from memory; and though the name of the authority might be mentioned, the page or section of the book very frequently could not be furnished. It was also the Author's intention to add a large Appendix of Notes, partly explanatory, and partly vindicatory. The bulk to which the volume has swoln, and this alone, has prevented the accomplishment of that part of the design. Without such Notes, he is conscious that many of his statements are peculiarly liable to misapprehension. To illustrate what is meant :-At the bottom of page 57, it is asserted, that "no where can a single moral attribute, properly so called, be found ascribed to the one God-the Supreme Brahm of the Hindus." In a note, the reason of the qualification expressed by the words in italics, would be illustrated-the precise nature of those generalized qualities" which Brahm is said to assume when he awakes from his slumber, would be defined. Again, in page 99, an account is given of the Hindu theory of the nature and origin of caste. In a note, the various modifications to which in practice that theory has been subjected, would be largely pointed out; and thus, might numberless doubts, difficulties, and misapprehensions, be anticipated and obviated. In the unavoidable absence of such notes, therefore, the Author must throw himself on the indulgence of the candid reader; as in the text itself it would be plainly impossible to introduce all those minute details which might act as so many fences and safeguards of the meaning. 66 The train of remark in some of the following chapters having led the Author to refer almost exclusively to generic principles and modes of procedure in the history of modern missions; and his own labours having been mainly conducted within a sphere which, in the metropolis of British India, had not previously been occupied,-it did not fall in with the scope of his brief sketches to bestow a more specific very notice on the operations of his brethren and coadjutors of other Christian denominations. Of the American Mission in Ceylon, which possesses so many features in common with that of the Church of Scotland he, at the time to which his historic observations refer, knew nothing but the name. He cannot, however, refrain from once more doing what he has already repeatedly done in oral and written forms, he cannot help giving expression to the delight which he has heretofore enjoyed, and the profit which he has heretofore reaped, in the society of his predecessors and contemporaries in the missionary field. With the agents of all the great English societies it was his happy lot to associate on terms of the most familiar and endearing intercourse. To the Adams and Lacroixs of the Independents, the Reichardts of the Church of England, the Yates and the Pearces of the junior Baptist mission, Calcutta, he has again and again been laid under the deepest obligation for their counsels and freely communicated experience. And what shall he say as to the senior fraternity at Serampore now no more! Often since his return to Britain has he been pained to hear these devoted men accused of worldly extravagance, oriental pomp, princely grandeur, and sundry other foibles, errors, and inconsistences! Knowing, from ocular evidence, that these and such like charges were, to say the least, most grossly exaggerated, he has ever felt it a special privilege to have had it in his power to vindicate the name and memory of these venerated labourers. What!-men who, for thirty or forty years, braved the noxious influences of a tropical clime,―taught and preached the Gospel to thousands, and tens of thousands,--gave versions of the Bible in whole or in part, and more or less perfect, into the majority of the Indian dialects !-men who, besides supporting their own family establishments, actually expended, for the promotion of Christianity in India, from their own earnings, more than sixty thousand pounds!—Talk of flaws and imperfections in the multitudinous sayings and doings of such men !-would it not be miraculous if none such could be detected? Owing to man's fallibility, errors in judgment may lead to the projection of inadequate measures; owing to man's frailty, there may often be feebleness in the execution of good ones. But, in all Christendom, let any three men be pointed out, who have done more than Ward, Marshman, and Carey, to earn new trophies for the Re deemer in the hitherto unconquered realms of Paganism,and then, but not till then, would the Author consent to remain silent when the first stone was thrown at the noble, the immortal, triumvirate of Serampore! In conclusion, the Author cannot but publicly return his unfeigned thanks to his kind and revered friend, the Rev. Dr Brunton,-under whose hospitable roof he has during the last four months found a congenial home, and for all whose counsels and valuable suggestions, when the present Work was passing through the press, he has been laid under obligations which can never be adequately repaid. Now, to Him, "who is the blessed, and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see ;-to Him be honour and power everlasting. Amen." BILSTANE NEAR Edinburgh, 25th October 1839. * * * Should any profits arise from the sale of this Publication, they are to be devoted exclusively to purposes promotive of the interests of the India Mission. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INDIA - ITS PARAMOUNT INFLUENCE AND IMPORTANCE-A PRECIOUS Page. Effect of this discovery-Lisbon-Amsterdam, Splendid series of English voyages, with the view of reaching India, The final supremacy of Britain, Three distinct epochs of peculiar interest in behalf of India,- The era of romantic imaginative interest, The era of romantic literary interest, The era of vivid religious interest, Designs of Providence in subjecting India to Britain, Glance at the remarkable series of events which have thrown all India open as a field for Missionary enterprise, Analogy between the condition of the Roman Empire at the com- CHAPTER II. THE THEORY OF HINDUISM-ESSENTIALLY A STUPENDOUS SYSTEM OF PANTHEISM-ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL MODES IN WHICH THE THEORY IS EXEMPLIFIED IN PRACTICE. Page. The necessity of knowing the real condition of a people, in order to 38 39 the adoption of effectual measures for their amelioration, This illustrated in the case of India, Religion the master-principle in moulding the character, opinions, Their religion contained in writings believed to be divine, These writings locked up in the Sanskrit language, Enumeration of them, Attempt to unfold the orthodox theory of the Brahmanical faith, 40 42 44 45 49 50 51 52 57 The manifestation of the universe, at a time when nought existed but the Supreme Spirit, 64 The whole is a pantheism, 65 Four distinct views of this subject entertained in the orthodox schools, 66 Spiritual Pantheism, 67 Psycho-ideal Pantheism, 69 Psycho-material Pantheism, 75 /Reflections on this confounding of the creature with the Creator, Psycho-material-mythologic Pantheism, 82 86 The geographical and astronomical construction of the universe, educed from the substance of the Supreme Spirit, The immense epochs of the duration of the universe, with its successive destructions and renovations, 101 Glance at the mode in which the grand theory of Hinduism is re The wicked sent to one or other of innumerable hells, 125 They reappear on earth in mineral, vegetable, or brutal forms, Obedience and acts of merit recompensed by admission into one or other of the heavens of the gods-The highest reward is absorption or refusion into the Divine Essence, 125 128 |