of every name and every class; and if such a test is absolutely necessary to prove that the converts have abandoned caste, and have reached an indispensable perfection, missionaries ought to be agreed upon this point, and ought to adopt at every station throughout India, the same system, that the grievances of native Christians may be one, their honours and privileges be one, their hopes and fears be one, and their joys and sorrows be one. Show me a native convert who has been baptized and who has communed with his brethren at the table of the Lord, but who has, by such a test, been driven from the fellowship of the faithful; and I will show you a convert whom I would follow as a lost sheep in the wilderness, and whom I would use all the pity and all the love and all the exertion of which I am capable, to find, and to restore, as I feel convinced that, in renouncing his idolatry, and in avowing himself to be a follower of the Lamb, he made greater sacrifices, and endured more trials to prove the sincerity of his faith, than those who have had the temerity to deprive him of the rights and privileges of a disciple.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LITERATURE OF INDIA.

THE LITERATURE OF THE HINDOOS-SANSCRIT LANGUAGE-SIMILAR TO THE LATIN IN ITS RISE AND DECLINE-NOT THE MOTHER OF THE VERNACULAR TONGUES-EVIDENCE THAT IT IS NOT-THE

VEDAS-THE SHASTERS-THE POORANNAS-THE RAMAYANA-HARISCHUNDRA.

In the literature of India, there is, no doubt, a great mass of romance, and absurdity; but not more perhaps than in that of Greece and of Rome. While some have agreed to hold up Indian literature as a model of perfection, as excelling in wit, in eloquence, in poetry, in tragedy, and in all that is agreeable to taste, as well as imagination; others have denounced it as a tissue of extravagant fancies, and pernicious dogmas which have no foundation in fact, and no practical bearing on society. I cannot agree with either of these opinions; and think it may be shown that, amidst a mass of rubbish, there are some facts, some laws, some proverbs, some poetry, some general principles, some philosophy, some grammar and language which are not un

worthy the consideration of the scholar and the philosopher.

In all probability, the language in which the greater part of their literature was originally written, was the Sanscrit, and from thence it was, afterwards, transfused into all the vernacular dialects of the empire. But whatever the original may have been, one thing is certain, that there is scarcely a book to be found in the one, which has not been written in the other. It is impossible to conceive of a language existing, and arriving at the stage of perfection which the Sanscrit has acquired, without concluding that it must, at one period, have been the language of a people, and have been usefully applied to all the purposes of life. The most probable conjecture is, that it was the language of the Bramins, that they were a race of conquerors who came from the north, that they easily overran and subdued the continent of India, that they engrafted their system of superstition upon the idolatry which they found among the people, and that, as the sons of Brumha, they have retained in their hands, the key of knowledge, and the reins of government.

The

A great similarity may be traced between the progress and the decline of empire in the East and in the West, at the same periods of time. Roman power which, in the ages of obscurity, grew up in Latium, swallowed up the adjoining provinces, extended its arms over ancient Europe, tried to

amalgamate the customs and the superstitions of the conquered countries with its own, fell a prey to violence in its turn, sank under the weight of its own grandeur and greatness, and, while in the dissolution of the rule which it exercised over the nations, its power was lost; what became of that language of which the Romans were so proud, which they tried to impose upon the conquered provinces, and which was to become universal and be a substitute for all the tongues of the earth? that language was expelled from the seat of its nativity, ceased to be the dialect of a people, and was the victim of the dominion to which it aspired. So, and most probably during the same period, the Bramins and the real Hindoos descended in swarms upon the continent of India, spread their despotism and influence among the aboriginal tribes, and established their law, their superstition, and even their language, as far as their power and policy could accomplish it; but one revolution after another annihilated their power, broke up this confederacy, brought them into a closer alliance with the ancient inhabitants, and, whatever may be the hold their superstition had maintained over the empire, their language has almost expired; its students and admirers all speak the vernacular dialect of the provinces in which they reside, and, instead of becoming universal, and taking the place of those which might be deemed inferior, it is the one which is the most likely to sink into oblivion, and to be entirely forgotten.

108 THE LANGUAGE OF THE BRAMINS.

When we remember the veil which is cast over the earlier history of India, we need not be surprised at the cloud in which the origin of this beautiful language is enveloped, and that all efforts hitherto made for its discovery have failed. As the Sanscrit in the East, so the Latin in the West, is still a distinct language. But were our ancient histories involved in as much romance, and obscurity as those of Hindoosthan, I can easily conceive of a Hindoo arriving in Europe, sitting down to learn German, or French, or English, studying Latin as a learned language which is to afford him great assistance in his work; and what are the questions that would naturally occur to him? What is this Latin? Where did it originate? Was it ever the language of a people? And yet, without the knowledge which we have of the Roman empire, there would be as much difficulty in giving him an answer, as our Orientalists have found in ascertaining the origin of the Sanscrit.

Much as I venerate the names of Sir W. Jones, and Dr. Carey, and other Oriental scholars, I cannot agree with the opinion that the Sanscrit is the parent of all the vernacular languages. To say that it sustains the same relation to the tongues of India, that the Latin does to those of Europe, is perhaps saying too much. As the Italian and the Spanish are more allied to the Latin than are the languages of Celtic origin, so there may be, among the dialects of India, some that are more allied to the Sanscrit,