to rise from their graves and act
as they did when denizens of earth--kill cows, disregard caste, drink
largely of the intoxicating juice of the som plant, and worship in an
entirely different manner--their reverence would turn into horror and
detestation. We cannot say that the modern Puranas do not rest in any
degree on the Vedas; some Vedic principles are manifest in them: but in
the gods they set forth for worship and in the practices they enjoin,
there is between them and the Vedas a marked diversity. The numerous
sects which have arisen from time to time among the Hindus show that
they too have had that measure of mental activity which has led to new
forms of thought and practice.

[Sidenote: RETROGRESSION.]

(2) _The genesis and evolution of religion._ In the dim remote past to
which the Vedas introduce us, we find the Hindus a religious, a very
religious, people. There is no indication of any period when they could
be called secularists. Their religious views and practices have changed,
there has been an evolving process; the connection may be traced, and we
see the result in the Puranic system of our day. Has this movement been
forward, or backward? Has the fittest survived and the weak and useless
perished? The Vedic system little deserves the praise often lavished on
it, but surely it is preferable to that which has taken its place. There
has been deterioration, not improvement. Has not this ever been the case
in reference to religion, so far as the working of the human mind is
concerned? Is not modern Buddhism a falling off from ancient Buddhism?
Does not Rabbinical Judaism belittle and dwarf Old Testament Judaism?
Does not Roman Catholic Christianity materialize New Testament
Christianity? The facts of man's religious history prove incontestably
that his constant tendency is towards retrogression, not towards
advancement.

[Sidenote: THE BIBLE AND THE HINDU SCRIPTURES.]

(3) _Comparative religion._ On this subject elaborate treatises have
been written with the object of proving that all religions have had
their origin in the human mind, and have been evolved under purely human
conditions. Some of the writers, prompted, we may hope, by a devout
feeling, allow in vague terms an influence exerted on the evolution by
Providential arrangements. Still, in the result we are not to see in any
case the effect of a supernatural revelation, but in all cases an
approximation in different degrees to truth, secured b