dates of the
events, their order and succession, the origin of the doctrines, their
transmission from nation to nation, the authenticity of the books on
which they are founded, the epoch of their composition, the character
of their compilers, and the validity of their testimony. And the various
parties, pointing out reciprocally to each other, the contradictions,
improbabilities, and forgeries, accused one another of having
established their belief on popular rumors, vague traditions, and absurd
fables, invented without discernment, and admitted without examination
by unknown, partial, or ignorant writers, at uncertain or unknown
epochs.

A great murmur now arose from under the standards of the various Indian
sects; and the Bramins, protesting against the pretensions of the Jews
and the Parses, said:

"What are these new and almost unheard of nations, who arrogantly set
themselves up as the sources of the human race, and the depositaries of
its archives? To hear their calculations of five or six thousand years,
it would seem that the world was of yesterday; whereas our monuments
prove a duration of many thousands of centuries. And for what reason are
their books to be preferred to ours? Are then the Vedes, the Chastres,
and the Pourans inferior to the Bibles, the Zendavestas, and the
Zadders?* And is not the testimony of our fathers and our gods as
valid as that of the fathers and the gods of the West? Ah! if it were
permitted to reveal our mysteries to profane men! if a sacred veil did
not justly conceal them from every eye!"

These are the sacred volumes of the Hindoos; they are sometimes written
Vedams, Pouranams, Chastrans, because the Hindoos, like the Persians,
are accustomed to give a nasal sound to the terminations of their words,
which we represent by the affixes on and an, and the Portuguese by the
affixes om and am. Many of these books have been translated, thanks
to the liberal spirit of Mr. Hastings, who has founded at Calcutta a
literary society, and a printing press. At the same time, however,
that we express our gratitude to this society, we must be permitted to
complain of its exclusive spirit; the number of copies printed of each
book being such as it is impossible to purchase them even in England;
they are wholly in the hands of the East India proprietors. Scarcely
even is the Asiatic Miscellany known in Europe; and a man must be very
learned in oriental antiquity before he so much as hears of t