joona, the governor of the treasury which is filled with the most precious stones, and moreover wise. He resembles Chundra in deeds; he is the ornament of the family of the Vishwasas, splendid as the sun, powerful as fire to burn up his enemies, who are feeble as grass. Let him and his subjects prosper!" Such is Pran-Krishna Vishwasa's own account of himself and family.

The work opens with an assumption of infallibility, and denounces the torments of hell against any one who shall dare to doubt it. "For Shiva says, these words are like Bruhma, they have issued from my mouth. He who wishes for final liberation, let him admit no doubts; he who doubts, will assuredly be punished in hell, together with his ancestors. He who is acquainted with the Muha Tuntra, needs not to study the Pooranas, the Vedas, &c."

This dreadful denunciation against any one who may doubt the truth of the Tuntras, completely closes against its disciples the door of improvement in science and virtue. The work is filled with absurdities; in science it inculcates the most glaring mistakes; but what is worse, it saps the foundation of morals; yet it issued from the mouth of Shiva, and he who questions its authority, dies. The intellectual faculties of its followers are thus kept stationary, than which nothing can be more detrimental to the interests of society; for when the human mind is forbidden to move forward, it speedily retrogrades. By fixing the errors of a

dark and superstitious age as the maximum of human attainments, the Tuntra involves its disciples in an inextricable labyrinth of folly and error. Investigation is the soul of improvement, but the disciple of the Tuntras dares not investigate, on pain of damnation hereafter. How widely different is this assumption of infallibility from the modesty of true science, and what a contrast do the Hindoo philosophers present to the ancient sages of Greece, of whom one of the most eminent held it to be the first step in knowledge, "to doubt."

As a specimen of the doctrines which have thus been stamped with divine authority, let the reader take the following: "The vowel, is an astonishing letter it is bright as the shell of Vishnoo; it is full of the three gods and of the five souls; it is in fact Bhuguvutee herself. Of the letter, the stroke on the left is Bruhma; the lower stroke is Vishnoo; the perpendicular line Shiva; the horizontal, Suruswutee; the curve is Bhuguvutee; the space in the centre is Shiva. The colour of the left stroke is red, like the Juba flower; the right is the colour of the moon in the month Ashwina; the lower stroke, the colour of the great Moonee Muhamurkut; the horizontal line is white, like the pubescent jasmine flower; the curve resembling the hook used in guiding the elephant is like ten millions of flashes of lightning; the vacant space is brilliant as ten millions of moons. It bestows liberation; it produces wealth and holi

ness; it is the root of all letters; it is the feminine energy of nature, and the mother of all gods. In the upper angle resides the wife of Bruhma; in the middle angle Vishnoo's wife Jistha; in the lower Shiva's wife Roudree. It is the soul of all knowledge; the soul of the four castes—the origin of Bruhma's power to desire of Vishnoo's power to know-and of the active energy of Shiva; therefore is it to be perpetually praised." In this whimsical strain the work proceeds to describe the character and qualities of all the vowels and consonants; yet he who rejects the divine authority of this tissue of nonsense, incurs damnation hereafter. It is not our intention to exhaust the patience of our readers by very copious extracts of this description, as nothing sooner fatigues the mind than the repetition of folly; and indeed our only apology for venturing to extract these and similar passages, is founded on a persuasion that a knowledge of the puerilities of Hindooism is necessary to enable the reader to form a correct idea of the system, and to show the necessity of endeavouring to substitute higher and nobler principles in its stead. The following are the directions respecting books and manuscripts :—

"Write not letters on the earth, or the muntras in books: never leave a volume open, nor receive one open from another person. He whose books or letters happen to be on the ground at the time of an earthquake, or of an eclipse, becomes ignorant through every future transmigration. He who

writes with a bamboo pen, will undoubtedly suffer. He who uses a copper pen, will enjoy undecaying splendour. A golden pen procures prosperity; a Brahmun nul ensures wisdom and knowledge; a wooden pen ornamented with figures, bestows children, grand-children, and wealth. He who writes with a brass pen, obtains immortal prosperity; but the use of a kasa pen occasions death. The pen must be either eight or ten fingers in length; he who uses one only four fingers long, loses as many days of his life as he writes letters."

On the subject of the spiritual guide, we must intreat the reader's indulgence for a more copious

extract.

"The spiritual guide or gooroo, must be of a pure family, and pure himself, having his passions in subjection. He must be acquainted with the essence of the Tuntras, and of all the other Shasters, ready to assist others, intent on holy meditation and acts of worship, always speaking the truth, steady, perpetually in search of Mookti, or final liberation, one in whose heart the devtas reside, handsome, mild, perfect in all his members, a Brahmun and a koolina, dutiful to his parents, a householder, having a wife and son. In the morning he must be a posoo, or beast; at mid-day a beer, or drunkard; in the evening dibya, or heavenly-minded, strong to punish or destroy, and capable of subjecting others to himself by the charm of muntras. Let such an one be the spiritual guide of the Tuntras." To elucidate this

passage, it is necessary to observe, that the followers of the Tuntra are divided into three classes, of which one is in the habit of drinking wine, the other rejects the use of liquor, the third is devotional, though given to wine. By a singular perversion of terms, those of the second class are designated by the term beasts. The following exceptions are prescribed in the selection of a gooroo. "One who is constitutionally melancholy, an ugly, diseased, or wicked person, he who commits any of the great sins, or is afflicted with any of the eight kinds of leprosy, is intent on injuring others, is avaricious, who sells gold, or commits robbery, or who is ignorant, or who has the inauspicious black tooth, who follows not the rules of his class, a turbulent man, one diseased in his eyes, an adulterer, one ignorant of Sungskrita, one who is subject to his wife, or who has six fingers, is deceitful, a babbler, a glutton, without the five qualifications, or whose members are mutilated, is not to be retained as a gooroo; but if any of these defects should appear after he has been acknowledged as gooroo, let him not be dismissed.

"A disciple is one who gives his soul, body, and wealth to his gooroo. He must be a believer, steady, without infidelity, having the dominion over his passions, possessed of strong faith in the gooroo, the muntra, and his protecting deity, of excellent family, desirous of fulfilling the four duties of mankind, a reader of the Vedas, without ardent desires, and practising filial duty. He who is