fastened round their waists; others performing the churruk poogah, or wheel worship; and others dancing about with lighted torches in their hands, which they every now and then extinguished by pressing them to their bare breasts: but, if it should be imagined from this that the Hindoo religion is one of gloom and terror, the notion would be a very false one. On the contrary, Mr. Bruce assures us, that the people professing it are remarkably cheerful, and their religion is a perpetual source of pleasure and amusement to them. And we know that self-inflicted torture is a practice not confined to the Hindoo religion; but that many men in the Christian Church have believed that by such means they may win heaven. Looked at in this light, even Suttee loses half its horrors. "The motives impelling to the sacrifice," says Mr. Bruce, "are the very strongest which can actuate the human mind, and particularly the devout minds of women. She who makes up her mind to this martyrdom escapes a desolate and dishonourable widowhood, and is regarded by all who know or hear of her as imitating the divine example of the wife of Brahma, the first Suttee. Her steps to the place of sacrifice are followed by admiring thousands; her own sex not only worship her, but envy her; all kiss the ground on which she treads as sacred, and rush forward to seek her influences in that world of joy, the gates of which are about to open to her. For all her relatives she procures honour and reverence; for herself and her husband the washing away of all sins by which their lives may have been defiled. These are some of the rich rewards which await her self-sacrifice, while every contrivance of art is employed to prevent the suffering being more than momentary. After she has laid herself by the body of her husband, and enfolded it in her arms, straw, cotton, ghee, and resin are plentifully strewed over them, and the erection above the victim is so slightly supported as easily to fall and crush out any spark of life which might remain after the flames are fairly kindled." Stavorinus, a Dutch admiral, who was present at one of these Suttees, says, that the pile on which the widow was burned cost above £600. He expresses his surprise at the tranquillity the woman. showed, her countenance seeming to be animated with pleasure at the moment she was ascending the fatal pile; but Mr. Bruce affirms, that he has no doubt it is always thus at a Suttee. Not many, we imagine, who do not view carefully all the bearings of the case, will agree with Mr. Bruce in the opinion he expresses, that we have no right to forbid, by law, the voluntary burning of widows; or, indeed, any other process of self-immolation. Yet, as has been well said, "what judgment should we form of the Hindoo, who (if any of our institutions admitted the parallel) should forcibly pretend to stand

between a Christian and the hope of eternal salvation? And shall we not hold him to be a driveller in politics and morals, a fanatic in religion, and a pretender in humanity, who would forcibly wrest this hope from the Indian widow." This argument seems unanswerable; and we are glad to think that Bishop Heber, when he alluded to the subject, evidently felt his inability to reconcile interference on this head, with the existence of religious toleration. Only, as Mr. Bruce says, by the conversion of India to Christianity, can these and similar practices be made to cease. But, judging from what he and other writers tell us, the prospect of that conversion seems still as far off as ever. And so it will be until other methods are resorted to, more likely to produce the desired effect than those at present employed; one of which we will let Mr. Bruce describe in his own words

"In Madras, I attended the annual examinations of two schools where Christianity is taught to heathen children, simply as a matter of mere head-knowledge, or an intellectual exercise; it not being even assumed that the scholar believes one word of what he utters with the tongue, and it being notorious that he is in the bond of polytheism, and the slave of idol-worship. In the schools which I am describing, the heathen boy is instructed to give orthodox answers to questions regarding Christian truth, as if he were in training for the Gospel ministry; while, all the time, he believes not one word of Christianity, and, in reality, does not profess to believe. He is asked, for instance, in what way men are saved? and he answers, By faith in Jesus Christ.' But the boy who answers thus, puts his trust all the while in Siva. I could not witness this exhibition, demoralising as I think it must be, without much pain. The missionaries who carry on this system say, that they are sowing seeds that may one day, under the Divine blessing, produce fruits unto everlasting life to the now perishing millions of India.”

We certainly agree with Mr. Bruce, in thinking that this is not the right way to go to work, and that it is calculated to effect an utter destruction of all faith and reverence for everything that men consider holy; that it must produce the most disastrous results, and lead to the utmost demoralisation of character. The question as to the best means for converting a people from a degraded to a pure form of faith, is, indeed, one that is beset with difficulties; but, may not one fertile source of the failures which have hitherto attended our efforts be ascribed to our overlooking the influence which climate, love, and temperament has, and ought to have, upon a national religion? When we attempt to do away with sacrifices which were, most of them, holy in their origin, and which are dear from their very antiquity; when we abolish gay festivals, with all their beautiful and innocent accompaniments of music, dancing, and flowers; it would be well that we should have something besides mere dogmas and mysteries, which address themselves more to the intellect than to the heart, to offer to our proselytes-something more attractive than the dull Sunday, and the singing of hymns, which is all that

we dare to indulge them in by way of religious recreation. Nor must we give way to the fanaticism and folly of condemning usages, albeit they are heathen ones, which are not in themselves inconsistent with Christian faith and practice, such as enticing to eat the flesh of the cow; the consequence of which fatal error, says Mr. Bruce, has been, that an impression has been made on the minds of some Hindoos, that the Christian religion is one which consists mainly in ceremonial observances. If we turn to the Roman Catholics, we shall find that they possess many advantages over the Protestants, as regards the power of making proselytes. They never run counter to the feeling of the people more than they can help, and their worship is of such a nature as renders the change less difficult. In a procession which Mr. Bruce witnessed at Covilong, this compromise, if it may be so called, between the two religions is very evident.

"First," he says, 66 came the Hindoo music-the long, slender, melancholy-toned trumpets; and the shrill, squeaking pipes-the almost naked youths, riding on bullocks, and beating on the double, kettle-shaped drums, with much earnestness and enthusiasm, as well as great apparent delight in their own melody. In front of these musicians, and all along both sides of the procession, were bearers of Indian blue-lights, and of the Indian trident-shaped torches. Rockets and other fire-works were discharged in profusion. First, among the images borne in the procession, came Michael, the archangel, well painted, severe in his half-womanly beauty, and trampling on the devil. Next followed St. Francis. Then came an exceedingly pretty Virgin Mary, handsomely dressed, with a broad Indian umbrella, with silver fringes, elevated over her head-the fashion and shape of the umbrella being after the model of that which, in Hindoo sculptures, her attendants hold over the goddess Darga. Behind this figure, a priest carried a tall and massive silver cross, accompanied by boys with lighted candles in gilt candlesticks. Then came a procession of priests, followed by another of women, robed in white-tall Indian women, with a general tendency to comeliness and corpulency. In moving round the avenue, the procession stopped at regular intervals; and, on each of these occasions, a boy, robed in white, ascended a ladder, which was held for him by attendants, in front of the Virgin, to whom he turned and sung a hymn of praise in Pamul, earnestly and rapturously gazing into her face, while the tears trembled in his eye, and bowing and balancing repeatedly to her, and kneeling and crossing himself every time that he uttered the word 'Marie.' door, the procession stopped, and assembled on and around the verandah; and here, On coming round again to the church for the last time, the young musician sang his song, and, after a brilliant discharge of fireworks, the worshippers began to disperse.

"The worship of the Virgin Mary," continues Mr. Bruce, "is a strong weapon which the Roman Catholic Church possesses, and of which the Protestant Church is deprived, in the work of converting the Hindoos. The Hindoo at once identifies the divine mother and child, and the miraculous conception, with personages and events which have been familiar to him from infancy. Thus, Siva having been pleased to create Ganesa, his son, from the beams of light that flowed from his countenance, his wife, Uma, enraged that a conception should take place in which she had no share, created a son of her own, by means only within the power of a goddess, out of the palms of her hands. The Holy Virgin is a character completely suited to the comprehension of the Hindoos, and qualified to excite their love and secure their faith, and it is in consequence an especial favourite with Hindoo converts to Christianity. At Pondicherry, Fra Bartolomeo tells us he met with converts who told him that Mary was just their Lakshmi; and, to this day, the

Virgin mother is, with the Christians of India, perpetually confounded with the goddess of beauty and prosperity-at once the Venus and the Ceres of the Hindoos."

Of course, we do not mean to insinuate that Roman Catholicism is the only form of the Christian faith which the natives of the East Indies are capable of receiving. But, when we find such a man as Xavier, with so many more engines of conversion at his command than we possess, confessing that the minds and manners of the Hindoos rendered their conversion impossible, we must acknowledge that it can be no easy task to convert such a people to Protestantism.

We shall not here presume to point out what, in our estimation, are the means which ought to be used for the purpose of evangelizing the heathen; but we may venture to inquire whether Hindoos will not be more likely to be converted to pure religion, through civi lization, and by leading them to the love and practice of good works, than through imposing upon them, in the first instance, the profession of a bare monothestic belief. We would also remind those who are anxious merely to make proselytes, that, if there be a text which commands us to go forth and teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded, there is also another denouncing those who make proselytes, and, when they are made, make them ten-fold more the children of hell than themselves. One word more, and we will conclude all we can now say on this subject. In the year 1848, a Brahmin suffered death by command of a Mussulman prince, for preaching the doctrine of his sect, that "all religions, if sincerely practised, are acceptable to God." In the year 1531, James Bainham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, dared to assert that, “if a Turk, a Jew, or a Saracen, do trust in God, and keep his law, he is a good Christian man." For holding this and other heretical opinions, he was condemned to death. There is surely something very striking and suggestive in the parallel which may be drawn between these two men, each professing a different faith, yet holding in common an opinion which, true though it be, few, even in our day, and with all our boasted liberality, dare to indulge.

It must not be supposed that Mr. Bruce's able volume contains no other " sights and scenes" than such as are connected with Hindoo festivals. In it our readers will find an account of many other things relating to manners and morals, more entertaining, perhaps, but not more interesting, than the subject to which we have especially directed their attention on the present occasion.

477

MY LAME COUSIN.

Ir hardly requires that we should be enthusiastic lovers of Nature, in the common acceptation of the term, to pay her our unfeigned tribute of admiration, as she appears clothed in autumnal tints, her brilliant vesture lit up by the parting rays of the Sun, as he descends to another hemisphere, there to awaken to their labours our brethren who have gone forth to build new homes for themselves in a land of flocks and herds, of boundless pasture, and of mines of golden ore. Our whole soul rejoices at the sight of the gorgeous colouring of the oaks and beeches, whose trunks intercept the quivering lines of light as they fall slanting upon the brown ferns, which seem to drink in each shining drop of that silver flood. Surely there are none who cannot recall some scenes which may help them to portray such a picture as we would now bring before them.

First, then, let us introduce our fair reader to the group assembled in the bay window of the library of Beechfield Hall-an old and extensive structure of the Elizabethan period, standing in a park to whose antiquity the size of the oaks bore ample testimony, and embracing within its limits the village church, whose spire tapered towards heaven from amidst the trees which half concealed it from the view. This group consisted of two young men, sons of Sir Arthur Hayes, the owner of the Hall, and, half reclining on an ottoman, a girl, of little more than sixteen summers, the only child of a cousin of Sir Arthur's, who was also rector of the parish.

Rosalie Hayes was looked upon at the Hall more in the light of a sister than of a cousin, as the young men styled her; and flinty indeed would have been the heart that would not have leapt to claim such, or even yet more tender relationship! Her features did not bear indeed pretensions to regular beauty, but those large dark eyes, which could alike sparkle with the very spirit of fun, or melt with compassion for the sorrow of the poorest villager in the hamlet, seemed to rivet the attention, as the sun-beams lighting up one portion of the landscape will arrest the gaze of the beholder on that alone; and then that merry laugh-who could resist its influence? Of the young men, the eldest, Arthur, was about nineteen, and had just received his commission in the Guards—a branch of the service in which the Hayes had ever had a representative, through successive generations; a branch which, if exempt from