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To this prevailing doctrine of the Metempfychofis, a doctrine indifputably propagated in the schools of India long before it was promulged in those of the Egyptian and Grecian philofophers, a variety of expreffions occurring in a drama, exhibited according to an author by no means favourable to the high chronological claims of the Brahmins, at the court of an Indian monarch, above 2000 years ago, and representative of men and manners, who flourished a thoufand years before even that period, decidedly point. "In thy paffage over this earth, where the paths are now high, now low, and the true path feldom dif tinguifhed, the traces of thy feet must needs be unequal; but virtue will prefs thee right onward." Sacontala, p. 49. 'Perhaps," fays the king Dushmanta," the fadness of men, otherwife happy, on feeing beautiful forms and liftening to fweet melody, arifes from fome faint remembrance of paft joys and the traces of connections in a former ftate of existence." Ibid. p. 55. In the following paffage, we not only find this doctrine glanced at, but the ftrange fentiments entertained by the Hindoos, relative to the earth and its feven deeps, as described in the geographical treatise, authentically

* See the Preface to Sacontala, p. 9.

authentically displayed. Of the infant son of Dushmanta, the divine Cafyapa thus propheti

cally speaks: Know, Dushmanta, that his heroic virtue will raife him to a dominion extended from sea to fea: before he has paffed the ocean of mortal life, he fhall rule, unequalled in combat, this earth with feven peninfulas." P. 97. As, in the extract from the Geeta, the reader has been made acquainted that the god Eendra has an inferior heaven, or paradife, which is appointed for the residence of those fouls whose penance has not been fully completed; fo, in the Sacontala, we read of "the superior heaven, and central palace of Veeshnu," p. 42, which proves their belief in a fucceffion of celeftial manfions. The following paffage, defcribing the occupations of the Brahmin candidate for perfection, is fo highly illustrative of what has been before remarked concerning the facred baths of purification and confecrated groves and caverns, that I cannot avoid tranfcribing it: "It becomes pure spirits to feed on balmy air, in a forest blooming with trees of life; to bathe in rills dyed yellow with the golden duft of the lotos, and to fortify their virtue in the mysterious bath; to meditate in caves, the pebbles of which are unblemished gems; and to restrain

their

their paffions, even though nymphs of exquifite beauty smiled around them: in this forest alone is attained the fummit of true piety, to which other hermits in vain afpire." Geeta, p. 88.

It is remarkable, that this holy grove, the retreat of Brahmin hermits, is described as being fituate in the mountains of HEEMAKOT, which is the Sanscreet name of IMAUS, that is, in that very range of mountains of which Naugracut forms a part, and in which I have already afferted the Brahmin religion once flourished in its greatest vigour. "That mountain," fays Matali, the charioteer of Eendra, "is the mountain of Gandharvas, named Heemakot: the universe contains not a more excellent place for the fuccefsful devotion of the pious." P. 87. In the fame page, there follows a description of a devotee in the act of penance, which is in the highest degree interefting and affecting; and will hereafter be cited by me, as a proof to what an extreme point of feverity they carried those penitentiary tortures, which they voluntarily inflict on themselves, to obtain abforption in Brahme, or, in other words, eternal happiness.

The laft paffage which I fhall extract from the Sacontala, relative to the journey of the migrating

migrating soul, forms the concluding sentence of that beautiful drama, and is more decifive than any yet adduced: May Seeva, with an

azure neck and red locks, eternally potent and felf-exifting, avert from me the pain of another birth in this perishing world, the feat of crimes and of punishment." Ibid. p. 98.

That ancient and celebrated compofition of VEESHNU SARMA, the Heetopades, is not lefs express upon the subject of the Metempsychofis. "It is faid, fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a former state of existence; wherefore it behoveth a man vigilantly to exert the powers he is poffeffed of." Heetopades, p. 6. This paffage seems to furnish us with an explanation of the word deftiny, in a preceding extract from the Geeta; for, if that word be underftood in a literal fenfe, all human exertions must be of little avail. Mr. Wilkins explains the paffage in this manner in a fhort note, in which he says: "It is neceffary to inform the reader, that many of the Hindoos believe this to be a place of rewards and punishments as well as of probation. Thus, good and bad fortune are the fruits of good and evil deeds committed in a former life; therefore, to prevent the latter in a future life, the author afferts, It behoveth a man," &c. Ibid. p. 296. "What elfe,

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elfe, my friend, can this misfortune be, but the effect of the evil committed in a prior state of existence? Sickness, forrow, and diftrefs, bonds and punishment, to corporeal beings, are fruits of the tree of their own transgreffions.” P. 25. "In this world, raised up for our purification, and to prevent our wandering in the regions below, the refolution to facrifice one's own life to the fafety of another is attained. by the practice of virtue." Ibid. p. 229. "The diffolution of a body foretelleth a new birth; thus, the coming of death, which is not to be paffed over, is as the entrance into life." Ibid. p. 270.

Finally, let it be obferved, that Mr. Wilkins explains the term Salvation, as "an union with the univerfal Spirit of God, and final exemption from mortal birth." Heetopades, p. 299.

After having produced thefe paffages relative to the transmigration of the soul through the various animal manfions, let us confider the Metempfychofis in a still more exalted point of view; let us trace the progress of the foul up the grand fidereal LADDER of feven GATES, and through the revolving spheres, which, it has been obferved, are called in InVOL. II.

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