I do not wonder that one of the first objects of worship should have been him who

With surpassing glory crown'd

Looks from his sole dominion like the

God of this new world.

Or that the "splendid playful sun," should have been regarded as the embodying of that divine intellect which pervades and governs all things. But soon the type was considered as the thing typified, and the sun once adored as God, there were no bounds to the wanderings of the human imagination; and though the instructed sages ever considered the sun, the air, the fire, as types of their Creator, the vulgar soon adopted that mythology which personifies the elements and planets, and peoples heaven and earth with various orders of beings. Thus though the Vedas distinctly recognize but one God, their poetic language does not sufficiently distinguish the Creator from the creature; and though the numerous titles of the deity be all referable to the sun, the air and fire, and these three again but signify the one God, these titles insensibly became the names of separate deities, who usurped the worship due only to the Supreme intelligence.

The name of the Yajurveda signifies that it concerns oblations and sacrifices. Soon after it was compiled by Vyasa it became polluted, and

a new revelation called the White Yajush was granted to Yajnyawalkya, while the remains of the former Yajush is distinguished by the title of the Black Yajurveda. Some of the prayers called Rich are included in this Veda, but its own peculiar muntras are in prose.

A peculiar degree of holiness is attributed to the Samaveda, as its name signifies that which destroys sin. Its texts are usually chanted, and I have occasionally been delighted with the solemn tones issuing from the domes of the native temples, at sunset, before the moment for the ceremonial ablutions had arrived.

The last or At'harvan Veda is chiefly used at rites for conciliating the deities, or for drawing down curses on enemies, and contains some prayers used at lustrations. As a specimen of the Hindû taste in curses, I send you the following: "Destroy, O sacred grass*, my foes; exterminate my enemies; annihilate all those who hate me, O precious gem

The most remarkable part of the Atharvan Veda consists of the treatises called Upanishats. The meaning of this word is divine science, or the knowledge of God; and the whole of the Indian theology is professedly founded on the Upanishads, which are either extracts from the

Darbha. Poa Cynosuroides.

Vedas, or essays belonging to the Indian Scrip

tures.

To give you an idea of the doctrines contained in the Vedas, and of the style in which they are conveyed, I shall transcribe some passages from that portion of the Rigveda called Aitareya Aranyaca, the four last lectures of which, containing the most sublime account of the creation, excepting that in the book of Genesis, that I have ever met with, are translated by Mr. Colebrooke in his essay on the Vedas, published in the eighth vol. of the Asiatic Researches.

The fine passage, however, which opens this portion of the sacred writings, is followed by some of a very different cast; which make it "lose discountenanced, and like folly show;" so that one knows not whether most to admire the great man who conceived the first, or to despise the compiler who could place such illassorted materials together.

"Originally this universe was indeed soUL only; nothing else whatever existed, active or inactive. He thought, I will create worlds. Thus HE created these various worlds; water, light, mortal beings, and the waters. That water, is the region above the heaven, which heaven upholds; the atmosphere comprises light; the earth is mortal; and the regions below are the waters."

2

After proceeding to describe the production of all beings from the mundane egg floating on the waters, the Aitaréya asks, “What is this soul? that we may worship him. Which is the soul? Is it that, by which a man sees? By which he hears? By which he smells odours? By which he utters speech? By which he discriminates a pleasant or an unpleasant taste? Is it the heart, or understanding? Or the mind, or will? Is it sensation? or power? or discrimination? or comprehension? or perception? or retention? or attention? or application? or taste (or pain?) or memory? or assent? or determination? or animal action? or wish? or desire?

"All these are only various forms of apprehension. But this (soul consisting in the faculty of apprehension) is BRAHMA; he is INDRA, he is (PRAJAPATI) the lord of creatures: these gods are he; and so are the five primary elements, earth, air, the etherial fluid, water and light; these, and the same joined with minute objects and other seeds of existence, and again other beings produced from eggs, or borne in wombs, or originating in hot moisture, or springing from plants; whether horses, or kine, or men, or elephants, whatever lives, and walks, or flies, or whatever is immoveable, as trees and herbs: all that is the eye of intelligence. On intellect every thing is founded: the world is the eye of

intellect; and intellect is its foundation. Intelligence is (Brahme) the great one.

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By this intuitively intelligent soul, that sage ascended from the present world to the blissful region of heaven, and, obtaining all his wishes, became immortal. He became immortal.

May my speech be founded on understanding; and my mind be attentive to my utterance. Be thou manifested to me, O self-manifested (intellect!) For my sake, O speech and mind! approach this Veda. May what I have heard be unforgotten: day and night may I behold this, which I have studied. Let me think the reality: let me speak the truth. May it preserve me; may it preserve the teacher; me may it preserve; the teacher may it preserve; may it preserve the teacher."

To this long quotation I will only add the conclusion of a hymn on the same subject, which is found in a different part of the Rigveda.

"Who knows exactly, and who shall in this world declare, whence and why this creation took place? The gods are subsequent to the production of this world; then who can know whence it proceeded? or whence this varied world arose? or whether it uphold itself or not? He, who is in the highest heaven, the ruler