ISBN: 9781230024714

RareBooksClub. Paperback. New. This item is printed on demand. Paperback. 130 pages. Dimensions: 9.7in. x 7.4in. x 0.3in.This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Pur… Mehr…

RareBooksClub. Paperback. New. This item is printed on demand. Paperback. 130 pages. Dimensions: 9.7in. x 7.4in. x 0.3in.This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1833 edition. Excerpt: . . . to justify the largest hopes; but unfortunately we must content ourselves with this imperfect account of Sir William, for neither original or translation appear yet to have reached Europe. The poetry of the Hindus particularly affects the form of dialogue, which it also employs in didactic poetry, as we have before noticed in speaking of the Puranas. But its peculiar feature consists in putting these dialogues in the mouths of animals, not merely for the purpose of enabling them to speakin character, like those in the fables of ZEsop, or Reynard the Fox, but also, as beings of a higher and enlightened or at least ofa rational nature, in order to convey precepts of wisdom and prudence. This peculiarity is strictly conformable to the light in which the Hindus regard the brute creation. We have already had occasion to remark the superior character which animals assume in the mythology of this people; that they are not only companions of the deities, but are themselves also of divine nature, and appear upon earth in an incarnate form by the side of the divinities. But in the case before us, a much stronger infiuence is exercised by the general belief in the transmigration of souls. According to the Brahmans, all life is an emanation of the deity; and this, too, not only with regard to men, but also to brutes, and even the vegetable world. The soul is supposed to migrate successively through the bodies of men and inferior animals, which are so many forms of purification, until at length it is raised to its original condition, and is absorbed again into the divinity; though it is also pretended that this may take place immediately, through intense meditation, and extraordinary penances. Under such a system of belief, the whole race of. . . This item ships from La Vergne,TN., RareBooksClub<