closely approximating to the religion of the New Testament. He is very instructive when he traces the analogy between the doctrines and the defences of the old religions of India on the one hand, and the Christian teachings and apologies on the other hand. Thus he tells us that Buddha was called omniscient by his early pupils, but the later theologians explained his omniscience as consisting in "a knowledge of the principal doctrines in his system, and concerning these, but these only, they declared him to have been infallible" (p. 46). See also pp. 17, 18 for a similar instance. "While in the New Testament we read, 'If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee,' we find among the Buddhists а parable of a young priest whose bright and lovely eyes proved too attractive to a lady whom he visits, and who thereupon plucks out his right eye and shows it to her, that she may see how hideous it is” (p. 113). There is, indeed, some resemblance between the Buddhist and the Christian parable; but is there not a difference which can be felt? Max Müller thinks that the three great religions which include all others, are the Semitic, the Aryan, and the Turanian. The greater part of this volume is devoted to the Aryan religions. The religious writings of the Brahmans are founded on the four Vedas. (See the preceding notice of Dr. Butler's work.) "The hymns of the Rig-veda, which are the real bible of the ancient faith of the Vedic Rishis, are only 1,028 in number, consisting of about 10,580 verses. The commentary, however, on these hymns, of which I have published four good-sized quarto volumes, is estimated at 100,000 lines, consisting of thirty-two syllables each, that is at 3,200,000 syllables. There are besides, the three minor. Vedas: the Yagur-veda, the Sâma-veda, the Artharva-veda, which though of less importance for religious doctrines, are indispensable for a right appreciation of the ceremonial system of the worshippers of the ancient Vedic gods" (pp. 32, 33). We have no disposition to underrate, as many are disposed to overpraise, the writings of the Buddhists and the Brahmans. The following specimen of Buddhism is one of the best which we have seen. We have not the slightest fear. that our scriptures will suffer by a comparison with it. A valid argument for the divine origin of our Bible is derived from a comparison of it with the best parts of the Vedas. 1. "All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him as the wheel follows the foot of him who draws the cart. 49. "As the bee collects honey and departs without injuring the flower, so let the sage dwell on earth. 62. "These sons belong to me, and this wealth belongs to me,' with such thoughts a fool is tormented. He himself does not belong to himself; how much less sons and wealth! 121. "Let no man think lightly of evil, saying in his heart, It will not come nigh unto me. Let no man think lightly of good, saying in his heart, It will not benefit me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled. 173. "He whose evil deeds are covered by good deeds, brightens up this world like the moon when she rises from behind the clouds. 223. "Let a man overcome anger by love, evil by good, the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth. 264. "Not by tonsure does an undisciplined man become a saint; can a man be a saint who is still held captive by desires and greediness? 394. "What is the use of platted hair, O fool! what of the raiment of goat skins? Within thee there is ravening, but the outside thou makest clean (p. 112). The last half (one hundred and fifty pages) of this volume, is devoted to a translation of Buddha's Dhammapada, or "Path of Virtue." We intended to make various extracts from it, but our limits forbid. We need not say that the whole volume, despite its faults, is worthy of careful study. THE LAND OF THE VEDA: being Personal Reminiscences of India; its People, Castes, Thugs, and Fakirs; its Religion, Mythology, Principal Monuments, Palaces, and Mausoleums: together with the Incidents of the Great Sepoy Rebellion, and its results to Christianity and Civilization. With a Map of India, and forty-two Illustrations; also Statistical Tables of Christian Missions, and a Glossary of Indian Terms used in this Work and in Missionary Correspondence. By Rev. William Butler, D.D. 8vo. pp. 550. New York: Carlton and Lanahan; San Francisco: E. Thomas; Cincinnati: Hitchcock and Walden. 1872. “In my youth,” says Dr. Butler, "I read those amazing descriptions of Oriental magnificence recorded by Sir Thomas Roe - England's first Embassador to India- and others, describing the power and glory of The Great Mogul' in such glowing terms that they seemed more like the romance of the 'Arabian Nights' than the real facts, which they were, of the daily life witnessed in that splendid court. Europe then heard for the first time of The Taj,' 'The Peacock Throne,'' The Dewanee Khass,' "The Weighing of the Emperor,' when on each birthday his person was placed in golden scales, and twelve times his weight of gold and silver, perfumes and other valuables, were distributed to the populace; but the statements seemed so distant from probability that they were regarded by many as extravagances which might well rank with the asserted facts of 'Lalla Rookh;' so that the embassador, who was three years a resident, and the poet, who had never been there at all, with their authorities, seemed alike to have drawn upon their imagination for their facts, transcending, as their descriptions did, the ability and the taste of European courts. "How little I then imagined that it would fall to my lot at a future day to be in that very Dewanee Khass, sitting quietly on the side of his Crystal Throne, beholding the last of the Mogul Emperors, a captive, on trial for his life, in that magnificent Audience Hall of his forefathers, where millions have bowed down before them in such abject homage! that I should be there to see him, the last of their line, descending from that throne and $900,000 per annum to a felon's doom and the deck of a convict ship, to breathe out the remnant of his miserable life upon a foreign shore; and then after his departure to behold, as I did, that costly Khass given over to the spoiler's hand, rifled by the English soldiers of its last ornaments, and ruined forever!"- pp. 11, 12. Having spent fifteen years in India, Dr. Butler has been able to give an interesting account of its scenery, cities and inhabitants; of Brahmanism, the general character and influence of Hindoo Literature, the Vedas, etc. "The Vedas," he writes, "are undoubtedly the oldest writings in the world, with the exception of the Pentateuch. Colebrook supposes that they were compiled in the fourteenth century before Christ. Sir William Jones assigns them to the sixteenth century. They are certainly not less than three thousand years old. Veda is from the Sanscrit root vid, to know, the Veda being considered the fountain of all knowledge, human and divine. A Veda, in its strict sense, is simply a Sanhita, or collection of hymns. There are three Vedas, the Rig-Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the Sama-Veda. The fourth, the Atharva Veda, is of more modern date and doubtful authority. The Hindoos hold that the Vedas are coeval with creation. As to their several contents, the Rig-Veda consists of prayers and hymns to various deities; the Yajur Veda, of ordinances about sacrifices and other religious rites; the Sama-Veda is made up of various lyrical pieces, and the Atharva Veda chiefly of incantations against enemies."- p. 84. Dr. Butler gives various translations from the RigVeda Sanhita (the translations being quoted from Wilson's four volumes, published in 1850-1866) and then adds: "After a careful examination, from beginning to end, of this venerable and lauded work (the doors of which have so lately opened for the admission of mankind), with the remembrance in my mind of the long years when men have listened to the reiterations of its holiness, as the very source of all Hindoo faith the oracle from which Vedantic philosophy has drawn its inspiration, the temple at whose mere portal so many millions have bowed in such awe and reverence, with its interior too holy for common sight, containing, as it was asserted, all that was worth knowing, the primitive original truth that could regenerate India, and make even Christianity unnecessary well, with no feeling save those of deep interest and a measure of respect, we have entered and walked from end to end, to find ourselves shocked at every step with the revelations of this mystery of iniquity and sensuality, where saints and gods, male and female, hold high orgies amid the fumes of intoxicating liquor, with their singing and screaming,' and the challenging by which they urge one another' on to deeper debasement, until at length decency retires and leaves them 'glorying in their shame." p. 93. Dr. Butler's description of the Yogees is highly instructive. The practices of these devotees to God are thus described by Prof. Wilson: They "consist chiefly of long-continued suppression of respiration; of inhaling and exhaling the breath in a particular manner; of sitting in eighty-four different attitudes; of fixing their eyes on the tips of their noses, and endeavoring by the force of mental abstraction to effect a union between the portion of vital spirit residing in the body and that which pervades all nature, and is identical with Shiva, considered as the supreme being, and source and essence of all creation. When this mystic union is effected, the Yogee is liberated in his living body from the clog of material encumbrance, and acquires an entire command over all worldly substance. He can make himself lighter than the lightest substances, heavier than the heaviest; can become as vast or as minute as he pleases; can traverse all space; can animate any dead body by transferring his spirit into it from his own frame; can render himself invisible; can attain all objects; become equally acquainted with the past, present, and future; and is finally united with Shiva, and consequently exempted from being born again upon earth. The superhuman faculties are acquired in various degrees, according to the greater or less perfection with which the initiatory processes have been performed."- p. 203. The principle on which the self-torturing Fakirs submit to their agonies is well illustrated on pp. 196, 197: "One of these self-glorifying Fakirs, after graduating to saintship by long years of austerities and extensive pilgrimages, took it into his head that he could still further exalt his fame by riding about in a sort of Sedan chair with the seat stuck full of nails. Four men carried him from town to town, shaking him as little as possible. Great was the admiration of his endurance which awaited him everywhere. At length (no doubt when his condition had become such that he was for the time disposed to listen to some friendly advice) a rich native gentleman, somewhat sceptical as to the value and need of this discipline, met him and tried very earnestly to persuade him to quit his uncomfortable seat, and have mercy upon himself." The arguments of this gentleman are given in a short poem; the result of them is thus described: "This reasoning unhinged each fanatical notion, No endearments of pleasure and ease could prevail, He the saintship resumed, and new-larded his tail." — p. 197 Some of the most thrilling parts of this volume relate to the Sepoy rebellion. Dr. Butler gives the following apology for an expedient which has brought much opprobrium on the British rule in India: "The practice of 'blowing men from guns' in India during the Rebellion also needs a few words of explanation. The act has been much misunderstood, especially in this country. I have met with strange assertions upon this matter, some of which assumed that the Sepoys were actually rammed into the guns, and then fired out! and too often has it been said or supposed that the act was perpetrated as a refinement of cruelty. Both of these opinions are mistaken. The mode of death in this case was, usually, to sink a stake in the ground, and tie the man to it; the gun was behind him, from six to eight feet distant, loaded with blank cartridge, and, when discharged, it dissipated the man's remains. It was a quick and painless mode of death, for the man was annihilated, as it were, ere he knew that he was struck. But what the Sepoys objected to in it was, the dishonor done to the body, its integrity being destroyed, so that the Shraad could not be performed for them. [The Shraad is a funeral ceremony, which all caste Hindoos invest with the highest significance, as essential to their having a happy transmigration; the dissipation of the mortal remains of a man thus executed would necessarily render its importance impossible, and so expose the disembodied ghost, in their opinion, to a wandering, indefinite condition in the other world, which they regard as dreadful; and, to avoid this liability, when condemned to die they would plead, as a mercy, to be hung, or shot with the musket but not to be blown away.] "Knowing that this was the only procedure of which their wretched consciences were afraid, two of the English officers one of them being General Corbett, at Lahore - threatened this mode of punishment upon Sepoy troops whom they could not otherwise restrain from rebelling. Corbett did, at last, execute it upon twelve of the ringleaders of a Sepoy regiment, which, during the height of his anxiety for the safety of the Punjab, rose one morning and shot their officers, and marched for Delhi. He took two Sikh regiments and pursued and scattered them, bringing back these leaders for trial and execution. The court resolved death should be inflicted in this mode, as a last resort to strike terror into the other two Sepoy regiments, so as to restrain them from rising. And it certainly had that effect. From the hour of that execution till Delhi fell, not a single Sepoy hand was raised against an officer's life or the Government. They saw that the man at their head would not shrink from violating their prejudices, even as to their Shraad, if they committed mutiny and murder, and they would not face that danger. So the Punjab was kept quiet, and we at Nynee Tal, and they at Simla and Delhi (including hundreds of ladies), were saved, more probably by that act of VOL. XXIX. No. 115. any mode, 74 |