a lawyer, a judge, a student of
natural history, his ardor of study was equally apparent. He presented to
the Royal Society in London a large collection of valuable Oriental
manuscripts, and left a long list of studies in Sanskrit to be pursued by
those who should come after him. His generous nature showed itself in his
opposition to slavery and the slave-trade, and his open sympathy with the
American Revolution. His correspondence was large, including such names as
those of Benjamin Franklin, Sir Joseph Banks, Lord Monboddo, Gibbon,
Warren Hastings, Dr. Price, Edmund Burke, and Dr. Parr. Such a man ought
to be remembered, especially by all who take an interest in the studies to
which he has opened the way, for he was one who had a right to speak of
himself, as he has spoken in these lines:--

"Before thy mystic altar, heavenly truth,
I kneel in manhood, as I knelt in youth.
Thus let me kneel, till this dull form decay,
And life's last shade be brightened by thy ray,
Then shall my soul, now lost in clouds below,
Soar without bound, without consuming glow."

Since the days of Sir William Jones immense progress has been made in the
study of Sanskrit literature, especially within the last thirty or forty
years, from the time when the Schlegels led the way in this department.
Now, professors of Sanskrit are to be found in all the great European
universities, and in this country we have at least one Sanskrit scholar of
the very highest order, Professor William D. Whitney, of Yale. The system
of Brahmanism, which a short time since could only be known to Western
readers by means of the writings of Colebrooke, Wilkins, Wilson, and a few
others, has now been made accessible by the works of Lassen, Max Muller,
Burnouf, Muir, Pictet, Bopp, Weber, Windischmann, Vivien de Saint-Martin,
and a multitude of eminent writers in France, England, and Germany.[31]

Sec. 2. Difficulty of this Study. The Complexity of the System. The Hindoos
have no History. Their Ultra-Spiritualism.

But, notwithstanding these many helps, Brahmanism remains a difficult
study. Its source is not in a man, but in a caste. It is not the religion
of a Confucius, a Zoroaster, a Mohammed, but the religion of the Brahmans.
We call it Brahmanism, and it can be traced to no individual as its
founder or restorer. There is no personality about it.[32] It is a vast
world of ideas, but wanting the unity which is given by the life of a man