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APRIL, 1875.]
ANCIENT INDIA ACCORDING TO MANU.
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material substance animated with a vital spirit; to these a conscious or reasonable soul is united on the birth of every living being, and the supreme spirit or divine essence pervades all. On death the material body is dissolved, and the two essences, reasonable soul and supreme spirit, closely scrutinize and examine the vital soul; it it turn out that the vital spirit had practised virtue for the most part and vice in a small degree, then the two essences remain with it, and, clothed in a new body of puro material, enjoy delight in celestial abodes. But if the vital spirit had generally been addicted to vice and seldom attended to virtue, then it will be deserted by the pure elements, and in a body formed for the purpose will suffer the pains to which Yama will doom it, and then again the two essences will rejoin it.
Yama is the one of the eight guardian deities or principal angels, whose province it is to award to every ill-doer the due punishment to be undergone by him in the next world. He is the minister of God, meting out terminable and purifying correction to the offenders against divine law in strict accordance with the measure of their offences.
The merit, right conduct, or virtue which alone will carry man to the region of bliss is continually the subject of expatiation throughout the Institutes. A few references will serve to indicate its nature. It must be founded on the knowledge of one God (p. 356). The essence of conduct is the motive which prompts it (p. 119, 234). Truthfulness, devotion, and purity of thought, word and deed transcend all ceremonial cleansing or washings of water (p. 136, 106, et sey.). Vice is worse than death (p. 165, 53). Intellectual service of God is better than sacrifice or oblations (p. 91, 22 et seq.), for scriptural knowledge is the root of every ceremonial observance. A true believer can extract good out of evil (p. 47, 238). By forgiveness of injuries the learned (in the scriptures) are purified (p. 136, 107). Courtesy and consideration for others are repeatedly enjoined (p. 106, 138). "Let a man say what is true, but let him say what is pleasing ; let him speak no disagreeable truth, nor let him speak agreeable falsehood; this is a primaval rule. Let him say well and good,' or let him say well only, but let him not maintain fruitless enmity and altercation with any man.'” Again, we find the importance of
perseverance (p. 106, 137, p. 109, 159) and selfdependence strongly insisted upon, restraint of the passions constantly enforced (see pp. 29 and 30), and the practice of the virtues, gentleness (p. 37, 159), diffidence, modesty, and humility commanded (p. 38, 163). "The scorned may sleep with pleasure; with pleasure may he awake; with pleasure may he pass through this life; but the scorner utterly perishes." And the effects of sin committed may be got rid of by true repentance (p. 339, 228). "By open confession, by repentance, by devotion, and by reading the scripture, a sinner may be released from his guilt. * * In proportion as a man who has committed a sin shall truly and voluntarily confess it, so far is he disengaged from that offence like a snake from his slough ; and in proportion as his heart sincerely loathes his evil deed, so far shall his vital spirit be freed from the taint of it. If he commit sin, and actually repent, that sin shall be removed from him ; but if he merely say: 'I will sin thus no more,' he can only be released by an actual abstinence from guilt. Thus revolving in his mind the certainty of retribution in a future stave, let him be constantly good in thoughts, words, and actions."
If the Hindu religious writers had stopped at this stage, and left the form and manner of the retribution in the hands of God's minister, Yama, their system would have ranked deservedly high. But, fortunately for the historical inquirer, they were not mere speculative philosophers or moralists. It was their object to develope a code which should be operative and have practical effect upon society. Therefore, Manu seemingly felt it necessary, in order to influence men's conduct, to declare that the vital spirit after death will be united to a material body very sensitive of pain, and to attach to every class of transgression a specific material punishment. I will not now follow him into the details of this portion of his task, for they are very loathsome and repulsive. In the course of it, however, he takes us vry much behind the scenes of everyday life, and I shall speak of the apparent results presently. He also discloses the leading feature of Hindu philosophy, namely, its realism. The consequence is almost invariably knit to the antecedent by a sort of lew talionis. So far as possible the punishment is made analogous to, or cor
