By a practical application of the doctrine of the eternity and transmigration of souls as well as the eternal succession of destructions and reproductions of the universe!

The individual soul, it is at once conceded, is not now endowed with free will. It is declared to be governed absolutely by the Supreme Lord. It is not only guided, but unalterably determined by him in all its actions, good or bad-whether leading to misery or to woe. How then can he be exempted from the charge of being the immediate author of evil and unhappiness? Because, says Vyasa, he only causes the soul to do good or ill now, according to its predisposition for good or evil, for enjoined or forbidden deeds, contracted in a former state of being. Its present good works, therefore, are the result and reward of former merit; its present evil deeds the result and retribution of former demerit. Since it is made to act entirely in conformity with its previous results;—" now, according to its former purposes, as then, consonantly to its yet earlier predispositions, accruing from preceding forms or states of being, with no retrospective limit," for the universe, in its manifested or unmanifested form, is sempiternal.

Thus the Supreme Lord makes the individual soul act relatively to its virtuous or vicious propensities, as the same fertilising rain-cloud causes various seeds to sprout multifariously, producing diversity of plants according to their kind." These virtuous and vicious propensities were acquired in a previous state of being; and these acquired in a former state; and these again in an earlier still;-and so backwards in endless retrogression.

In other words, the series of anterior forms of being, and of dispositions acquired in them has been infinite. And thus it is believed that, notwithstanding the absence of free-will on the part of individual souls, the immediate authorship of moral evil, and consequent misery, is shifted from the supreme actuating Spirit, by assuming "the past eternity of the universe, and the infinite renewals of worlds into which every individual being has brought the predispo

sitions contracted by him in earlier states, and so retrospectively without beginning or limit." It is surely needless to remark that this is mere evasion-most unsatisfactory -and no answer at all. It is only wrapping up the subject in clouds-and plunging it into the abysses of eternity, so that it cannot be seen.

At the last reproduction of the universe, all souls are launched forth-imbued with qualities contracted during a previous manifestation of it-after an interval of countless myriads of ages. They are launched forth, ready to occupy the infinite variety of forms, celestial and terrestrial, prepared for them-forms divine and human-animal and vegetable-moveable and immoveable. As the assuming of a corporeal form is not the commencement of the soul's existence, so neither is the dissolution of the corporeal form. the termination of its existence. It is from everlasting to everlasting. But as bodily forms, the temporary abodes of souls, undergo a constant succession of mutation, the proper destiny of every soul is to transmigrate, with a view to expiate its guilt and wipe away its stains by means of pains and sufferings, through millions and millions more of these forms, throughout the stupendous cycle which constitutes the life of Brahma, or the duration of the present universe. The superior gods, be it remembered, are not subject to transmigration ;-hence their superiority, and hence are they called immortal-as they enjoy the highest happiness attainable, apart from absorption, through the whole of Brahma's life.

Though this be the proper destiny of the vast majority of souls, it is nevertheless declared-however it may appear wholly inconsistent with other parts of the system,-that there are divinely prescribed means, by which that destiny can be modified, arrested, or wholly changed. A very succinct statement of certain grand fundamental principles, will soon render the subject intelligible.

The first principle, tenet, or doctrine is, that there are different kinds of future bliss. Of these there are three which may be termed generic-differing in kind as well as in degree.

The lowest kind is not so much positive as relative bliss. It consists in the pleasure of an experienced progress towards what is real and positive. It consists in the pleasure that accrues to a soul when it finds that it has risen a grade higher in the next birth, in consequence of some merit earned in the preceding. Having advanced one step in the ladder up the steep and arduous and long ascent towards perfection, the soul is exhilarated by the prospect of ultimate deliverance. But this relative felicity may be short-lived; because some act of omission or commission in the higher state that has been reached, may sink the soul lower down in the next transmigration.

The next and higher kind of future bliss is of a positive character. Still, it is, in its nature, sensuous, and in its duration more or less limited. It consists in the enjoyment of carnal delights in the heaven of one or other of the superior gods. But such enjoyment is only temporary. For after the stock of merits which led to the heavenly elevation has been fairly exhausted by the fruition of that measure of felicity to which its possessor became entitled, the soul must again descend to this lower world to transmigrate through another new series of terrestrial forms.

The last and highest kind of future bliss is styled, by way of pre-eminence, "The supreme good "-" final and eternal beatitude." It is, however, a very peculiar kind of bliss; if bliss it can be called in our sense of that term. It is deemed real,-it can hardly be called actual. It is supersensuous, it can hardly be called spiritual. Its essential element is not that of activity, but quiescence. It consists not in the exercise, but rather oblivion, of all the faculties. It is not a keen relish and enjoyment of the great, the beautiful, the sublime, but rather a freedom from actual pain and suffering. If such a state be one of happiness, it is surely a state not of positive but of absolutely negative happiness. In what, then, does it consist ?-In the absorption of the soul into the essence of Brahm, the Supreme Spirit-a literal absorption, which terminates in the total extinction of individual existence. The soul thus

once absorbed, is not liable to reappear on earth,—is not subject to any farther migration. This felicity, therefore, is held to be eternal-eternal, relatively, not absolutely—inasmuch as the soul is liberated from the vicissitudes of mortal life in any of its forms, during the present existence of the universe, and throughout the myriads of ages in which Brahm enjoys his dreamless repose.

A second fundamental principle is, that as there is a graduated scale of rewards, so there is a graduated scale of future punishments; the less wicked being sunk into a lower position in the next birth,-the more wicked being sent down to one or other of innumerable hells, to reappear, however, on earth, in mineral, animal, and vegetable forms, before they rise to the human,—the most wicked of all being doomed to experience the misery and woe of perdition till the time of the dissolution of all things.

A third grand fundamental tenet or doctrine is, that not only are there three distinct kinds of future bliss,--not only is the pursuit of one or all of these perfectly consistent with the venerated standards of the Hindu faith, but that there are three equally distinct paths specially marked out and prescribed in these sacred standards for the attainment of them all. What are these? In order to secure the lowest, or a higher step in the next birth, there must be a careful performance of all the necessary duties peculiar to caste, and of many of the ordinary practices and ceremonies which constitute the popular system of idolatry and superstition. In order to secure the next, or a temporary abode in some one of the celestial paradises, there must be the performance of extra services to the gods, or of acts of extraordinary merit, -acts which are specifically described and recommended in writings held to be inspired. In order to secure the highest, or absorption, there must be the perfect abandonment of works of merit altogether, whether ordinary or extraordinary. Recourse must be had to austerities-to divine knowledge-to pure and intense meditation on the Eternal Spirit; which leads to perfect abstraction from all that is material, and ultimate absorption into the object of devout adoration.

A fourth fundamental tenet or doctrine is, that, as the three different kinds of future bliss are alike legitimate and alike attainable through the vigorous pursuit of the different means specifically appropriated for the attainment of each, so it is practically in the power of believers to aim at any one of the different kinds of future bliss which they may decidedly prefer; and to pursue, accordingly, the specific path for its attainment. In this way every man may have his liking! To the three higher castes all the kinds of bliss are open. To the fourth class, either of the inferior kinds of bliss is open. And when, from extra merit, he rises to any of the higher classes in a future birth, he may then aspire to the acquisition of the highest, or final beatitude. All the kinds of bliss, and the respective means leading to them, are equally sanctioned, the preference, of course, being given to the highest. It is constantly extolled as the noblest and the best. Those who pursue it as their paramount object are distinguished as outshining their fellows with a peerless lustre. Still, the rest are not only sanctioned but recommended, though their excellencies are of an inferior grade.

Behold, then, the triumph of Hinduism! Behold Satan's master-piece of ingenuity for the entanglement of souls-for the thraldom of the universal mind in India. Here, by a device the most subtile, the transcendental Pantheist, who dwells in solitary mental abstraction, is made to extend the right hand of fellowship to the crouching slave whose life is spent in the unceasing round of an idolatrous and superstitious ritual. Yea more, the transcendentalist may ally himself with the vilest of the brutal tribes, and with the forms of grossest materialism. They only occupy different departments of one great all-comprehending system;-a system, according to which monotheism and polytheism are made to embrace each other;-a system, according to which the stoutest advocate for the unity of God may become the intrepid and consistent defender and worshipper of whole legions of deities of every rank and grade;—a system, according to which the hosts of heaven-sun, moon, and starsthe great elements, ether, air, fire, water, and earth, as well