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member, a man also of Brahmanical birth, of good family, and of property, set on foot, and I believe still continues, an English newspaper, called the Reformer, in which the opinions of the party, not only on religion, but on the measures of the government of India, are advocated, by natives solely, although in our language, with remarkable boldness and ability.
To return however to the purpose of the Vedas. It seems very doubtful, if at the time of their composition idolatry was practised in India: images of the deified elements are even now unworshipped, and except images of the sun, I am not aware that they are ever made. The personification of the divine attributes of creation, preservation, and regeneration, Brahmá, Vishún, and Siva, originate no doubt with the Vedas, but they are rarely named, they are blended with the elementary deities, they enjoy no preeminence, nor are they ever objects of special adoration. There is no reason, from the invocations addressed to them in common with the air, water, the seasons, the planets, to suppose that they were ever worshipped under visible types. Ministration to idols in temples is held by ancient authorities infamous; Manu repeatedly classes the priest of a temple with persons unfit to be admitted to private sacrifices, or to be associated with on any occasion*; and even still, the priests who attend upon the images in public are considered as of a scarcely reputable order by all Hindus
*
[III, 152. 180.]
OF THE HINDUS.