rtening its wanderings and bringing it
to repose are the exercises of a pious life, penance, and prayer, and
more especially a profound contemplation of the existence and attributes
of the Supreme Being. In this profound contemplation many holy men have
passed their lives.

[Sidenote: Minor Vedic doctrine.]

Such is a brief statement of Vedic theology, as exhibited in the
connected doctrines of the Nature of God, Universal Animation,
Transmutation of the World, Emanation of the Soul, Manifestation of
Visible Things, Transmigration, Absorption, the uses of Penitential
Services, and Contemplation for the attainment of Absolute Happiness in
Absolute Rest. The Vedas also recognize a series of creatures superior
to man, the gods of the elements and stars; they likewise personify the
attributes of the Deity. The three Vedic divinities, Agni, Indra, and
Surya, are not to be looked upon as existing independently, for all
spirits are comprehended in the Universal Soul. The later Hindu trinity,
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, is not recognized by them. They do not
authorize the worship of deified men, nor of images, nor of any visible
forms. They admit the adoration of subordinate spirits, as those of the
planets, or of the demigods who inhabit the air, the waters, the woods;
these demigods are liable to death. They inculcate universal
charity--charity even to an enemy: "The tree doth not withdraw its shade
from the woodcutter." Prayers are to be made thrice a day, morning,
noon, evening; fasting is ordained, and ablution before meals; the
sacrificial offerings consist of flowers, fruits, money. Considered as a
whole their religious tendency is selfish: it puts in prominence the
baser motives, and seeks the gratification of the animal appetites, as
food, pleasure, good fortune. They suggest no proselyting spirit, but
rather adopt the principle that all religions must be equally acceptable
to God, since, if it were otherwise, he would have instituted a single
one, and, considering his omnipotence, none other could have possibly
prevailed. They contain no authorization of the division of castes,
which probably had arisen in the necessities of antecedent conquests,
but which have imposed a perpetual obstacle to any social progress,
keeping each class of society in an immovable state, and concentrating
knowledge and power in a hierarchy. Neither in them, nor, it is
affirmed, in the whole Indian literature, is there a single passage
indic