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APPENDIX. 331

inferior to their anceftors in feienee as in power.It is from the writings of their ancient Punditsthat they derive the moft liberal fentiments whichthey entertain at prefent, and the wifdom forwhich they are now celebrated has been tranf-mitted to them from ages very remote.

That this affertion is well founded we areenabled to pronounce with certainty, as the moffcprofound myfteries of Hindoo theology, concealedwith the greateft care from the.body of the people,have been unveiled by the tranflations from theSanfkreet language lately publillied. The principaldefign of the Baghvat-Geeta, an epifode in theMahabarat, a poem of the higheft antiquity, andof the greateft authority in India , feems to havebeen to eftablifh the riodrine of the unity of theGodhead, and from a juft view of the divinenature , to deduce an idea of what worlhip willbe moft acceptable to a perfed Being. In it,amidft much obfeure metaphyfical difcuflion, fomeornaments of fancy unfuited to our tafte , andfome thoughts elevated to a trad of fublimityinto which our habits of judgment will find itdifficult to purfue them 7 ", we find deferiptionsof the Supreme Being entitled to equal praifewith thofe of the Greek philofophers which Ihave celebrated. Of thefe I fhall now produce onewhich 1 formerly mentioned, and refer my readersfor others to the work itfelf: “O mighty Being, ”

71 Mr. Raftings ’s Letter, prefixed to the Baghvat-Geeta,

P- 7- .