doubt be struck as I was with the number of laws favourable to the Brahminical order. For instance, in the 8th chapter, "Never shall the king slay a Brahmin though convicted of all possible crimes: let him banish the offender from his realm; but with all his property secure and his body unhurt. No greater crime is known on earth than slaying a Brahmin, and the king therefore must not even form in his mind an idea of killing a priest." And again, in the 1st chapter, "Whatever exists in the universe is all in effect, though not in form, the wealth of the Brahmins, since the Brahmin is intitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence of birth." Would one not imagine that the spirit, if not the letter, of these laws had transmigrated into the popes and their myrmidons during the middle ages ? If the unfortunate brother of Chandragupta, whom the Greeks call Sandracottus, fell a victim to his expressions of contempt for a filthy and deformed Brahmin, we have seen an emperor (Henry IV.) distinguished for many virtues and possessed of considerable talents, standing for three days barefooted in the depth of winter, at the gate of the haughty bishops of Rome; and another Henry, among the most virtuous of the English monarchs, receiving stripes at the tomb of him who had made his life a constant martyr dom. If the Brahmins, protected in their persons and property, yet presided in courts where they condemned others to the severest penalties of the laws, the priesthood of Europe, no less privileged, while they claimed exemption from all secular jurisdiction, exercised the power of life and death in their own courts, to which every man was amenable, whose strength in arms was not sufficient to protect him. Happily for Europe the priesthood was not hereditary or confined to one class. The constant influx of new members who brought something of the common world into the cloister, preserving their family relations and the connections of country, prevented their becoming a distinct caste, an evil which would inevitably have prolonged the darkness which so long overwhelmed the western world, if it had not confirmed it for ever. It is. scarcely possible to imagine any two systems more nearly allied than those of the Brahmins and of the priests of the middle ages. The monasteries in the West, endowed by royal patrons, and enriched by the pious contributions of all ranks, were only rivalled by the magnificence of the Hindû temples, supported by royal and private grants of land, and other valuables, and adorned with the jewels of the pious, or the expiatory offerings of the offender. The priests of both classes esteemed it more. honourable to subsist by alms than to labour, and both arrogated to themselves the right of instructing and guiding the people, and of directing the secret councils of their monarchs. The trials by ordeal so common in Europe in the middle ages, have subsisted from time immemorial in India, and, though generally disused, they are still of authority, and have been appealed to at Benares so late as A. D. 1783. Robertson, in his History of Charles the Fifth, supposes that these trials were invented in Europe to remedy the defects of the judicial proceedings of those times, and to guard against the numerous frauds, and the injustice which could not but arise from the practice of allowing a man to clear himself from any accusation by compurgation, or the oaths of himself and his neighbours or relations. But the extreme similarity between the trial by ordeal as practised in India, and the appeal to the justice of God common in Europe, would lead us to believe that they had a common and more ancient origin. The principles on which such appeals rest, are indeed founded in human nature, and have given rise not only to these absurdities, but to the beljef in magic, and the train of follies attendant on it. It is natural for the savage, in such cases as his own sagacity is incompetent to investigate and to decide, to look to some superior power for aid, H L mass and in many cases the workings of conscience itself, on being brought to a test, which it was firmly believed was directed by a Supreme omniscient Being, would produce effects consonant to the justice of the cause, and every such event would give strength to the popular faith in the efficacy of the trials. The rocking-stones which are found on the coast of Cornwall, and other parts of England, were used as an ordeal by the Druids; and well might fear palsy the hand ere it touched the rock of trial, while innocence boldly approached and moved the mighty Notwithstanding these considerations which account for a similarity of principle, the exact coincidence of many of the forms used, persuades me, that they are so many traces of the ancient and intimate connexion which Sir William Jones pronounces, it would be possible to prove, between the first race of Persians and the Indians, to whom we may add the Greeks and Romans, the Goths and the old Egyptians or Ethiops, who according to him originally spoke the same language, and professed the same popular faith: And probably the more familiar we become with the antique customs, laws and manners of Hindos *See Mason's Caractacus, for a beautiful exemplification of this superstition of our forefathers. tan, the stronger will the resemblances be found, and the clearer the traces of the ancient connexion and subsequent separation of these various tribes. ག But I will not detain you with my own opinions on the subject, but state the facts on which they are grounded. The trial by ordeal is of nine kinds, 1st, by the balance, 2d, by fire, 3d, by water, 4th, by poison, 5th, by the cosha, 6th, by rice, 7th, by boiling oil, 8th, by red-hot iron, and 9th, by images. The first, a trial by the balance, is made by the accused person performing worship to the fire, and afterwards fasting a whole day, when he is weighed twice or thrice, and if at the second or third weighing he is found heavier than at first he is guilty. The writing on the wall over against Belshazzar king of Babylon, "thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting," (Daniel, chap. v. ver. 27) of which text Milton has made so noble a use in the end of the 4th book of the Paradise Lost. The fiend looked up and knew His mounted scale aloft, nor more but fled Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night. Probably refers to a similar trial used by the 490921 A |