পাতা:তত্ত্ববোধিনী পত্রিকা (প্রথম কল্প দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড).pdf/১৫৮

২২২ TSTS A SAS SSAS SSAS SSAS - ਕ਼–“ “” *ы ь St J ו"אד r Y " ***, *, * তত্ত্ববোধিনী পত্রিকা peachable character of truth in them,-the man, who has received them and continues to place his trust in them, will have no reason to fear the vituperative surmisgs of nngodliness in respect to his religion, in spite of any thing that can be urged in proof of the small progress that has been made in the various branches of human science and learning. The Jewish nation did not stand higher than the Hindus in the scale of civilization, and yet the thirgs in which they believe, have been received as divine by all Christendom. Why then should the Hindus bo scoffed at their expressed sentiments upon sacred matters ? The argument of the Review, in respect to the Vaids as possessing no authority as a code of divine law, seems to us to be at least gratuitous. What authority could they offer besides that which they do actually possess. It has been asked to whom, how, when, and where were the Vaids revealed ? We answer that it was to the inspired is of the Hindus, that revelation was made in the early ages of the world; not in the midst of thunder and lightings from the top of a particular mountain, ingredients of story by no means necessary to give authority to inspiration, but in the common course of nature and in the homestead of those sages, wherever they may have lived at the period. The exact time and place are probably not known, because there were no historical writings then in existence, and it did not fall in with the objects of revelation to say, whether the Rishies lived in the valleys of Himalaya or in the jungles of Deccan, nor whether they were inspired in the Sutty a yoogs or in any other particular portion of the Indian period. But the names of the Rishies, who were inspired, are given, and that is all the information that we 驚 or need, on the subject. Proofs of the inspiration of these sages may be collected from the Waids themselves, as well as from unanimous traditions prevalent among the Hindus and other neighbouring nations; for if any credit can be attached to the general belief of any portion of mankind, (and all history must be formed on such belief, not only in ages of which no memorial, except that furnished by tradition, is left, but also in more improved times) we have proofs, in abundance, of our sages having been inspired. At all events the evidences in their favor are as powerful as what the sacred writers of any other people can adduce in support of their own belief. Moses is said to have been inspired, but surely there is no proof of that fact, beyond the reverence that may be shewn to Jewish tradition; and it cannot be denied that it was not even known to that people, whether Moses wrote his books on stone, papyrus, or any other material, nor the manner in which his works decended to the Jews of later times. We cannot conceive how the writer of the ar. ticle on the “transition states of the Hindu mind” makes it out, that the Indian scriptures are undeserving of any credit as a sacred code of divinity, because there is no evidence of a strictly historical nature to prove when and where they were revealed. Such an argument would raze the foundation of all religious systems. If such historical facts alone be the test of revelation, we would ask to what extent the Christian Bible can pass the ordeal so created. It will not do to say, that that work itself con tains a history. History is not revelation, and it may remain intermixed with fable : every thing, going by that name, requires confirmation. The portion of the Bible which contains what is called revelation by Christians, may be false, though at the same time connected with much historical matter. The works of Herodotus, written several centuries after the Pentateuch, confessedly contain a mixture of truth and falsehood. May mot the same be said of the Bible f We would beg leave to ask what historical proofs besides those assorded by the contents of the Bible itself, the Christian missionaries can adduce as to the assertion of God having made his appearance in a finite shape on earth to declare to Moses and others, that such and such were His commandments, and that he was a jealous God, and could not bear to see any worshipper of idol?—hinting too, at other times, that He has a son and a neutral friend, whose inconceivable existence, seperate from Hin, and at the same time united in Him, not in a figurative but in a literal sense, must perforce be believed, before He could extend His mercy to man. What evidence have we of this assertion ? Is it not as doubtful as when and how the writings of Moses were collected into a whole The ten commandments are said to have been written down on two slabs of marble. By whom were they written ? By God or by Moses 7 How have they been so long preserved And where are they now to be seen 2 m It is the fate of all the most ancient writings, from whatever source derived and on whatever subject they may treat, to rise or fall, in public ropinion, under merely fortuitotis circumstances; though of course, they will retain a hold on it only by the nature of their contents. To prove their authority and truth by any extraneous evidence is impossible. The whole Mahommedan world will consider it sacrilege to doubt the divine origin of the Koran; the Christian world, in the same spirit, will de nounce damnation and ruin against all who may entertain the slightest doubt as to the authority of the Bible ; but certainly neither the Jewish Testament nor the Köran can lay claim to any historical proofs in vindication of their heavenly origin. It was totally impossible from the condition of things in the countries at the respective ့ႏိုင္ဆို when the revelations are alleged to have been made, that history could come in aid of religion. The Hindus have just as great a right to argue that the Ramayana and Mohabharut and Itihashes and Poorans contain abundant historical proofs of the divine origin of the Vaids; though it is not our intention to take up that ground. History strictly so termed had its rise at a much later time; it sprung up long subsequently to commencement and termination of the divine dispensations, which necessarily occurred before that branch of literature could raise its voice in their vindication. It is plain that man must have made great advancement in knowledge, before he could think of recording his progress in it ; but things affecting his religions and moral duties would be very early enquired into and learned. That the revelations vouchsafed to man, were received as soon as his progress in knowledge enabled him to perceive the light so emanating, is the general belief of almost oil the