on on each other; the system tending to produce and perpetuate ignorance of the worst kind, and this ignorance, on the other hand, tending to add to the horrors of the system.
That the system has had its full share in the degradation of morals and manners, few will be inclined to doubt who consider its nature and tendency. Not only are the people in general destitute of every just idea of God; they can scarcely be said to be fully impressed with the importance of a single principle of morality. In addition to their being wholly unconscious of that accountability to the Judge of All, which in Europe is written on almost every heart, as well as ignorant both of the justice and mercy of God, of the evil which follows immorality and sin even in this life, and of the happiness which results from piety, probity, truth, fidelity and integrity; they have no just idea of the objects of nature so constantly before them, of the sun, moon, and stars—the clouds, the winds, the rain;—the earth on which they dwell,—the groves, trees and plants which surround them—the domestic animals which they nourish; nor, in a word, of the flowing stream, the buzzing insect, or of the plant which creeps over their lowly shed. To them the sun retires behind a mountain, the rain from heaven is given by a god they are in the habit of despising and vilifying,[1] the rainbow is the bow of Rama, the river is a deity, the birds, the beasts, and even the reptiles around them are animated by the souls of their deceased relatives;—falsehood and uncleanness are nothing, perjury a trifle, and a failure in fidelity and probity, often a subject of praise; while ablution in the waters of a river is deemed a due atonement for almost every breach of morality.
That this state of misery is heightened by their ignorance, will be evident when we consider the little knowledge they possess even
