAITH. REVELATION. 

For certainly God, who is a Spirit, works chiefly by spiritual 
means, and His divine processes must be unsearchable to sense, 
as the thoughts of a human thinker are to sight. Yet Reason 
which infers the thoughts of man, has a kindred sort of logic, 
when in its higher growth as a humble and a loving faith it traces 
from His inworking in the world and in good men the will 
of God. Such an unveiling as it thus obtains of the highest 
mind, is not altogether foreign to its happiest inferences else 
where in the region of thought. Only the knowledge which 
comes in Divine revelation is something higher, and more deeply 
inwoven with our best self, and yet more than any human 
exertion could reach, and so more evidently a gift, or a grace. 
It is an opening of the eyes of the mind, though not one un 
connected with purity of heart, or conscience, and life. But our 
faith chiefly differs from that of the Saugata, in that it would 
feel cheated of its highest and dearest aim, or even of its own 
being, if it could lose sight of that eternal wielder of our des 
tinies, by whom it has life and hope and thought, and by 
virtue of whose will only a better kingdom can come. Again, 
it differs much from parts of the Hindu speculations, in the 
strength of its conception both as to the existing conflict be 
tween the Divine will and the human, and as to the harmony 
which is natural*, and which is to come between them. Hence 
this intense agony or struggle of prayer, of penitence, of action, 
which is eminently the distinctive life of Christianity, though it 
has analogies, and imperfect resemblances which may justify it, 
in the noblest spirits of all nations. 

" Give us this day our daily bread. If a man is so far the 
servant of God, as to have prayed deeply the two former 
petitions, he will include in this one the bread of the soul. 
He will pray for holy thoughts, for humane affections, for the 
sympathies of home and country, for wholesome food to his 

* By natural is meant not any sinking of a higher being, as of a reasonable 
agent, under the play of animal or physical impulses, but that which God intended 
to be or grow after its kind in each part of his creation, whether inert or animal in 
the lower, or thoughtful and affectionate in the higher. 



NEEDS OF BODY AND SOUL. 331 

intellect, and for happy memories to dwell upon. Also in 
simpler meaning lie will own that good Providence which fills 
all things living with plenteousness. He will learn from the 
phrase daily bread how few are the wants which God has made 
natural to us. Nor will he forget that in asking on account of 
these he binds himself to such labour as may innocently satisfy 
them. Thus by bidding us pray for simple things, the Allwise 
teaches us to restrain that greediness which covets many, and 
in one prayer suggests temperance, labour, and may I not add 
charity? For as our prayer is all along in the name of many 
children, we could not innocently ask the Father to help others, 
if we were not willing to aid in such a design. The simplicity 
of human life, its dependence on the Divine bounty, the beauty 
of thankfulness, and the duty of sober honesty for ourselves, 
and of beneficence to others, should come before our minds, that 
we may present them to Heaven in these few words. 

" And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that 
trespass against us. If in one clause the Christian prayer has 
looked around to our bodily wants, it soon returns to the deeper 
things of the soul. It teaches us to feel that the greatest 
hinderance to God s more perfect dominion, and to the coming 
forth of His design in beauty, is not so much the constitution of 
the world, as the working of an evil spirit in ourselves. It takes 
hold of that sense of having fallen from our own better mind, 
which deepens in men in proportion as they conceive worthily 
of what goodness is. Thus here too our prayer implies faith in 
the real difference between right and wrong, and faith in the 
righteous attributes of the Almighty, as one who has established 
an everlasting law. If men not hardened are ashamed of doing 
wrong, and feel self-reproach at loss of purity, having an un 
easy witness in conscience to what no human eye has seen, 
these things are established by Him who writes His law in 
our hearts. If the sins against which conscience protests, 
disturb also the moral order of the world, they are rebel 
lion against its Governor. If there is a perpetual contrast of 



332 FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 

opposites, in which imperfect good so ranges itself against the 
higher good as to become evil, we cannot take part with the 
enemy, and remain in heart at peace with God. How far have 
you among Hindus a true sense of the evil of all sin, as both 
a breaking of the world s law, and the bringing of discord 
into your soul, and the building up a wall of uneasy mistrust 
between your conscience and that Holy Spirit which the pure 
in heart behold? I should have judged, from the extreme aus 
terities and penance practised both now and of old among your 
countrymen, that God had not spared you this sickness of the 
mind, which He intends as a way of return to deeper health. 
Certainly such a sickness is better than death of the soul to any 
difference between good and evil. Some, however, have said, 
that all your penances are done rather in the way of self-right 
eousness than of contrition; for that you hope to gain reward 
by them, rather than testify your sorrow. If this should be so, 
your religion must have been worked into a worse formalism 
than I am willing to believe. But at least in Christianity there 
is revealed both what God blames and what He approves ; or, 
as St Paul says*, both His wrath and His righteousness. 
Whatever men may call righteous, this blessed sentence is not 
pronounced by Him that searcheth our hearts, either upon 
reckless sin, or upon formal penance, or upon any external rite, 
but upon the entire turning of the heart to Himself, and to His 
holy will. This looking up out of the depth to God is the be 
ginning of being called righteous by Him. Then, as a sense of 
our own unworthiness grows with our sense of His holiness, and 
a sense of our weakness with that of His majesty, so we learn 
that our acquittal before God must ever begin with forgiveness, 
though by the Divine help it may go on to approval. Natural 
then to all men in whom conscience is not quenched, but espe 
cially necessary to the Christian, is this cry, Forgive us our 

* See Romans i. 18; iii. 21, 2-2; which are explained by St Luke, xvi. 15. 
Whoever finds the sayings of the Epistles hard, should compare them with the 
plainer ones of the Gospels. 



FOEGIVENESS OF SINS. 333 

trespasses. We say this as little children at our mother s knee, 
and we find no reason to cease saying it in our old age. But 
the same unveiling of God to our mind s eye, which contrasts 
His holiness with our sin, assures us also of our forgiveness in 
His love. He is represented by our faith as one who frankly 
forgives ; and we are assured that the only condition He re 
quires for this is that fitness of heart on our part, without which 
the other cannot be, but the beginning of which is attested even 
by our prayer, and the perfecting of which will be our health 
and our reconcilement to God. So great may seem the gulf to 
cross, for those who have sinned deeply, or who repent deeply, 
that I can never wonder at any awful austerities which in India 
or elsewhere men may inflict upon themselves in seeking a 
bridge of atonement. But now consider, how can such things 
bring us nearer to God? Suppose, first, that they are done by 
way of repairing any wrong to our fellow-men. In this case they 
are morally right, and where feasible, are requisite. Suppose, 
secondly, that they have the nature of prayers or sacrifices, 
which both express and deepen our contrition or change of will 
before God. In this case they are religiously right, and are the 
appointed means of cleansing our conscience. Extend the same 
idea a little farther, and suppose them, thirdly, to be dedication 
of ourselves or our substance to some good work, as if, for 
instance, a man should expose himself to contagion of small-pox 
or the plague, for the sake of tending in charity the sick. Here 
also they are very right, and so far as they come of a loving or 
devoted spirit, are doubtless acceptable to God, as well as means 
of improving ourselves. But no rightminded man will claim 
payment for such works of love, which are their own exceeding 
great reward, although God may sometimes honour them with 
an overflow of happiness or accompaniment beyond their efficacy 
as claims. Still less will any deep thinker imagine such works 
which are done only through the Divine help, to be the causes 
of that Divine love, which first gave us the preparation of 
heart to do them. They are not grounds of a forgiveness 



334 FORGIVENESS AND PENANCE. 

which must have preceded them. Nor, as you have justly 
observed, could works done in time merit an eternal reward. 
How far He who is eternal, and to whom the future is as the 
present, may in His wisdom lay a train of conditions, so that 
what are with Him only links and processes may seem to us 
for a moment superficially causes, inasmuch as they may be 
indispensable, I will not too nicely argue. But certainly what 
we feel to be Divine gifts to us are not grounds of meritorious 
claim upon the Giver. They would lose even their animating 
spirit, and the glory would perish from them, if they were done 
mercenarily, or in proud self-esteem. Nor, as you will own, 
could we ever do enough to be more than unprofitable servants 
to Him whose right in us is as infinite as Himself. Such 
things then may come after the forgiveness of sins as its fruits, 
its witnesses, and I would not mind saying its indispensable 
conditions ; but we must find in the very offering of them to God 
our happiness, and bless Him for them, rather than make them 
precedents to His forgiveness, or claims upon His favour. 

" But I have been speaking of good works as the sacrifices 
of a thankful heart, and even such I have denied to be properly 
propitiatory, or independently meritorious. I wish you to con 
sider hereafter, how far you go along with such an idea, as your 
language might partly imply, or whether you have never risen 
to the full Christian conception on this point. But now suppose, 
fourthly, that the things pleaded as grounds of Divine favour 
are not good works, so much as formal penances, and austerities 
of self-inflicted pain. Such seems, to strangers at least, to be 
too much the character of the Hindu asceticism and mortifica 
tion. In so far as this is so, your own better wisdom should 
teach you, that such miserable efforts of us worms of an hour 
cannot merit eternal reward. But I go farther, and maintain, 
they are not even pleasing to God, but injurious to His holy 
name. For men who torture their bodies till they become use 
less, unfit themselves for active good in the world, which is the 
Lord s, and the fulness thereof. They increase pain, which is 



JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 335 

against His "blessed design, and so they obstruct His kingdom, 
and enlarge that of the enemy. They cannot even change the 
Eternal Mind, which is without shadow of changing ; still less 
increase His love to them, which was infinite from the begin 
ning. Kather see if they do not run counter to His love, which 
wills their good, and so dishonour Him by an unchildlike 
mistrust of our Heavenly Father. If He sees pain necessary for 
us, He can send it at His will, which in every way we pray may 
be done. But if you introduce it in self-will, and beyond the 
necessities of right nature, which is the embodiment of His law, 
consider if you are not wandering greatly from His mind. 

" I wish I could persuade you, my dear friends, how much 
better than all this will-worship of self-inflicted torture, is that 
clear unveiling of the Divine love, which shews God as the 
Author and Giver of all good things to soul as well as body, 
and as more ready to hear than we are to pray. In such a faith 
the Christian is taught to say in simplicity, Forgive us our 
trespasses. The heart which breathes this prayer in confidence 
of its being after the Divine Will, and therefore granted, is, in 
the language of technical theologians, justified by faith, and 
by that better breathing of God which has guided it so far, is 
led on into all holy impulses and deeds. That these things are 
so, is to Christians who live by their Lord s prayer, guaranteed 
in the following clause, as we forgive them that trespass against 
us. Here the Divine Wisdom teaches us how simple is the 
condition of our being forgiven in Heaven. Here also is revealed 
enough for our practical guidance, of the causes of misery in the 
world. Through pride we are angry and revengeful ; through 
anger and revenge, all war and mischief from man to man come, 
like evil Kakshasas, into the fair garden of delight which God 
had planted. All things wild and tempestuous in nature are 
more easily controlled by law, than the agitated heart of man, 
whose immortal being makes his capacity for evil as boundless 
as for good. Yet the strongest passions may be tamed by that 
instinct of fear, which is a part of the law of self-preservation. 



336 JUSTIFICATION. SANCTIFICATION. 

Thus then God tames our wrath to our fellows, by revealing to 
us the possibility of what may fall upon ourselves. If we forgive 
not, neither are we truly praying to be forgiven. But if the sins 
which so easily encompass us, and the adherent infirmities of 
our life, are reckoned against us, and much more, if our pre 
sumptuous violation of our better minds, and all the secrets of 
our heart, are brought to inexorable account in the light before 
which all thoughts are open, we may truly ask, who shall stand ? 
Yet frank forgiveness of God will not save us from such a trial, 
unless we forgive them that trespass against us. And as such 
a terror may with even the hardest natures impose the necessity 
of forgiving others, so to nobler spirits, and perhaps to all men 
once softened by an unveiling of the infinite compassion of our 
Heavenly Father, the sense of being forgiven is a more gracious 
persuasion to forgive. Thus the milder virtues, such as in 
India you seem to value, come out eminently in the religion of 
Christ. For as no other faith has so full a persuasion of that 
love of God which passeth knowledge, no other is so naturally 
fruitful in thoughts of kindness and words of meekness, and in 
well-doing to men. Such was the natural tendency, and such 
is in experience the fruit of a faith which more than any other 
in the world exalts both the dread holiness of God, and His 
infinite tenderness ; which abases man by a sense of sin, and 
exalts him by assurance of forgiveness and which, shrinking 
from the pride of putting our creature frames on a level with the 
very substance of the Creator, yet by participation of the holiest 
breathing, and so by a fellowship of spirit, binds all men into a 
brotherhood, as children of our Father which is in Heaven. 

" And lead us not into temptation. If God justifies us freely 
by His grace, not putting down our human infirmities in a 
vindictive reckoning, but blotting them out with a frank for 
giveness, we have need that by the same grace He should guide 
us into holiness. As our technical theologians say, we must 
not only be justified, but sanctified. Nor indeed would the 
cleansing of our conscience be complete, unless our minds were 



SANCTIFICATION GRACE. 337 

hallowed by an implanting of that likeness to God, which He 
intended them to bear. So long as our consciousness is darkened 
by a sense of something in us, the knowledge of which it 
shrinks from sharing with the Searcher of our spirits, so long 
.we are neither at peace with ourselves, nor with that Highest 
Being. The barrier thus raised between us and Him is but of 
thought, and yet we shrink from passing it. Then a sort of 
burthen bows us, so that we cannot lift our mental gaze into 
the highest Heaven. It is this sense of separation at heart 
from that which of all things we have the greatest need to turn 
to, which has lain heavier on many men than the dread of 
penalty, though that too might be felt. Whereas if any one 
could raise our life into harmony with our thought, and make 
our performance equal our aspiration, we should no longer shrink 
from the eye which reads our thoughts, but the Divine presence 
would be our infinite stay, instead of a thing to be at war with, 
or to tremble at. But such is our weakness, that this seems 
humanly not possible. Our very knowledge comes through 
many steps of ignorance ; and thus conspires with impulses, 
w T hich go wrong in striving to fulfil an instinct that yet ought 
to find fulfilment. Things which, moderately enjoyed, should 
have been for our health, become, when snatched at with 
greediness, occasions of our falling. We avoid dangers, as of 
society and lightness, and thereby run into greater, as of 
solitude and moroseness. Our activity risks mischief, and our 
quietude has the contempt of uselessness. What crimes do 
not come of starvation, ignorance, and passions differing only 
in name from insanity ! Thus blameable as men become, their 
sins are so bound up in the mystery of a free agency limited 
by forces far vaster than itself, that we feel the sentence of 
God to be according to truth, when He compassionates us 
rather than blames. Our faith then looks up to Him for alli 
ance in the warfare in which we are engaged, and for safe 
guard against temptation. Partly we ask Him to govern the 
changes and chances of our outward life, and partly to mould 
M. p. 22 



338 GRACE. 

the framework of our mind. Nor is it easy to define, how much 
help comes to us in the way of providence, and how much 
by more immediate gift, or by what Christians call grace. In 
whatever way thoughts are suggested to us, as now by outward 
event, or by teaching, or experience, and again by deeper im 
pulse of the mind, which has laws and processes harder to trace, 
lying as they do beneath our more distinct consciousness, yet 
every good instance of such suggestion comes of the Divine gift. 
Only as Christians conceive of the body as the soul s instrument 
rather than its master, and of action as properly generated from 
within rather than from without, so they magnify the Divine 
guidance in its more secret workings (whatever method may 
regulate them) upon the soul, rather than in its lessons from 
outward events. The more, however, we know of the way in 
which thought is generated within us, the more easily we con 
ceive how the Spirit of God may guide us. Even the sense of 
His favour is alone a kind of life. Like a man bound for death 
among cruel enemies, if he hears words of hope from some 
sudden ally, springs into a resistance which otherwise he had 
not courage for, so the poor soul of man, bewildered by tempta 
tions, and fettered by circumstance as if in a net, so soon as it 
sees clearly that it has an everlasting Helper, shakes away all 
bonds of evil habit, and starts on a fresh course of well-doing, 
with faith as an invincible shield over its weakness. Again, 
even in some worse moment of wandering, the remembrance of 
a Heavenly Father, whom he had once known, may come upon 
a man like a familiar eye in a strange place, and recall him by 
a reproof without voice, the infinite pity of which is stronger 
than blame. Nor is it the least preservative from evil, that 
when our Divine Master employs all our powers in some good 
work, we have less leisure to go astray, and that dangerous 
faculty of imagination is shut up from the sallies into which it 
is ever apt to tempt us forward. Again, to be watchful, as he who 
prays for the Divine countenance should needs be, against little 
sins, is to win half the battle against great ones. By holy 



SALVATION. 339 

prayers good impulses are fostered, and out of impulses are 
moulded habits, which make strong. Thus in many ways, 
which better people could describe better, we believe that God 
leads us not into temptation. Such therefore is our daily 
prayer for His grace. 

" But deliver us from evil. You have been curious to know 
whence comes evil ? I have answered, from the largeness of the 
scale of creation and the confusion of relations in it, as when 
things intended for one end turn to another; from the possi 
bilities which must of eternal fitness be implied in the very 
capacities of good, or, in short, from the conditions preliminary 
even to the thought of a world s existence ; from the many ten 
dencies frustrated, or shortcomings in the manifestation of an 
idea which strives to realise itself; and especially from the 
wrongdoing of agents, who cannot rise to their moral stature, 
without freedom of choice, either for right or wrong. It is only 
to be remembered farther, that such agents may choose evil, 
not only amongst mankind, as we see, but amongst the unseen 
beings, whom we may reasonably imagine God to have created 
of every kind, and with powers more or less than our own, in 
the spiritual world. 

" But whatever are the forms of evil, we have an overruling 
Deliverer from them all. First, He lays the axe at the root, by 
persuading us that the greatest mischief is an evil spirit working 
within ourselves. By casting out this from our souls, He takes 
away the seed of many evil fruits. By taking away sin, He 
dries up the source of many sharp pains and pinings. By chang 
ing hatred into goodwill, He takes away envyings, backbitings, 
wars, and murders. By bidding us not be over anxious about things 
that perish, He both calms our own spirits, and cuts away covet- 
ousness and all the fraud and tyranny which come of it. And 
when He persuades us to love our neighbour as ourselves, and 
to be ready to dedicate ourselves as instruments of the Divine 
beneficence to man, He utterly abolishes the self-seeking, or 
self-exaltation, which in one or other of its developments brings 

99 9 

i A4 & 



340 EVIL. 

out the many-headed growth of all human evils. In whatever 
degree, then, we have entered His kingdom of thought and feel 
ing with our minds, and bring out in our actions the design of 
His Will, and ask our daily bread only as He would have us 
seek it, and forgive offences to others because our own are 
forgiven of Him, while by His grace we are led not into temp 
tation, in the same degree we are making effectual our prayer, 
that He would deliver us from evil. Again, as to outward acci 
dents which must needs happen to us in this entangled world, 
not always as we would choose, our Divine Master partly per 
suades us that they are of little moment, as compared to the 
inward peace which He suffers nothing to take from us ; partly 
He even overrules them for good, and makes them instruments 
of our growth ; and, again, He comforts us with a faith that 
even things most adverse are bringing out strength by op 
position, and all discords being blended into a harmony to be. 
The higher, indeed, and the broader our view becomes, the more 
we see already (what He who is without limit to thought is ever 
conscious of) that these oppositions in the world carry on a 
design, of which therefore in a way they are parts. We do not, 
for instance, call matter, or nature, intrinsically evil, seeing that 
it is moulded, however slowly, after a thought, which can only 
be of the highest Being. Hence we so far agree with the 
Acharya, that we have no duality in existence, in the sense of 
two eternally opposing and equally originant Principles, such as 
of good and of evil. For with us too, Good is alone eternal and 
positive, and Evil is its instrument. The opposition therefore 
is but temporary, or seeming ; so far as it is real, it must pass 
away, and so far as it abides, it must effect good. Thus it is a 
beginning of doctrine, with both Israelites and Christians, that 
the eternal God made the worlds out of nothing : not out of evil 
matter, but out of nothing ; for until you imagine goodness un 
derneath as a cause, there is nothing but blank, and no reason 
for anything, such as we find being, to be. How far, indeed, 
the Eternal Spirit should be conceived of as limited by time 



EVIL. 341 

in the effects of His goodness, any more than in its being, or 
whether the effect may for ever have partaken of the eternity of 
its causer, is a question of metaphysics rather than of religion; 
and I will not entangle myself in it. Since, however, that which 
we call evil, comes of eternal possibilities, or of necessities con 
ditional to creation, so it has, in one sense, its root nowhere else 
than in the mind of the Creator. Thus the greatest of the 
Hebrew prophets is not afraid to imagine the Lord God as 
saying, / make peace, and I create evil / / the Lord do all 
these tilings. But in so far as the possibility thus created, or 
conceived, comes of God, it is also a capacity of a preponderat 
ing weight of good ; and so far as it goes off in aberration or 
overflow, its effect is but as a spray of the ocean, which is dried 
up in the sun. Surely, to the eye of true faith the domain of good 
is ever enlarging itself, and that of evil becoming only a field of 
subordinate instrumentalities, and of conflicts which are capa 
cities of something better. Of the physical world this is most 
manifestly true. Thus, if in any ruder age, the storm or the 
darkness should have been thought a messenger of some malig 
nant demon, and nature have seemed as full of Racshasas as of 
deities, even though such a conception should have tinged the 
popular sayings of religious teachers whom we venerate, neither 
our science nor our faith will suffer it to endure. For science 
says, that all storms are parts of the great scheme of nature, 
which its Author must have designed, and experience answers 
that their operation is in many ways wholesome, and our faith 
remembers how the Hebrew Psalmists of old represented storm 
and lightning and earthquake as messengers of Jehovah, and 
how the Hebrew prophet conceives of the same Jehovah as 
saying, I form the light, and I create darkness. In short, the 
earth is the Lord s, and the fulness thereof. Again, in human 
nature, we can strike out* radically no appetite, passion, or 
impulse, without destroying also a capacity for good, which our 

* This topic is handled in the first sermon in a volume called "Rational God 
liness;" London, 1854. 







342 THE ENEMY. 

Maker designed. Only the abuse or perversion of such things 
is evil, and this neither our Maker designed, nor we can inno 
cently fall into, but we avoid it in proportion as we enter His 
kingdom and do His will. But if we, having reason and con 
science and choice, hang back from fulfilling His will in our 
selves, we can neither wonder at senseless elements coming short 
of it, nor complain of hinderances from confusion in the vast 
theatre of their play. 

" Some of the wisest Christians, finding evil thus evanescent 
rather than essential in the scheme of the world, and in human 
nature, so far as its capacities are given by God, think that the 
same vanishing extends into the region of spiritual beings, as 
we learn more of it. Just as the rain-cloud of the Vedic hymns 
was transformed into a giant, and the smallpox is thought by 
some of your simpler people to be a goddess becoming incarnate, 
so agencies which seemed hostile have everywhere been shaped 
by rude imaginations into personalities reflecting that of the 
observer ; and especially in the Zoroastrian lore, the play of 
seeming opposites, such as light and darkness, in nature, sug 
gested an eternal duality of the Good and Evil Spirits. Much 
more in the region of mind, the quick play of thought, and the 
oppositions of passion, conscience, and remorse, suggest a duality, 
as of God and the great enemy. That which seduces, or irritates, 
or alarms and drives to despair with accusations *, may well seem 
a devil, that is, an accuser, or a satan, that is, an enemy. Yet 
such things in the mind, no less than the tempests in nature, 

* The word Devil means an accuser, and Satan an enemy. Both are applied in 
Holy Scripture, often to men; as in Psalm cix. 6, i St Peter v. 8, where the hos. 
tile informer is compared to a roaring lion. Satan also, or his messenger, seems a 
term given to any obstacle in good, as a sickness, or a persecution : also to Death, 
as the last enemy; but in the widest generalisation, to the spirit of all hostile agen 
cies considered collectively ; yet most properly of an evil spirit working in disobedient 
men. No scripture older than the Babylonian exile speaks of S atan as a personal 
demon or fallen angel, unless it be the story of the serpent in Genesis, which the 
Jews did not so interpret, though St Paul, in his manner, adapts it. The Satan to 
Balaam is the angel of the Lord; and in Job is an accusing angel, conceived dif 
ferently from the evil demon, bound in chains and darkness, of a later age. 



j 



THE ENEMY. 343 

may be born out of capacities for good, or be remedies for the 
evil we create to ourselves by sinning. Thus a man inflamed 
with desire, or swollen with anger, or trembling at the dark 
images which accusing conscience conjures up before him, is 
possessed with a legion of evil impulses, which are evil breath 
ings or spirits in him ; but if he could be turned truly to God, 
and sobered by deep penitence, and cleansed by confession, the 
mansions of his soul would be swept clean, and the perversion 
of better things having vanished, the thought of God might 
carry out its own design in the man, and he would be delivered 
from evil. 

" Perhaps the friends of this theory do not quite remember, 
that we acknowledge human agents to have the power of creating 
evil in themselves by the volition of their spirits ; and as this 
does not hinder the design of our Maker from being good, neither 
need it, if a like perversion is self-chosen by spiritual agents 
whom we do not see. Again, as men use the instincts of lower 
animals towards ends which the animals are not conscious of, 
though their agency in the acting is spontaneous, so it is con 
ceivable that malignant spirits might use for ends of their own 
the spontaneous passions of sinful men. But I will not argue this 
nicely; for, no doubt, the field open to such spirits would be 
ever limited alike by the encompassing providence of God, and 
by the determination of our own free will; and again, the 
Christian faith is in God, rather than in any enemy, and not so 
much in evil, as in God s delivering us from it. Some phrases 
current among simpler Christians, may partly come of that per 
sonifying power which must last as long as the human imagi 
nation, and partly be echoes caught lightly from older faiths, 
or times in which the same power was more vivid. Nor does it 
much matter, whether with an eye of imagination tinged by 
sense, we see the great enemy and his armed battalions quailing 
before the host of Seraphim, as in Milton s great poem, or 
whether impalpable evil fades like darkness before our fuller 
consciousness of the outcoming of the goodness of God. In 



344 THE KINGDOM ETERNAL. 

either case, we say, Blessed be God, who putteth every enemy 
under our feet. The last enemy that is overcome is death. 
He who leadeth not into temptation, but delivereth from evil, 
shews also His law pervading all that nature, over parts of 
which a hostile prince was once thought to have power, and 
brings daily more to light His thought evolving itself in man 
kind, and turns hostile accidents to good, or at least makes 
them tolerable by giving us an inward peace ; He also comforts 
us through every bereavement and death, by a persuasion that 
neither height, nor depth, nor life, nor death, nor time, nor eter 
nity, can ever separate us from the embrace of that power which 
made all things to be, and that love which brings all things to 
good. 

" For thine is the kingdom, &c. Here the Christian hope 
of immortality falls in with the great instinct of mankind, and 
the aspirations of most of the noblest reasoners everywhere. We 
shrink from annihilation in death, not only from the animal 
feeling of repugnance to cold obstruction or darkness, but 
because we feel ourselves something more vital than the dust, 
and we grudge to the realm of naught both ourselves and our 
kindred sharers of thoughts which go beyond extinction, which 
therefore we hope the Eternal One, to whom they aspire, has not 
destined to fall from Himself into it. Yet we come in contact 
with death by our bodies, which are made of things perish 
able, and by the experience of bereavement and flux around us, 
and by the consciousness of our depending on a Higher Will, 
and of having fallen short of consonance with that Will in act. 
The more then we escape from the dominion of these bodies, by 
making them vehicles and instruments, rather than masters of 
the higher being encased in them, and the more we are purified 
from evil which is evanescent, and at the same time enter into the 
kingdom of Him who is the Giver and sustainer of life, so much 
the more our hope of some immortality is quickened. For we 
thus bring ourselves within the range of that universal law, that 
what is evil, perishes, and what is good, lives, according to the 



THE KINGDOM ETERNAL. 345 

mind of God which designed it. He that soweth to the flesh, 
of the flesh reaps corruption, but he that soweth to the kingdom 
of God, hath his seed in a soil whose leaves fade not. By par 
taking of the Holy Spirit of God, we partake of those things 
from which death and decay fall away, as having no power over 
them. Our thoughts, we see, do not altogether depend upon 
place, or time, or animal processes ; our feelings of Good and 
Eight apprehend them as things not changeable by any outward 
events ; our faith in Him, whose name is the Eternal, suffers us 
only to conceive of Him as a God of the living, and not of the 
hopelessly dead. Thus we overcome the enemy death. We 
fear not them that hurt the body, but whatever defiles the soul, 
and lessens its kindred to God. We know not indeed the 
precise nature of the life to come. Most Christians think, in 
harmony so far with the Sankhya philosophy, that spirit will only 
have its full consciousness, as of humanity, when embodied in 
some form of matter, however refined and subtle it may have 
become. Others think that this conception of a spiritual body 
is fashioned according to our earthly experience of minds ac 
quiring impressions and developing powers in conjunction with 
material embodiment, but that in the higher kingdom of thought, 
which eye hath not seen the fashion, nor ear heard the sound of, 
the Eternal Lord God, who is Himself a spirit, will waken us 
up after His own likeness, and satisfy us with the pleasures of 
His ineffable countenance. As then we ascribe not body, parts, 
or passions, to the clear Spirit of the primeval Deity, so some 
think these things will not belong hereafter to those who are 
also His offspring, and who will see Him as He is, and be as 
He is. Nor, again, dare I speak too presumptuously of the 
enjoyment of the life to come. Perhaps work of honour and of 
pleasant energy will be for those who have fulfilled the Divine 
thought, and so become perfect in well doing. Perhaps, again, 
as the operation of Deity is silent, and deep beyond sense, 
though not beyond inference of faith, so the life to come of 
spirits made perfect may be thought or contemplation. The 



346 THE KINGDOM SPIKITUAL. 

mere reminiscence of all that has been in our own lives and in 
those of others, and an obligation to watch all the results which 
may still be going on in the world from our own acts, and 
a comparison of our opportunities, when fully explained, with 
our actions, and again a review of the past history of all ages 
laid open before us, and a survey of the daily evolving plan of 
God, with awe- stricken curiosity as some new page of His 
dealings opens before us, may be to good men delight, and to 
those who have fallen into wilful rebellion against the spiritual 
kingdom of God, an unutterable torture. We should have 
fallen far from Christianity, in its better sense, if we were to 
fancy, that the powers of the mind, such as joy, thankfulness, 
love, sympathy, and holiness, were not enough to satisfy the 
blessed, or that the contrary feelings of remorse, shame, self- 
rebuke, and inward strife of surviving passions, could not fill 
to the brim the red cup of misery of those who refused to be 
saved. But, however these things may be, we do not doubt that 
the Lord reigns ; that the kingdom of God is in His clear sight 
for ever come, and, in that of all faithful men, for ever coming ; 
and in whatever degree we may be enabled rightly to enter into 
it, so far, and I suppose, so far only, shall we naturally partake 
of its immortality. Therefore we strive to help forward that 
kingdom of the mind, which, though it ever tends to mould the 
fashion of the outward world after its inner mind, is yet empha 
tically within us ; therefore, I would persuade you, my friends, 
so far as God may permit, to learn what His most acceptable 
and perfect will may be ; and so long as we become truly sub 
ject to God, we are contented with whatever happens. For the 
beginning and the end of our religion is, Not our will, but Thine; 
and we cannot fail of our will being done, so long as it is in 
harmony with the will of the Allrighteous and the Almighty. 
He knows what is best, and chooses it, and is able to fulfil it, 
even to the end. To Him then, even to the only wise God, the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father, be the kingdom, 
and the power j and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." 



SCRIPTURES. 347 

CHAPTER X. 

Christ and His Apostles, and their Doctrine. 

"Behold my servant, whom I uphold ; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth ; 
I have put my spirit upon Him : He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 
He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A 
bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench : He 
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till 
He have set judgment in the earth : and the isles shall wait for His law. Thus 
saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out ; He 
that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it ; He that giveth 
breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein : I the Lord 
have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, 
and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles ; to open 
the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in 
darkness out of the prison house. I am the Lord : that is my name : and my 
glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the 
former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare : before they spring 
forth I tell you of them. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the 
end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein ; the isles, and 
the inhabitants thereof." ISAIAH xlii. I 10. 

"He is despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
grief : and we hid as it were our faces from Him ; He was despised, and we esteemed 
Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows : yet we did 
esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our 
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace 
was upon Him ; and with His stripes we are healed." Id. liii. 3 5. 

"It pleased the Lord to bruise Him ; He hath put Him to grief: when thou 
shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong 
His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of 
the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied : by His knowledge shall my righteous 
servant justify many ; for He shall bear their iniquities." Id. liii. 10, n. 

"One Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." ACTS xxv. 19. 

"When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall 
have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is 
thy victory ? The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But 
thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

I COBINTHIANS XV. 54 57. 

" THUS we have seen," continued Blancombe, " that out of 
the Hebrew history and literature the Christian religion has 



348 PREGNANCY OF JUDAISM. 

grown. Judaism ought to have died, in giving birtli to a child 
thus nobler than itself. For the lesser light is swallowed up in 
the greater. But the Jews in general reject Christianity ; for they 
rightly argue, that it does not correspond with the letter of their 
sacred books ; and they wrongly conclude, that therefore it can 
not be what Almighty God was all along designing. Whereas, 
we conceive, that our eternal Huler s forecasting thought, which 
was implied in the law, and became more distinct in the con 
sciousness of the great preachers of righteousness, came more 
fully to light in the grace and truth which are manifested in 
Jesus Christ. It could not be, that men should always believe 
external rites to have a cleansing power, apart from the feeling 
and life of which they were significant ; or that law, which in 
its proper idea is restraint, and which is concerned generally 
about prohibitions, and always about external acts, should for 
ever seem to them the highest expression of the Will of Him 
who is a searcher of the hearts, and who by His loving-kind 
ness gives every motive of attraction to the will ; nor again, as 
both the range of His providence and the spiritual manner of 
His being became evident to them, could they any longer think, 
that His sun shone only upon Palestine, and that His goodness 
was restricted to one race, or that prayer and praise would not 
be accepted by Him from men lifting up pure hands every 
where. Yet that great Priesthood which so long worshipped 
Jehovah on Mount Zion, was not to die barren ; the strong fore 
bodings of the Prophets, of some glorified Israel to come, must 
find one day a fulfilment; and when the letter of a law had 
educated men (whether it were through observance, or through 
recoil,) into a full intelligence of its meaning, they would both 
know its value as an instrument, and disclaim its dominion as 
an end, having a deeper allegiance to the thoughts which had 
been before, and which would be after it. Again, the slaying 
of animals would come to be felt a burdensome, or even a cruel, 
kind of worship ; yet the contrition and the consecration of life, 
implied in such acts, would come out in the same purer form, as 



CHRISTIAN FULFILMENT. 349 

in the resignation of men under severe pain, or their forbearance 
under injury, and in their dedication of themselves to any good 
work required of them, with such a feeling as is expressed in 
the words, Not my ivill, but Thine. 

"How far we could have anticipated beforehand such an 
outgrowing of the Hebrew polity, is difficult to say. For we 
might have dreaded instead a hardening into sacerdotal or 
formal scripturalism ; and this fear would have been justified 
by the later Rabbinism of the Jews. Still the event of Chris 
tianity shews that the original framework contained, either in 
itself or with the aid of collateral influences, the capacity of such 
a growth ; and, as in human things we judge the author s design 
by the best of which his work is capable, rather than by its 
partial shortcoming, so much more we must ascribe the best 
of worldly events to the counsel of the Almighty. Some of you 
say that the very world is an embodiment of the Divine think 
ing, and in a certain figurative sense I admit this to be so. But 
then, neither can any dispensation of things on a large scale 
have come about, save of that thinking, nor yet can it have 
reached its destiny until it fulfil the highest good to which the 
thinking tends ; still less is the best of its actual fulfilment to 
be deemed no part of the original thought. Christianity then, 
as we say, being the better result of Judaism, must have been 
its destiny, and so is prophesied in a way by whatever pre- 
figurements of it existed, either in germ, or under veil, in the 
earlier dispensation. Nor does it fulfil only what is most signi 
ficant in Judaism, but even in your own religion, and perhaps 
in all. For it mediates between and harmonises them, adding 
to the strong belief of the Hebrew, something of the largeness of 
thought of the Hindu and of the heroic humanity of the Greek, 
while it sobers these with the household virtues of the Roman, 
and with the deeper sense of truth and right, which the Hebrew 
had in his consciousness of having to answer before the Judge 
of the whole earth. Something correspondent to each part of 
its faith may be found in some one of the others, but none of 



350 JESUS CHRIST. 

them so harmonised these as to reach its distinctive character ; 
for it brings God as near to man as is possible without con 
founding the two : it fixes our gaze on immortality, yet so as 
not to forget the world which now is, and it abases by a deep 
sense of unworthiness, in order both to comfort with forgiveness, 
and to exalt with hallowing power. 

" These things may come out more clearly, if I now describe 
the author and the origin of our faith, the doctrines of which I 
have expounded from our Lord s prayer, and which you know, 
as a fact, is established in the Christian Church throughout many 
countries of the world. It was in Judaea, the land in which, of 
all others, the fear of God had been inherited through many 
generations, and where, in that fear, all the ties of human life 
had been consecrated as Divine appointments, and where all the 
fears of the conscience had been expressed in expiatory ritual, 
and all the infinite hopes of the soul in prayer and praise, while 
a wonderful display of providence in history had schooled the 
nation through glory and downfall, there our Saviour, Jesus of 
Nazareth, was born, as the Son of Man. He had in Him the 
fulness of human nature, and inherited with it whatever might 
mark the purest of His race. He was not, therefore, hostile to 
nature, or to humanity. He looked admiringly on the lilies of 
the field ; He entered into the festivities of marriage, and felt 
pity by the bier of death ; He remembered fondly the old glory 
of His country and of her kings ; He shed tears over the city, 
upon which He foresaw that the same immoral fanaticism and 
love of power, which had formerly slain righteous men, would 
soon, in conjunction with narrow obstinacy, bring down a crush 
ing doom ; He loved especially the youngest, and many think the 
fairest, of His disciples ; and before He resigned His spirit into 
the hands of His Heavenly Father, He commended His earthly 
parent to affectionate care. It is clear that there can have been 
no right belief amongst His countrymen, either as to the pro 
vidence of God, or its manifestation in their history, which 
Jesus would not inherit ; while even their temporal or local 



PLACE AND TIME OF INCARNATION. 351 

associations would be things among which He grew up. and 
in accordance with which His hearers would understand His 
language, so that we might expect Him to have employed such 
things in speaking, no less than the native tongue of His country. 
For language in its full extent comprehends popular associations 
no less than words. But besides all this, there dwelt in Jesus 
the fulness of the Divine Truth ; even as the image answers to 
the seal, so was the Truth in Him the l express image* of the 
very being of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity ; 
and having without measure the indwelling of that Holy Spirit 
which joins the Father and the Son, He felt, alike through 
earthly life and in death, His perfect One-ness with the Supreme 
Father. He and His Father were One. 

" The time when Jesus appeared was when the Jews were 
subject to Eome, under the empire of Augustus and Tiberius. 
The loss of their independence galled them; the stricter sort 
were daily more anxious for the continuance of their sacred law, 
which was endangered by contact with foreign manners and 
literature ; hence the zealots were tempted to draw, if possible, 
a stricter f line than ever around the circle which they thought 
holy in proportion as it was narrow, but which, in spite of them, 
widened itself in many men s conceptions : the common people 
were eager to hail any national deliverer who, according to the 
literal hopes of the prophets after the Babylonian exile, should 
build up the throne of David; while the more prudent, and 
those who had rank or Eoman favour to lose, dreaded an out 
break, which could only end in destruction. Those sects or 
bodies of teachers, who adhered strictly to the law, and even 
fenced it round with commentaries, as the Scribes and Phari 
sees \ did, were more popular than the Herodians who courted 
Eome, or the Sadducees whose worldly pride despised spiritual 

* Hebrews i. 3. 

t See the early part of Gfrorer s Urchristentkum, Stuttgardt, 1838. 
+ The word Pharisee is derived from Pharask, to expound ; though from an 
homonymous root it acquired the sense of separate. 



352 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 

things, and despaired of the nation s hope. Yet the zeal of the 
common people did not save them from changes of thought, due 
partly to contact with foreigners, and partly to the fermenting 
of their own minds. The Essenes endeavoured to realise a 
hermit sanctity which the law had not prescribed, and which 
had only few models in their older history. It is probable, that 
foreign (and even Bauddha) influence, caught through Alex 
andria, may have conspired to stimulate this process in Judasa. 
Again, the mutual instruction and free prayer of the synagogue 
must have wrought in men s minds, and supplanted, except on 
rare occasions, the sacerdotal worship of the Temple, though 
they left it a recognised sanctity. On the whole, we see traces 
of an uneasy ferment in the Jewish mind, a longing after the 
Past, yet an awakening of thought which would hardly have wel 
comed its literal resuscitation ; and an intense jealousy of Gentile 
influence, with symptoms that the nation was being imbued by 
it. When Jesus began to teach, (after being preceded by the 
stern preacher John, who was to awaken men s minds to receive 
a new order of things,) He addressed the two great anxieties of 
His countrymen, as if He were about to fulfil their hope. Good 
news, He said, the kingdom of God is coming : And as to the Law, 
He said, I am not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfil. Hence 
both the common people in their simple patriotism, and the 
Scribes in their zeal for the Law, might be expected to welcome 
the new Teacher. 

" But it soon appeared that Jesus would fulfil such hopes, 
not in their letter, but in some higher meaning. One of His first 
sayings is, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom 
of heaven : and one of His last, My kingdom is not of this world, 
which elsewhere He explains, by saying, The kingdom is within 
you. All the blessings mentioned by Him in His first great 
discourse, are ascribed to meekness, purity, hunger for spiritual 
things, and, in short, to what is purest in heart and conscience, 
rather than to kingly pomp and worldly success. Here is 
the whole question raised, whether a kingdom of sword or of 



LAW AND GOSPEL. 353 

thought is the greatest, and whether happiness is most in gran 
deur and animal gratification, or in the health of our better souls. 
All that is best in your Indian wisdom should lead you here 
to take part with Jesus against the worldly and the animal. 
Again, Jesus was on the side of the law, so far as it condemned 
all sin, and subjugated things to God. But so far as it consisted 
of external prohibitions, and readied neither the root of things 
nor their fulness, Jesus abolished it to make room for a higher. 
Moses forbids murder, and adultery, and false swearing. Jesus 
persuades us to put away the thought, the glance*, and the 
profane lightness which grow into such deeds. Moses, who 
deals with outward acts, rightly allows marriage to be dissolved, 
when the love which should bind it is broken ; but Jesus, who 
by His wisdom fashions the thoughts, says, they do wisely and 
holily who love to the end as they began. The Law enjoined 
almsgiving : Jesus persuades us to double our gifts, by hoping 
for nothing again ; thus only can they give us joy in our own 
mind. The Law could assemble men at prayers ; Jesus enables 
us to pray, by putting before our minds a Father who is ready 
to hear, and who giveth more than we desire or deserve. The 
Law gives authority to priests and teachers according to their 
descent or their office ; Jesus requires of them whom He sends, 
the good works which shall shew their calling and sending to 
be of God. The Law required many precepts, some wearisome, 
and some imperfect, and all becoming a burden to the conscience, 
if they even did not darken it by written formalism ; Jesus 
opens a new and living way in our consciences, by summing up 
all in two words, which every one that hears them can apply 
fresh for himself: Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; 
and Love thy neighbour as thyself: and again, Whatsoever things 
ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them ; 
for this is the Law and the prophets. No wonder that such 
teaching seemed different from that of the Scribes ; for they 
could only say, it is written, and it is delivered, not seeing the 

* As Cicero says, "ne imprudentiam quidem oculorum adjici fas? est." 

M. p. 23 



354 THE WOKDS OF CHRIST. 

reason for the precept ; but Jesus draws water from the living- 
fountain of truth ; and His words have a perpetual echo from the 
conscience, which is God s witness in man. 

" Thus Jesus abolished for ever for all believers in His 
truth every law* of the letter; and put in its place a new and 
a living law. But no words are so powerful as His own to 
awaken in our hearts that sense of the unseen which we call 
faith ; by which we see no longer mere precepts, but the reasons 
for them ; thus passing from the letter to the spirit, and appre 
hending the very truth. He spoke chiefly by parables, which 
simple people might understand, and which had an especial 
view to His own time ; but yet their meaning comes out true in 
some sense for all time, even as His kingdom is for eternity. 
The Jews are like an elder son who stayed at home with his 
Father, while the younger one spent his goods in a far country ; 
so many of the nations had wandered from the Father of their 
spirits into worship of dumb idols and vile passions, but yet 
God calls them from afar and has mercy on them, like the 
Father in the parable falling on the neck of His prodigal son. 
This, however, is spoken not only to Jew and Gentile, as it 
might be now to the Hindus, but to whoever grudges the grace 
of God, and to every sinner who turns his heart to God. Again, 
the Expounders and the Scripturalists among the Jews are 
taught by a parable of the shepherd seeking a lost sheep, that 
God will have even extortioners and great sinners to repent, so 
that His servants, who know His mind, must needs welcome 
them into His kingdom. This also is perpetually true. Again, 
the Jewish nation, having been freed from ignorance and taken to 
fanatical pride, is likened to a man from whom one evil spirit has 
been cast out, but who suffers him to return with seven others. 
So is now every man, who begins to be good, putting away 
some fault, if afterwards he turn back, and hardening himself in 
hypocrisy, or in despair, suffer his evil habits to be increased. 
But the kingdom of God is like leaven, which goes through all 

See Luther, Galat. i. 14; and read the third chapter of 2nd Corinthians. 



THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 355 

the lump of the meal ; here you see, that the kingdom which 
Jesus preached was one of thoughts and feelings, which should 
work their way out of men s hearts into customs, and laws, and 
states. Again, it is a little seed, and it "becomes a great tree. Here 
we have its growth from a little seed in a corner of Palestine, till it 
overshadows the earth ; and again, in man s heart, from a single 
good thought, or prayer, till it fill him with good fruits. Again, 
on stony ground it perishes, and so in hard hearts ; amidst 
thorns it is smothered, and so among worldly anxieties ; by the 
wayside fowls devour it, and so with careless seekers after truth, 
the opponent easily takes away their good impressions ; but in 
good ground it bears fruit ; and so does the infinite love of God 
in every good and honest heart. 

" Even the common sayings of Jesus have a manifold mean 
ing. He speaks of the coming fall of Jerusalem ; but His words 
hold true of every great judgment of God in the world. One 
shall be taken, and the other left; so shall it be in the final 
judgment between good and bad. Look not back, and return 
not / so should no one look back to any place of sin, any more 
than to a city of destruction. Where the carcase is, there laill 
the eagles be Gathered; as Juda3a falls, she will be rent by 
the Koman eagles ; but also, wherever sin is ripe, there the 
ravening judgments will be gathered. Then shall they see the 
Son of Man coming. They saw unwillingly, when Jerusalem 
was fallen, Mankind taking the place of Jewry, and humanity 
more esteemed than a narrow fanaticism ; but also they saw the 
name and doctrine of Jesus whom they had crucified, taking the 
upper place in the hearts of all nations. Destroy this temple, 
and in three days I will raise it up : they thought it said of 
a temple of stones, but He meant one which should be an 
assembly of living minds, pervaded by the breath of God, 
and so tenanted by the spirit of Christ, that to His mind it 
would become an embodiment, and out of it should go sacrifices 
of thanksgivings, and incense of prayer, to the great Father. 
Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into 

232 



356 THE WORKS OP CHRIST. 

the kingdom of God. Unless Nicodemus unlearned that mind of 
prejudices which he had imbibed with his mother s milk, and 
rose out of the waters of baptism into a new world of thought, 
he could never know the power of that kingdom, after which 
God was fashioning the world anew ; but again, unless we have 
the holiness of which our baptismal water is a symbol, and run 
counter to many humours that come of our natural birth, we 
cannot be kings and priests in God s kingdom of the mind, or 
have that peace which the world cannot give. 

" As the words of Jesus teach, so do His deeds. As He is 
the great teacher against sin, so is He the healer of pain*. 
Thereby we learn, how these two things hang together ; the one 
being contrary to the will of God in our mind, and the other in 
our body ; both therefore being invaders of His kingdom. But 
when the rightful Lord reigneth, all such enemies must be put 
under our feet. Sin, being the greatest, must go first; and 
suffering, so far as practicable, must decrease; and so far as 
it remains, as being, for wisdom or necessity, the will of our 
Heavenly Father, we shall not call it evil. Hence, when Jesus 
takes away the sin of the world, He says to the cripple, Arise, 
and walk ; and to the leper, / will, le thou dean. Thus Jesus 
shews first the lovingkindness of the supreme Deity whose 
1 express image is made manifest to our sight in Him ; then 
He teaches the connexion of sin with suffering ; He again sets 
to right the order of God s world, by taking away these tilings 
which disordered it; and altogether He manifests in His own 
person that image of divine power, healing, and blessing, and 
comforting, which men instinctively fall down and worship, as 
answering to the best prophecies of their conscience respecting 
the nature of the Godhead. As by faith He opens the eyes of 
our conscience, so He gave sight to the blind ; as He purifies 
from sin, so He cleanses the leper; as He raises the palsied 



It is worthy of note that nothing suffers but what fears, and so is capable of 
ihending some degree of 
generally sensibility to pain. 



apprehending some degree of law ; and as responsibility ascends in the creation, so j 






THE WOKKS OF CHRIST. 357 

energies of our soul into better life, so He made the paralytic 
bodies walk ; as He gives an utterance to our better thoughts 
in prayer and praise and bold confession before any adversary, 
so He made the dumb to speak ; as He casts out evil tempers, 
so He healed men of disorders in mind or body, which seemed 
the working of evil spirits ; as He lifts our humanity out of the 
death of its nobler part, so He called forth Lazarus from the 
grave ; and as He gives us a victory over death and extinction, 
so He exhibited the same in His person and His cause, by dying 
and rising again. Thus His works are not only wonderful, but 
significant ; they are signs to us of might, and of right, and of 
holiness, and of a love rejoicing to overtake evil and to change 
it into a ministry of good. Yet, if some have dwelt too exclu 
sively on the element of wonderful power in the works of Jesus, 
we will not altogether overlook it. For certainly His works 
transcend the skill or knowledge of man ; they run counter, not 
indeed to the highest law, but to the ordinary processes of nature; 
they introduce, as it were, a new cause into the order of effects, 
so as to modify them, and this cause seems of a creativeness 
equal or kindred to that which originally designed the whole. 
They are works of healing greater than man s works, and 
certainly no one would think of ascribing their goodness to 
any malignant demon, or Rakshasa; it remains then, that 
these apparent interpositions in nature come of a goodness 
above nature, or of the Mind which disposed all things. It 
is very wholesome to be reminded, on some signal occasions, 
that all this visible order is under the rule of a higher mind ; 
and we can more easily believe such mementos to come of 
the highest, when their working is for health, and in harmony 
with the will of goodness which is ever fulfilling itself by 
a law of love. It is also to be noticed, that Jesus heals chiefly 
those who have faith, or a certain concurrence of will ; and 
we not only find it natural for the will when touched by faith 
to brace the lower powers, but such a result is quite in 
harmony with the entire genius of that realm of thought, which 



358 THE WORKS OF CHRIST. 

Jesus proclaims as the kingdom of God. Nor is the mere wonder 
or awe in signal cures altogether useless. For out of awe comes 
naturally worship ; and if ruder races most require to be so 
awakened, yet the most disciplined thinkers will accept such 
process as a step to something higher, if they are so led on to 
find a higher order, and a display of the Divine wisdom in 
things strange, as well as usual. Nor is it difficult to believe, 
that the highest truth, or the highest wisdom, may work by 
order even in things strange; for it partakes of, or coincides 
with, that very wisdom which made the worlds, and knows all 
the laws which itself, or its Author, fixed of old. Since then 
Jesus spake as never man spake, and lived a life of God em 
bodied in flesh, we think it but reasonable for Him to have 
done the works of God. How different are His wonders from 
those told in your Indian legends of mountains held over milk 
maids, or of magicians riding through the air, or of demon- 
dwellers in Ceylon shivering as they felt a new power near 
them. Jesus does nothing for caprice, or for ostentation, or as it 
were of mere human will ; but He works the will of the supreme 
Father, in both manifesting His power over nature, and the 
beneficent will which wields it. No one of His works, save 
at most two, are not works of clear goodness; and those two 
are striking lessons, as when He makes the stricken fig-tree 
a parable to barren loiterers on the earth, or the drowning of 
the swine an emblem of unclean creatures given up to evil 
impulses. 

" Thus the entire life of Jesus is that of perfect man, and 
yet of the Son of God manifesting His grace and truth. His 
truth comes out from no less than the highest Being, which it 
visibly mirrors, and with which it ever remains One ; His love 
is that of God calling through Him all His wandering children 
to the Father ; His wisdom is that of Him who knows all the 
secret springs of nature, and holds in His hand the hearts of j 
men, and the fountain of events. Here is truly an Incarnation. 
The thought of God here comes to fulfilment in man; the 



INCARNATION. 359 

likeness of God, in which man was destined according to his 
Maker s will to live, is here shewn without blur or spot; the 
Divine goodness and the human obedience are blended in one 
great Harmoniser or Mediator ; and this outcoming or mani 
festation of Deity in our nature may truly profess to have been 
from the beginning, even from of old. For the Law did but 
faintly express its will ; the prophets looked forward to a ful 
filment in act of a thought which had been before them; the 
sacrifices were but symbols of a self-dedication such as this ; 
and when the Scribes say, this highest truth is contrary to 
the letter of Moses, or trenches on the dignity of Abraham 
or of his children, none but the very Truth of God embodied 
can answer, Before Moses, and before Abraham was, I AM? 
In a way, indeed, Man is before Israel, as Humanity before 
Nations, and Justice before Law, and Faith before Kitual, 
and Redemption before Punishment ; but He who embodies in 
Himself all the eternal substance, says confidently, Before these 
shadows were, I AM. 

" Whatever then your poets have fabled of the Divine pre 
server s becoming incarnate in Rama or Crishna, seem to me 
shadows of the truth, that the thought of the eternal Spirit 
must come to fulfilment in act, and His wisdom manifest itself 
to our experience embodied in a living person, before we can 
know the counsel of Him whose thoughts are not as our 
thoughts, nor His ways as our ways. How easily we may 
bewilder ourselves in speculations about that which is above 
our senses, and beyond our experience, is but too clear from all 
the former part of this dialogue, which I am almost ashamed 
now of having borne a part in. And although the visible world 
may be some shadow of the thought of the Almighty, yet how 
unworthy are the things we tread and consume, and even blame 
or abhor, to be taken as adequate images of Him who is above 
and beyond and higher and deeper, and by His wisdom causes 
these senseless things to be! But if you would know how 
human life brings out our Maker s will, read that of Jesus. See 



360 REJECTION OF CHRIST. 

Him obedient, holy, harmless, doing good, reviled, and reviling 
not again, caring for all save for Himself, resigning Himself to 
the reproach of the cross, and after saving all who drew nigh 
to Him, enduring to have it said, Himself He cannot save. If 
you would know God s judgment of sin, see what Jesus suffered 
to save men from it. If you would know that Divine love which 
passeth knowledge, hear the call of Jesus to all who are weary 
of the world, and laden with sin, to come unto Him and find 
rest ; or see His deeds of mercy exemplifying His speech ; and 
then be persuaded, that this should be the author and finisher of 
our faith, the Son of the living God. 

" You will ask, how came the Jews to reject Jesus ? This 
may seem strange until you consider it thus. To all those who 
could not pass from the world of the senses into that of thought, 
and so accept the higher meaning which He gave to the two 
principal hopes of His nation, He seemed to disappoint them in 
both. The Scripturalists and Expounders, who wished Him to 
support the time-hallowed system of Moses, were very jealous of 
that leading into the deepest spirit, which even in fulfilling the 
letter overthrew its authority; for thus the whole system of 
their ancestral polity, and temple, and law, was swept away. 
They then could hardly fail to call Jesus a Samaritan or an 
infidel, and as such they thought it their duty to punish Him. 
The common people again, who sighed to be delivered from the 
Roman tax-gatherer, thought it not only a disappointment, but 
a treason to their race, that one should place the kingdom of 
God within the heart, and turn all minds from national glories, 
to the palm won in a strife against evil passions and lusts. 
They then, though their first hope might cry Hosanna, would 
in the shock of disappointment say, Crucify Him. Again the 
sacerdotal politicians, who ever feared some popular rising might 
draw down Roman vengeance, thought it sound policy to rid 
themselves of One whose doctrines, whether understood or mis 
understood, might ruin the nation. Add to this confusion of 
Jewish feeling that mixture of prejudice and carelessness in 



CRUCIFIXION. 361 

human nature, which is ever uneasy at the cry of reform, and 
especially shrinks from a reformation of manners which may 
involve trouble and sacrifice. You will then easily see how the 
ancestral law of Moses, however burdensome it had become, 
could not be abolished even for a higher law of the spirit and of 
truth, unless He who wrought out such freedom purchased it 
with His blood. So the Priests, and the Scripturalists, and the 
Expounders, delivered Jesus into the hands of the Romans ; and 
He was crucified under Pontius Pilate between two thieves ; 
thus He, in whose mouth no guile had been found, was numbered 
amongst the transgressors ; He who had wept over Jerusalem, 
was counted a traitor ; He who had embodied the love of God 
in His life, was put to death for infidelity and blasphemy ; and 
He whose kingdom was to be in the hearts of men to the ends 
of the earth, was rejected by those who might have chosen Him, 
when they said, We will not have this Man to reign over us. This 
seemed indeed a triumph of the great enemy. The mystery of 
evil, and the confusion of relations in the world, and the neces 
sity for even love to work out its purpose through suffering, 
have had no hour in history so dark. The life had fulfilled all 
that our imagination can paint as most Divine ; the death was 
of the most utter humiliation, rejection, pain, and shame. My 
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? were the words of 
Jesus from the Psalms; and the bystanders answered, He trusted 
in God that He would deliver him; let Him deliver him if He 
will have him. 

" But rejoice not against me, mine enemy. The policy of 
the priest, and the madness of the multitude, and the yielding 
of the governor, wrought out of their unconscious freewill the 
higher counsel of the Eternal. For thus, in the first place, 
Jesus fulfilled the sacrifice of His life, even to the end. We 
can all obey, when the will of God enables us to do good by 
being exalted. But Jesus was obedient even to the death of 
the cross. Nothing unforeseen had come upon Him. Nor yet 
was His death self-chosen, but appointed to Him. His mere 



362 SACRIFICE. 

human will might have shrunk, but He said to His Father, Not 
My will, but Thine. Thus He fulfilled in His own body on the 
accursed tree that entire self-dedication which the old sacrifices 
of the law had been intended to express ; and He made good 
the prophecy of the psalmist, that the sacrifices of God are a 
broken spirit. He had heard in spirit, what for each of us is 
written. My son, give me thine heart. 

" Secondly, Jesus thus shewed His loving patience towards 
men. For in that hour, when God could refuse Him nothing, 
He prayed not for ease, or for exaltation, but said, Father, forgive 
them ; for they know not what they do. He remembered, as no 
meaner sufferer would, what genuine zeal for their entire system 
of temple and scripture animated many of His slayers, so that in 
giving over into lawless hands Him by whom the whole Mosaic 
polity was being abolished, they thought they did God service. 
Nor is there anything in which Christians more require a return 
to their Master s doctrine than in their tone of mind towards the 
Jews. If we remembered how little the present generation can 
help what their forefathers did, and how few even out of that 
generation could have borne an active part, and what mistaken 
zeal and fidelity to the God, as they thought, of their fathers, 
and to His written revelation, was their working motive, we 
should speak of them now more in compassion than in anger. 
But Jesus Christ is above Christianity, and you see here His 
very mind. 

" Thirdly, Jesus fulfilled by dying, not only the thing 
meant in ancient sacrifices, but the martyr-type, or the cha 
racter of all godlike sufferers for the right and the good. It 
is no strange thing for one who benefits others to do so at 
his own cost. You cannot give and retain the gift. You cannot 
warn without danger of dislike, nor teach higher truth without 
irritating those bound to the lower. You could not have had 
the old Jewish fidelity to Scripture, and temple, and race, without 
obstinate prejudice, and exclusiveness as well. There is no 
light without shadow, nor virtue without its kindred fault. 



SUFFERING OF CHRIST. 363 

But God, with whom is no variableness, does not lightly 
change His laws, or suffer any principle to vary its operation, 
because persons come within its range or stand aloof. He 
blows with His wind, and the waters flow, either to bear 
the skilful mariner, or to drown the heedless. If we will do 
good, He gives us in doing it a reward above all we can ask 
or think ; but He suffers us to pay the price of conflict with 
evil. He who puts naked foot on the serpent s head* will be 
stung in crushing the monster. There is even in soberest 
martyrdom, (be it reverently spoken,) a kind of rashness for 
the man s self; for his eye is on some holier and far-off object, 
and he cares not what may happen to him by the way. Thus 
he breaks the immutable law of self-preservation, though he 
has the reward of keeping a higher law of self-sacrifice to the 
Highest. If he would change the law of a nation, or the 
thought of the world, he must pay the price of his good name 
or his life; though if the idea with which his mindf labours 
be a true one, God will give him a reward in fulfilling it ; for 
he will be helping forward the kingdom. Thus Jeremiah | the 
prophet had been among his countrymen t like a lamb or an ox 
that is brought to the slaughter; and perhaps of him, or of 
some kindred prophet, or his company, it was originally said 
that he was a man of sorrows and afflicted, yet he opened 
not his mouth ; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and 
as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. So of many of the 
prophets, and of the sweet singers in the courts of the Lord s 
house, we find it written that their heart was broken with 
heaviness, and the ploughers|| ploughed upon their back, as 
they went on their way weeping, and bearing good seed, of 
which the fruit could only come after many days. But by 
faith they all endured, as seeing Him that is invisible; and 
even the shape of things temporal became, through their words, 

LJ-/ See the beautiful Sermons of the late Kev. Fred. Kobertson, of Brighton, 
t Ev. St John, xvi. 21. + Jeremiah xi. 19. 

Isaiah liii. 37. II Psalm cxxix. 3 ; Hebrews xi. 1337. 



364 SUFFERING OF CHRIST. 

moulded more after the beauty on which they had fixed their 
gaze of things eternal. 

" Thus Jesus, as the change which God gave Him to work 
in the world was above all, must go beyond all in suffering. 
Thus He becomes most eminently the l man of sorrows ; and 
whatever things were written of old, of suffering saint, of 
crucified prophet, of poor man trampled on, of Moses* rejected, 
of Israel becoming a spoil, of Isaiah sawn asunder, and of Jere 
miah lamenting over Jerusalem, find a new and a higher 
fulfilment, for they come eminently to pass again in the person 
of Jesus of Nazareth. He must die as a slave, and as one 
whom the nation despiseth, before He reigns as King of kings 
and Lord of lords. But all this is only in harmony with the 
great mystery of the world s course, and because God hath 
given it a law which cannot be broken. 

" See now how this very humiliation brought about the 
rising again. If we ask, how Christ comes to reign over our 
thoughts, it is much by the words He spake, and much by the 
works He did. If He had only uttered great swelling words, 
and had lived at ease, or sat on the throne of Solomon, how 
little would He have touched our hearts. Even now a stranger 
to His mind is not readily followed by His sheep, for they do 
not know such a one s voice. But when we see Him paying 
out of His own life the price of delivering men from evil, going 
about homeless, while He provides a shelter in which our souls 
can rest, and suffering poverty and need, while He makes us 
rich in holy thoughts and happy memories, we feel that this 
is a true teacher, and we follow Him as a safe guide. When 
He says, / am come to throw fire upon the, earth, w r e foresee it 
will not be quenched. When in sadder tone He says, How I 
would it were already kindled! and again, / have a baptism 
(of suffering) to be baptised with / and how I am straitened until 
it be accomplished, we enter into His foretaste of shame and 
pain; we become convinced that He came into the world for 

* Acts vii. 35 ; Hebrews xi, 26. 



FULFILMENT THROUGH SUFFERING. 365 

no other cause than to bear witness to the truth / then, when He 
is rejected, scourged, crowned with thorns, and spit upon, we 
shrink back astonished ; but our very indignation at the shame 
turns into more awful wonder at Him who bears it ; and, in the 
dark hour of the judgment-hall, or by the cross, even more 
than in any triumph, our hearts answer with Peter, Lord, we 
are ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. Such 
is the kingdom God gives to Jesus over our souls. It is 
wrought out through suffering, and it belongs to the worthiest ; 
so that our allegiance to it is like the sight of the eye to light, 
and the assent of our reason to truth, or the springing of our 
heart to what is lovely ; we can neither withhold it, nor desire 
to do so, for nowhere else could we offer it so worthily. 

" What I have said of Jesus as a king of thought, will apply 
equally to Him as a prophet. For though His words have 
strange power to touch our heart, they do so more from their 
entire harmony with His life, and from the price which He paid 
for uttering them. That Truth, which did not begin to be with 
the Incarnation, but which we see mirroring itself with fulfil 
ment for good or evil in every age of history, has more power 
over us when we see it embodied in a life, and when this life is 
evidently hallowed by its presence, and passed in obedience to 
its law. We see how Truth can support its own messenger, and 
give secret strength in all trouble, rising in thought above that 
which rules the body, and though it animate many minds, yet 
remaining ever One with the highest Being. This highest Truth 
makes us free from prejudice, and hatred, and fear, and gives us 
access in the spirit of our minds to that which was, and is, and 
is to come. Yet it is only through a drama of suffering that it 
shews its fulfilment among men. 

" Again, if Jesus was to be a priest, He must have some 
oblation to offer. So long as priesthood belonged to a caste, 
such as Brahmans or Levites, no common man might present 
his offering in the place where Divine presence might be more 
immediately apprehended. But when the older ignorance passed, 



366 SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES. 

and the face of the unseen God was unveiled to faith as that of 
a Father, His presence was no longer in any high and holy 
place, but wherever men would feel after Him, as not being far 
from every one of us. Then, not even the least of His children 
would offer sigh, or prayer, or life, or good-work, or trust, or 
love, without full confidence of being accepted, as might be fit. 
Thus all mankind, so far as they knew the Father of Jesus, 
and their Father, became a spiritual priesthood. But Jesus, 
who brought to fuller light this freedom which the Patriarchs 
and Melchisedec had enjoyed, but which caste-worship had 
imperfectly expressed, became the head of the more spiritual 
priesthood, and offered above all His brethren an oblation beyond 
price, in His own life and death, and the anguish of His consent 
ing will. In Him is the fulness, both of that which gave the 
old sacrifices their meaning, and of what must be in every 
offering of ours, if it is to avail in the sight of God. We all 
who drink into His mind, associate our feebleness with His more 
perfect self-devotion ; thus as we give ourselves to God in solemn 
sacrament, or in action, or in suffering, we catch a virtue not 
our own; our lives become penetrated with the spirit of His 
death ; and whenever heartfelt prayers and thanksgivings, or 
pure thoughts and deeds of patience, or goodness, or uprightness, 
are offered up by us in His holy name and spirit,* He, being 
dead, yet speaketh in us, and is doubtless accepted of the 
Father. 

" There can be no greater sacrifice to God, than for us so to 
associate our will with His will, as to melt ourselves up in the 
Divine purpose, and rejoice in its fulfilment, not asking what 
comes of ourselves, as if that were our own. Not to every one 
is such love given ; but perhaps one sees a perverted form of it 
in that passion which has made some in past years throw them 
selves under the car of Jagannatha. For thus they seemed to 

* If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Romans viii. 9. 
Compare v. 26, and chap. vii. 6, and xiii. 8 10; and Galatians iv. 6, 7 ; v. 13, 14, 
-2225. 



LOVE SEEKING NOT ITS OWN. 367 

express a devotion without bounds, though He who gives and 
preserves our life is not pleased with such a sacrifice. Perhaps 
again in your doctrine of Nirvana is an overstrained and mystical 
expression for the joy of union with God, by making His design 
our will. But Jesus seems more perfectly to have fulfilled 
whatever truth may be in your thoughts, in that He rushed not 
on self-chosen death, yet most willingly gave His life, when the 
great enemy of the Divine will could only so be vanquished. 
Nor can we wonder, that out of a death so holy went forth 
power for life, as when a seed is cast into the ground, and dies, 
but there springs up four-fold. Thus by the death of Jesus, 
even more than by His life, men were drawn to His faith, as if 
their souls were purified in gazing with a tragical awe; and 
when they considered how much they partook of that sinfulness 
in the world which made the death of Jesus necessary to deliver 
us from evil, they seemed almost to partake of that which slew 
Him, and were pricked to the heart. You can imagine, what 
would be the revulsion in men s conscience when thus awakened. 
A sympathy with the holy sufferer would awaken attention to 
His doctrine ; and its truth, when listened to, would prevail in 
proportion as there was good ground to receive it. Even the 
rude nations of the North (as the savage Clovis and h is people) 
were awakened out of their native ferocity as they felt a better 
indignation at the griefs of the Man of sorrows on the Cross. 
Nor should I suppose that you in India would be deaf to 
the witness which unparalleled suffering gives to the highest 
Truth. 

" He who is so identified with the holiest cause as to lose 
himself in it, will think its triumph no mean reward. Nor is 
this entire self-abnegation beyond the reach of that love which 
seeketh not its own, of which God makes the soul capable. Yet 
we have a presentiment stretching into a faith, that the very 
mind thus devoted will find from the Divine equity an acknow 
ledgment of its work, and have a reward in seeing it prosper, 
and even an overflow of gift beyond recompense in everlasting 



368 LOVE SEEKING NOT ITS OWN. 

life from Him whose breath has come upon it, and dwelt in 
it*. For certainly it will find in God no less love than its 
own, and it is easy for Him to give out of that eternal life 
of which He has the fountain, and which He causes to flow. 
Thus he who seeks not his life shall find it, if he seeks first 
God, who is life, and who gives over and above. Moreover the 
man will be thus kindred to God, who is love; and if he is 
a son, then is he heir of the Father, by whom every fatherhood 
on earth is both willed and stands. Or again, as one partakes 
of that thought and love which are beyond time and death, so 
the bounds of these will not hold that in Him which is above 
them. 

" Thus, even if Jesus the Son of Man had not risen from the 
grave, He would yet have rejoiced in His work of redeeming 
His own people from the curse of the law, and of binding both 
Jews and all nations in the fellowship of that truth which is 
before the law and beyond it. He would still have lived by His 
own spirit and the spirit of the Father in that temple which is 
made of living minds, so that it would be to Him a body, and 
His mind would animate it. This then would be the kingdom 
of the Father, whose express image would be seen in it by faith 
as the very truth, and His holy will would come out in it in act, 
as through eternity it is conceived in thought without bound. 
Such an eternal life, I say, would be a reward to Jesus ; and it 
would fulfil many of His deepest sayings of what life isf, and 
what death is, and what freedom and bondage are, and many 
sayings of His Apostles as to what rising from the dead is, and 
of heaven and earth passing away, and of the Lord God Omni 
potent reigning, and of His dwelling in His people for ever. 
Hence I do not wonder that some ultra-spiritualists, or mystics, 
among Christians, have thought such was the only meaning of 
the words of Jesus, and is their fulfilment. They think, as I 

* I Corinthians ii. 10 16. 
f* Ev. St John, xvii. 3; xii. 50, 25; vi. 50, 51, 63; v. 25; viii. 34: Ephe- 
sians ii. 5, 6: Romans vi. i \, 11. 



RESURRECTION SPIRITUAL AND BODILY. 369 

suppose, (though their thoughts are not always spoken clearly,) 
that we could not doubt the life of Jesus after bodily death in 
that realm of thought which He has unveiled as encompassing 
and coming forth in the visible world, but that His own strong 
contrast between body and soul, and the spirit of His words and 
their letter, points to a spiritual rather than a bodily rising 
again ; and as they find His words fulfilled in this spiritual 
sense, they think the literal may have been but a parable ; but 
yet as the parables of the wise have analytical self-consciousness, 
while those of the sensuous Many are less conscious of their 
own meaning, and come forth in the form of poetry, thus trans 
lating truth into figure and thought into story, so our ultra- 
spiritualists conceive, that the victory of the mind and faith of 
Jesus over death and extinction took its popular expression in 
the form of a story of His bodily outstanding before the senses 
of His disciples, and of His visibly ascending into the heavens, 
and sitting, as in royalty, at the right hand of the Supreme 
King upon a throne of brightness. 

" Possibly such views may not be without use in turning 
inward our thoughts and deepening our sense of moral good and 
evil, and so quickening our conceptions of the mental nature of 
the kingdom of God. But yet the overwhelming majority of 
Christian men believe, what the Apostles plainly teach, that 
Jesus rose bodily from the grave on the third day, and com 
muned with His disciples for forty days, and after explaining to 
them the kingdom of God, was taken up from this earth into 
that higher realm which we call heaven, in which the Divine 
glory is more manifestly displayed. Nor yet, in saying this, do 
they mean to rest merely on visible things. They gladly own 
that there is something spiritual in the resurrection of Christ. 
Its evidence to them is not merely the number of witnesses say 
ing that they saw, but the great likelihood that He who had 
lived a life of God, would come out of death with the clear 
power of God. We cannot crush the air nor quench the great 
breath of life by merely changing its form ; still less can we 
M. p. 24 



870 RESURRECTION SPIRITUAL AND BODILY. 

slay any thought of the mind which goes beyond death ; and 
less still any truth which takes hold of mind after mind, and 
comes immortal out of every persecution. So the holiest Truth 
which dwelt in Jesus, and above all the Divinity which upholds 
it, and of whose very being it is the outshining, must come forth 
in calm victory out of trial, and be only glorified by the opposi 
tion of every enemy. But if it was necessary (because our 
sensuous conceptions do not easily rise to spiritual things) that 
this Divine Truth should be embodied in the life and death of 
Jesus, there would be the same necessity for its embodiment in 
His resurrection. Our faith is not triumphant until it has seen 
the victory as well as the suffering. If the Divine thought for 
this world comes to fulfilment in the flesh, so must it for the 
world to come. Thus He who shewed, as the Son of Man, our 
true life on earth, being lifted from the grave as the Son* of 
God, shews our entrance into life eternal. Thus our Eevelation 
becomes complete : and as you hold that the visible world em 
bodies the Divine thinking, so Christians believe that the far 
higher world, or rather the mind of God which upholds it, is 
unveiled by being embodied to historical experience in the life, 
the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus the 
Mediator between God and man. Thus Spirit manifests itself 
in matter, both lying beyond, and upholding, and coming out in 
it ; sin, or rebellion against the will of the forecasting Spirit, is 
taken away ; death is triumphed over ; and the kingdom of His 
thought, which it is the will of God should come, is not only 
seen afar by pure faith, but is brought nearer in light. Thus 
our eyes behold the King in His beauty. 

" That these things were so, not in parables with a meaning f 
but in outward act, seems taught by the Apostles of Christ in all 
their writings. It was in the power of the resurrection of their 
Lord that they took courage to preach the forgiveness of sins 
against that external law which lay heavy on men s consciences; 
but they put instead of it a better law, the love of God per- 

* Romans i. 3, 4; and viii. 1923. t i Pet. i. 16 



JESUS THE CHRIST. CHRIST S COMING. 371 

vading the heart, and the deeper mind which comes as a gift of 
the Holy Spirit ; and thus bringing men to the Father, through 
the Son who died and rose again, and through the Holy Spirit 
who joins together Father and Son, they turned Jewry into 
Christendom, and a world of sin, and shadows, and perplexities, 
into a realm in which the eternal Author of good daily more 
reigns, through the revelation of His mind in His well-beloved 
Son. 

" When the Apostles reasoned how their Master had fulfilled 
in His own life the deepest substance of all that the law and the 
prophets meant or were intended for, they could not doubt that 
the mission He had received was the highest ; so that whatever 
unction or consecration belonged to the office of king, or priest, 
or prophet, had a higher reality in the spiritual office of the 
Saviour. Thus Jesus was most eminently the Christ; hence 
we are called Christians : and the things spoken of men once 
anointed for office might be transferred, so far as they were 
good, to Him. But His anointing was one of the Holy Spirit*, 
and of marvellous power over men s hearts. For a time it might 
be that some of the Apostles expected a visible reign of their 
Lord on earth; but such thoughts would fade in the deeper 
views of His kingdom of thought, which the Holy Spirit taught 
them with experience ; and when Jerusalem was razed, and its 
temple swept away, the simplest must have seen that the coming 
of the Son of man, which was to be in that generation, meant 
His coming in spirit and in power. When the old world of 
Jewry, with its sensuous heavens, and its earth at a distance 
from Grod, had passed into a kingdom of the Eternal encom 
passing us, the spirit of Christ made all things f new in the 
Church at large, as from the beginning He had wrought a new 
and deeper mind in the hearts of those who received Him. 

" Time would fail us to tell of all the deeds of the Apostles 
and martyrs who went forth transforming the world in the spirit 
of Jesus, as the Christ of God. It is far better you should read 

* Acts x. 38. t Revelations xxi. i 5. 

242 



372 THE APOSTLES. ST PETER. 

them in their writings, which yet breathe of the Holy Spirit, by 
which they spake and lived. Unlearned, and ignorant, arid of 
like passions with ourselves, they wrought by that love of God 
which breathed through them such a victory for His truth over 
violence and evil, as never men did before. The first in this 
noble army of the Prince of Peace is Peter, who in the weakness 
of man denied his master, and then repented, so that he received 
strength to live and die for Him. He takes up the great lesson 
of Christ, that God is a Spirit; that our sacrifices* must be 
spiritual ; that all who come to God in spirit and in truth, are 
now a royal priesthood, and, no less than the Jews once thought 
themselves, a chosen race, and a people separate for good. Thus 
men are delivered from evil, he says, not by any external rite of 
purifying, but by the answer of a good conscience which should 
go with our acceptance of the grace of God as members of His 
Church. Nor was it an outward price, as of silver and gold, 
which bought men their freedom of knowing God as He is, and 
coining to Him as the Father, but the gift of His own life and 
precious life s blood by our great Deliverer. St Peter, indeed, 
for a time hesitated between a clear sight of the kingdom of 
God thus unveiled, and some natural feelings as a Jew. He 
hardly knew whether the old law had not still force, just as 
some Brahman, become a Christian, might have scruples about 
food, or caste ; so he hesitated about receiving Gentiles, and 
eating with them before his countrymen, just as you might in 
reference to some Pariah, if high -caste men were looking on. 
But as God taught him more of the mind of Christ in prayer 
and tranquillity of slumber, he put away such relics of the old 
man, and rose to a fuller sense of our freedom before Him who 
readeth the heart, and of mankind s brotherhood before our 
Father in heaven. Thus he became the first to give Gentiles 
every Christian symbol of their entering into the kingdom ; and 
so Christ fulfilled His promise, that he should have its keys, 
and open its gates, both persuading men s hearts to desire to 

* f St Pet. ii. 9. 



ST PETER. PROMISES TO HIM. 373 

come in, and giving them the appointed emblem of allegiance 
with a blessing. 

" Thus upon Peter, as upon a living stone, very near to the 
corner stone, which is Christ, who binds Jews and Gentiles into 
one, was built the temple of living minds. Thus he too, and 
the other Apostles, bound and loosed ; for such was their sim 
plicity of heart, and innocence of faith, that what their good 
instinct shrank from, we see still to be wrong, and what they 
praised, we still find right. Such is the power of an honest 
and good heart, that without learning it discerns things that 
are excellent ; for it does not quench the Spirit of God, and so is 
sensitive to evil and good. But what such men speak so as to 
find answer in pure consciences for ever, is doubly an echo of 
the law of heaven. Their freedom from rules is no rebellion 
against the inner law of truth. Consider now these precepts of 
St Peter, and if you find fault with them, say so ; but if they 
seem to express binding truths, help me to teach them to your 
children, as the religion of Christ. 

Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through 
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one 
another with a pure heart fervently : being born again, not of cor 
ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth 
and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory 
of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower 
thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. 
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. 

As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, 
but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. 
Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters 
with all fear ; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the fro ward. 
For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure 
grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buf 
feted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do 
well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with 
God. For even hereunto were ye called : because Christ also suffered 
for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps : who 
did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth : who, when He was 



374 ST JAMES. JEWISH CHRISTIANITY. 

reviled, reviled not again j when He suffered, He threatened not ; but 
committed Himself to Him that judge th righteously : who His own self 
bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, 
should live unto righteousness : by whose stripes ye were healed. For 
ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shep 
herd and Bishop of your souls. 

" Something of a Jewish mind, as once in St Peter, appears 
in St James. The Gospel wears in him a half unveiled aspect. 
Its good news is chiefly to the poor, that the Lord* of hosts is 
their ally against wealthy oppressors. Its righteousness is alms 
giving. Its foundation of the Church is the equal value of 
souls in sight of one Judge. Its motive is fear of judgment, 
and its tone has an echo of the Law of Sinai. Yet the law 
which St James teaches is not that of the letter, but of a free 
and earnest conscience. His governing principle is, to love our 
neighbour as ourself. Thus he is a true disciple of Christ, of 
whom by birth lie was a kinsman ; and yet he shews that he 
has received the Spirit only by measure. Here is some of his 
wholesome doctrine : 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh 
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither 
shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us with the word of 
truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. Where 
fore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to 
speak, slow to wrath : for the wrath of man worketh not the righte 
ousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and greediness 
of vice, and receive with meekness the ingrowing word, which is 
able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers 
only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, 
and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a 
glass : for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway 
forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the 
perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful 
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his 
tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man s religion is vain. Pure 

Compare Neander s Planting of Christianity, or the Kev. A. P. Stanley s 
SenttOtt* and Essays on the Apostolic Age, 



ST PAUL S CONVERSION. 375 

worship and undefiled before our God and Father is this, To visit the 
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted 
from the world. 

" There might have seemed danger of the faith of Christ 
becoming a zeal for the law, or a mere reform in the religion of 
the Jews. But God by His Holy Spirit sent the Apostle Paul, 
whose turning with all his heart is a great sign of the power of 
the Gospel, as his life became an instrument in spreading it. 
His Hebrew name was Saul. He had been brought up in the 
strictest form of Scriptural Pharisaism*, and was zealous for 
the Mosaic Law, which he had received by tradition from his 
fathers. How could he then tolerate the new way, which 
degraded all that he valued into instruments of something 
higher? He looked on Christians as infidels, and thought it 
a duty to assail them. If it ever struck him that the old ritual 
was burdensome, and not even fulfilled by himself, while the 
life of Christ and of believers in Him shewed a higher right 
eousness, he kicked against such goads of conscience, and turned 
more fiercely to persecute. For this purpose he was on his 
way to Damascus. But then God gave him a true vision of 
the risen Saviour, harmless, undefiled, and blessing, and he 
became a new man. The scales fell from his eyes, and his old 
thoughts passed away. So he washed away his sins in the bath 
of new birth, and proclaimed good news of a wider deliverance 
than that of the Jews, in the name of that Master of the heart, 
against whom he had striven. He still needed instruction from 
human instruments, and may have gone through internal con 
flicts in his three years of retirement. But he came forth the 
greatest preacher of such a doctrine as I have expounded from 
our Lord s Prayer. He found that not by the written law, with 
out something deeper, could man become righteous with God. 
For even if he fulfilled all its rites, they did not cleanse the 
conscience. And who could fulfil them? It rather taught a 
sense of sin, by standing with its threats over against the human 

* Philippians iii. 4 6; Acts xxii. 3; Gal. 3. 14. 



376 THE LAW. FREEDOM. SACRIFICE. 

soul, not entering into it as a strengthener, but shewing an im 
possible standard. So it became an enemy, slaying the mind 
with a consciousness of discrepance between desire and perform 
ance, and giving even to physical death another terror. But if 
it could be shewn that this hostile law came out of love, and 
that underneath it was an eternal purpose to educate in the 
nature of evil, and to deliver from it, then it might become a 
schoolmaster to something better. But this Christ had done, 
having a mission from the Father, as an unction of the mind, to 
unveil this purpose. He had proclaimed the infinite love of 
God which gives strength to man, and unveiled the better 
meaning of the sacrifices, and given to faith a higher righteous 
ness in reconciliation of our spirits with the Father, who may 
have ordered for His children precepts and terrors like stewards 
and governors, but who has loved them all along, and only 
educated them to do His will, which is their deliverance from 
evil. Thus the Law became no more a master, but an instru 
ment ; its letter was seen to be only the expression of a better 
spirit ; its water was changed to wine ; it was taken away as a 
terror, and only its instruction remained. It had been as a 
grammar which taught our souls the language of righteousness ; 
and when this became instinctive to our thoughts, the letter of 
rules might be put aside. What if Christ could not reveal such 
a will of God without stepping Himself into the place of the 
old sacrifices, and buying our freedom with the price of His 
blood ? His dedication of Himself then was that which should 
give the law of things to come, as well as the interpretation of 
things old. By remembering it in solemn sacrament, and re 
newing it, though imperfectly, in our lives, we should have the 
same pledge of God s frank forgiveness* of sin, as the Israelite 
when he made his sin-offering at the altar. For by lifting up 
the crucified Saviour from the grave, the Father shewed that 
His offering was accepted, and that His prayer for the deliver 
ance of His people could never fail. Our righteousness then 
* St Luke vii. 42. 



JUSTIFICATION. GENTILE CHRISTIANITY. 377 

comes not of legal ritual, or of human strength, but of the love 
of God which forgives us, and of His grace which gives life to 
our soul, and through a faith which makes us partakers of the 
mind of Christ, and enables us to look up through the Son to 
the Father. But as love answers to love, so this free gift will 
awaken gratitude; the unveiling of what God calls righteous 
ness, as something not external but converting the heart and 
reins, will both attract us with its goodness, and give us strength 
for a higher life, by writing a law in our hearts, and making it 
part of our spiritual being. As the Jew must not call his written 
law righteousness, neither must the Gentile anything of the 
same kind. We shall make no claim for almsgiving, though 
willing to remember the poor. We shall not think that any 
outward communion saves us, though desirous to keep the unity 
of the spirit in the bond of peace. Our new law will come of 
faith in the All-holy, the All-merciful, and the Spiritual Teacher. 
It would be written in the unseen world, and our faith would 
apprehend it. The grandest instance of its fulfilment would be the 
suffering upon the cross, which the Son of God paid as a price for 
the abolition of the old law of the letter. This, therefore, would 
be the type after which the new life we received from Him would 
fashion itself. We should offer ourselves willingly, as He was 
an offering. We should die at last to all stain of evil, as He 
died on the shameful tree ; we should love, as He loved us, and 
rise out of the death of the soul into a life which His Spirit can 
sustain in us, and which will grow up into life eternal. 

" But where then were the exclusive rights of the Jew, or 
as I might say to you, of any caste ? Such a faith as Christ 
revealed, must be open to whoever would come thereby to the 
Father. As no claim, so no acceptance of persons. Not Abra 
ham s blood, but Abraham s faith. They who thought them 
selves a chosen people, had to learn, that such choice was no 
merit of theirs, but a gift which in the fulness of time, or as 
men became fitted for it, would extend itself to true hearts 
everywhere. Nor was this such a new doctrine. The old 



378 THE GOSPEL PKEDESTINATED. 

Prophets had spoken of all nations serving the Lord. However 
much it may have been veiled, yet what the eternal God is 
doing now, He had intended from of old. As thought in man 
runs before action, so the predestination of the Almighty had 
gone before Christianity. We could not know if we had not 
first been known by Him. His grace to Israel was only a local 
expression of a wider design. We see in all nature an instinctive 
stretching forward to something which each of its parts is 
destined to become. So among the Gentiles* there had been 
a feeling after God, who was not without witness. Amongst all 
men there had been a shrinking from death, and an earnest 
expectation f of some higher destiny of the soul, with a groaning 
to be delivered from things which came short of it. These 
prophecies of what is immortal in us God had fulfilled for all 
men in the person of his Son. He has given our dim faith an 
assurance of hope. He comforts us in every sorrow by the 
persuasion that we are treading only in the steps of His most Be 
loved One, and so are having perfected in us that patience which 
led to His resurrection. For this is our highest destiny, to have 
that thought of God, which came forth in Him, fulfilled in us ; 
then as sin is vanquished, sorrow is comforted, the will of God 
is fulfilled in us, and Death, having lost the sting of a hostile 
law, is no more an enemy ; but we pass through its gates after 
Him who has gone before, to partake of His immortality. 

" St Paul s doctrine is not a narrowing one, but as wide as 
mankind |. As in Adam, if we follow lawless humours of 
animal birth, all suffer a deatli of the soul ; so in Christ, if we 
partake of His Spirit which does the will of the Father, all are 
made alive. Nor does he rest in the letter. Though sometimes 
after the manner of his age, he turns against his countrymen 
their own weapons, and plays with texts ; yet his law of God 
has been written in the hearts of all nations ; his fulfilment of it 

* Acts xiv. 17; xvii. 27, 28; Romans ii. 14, 15. 

t Romans viii. 14 19, 22 39. 

+ Romans viii. 6; i Corinthians xv. 22. 



ST PAUL S CHRISTIANITY SPIRITUAL AND HISTORICAL. 379 

is by Love ; and the prophecies he most dwells on, are not of 
genealogies, or of birthplace, or of anything earthly and visible ; 
but they turn on deep correspondence of feeling, and on the 
running through ancient books by the breathing of the Holy 
Spirit, something of that Grace and Truth, which was fully 
manifested in Christ our Lord. Nor does he care so much for 
Jesus known after the flesh ; perhaps he knew more than all 
our Lord s kinsmen ; but it is the eternal truth of the glorified 
Christ, as taught him by the Holy Spirit, which gives him 
power to persuade. Yet the epistles of St Paul only bring 
out in fulness, what the discourses of Christ had implied in 
simple words. You will understand them best by comparing 
them together. Again, St Paul thinks the power of the re 
surrection is in its lifting our inner humanity out of the death 
of sin and worldliness which, shut out heaven from our gaze. 
Yet he does not therefore doubt that the Divine gift of eternal 
life has been exhibited bodily in Christ ; and as the Truth was 
shewn to men in His incarnation, so was it in His resurrection. 
For in that wonderful history it pleased God to sum up all 
things heavenly in the compass of an earthly life ; that we might 
hear once for all His Truth speaking, and see His Love over 
flowing, and His Patience suffering, yet His Law exemplifying 
itself, and then His Life coming forth from death, and His 
spiritual Offspring entering into glory. For by no less a drama 
could our souls, under these veils of sense, have their eyes opened 
to all the mystery of the counsel, which God is working of 
old and for ever. But those will be most confirmed by this 
fulfilment, who have most of the faith which prophesies it 
throughout mankind. Therefore to you I speak the more 
hopefully. , 

"If St Paul could speak to you now, he would say much 
of putting away your idols. He would speak of all caste and 
sect, as he spoke of the separate sanctity of the Jews. He 
would say of all austere penances, that they profit little, com 
pared to that change of mind which gives peace in the love of 



380 HINDUISM IN THE LIGHT OF ST PAUL. 

God. He would compare all your ancestral traditions to those 
of Moses, and deny that they give you a true righteousness of 
God ; thus he would turn you to a more living way of faith in 
our Heavenly Father, who also reads the heart, and requires 
sincerity in it. Yet he would find many things in your re 
ligion leading up to a higher faith, or containing germs of it. 
Thus he would allow the eternal God to have trained by such 
means the growing conscience of your race ; but he would 
shew you a more entire harmony of Heaven and Earth in that 
likeness of Himself which God has given us in the faith of 
His dear Son. Both your sacrifices, and your putting away of 
them, your stories of incarnation, and your theories of spiritual 
growth, would have something answering to them in the faith 
of Christ ; all your gentle virtues of meekness, and forgiveness, 
as well as holiness, are eminently taught by Him ; and in the 
glimpse He has opened of a world beyond the grave, your 
imagination would find an infinity answering to the vastness of 
its own dreams, but with an actual fulfilment, which they un 
fortunately want. 

" If you would read St Paul, comparing things that cor 
respond among the Hindus and Hebrews, as for instance the 
old Brahmanical caste with the Levites, and the overgrown Law 
of Moses with your traditional system, and the new spiritual 
life which Christ breathed into the world with the attempts 
of reformers in India, you would find St Paul s reasonings 
with the Jews apply often to yourselves ; and conclude, I trust, 
that Christianity is more likely than any Indian creed to fulfil 
the Sri Bhagavat s prophecy by bringing all men to the 
knowledge of God. But here is some of the practical advice 
which St Paul wrote from prison to his friends : 

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, 
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on 
things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your 
life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall 
appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify there- 



ST PAUL S COUNSELS. 381 

fore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, unclean- 
ness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and viciousness, which 
is idolatry : for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the 
children of disobedience : in the which ye also walked sometime, when 
ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these ; anger, wrath, 
malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not 
one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his 
deeds ; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge 
after the image of Him that created him : where there is neither Greek 
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond 
nor free : but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect 
of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of 
mind, meekness, long-suffering ; forbearing one another, and forgiving 
one another, if any man have a quarrel against any : even as Christ 
forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, 
which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in 
your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be 
ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wis 
dom ; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns 
and spiritual songs, singing with thanks heartily to the Lord. And 
svhatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, giving thanks to God our Father by Him. Wives, submit 
yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Hus 
bands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, 
obey your parents in all things: for this is wellpleasing unto the 
Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be dis 
couraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the 
flesh ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but in singleness of 
heart, fearing God : and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the 
Lord, and not unto men ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive 
the reward of the inheritance : for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he 
that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done : and 
there is no respect of persons. Masters, give unto your servants that 
which is just and equal ; knowing that ye also have a Master in 
heaven. Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanks 
giving; withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us 
a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am 
also in bonds. 

" You will not wonder that a religion which bore fruits like 
these in act spread rapidly in the world. For all men desire 



382 ST JOHN. THE APOCALYPSE. 

happiness; and to follow counsels such as these is to become 
happy in this life, and to enter with a good conscience on a 
better. Nor is there a higher witness to God than goodness ; 
and men found in the deeds of Christians who thus lived, the 
will of our Father who is in heaven. Thus, before St John, the 
youngest of Christ s disciples died, about a century from his 
Master s birth, the Church had leavened the world. This 
John in his youth had the fervent zeal of Elijah. In his 
first book, which is the Eevelations, he records the visions 
in which God shewed him judgment about to fall on Jeru 
salem*. Thus he is carried in spirit to the great Day of the 
Lordf. He sees the Son of God, who had suffered as a lamb 
sacrificed on earth, standing with all His company in heaven. 
The beast of worldly pride and idolatrous power makes war on 
the saints. The Church, or new society of believers, is as a 
woman giving birth to a man-child, who is caught up into 
heaven, but she is driven into the wilderness. God, however, 
avenges her by sending woes on the guilty City and land. His 
martyrs, slain in the body, live in the spirit. The imperial 
City, which sat on seven hills, is to be judged as well as the 
earthly Jerusalem. Therein we have a type of every worldly 
Babylon which opposes its pride to the spiritual kingdom of 
God. As Titus destroyed what was once the Holy City, so the 
Goths and the Vandals destroyed Eome. The Pagan emperors 
and nations made war against the Truth of God, but were over 
thrown in mutual strife, and with the sword of the Spirit. But 
the Truth went forth prevailing; and the spiritual Jerusalem, 
or the church and kingdom to which Christians say that the 
old promises of the Jewish Sion are now extended according to 
the divine design, came forth in majesty out of the counsel 
of God. Even during the siege of Jerusalem, those believers 
who fled, in faith of Christ s warning, to Pella, had been sealed, 

* Revelations i. i; xxii. 7; xi. 8; xvi. 19. The expositions of Michaelis, of 
Moses Stuart, and of the Rev. P. S. Pesprez, B.D., may be compared. 

t Revelations i. ro. A day of the Lord is a signal judgment, or manifestation 
of His power. Revelations vi. 17; xvi. 14. 



ST JOHN S GOSPEL. 383 

as it were, in their foreheads. In the subsequent confusions 
their faith and patience made them inherit the earth. Then the 
old enemy of lawless might and idolatrous tyranny was bound 
as it were in chains, for all the ages during which the Church 
shall evolve herself in the world. The kingdoms, once thought 
to depend on earthly might, acknowledge the rule of our Lord 
and of His Christ. So Christ came quickly, even according to 
His promise, before the generation which heard Him had passed 
away. But the new kingdom of God has gone on growing, and 
though, when the Spirit of her Lord has grown faint in her, she 
has become part of the world, and partaken of its judgments ; 
yet in proportion as He lives within her members, she has 
become a tree of healing to the nations, and a gate through 
which men pass into life eternal. 

" These things John, the son of thunder, saw in vision of the 
Lord s day of wrath. But in his old age he wrote his more 
perfect Gospel, in which he sets forth the words which the 
Wisdom of God spake to men. It was now clearer than ever 
that Jesus had been the messenger of God ; so He was the 
Christ, and His followers Christians ; the entire thought of the 
Eternal had found fulfilment in Him, and the likeness of God 
was shewn in Man. In proportion as the Apostles learnt Him 
to be the Deliverer not only of Jews, but of all nations, the 
more strongly they felt His kingdom to be not of this world, 
nor His words to be of man s speaking, but to come of His 
oneness with the Father. Thus Christ is set forth by St Paul 
and St John more clearly than by others, as the Son of God. 
To His perfect wisdom all the prophets give partial witness ; 
and the better thoughts of great teachers everywhere are joined 
in His perfect truth. Thus the desire of all nations, the longing 
faith of men of old, even as the eternal will of the Father, is 
fulfilled in Christ. We have in Him the same Word which 
made the heavens of old, and which dwelt as Wisdom for ever 
in the bosom of the Eternal. From Him comes forth that 
Breath of the Lord s mouth which makes all the invisible hosts. 



384 ST JOHN S GOSPEL. 

He has emptied Himself of His own, by compressing infinity in 
the life of a man, thereby opening our eyes to the eternal 
world. If such a helper seem taken from us, it will be only to 
dwell among us unseen, or to give us His Spirit, as a Pleader 
on part of God with us, and on our part with God. Hence 
come our holiest thoughts, our secret prayers, and our quickened 
faith, which is no longer an obscure groaning, but yet one that 
cannot be uttered in words, for the manifestation of the glory of 
the sons of God. This is the water of eternal life, which alone 
slakes our soul s thirst. This truth makes us free from bondage 
of caste, and worldliness, and sin, and fear, and is the beginning 
of our eternal life. 

" Thus John writes of Christ : 

In the beginning was the Word*, and the Word* was with God, 
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. 
All things were born through Him ; and without Him was not any 
thing born, that is born. In Him was life ; and the life was the light 
of men. And the light shineth in darkness : and the darkness compre 
hended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was 
John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, 
that all men through Him might believe. He was not that Light, 
but was sent to bear witness of that Light, that the true Light, 
which lighteth every man, was coming into the world. He was 
in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew 
Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him 
not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to 
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name : 
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of 
the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the 
only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 

" These also he gives among the latest words of Christ 
before He suffered upon the cross : 

1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and 
said, Father, the hour is come ; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also 
may glorify thee : as thou hast given Him po vver over all flesh, that 

Loyos, the Word, means also Reason. 



RECAPITULATION. 385 

He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. And 
this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and 
Jesus, whom thou hast sent to be the Anointed. I have glorified thee 
on the earth : I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the 
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested 
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: 
thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept 

thy word Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 

As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them 
into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they 
also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for 
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through 
their word ; that they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in 
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us : that the 
world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which 
thou gavest me I have given them j that they may be one, even as 
we are one : I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made 
perfect in one j and that the world may know that thou hast sent 
me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will thab 
they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am j that 
they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me : for thou 
lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 

"I trust I have now said enough to give a fair idea of the 
faith of Christ. You have heard the preparation for it in 
Hebrew history, and of the change from letter to spirit, and 
from a nation into humanity, and from law into a message of 
grace and truth. You have also heard how the Son of God was 
the Author and Finisher of this blessed change, and how His 
principal Apostles taught after His death. There are many 
things, such as the great day of the coming of the Holy Spirit 
upon the Apostles, and the later growth of the Church, which 
require yet to be treated. But I trust you see that we have 
a wonderful history, ending in a perfect religion, and a very 
wholesome literature recording both. These things should make 
you search for yourselves our sacred books, with prayer for 
that Holy Spirit, the teaching of which we declare our faith to 
be; and I hope, if you compare these things fairly with the 
M.P. 25 



386 



SEAECH WITH PRAYEE. 



entangled system of Hinduism, and with the better voices of your 
own conscience and experience, you will find the highest of 
teachers, the Father of our spirits, from whom every good gift 
comes, leading you into all truth. But remember, that, as water 
takes colour from its vessel, so you must come with pure heart 
and life, or at least with earnest crying to God for them, to 
drink of these fountains of immortality." 



HARMONY IX DIVERSITY. #87 



CHAPTER XI. 

Scripture Criticism, Miracles, Church History. 

"I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ 
died for our sins according to the scriptures ; and that He was buried, and that He 
rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that He was seen of 
Cephas, then of the twelve : after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren 
at once ; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen 
asleep. After that, He was seen of James ; then of all the apostles. And last of all 
He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." i COR. xv. 3 8. 

"The fearful strains of the Law are repeated, the grace of the Prophets recog 
nised, the faith of the Gospels established, the tradition of the Apostles kept, and 
the grace of the Church triumphant." Letter to Diognetus [by an early ecclesiastical 
writer ; not impossibly, as Bunsen thinks, Marcion (?)] 

WHETHER Blancombe had intended stopping here I hardly 
know, but Sadananda interposed some remarks. " Your ex 
position," he said, " has been very interesting, and the practical 
part at least of your religion agrees so well with what we con 
sider most reasonable and holy, that I see no objection to it. 
You have also shewn that Christianity is a legitimate growth 
from some germs in Judaism ; so that any one, admitting the 
Divine authority of the older dispensation, might in spiritual 
freedom be led on to accept the newer. The question to me is, 
whether I might not be equally led into a right path by Indian 
history, as containing also an exemplification of Divine truths 
within a human theatre, or whether the Hebrew history contains 
so much clearer marks of Divine government, that I must 
change my native point of view, and adopt that of a foreign 
nation. For you know that men may be educated under dif 
ferent music masters into one essential law of harmony ; and so 
men may find in different countries different instances of one 
governing law of justice and truth. Nor is love, I suppose, a 
different feeling, because it is expressed in a variety of lan 
guages. Why should not devotion then be one and the same 

252 



388 S^NKHYA SHORTCOMING. 

thing, though connected with different words, and exemplified 
as to its blessings in a variety of persons and countries ? Hence 
I could wish you would do fairly for the literature of the 
Hebrews what you have done for that of the Hindus, applying 
the same tests to each." "What do you mean?" asked Blan- 
combe. " Why," replied the other, " you have shewn that 
critical men can apply certain tests to decide the age in which 
books, claiming a high antiquity, may really have been written; 
and thus light has been thrown upon the claims of various books 
to an immutable authority. I find no fault with such a process, 
for the Sankhya philosophy admits that sacred books may con 
tain errors, or at least only a temporary kind of knowledge, 
which will admit of improvement from reasoning. But I should 
like to hear what the most critical inquirers, and not merely 
religious teachers, say of all the Hebrew literature." 

"In the first place," remarked Blancombe, "I could wish 
that you had been led by your own sacred books, or in any way, 
to acknowledge a supreme Iswara, who governs nature, instead 
of certain subordinate divinities issuing from it. For then we 
should have more ground in common, and you would have a 
great truth, upon which you are now weak. Perhaps it is just 
in this point that your Indian history has failed to lead you 
aright. In that case the difference is so essential, that it is 
alone a reason for your endeavouring to start from the Hebrew 
point of view; which I have tried to represent as the most 
reasonable a priori, and which has borne the positive fruit of 
Christianity; while your native views have not issued in the 
general adoption by your countrymen of any faith so wholesome. 
Our better fruit is a proof that our tree was better. 

" But, in the second place, the mere criticism of the Hebrew 
literature is by no means so essential to Christianity, as that of 
the Vedas and Purdnas is to the religion of the Hindus. For 
the othodox view of these latter, as represented by our venerable 
friend here, is that they came from the mouth of Brahma, and 
partake of his substance. They ought therefore to be infallible ; 



CHRISTIANITY AND BIBLICAL CRITICISM. 389 

and even unimportant errors in science become fatal to such a 
claim for them. Again, the Hindi! system is represented as 
immutably sacred, and as having been fixed from the beginning. 
Every change, therefore, in Hindu thought or society, as repre 
sented in the many stages of your Sastras, becomes fatal to the 
first idea of the whole system ; and the great number of such 
changes cuts the whole ground of authority from under your 
feet. Whereas the faith of Hebrews and of Christians is emi 
nently in the living God. The distinctive characteristic of 
Christianity is to assert an immense change, which has been in 
the direction of progress, and that chiefly by one great step, 
though also by smaller ones, in the Revelation of the same 
Eternal Being. Any discrepancy therefore between our earlier 
books and our later ones, so long as one great idea has gone on 
unfolding itself, is not at all a detriment to our faith, but an 
illustration of its very substance. As to changes of manners, 
and widening of the intellectual horizon from time to time, and 
all kinds of personal peculiarities which appear, these are, and 
ought to be, in such books as we profess to hand down. We 
say the earliest part was written by Moses, another part by 
David, and others by prophets in various ages. These works 
of many authors ought to wear every variety of feature, in 
manner, temper, and knowledge. To shew that they are so 
varied, is to confirm the account which we give of them, and 
they of themselves. For we have never said that our Bible 
sprung to light in a single hour, or dropt from heaven, as by 
magic. We think it rather a collection of the sacred records of 
a religious society, and an embodiment of that society s expe 
riences, regarding as well the body as the soul. Nor do the 
accidents of human shortcoming, in any of our books, and least 
of all in the earlier, tell against our religion. For we do not 
worship relics of any kind, the authenticity of which would 
need to be guaranteed. Our worship is one of the mind, and is 
directed to the Father of our spirits. We heartily thank Him 
for having exemplified His grace and truth in many instances 



390 CHRISTIANITY ACCEPTS CRITICAL RESULTS. 

of men who have gone before us ; but, while we cherish sacred 
records of such instances, our essential trust is in the Lord 
God Omnipotent, who doeth wondrous things, rather than in 
the human writings in which His works are recorded. We do 
indeed believe, that the same Holy Spirit, by which Christians 
are moved now, moved holy men of old ; and the experience of 
the past is an instrument which helps to awaken the conscious 
ness of the present, as well as to give us the confirmation of 
many witnesses. Still the Christian has emphatically a dispen 
sation of the spirit * rather than of the letter ; and my com 
parison of the Jewish doctrine with the Christian must have 
shewn how much I mean by these words. Not only is Christ 
ianity Truth, but Truth is Christianity; which some may not 
enough remember; and while we love the truth as a thing of 
God, no discovery of what is true can hurt us. Hence it stands 
in the essence of a Christian s faith, that he should be less 
moved by human accidents in the historical records or written 
expressions of his religion, than Hindus should be, who claim 
an immutable infallibility for the entire system of their Sastras. 
Again, so far as we appeal to any books as authorities in our reli 
gion, we do so chiefly to those comprehended in our Bible. What 
these books say of themselves is to be believed by us, rather 
than what others say of them. But there is no better evidence 
for their age or meaning than what is written in themselves. 
In believing, then, as most probable what they thus tell us, we 
hold also the most religious belief; and that to which our own 
principles lead us. For although learned commentators or Jewish 
traditions may have taught differently, yet we never ascribe to 
them the same authority as to holy Scripture; so that their 
comments, either of conjecture or tradition, both may and ought 
to be set aside, whenever they contradict the internal witness of 
Scripture, either to reason, or to other sound tests. Whatever, 
then, critics may truly discover out of Scripture to be the age 
or meaning of certain books, as soon as their discovery is esta- 

* i Corinthians ii. : 2 Corinthians iii. 



ESTIMATE OF JEWISH JUDGMENTS. 391 

Wished, it is the Scriptural doctrine, and as such, our religion 
accepts it. How can followers of the Scripture be frightened 
by what it says of itself? Still less can those whose mental 
allegiance is to the very truth, and whose Master came into the 
world to bear witness to the truth, shrink back from anything 
true. The truer anything seems, the more Christ bids us to 
receive it." 

"All that maybe as you say," replied Sadananda; "but 
still it would be agreeable to me to know, how far there is any 
discrepancy among Christians in such matters, and how far a 
criticism, like that you have given specimens of, could be borne 
by your sacred books." "Well," replied Blancombe, "I feel 
no objection to any fair criticism. But here is Dr Wolff, whose 
turn of mind as to our sacred books you may infer from his pre 
vious discourses. He will perhaps give you the advantage of 
whatever difficulties the critics have raised." 

" I am afraid," began Wolff, " you are laying on me an 
invidious task. But I believe that many critics would place 
the contents of the Bible in a different order of time from that 
which most religious teachers prefer." " Do you mean," here 
asked Blancombe, " that they would do so upon the internal 
evidence?" " Yes, I conceive so," answered the other. " Then 
so far," resumed Blancombe, " as any critical view answers to 
the internal evidence, it becomes the Scriptural one; and no 
well-instructed Christian should object to it." "Very well," 
said Wolff; " but these sort of things are to be considered. It 
is not to be denied, that before the Christian era began the 
Hebrew canon was closed ; nor are any of its contents later than 
the date you have assigned to the latest, or about 150 B. c. But 
most Christians claim a very much higher antiquity for the Old 
Testament. When we ask for proofs of it, we find that the 
Jews had very slender knowledge of such points, and no trust 
worthy tradition of theirs, external to the Bible, goes farther 
back than the Babylonian captivity. It is admitted that many 
books, such as Haggai, and Zechariah, and Ezra, and Chronicles, 



392 GROWTH OF LEVITICAL SYSTEM. 

are written after the return from Babylon. Now why are we 
to put the five books of Moses a thousand years earlier, or 
1500 B. c. instead of 500 ? The reasons for doing so must be 
found, if anywhere, in the books themselves. Whereas the 
fifth book, or Deuteronomy, is according to its Greek name 
a new edition, or a recast of the Mosaic law; and possibly 
its date may be much more recent. We read* in the reign of 
Josiah, 610 B. c., that Hilkiah the priest gave Shaphan a book, 
which he gave the king; and the whole kingdom seems to 
have been re-formed on the model of "this book. We are told 
that Hilkiah found this book in the house of the Lord, but 
there is nothing to shew that he did not write it. Again, the 
age of Solomon, when the temple was built, was evidently one 
in which the Levitical priesthood was developing itself, and may 
have given birth to such books. Half a century earlier the in 
fluence of Samuel was in the ascendant, and perhaps a contest, 
such as you have noticed signs of elsewhere, may be traced in 
the reluctance of the prophet to consecrate a king, and in his 
subsequent quarrels with the chosen Saul. There are many 
points of resemblance, as seems even admitted, between the 
Brahmanical caste, and the Levitical tribe. The Magians among 
the Medes and the Chaldseans at Babylon might furnish a similar 
parallel. If any such officers were authors or guardians of the 
literature, they might edit it in the long period between Samuel 
and Ezra according to their own views. Yet they might act, 
not only as a priesthood, but as part of the nation whose tra 
ditions they shared; and hence popular as well as sacerdotal 
elements would find an expression, as we have found to be the 
case in India. But we must not point to Viswamitra and 
Sunahsephas, without remembering that Solomon f sacrificed, 
though a king, and that Abraham was tempted to slay his son. 
The Levitical system therefore must have grown, no less than the 
Brahmanical, and admitted equally of improvement in worship 

* 2 Kings xxii. 10, n; 2 Chronicles xxxiv. 14, 15, 18, 19. 
t i Kings viii. 62 65. 



GROWTH OF THE BIBLE BY STEPS. 393 

from a clearing of its faith by humanity. Why should not 
Deuteronomy express the fuller form of the Levitical system ? 
Certainly its style has a more redundant flow than the earlier 
books. Again, the book of Numbers tells us in chapter xxi, that 
it contains quotations from earlier records, such as the book of 
the wars of the Lord. Such a record eould not be older than 
Moses, and if it were contemporary, would hardly have been 
quoted by him ; so that the book quoting it must be of a later 
age. But often in the Pentateuch, and especially in Genesis, 
there are citations from older documents, especially genealogical 
tables ; and this accounts for the same things being mentioned 
in one set of narratives with the name Jehovah, and in another 
with that of Elohim. I am very far from saying that such com 
pilation from authorities implies even a shade of ill faith; but 
it points to more than one author, and more ages than one. But 
if the Pentateuch has portions later than Moses, still more evi 
dently has the book you call after Joshua signs of a later date. 
For it mentions the name of Jerusalem, which was not borne by 
the city of Jebus until king David had captured it, and even 
expressly the partial occupation of the same city by the tribe 
of Judah, which was subsequent at least to Joshua s death. It 
mentions even the mountains of Israel and of Judah, and thereby 
implies knowledge of the political division not known before 
Saul s time. It quotes again the book of Jashar, or of sacred 
songs, which no contemporary would quote as evidence for what 
he had seen, and which may not have existed so early, certainly 
was not completed until the death of Saul. But the whole 
narrative is without disguise the work of a date later than the 
events ; for the author speaks of posterity, and of certain things 
continuing to this day, that is, to a later date. But if the book 
of Joshua was compiled not earlier than the time of Samuel, 
other historical books may require to be similarly brought down. 
" Consider now the remarkable case of the Psalms, which 
are called after David. Some of them may have preceded the 
building of the temple ; as for instance those which lay especial 



394 THE PSALMS. DANIEL. ZECHARIAH. 

stress upon the ark of the tabernacle. But others refer to 
many disasters or deliverances of most different ages, such as 
the siege of Sennacherib, the exile in Babylon, and, if the best 
critics are not mistaken, even the desolation of the holy places 
under Antiochus Epiphanes. Over what a lapse of centuries, 
then, do not these sacred songs extend! As to the titles 
prefixed to them, they may, as a bare possibility, have had some 
ground of tradition; but they so often contradict the internal 
evidence, that we may more reasonably ascribe them to the 
glossings of early Rabbins. They stand therefore on no better 
ground than the Vedic Brahmanas and Sutras. 

" But what will be the bearing of this sort of inquiry upon 
the prophecies ? As to the book of Daniel, no canons of pure 
criticism will allow us to place it earlier than the time of An 
tiochus, or 170 160 B. c. For in the first place the external 
evidence brings it low ; since the Jews arranged it not among 
their ancient prophets, but among the later miscellaneous writ 
ings, which are called the Hagiographa. Secondly, it has not 
only Greek, but Macedonian words ; and these would be very 
improbable in a Jewish writing before the age of Alexander. 
Thirdly, it has plain and minute history, though in a prophetic 
form, down to the age of Antiochus. Now I assent to the 
canon, justly laid down, that any minute descriptions of external 
events must be considered historical rather than predictive, 
unless clear testimony is shewn to the existence of the book 
containing them at a date prior to the events ; whereas with 
the book of Daniel the external evidence is for the lower date. 
In the same manner it may be remarked, that the book ascribed 
to Zechariah has about eight chapters which seem contempora 
neous with the return from Babylon, and bear due marks of that 
time. But it has about six others, which are in an entirely 
different style, implying not the joy of return, but the agitation 
of alarm or struggle, while they mention a conflict with the 
sons of Greece*, No fair criticism would allow us to place 

* Zechaviah ix. 13. 



ISAIAH. 395 

these latter chapters before the age of Alexander; though they 
may be somewhat later. 

" As to portions of other prophets, I need only observe that 
they are arranged piecemeal, and in no consecutive order*, as 
in the case of Jeremiah is allowed. There are critics, and not 
the worst, who think that the last twenty-seven chapters of 
Isaiah are of a later date than the first thirty-nine. Without 
speaking too positively on an unsettled point, I think that both 
the contents and the change of style render this conjecture pro 
bable ; nor is there even a shadow of external evidence to turn 
the scale against whatever may be the internal probability. 
Finding then, as we do, that the first thirty-nine chapters speak 
of various events in succession, but chiefly in a tone of rebuke 
and threatening, with some interspersion of promises to repent 
ance ; while all the later chapters are in a sustained tone of 
exultation and a breaking out into joy for the glad tidings on 
the mountains of the decree of return from captivity, I assent to 
the chronological distinction which good critics have drawn. 
Even verbal arguments f to the same effect are brought, though 
not without dispute, among philologers. 

"Now comes an important question, whether the results of 
chronological and other criticism affect the sacred character of 
the Bible, as a collection of religious books. It has been argued, 
that the religion itself is independent of such inquiries, and only 
bids us accept calmly whatever the Scriptures may say or imply 
of themselves or of the secular circumstances in which they had 
their origin. Nor can I deny, that such independence agrees 
very well with the spiritual view of Christianity as a kingdom 
not of this world, but as one taking possession of the thoughts 
which wander through eternity, and of souls destined to enjoy 
it. I should be constrained to admit, that a knowledge and a 
peace which the world cannot give, can neither be taken away 

* Bishop Watson s Apology for the Bible. 

t Compare Jahn, Introductio in libros Vet. Fold., and Dr Samuel Lee s Dis 
courses on Prophecy, containing a reply to Gesenius. 



396 HOW CRITICISM AFFECTS PROPHECY. 

by worldly accidents, affecting either ourselves or our sacred 
books and tlieir authorship. But on the other hand, to those 
who hug the Jewish views of external prophecy and of ari 
earthly kingdom, great difficulties appear to arise from a critical 
investigation of the Bible. For in the first place, the prediction 
of external events is rendered doubtful by any uncertainty as to 
the date of books. If the latter part of Isaiah is rather contem 
poraneous with Cyrus than prior to him by a century, it may 
remain a glorious outburst of national thanksgiving and recog 
nition of Jehovah, who, although he had suffered his priests 
and prophets to be slain, was now bringing about their pious 
anticipations ; but it will not have the positive air of a descrip 
tion of events beforehand, which some would find in it. 

" We may now ask as to the Hebrew predictions in general, 
if they are of events nearly contemporary, by how long did the 
sayings come first? Was the interval ever too great for his 
torical sagacity and human presentiment to overleap ? Or if, as 
some tell us, there are predictions referring to a future still 
remote, how do we know these will be fulfilled? Some expect 
the Jews to occupy Palestine again. I have not found for my 
self any predictions of a restoration, which may not have had an 
adequate fulfilment in the six hundred years of nationality 
between Cyrus and Titus. But as the canon was closed long 
before that period ended, it is a gratuitous assumption that any 
additional period was ever contemplated. Again, if the pre 
dictions refer to a coming Messiah, were they fulfilled literally 
in Jesus? If we make some allowance for the inflation of 
Eastern style, tlieir text applies better to ancient kings and 
prophets, such as Solomon or Jeremiah, and others of the class 
of persons of whom I think it demonstrable that the old pro 
phets conceived themselves to be speaking. 

" But if we leave prophecy, a farther consequence arises. If 
we ask what is the range of knowledge in the books of the Old 
Testament, we find it answer in each case to the horizon of the 
age, in which a fair criticism places the books. Moses knows 






SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND SPHERE OF SCRIBE COINCIDE. 397 

Egypt, and Solomon whatever Tyre or Tarshish could teach. 
Daniel exhibits a wider acquaintance with the activity of the 
Greeks. In the books after the captivity, we find the Zoroas- 
trian personification of evil first tinging the language of the 
Jews ; as in Kings, it is the Lord who tempts David, but in 
Chronicles Satan stands up. So the names and distinctions of 
the angels are reported by the Jews themselves to have been 
brought from Babylon. But, if we find the system to have 
thus grown as an organisation ; if human knowledge accumulates 
upon it, according to natural opportunity, while even its sacred 
ideas are tinged by contact with foreigners ; if prophecy becomes 
less demonstrably predictive of events in proportion as the books 
containing it are rightly placed, may not the Hindus retort your 
question, What becomes of any supernatural communication ? 
I have not dwelt upon miracles, for our friends here would pro 
bably allow them to any extent*, and only relate to you greater 
marvels in return ; but the farther any books are removed from 
the events mentioned in them, the wider becomes the room for 
magnifying whatever happened. Those who know the force of 
imagination, and how easily poetry takes the place of history, 
while popular traditions may receive from a learned caste a 
written form, will easily apprehend what I mean. However I 
have said enough, in deference to your wishes, to enable Sada- 
nanda to judge, how far the rationale of explanation which 
criticism applies to things wonderful in Scripture, has a de 
structive effect or not." 

Here Wolff paused ; and Blancombe, turning to Mountain, 
said smiling, "Perhaps it is time to bring up heavier metal." 
Accordingly his elder friend, with a reverend sort of gravity, 
began. 

" We should be careful to state facts rightly, and then draw 
inferences. The external evidence for the Pentateuch goes up 
much higher than the Babylonian exile, or the reign of Josiah, 
when Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law. For the five 

* See the Abbe Dubois on Hindu miracles. 



398 EXTERNAL MENTION OF THE LAW. 

books of the Pentateuch are received as sacred by the Samaritans ; 
and it is impossible to conceive the,y would adopt anything from 
the Jews later than the eighth century before Christ, in which 
the mutual enmity of the two nations became intense. Nor is it 
likely that the ten tribes would have done so later than the 
disruption under B/ehoboam, which was early in the tenth 
century before our era. Here is, therefore, nearly a thousand 
years before Josephus, with hostile evidence concurring for the 
genuineness of the Pentateuch as a whole. But again, although 
the Jews have little high tradition external to the Bible, yet 
the different books of the Bible, being written in different ages, 
are so far external to each other, that they supply a balance of 
mutual testimonies. All the historical books, and also that of 
the Psalms, refer back to the law or the commandments of the 
Lord*, as to a thing well known in the times of their authors. 
No one can pretend that these books are not of a strictly his 
torical kind, for they have a careful order of persons and events, 
with references to documents from which they are drawn. Under 
the entire period of the kings it is clear that there were scribes 
and recorders f, whose business it was to keep a chronicle of 
events. Even if we suppose them not to have been free from 
natural prepossessions, they still set down events with an ap 
pearance of general fidelity. They shew no sign of flattering 
kings, and often blame even the priestly order. Nor is there 
reason to doubt, that in the time of the judges similar records 
must have been kept, though perhaps in a less formal manner. 
When then all these historical books refer back to the law, as 
to something known, they prove the great antiquity of that law 
by an evidence external to it. Nor is the farther evidence of 
customs and rites to be overlooked. For certainly the building 
of the temple, and the still earlier reverence for the ark, point 
back to an ancient Mosaic law, and to a Levitical system, 

* Judges iii. 4, 5 ; 2 Kings xviii. 12, xxi. 7, 8 ; Psalm xl. 8 ; Joshua viii. 34 ; 
Jahn, Introductio, &c. 
t 2 Sam. xx. 24, 25. 






PENTATEUCH. 399 

whether this was so strictly observed as in later times, or pos 
sibly not. It is by no means necessary to deny a play of human 
struggle between the elements of the state, or the occasional 
neglect of the law, which yet may have been handed down. 
For the conduct of nations never reaches their professed 
standard. We are told expressly, that the law of Moses was 
neglected by king and people ; but if we believe that Hilkiah 
gave a book to Shaphan, we should believe also that he found 
it, as is said ; especially since the Samaritans admit the whole 
Pentateuch to be older than that time. 

"If we look at the Pentateuch itself, the difference of 
style in Deuteronomy is fairly ascribed by scholars to the old 
age of Moses*, going over with the confidence of a great leader 
all the deliverance he had wrought for his people, and the 
precepts of which he had a right to demand their observance. 
But even if every part of the Pentateuch should not be from the 
hand of Moses, it all expresses one law, and so far one mind. 
If only half the five books had been written by Moses, and as 
much as half by later captains or high priests, no important 
consequence to our religion would ensue. The history, the 
ritual, the framework of the Hebrew polity, would be sub 
stantially the same. 

" As to the quotations from popular poetry in the book of 
Numbers, there is no reason why Moses should not have em 
bodied the sayings of his contemporaries, which would give 
them an interest in his more formal record; or, even if these 
should betoken some later compilation, they would still be frag 
ments of very venerable tradition. Again, the book of Genesis 
is remarkable for its Egyptian words, which are just what might 
be expected from the contact of Moses with Egypt. If a later 
writer had written this book, and inserted such things, he would 
have inserted them also in the later books, where they do not 
appear. All the description of Egyptian society is just what all 
ancient accounts of Egypt, and the monumental stones, would 

* Jahn, <is before. 



400 PENTATEUCH, COMPILATION OF DOCUMENTS. 

lead us to expect. Do ancient writers speak of sacred caste in 
Egypt ? So does Moses. Do they speak of shepherd conquerors 
from Syria and Arabia? In harmony with this Moses tells us 
every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians. Do the 
Egyptian dynasties mount up to a high antiquity ? So Moses tells 
us of kings, priests, soldiers, body-guards, the use of fine linen, 
and a settled trade with other countries, from 2000 to 1500 B.C. 
As to the ancient genealogies in Genesis, there is no attempt 
to conceal them. How- can they then be made a fault ? Such 
ancient records give a value to the book. They both attest the 
good faith of the writer, and enable him to extend his range of 
credibility backward. It is not only Moses we are reading, but 
some of the most venerable and trustworthy records of that early 
age of the human race. Nor is the historical chronology of 
Moses necessarily shorter than it ought to be. We may make 
it so, if we draw inferences from men s lives. But Moses has 
only in few places given a number of years ; and he gives no 
intimation that the aggregate of such years comprehended all 
the world s history. In the tenth chapter of Genesis the most 
learned critics think that we were intended to understand races 
or nations rather than individuals, and the plural terminations 
of the names put this beyond fair doubt. As to the genea 
logies of men, Moses is only answerable for inserting them as he 
found them ; and we have no reason to doubt that he did so. 
Any difficulty which arises from comparing such tables should 
be ascribed, either to our want of data for solving it, or to the 
variety of tradition in the families whose documents he transmits 
to us. He does not represent it as part of the Hebrew faith, 
much less of the Christian, that we should have a certainty of 
the genealogy in every patriarchal tent having been kept scien 
tifically. The duty of the Jew was to keep the statutes and 
judgments of the Lord; that of the Christian is to walk after 
the mind of Christ; any historical information may be useful 
for our instruction ; but the force of ancient traditions is not to 
be strained beyond the intention or the means of information of 



SPIRIT OF HEBREW HISTORY. 401 

the writers who hand them down. The period of the history most 
important to the Hebrew commonwealth begins with Abraham. 
From his time to that of Joshua, there may be room for grave 
consideration, how far the human element, within which in a 
way the Divine wisdom manifests itself, is also reflected in the 
sacred narrative ; for we expect the thoughts of men to appear 
in their words, and the imagination even of a nation under 
Divine guidance, to be mirrored in its writings ; but certainty 
we see a great Providence working, and the Divine promise to 
the patriarch s faith coming wonderfully to fulfilment. It is 
hardly too much to say, that the subsequent history of the 
Israelites is a proof of the general authenticity of the Penta 
teuch. For no one doubts their living in Canaan, their belief 
in Jehovah, their festivals and ritual, or their ark and temple. 
These things arose in some way ; and no account of their origin 
can be given more probable than that recorded in these five 
books, which we have seen to be of such high antiquity. This 
argument is both true generally, and will bear special appli 
cation to the more wonderful events of the earlier history. For 
there runs through the Hebrew mind in many generations a 
belief in supernatural interposition on a national scale, or in the 
special manifestation to Hebrews of the Divine government of 
the world. I would lay less stress on this, if it belonged only 
to some dim traditional age, or came out only in poetry (though 
poetry too has a truth of its own) ; but it is very striking in 
conjunction with that prosaic habit of chronicling things year 
by year, which we find among the Jews, as well as with the 
literal veneration for documents, which they carried afterwards 
to excess. Considered in this conjunction with historical accu 
racy, the unshakeable belief among the Jews of wonderful 
displays of Divine Providence becomes more significant*. It 
seems to shew that the Almighty had given them a special 
lesson, which they were to exemplify before the nations. Again, 
every argument for the antiquity of the Pentateuch renders the 

* See the XlXth Sermon in a volume called " Rational Godliness." 

M. P. 26 



402 PENTATEUCH. JOSHUA. 

more wonderful portions of the narrative more credible, since 
it leaves less room for the shaping power of the imagination. 
Here also come in the striking prophecies of the Hebrew destiny, 
which the same books contain; for if these precede the first 
occupation of Canaan, they give a wonderful forecast of the 
future in its more general features down to the siege of the city 
by Titus. Yet they have not that specification of names and 
persons which has appeared questionable elsewhere. 

" The genuineness and authenticity of the Pentateuch being 
allowed, I do not see that any earlier date for the book of Joshua 
need be asserted, than what the book itself points to. It is 
evidently compiled from documents older than itself; and these 
may have been contemporary with the conquest*. It shews the 
good faith of the writer, that he enables you to fix his date, 
without the remotest insinuation to the contrary. The received 
title may refer to the subject, and is not affixed to the author. 
Our Master Christ has nowhere said, that we should place the 
books of the Old Testament otherwise than they place them 
selves. Nor has He determined how far they are affected by the 
more general laws of Divine Providence in history. Thus, if in 
Joshua we find tables of the division of the land among the 
tribes, and also quotations from a book of songs, we may leave 
every man to determine, whether the nature of prose and poetry 
should alter his way of understanding either ; but whatever way 
is the truest is the scriptural one ; and freedom, with sincerity, 
in adopting either way, is most agreeable to our Christian 
faith. Only we should not doubt the Israelite conquest of 
Canaan, for there is no reason to doubt it. 

"What you have said of the Psalms only fills me with 
amazement, that you should conceive such criticism to be an 
objection. True, David, as the most illustrious of the psalmists, 
has precedence of the others in name. But how many of the 
psalms are expressly ascribed in our Bibles to Asaph, Heman, 
the sons of Korah, and others? Yet more weighty than any 

* This is argued well and minutely by Jahn, in his Introduction, &c. 



BOOK OF PSALMS. 403 

titles are the contents of the Psalms themselves. If they allude 
to events extending from the age of the Judges, or earlier, to that 
of Antiochus Epiphanes, they give thereby an echo and a wit 
ness to the living Providence which so long wielded the national 
destiny. If they cling with especial fondness to the temple- 
service, this is what might be expected from the existence of a 
worship divinely appointed. If they enter into the deepest 
recesses of the heart, by expressing thoughts common to true 
penitents both then and now, this shews the truth of their 
breathing the influence of One Eternal Spirit. If in some of 
them are harsher sayings pointed against personal or national 
enemies, this both answers to what we are told of the people 
among whom they arose being a rugged one, and justifies the 
Christian in his preference of the general spirit to the particular 
letter; and again, is a sign of God having brought us into 
something better, according to His ancient promise. Yet if 
things spoken of worldly enemies can, with slight change, be 
applied by us to the enemies of our soul s peace, this shews the 
same Jehovah to have governed the Jewish kingdom of the 
body, and the Christian kingdom of the soul. Hence too those 
who might be in danger of gazing only into heaven, and be 
coming dreamy spiritualists, are wholesomely reminded of the 
life in which Divine Providence fixes us, and add a cheerful* 
and practical tone to the deeper piety of the Gospel. Neither 
the many ages, then, over which the composition of the Psalms 
extends, should be any argument against their sacred character, 
nor vestiges of things temporal in them any sign that they do 
not partake of that Eternal Spirit, into whose kingdom we have 
entered. 

" What has been said of the book of Daniel is a little more 
difficult. But scholars are not all agreed that this may not 
have been written under Cyrus in Babylon, as the contents 

* Some excellent remarks on the use of the Psalms in Christian worship may be 
found in Alexander Knox s Remains. As early as St Augustine the Psalms were 
used by the Church, and hymns, in preference, by the sects. 

262 



404 DANIEL. ZECHARIAH. DEUTERONOMY. 

seem to imply. But if the later date under Antiochus should 
turn out correct, the book will still express, though in a less 
historical form, the strong faith of the Hebrew in the God of 
his fathers, and a confidence that out of the lowest distress He 
would yet fulfil His kingdom. This expression of faith will 
still precede the Christian era by a full century and a half; and 
what is more remarkable, it will equally have been fulfilled. 
For it was in the low estate of Jewry that God set up a king 
dom not to be moved, which prevailed over the kingdoms of the 
earth. The mental nature of this had been denoted by calling 
it a stone cut without hands*; as St Paul also calls the 
Church a temple not built with hands, thereby repeating the 
very words of Christ. Even the prohibition of the Law by 
Antiochus increased the study of the Prophets, which con 
tributed (with the help perhaps of this very book) to awaken 
men s minds for a spiritual resurrection. The book then will 
still have been a part of the Divine education of the Hebrews 
for a better kingdom. 

" But while I am willing that, as to Daniel and part of 
Zechariah, you should assign them whatever date is most pro 
bable, it must be questioned if some prepossession as to prophecy 
does not here influence theory. For in Zechariah, you say, 
Greece is mentioned. But if every uncertain book is brought 
as low as possible, there will remain the very ancient book of 
Deuteronomy, which foretells the nation swift as the eagle 
flieth, and the delicate woman eating her own child in the 
distress of the siege. The wildest scepticism would not deny 
these sayings to be very many centuries before the Christian 
era ; yet they came to pass in the siege by Titus, A. D. 70. 
Since then you find some literal prophecies fulfilled in Jewish 
history, you gain little by diminishing their number. For even 
a few would shew the book to have an unique character, and 
from a few, certain, you may infer more as probable. Yet you 
seem to admit, that such a spiritual view of prophecy as my 

* Daniel ii. 34 ; 2 Corinthians v. i ; Hebrews ix. 1 1 ; St Mark xiv. 58. 






NATURE OF PROPHECY. ISAIAH. 405 

friend Blancombe has propounded, cannot suffer from any such 
inquiries. Nor again are you able to take away that inherent 
tendency of the Hebrew polity to develop itself into something 
nobler, which we contend to be the reflexion of a Divine idea 
presiding over it through every age. So that the only risk 
dependent on such questions as you raise about Daniel is this 
question, Are we to take as a key to prophecy on the largest 
scale, the external view which makes it descriptive of coming 
events, or the more profound one, that it is perceptive of great 
truths, and so pregnant with hopes and fears, yet also with 
unforeseen applications? In either case the common teaching 
of Providence by sagacity and presentiment will have its limited 
field. But beyond such limits, we admit the possibility that 
prophecy means spiritual predication rather than literal predic 
tion. This is the utmost question really dependent on such 
criticisms as we have heard, and this does not either way affect 
the truth of Divine Revelation. Many indeed would think the 
more spiritual view to be the more Christian, both in itself and 
in its consequences. 

"The above principles will govern all that need be said 
about Isaiah. It is not yet agreed that any wide chasm inter 
venes between the earlier portion and the later. But if such 
should turn out to be the case, it will only extend the domain 
of those interpretations which according to the text are the most 
literal, for they apply its utterance to contemporary events, yet 
according to the ultimate design are the more spiritual, for they 
extend its application to that kingdom of thought which God 
brings to pass out of the ancient history. This view is both 
rational, in that it interprets men s words according to the 
limits of man s intelligence ; yet pious, in that it does not shut 
out the Eternal from foresight of that which He brings about in 
act, and shews Himself to have designed by tendency. For, just 
as if the waters of the ocean were poured into vessels, so 
I suppose the manifestation of the Infinite must be limited by 
the compass of the intelligences within which He shews His 



406 REVELATION IS AN UNVEILING. 

thought. The prophets then will have spoken of things present 
which they saw, but with faith in the unseen God who governs 
them, and He through their words will have shadowed forth the 
truth of things to come. Nor is it from mere a priori con 
siderations, but from the difficulty which inquirers find in proving 
in the Bible or elsewhere minute predictions of remote events, 
that I am inclined to allow, some view of this kind will be 
hereafter universal. Let such things, however, be as experience 
may render probable. But if we find a people wonderfully 
trained by events into a Diviner faith, and that faith exemplified 
in their history, and in its ultimate growth a blessing to all 
nations, we can neither go back from the last act to the first, 
nor refuse to place the whole drama at the feet of the Governor 
of the world, acknowledging that His providence has been in it 
all along. The thing communicated is that sight which we 
have now of His grace and truth : and as a man whose eyes are 
suddenly opened to the heavens does not ask his physician foi 
a vehicle of sight, so we are not troubled about an intermediate 
body of revelation, when the eyes of our mind have a true un 
veiling of God. Yet in purging as it were our mental eyesight 
or in awakening our heart, and so in taking away the veil of sense 
or hardness, it pleases God to use an instrumentality of events 
and of doctrines, giving each man an experience of his own, anc 
accumulating it by growth on the great scale of nations. He 
does not so much give proofs of truth, as instances of it. Nor 
are -we surprised, since to Him all kingdoms belong, that out o: 
His providence in history should be unfolded His more secret 
grace. Thus there is hardly a great nation with which His Church 
the heavenly commonwealth and social embodiment of truth 
has not at some time come in contact. She saw all those 
giant empires, which in turn overshadowed the world, but which 
now loom through a dim haze of memory. Perhaps even th( 
lore of no ancient priesthood may have been quite strange to 
her. She went down into Egypt, and spoiled the ancient 
priesthoods of their wisdom, while yet she hallowed it by the 



PEOVIDENCES OF THE CHURCH. INCARNATION. 407 

simplicity of faith. She learnt patience in the wilderness, and 
meekness with the poor and needy men of the Psalms. Yet 
she taught kings to rule in the fear of the Lord, and neither the 
wealth nor wisdom of Solomon misbecame her. Again, she talked 
with the Chaldseans in Babylon, and whatever good they had, 
capable of combining, she took as illustration or help to her 
faith. Even the persecutions of Antiochus only deepened her 
yearning for an unseen kingdom, wherein righteousness should 
dwell. She then widened her sympathies by that humanity of 
the Greek, which yet she aspired to purge of its sensualism, 
and learnt discipline of the Roman, while she taught him to 
soften the rigour of his iron law. Nor should I wonder, if 
through Alexandria she borrowed something of your Indian 
asceticism, which hardly agrees with her cheerful faith in the 
God of heaven and earth and of life and death, but which yet 
may have helped to wean her from sense, and deepened that 
unworldliness which passed harmless through persecutions, and 
smote savage nations with awe. 

" Christ appeared, as the Apostles tell us, in the fulness of 
time. For then all the elements of humanity had converged, 
and needed only the touch of the Son of God to heal them. 
The wood was all gathered round the altar, before the fire fell. 
Then the Divine Thought came to pass in humanity, and the 
Son of God was born. Then the Greek language was spread 
over Asia, as a vehicle for both the ancient Scriptures, and for 
the new preaching of the Holy Spirit. Then the Eoman power 
compressed in some cases the madness of a persecuting multitude, 
and when it set itself in deliberate strength against the new 
kingdom over men s hearts, it was broken without hand. No 
earthly might withstands long a faith in the unseen and ever 
lasting God. Yet before it fell, the Eoman empire gave a 
splendid theatre for the first witnesses of Christ to shew them 
selves upon. It brought the sword, the flame, and the wild 
beast, to try their faith and patience. It gave all the processes 
of regular law to take cognisance of their conduct, and the rigid 



408 INCARNATION HISTORICALLY ATTESTED. 

genius of history to record it. Not Christians, but Heathens, 
such as Pliny in his letter to the Emperor Trajan, tell us of 
a community of men meeting at early dawn, and singing hymns 
to Christ as their God, and binding themselves only by a pledge 
of faith and of harmlessness. The same writer, and other 
Heathens like him, speak of the tenacity of the Christians in 
that shrinking from idol-worship, which was their only crime. 
Thus above all, the Founder of our faith lived, and died, and 
rose again, not in any obscure land, among a savage or imagina 
tive race, with prepossessions in His favour ; but amongst Jews, 
very jealous of His pretensions, with rival sects agreeing only to 
accuse Him, and intelligent strangers looking on, before the eye 
of Greece, and under the power of Eome. Who can say, the 
Augustan age was a credulous one? or that the fulfilment 
which Christ brought to the Prophets was such as the expect 
ation of the Jews would predispose them to receive? or that 
every act of His life was not jealously watched? Again, though 
I have alluded to Heathen witnesses, yet the records of the 
Apostles themselves have every claim it is possible for books 
to have upon our credence. 

" We did not dig these, which are our Christian Scrip 
tures, out of the ground, or find them unaccompanied in 
some dead museum; but they are handed down to us by 
a long train of witnesses. They could not have been forged 
since the Eeformation, for such a circumstance would have 
been prevented by the mutual jealousy of the Church of Eome 
and reformed Churches ; nor since the division of the East and 
West, twelve centuries ago, for the jealousies of the Greek 
and Latin Churches would have prevented it; nor since the 
Council of Nice, fifteen centuries ago, for we find them then 
appealed to by the adverse parties of Arius and the maintainers 
of catholic truth. Neither could they have been forged earlier ; 
since we find from Eusebius, from Cyprian, from Origen, and 
from Melito, that formal catalogues of them were critically made, 
and their genuineness the subject of fresh tradition and careful 






NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES. 409 

examination. We may extend this historical proof of their 
genuineness into the first century, or within seventy years of 
the commencement of that new dispensation whose history they 
record ; for we find them quoted by Justin Martyr, by Papias, 
and by Polycarp, the very hearers and companions of the first 
messengers of the new dispensation. 

"Again, it may be shewn historically, that not only were 
these books received in the very age of their authors as the 
genuine works of the persons to whom they are ascribed, but 
that it was morally impossible for any important change or 
corruption in their contents to be subsequently introduced. They 
were both enumerated in catalogues, and collected into a distinct 
volume*; they were described by peculiar titles of respect; they 
were publicly read and expounded to large assemblies of men, 
and their text rendered generally familiar by commentaries ; 
they are quoted by many authors, appealed to by jarring and 
jealous sects, and scrutinized as the depositories of the new 
doctrines by enemies to the progress of the new dispensation. 

" Thus our books have been preserved by the Church from 
the beginning, as embodiments or expressions of her first faith. 
On the one hand she may say, as Blancombe has argued, Here 
is a religion commending itself to you by its inherent goodness, 
or by the answer of the faithful witness within us, as well as by 
its fulfilment of those better anticipations which God breathed as 
signs of His purpose among a remarkable people of old; and this 
argument would hold good for spiritual men, if we had even much 
scantier record of the first establishment of Christianity in the 
world, or if any one imbued with an infection of Hindu thought, 
should extend the region of Maya, by supposing ever so much 
play of imagination in the outset, and fancying humanity to have 
divined the thought of God in a great poem, rather than to have 
seen it embodied in deed and man ; for still our conscience, af 
fections, and our faith would conspire to lay hold on this as the 
truth of things unseen, which are eternal. Blessed would be 

* Paley s Evidences. 



410 POSITIVE AUTHORITY OF CHRISTIANITY. 

those who believed, though not seeing. But on the other hand, 
the Church may now point bodily to the Son of God blessing, 
and healing, and bearing our sins on the shameful tree. She 
has the witness, not only of the Spirit, but of water and of 
blood. She believes, both because she sees in spirit, and be 
cause faithful men have seen in the flesh. Hence she may say, 
Even if this faith of Christ were less manifestly Divine than it 
appears to us by experience, yet it comes to us on that highest 
authority, which we dare not gainsay. It may call for obedience 
and trust, as well as for compliance and assent. For whatever 
is extraordinary in its facts, has the guarantee of no less extra 
ordinary witness. Twelve men suffice the English law for any 
verdict ; and twelve men have set to their seals, that they and 
many others saw wonders done by Jesus in the flesh such as no 
man without God can do. These wonders were works of good 
ness, but also of supernatural power. Nor was there any room 
for mistake; since multitudes looked on, and the men healed 
and raised from the dead, were seen surviving long afterwards *. 
Christ Himself was seen often, and by manyf, after His resur 
rection from the dead. Nor is there power in the ordinary laws 
of nature, which without any physical antecedent could work 
such cures and restorations as Christ wrought. He revived, for 
instance, the corpse already decaying in the grave. It remains, 
then, that some new or extraordinary cause, and that no less 
than the wisdom or power which orders and wields nature, must 
in such cases have interposed. For the Sankhyasts rightly infer 
that every effect must have adequate cause. Nor is it a little : 
gain to have our minds thus disentangled from the chain of 
sensuous effects by striking indications of that mental power, \ 
which is both in nature and over it, and without whose present | 
will no material forces could flow. For we are thus saved from \ 
the Sankhyasts error of fancying nature self-dependent ; and in 
acknowledging soul, as they do, we also ascribe to the highest 
soul that superiority of which it gives signs by thus working. 

* Quadratus, Apology, ap. Bouth. t i Corinthians xv. 



. 



OLD TESTAMENT TYPES. 411 

But moreover, when the Almighty thus does things extra 
ordinary, it is to excite our attention, and to give us reason for 
believing, or motive to obey. Christ s religion therefore comes 
into the world with a Divine attestation, adequate to the vast 
effects which flow from it, which are again a secondary con 
firmation of its first evidence, and worthy of the long train of 
providences which paved the way for it. 

" But when we take the Gospels of the four Evangelists as 
giving a literal account of Christ s life on earth, and the Acts 
as describing the progress of the Apostles, and their Epistles as 
preserving their words, then not only the works of Christ are 
more manifest, but the prophetic parallel of the Old Testament 
becomes more wonderfully complete, than when we considered 
only the main design of the Hebrew polity, and its general 
fulfilment in our faith. It seems now probable to us, that a 
divine design of such magnitude should have many correspon 
dencies in all its parts ; and such we find to be the case in fact. 
The Paschal Lamb, eaten in Eucharist for the redemption of 
Israel from Egypt, now signifies the better offering of Christ, on 
which His upright ones feed in spirit, when delivered from the 
worse bondage of evil habits. The sin-offering, burnt without 
the camp, implies that Christ should suffer outside of the local 
city, and an outcast from the ancient polity of the Jews, and 
that His followers must often bear reproach in being cast out of 
societies of men. The passing through the Bed Sea becomes 
an emblem of baptism, and the stricken rock of Christ stricken 
for our healing. If we wander, with hearts half satisfied, and 
an earnest expectation of tilings better to come, yet sustained by 
signs of our heavenly Father s love, in this world, so did the 
Israelites for forty years in the wilderness. If they must pass a 
river, so must we a river of death, into a better land. If the 
high priest entered once a year into a holy place, bearing blood 
in sign of the people s contrition, so is our spiritual Intercessor 
gone within the holiest veil of the unseen world, carrying in 
thought the memory of all He did and suffered in unveiling the 



412 TYPES PROPHETICAL. (THE GOSPEL.) 

love of God, and prevailing for us with a prayer which the 
Father cannot refuse. If great deliverers were of old born in 
Bethlehem, the house of bread, so was Christ. If they were 
despised by their people, Christ dwelt in Nazareth, out of which 
no good was thought to come. If they were set apart as Naza- 
rites, Christ was separate from every evil of thought and deed. 
If the ancient judges affected not pomp of warhorse and chariot, 
but administered law as they journeyed in simple estate, so Christ 
shewed the nature of His kingdom, when He entered Jerusalem 
lowly, and riding on an ass. If old deliverances of the nation, 
or decrees of return from exile, had been glad tidings which 
made the feet of their heralds beautiful upon the mountains, the 
message which Christ preaches of deliverance for all men from 
evil, is more especially a Gospel or good news. If the poor 
need sympathy, He brings it them ; if the weary long for rest, 
He invites them to it ; if sinners are bound with a burthen of 
shame, He takes it away in the unveiling of a love which has 
outrun and exceeded all our eagerness to destroy our better 
souls ; if the simple need instruction, He gives them in purity 
of heart a direct sight of truths which no learning can teach ; if 
to some men poverty, and to some wealth, and to others temp 
tation, and to many an entanglement of all things in life as if by 
misplacement of the great enemy, brings a snare, and to all men 
death brings fear, Christ sweeps away all these things, by open 
ing around us and within us a kingdom, in which the Lord God 
reigneth, and His will is done, both in earth and heaven. So, 
whatever is the plague of any man s heart, Christ takes it 
away. Thus His Gospel is not a fixed or a hard thing, but good 
news to each man according to his need. Again, if the old 
prophets brought their messages through suffering, see if there 
was ever any sorrow like unto Christ s sorrow. My soul is 
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," 1 He savs. And He went 

-/ e/ / 

a little farther, and fell on His face, and prayed, my Father, 
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me : nevertheless, not as I 
will, but as thou wilt. Well might angels appear from heaven 



TYPES PROPHETICAL. 413 

comforting so Divine a sufferer. Again, if, as they looked on 
the brazen serpent, the Israelites were healed of the serpents 
stings, so by faith gazing on the fulfilment of what is meant in 
all offerings, and on the perfect self-consecration of Jesus on the 
cross, we become healed of those wounds which the old serpent, 
the author or type of all evil, has wrought in our better souls. 
Once more, if God called of old Israel out of Egypt to be His son, 
and made him a firstborn among the nations, and lifted him in a 
little time, as on the third day*, from under the yoke of bondage, 
so having through the suffering of Christ fulfilled all His will in 
Him, He lifted Him from the grave on the third day, and made 
Him a king for ever. Again, the hope of the Psalmist f that 
his soul would not be given over to the place of the dead, had 
not only a temporary fulfilment for himself in long life, but a 
visible and permanent one in the taking again of life by Christ, 
the Holy One, when He saw not corruption. Here also notice, 
that things spoken in hyperbole, or with eastern inflation of 
words, to earthly kings in Zion, become literally true when 
applied to Christ. So that, if in some respects we translate the 
letter into spirit, yet in others we make it more literally true. For, 
if any one addressed Solomon, calling him, as some think, in the 
45th Psalm, fairer than the children of men, and a god, and 
one whose * sceptre is a right sceptre, and one whose arrows 
are sharp in the heart of enemies ; these things would have 
something of figure when so applied : but when we turn them to 
Christ, they require no shading away; for in Him is that unearthly 
fairness which men s deepest desires have cried out for, and a 
rule which sways our love because it is right, and arrows of 
truth which pierce to the dividing asunder of the thoughts. 

" So much greater becomes the fulfilment of prophecy, when 
we read Christ s life in the four Gospels. And if we glance at 
the effects of His resurrection, the same fulfilment continues. 

* Hosea xi. i ; v. 15 ; and vi. i, 2 ; Exodus iv. 22; Jeremiah xxxi. 9; Psalm 
Ixxxix. 27. 

t Psalm xvi. 10; Acts ii. 25. 



414 INSPIRATION FORETOLD. HARMONY OF EVIDENCES. 

For the prophets of old had spoken* of an outpouring* of the 
Spirit upon all flesh. They meant, that when God was truly 
known to His people, no caste or priesthood should come ex 
clusively near Him ; but wise and simple, old men and maidens, 
should alike know, and love, even as they are known of Him. 
We need not deny that, even in the greatest dulness of the 
Jewish people, the Divine Spirit strove with them; for just 
before Christ we read of men, such as Simeon, inspired, or full 
of the Holy Ghost ; but it was only when Christ s disciples 
came together, thinking of all His life, and awaiting His pro 
mise, that the fulness of the Divine Spirit took possession of 
them. From that day of Pentecost, though they still learnt 
earthly things by means, the irresolute became bold, and the 
simple clear in wisdom. Then by their preaching, suffering, 
and living, they built up the kingdom, in which the Holy Spirit 
dwells for ever. From henceforth God and man cannot be put 
asunder. 

" Here then is that joining of the hands together, which 
different parts of a proof require, to be complete. First, you 
have the stretching forward of the Hebrew nation and prophets 
under the impulse of some idea, which their mind could not be 
easy without fulfilling ; and if even the instincts of lower animals 
and plants reach some fruitful end to which they are destined, 
we can hardly think the spiritual forebodings of man s better 
nature, especially on so large a scale, and in so growing a system, 
would be given to mock him. Then comes out in the body of 
Christendom that temple of living minds, to which the fabric 
for prayer and offering at Jerusalem, however unconsciously, 
pointed ; and thus the holiest instinct of what is immortal in a 
nation has found a fulfilment for mankind. But thirdly, you 
have intervening between this germ and flower, a history of no 
less than Divine interposition, by which the change is both 
brought about and ratified. In this intervening stage we find 
an interpretation of what might be doubtful in the older, an 

* Joel ii. 28 32 ; Hosea i. 10, ii. 19 23. 



HARMONY OF EVIDENCES. 415 

authority abolishing the old, no less than that which imposed 
it, and justifying its own wisdom in giving, by its very method 
of taking away. For the law, you see, is not abolished without 
having been fulfilled ; it is not transgressed without finding a 
victim ; it does not die in the letter without being glorified in 
the spirit. 

"If the Old Testament is wonderful, the New is divine. 
The first has law and history, with providence and prophecy; 
the second has grace and a power of life, with fulfilment and 
truth. The second is implied in the first, and the first unveiled 
in the second. Nor is it easy to see how Almighty God Him 
self could more strongly persuade us to embrace a religion, than 
by thus giving proof to all readers of history, that it has come 
of the Governor of the world, and by making its experience 
satisfy the best conscience of every one who tries it. - Surely the 
human shortcomings of men who have taught or professed it, 
are no sound argument against the divinity of the truth itself. 
For how much worse would they have been without it ? Earthly 
acts never fully bring out the heavenly thoughts ; and the very 
fact of a divine healing presupposes that human souls are 
diseased. The question of experience turns on whether the 
fruits of Christianity have been good, according to the soil it 
was planted in, or the materials it worked with. It finds igno 
rance, passion, sin, suffering, and strife. It brings enlighten 
ment, peace, and with holiness either comfort or patience ; and 
all these strangely combined in the power of the one cross of 
Christ, whose figure gleams through the world, standing above 
our highest pomp, and going down into the depth of sorrow. 
See briefly how our faith is justified in its history. Before the 
Apostles passed away, Jerusalem fell, but the city of the mind 
rose in its place, and the believers in Christ began building a 
new kingdom. Ignatius, the companion of the Apostles, desired 
the wreath of martyrdom, and was torn by wild beasts. Poly- 
carp, the disciple of St John, gave his body to the flames rather 
than deny the Saviour who had carried him to grey hairs. 



416 CHURCH HISTORY. 

Justin Martyr, after in vain seeking peace among the specula 
tions of men, joined his wisdom, like Moses, to a better faith, 
and after proclaiming the one God who by all-embracing wis 
dom had taught Jews and Gentiles, sealed his faith with his 
blood. The great fathers of the Alexandrine school followed in 
a like track. Irenseus exhorted men to be at peace, and shews 
the rightful unity of the Creed throughout the world. The 
martyrs of Lyons suffered without boasting, and disclaimed in 
humility the eminence which they won ; for they had read how 
Christ was not greedy of that which was His right. St Cyprian, 
without pride for himself, strengthened the order of the Church, 
yet opened the gates of forgiveness to the fallen who repented. 
All these, and many men like them, built up in the Church a 
home of severe holiness of thought and act, with tenderness to 
want and sorrow. They shut out the profligate, but received the 
slave. They restored to marriage that sanctity which it had 
once in the better days of Rome, and made life more precious, 
as a trust from God. As their numbers extended, their princi 
ples passed into the laws of the world. But they received such 
power of moulding things seen, only from their faith in things i 
eternal. Origen and Jerome with patient learning collected the I 
Holy Scriptures, and distinguishing the Hebrew from later 
additions, gave versions in Greek and Latin. The spread of i 
like versions in many languages is one of our great securities : 
for the integrity of our text. In the fourth and fifth centuries j 
the great architects of the larger fabric of the Church lengthened : 
her cords, and strengthened her stakes, that she might be a tent . 
holding many nations. Athanasius and others in the great ; 
councils contended earnestly for what seemed the truest state 
ment of the faith felt of old. Some of their debates may have | 
been carried with human passion ; yet we see in them men not 
bent on selfish or earthly victory. We do not therefore blame \ 
the later councils, any more than the first at Jerusalem, for say- 
ing that what seemed good to them, seemed also good to the 
Holy Spirit. For God who gives treasure in earthly vessel 






CHURCH HISTORY. 417 



can breathe the unity of His truth through many sore conten 
tions and prophesyings in part. In about the same age the 
Liturgies of the Church grew up, partly out of an old Jewish 
inheritance, partly out of the fresh accents of the Spirit in 
dwelling in the whole Church, and partly out of a combination 
of things sacred among the Gentiles, which the large wisdom of 
our fathers in the faith was not afraid to adopt, having that 
freedom wherewith Christ has made us free. 

" Thus when Rome fell, the Church had been divinely pre 
pared to take her place ; and the dream of Plato, that governors 
should be teachers of wisdom, seemed near to fulfilment. The 
genius of the new polity is to be judged, not by the faults of 
particular men, but by the cast of virtues which it exemplified 
as a whole, and by its softening influence over the manners of 
savage nations. If the bishops of Home * and of other cities set 
up a power savouring too much of this world, they did so in an 
age of iron and of blood, and gained something for humanity 
by setting the simple cross against the sword, vanquishing king 
doms by faith, and brute force by mind. When Home was 
sacked by the Goth and the Hun, and Carthage by the Vandal, 
the bishops f of both cities were the great relievers of all suffer 
ing by their alms and prayers. Often, in such cases, Christians 
shewed that they knew what sacrifice to God means, by selling- 
even the holy vessels of their churches, that the price might 
relieve men suffering from war or famine. Even the emperor 
Julian, who loved them not, had with true ingenuousness con 
fessed their zeal in such works, and had desired heathens to 
learn from it. /See, how these Christians love one another^ was one 
of their early marks ; for they could not fail to do so, if they knew 
truly the love of God, which yet passes knowledge. In a like 
spirit they built hospitals for the sick, whereas the empire before 
them had built amphitheatres for men to fight with beasts. It 

* See Milmari s History of Christianity, both the earlier and the Latin ; or 
Neander and Chateaubriand. 

t Milman and Chateaubriand. + Tertullian. 

M. P. 27 



, 



418 CHURCH HISTORY. 

was a Christian monk (St Telemachus) who, in the truest mar 
tyrdom, put an end to such spectacles at the cost of his life. But 
when the Northern nations had spread night over Europe, the 
faith of Christ, though mixed with legends and ancient customs, 
was still a light in a dark place. In its power, the bishops* of 
Spain forbade the Gothic chieftains to estimate any humble life 
as worth less than their own, and affixed the same penalty to 
any murder of man. In the same spirit, it was reckoned an 
acceptable sacrifice to God for serfs to be emancipated by their 
rude lords. Even the right of asylum in churches, (though it 
became abused f, as it had been among the Hebrews, from whose 
precedent it seems taken,) was useful in so fierce an age, as 
enabling passion to cool, and equity to obtain a hearing. Again, 
in the monasteries were preserved the relics of learning. Around 
them, or in episcopal cities, survived an image of the old 
Eoman tribunate, with its veto in favour of humanity upon 
illegal tyranny; and so the germs of our municipal:); freedom 
were cherished. The schools of Charlemagne in France, the 
patronage of learned men by Alfred, and the foundation of many 
colleges throughout Europe, are all connected in some measure 
with the influence of the Church in the dark ages. They are 
akin to that spirit which sent missionaries into the most savage 
nations, like the Briton Winifrid (or Boniface) into Germany, 
softening everywhere wild man, by shewing him something of 
the truth of God. Even where such missions, or the Churches 
which sent them forth, were in collision with one another, as the 
Churches of lona and Western Britain were with the growing 
centralisation of Rome, the spirit which animated them all was 
the same, and the truth which lay at the bottom of their zeal 
was essentially one. 

" Of religious wars, such as the Crusades, we may say that, 
if Christianity had never existed, they would not the less have 

* Guizot. 

t Hosea vi. 8, 9, where harbouring of homicides in the Levitical cities seems 
implied. 

Guizot, and Sir James Stephen s Lectures on French History. 



CHURCH HISTORY. PRIMITIVE REVIVAL. 419 

been fought. For their real causes were generally passion or 
policy. Yet the religion, which was made a pretext for them, 
threw an elevating influence among the mixed motives of the 
combatants, and often ennobled ferocity into courage, while 
sometimes it even mitigated victory. Nor need we doubt that, 
in this tangled world, such contests are often means of working 
out a Divine design, which is neither to be measured by the 
consciousness of its instruments, nor yet to be charged with the 
acts of their free will. We see all things not as yet put under 
the feet of the most perfect wisdom. 

" But a great sign of the goodness of Christianity is, that 
when the ages of twilight were to brighten into noonday, they 
did so chiefly by returning to the first principles of our faith. 
By reviving the good news of God s frank forgiveness of sins, 
such men as Wyclif and Luther rolled away the burden that lay 
heavy on the human breast. By putting us, in the Spirit of 
Christ, face to face with God, they put away all false subterfuges 
of the conscience, and all vain gloryings, and at the same time 
all fears, awakening in men both a deeper humility, and a con 
sciousness of strength not their own. Again, leading us to the 
foot of Christ s cross, they shewed us the evil of wilful sin, and 
by what a sacrifice of self-dedication our health is wrought, and 
persuades us to sin no more, lest a worse thing befal us. They 
did not thus bring a new Christianity, but they renewed the 
power of the old. Then by putting in every man s hands the 
sacred writings of the prophets and apostles, they not only 
enable us to judge of the truth of things, but give us a won 
derful instrument for awakening in ourselves the same spirit as 
dwelt in the writers. For though faith is in one sense the gift 
of God, yet in another sense it comes by reading and by hearing. 
Hence I wish you also to study our scriptures, especially the 
book of Isaiah, and the Psalms, and St Paul, and St John, with 
perhaps also Genesis. These five books, postponing at first 
those which concern, you less, I should like to see spread and 
read in India. They would teach you what our faith is, better 

272 



420 POWER OF CHRISTIANITY, AND ITS INSTRUMENTS. 

than my account can ; and might, if it be the Divine will, have 
the same power to awaken in you a hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, as they have often shewn in Europe and in Asia. 
Nor is it a slight sign of our religion having come from God, 
that its earliest writings yet breathe such power. We have 
learnt since many arts and sciences, and have adapted our 
phrase and usage, as we have a right, to the aspects of various 
nations. But the first life which dwelt fresh in the apostles and 
prophets, upon whom the temple of men s minds is built, yet 
speaks in their writings ; and when we have most caught a 
contagion from thence, we most partake of their spirit, and enter 
into the mind of Christ, and do, as Christ did, the works of God 
who sends us. You should read, then, Hebrew history ; nor is 
there any harm in comparing it with your own, since there is 
one God of Jew and Gentile ; you should compare the doctrine 
and faith of Christ with both that .of the Jews, and with any 
thing analogous to it among yourselves, or answering to it in 
your own spirits ; you should study the life, and death, and all 
the history of Christ Himself, and the results of His appearing 
in the world ; you should kneel down for a little, and pray as it 
were at the foot of the cross in thought, asking the Divine 
Enlightener for His light ; you may consider also whether such 
a deliverer as Christ from both the penalty and stain of evil, 
and such a revealer of immortality, is not what you need for 
your own peace ; and then I hope, alike the substance of our 
faith, and the attestation which accompanied it, and the history 
which prepared for it, and the results which have followed it, 
which we both see in the history of nations, and can try for 
ourselves, will all together convince you that it is taught us by 
God, the Father of all. But I agree with Blancombe, that the 
love of Divine things must go before their knowledge, and if 
you would know whether the doctrine is of God, you must be 
endeavouring to do His will." 



DIFFICULTY OF ORIGINAL SIN. 421 

CHAPTER XII. 

Doctrinal Difficulties and Explanations. 

" Consider the work of God : for who can make that straight which He hath 
made crooked ? In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity 
consider : God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man 
should find nothing after him." ECCLESIASTES vil. 13, 14. 

" That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out ?" Id. v. 24. 

" Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." i THESS. v. ci. 

" For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is 
perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a 
child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child : but when I 
became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, 
darkly ; but then face to face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know even 
as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three ; but the 
greatest of these is love." i CORINTH, xiii. 9 13. 

" THE more you explain all the circumstances and accom 
paniments of Christianity," remarked the Saugata, " the more 
wonderful it appears to be. But when you urge the excellence 
of the Doctrine itself, as a thing that should awaken an echo of 
faith from the heart of man, you seem not to be aware, that the 
entire Christian scheme appears to us to contain very great 
difficulties, if not to be quite incredible." "In what respect is 
this so?" asked Mountain. " If you have no objection, I will 
explain to you," replied the other. 

(1) " In the first place," he continued, " you have spoken of 
human nature as diseased, or as having the Divine likeness in 
it marred, and requiring a certain health to be wrought in it. 
In the mouths of many of your teachers, this statement takes 
even a harsher form than in your own. For they speak of man s 
nature as utterly abominable, so that for God even to com 
passionate it seems almost at variance with His truth. They say 
it deserves infinite torments, which are accordingly to be suffered 
by the mass of mankind. Then if we ask whether human sin 
does not come much of weakness and ignorance, and even of 



422 DIFFICULTY OF ORIGINAL SIN. 

circumstances in which our Maker has placed us, they answer, 
No ; for that it comes of our first mother s disobedience in eating 
the fruit of a forbidden tree; and this act of hers, several 
thousand years before our birth, is, they say, put down to our 
account ; so that, even if we never sinned for ourselves, as dying 
perhaps in infancy, we should still be justly liable to punish 
ment, for that act in which we had no share or consciousness, 
but which they say was prompted by a Spiritual Enemy, or 
Devil, who again preceded our birth by I know not how many 
more ages. We were present in some mysterious way, they tell 
us, in the loins of Adam or the womb of Eve ; and such a doc 
trine, they say, is the best account of the origin of evil, and 
explains the world s history ; whereas to us it appears to involve 
all visible acts and all voices of our conscience in inextricable 
confusion. But if we remonstrate, and say that such a doctrine 
neither gives a pleasant image of a heavenly Father, nor answers 
to our notions of justice, still less of equity, they reply, that our 
whole nature is too corrupt for us to have any notion of what 
is just or right; and perhaps even, that the more a doctrine con 
tradicts our conscience, the more likely it is to be true ; but that 
the infallibility of your sacred books, as proved by miracles, 
(which we never ourselves saw,) should compel us to abase our 
proud reason, and accept thankfully the Divine Revelation. But 
at least we know not how such a doctrine is good news, or a 
Gospel; for it seems to us so injurious to our Maker, and so 
hateful to man, that we must at least pray it may not be true. 
Then, as to the evidence of it, we have not seen the miracles 
alleged to prove it; and it is hardly pious to put the senses so 
far above the soul, as to make mere stories of what men have 
seen, overbear our holiest conceptions of Right. But, if we 
cannot conceive either Truth or Right, then our souls contain 
nothing for any Divine Revelation to obtain an answer from. 
Again, if God implants in some of us such a special organ of 
sacred perception, there is left no fitness in His doing so by men, 
rather than by tigers or dogs ; and all your arguments for the 



DIFFICULTY OF THE ATONEMENT. 423 

immortality of man from his reason, and conscience, and holier 
aspirations, become utterly naught, and we are driven down to 
the sensualism of the Charvacas. Nor then would any response 
in us to what seemed good in a doctrine be at all trustworthy. 
So unholy are the consequences which seem to us to flow from 
the doctrine of the fall of man, and especially of the entailment of 
Original Sin, through Eve s eating the apple. It can only be 
proved to be revealed by arguments which make a truly Divine 
Revelation impossible. 

(2) " Akin to our first objection is a second, which we feel, 
to what is said of the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ. It seems 
taught, either by Paul, or by those who profess his doctrine, 
that the highest God was too angry with men, ever to forgive 
them without exacting a certain suffering from some one in 
their stead. His justice, as they say, or as it seems to us, His 
vindictiveness, required a payment or satisfaction which was 
made by Christ. Upon receiving this payment, God changed 
His mind, and counted innocent those guilty persons who take 
advantage of this dying of the innocent Christ in their stead. 
Thus His righteousness is, by a transfer, imputed to them ; and 
their guiltiness, by a fiction, to Him. The Innocent suffers as 
guilty, and the guilty are pardoned, as innocent ; the places of 
both being changed by imputation, or their merit and demerit 
inverted. This doctrine seems made by some so essential, that 
all Christianity turns upon it, and faith in it stands instead of 
all virtues, or at least is the paramount requisite, and only plea 
availing, for acceptance. Whereas to us the whole doctrine 
seems unholy. For, in the first place, it makes the Eternal 
God change His mind, whereas we think, and Christians some 
times acknowledge, Him to be unchangeable. Secondly it makes 
Him vindictive, in that He would not forgive mere penitence ; 
whereas we count it a hardness of heart even in men to be un 
forgiving. It makes Him also mercenary, in that He does, on 
receiving a price, what He would not do out of pure goodness. 
In the same way it makes Him selfish, in that He is said to 



424 DIFFICULTY OF ELECTION. 

4 consider only His own glory*; whereas it would be more for 
His true glory to consider in love the good of others. Again, 
it contradicts the truth of God, that He should call innocent 
those who are really guilty, and by a fiction lay guilt on the 
innocent; especially if He does this out of an arbitrary choice f, 
and not out of inherent fitness. Nor can it be said, that Justice 
is thus satisfied, for such conduct is not truly just. Nothing 
which is untrue, can be just. Nor again, is it easy to see, how 
the life and death of Jesus, which took place in flesh and time, 
could satisfy a debt which you say was infinite, for it involved 
no less than eternal torments. But if you reply, that Jesus 
was also Christ the Son of God, and that His Divinity made 
His sufferings of infinite value, then it would suffice for all, 
and it would be cruel of God not to extend it to all. 

(3) " This brings me to my third objection. Most Christians 
teach, that only the chosen few, or the elect, are really saved. 
Then this infinite salvation of yours becomes finite; and the 
Gospel is no longer good news to all men, but to a few. Thus 
God is no longer the Father of all, but of the elect. Some of 
your teachers even connect such an election exclusively with the 
profession of Christianity, and say, that many Christians will 
suffer everlasting torment, but that all who are not Christians 
must do so. To me that is not good news. Others, who are 
more moderate, allow that Divine election may be amongst 
persons, who without fault on their own part, are ignorant of 
Christianity. But even these leave an arbitrariness in the 
selection of a few to be saved. Others, they say, will have 
rejected in free will an offer made them ; but they add, that 
whoever accepts, does so because he is irresistibly induced by 
Divine grace. Why then does not this grace induce more? 
You blame us for taking away, as you fancy, the Divine self- 
consciousness ; but what can be worse than taking away the 

* Calvin s Institutes. 

t Hooker argues that the Divine Will is not without reason, but chooses the 
good. 



PREDESTINATION. THE TRINITY. 425 

Eternal love, and putting mutability, vindictiveness, arbitrari 
ness, untruth, and elective caprice, in its place? 

(4) " Fourthly, the explanation which some give of your Chris 
tian election only makes the doctrine worse. For they resolve it, 
not merely into the mystery of things, but into a wilful decree, 
conceived by God from eternity, which they call predestination. 
We are not, they say, to murmur against God, nor reply against 
His Will. I do not murmur against what comes of God, but 
does this come of Him ? I accept His Will, but has He shewn 
us this to be His Will ? If He has revealed Himself, as you 
say, through all history and conscience, and especially through 
the long line of the Hebrew Scriptures, as the very fountain of 
justice, mercy, and truth, these principles, once laying hold of 
any mind, are a better clue to His holy will, than a few texts 
in which the contrary seems spoken. That is not just, because 
of infinite power, which we should call horrible from man to 
man. I say nothing, of such a doctrine s making human agency 
a mockery, and throwing a more than Brahmanical Maya over 
the moral world, because that would lead us into a wider 
mystery. But at least this doctrine of election of a few by 
predestination is not good news to me ; nor can I reconcile it 
with Divine justice, even if with human morality. 

(5) " But fifthly, all the above doctrines are bound up with 
the Divinity of Christ. He is, you say, very God of veiy 
God, and you speak of His appearance as a Divine Incarnation. 
Those who teach your religion in a system, go on to explain 
that you have three Persons in one Divine and Infinite Being. 
A missionary once, shewing me a creed, threatened me with 
endless perdition, if I did not fully believe what perhaps I did 
not understand, and what so far as I did understand it, con 
tradicted itself. Each of the Three Persons, he said, was by 
Himself, God and Lord ; yet there were not three gods, but one 
God. Now, if I could understand how three may be one by 
difference of relation or aspect, yet at least it is difficult to 
imagine Three Persons in One Being, of whom the first shall 



426 QUESTIONS AS TO FAITH. 

have a vindictive will to punish all mankind, but the second 
have a benevolent will to save them ; so that the first shall 
only change His mind upon receiving a price from the 
second. Then, if the wills of the first and second Persons are 
at any time different, how can they be one? For if by sub 
stance you mean spirit, and not matter, there is nothing more 
essential to unity of spiritual being, than unity of self-conscious 
will? Again, if the will and self-consciousness are one, how 
are there three ? Much more, if each is by Himself God, and 
God is both infinite and One, how is there room for another 
to be by His side? All this doctrine of Three and One is 
difficult ; and it becomes more so, when you connect with it 
anger, and punishing, and propitiation, and intercession, as if 
from one self-consciousness to another. 

(6) " But sixthly, you say this doctrine is a mystery, and 
must be received by faith. But I thought that in Christianity 
you had a revelation, and that what was once a mystery had be 
come unveiled. I do not deny, that reason goes beyond sense, 
and perhaps faith reasonably beyond the full company of reason ; 
yet neither should contradict the other. But what do Christians 
mean by faith ? If they mean belief, then it is an intellectual 
quality, and requires some ground, if not naked evidence. Then 
if it has good ground to assent upon, it is mechanical, and has no 
merit. But you have rather implied, that it is that mental ap 
prehension which gives body to unseen things : as such, I see 
no objection to it, but it is not peculiar to Christians ; perhaps 
even it is stronger among Hindus. Some again, make faith 
consist in trust, or confidence. If they mean trust in things 
holy and right, such as our conscience answers to, and the most 
Divine Intelligence supports, then it might be a moral quality ; 
but this very faith, as I apprehend it, forbids me to receive 
immoral or arbitrary doctrines of God, as if He were Might and 
Self-will, instead of being also Eight and Love. If, again, 
Christians by faith mean confidence, or assurance of our own sal 
vation, this may come of selfishness, as well as of righteousness. 



CHARGE OF EXCLUSIVENESS. 427 

And what right has a man to be so sanguine ? He can only be 
rightly assured of what is first true ; and if he is saved by con 
fiding that he is so, does this make our salvation a process of 
our own minds ? Or, if it is by confiding that he is one of the 
elect, does not this make God partial, and an accepter of per 
sons ? Still more, does not the stress thus laid on faith, in the 
sense of confidence, either make men presumptuous ; or, if it 
consists in intense abnegation of merit, then make Christ jealous, 
and His religion a thing of name ? What is the essential dif 
ference between those degenerate forms of Hinduism, which set 
the name of a favourite deity above all moral distinctions, and 
such a doctrine of faith as makes mere self-negation, and ac 
knowledgment of Christ as a Saviour, avail more with heaven, 
than pure heart, or upright life? You have yourself," (here he 
turned to Blancombe) " touched on the danger of religion s 
losing morality: and I think the Christian stress on faith in 
Christ as opposed to good deeds, shews such a tendency in 
doctrine, which I should not wonder if bad men carried out in 
act. Especially all that is said of there being none other name 
given, seems at variance with the equity and goodness of God. 
Through such a faith, and not from want of faith, I feel unable 
to receive your doctrine. 

(7) " Here comes in, seventhly, all the exclusiveness of your 
religion. It is acknowledged, that such was a fault in part of 
the Jews. But yet it was a natural fruit of their Mosaic system : 
how then can that system have been Divine? You say, it 
was temporary. Be it so ; but it obscured truths, which had 
been known before, as the case of Melchisedec in Canaan proves, 
no less than that of Viswamitra in India. Why then obscure 
things, only in order to uncover them ? Or why construct an 
elaborate polity, which freedom and truth would require to be 
one day broken down? How does the long usurpation of the 
Levitical tribe in Jerusalem differ from that of the Brahmanical 
caste in India ? Let your great Teacher and Deliverer have the 
merit of breaking down the one ; but why may I not claim an 



428 OBJECTION OF MATERIALISM AND LOCALISATION. 

equally unfading crown for our master Sakya ? His faith stands 
in the same relation to the Brahmans, as Christianity does to 
the priesthood of Aaron and Hilkiah. It should also be noticed, 
that Sakya was in age far prior of the two. But have not you 
Christians inherited too much of that exclusiveness, which you 
blame in the Jews of old? I should not wonder, if all that 
doctrine of election had something to do with old Jewish feel 
ings. Still more it strikes me that the narrowness of mind, 
with which Christians speak of themselves as especial favourites 
of heaven, and of all other nations as wandering in darkness, is 
either Jewish, or at least wrong. To us it seems that every 
man everywhere is accepted, in proportion as he grows in intel 
ligence, and does the thing that is right. 

(8) " You are perhaps not accustomed to such freedom of 
speech from us. But you were, though in all friendliness, our as 
sailants on this question, and you invited me to speak. I will now, 
however, try you with only one more objection. If Judaism, 
and in a less degree Christianity, seem to be narrow in their 
sympathies, or unfair in their way of regarding other modes of 
worship, still more we think both one and the other have too 
local and material a view of all that concerns mental things, and 
especially the Divine intelligence. You speak of God, as of a 
king sitting upon a visible throne in the sky, with His eldest Son 
at His right hand, and one receiving petitions from the other. 
Then you make men, like mere animals, creeping upon this 
earth, at a great distance from God, and hardly daring to think 
any thought of immortality but what is written down for them 
in a book. If ever we are to see God, you think we must be 
transferred bodily through the air into this palace of the great 
King, taking with us flesh and bones, and I suppose, fleshly ap 
petites. For though you speak of a spiritual body, I cannot 
understand an union of contradictories ; and a bodiless body, or 
a material spirit, has for me no meaning. Nor do I know what 
matter is, except body. Thus you make Heaven a mere place, 
and our souls bodies, and the Infinite God a powerful man. 



HINDU SPIRITUALISM. CHRISTIAN REPLY. 429 

All tins lias a poor sound to us when we compare it with those 
infinite worlds through which our own thoughts expatiate, and 
with the entire freedom from every shackle of sense, which we 
think belongs to perfect spirit, and with the kindred of that 
which is immortal in us to the Highest and all-embracing 
Intelligence. Every argument which you used for the immor 
tality of man s soul seems to be on the side of such a faith as 
ours, rather than of this confined doctrine, with which Chris 
tians either express a higher truth in Jewish parables, or, as 
I should say, lose it in them. You have spoken, as if you 
were not incapable of apprehending our grander views of in 
finity ; but the Christian doctrine, as I have generally under 
stood it, of a Heaven and an earth, and a great king, and 
a lifting of our bodies out of the grave, and an opening or 
shutting the gates of Heaven with keys, seems a falling back 
from the full growth of the soul into childhood. So that, while 
you seemed to be right in taking the spirit against the letter 
of the Jews, when I compare your faith with ours, you seem 
to be Jews yourselves. For I suppose names make little differ 
ence, unless thoughts are changed. But I shall be glad to hear 
from you any explanation of the difficulties which I have 
ventured to suggest." 

(1) " It would have been a bad return for your patience with 
us, if I had interrupted you," here observed Mountain; " other 
wise your misconception of the aspect of Christian doctrines 
would have inclined me to do so. In the first place, you will 
nowhere find it written in the Scriptures of the Old Testament 
or the New, that the disobedience of Eve is put down, as an 
act, to our account. But have we no principle in us partaking 
of that which made her disobey ? What have you acknowledged 
yourself of sin, and of the need of penitence and forgiveness ? 
But whenever we sin, as the conscience of better men owns that 
we do, so often we fall from our better mind, and so from the 
likeness of God. We disobey the law to which conscience 
testifies. Nor does our disobedience come of accident, but of 



430 FALLING OF MAN A REALITY, 

a division in ourselves, which we lament and yet are guilty of, 
and so which attests an evil principle in us, warring with the 
good. But if any creature sins, of that which is in itself, or of 
a tendency which it inherits, then it so far has an evil nature, or 
a sinfulness bound up in its very origin. But such tendency 
goes on to act, and may suffer before act. We put our foot on 
the head of a young viper, without waiting till its fangs grow. 
But if one could change the nature of the viper, so that it should 
become harmless, or its poison prove medicine, we should save 
it for its better nature s sake. Thus Mankind have evil in 
them ; but in so far as any one is cured of this evil, and fulfils 
the design of God which is our truer nature and His likeness, 
so far the man is healed, and delivered from evil. 

" But it makes a great difference, under what aspect such 
a doctrine is presented to the mind. If it is exaggerated, so as 
to deny our better conscience, and destroy that witness to the 
holier law of God, which he makes an instrument to heal us, 
then it becomes evil. But no such statement is taught as our 
doctrine in the Bible. On the contrary, some of the stronger 
sayings, which might seem to support so harsh an exaggeration, 
are expressly condemned. Some of them come from the mouths 
of those three illnatured friends of Job *, on whom Divine dis 
approval is pronounced. It is neither wise of friend, nor fair 
of foe, to make those wrong sayings a specimen of Christian 
doctrine. Again, some similar sayings are used only in reproof 
of a particularly evil generation f, as of that which sinned 
before the flood ; or of strangers who oppressed the Israelites J ; 
or of tyrants and spoilers , who got riches not by right. Words 
spoken in such a relation would naturally be strong, as there 
was great occasion for them. But the only passages in the 
Bible, which really express the general sinfulness of our race, 
are outpourings of penitence, or else of rebuke to men who 

* Job iv. 17 20; xi. 3, \i, 20; xxv. 4 6; xxxii. 121. 

t Genesis vi. i. + Psalms xiv. 53. 

Jeremiah xvii. 9 u ; xxii. 3 



BUT NOT TO BE EXAGGERATED. 431 

pretended especial righteousness, and needed strong recall to 
humility. But penitence of heart is, like love or grief, a passion 
which does not weigh words nicely, but pours forth a feeling 
it cannot contain. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, might well 
be said by David, when fresh from the sin of adultery, into 
which fierce passion had carried him ; and every man, in so far 
as he approaches a like sin, may use words of like fervour. 
But even the purest may in a way adopt them ; for he who 
conceives most highly of holiness, will have deepest contrition 
for even a slight fall from it. Hence it is that Christianity, 
having the strongest sense of the evil of sin, breathes such 
fervour of repentance. Our faith in that Holiest One, whom we 
cry out for, makes us feel most our falling from His Will. Nor 
do we doubt, that such life-long falling from man s better nature 
is also falling from what God intended him to be, and so from 
the Divine likeness ; for our conscience witnesses by faith to no 
imaginary law. And as God is perfect in right, and infinite 
in goodness, so we ever fall short, but reach onward to attain 
that for which His better Spirit attains us. But neither Scrip 
ture of old nor the Church now, teaches, that God punishes us 
for any act, save our own. It may be, that when deep feelings 
come to be expressed in the uncongenial shape of forms, they 
become in danger of losing their truest aspect. Thus some 
would say, that Eve s sin is imputed to us, because we partake 
of its evil ; but the same persons would add, that the imputation 
is taken away, when we become partakers of Christ, and are 
baptized into His fold. Some lay more stress on the moral 
disease, and on the health of soul by which we spiritually re 
vive ; others lay more on our visible birth in a nature partaking 
that disease, and on the sacred rite visibly sealing our admission 
into* a covenant of the forgiveness of sins. But all agree, in 
what Scripture is express upon, that man is smitten of God for 
his own sinsf, and not for those of his fathers. They agree also, 
that in so far as we partake of Adam, or fallen man, we die ; 

* ets, into. Nicene Creed. t Ezekiel xviii. 



432 RELATION, ASPECT, FEELING, SACRAMENT. 

but in so far as of Christ, or perfect man and Image of God*, 
we live. As we partake of flesh, we have natural death. As 
we partake of sinfulness, we are in danger of the death of the 
soul. As we partake of Christ s sacrifice, we have forgiveness ; 
and as of His Holy Spirit, we have eternal life. Even those 
Christians who lay most stress on visible baptism, as admission 
into the covenant of forgiveness, do so not from ascribing arbi 
trariness to God, but out of reverent thankfulness for His health, 
and unwillingness to forget the disease which needs it. Nor 
would it be reasonable, or humble, to neglect the rite by which 
His gift is sealed to the soul. But yet our wisest teachers 
make the rite not a charm, but rather a moral instrument to 
man, as well as an ordinance of God. For by baptism, they 
say, we are consigned humanly to holy teaching, and prayers, 
and all instruments of training the soul ; while they doubt not 
the Divine blessing will, according to fit time and capacity, 
run along with these things, which have a promise to faith, and 
which express faith. 

" Unless then you say that there is no sin in human nature, 
or that it needs no recovery, I do not see how you can object to 
the Christian doctrine that man is fallen, and needs to be raised 
on his feet. Your own confessions come too near our doctrine 
for you altogether to reject it. We are not the first among 
mankind to call mortals sick, or weary, or pining. Even Sakya, 
with his groaning over earthly things, acknowledged something 
wrong in the world. Our difference is, that we trace it far back, 
and refuse to stop short of its deepest root ; and having learnt 
the greatness of man s sickness, we more thankfully proclaim 
the goodness of God who has sent the great Physician of souls 
into the world. Here is no cruel doctrine, but one of healing ; 
and in so far as any one receives the gift, we rejoice, and would 
gladly extend it farther. Only our piety forbids us to find the 
origin of sin, as sin, properly in the mind of God, or anywhere 
but in an evil spirit in ourselves. But as to the great entangle- 

i Corinthians xi. 7 ; 2 Corinthians iv. 4 ; Romans viii. 29 ; Genesis i. 26, 27. 






DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT. 433 

ment, out of which evil comes and appears as an enemy, so that 
the good will is not fulfilled, Blancombe has said enough. 

(2) " I have said the goodness of God. For secondly, I must 
not allow you to think that our heavenly Father was either 
vindictive, or mercenary, or even changeable. He does not 
change ; for it is written, that His counsel stands fast, and He 
does all His pleasure* . Whatever is being done for the salvation 
of mankind now, has been predestined from before the creation ; 
and by the term predestination we express this fixity of the 
Divine counsel. Thus Christ, as the Lamb of God, is said to 
have been slain before the foundation of the world~\. With the 
Eternal, then, according to our doctrine, is no variableness. 
Neither, again, is there mercenariness. For though the life of 
Christ is the most precious of all ransoms, yet it is paid not to 
the Father, whose will was always to deliver us, but to the 
great enemy, whether death, or the devil, or the law, considered 
as an accuser. Surely you know that it is to an enemy ransom 
is paid, and not to a father. Thus the apostles with one voice 
teach in all their writings, that we are bought out of the hand 
of death |, or sin, and out of this present evil world, but never 
out of the hands of our heavenly Father. So the primitive 
doctors , who came next after the apostles, taught that the 
price of Christ s sufferings was paid to the great enemy; only 
they knew not how He had a right to exact it. More modern 
doctors have explained the price paid as a satisfaction to the 
law ; and there is no harm in this view, if we understand it of 
the law in its accusing aspect, when it becomes an enemy ; for 
then it is the strength of sin ; and we do read that Christ has 
blotted out the handwriting which was against us. But we must 

* Isaiah xlvi. 10. Ephesians i. n. 

t Revelations xiii. 8. I Peter i. 10. 

+ Colossiansi. 13 : Actsxxvi. 18 : Galat. i. 4 : 2 Tim. i. g, 10: Titus ii. u 14. 

So Irenaeus, Origen, the two Gregories, and even St Augustine. The theory 
of a price paid to the Father, or to change His will, is as contrary to Ecclesiastical 
Antiquity as it is to our purest conscience, and to Scripture when caught from the 
point of view of the sacred writers. 

M. P. 28 



434 DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT. 

greatly beware of understanding this of that innermost law, 
which is the will of the Father, and which, when it comes forth, 
gives light to the simple. For in that innermost law, which is 
love, there is no darkness at all. Neither does pain come of it ; 
for no evil, as evil, is of God." 

" But why," here interposed the Saugata, " did not the 
Father save the world, since He loved it, without such suffering 
by His Son?" "Why," replied Mountain, "do you hurt your 
child, when you wish only to correct him? Or why alarm, 
when you desire to warn ? No earthly father rejoices in his 
child s crying, and yet he suffers it ; nor surgeon in the sharp 
pain of the knife, and yet he uses it. So God is not angered 
as if out of infirmity; but if men break the order of His 
creation, they disturb forces which crush them. As they sow, 
He lets them reap. He could not put forth law in fixity, unless 
it had penalty possible. All that Blancombe said of evil, as 
coming of God only in possibility, but of lower agents in fulfil 
ment, should be here remembered by you. He also explained 
sufficiently for humility the suffering of Christ. The old written 
law could not be broken as a civil institution, unless He who 
broke it suffered. Nor could it be abolished in its hold over 
men s consciences, unless He who suffered from it had also 
triumph. But if even that written law pointed to an eternal 
right above us, and its sacrifices to a dread of conscience within 
us, these deeper things are for mankind what the writing was 
for the Hebrews. These things then require of all men a suffer- 1 
ing, which we must partake by sympathy, or otherwise, so as to! 
be purged, and an assurance that our sacrifice, or that of which j 
we partake in spirit, can be accepted. Again, it has been shewn, i 
how Christ s dying and rising again brings about our death tol 
sin, and our moral resurrection. But this visible effect (as inj 
what I said before) points to a deeper something, or a writing 
in heaven, which answers to what is written in earth. Chrisl 
then died, even as the victims of the Mosaic law died ; and 
men offering those both expressed contrition, and were forgiven, 



DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT. 435 

so we, associating ourselves with Christ s death in sympathy 
and sacrament, make as it were a spiritual sacrifice, and receive 
the forgiveness of our heavenly Father, which comes frankly of 
His infinite love. 

" I need not prove farther that God is not vindictive. How 
ever imperfectly we may understand that mystery of evil, which 
Christ triumphed over on the cross, we find there the cause of 
His pain, rather than in the will of the Father. The limit set 
to everything human, the possibilities which accompany good, 
the threatening nature of all law, and the necessity of law not 
being broken with impunity, give us something like a clue. 
They teach us to find the necessity for Christ s death, as a 
death, in some necessity external to the innermost will of God, 
rather than within it ; though yet without Him, by whom all 
things are, neither the necessity, nor the law introducing it, 
could be even in thought. They suggest also how that suffering, 
which to the eternal love was no motive*, may yet have been 
an indispensably foreseen condition; and hence to our finite 
thoughts, not grasping an omnipresent unity, it may seem pre 
sented as a cause. Moreover, when we see how all great 
martyrs suffer, how out of their death goes forth power, and how 
death itself by the greater mystery of Christ s bringing immor 
tality within its range, had its bonds for ever loosed, we can 
feel better than understand, that love here wrought with wisdom 
in delivering us from evil. Nor are our Scriptures doubtful on 
this point ; for they ever teach that God loved the world, and 
gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish. Only I must own that our doctrine of 
Christ s suffering for our sins, and taking away the sins of the 
world by His death, is by some modern teachers put in a 
different light from that of the apostles. For the moderns some 
times make belief in it a kind of legal requirement, and use it 
so as to discourage man, and to narrow the mercies of God. 
Whereas with the apostles of Christ it was ever a doctrine of 

* See above, page 334. 

282 



436 DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 

freedom. It was a message of good news that all legal sacrifices 
were put away, and that God freely forgives sins, and calls back 
all His wanderers through the spirit of the beloved Son to the 
Father. Such freedom then gave power to men s souls ; and 
the loss of it now in the language of some blind leaders of the 
blind is the reason why our truth has less power to heal. But 
the very apostles of Christ are our higher authority; and as 
their doctrine is most wholesome, so from their writings I would 
have you take it. 

(3) " As God, by delivering us through His Son from that 
evil which was in the world, shews His love to man, neither does 
He narrow it by rejecting any willing to be saved. You have 
rightly guessed that our doctrine of election has something to 
do with Jewish feelings. Only, instead of being the same as 
their narrowness, it is built upon St Paul s express teaching to 
the contrary. He saw the Jews priding themselves upon being 
a chosen people. Already John the Baptist had warned them, 
that if they did not Abraham s works, God could raise up other 
children to Abraham. So St Paul tells them the chosen position 
of light which they had enjoyed had been the gift of God. 
Since they turned to the darkness of the letter instead of taking 
the light of the spirit in Christ, this better light would be for 
the nations at large. Whoever embraced this better gift would 
be a part henceforth of the chosen people. Thus mankind steps 
into the place of Israel. You see, the apostle s doctrine is not a 
narrowing, but a widening. It is a protest against national or 
sacerdotal exclusiveness. There may be something of human 
metaphor in ascribing such choice to God ; but do we not feel 
that we could have no gift without an adequate Giver ? What 
ever light, then, we enjoy, or whatever calling comes to us 
through teaching, we ascribe it to a forethought of God, as any 
human act to a man s thought. If some have larger gifts than 
others, they are in a way more chosen. Thus St Paul, having 
power to turn many hearts to God, was a chosen vessel. So all 
the apostles of Christ were chosen, though one of them turned 



NATURAL DIFFICULTIES OF FREEWILL. 437 

out an enemy. But if even bodily gifts are of God, much more 
those of the soul. The more, then, any man has right faith, and 
truth of heart, and goodness, the more he will ascribe such de 
liverance to God. But this ascription is in looking back with 
thankfulness, when we have received, not in presuming before 
hand that we shall. We see the side of human performance, 
and our faith infers the inner side of Divine grace. Perhaps our 
language on such points may be innocently tinged by those 
difficulties which are felt throughout the world in all attempts 
to reconcile Fate and Freewill, or Divine purpose and human 
agency. For as our freedom is both limited by vaster forces, 
and prompted by natural motives, we seem at once agents, and 
yet instruments. We are conscious of choice ; yet we choose 
not without reason. We will; but our will had antecedents. 
Our will goes forth, but yet in act it falls short of its object. 
Again, it is biassed by inclinations hardly its own. Circum 
stances again give us power, or fetter us. We say for ourselves, 
we are free ; yet the bystander foresees what we will do. Per 
haps every individual man is in his own will properly free, and 
manifests his character by spontaneous choice; yet the conduct 
of a mass of men in given circumstances of mind and body is 
not doubtful; and we do not doubt that a higher and spiritual 
Governor wields the whole at His will. Such difficulties, how 
ever, whether they come of two truths which seem to contradict 
each other, or rather, as I should say, of limitation to our free 
dom, are at least not peculiar to Christianity. They were felt 
in Greece and India before the Gospel was preached in the 
world. Their connexion with our faith is quite accidental. 
Only, as we do magnify soul above body, and motives above 
circumstance, and will above deed, or character above results, so 
we magnify the secret teaching which comes of the grace of God. 
Whoever has this so as to use it, is so far chosen as to have 
cause of thanksgiving. But such a gift is no proof that the like 
was not offered to others : for we teach favour, but not favorit 
ism. Take the doctrine of election as a way of ascribing all we 



438 PREDESTINATION. 

have received in humility to God, and it is wholesome. Turn 
it into an argument for presumption, or exclusiveness, and it is 
no longer Christian. It is tire aspect of the speaker, and the 
feeling of the words, which makes the difference. We are saved 
by grace ; but the grace of God appears, says St Paul, bringing 
salvation to all men*. And again, God commands all men 
everywhere to have a new mindf. Not few, but all, you hear. 
Nor do we fetter human action : for the more we know our 
power of action is a gift, the more earnestly we use for fear of 
forfeiting it. Work out, the Apostle saysj, your salvation; for it 
is God that worketh in you. 

(4) " What you object to Predestination has been now anti 
cipated. For by this word we mean only that, whatever the 
eternal God is doing now, He intended to do. Christianity is 
not a new idea in His counsels, but one entertained from of old, 
and pervading the Old Testament, though unveiled in the 
New. How human action is compatible with Divine fore 
knowledge is, as you justly observed, only part of a wider 
mystery. Some may think that the Divine foreknowledge has 
reason and method, being by prevision of circumstance and 
motive rather than by vague omnipotence ; but this we need not 
discuss. For whatever may be the rationale of such things, and 
whether few are saved, or many, Christ offers His salvation to 
every man; and whoever rejects it does so of free will. The 
metaphysics of such rejection, in respect of spontaneity or neces 
sity, concern Christianity no more than any scheme of human 
life ; and they may be settled, as metaphysicians think best, or 
unsettled. For the Gospel, like human life, stands on one side 
of them. What God offers in Christ is life and health ; and 
what we assert eternity of, is His purpose to offer them. 

(5) " More important than metaphysical questions, which 
only affect the Gospel as they do everything else, is your fifth 
objection. For certainly we read, that Jesus spake as never man 

* Titus ii. ii. f Acts xvii. 30. J Pliilippians ii. 12, 13. 

Ephesians i. ; i Corinthians ii. 10, where read "revealed IT," i. e. the purpose. 



DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 439 

spake. He wrought works such as never man wrought. He 
rose from the grave as never man rose. He lives by His spirit, 
in a temple of breathing minds, with such a life as never man 
has been able to infuse for generations into a community of all 
nations and tongues. He makes holy and humble men of heart, 
even now, one in spirit with Himself, and through Himself with 
the Father. He renews our humanity after the Divine likeness, 
and the world after the Divine thought. We cannot think that 
this life comes of less than God ; or that through any less than 
heavenly Truth we are thus led to the highest Being. We think, 
then, that it has pleased God, who as the Father is invisible, to 
shew Himself, by giving His lively image, in Christ, who is 
Son of God, and Son of Man. Thus, not like those systems, 
which deny Man s Fall, and leave him to fall lower, our faith 
takes away sin which separated, by bringing near God who 
heals. Nor is such only our inference; but Jesus declared 
Himself one with the Father*. His Apostles teach that the 
Wisdom (or Word) of the Father dwelt in Himf, and speak of 
His emptying Himself of a greater glory by being born Man, 
instead of retaining equality with GodJ. Here we find a true 
Incarnation, better than your poets have fancied ; and it is by 
this outshining of Deity embodied in Man, that Humanity has 
fulfilled in it the thought of God. Thus all our life is hallowed, 
as its true pattern is shewn, and a power given to fulfil it. 
Thus, as members of Christ, we become in spirit children of 
God, and are baptised into the name of the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost. Then, when the Church in later times con 
sidered how the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit could 
be One, and the Word manifest in flesh, yet not the Father, and 
the Spirit distinct from both, and dwelling in men, yet one with 
God, she found no statement more probable than that of the 
Trinity, or the doctrine of Three and One. But she gives this 
fuller statement as correct reasoning from the elements of our. 
faith, rather than as the very faith. What the missionary meant, 

* Ev. St John x. 30. t Ev. St John i. J Philippians ii. 6. 



440 THE TRINITY. 

was to tell you, that, if you reasoned correctly, such conclusions 
would follow from what we read of the Father, the Word, and 
the Holy Spirit, in that scheme "by which the grace of God 
offers to deliver us from evil. How far you would so conclude, 
we are willing you should consider hereafter. What is first 
important, is, that you should come through the Spirit of the 
Son to the Father. But when I remember what you said of 
Dharma, and Sanga*, your law and congregation, I think it 
should not seem strange to you, for Christians joined in one 
body of Christ, to become partakers of the Word, and have 
fellowship through one Holy Spirit with each other, and with 
Christ, and with God. Again, though by the word persons we 
do not mean to divide from each other those three t, who are 
ever the blessed and undivided One Eternal, and One Infinite, 
and One Spirit, yet you who join many persons (and even per 
sons once human) in One Divine Intelligence, should not stumble 
at whatever may be difficult in our human words when applied 
to things Divine. Nor should the Hindus, who believe in many 
Incarnations, blame us if we say that truth, and love, and 
wisdom, embodied in Jesus, was the express image of the 
Divine Being made flesh. For the coming forth of spirit from 
spirit, though undivided, like the radiance of light from light J, 
is not like a coarse division of material persons. It is rather 
like Wisdom out of Majesty, or Eeason from Will, or Truth 
from Being. But in whatever way you think Deity can have 
become Incarnate, suffer us to say that it was so in Christ the 
Son of God and Man, until coming to His Truth, and drinking 
into His spirit, and partaking of His life, you learn better than 
I can explain, how He is the true Offspring of the Father. He 
then will raise you into a better knowledge, and into a spiritual 
sonship, not foreign to His own. 

(6) " Again, if I remember rightly the place in both the 

* See above, p. 23. 

Tres nescio quid. St Anselm. uTroarcio-ets might be rendered subsistencies. 
+ aTravya<T(j,a, St Athanasius and St Paul. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 441 

Bauddha and Vedantine systems assigned to faith, I do not see 
how you can blame Christianity for consisting mainly of faith. It 
is this which gives body to things hoped for, and is the sight of 
things unseen. Upon faith even our earthly knowledge is most 
fundamentally built, and by it especially things holiest to our 
better souls are apprehended. By faith we believe in Right, 
and Mercy, and Truth, and Goodness, and God ; and in Immor 
tality, and even in our own Souls. We surely need some deep 
principle to withdraw us from the splendour of things that glitter 
and pass away, reminding us in temptation of a law, and in 
sorrow of a comforter, and in all life of some truer home of our 
souls. The martyr in the flame, and the fallen patriot in the 
dungeon, or in sight of death, have ever by such power turned 
endurance into joy. Nor was Sakya, whom you extol, without 
some such feeling, either when he turned from the stir of earth 
to a deeper tranquillity, or again when he found bodily penances 
less help than the strength born of the mind. But if you claim 
such a feeling yourselves, you should not blame Christianity for 
endeavouring to purify and guide it. But you ask, is our faith 
intellectual belief? I answer that it is not without belief, as 
instrumentally necessary ; but in so far as it is itself intellectual, 
it neither goes without ground, nor claims merit. He, however, 
who trusts in any one, must first believe that he is. You ask, 
again, is it confidence ? I answer, that it grows into hope ; for 
so the trustworthiness of the object leads it; and our hope 
maketh not ashamed ; but yet the essence of faith is not con 
fidence for ourselves, except so far as we are confident of God s 
truth. With more reason, you ask, if faith is trust. If you 
mean trust in all that God is, and all that He does, and com 
mands, and promises, I answer, Yes. For thus it means con 
fidence in one holier than ourselves. It leads us beyond our 
own weakness. It persuades us that God is the Father of our 
spirits, that He is our Guide and Judge and Saviour. So, when 
He commands, it persuades us to obey ; and when He promises, 
to hope ; and when He trusts us, to be faithful ; and when He 



442 CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

speaks by His inspired servants, or by their records, to believe 
what they have spoken of His indwelling thought. Faith, 
therefore, is belief, and a taking hold of the unseen, and trust, 
and confidence, and obedience, and faithfulness. For it puts on 
a dress and aspect according to the object it lays hold of. Here 
then is the peculiar character of Christian faith, that it has the 
most glorious object in God unveiling Himself in Christ. This 
it is which kindles it into hope and love and faithfulness ; for 
by this it becomes truly alive to sin, and puts it away, and is 
encouraged, and goes on in a life of joy, in which its Saviour 
never forsakes it. You may now understand how our faith has 
something of its nature in common with what good men feel 
among yourselves, but yet is transformed into a more glorious 
shape, when it comes through Christ to our God and Father; 
nor will you see unreasonableness in our saying, that by such a 
faith our souls are saved. For certainly thus we grow better ; nor 
do we say that pure heart and upright life are ever of no avail with 
God ; but without a right faith a man is less likely to be either 
pure or upright. But it is the greatest of errors for you to speak 
of our putting faith in a name, above true righteousness. For 
since He whom we trust is the very Truth, and Holiness, and 
Love, and since the salvation He gives us consists in delivering 
us from evil, and making us like Himself, it is not possible to 
have faith in Him, without growing into a like nature. But 
having His hope, we purify ourselves, even as He is pure. This 
is even our deliverance : and to this we are called. 

(7) " You are prepared now to anticipate all that I need say 
about exclusiveness. It is no part of Christianity to believe that 
God acts unjustly by any man. But if He deals better by 
Christians, it is because He makes them better in themselves; 
and His gifts are according to fitness. You trust your best 
servants with your highest offices. So the Euler of the world 
gives great things to those who have been faithful in little ; and 
may often make rulers of human things those who will rule 
them in his faith and fear. But in general, earthly virtues have 



HIGHEST GOODNESS EXCLUSIVE OF LOWER. 443 

from Him an earthly reward ; while the meek or pure in heart 
are great in the kingdom of heaven. Not that their greatness 
is, as many think, in the mere inversion of a temporal scale, as 
if we could abase ourselves on a calculation of being exalted. 
Bather the reward is the excellence of that which God works 
in us. For there is no higher happiness than to partake of His 
Holy Spirit, and to be like Him. Hence it is more blessed 
with us to give, than to have given to us. 

"How then can you call Christianity exclusive? Its only 
exclusiveness consists in its higher goodness. It is not reason 
able to sit down with the lowest knowledge, when we can 
reach a higher. So, if God gives men in His gospel more light, 
and with light the means of growth in godliness, they condemn 
themselves, if they turn back to darkness ; and by doing so, 
throw away a gift of life. You ask, why Sakya may not be 
ranked so high as Jesus, whom we call Christ and Deliverer. 
I answer, because his faith is inferior, both as regards God and 
man. On the one side, he brings us to no clear sight of the Father 
as our judge and our friend ; on the other, he gives the con 
science no true sacrifice, by which sin shall be at once acknow 
ledged and put away. Here also we see why Brahmanism, as 
compared to the religion of the Hebrews, greatly fails ; for it 
leads to nothing. It was, as you have said, an usurpation ; and 
one not without good in its time, but with a yoke, which 
humanity required broken. But it left little inheritance by which 
a deeper faith could profit. It would have been useless for 
Buddha to preach the Vedic Deities, and very difficult for him 
to trace in the whole Brahmanical system a leading idea, as of 
a heavenly guide, leading forward mankind ; whereas Christ 
speaks all along to his disciples in the name of the eternal Lord 
God who had led their fathers of old, and had brought up their 
nation from a child. He takes hold of the ritual, and shews its 
Divine institution, by fulfilling it in himself. In the same spirit 
St Paul compares the Law to teachers and nursery-masters* 

* Galatians, ch. iii. iv. 



444 MOSAIC IDEAS PREGNANT BEAHMANISM BARREN. 

who have charge of a youthful heir. They are not given for 
nothing, but to teach him. So the old Hebrew belief in a Judge 
of the whole earth has not passed from Christians. The old 
sacrifices have not lost their significance ; but that out of which 
they came, and to which they tended, is fulfilled in us, if we 
walk after this spirit of Christ. So the offices of king, and 
teacher, and religious minister, have not even forfeited their 
earthly range of usefulness : but yet their highest origin is un 
veiled by their embodiment more ideally in Christ. Mankind 
then are better for the Mosaic training of Israel ; and hence we 
can infer a Divine design. So the Church still lives by the 
life of Christ, and humanity is brought nearer to God by that 
He fulfilled in Himself. He then is still the Mediator between 
God and man. It is for the holier truth and the higher bless 
ing that we are anxious, rather than for the name. It may be 
that the word Moloch means only king, and Baal lord, and 
Jupiter (or Diespiter) the bright father, or in its later use, God 
the father yet if the rites connected with one of such names 
were bloody, and with another, licentious, and with a third, 
clouded by superstitious fable, our consciences stand aloof from 
what does not suit the holiness of the true God. So, if the 
Vedic Deities were natural objects, and the triad of the second 
stage of Hinduism were sacerdotal generalisations, and the 
Pauranic mythology full of confused fables, and if Sakya, or 
his followers, can put in the place of such things no clear sight 
of the Governor of the world, and no fulfilment of what sacrifice 
means from a true heart to God, it is not for names we contend 
when we shew you the more excellent way of Christ. We 
rather offer you truth here, and immortality hereafter. We 
address you with some hope of finding an answer in your own 
consciences, that what Christ commands is right, and what He 
promises, desirable ; but also with a clear history, shewing in 
stances of our promises for this life having been fulfilled in 
many, and for the life to come, in Christ s own rising from the 
grave. The books of our Christian history are not written after 



HISTORICAL WITNESS TO CHRIST. DEFENCE OF IMAGERY. 445 

a long period of tradition, such as you say was inspired, but 
such as leaves scholars to doubt * whether anything certain is 
known of Sakya s life ; but our books come fresh from the com 
panions of Christ, and the witnesses of His resurrection. That 
wonderful event is a proof that the highest God and Governor 
of all things must have given a mission to the Son whose 
faith He thus sanctions, while the effects of the faith in the world 
are a perpetual witness worthy of its beginning. If then you 
take our history, it is a proof; if our religion, it should be of 
itself a persuasive; and if its ultimate hope, nothing can be 
more encouraging. Do not therefore call us exclusive, but 
rather friendly, for offering you a better boon. 

(8) " But you have been pleased to say, that our views of 
Deity and of a Resurrection are too narrow and local. You com 
plain of the doors of Heaven being opened as if with keysf. But 
to bear a key was a common sign of office among the Jews ; so 
Christ in giving to His apostles an office of teaching, by which 
men should be persuaded to enter into life, says with an ex 
pressive image, that He gives them the keys of heaven. Again, 
in speaking of the doors being shut, Christ expresses the fixed 
destiny of a man s lot, when he has thrown away all his 
opportunities, and wasted his time or capacity of working out 
his desire, or of even feeling what is true and good. But 
such sayings, and others, of the throne, and the twelve thrones 
of the apostles, and the sitting down to a feast, are spoken in 
parables which may awaken faith to an apprehension of higher 
things, such as truth, and peace, and holiness. Blessed are the 
pure in heart, for they shall see God, says Christ, thereby 
teaching clearly, that the sight is one of faith, or of the 
mind. 

" Now the habit of using such parables can only be a re 
proach to Christianity, if there is some better way of teaching 

* See a paper by Professor Wilson in one of the latest numbers of the Journal 
of the Royal Asiatic Society, April, 1856. 

f Isaiah xxii. 22; St Matthew xvi. 19; xxv. 10, n. 



446 IMAGERY A SAFEGUARD AGAINST ERRORS. 

men; whereas in reality no faith has ever found its disciples 
able to dispense with such images. All the local paradises, and 
hells, of the Hindus, shew how necessary are such helps to our 
sensuous apprehensions. Hence even in the most direct com 
munication from the Almighty to his creatures I do not see 
why we should expect such pictures not to be employed. They 
may not answer to the highest realities of spirit in themselves, 
but may lead us up to them by regulating our thoughts. Hence 
they may be parables, but yet sacred ones. How well suited 
the Christian pictures are to raise in us thoughts of a higher 
being to come, appears from the tone of mind of even our 
simplest Christians. If they think of God somewhat after the 
manner of a man, yet they never forget Him as a Judge, or 
make Him accomplice in sensual sin, still less worship Him as 
a stone. Compare even their greatest simplicity in taking 
literally things meant as parables, with the idolatry of most 
of your people, with the lefthanded Sakta worship of others, 
and with the vagaries of those who, like the Thugs, make a 
religion of crime. Such extravagances shew that men require 
something to regulate and elevate their thoughts. We believe 
that the Almighty has given us such a standard in those 
spiritual experiences of His Church of old which are collected 
in our Bible. We find no dangerous error come from the most 
literal reading of it ; while the wise may, if they keep humility, 
be led on into higher views of things eternal. 

" I do not know what justifies you in speaking positively 
against a resurrection of the body. It certainly is easier to 
conceive of our souls as immortal. But then would souls dis 
embodied have a complete humanity ? We have no experience 
of their acquiring impressions, or developing powers, except in 
connexion with matter. We do not know what process of refine 
ment the body may be capable of. Perhaps a more subtle 
texture, or delicate organism, such as the subtle person some 
of your sects imagine, may be the instrument of our soul s 
activity hereafter. Such a glorified companion might be less 



RESURRECTIONIMMORTALITY TRANSMIGRATION " AGES." 447 

open to injury or pain, yet capable of affection, and of a higher 
interest in the works of the Creator. But, if you say that any 
possible body, being organised, must admit of decay, and so our 
life would not be eternal, this objection comes ill from men 
who put before us a series of many transmigrations. Again, 
even a bodily life in some higher form, may yet have more con 
sciousness, and pleasure, than the final apathy, little better than 
extinction, which is the highest bliss you aspire to. We look 
by faith, as Christians, for a rest more blessed than a fresh birth 
in this earthly world, yet for a life more active than your breath 
less absorption. The earliest Christians believed that the 
resurrection would not be until God had made new heavens 
and a new earth, fit for spirits made perfect. Our faith is still 
in its substance the same ; though, as the mystery of the subject 
tempts conjecture, some fancy that the spirits of the departed 
enter at once into joy ; and these would not dispute with you 
about a bodily resurrection. Others think, more agreeably to 
the letter of the scripture, that our bodies are raised and glori 
fied, or else that a new organisation, perhaps in some distant 
world, is given to the soul. Nor should I wonder if some of 
them would reconcile a part of your doctrine with their own, by 
thinking that a succession of lives may be a succession of steps 
of glory, as star differs from star. They might think that men 
are born again in some higher world, as in a resurrection, with 
organs fitted for a higher life ; yet such a life, though having 
the seed of immortality, might yet be finite, so far as to admit 
of a higher one beyond it. Thus souls might migrate, and men 
rise again in successive ages, as the Divine Wisdom might de 
termine. Only from this present life we must ever hold that 
the great impulse is given, by which God, revealing himself as 
our Father, delivers us from evil, and takes us into his spiritual 
kingdom. Nor could we think patiently of any dream of our 
falling from such consciousness into a lower estate of animals : 
still less could we bear to imagine, that souls, once made in 
the image of the Eternal, can ever lose the individuality He 



448 DAY OF JUDGMENT. RETRIBUTION. 

stamped on them, or cease to be self-conscious ever for good or 
for evil. This life of ours now, then, seems to us the crisis of 
our everlasting destiny. We have before us life and death ; 
and while God ever invites every man to choose the good, the 
immutability of his counsel (which you justly assert) forbids 
Him to change the laws against which we may dash ourselves 
into every wreck of self-conscious misery, if we determine to 
create for ourselves evil. Truly with Him is no variableness. 
For my .own part, seeing that the issue is so tremendous, and 
that it turns upon a heart and life cleansed by faith*, rather 
than upon doubtful knowledge, I had rather take hold of the 
inheritance which God has promised, than speculate about the 
manner of its coming about. You may enlarge the Christian 
parables, of the Judgment, and the Thrones, and the Books, 
and the instruments of music, and the palm-branches, into 
whatever vision you think more spiritual, of retribution, and of 
memory, and of remorse or good conscience, and of communion 
with the Father of our spirits, and of triumph among all who 
have lived purely and acted nobly in every age and country. 
Still you must leave in reality of meaning that God has ap 
pointed to all men once to die, and after death the judgment. 
The more sober this truth sounds, or the more nearly your faith 
approximates to it, so much the more gladly you should welcome 
the good news of Christ, who though conscious of that in 
dwelling in Him which was before Moses or Abraham, and 
beyond space or time, yet emptied Himself of that illimitable 
consciousness, and took on Him the form of a servant"]", becoming 
subject to legal and local limits, that He might embody before 
us a picture of God s true being, and of his design for man ; 
and so by living and dying, He brought home to us the holiest 
truth in a form suited to our human conceptions, and by 
entering visibly into his kingdom threw light on life and im 
mortality. If Sakya had in like manner risen from the grave, 
we should have more reason for examining his doctrine reve- 
* Acts xv. 9 ; xxvi. 1 8. f Philippians ii. 7. 



S^KYA S SHORTCOMING. SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST. 449 

rently : or, if we had found his doctrine a sufficient mediation 
between God and man, we should not have been surprised at 
God having in like manner raised him. But no such rising 
from the dead is even pretended for him. Nor do we find in 
his doctrine, as it now is, the power of regenerating men and 
bringing them to God, which we find in that of Christ. We 
take hold then of that which has the higher attestation in 
history, and the purest persuasion in living experience, while 
it gives us also the clearest hope for the life to come. It may 
be that in this faith of ours, even because it is a faith, we 
know but in part. Yet the time will come for us to know, even 
as we are known. Any immortality which we could understand 
while in the flesh would fall short of our hope. But though 
things to come belong to the Eternal, we thank Him that the 
things He has revealed belong to us and to our children ; and 
these are enough to shew us the way of peace now, with that of 
an endless hope hereafter. Jesus Christ therefore remains to 
us the author and finisher of our faith ; and we are not ashamed 
of following Him as little children, if only we may so grow to 
the fulness of His spiritual stature, and be at length in the 
Holy Spirit One with Him, even as He is One with the Father. 



M. P. 



450 HINDU CONCESSIONS. 



CHAPTER XIII. PART I. 

On General and Special Providence, and on various aspects of Revelation 
in History Letter and Spirit Inspiration Bible Church Truth 
Faith Sacraments Seen and Unseen. 

" The Lord is my shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in 
a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert 
my soul, and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for his Name s sake. 
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : 
for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff comfort me. Thou shalt prepare a 
table before me against them that trouble me : thou hast anointed my head with 
oil, and my cup shall be full. But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me 
all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." 
PSALM xxiii. 

"There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek : for the same Lord 
over all is rich unto all that call upon him. Even our ancient writings say, Who 
soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But then you ask, How 
can Greeks or Indians have called on Jehovah, if they did not believe in Him? And 
how, you continue, could they have believed in Him, if they never knew Him by 
His name Jehovah ? And how can they have known Him, unless He were revealed 
to them ; and how can they have had a revelation, without a ministry, as we had, 
of prophets or heralds ; as, for instance, it was written on the return from Babylon, 
How beautiful are the feet of them that proclaim good news of peace, and glad 
tidings of weal ! Or even if the Lord makes known his grace to Greeks and 
Indians, yet you object that they do not believe the good news; just as Isaiah said, 
Lord, who hath believed our report of thy deliverance ? So then you argue, the 
Gentiles have not faith ; for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by an express mes 
sage, such as the Lord has not sent to them. But I answer, Oh ! thou that restest 
upon scripture and boastest of revelation, have not all nations heard something of 
the goodness of God ? Yes, verily ; as we read in the Psalms, of his starry wit 
nesses, that their sound has gone into all the earth, and their ivords unto the ends of 
the world. And again I ask, Had not Israel reason to know that God loves every 
human being in the wild isles of the sea ? Certainly ; for even Moses says, I will 
provoke you my elect people to jealousy by those whom you count no people, and 
to zeal by those whom you call foolish. But Isaiah is very bold in proclaiming the 
same truth, that God is the Father of all, and not of the elect nation only ; for He 
says, I was found of them that sought me not; 1 was revealed to them that inquired 
not of me. But to the elect nation He says, All day long have I stretched forth my 
hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. Paraphrase of St Paul, Romans x, 
12 "* Compare ch. ii. 17 20 ; i. 19, 20 ; and Psalms xix. 4, and viii. 3, 4. 

1 MANY of the objections raised," here remarked Sadananda, 
" have received from the stranger answers, which seem to me 



HINDU CONCESSIONS. 451 

satisfactory. For it makes a great difference, from what point of 
view doctrines are regarded, or who, and in what frame of mind, 
is the speaker of words conceived to embody them. Thus, if the 
doctrine of a Fall of Man is made to destroy our perceptions of 
right and wrong, it may become an instrument of moral degra 
dation to the entire conscience ; or if it forbids us, any more than 
brute creatures, to strive after immortality, it is injurious to the 
better soul within us ; or, if it makes a single act of the first 
woman the alone cause of a change in the world s course, it 
derogates from the wisdom of whatever supreme Lord any of us 
are able to believe in ; and if it transfers the guilt of that single 
act, with eternal penalties for it, to millions of men unborn, it 
shocks both justice and humanity. But if the same doctrine 
expresses rather mankind s keen sense of the difference between 
good and evil, with their earnest aspiration after the better part, 
and their generous shame at falling short of it, then it may 
become a wholesome instrument of contrition. So again, if it 
expresses our confidence in the Divine compassion as ever ready 
to rescue us from the evil we have brought upon ourselves, it 
may waken our courage and our thankfulness. Especially if the 
words thought to teach such a doctrine, are in the sacred 
writings either an outpouring of passionate penitence, or a fervid 
denunciation of sin, we may see them to be relatively true and 
wholesome, though they might ill bear cold inferences from 
logical bystanders, as if they were dispassionate descriptions ; 
still less might they be useful to force with iteration upon all 
persons in all moods. For deep feeling, whether penitence or 
love, expresses a truth, but with a colouring of its own. So 
again, if there is a shortcoming, such as we admit, in the world 
either from misplacement or sinfulness in nature, the first instance 
of such a fall on part of a human being may well be recorded 
as critical, without being thereby made a cause. Nor do I 
know that the difference would be important if such an instance 
were symbolical, and were so to express the tendency which we 
find, for passion and darkness in man to warp goodness. But, 

292 



452 HINDU CONCESSIONS. 

as the losing of a child in the first act of a play does not pre 
vent it from being found with good fortune before the end of the 
last act, so the drama of the world may have always been har 
moniously evolving, in spite of internal contradictions. 

" The Christian doctrine of the Atonement too may vary 
much according to its aspect. For, if it is presented to us as a 
doctrine of ritual bondage, and of external compensation or vin- 
dictiveness, or if it makes an honest and good heart of less worth 
than mere confidence in the name and merit of another, then we 
could hardly call it wholesome. But, if the doctrine is rather 
one of freedom to the soul, by putting the love of a supreme 
Lord in strong contrast to a dreary round of sacrificial penances, 
and by shewing His compassionate desire to deliver men from 
all evil, and especially from the scourge of a law which He 
willed should exist as inherently good, though yet He did not 
will the penal effect which was through our acts an accompa 
niment of it, then I can understand how the soul is reconciled 
by such a doctrine to whatever is holiest above her, and does 
good, being delivered from evil. Nor do I see much difficulty 
in the clash of feeling, or of personality, which such a doctrine 
as that of the Atonement has been said to involve in the Divine 
Being. For though to myself all pure soul appears necessarily 
tranquil, yet whoever attributes agency either literally or meta 
phorically to a supreme Lord, must ascribe also volition analo 
gous to that of man. But we find in ourselves an apparent 
clash of motives, and painful means to desirable ends. Thus 
the Will must work by reason, or with consideration, and these 
may unite in one consciousness. So the Divine Unity, if it 
correspond at all to our complex being, might have without 
offence to reason a triplicity of its own. Even the Sankhya 
admits a triple divinity or manifestation of one principle. The 
Vedanta, with still greater conformity to the Christian Trinity, 
teaches a certain divine outcoming of the eternal Spirit; and 
most of all, the Bauddhas, who worship a man as partaker of 
the highest intelligence, and join many agents in a sort of 



HINDU CONCESSIONS. 453 

spiritual unity, have no room for consistent objection to the 
Christian doctrine. If Christ has adequately manifested the 
Divine Being incarnate, any speculative difficulty in reconciling 
such a manifestation with fundamental unity, belongs equally to 
many of our Indian systems. So again, whatever difficulty is 
found in predestination, cannot be charged exclusively on 
Christians, for it appears analogously in every attempt our own 
philosophers have made to reconcile freewill with fate, or human 
agency with divine forethought. The only question really is, 
whether Christians have introduced any fresh confusion in such 
speculations ; and upon the stranger s shewing, they have not 
done so. Eather, I should say, from their stress upon conscience, 
that they magnify human responsibility to the utmost; though 
their doctrine of grace, or encouragement from the Holy Spirit, 
and their strong colouring of the perplexities of human nature, 
may be taken also as expressing the vast forces which surround 
(and, as we say, absorb,) the personality of man. Perhaps, then, 
if the entire scheme of Christian doctrine be wisely taught, it 
maybe the absolute truth, as the expression of the human soul in 
its most devout attitude towards a higher power ; and yet such 
doctrine may have come about by development and confluence, 
such as the Bauddhas and I myself should contend for. From 
such a point of view at least I am willing to consider the whole 
question ; and I think the objections have been fairly answered. 
But very much depends upon the aspect and limits with which 
the doctrines objected to are taught. If the Fall of Man is made 
to cloud our conscience, it must be evil ; if it expresses intensity 
of remorse, it may be relatively true. If the Atonement be made 
an external substitution, or a venal compensation, it is bad ; but 
if it expresses the fixity of law, and teaches men through sym 
pathy to consecrate themselves in self-dedication, it is very good. 
So, if by election is encouraged either pride, or a feeling of the 
Divine arbitrariness, it contradicts the conscience ; but if we are 
thus taught only to ascribe whatever gift or capacity we have to 
the Divine goodness, it is then a wholesome lesson of humility. 



454 DIFFICULTY AS TO THE JEWS. 

On the same principle, faith may either be a substitute of passion 
ate egotism for moral sincerity, or it may be an earnest laying 
hold of things eternal, and an instrument of growth by trust in 
One who is able to deliver from evil to the uttermost. Faith, it 
seems truly said, must take its character from its object ; and it 
is easy to conceive, that faith in God as He is declared to have 
revealed Himself in Christ, may be a most animating impulse to 
all holiness. 

" Once more, the objection made to a certain narrowness of 
view in Christianity, as if it dwelt too much on persons and 
places, or on material and local imagery, instead of rising into a 
truly spiritual faith, seems to me fairly answered. For our 
wisest doctors have admitted, that the religious books, which we 
ourselves receive as sacred, contain many signs of partial and 
temporary knowledge. Probably spiritual things could never 
be expressed to any class of human beings, without something 
of imagery and parable drawn from the senses. Most certainly 
they cannot be so to the great mass of mankind. Nor is it any 
detriment to the truly religious knowledge, that it has an earthly 
accompaniment, which we may be trained to discriminate, and 
often go beyond. It is quite consistent with our own views, that 
the religion of the New Testament should, either by a fresh 
revelation, as the strangers think, or by steps of development, 
as we should imagine, go greatly beyond the more limited know 
ledge of the Old, and even discard the imperfect religious rites of 
early time. So far I feel compelled to assent to some such plea 
as the elder stranger has put forward. 

" But yet there seems to me a great difficulty for Christians, 
involved in the fate of the Jews. It seems to be often said, that 
the Jews had their sacred city destroyed, and were scattered 
through many countries, as a punishment for infidelity. Whereas, 
it is clear, that if they had not clung faithfully to their ancient 
law, and trusted in their God that He would deliver them, they 
would have been spared by the Romans. So that in fact they 
suffered for their fidelity. No one can with any fairness say, 



CHRISTIAN INJUSTICE TO JEWS. 455 

that the system which the Jews uphold, is not literally truer 
to the Old Testament, than that which Christians force upon 
them. Only the younger stranger has attempted to obviate the 
difficulty thus arising, by his distinction between the letter and 
the spirit. Still, ought he not to acknowledge, that the Jewish 
view is not only most literally correct, but such as conscientious 
fidelity to the Mosaic law would naturally engender ? How then 
can they be justly punished for cherishing a Divine law, or for a 
pertinacity of temper which that law was humanly certain to 
produce in any nation. A local temple, a written Bible, a round 
of sabbaths, and feasts, and slaughters of animals, and in short 
a rigid sacerdotalism, may be termed the characteristics of the 
Mosaic system. Grant that the Gospel of Christ does better in 
teaching a consecration of the world and of man s life and heart, 
a perception of holy truths by the conscience, and offering of 
ourselves heartily to the Divine service, with great freedom in 
drawing nigh to God, as Christ drew nigh, being a son ; yet the 
Jewish fault seems a failure in rising with the development of 
their system, rather than a positive fall from it. They suffer by 
fidelity, not by infidelity. When then we add, that they have 
been cruelly persecuted, for what was the most natural, if not 
the most enlightened, course, and when the obvious sense of 
their Scriptures is often wrested (though it has not been so to 
day,) by narrowminded bigots who want an excuse for heaping 
up accusations, what conclusion must we draw ? Is not the fate 
of the poor Jews, not so much a standing argument for Chris 
tianity, as a very great difficulty in its way? That predesti 
nation of Christianity which has been spoken of, as involved in 
Judaism, at least does not lie upon the surface. I should be 
glad to hear the younger stranger endeavour to explain this 
difficulty. Nor can he well do so, without entering somewhat 
upon the question of letter and spirit, and explaining how far 
the Bible is the fixed rule of Christians in its letter, or how far 
there dwells in the Church or in mankind, a living spirit, and a 
power of discerning principles and modifying applications, by 



456 FAITH S FOUNDATION IN GOD. 

reason, or by religious instinct. He also promised in the outset 
to say something about Inspiration. Nor did I quite understand 
what his elder friend said about a Sacrament, and its connexion 
with the general sinfulness of mankind. I should be glad to 
hear these questions, and any closely bound up with them, more 
fully handled. Nor would it be amiss, if he would discuss some 
book of the Old Testament, so as to exemplify the real connexion 
of the Old with the New." 

Thus far Sadananda ; and Blancombe responded thus to his 
invitation: "I should have begun," he said, "with asking, 
whether you believe Divine Providence to proceed most by 
general laws, or by special interference in minute instances. 
For such a question might lead up to an explanation of your 
difficulty. But unfortunately your whole system seems to deny 
any truly ruling Providence, since you ascribe such a thing only 
to the Divine agencies which flow forth from nature for a tran 
sitory reign. Here then is a great gulf between us, which I 
know not how to bridge, unless it please the great Searcher of 
hearts Himself to give you such a conviction of His being and 
of His goodness as you seem to need. For it is by steadfast 
belief in Him as an Almighty Governor, that we on our own 
part hold more firmly the hope of a life to come. We think 
that He has not made us for naught, nor suffers the whole 
universe to be an ocean of transitoriness, and void of beings with 
His likeness, who may know both themselves and Him. By 
belief also in Him we interpret the world s course, and see in it 
a good design. Thus our belief in God gives substance to our 
belief in the evil of sin, and to our consciousness of falling into 
it, yet also to our persuasion of its not being intended for us, but 
being an evil from which we must pray to be delivered. Still 
more, when our conception of the Almighty Governor is raised 
and purified by what we see of His likeness in Christ, our moral 
instincts as it were are deepened, and we feel more strongly how 
far mankind are fallen, and our need of forgiveness, and of rising 
again into that which God intended us to be. Hence while I 



FAITH S FOUNDATION IN GOD. 457 

thank you for the fairness with which you have considered our 
answers to some objections, I am not sure that you feel the full 
force of our doctrines, unless you are able to see light thrown 
upon them in the light of God. You have rightly conceived, 
that our doctrines take their shape from the aspect and mood of 
men uttering the fervid accents in which they are embodied; 
but you must not forget, that these moods reflect a deeper law, 
and the accents are eloquent of a perpetual truth. Whatever 
is now doctrine, was once feeling, and the intellectual form may 
too often have warped the affectionate life. But it must not 
therefore be thought that the feeling was not a true one. Nay, 
it may even have been swollen to passion, and may have run 
coloured by imagination, but it does not follow that its source 
was not in a true perception of an eternal law, and in a con 
sciousness of having wandered from it, and of needing return. 
For it is through our feelings and thoughts, as well as through 
our experiences of life, that our Maker seems to teach us. We 
become each a mirror to some portion of His law, and perhaps 
mankind to the whole of it. Our faith in Him also leads us to 
believe, that whatever special guidance He has given was for 
those to whom He gave it the best. If then He has put plain 
words or homely images in the mouths of His servants, we do 
not doubt that such conveyed the truth as men were able to 
receive it. Nor is our faith in this respect without warrant from 
the shortcoming of those amongst whom the imagery of Chris 
tian truth is not known or received. If any of you object to the 
parables of our Gospels, you have no way so efficient of com 
municating their truths ; or if you blame our associations with 
names, and persons, and places, you yet justify the wisdom of 
God in so teaching us, by the far greater darkness into which 
your countrymen, without such helps, have fallen. But perhaps 
I have said enough to shew, how even your fair appreciation of 
some Christian doctrines must fall short of apprehending them 
fully, if you are yourself not convinced of the being of that God, 
who is their beginning and their end. 



458 GENERAL OR SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 

" But even amongst those who have the fullest trust in the 
Giver of every good gift, there is some difference as to whether 
they should look upon His Providence as general or particular ; 
that is to say, whether it deals chiefly with the whole or with its 
parts, and whether it embraces all in a large design, or whether 
it interposes often with change and interference. We shall un 
derstand the nature of their question better, if we distribute it 
in some instances. We see life both springing everywhere from 
the earth, and pervading the waters and the heavens. Does the 
unseen power of Deity which supplies the secret seed or prin 
ciple of such life, and arranges its types by combining fore 
thought, care also for each weed in our garden, and for every 
egg in the wild bird s nest? It is easy to say, that whoever 
cares for the world must care for all that is within it ; since we 
could not embrace a class without including its members, any 
more than have a body healthy, if its limbs were diseased. Yet 
this seems partly answered, by noticing how many things perish, 
both of seeds, and plants, and living things, yet the class to 
which they belonged lives on, and is perhaps better for their 
extinction. The gardener will pluck half a tree s fruit, that the 
remainder may have room. Even of our bodies we seem to spare 
something, having often to choose between beauty and strength, 
or between labour with health, and ease with sickness. More 
manifestly in nature at large we see a lavishness of beauty, 
which seems as if the Deity were prodigal of life, as knowing 
that He can bring it again out of every seeming extinction. We 
see also poisonous creatures, and many instruments of ruin. But 
look more at human affairs. A fisherman is starving in his 
cottage, because wind and sea are adverse. He prays to the 
Divine wielder of the elements, and has perhaps a prosperous 
time. But the same gale which wafts his little bark, sweeps 
also the entire ocean, and carries fleets from one continent to 
another, not without inconveniences possibly, and casualities of 
shipwreck. Was the gale sent for the fisherman, or did it come 
of wider causation ? Again, in passion a man mingles falsehood 



GENERAL OR SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 459 

with blasphemy, and imprecates sudden death on himself if he be 
not speaking truth. At the moment, perhaps, his passion causes 
some internal rupture, and he incurs, as he deserved, the death, 
which he invoked. But does he die from his imprecations being 
heard, or from the general laws of health and disease ? So great 
criminals may be men of cleverness, though more commonly of 
brutish stupidity ; and nothing seems to escape the sagacity or 
cunning with which they provide against detection. Yet in the 
midst of their provisions some fatuity seizes them, and by a 
blunder so gross that it seems intentional, they drop a clue which 
leads justice on their track. Does such infatuation come of the 
general law, which makes all anxiety embarrassing, and guilt 
especially blinding; or does it signify the special care of an 
Almighty Governor that this or that man should be punished ? 
We see the links of general causation more clearly in cases 
where our actions or prayers tend to realise themselves. Thus 
even small armies, when fervently devout as well as patriotic, 
have often vanquished disproportionate numbers ; and it is difficult 
for even any human force to conquer them. But does this in- 
domitableness come of a special blessing of Heaven upon the 
cause, or is it the offspring of men s minds, kindled by common 
prayer and exhortation, and having confidence in their cause 
and in each other ? We seem at least in such cases to trace a 
general instrumentality by which faith removes mountains, or 
turns to flight the armies of aliens*. Yet I know not if we do 
not more readily conceive of the Divine forethought as guiding 
events, when they involve the destiny of nations. Thus when 
Spain, in her time of greatness, would have crushed the free 
faith of England, and the threatening Armada was shattered by 
storms, our own nation was not afraid to say, that God had 
breathed, and His enemies had been scattered ; for the occasion 
seemed worthy of a Divine interposition. So, if in a shipwreck 

* Hebrews xi. 32 34, where the sacred writer speaks of Faith in its most 
general or ideal sense. We destroy all his argument if we suppose him thinking of 
doctrinal details, or the particulars of Christianity. 



460 GENERAL OR SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 



is an Apostle*, who has yet to carry the news of spiritual free 
dom to many nations, we more easily believe that his life and 
that of his companions may be given him by the Ruler of sea 
and land. Yet it is difficult to say that anything human could 
be great in the sight of the Infinite God, if His goodwill did not 
make it so ; and the same goodwill might magnify what concerns 
the least of us. It seems fanciful when we are told, in confla 
grations, that the flames have halted at the sacred threshold of 
some church ; for if such respect for local sanctity came of law 
and thought, it would be regular ; but since it is exceptional, it 
seems to be fortuitous. Yet if a life, as of a child, is spared by 
some strange concurrence of things, as in sheltering for instance 
under two transverse beams in the downfall of a house, we hesitate 
to ascribe the escape to chance, for it seems not without thought 
and goodness. But again, if we say, everything good in the 
world comes of special arrangement by a supreme Governor, 
there are many terrible casualties of fire, and shipwreck, and 
pestilence, in which prayer goes up from hopeless agony, and 
which neither wit of man nor malice of devil can have devised, 
yet which we shrink from ascribing in each instance to the 
special fiat of a Divine Will. It seems to us more pious to 
believe, that such sorrows could not consistently with the large 
extent of our Maker s dealings and the fixity of His laws be 
prevented, and that while they themselves may be rendered 
tolerable by patience, the capacities which make them possible 
will be greatly overruled for good. There is a shortcoming, or 
a sinfulness, on part of all creatures, which leaves them no right 
of complaining that they are placed generally in a scheme ad 
mitting of drawbacks ; yet there is a complicated fortuitousness 
in the happening of evils, which warns us not to think them 
indexes to any; sentence of God. 

" Thus there seems to be a certain margin of chance, or of 
what comes to the same result, a complication which is the in 
evitable accompaniment of fixed law ; and we seem intended to 






GENERAL OR SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 461 

bring ourselves by free agency within the range of the currents 
and the sweep of the tides of Divine Providence, rather than to 
expect their course will be divested for our convenience. Many 
accidents of life and death happen, which men dispute whether 
they shall explain by the general operation of law, or trace in 
them a special design. All intellectual reasoning leads them to 
magnify general law ; and they find laws in operation, which 
seem to embrace all things. But the feelings again, and the 
devouter instincts are thought to lead us back to a more special 
view, as if the Deity must regard each person and thing. The 
first view seems the wiser, the second the more devout. The 
first enlarges the domain of human action, and awakens the 
sense of duty ; the second speaks more of resignation, and of 
gratitude for gifts. The first may go so far as to be in danger 
of forgetting God ; the second may pay Him unwise honour by 
neglecting our part in His scheme. That unblest activity which 
might seem akin to an atheistic philosophy, is the extreme ex 
pression of one ; and the apathetic torpor which aims at no good, 
and remedies no evil, is the exaggeration of the other. Thus 
wholesome inventions in common life have often been frowned 
upon, and faquirs or saints both in the East and the West have 
thought it wrong to remove vermin from their bodies ; for do not 
such things, they say, and all mischievous agencies, as well as 
calamitous events, come of the Divine Will? These, however, 
are wild extremes. But, amongst sober persons, there is an apt 
ness to look more, either on the idea of general law in the world, 
or on the possibility of special commands. Whichever is the 
inclination of a man s rnind as he notices the signs of Providence 
in common things, will probably re-appear in his judgment of 
sacred revelation. If he finds the religion in some respects tem 
porary, or the knowledge which accompanied it imperfect, he may 
ascribe this shortcoming to a general law, which made a certain 
view natural in given circumstances, or he may believe it to have 
been positively imposed for a time by some Divine utterance, 
and again as positively revoked. In the one case, Kevelation 



462 ANALOGY OF REVELATION. 

will seem a growth and an unveiling, in proportion as men 
could attain or see with fitness ; in the other case, it will be a 
succession of external oracles, with no steps of inherent con 
nexion, and perhaps with no harmony, except from without. 
Thus, if we have rightly supposed that the religion of India has 
varied in different ages, and if such steps as polytheism, slaughter 
of men or horses, and then a higher conception of the Divine 
unity, with bloodless sacrifices, are found to have followed on 
each other, one interpretation of such changes would be, that an 
overruling Providence had thus trained men through rude awe, 
and thought, and thankfulness, into truer perceptions of religion ; 
while another view would be, that the Deity had by oracle re 
vealed each of these stages, and then again annulled it. So 
again, if the white-complexioned Aryas overran India, their 
conquest of the aboriginal Dasyus will by some be thought a 
natural result of their higher intelligence, yet not therefore a 
thing without mission or duty ; while to others it may seem a 
direct response to the prayers for victory, which are recorded in 
the Rig- Veda. So that our answer to many questions about 
the theory of religion will depend somewhat on our conception 
of Divine Providence in the world at large. Are we, for ex 
ample, to say that it proceeds by general law, or by frequent 
and special interferences ? 

" I will try to answer this question, by asking if the two 
views may not be in a way reconciled? The more we know of 
nature, the more undeniable it becomes, that the forethought of 
the Deity proceeds by law on the grandest scale ; and that need 
of frequent meddling (or revocation as it were of orders), which 
we think a sign of infirmity in man, is least of all traceable in 
any work of the Highest Wisdom. Known unto God, says an 
Apostle, are all His works from the beginning of the world. But 
this extension of the sphere of order in no way tells against the 
fullest consciousness in our Creator s mind of the operation of 
His own laws as regards the minutest thing. We have argued 
sufficiently, above, that the law in the creation is the thought of 



GENERAL LAW AND SPECIAL REGARD. 463 

the Creator. But it would be strange, if by extending the sphere 
of thought we were to narrow the consciousness of the thinker. 
Without our heavenly Father, said our Master Christ, not a 
sparrow falls to the ground. Now we feel reluctant to ascribe 
directly to the Divine Will the gasping of the dove under the 
talons of the hawk, which seized her, as she was carrying food 
to her young ; we had rather say, it came of the contingencies 
in a large scheme, which make death at some time certain, and 
possible there and then. But whatever contingencies or reasons 
operate in a scheme of law, may equally be present to any mind 
superintending the whole, and acting upon each part. It is only 
from narrowness of mind that we suppose any higher guardian 
of each separate object would not take account of fitness, and of 
other objects around. Even mankind, in superintending things, 
do so, as far as they can, by method. The more perfect our 
method, the more minute our supervision ; so the more vast and 
regular the Divine laws appear, the more easily we should 
believe each want is, as far as fitness permits, provided for by 
the Author of all. Thus our Master Christ went on to assure 
His disciples, they were of more value than many sparrows* ; 
here He shews us Divine Providence taking account of things, 
and proceeding by reason; and again, elsewhere f, He teaches 
that men who die under cruel tyranny, or by accident, are not 
therefore guiltier than others, as if their misfortune might be 
called a judgment. So the book of Job seems a lesson, that 
Divine favour is not to be measured by outward prosperity, but 
that there is a crookedness in things, which the enemy may 
take advantage of to hurt us, though such machinations will be 
overruled for good. Hence it is implied, that the Euler of the 
world permits things to go otherwise than we might expect, for 
some reasons which He considers sufficient, and which we most 
easily explain as belonging to the nature of general law. 

" The truest wisdom as to these things is shewn in the simple 
prayer, that God would give or take away, according to His will. 

* St Luke xii. 7 24. t St Luke xiii. 15. 



464 THE HEARING OF PRAYER. 

Thus we acknowledge that there may be reasons against our 
prayer, yet trust that they are under control of Him to whose 
fashioning thoughts they may be traced. The same conscious 
ness appears dimly in our feeling that prayers for the soul s 
health are more certain of being granted than prayers for bodily 
gifts. For the first come within Christ s promise, that our 
heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
Him; so that to pray for the Holy Spirit* is to pray in Christ s 
name ; and by the same Spirit we are shewn the things to 
comef, or the spiritual powers of the coming age J, that is, of the 
kingdom of God, and all the force of pure truth, in distinction 
from the earlier dispensations of the temple and the letter. We 
find also that prayers for spiritual gifts, such as holiness, and 
calmness of mind, and insight into truth, are in a way fulfilled 
by being offered; so that the allwise God answers them by 
method and law. Whereas, in praying for bodily gifts, we may 
ask what counter-claims oppose, or what fitness, or even possi 
bility, prevents. Yet even here we see some tendency of the 
prayers to fulfilment, as when they act on our own minds, and 
suggest means; or when they stir sympathy, and bring about 
co-operation. Beyond such a range, which may be called the 
sphere of instrumentality, many, even pious persons, feel less 
confident of being heard for temporal things, and think that, 
after securing right action, our next prayer should be for resig 
nation, or acknowledgement of gifts, rather than petition for 
them. For they find nothing in which the Divine Will has 
not, as far as is fit, anticipated us for good, and they would not 
have us dictate to the best wisdom. But most men have an 
instinct, that where the sphere of our action ends, that of petition 
more emphatically begins ; for it is when we have done all in 
our power, that we properly ask for a blessing; as men must 
sow their corn before they pray for rain. Such an instinct 
implies that human agency is an instrument which Divine 

* St Luke xi. 13; St John vii. 39. t St John xvi. 13 ; xiv. 1720. 

J Hebrews vi. 5 ; xii. 28. 



SUGGESTIVENESS OF PRAYER. 465 

Providence takes into account in its plan of the world. We 
can understand, how defects in such agency make the plan turn 
out worse, in some aspects or relations, than it otherwise would 
have done. Nor do I know that any topic is so pregnant as this 
of prayer is (if considered in all its aspects and experiences), 
with suggestions which throw light on the Divine government 
of the world. It is itself an action in time, having temporal 
results. But it is also a voiceless colloquy of that which is 
immortal in us, with that which is eternal above, and so it opens 
the doors of the kingdom of heaven. It shews us in this world 
a scheme of vast largeness and variety, with order wrought out of 
freedom. The laws, we find, invite us by persuasion rather than 
compel, yet are terrible in punishing disobedience. Not the 
least spring can anywhere be touched, without affecting we 
know not how much of the whole machine ; yet He who governs 
the whole, seems not unmindful of the least part. When we 
pray to Him, our very prayer becomes a remedy or a fulfilment ; 
yet it loses this healing power, the moment we rest in itself as 
a process, or direct it to any less than Him whom we conceive 
as its living object. Thus He teaches us, that His government 
is by all-embracing method and law, yet forbids us to stop short 
of Himself as the true Governor. He gives no warrant for ex 
pecting fresh interference to cancel His own work (as if He 
were a clumsy artificer) at every step ; but still less does He 
reveal Himself as inert, or as withdrawn from the world, when 
we should rather conceive of Him as upholding by His bene 
ficence every life, and rejoicing in the operation of His thought 
as eternal law. All wills minister to His Will, and though 
each of them were perverse, it might still express a portion of 
that which is perfect. 

" He who thus conceives of the Providence of God as general, 
may judge Jewish history differently from those who dream of 
perpetual interferences. He may call a sacred instinct, in 
breathed, and a feeling taught of God, rather than find a form of 
words prescribed, or an immutable model laid down. Thus he 
M. p. 30 



466 LARGER VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

may think the conquest of Canaan was conducted with mixed 
motives, and sullied with crimes. But these things will not startle 
him more in a religious history, than they would in any other. 
If they may happen in the world, they may be recorded in the 
Bible. But he considers them as events which happened, and 
not as examples, which he need admire, of faultlessness. So he 
may think that patriotism, as well as religion, inspires the songs 
which call Jerusalem the joy of the whole earth. Again, if 
he reads that Jeroboam was particularly sinful for making priests 
who were not of the tribe of Levi, he may infer that the Levi- 
tical recorder resented the injury to his tribe, "no less than the 
degradation to Divine service. Perhaps in the story of Samuel 
and Saul he may note a like mixture of motives. For whatever 
passions and frailties, and whatever complications from human 
ignorance, are found under the Divine rule elsewhere, will seem 
to him natural accompaniments of the evolution of truth in 
Israel. Nor need even a play of imagination, or of poetry, in 
magnifying the elder epochs, appear to him strange, unless he is 
prepared to say, that such poetry elsewhere has not naturally 
sprung from the human mind, and in turn elevated its tone. 
For since we know that parental and conjugal love are divine, we 
suffer them to ascribe beauties hardly due to children or wives, 
without feeling ourselves bound to tame down their expressions 
exactly ; and thus the better spirit of a nation often tinges with 
its fancy the early stages of a history, which becomes typical of 
its destiny. Nor is there any reason, why such a mode of edu 
cating men, through poetry as well as prose, should not have 
been extended by the God of the whole earth to the Hebrew 
people. Nor need any kind of human shortcoming, or temporary 
misunderstanding, much surprise us. There may be one know 
ledge for the child*, and another for the man; and one virtue 
for the soldier, and another for the saint. But, if there are steps 
of growth in generations, we must expect each step to be con 
sidered in its day as final ; or at least as absolutely imposed. It 

* i Corinthians xiii. ir ; Galatians iv. I 3. 



HEBREW SACERDOTALISM. 467 

will be considered the very revelation; for by no less a view 
could it acquire due reverence and fixity. But yet the Eternal 
God may all along be training His people beyond their full con 
sciousness. Especially, if a great priesthood is to have charge 
of certain truths or rites, we may expect among them all the 
faults* incidental to priesthoods. It seems a grand conception to 
have a body of men in charge of the national temple, more 
educated than their fellows, and living under the direct influence 
of the breath of God, sought daily in prayer. Such a body 
might be expected to mediate as it were between God and man, 
having the clearest perception of right, as the unwritten law of 
Him to whose service their lives are dedicated, and again asso 
ciating the people together in harmony of inspired prayers and 
songs. Thus they would give shape and voice to the better in 
stincts and aspirations of the people at large, partaking with 
them the life which the supreme Father upholds, and with clearer 
consciousness f of its source. Yet we can see, on reflexion, what 
temptations of form and of literalism, and of professional selfish 
ness, and sloth, and even vice and rapacity, must beset such a body; 
and if the Jewish priesthood yielded to such, and involved also 
their nation in a barren literalism, and in obstinacy and in ruin, 
they only partook of a sinfulness common to mankind. It is 
evident that many of us in their place would have acted alike. 

" But yet there are limits which neither institutions nor men 
transgress with impunity. An institution must not suffer the 
idea out of which it came to fade before an absorbing selfish 
ness. Nor must men strengthen their passions against their 
conscience, by crying down every teacher of righteousness, or 
organising a conspiracy of the crowd against the meek and the 
truth-speaker. Especially the Jews had received such Divine 
sanction for the ideas of Truth and Right, and such experience 
of great witnesses to them arising from time to time, that they 
sinned against great light if they stoned the prophet or crucified 

* Hosea iv. 6 9 ; Jeremiah v. 31 ; i Samuel ii. 
t Jeremiah v. 4, 5. 

302 



468 JUDAIC SINS OF THE LETTER. 

the reformer. It had been a promise in the law of Moses*, that 
God would raise up prophets, reviving the sound of His word in 
men s hearts. When then He had raised up prophet after pro 
phet, and they had stoned one, and slain another with the sword, 
and sawn another asunder |, they had outraged the better voice 
of their consciences, and so forfeited the blessing of the spirit, 
however zealous they might be for the letter of their covenant. 
The whole argument of St Stephen with his countrymen (in 
Acts vii.) is, that they had always resisted the Holy Ghost, or 
stifled the better voice within them. Thus they had not under 
stood Moses, when God raised him up as a deliverer out of 
Egypt, and it was only characteristic of their old dulness of 
spirit, that they understood not Christ, when God gave Him as 
a Deliverer of the soul from evil of stain and fear, and from the 
bondage of written ordinances. Thus, in rejecting Christ, the 
Jews only brought to its fatal culmination that habit of rejecting 
spiritual teachers, which is natural to animal men|, and which 
their history had often shewn. They had accustomed themselves 
to revile the servants when living, though they garnished their 
tombs when dead j and at last they rejected the very Son. I do 
not say that many of us might not have done the same : and in 
many Christian literalists, especially in those who are most jea 
lous for the historical Christ, I observe the same stamp of 
mind which was in the Jews, and which would have turned as 
deaf an ear to Christ as they did. For such men ever disparage 
that spiritual power of the Truth, to which our blessed Lord 
came into the world to bear witness ; and they make everything 
depend on the external authority of the book or the temple, not 
knowing that God can raise in three days out of the Truth a 
temple not made with hands. Such men undo the w