countably relaxed: nevertheless, a spirit of sublime devotion, of benevolence to mankind, and of amiable tenderness to all sentient creatures, pervades the whole work; the style of it has a certain austere majesty, that sounds like the language of legislation and extorts a respectful awe; the sentiments of independence on all beings but GOD, and the harsh admonitions even to kings, are truly noble; and the many panegyricks on the Gayatrì, the Mother, as it is called, of the Véda, prove the author to have adored (not the visible material sun, but) that divine and incomparably greater light, to use the words of the most venerable text in the Indian scripture, which illumines all, delights all, from which all proceed, to which all must return, and which alone can irradiate (not our visual organs merely, but our souls and) our intellects. Whatever opinion in short may be formed of MENU and his laws, in a country happily enlightened by sound philosophy and the only true revelation, it must be remembered, that those laws are actually revered, as the word of the Most High, by nations of great importance to the political and commercial interests of Europe, and particularly by many millions of Hindu subjects, whose well directed industry would add largely to the wealth of Britain, and who ask no more in return than protection protection for their persons and places of abode, justice in their temporal concerns, indulgence to the prejudices of their old religion, and the benefit of those laws, which they have been taught to believe sacred, and which alone they can possibly comprehend. W. JONES. то THE K IN G. SIRE: A COURSE of events, unparalleled in the history of mankind, has placed, among the subjects of the British Empire, a people renowned from the remotest antiquity for wisdom, civilization, and steadfast adherence to their peculiar religious opinions. The INSTITUTES OF MENU are not only revered by this unvarying race of men, as they were by their primeval forefathers, but have moreover contributed to preserve, in pristine force, opinions, usages, and manners, which, by a law that reverses in the moral, what is observed in the material world, have only grown the stronger by the use of ages. Security of life and property, and toleration of opinions, which are dearer to them than both these objects, are all that is asked by this blameless race of men, in return for willing obedience and devoted attachment to British rule. That an expectation, so reasonable in itself, and so much in harmony with the spirit of your Majesty's reign, will not be disappointed, could scarcely have received a more gracious assurance, than is derived from the permission, vouchsafed by your Majesty, to place your August Name at the head of this ancient Code of Hindu Laws. That your Majesty may long continue to extend the influence of your happy reign over the British Empire and its Dependencies, is the earnest prayer of YOUR MAJESTY'S Most faithful Subject, and dutiful Servant, East-India College, Herts, 20th June 1825. G. C. HAUGHTON. |