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The contented are always happy; the discontented are ever miserable.

Religion. The number of the Hindoo gods and goddesses amount to 330,000,000; yet they have not names for all, but they say that God performs all his works by their instrumentality, and that all human actions, as well as all the elements, have their tutelar deities. Thus they consider, somewhat after the ancient Platonic notion, that the Supreme God derives much of his greatness and magnificence, not from the consideration of his superiority over all created intelligences, but as being the God of gods. Yet, to this one God, they have no temple, neither do they appear to pay him any worship.

The Hindoos, however, profess to believe in the doctrine of Divine Unity; "One Brumhu without a second," is a phrase commonly used by them when conversing upon the nature of God.

They believe also, that God is almighty, all wise, omnipotent, omniscient, &c. and they frequently speak of him as embracing in his government the happiness of the good, and the subjection or punishment of the bad. Yet they have no idea of God's performing any act, either of creation or providence, except through the gods: but these auxiliary deities bear not the least resemblance to the one true God in any of the moral qualities attributed to them.

The Hindoos, nevertheless, have some very enlarged views of the divine influence; they believe that it diffuses its vivifying energies over the entire universe; instilling its lifegiving powers into every portion of animated matter.

It is related of a learned bramhun, that on hearing the following lines from Pope's Essay on Man, he started from his seat, begged for a copy of them; and declared that the author must have been a Hindoo.

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole:
Whose body nature is, and God the soul:
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees:
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent."

This may serve to show the opinions which the Hindoos entertain of the universal energy and operation of the Deity. This energy is said to have created the universe; and therefore, this is the object of worship. Some of them assert that Brumhu, after he had entered the world, divided himself into male and female.

From the notion of God being the soul of the world; and

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the world itself being God, under various forms, has arisen the Hindoo practice of paying divine adorations to the heavens collectively ;-to the sun, moon, the stars, the sea, great rivers, and all extraordinary appearances in nature. Even the divine energy itself has been personified, as a sort of holy spirit, and worshipped under different names.

Many Hindoos are denominated Shaktus, as devoted to the worship of this shuktee, or energy, and all their addresses are called the energies of their lords, as well as matres, or moth

ers.

The universe being full of the Divine Majesty, a deity has been consecrated as the regent of every element; and even the brambu and the devout mendicant, as sharing more largely of the in-dwelling Deity than others, have received the adoration of the multitude. Thus it appears, that the Hindoo system of theology, is a kind of polytheistical Sabellianism, making all things to be gods in which the Supreme Godhead or energy is supposed eminently to dwell.

The same principle is exhibited in the bodily powers of the different images worshipped by the Hindoos. Ununtu has a thousand heads; Brumha four faces; Indru is full of eyes; Doorso has ten; and Shavunu, the giant, a hundred arms. The formidable weapons of the gods, too, have evidently the same allusion, as well as their symbols and vehicles among them are the eagle,* the serpent, the lion, the tiger, the elephant, the bull, the buffalo, &c.

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After this general description of the Hindoo theology, we may next enter into a more minute detail of some of their principal deities.

1. Brumha. This god may be properly noticed first, as he is called the creator and the grandfather of gods and men: in the latter designation, he resembles Jupiter, in the lasciviousness of his conduct, having betrayed a criminal passion towards his own daughter. Brumha's image is never worshipped, nor even made but the Chundu describes it as that of a red man with four faces. He is red, as a mark of his being full of the ruju goonu: he has four faces, to remind the worshippers that the vedus proceeded from his four mouths. In one hand he has a string of beads, to show that his power as creator was derived from his devotion: the pan of water in

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*"Vishnoo riding upon his Gurooru, or eagle," says the ingenious Mr. Maurice in his "Indian Antiquities,"" puts us in mind of the thunder bearing eagle of the Grecian Jupiter."

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his left hand, denotes that all things sprang from water. This deity, thus pre-eminent, is yet entirely destitute of a temple and worshippers.

2. Vishnoo. This is the image of a black man, with four arms, sitting on Gurooru, a creature half bird, half man, and holding in his hands the sacred shell, the chuckru, the lotus, and a club. His colour, (black) is that of the destroyer; which is intended to show that Shivu and he are one; he has four hands, as the representative of the male and female powers the shell (blown on days of rejoicing) implies that Vishnoo is a friendly deity: the chukru is to teach that he is wise to protect; the lotus to remind the worshipper of the nature of final emancipation; that, as the flower is raised from the muddy soil. and after rising by degrees from immersion in the waters, expands itself above the surface, to the admiration of all, so man is emancipated from the chains of human birth; the club shews that he chastises the wicked. Gurooru is a portion of Shivu; his body represents the vedu. Vishnoo is distinguished, as being the source of most of the Hindoo incarnations; and he commands the worship of the greatest division of the Hindoo population. There are no temples nor festivals in honour of Vishnoo. He is called the Preserver ; but the actions ascribed to him under this character, are referred to other forms and names. The Shalgramu, a stone, is a form of Vishnoo. During four months of the year, all the forms of this god are laid to sleep.

3. Siva or Shivu, is seen with his Trisula, or Trident, in one hand; and, in another, the Pasha, which is a rope for binding and strangling incorrigible offenders; his two foremost hands, right and left, are in a position very common to several deities; they are said to indicate an invitation to ask, and a promise to grant or protect. His third eye, pointing up and down, is seen in his forehead-his three eyes, probably denoting his view of the three divisions of time, past, present, and future. Serpents, emblems of immortality, form his earrings. His pendant collar is composed of human heads, and marks the extinction and succession of generations of mankind by Time.

4. Indru. This is the king of heaven, and the infamous violator of the wife of his religious guide: he is painted as a yellow man, sitting on an elephant, with a thunderbolt in one hand and a club in the other; and, like Argus, is full of eyes. All the attributes of his image are only the signs of his office as a king. He has one annual festival, and is very famous in the Pooranus for the number of wars and intrigues in which he

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