that is, may food never be deficient. When he has sitten down, he should lift the plate with his left hand, and bless the food, saying, "Thou art invigorating." He sets it down, naming the three worlds; or, if the food be handed to him, he says, "May heaven give thee;" and then accepts it with these words, "The earth accepts thee." Before he begins eating, he must move his hand round the plate, to insulate it; he must also, with his hand, trace a line all around, and consecrate the circle by appropriate texts; for what purpose?-to insulate his person during the meal, lest it should be contaminated by the touch of some undetected sinner who may be present, or who might intrude! He next consummates the consecration of the food, by making five oblations out of it to Brahma and other gods-dropping each oblation on fire, or on water, or on the ground, with the usual addition, "May this oblation be efficacious." He sips and swallows water; he makes five oblations to breath by its five distinct names;-and lastly, he wets both eyes. These important and indispensable preliminaries being ended, he may now proceed to partake of his repast; but he must proceed in solemn silence, lifting the food with the fingers of his right hand. After the eating is finished, he again sips water; and concludes the whole by saying, "Ambrosial fluid, thou art the couch of Vishnu, and of food."

After such a statement of details-details referring only to one of the castes-and the statement might be extended indefinitely-who is not ready to admit the significance of the assertion that in India all the conceivable acts, incidents, and events in life, are cast in a religious mould-by being inseparably associated with divinely promulgated rites and ceremonies as well as ordinances directive, prescriptive, restrictive, or prohibitory?

But it will be said that such universality of observance and obedience is, in the nature of things, impossible; and that the code which comprehends and enjoins it, from being in so many of its parts impracticable, must become obsolete, -its commands nugatory;-that its directions must drop

into desuetude.

By no means. There is ample provision in the code itself to guard against such a consummation. And the nature of this provision tends only to illustrate and confirm what has been represented as the spirit and genius of Hinduism.

It does not seem to have entered into the mind of Manu himself that any one man, far less any large class of men, could ever exhibit a life of perfect obedience. But that matters not. Unlike the rigour of a righteous and inflexible law, which says, " He who offends in one point, is guilty of all, -the spirit of Hinduism is, "He who offends in one point, loses only the special benefit accruing from obedience in that particular, and suffers only the penalty incurred by disobedience in that one particular." For such failure affects not at all the merit of obedience in other points.

There is a graduated scale of rewards reaching through a countless series of future births on earth, up through the regions of nether space, and beyond these into the highest heavens. Every man may select his own--and labour to attain it. And as the gradations are infinitethe variety of share is infinite too. If a man should aim at the highest, and discharge all the performances necessary to obtain it, he will be sure to become its happy possessor. But, if he come short of his aim, his labour will not be thrown away; he will obtain whatever is due to his real merit, though it may be far below what he aspired to. Hence the marvellous versatility of the system. It has selfadjusting powers which adapt it to all varieties of taste and character. A maximum performance will reach the highest point, a minimum performance will prevent at least degradation either in the present or in the next birth. Between these extremes, the gradations of excess above the minimum, entitling to a corresponding advancement in the next birth, are beyond the reach of number or of name.

Let us illustrate this by a few examples. Look at the morning ablution. To omit it altogether, except from unavoidable causes, such as stress of weather, or bodily infirmities, might lead to various forfeitures in this life, and

would inevitably incur degradation in the next. At the same time, full license is allowed to any man to curtail the service at his own pleasure. If, for instance, urgent business should require his early attendance, he may abridge the ceremonies, according to his own will, and use fewer prayers. The greatest possible abridgement consistent with its being practised at all, is what we have termed a minimum performance; and would, as far as this religious duty is concerned, save the performer from future degradation. A larger performance would entitle to a step in advance; and the fullest performance to the highest reward.

Look, again, at the five great sacraments. To entitle to the highest reward, ALL of these ought to be performed daily in their fullest detail. And those who do so, or aim at so doing, are said to keep the five fires constantly blazing, or maintain a perpetual fire. But from the multitude of the ceremonies it must be clear, that to perform them all, and that too every day, would engross the larger proportion of any man's time. How, then, are the general functions of society to be discharged? Here is the expedient. Those who are engaged in the different pursuits and affairs of life, and even those who follow exclusively the regular sacerdotal profession, may, if they so please, greatly abbreviate these daily religious duties. To expedite the matter, and provide against sinful omission, there is an abbreviated form actually provided by the condescending kindness of the divinity. In this form all the daily sacraments are compressed into one ceremony, (called Vaiswadeva,) of not greater length than the average of any one of them when performed in detail. And to accommodate to the utmost those who wish to remain satisfied with the minimum performance, even this comprehensive but compendious ceremony may be subjected to farther abridgement; and that again to farther curtailment still of some of the less essential parts. It must, however, be borne in mind that every such abridgement, be it larger or smaller, is not to be regarded as "the alleviation of a burthen," but as "the restriction of a privilege." Exactly as in the case of the "morning ablu

tion," a minimum performance will save from future degradation, so far as this rite is concerned :-while every additional performance necessarily involves an accession of merit, which will not fail of its corresponding meed in the ascending scale of reward.

The same principle of latitude, license, and choice, is more or less applicable to all religious duties. They all admit of being variously abbreviated, without, in consequence, incurring the penalty of positive degradation either in this world or the next. In other words, there may be numberless omissions as to minor parts, such as forms, offerings, prayers, and ceremonies, which entail no forfeiture beyond the non-obtainment of the promised reward. But this principle does not bear upon exclusively religious duties alone. It is a principle of universal application. Look, for example, to the enormous catalogue of injunctions and restrictions appended to every ordinary action, event, and incident of human life. Many of these must be attended to under the severest penalties. Others may be disregarded without positive loss, or without a diminution of reward accruing from other services. Some discountenanced acts may be committed; some recommended acts may be omitted,-with what result? The non-commission of the former, and the non-omission of the latter would entitle to correspondent reward,-varying in excellence and degree, according to the nature of the acts. In either case, the non-commission or the non-omission, is simply attended with the loss of the rewards severally affixed. Should any man make up his mind to relinquish the reward, he may do so, if he pleases, with perfect impunity in other respects. Accordingly, with large classes of men, many of the more minute injunctions and prohibitions, or those relating to minor acts and occurrences, have become practically obsolete-while scarcely any one can be said to aim at the perfect observance of them all. Still this does not, by one iota, impair the divinely obligatory nature of the system as a whole. It still remains the perfect standard of obedience. All are recommended to aim at reaching it, for the sake of the reward. They who aspire to any reward, must labour to

earn it by the necessary performance. But if they seek not, or care not about the highest meed; if they make up their minds to forego it, they may aim at an inferior recompense, and labour accordingly. If they choose to relinquish even the inferior reward, they may still farther abridge the minor duties, without incurring positive guilt, or entailing degradation in the next birth.

Hence arises one cause of the apparent discrepancies, diversities, and contrarieties, in the actual religious observances of millions who, with unwavering stedfastness, profess to adhere to the same standards of faith and practice. Were a stranger suddenly introduced among the people, he is ever apt to feel lost and bewildered amid the inconceivable multiplicity and variety of religious observances practised before his eyes. How then must his perplexity increase till it sink into despair, when to endless variety he finds superadded an apparently endless diversity! After having attained, as he thinks, the comprehension of some ordinance as seen daily celebrated by one with whose countenance he has become familiar, he turns to another. He is again staggered, -from the inversion of some parts, the omission, addition, or variation of others, it seems to present the aspect of a different ordinance altogether :-and so, with a third, and a fourth-onwards almost without end. He is now apt to give up the task as hopeless. The whole presents the appearance of an inextricable maze,-an all-encompassing labyrinth without a clew. And yet, were he just to take into his hands any one of the established standards of Hindu faith, and to carry along with him the latitudinarian principle now described, apportioning suitable rewards to performances of every degree, along a scale of almost infinite dimensions,-he would find the maze traversed from end to end, by a straight and broad highway which invited the most bewildered passenger; he would find the labyrinth provided with a clew to guide him at every one of its innumerable turnings.

So much for ordinary observances, the constant per