od; even the boy is parted by a long step
from the innocent credulity of the nursery.

[Sidenote: The phase of sorcery, and anthropocentric phase.]

The earlier stages of the comparative theology of India are now
inaccessible. At a time so remote as to be altogether prehistoric the
phase of sorcery had been passed through. In the most ancient records
remaining the Hindu mind is dealing with anthropocentric conceptions,
not, however, so much of the physical as of the moral kind. Man had come
to the conclusion that his chief concern is with himself. "Thou wast
alone at the time of thy birth, thou wilt be alone in the moment of
death; alone thou must answer at the bar of the inexorable Judge."

[Sidenote: Comparative theology advances in two directions--Matter,
Force.]

[Sidenote: Vedaism contemplates matter, Buddhism force.]

From this point there are two well-marked steps of advance. The first
reaches the consideration of material nature; the second, which is very
grandly and severely philosophical, contemplates the universe under the
conceptions of space and force alone. The former is exemplified in the
Vedas and Institutes of Menu, the latter in Buddhism. In neither of
these stages do the ideas lie idle as mere abstractions; they introduce
a moral plan, and display a constructive power not equalled even by the
Italian papal system. They take charge not only of the individual, but
regulate society, and show their influence in accomplishing political
organizations, commanding our attention from their prodigious extent,
and venerable for their antiquity.

I shall, therefore, briefly refer, first, to the older, Vedaism, and
then to its successor, Buddhism.

[Sidenote: Vedaism is the adoration of Nature.]

Among a people possessing many varieties of climate, and familiar with
some of the grandest aspects of Nature--mountains the highest upon
earth, noble rivers, a vegetation incomparably luxuriant, periodical
rains, tempestuous monsoons, it is not surprising that there should have
been an admiration for the material, and a tendency to the worship of
Nature. These spectacles leave an indelible impression on the thoughts
of man, and, the more cultivated the mind, the more profoundly are they
appreciated.

[Sidenote: The Vedas and their doctrines.]

[Sidenote: The Veda doctrine of God,]

[Sidenote: and of the world.]

The Vedas, which are the Hindu Scriptures, and of which there are four,
the Rig, Yagust, Saman