prehensible and immutable, which fills all space, and is the primary cause of all things. To attempt, even in thought, to personify this divine essence, is in their scripture regarded as profane. Neither are the mystic characters, which are used to denote the Deity, permitted to be pronounced aloud, or the lips to move, although the word should be pronounced mentally a thousand times a day. The following may be considered as the articles of the Hindu faith That the Eternal is ONE, the creator of all things both in heaven and on earth, and in the waters beneath; that he resembles a perfect sphere, without beginning and without end; that the Eternal rules and governs all creation by a general providence, resulting from first determined and fixed principles.

"C Thou shalt not make

enquiry into the essence of the eternal ONE, "neither by what laws he governs; an enquiry "into either is as vain as criminal. It is enough, "that day by day, and night by night, thou per"ceivest in his works, his wisdom, his power, and "his mercy. Benefit thereby." Brahma is considered as the spirit, who emanated from this eternal essence, for the creation of the world. But, since idolatry has been introduced among the Hindus, the three attributes of the one living God have been worshipped separately under the titles of Siva, Vishnu and Brahma. To the latter no

temples are dedicated, but the worship of the Lingam is exclusively to him. At present, the Hindus, to whatever minor cast they may belong, are divided into two sects, the followers of Siva, and the followers of Vishnu. The first date their origin as coeval with the creation; the second, from the first incarnation of Vishnu, erroneously stated by Europeans at the deluge: for the learned Hindus invariably believe that all the Avatars were antediluvian; the belief of the generality of the natives is, that the Eternal emitted three sparks, which they personify by the three gods, Siva, Vishnu, and Brahma. The church Brahmans consider Siva as the symbol of the supreme God; Vishnu as the primordial spirit, that first moved on the waters, the God who existed before all worlds, who redeemed mankind from sin, and who will re-appear in a carnal form at the day of judgement; Brahma as the creative attribute (Viraj) by whom were produced Swayambhuva and Satarupa, the general parents of mankind.

The Deity is still worshipped in Trinity, under the name of Trimouti or Tritoum: that is, the Hindus acknowledge three attributes of one God; thereby denoting his omnipotence, his providence, and his justice; offering up their prayers and thanksgiving to the preserving and destroying

attributes of the Eternal. But the classical Brahmans, particularly those of the Vidanta school, consider the holy Triad in a recondite sense, as three Gods in one God; not as Brahma, Siva and Vishna, but as one pervading Spirit; The eternal Spirit in heaven, the eternal Spirit on earth. To personify either, even in idea, is considered profane. The third person in their holy Triad is the same divine Spirit, in an incarnate form: this is one of the most ancient tenets of their religion, taught by their incarnate God, during the first millenary of the world, and corresponds with that taught by Enoch, the great Hebrew prophet, at the same period. There are several pagodas, or temples, sacred to this worship, in one of which the symbol of the Deity is a man with three heads: and at the great pagoda of Travancore, the symbol is a serpent with a thousand heads the great feast of Anandavourda, held annually on the eve of the full moon in October, when the year originally commenced, is in honour of the Trimouti, and is attended by thousands of the natives of every cast, who assemble from every part of the country.

There are numerous temples dedicated to Siva, and to Vishnu; at each of which Brahman ministers, initiated in the peculiar mysteries of either sect, officiate. But to Brahma, as not being immortal, no temples are erected; although the Hindus

of either sect pay him daily adoration, as the creature attribute, in their private prayers.

Siva is worshipped as supreme and eternal justice, who at the end of the world, will distribute rewards and punishments: Vishna as the mediator and preserver, who left his paradise in heaven, and became incarnate, to deprecate the wrath of the Eternal. In this incarnation, he is believed to have animated the body of Parata Rama, the great Buddha, the son of Máyá, or divine delusion.

They reckon ten principal Avataras; of which that which has been mentioned, is the only incarnation of the Deity that is past: the remaining eight being considered as partaking of a portion only of the Deity. The tenth is expected at the close of the Cali age, as an incarnation of the same divine redeeming Spirit, who will return in great glory to judge mankind, previously, to the final distri bution of rewards and punishments by the Supreme.

The chronology of the Hindus has been va

riously represented; some rejecting their numbers altogether as visionary; and others considering them merely as astronomical observations. If either of these hypotheses is admitted, and each of them has been given as an axiom, no data can ever be obtained, from which to place the Avataras; all of which except the tenth, which is still to come, are antecedent to the deluge, Buddha of the ninth

Avatara being the prince saved in the ark. Europeans, on the contrary, from the Matsya or fish Avatar being the first, suppose all the succeeding to be postdiluvian, mistaking the first Avatar when the deluge was foretold by Buddha, the son of Máyá their incarnate God for the ninth, when the prophecy was fulfilled in the person of Vaivaswat ; and so bigotted are some to this postdiluvian system, ́ that they do not hesitate to pronounce the Brahmans strangely inconsistent for not giving up the whole chronology of their country, and changing the epoch, when the Cali or present age commenced, in conformity to the erroneous calculations of Romish missionaries and Chinese Bouzes*.

To understand the Hindu chronology, it is absolutely necessary to be perfectly acquainted with. the different divisions of time, as recorded in the institutes of Menu. It will then clearly appear, that those numbers which have of late years been injudiciously pronounced astronomical cycles, or periods, are nothing more than the different powers of numbers multiplied into each other. The Brahmans profess, and the unenlightened Hindus believe that the world was created to last 4320000 years, as follows.

* Maurice, vol. II. 562. 9th edit.