the east, is far less friendly to public and private virtue than even that which prevailed in Greece and Home when idolatry was at its highest pitch. The doctrine of the metempsychosis carried to the extent in which it is in India, while it seems to exalt man to the state of a god by terming him an identical part of the deity, in reality sinks his ideas of the deity to the level of every thing immoral and degrading; while men’s maintaining that God does every thing within them, takes away all reverence for him, and sets them free from every tie of moral obligation. Further, the idea of the soul’s passing from body to body, strips death of every thing awful, and humanity of every thing tender; and instead of elevating the minds of the Hindoos above terrene objects, it renders them insensible to the finest feelings of humanity, and causes them to set scarcely any value on human life, even though it be the life of those who gave them existence. Thus these two grand principles, piety and humanity, which are the foundation of all virtue, both public and private, and which enter into the essence of both natural and revealed religion, are almost extinguished in the mind of a Hindoo by the natural operation of the system he holds: and when to this we add that disregard of justice and all good faith, and that proneness to knavery, falsehood, and deceit, which instantly follow the absence of piety, justice, and humanity, we have before us all the great features of depravity visible in their general character.
If we would therefore wish to improve the public morals of our Indian fellow subjects, this must be attempted by the introduction of a remedy suited to the nature of the disease, by imparting to them that knowledge relative to themselves, to their responsibility for their actions, their state both here and hereafter, and the grand principles of piety, justice, and humanity, which may leaven their minds from their earliest youth. Should any one say: “effect
