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" Respicerr %it& moramque juLtho,
" Et ver.o blue (1,,t-vrc vocr%." liolAcc•

To ascertain with precision, and define with aecu-
racy, the charaCter of any people, it is necessary that
we first investigate the spirit of their laws, the
nature of their governments and the frame of their
religion. These are causes so powerful in their
operation, and determinate in their influence on the
mind of man, that the aggregate exercise of vice
and virtue will, almost invariably, be found to bear
an exalt proportion to the degree of good and evil
predominant in each.
The mischievous effeets of arbitrary power have
been so frequently inveighed against, with all the
pomp of rhetoric, and all the energy of truth, that
little room remains either for addition or embellish-
ment. Slavery and oppression, vice and ignorance,
tyranny and persecution, have been shewn to be at-
tendants on a lawless and despotic sway. These,
forming an artfid combination of mutual support,
have gradually coalesced into a mass, indurated by
time, and fortified by prejudice, which the desultory
and disunited efforts of virtue ;111(1 of freedom, have
vainly labonced to dissolve. The effeCis or this,
thu•u;h (gyrating of itself, and void of any stronger
impulse, must prove hiistile to the general diffusion
of knowled3e, and epidemical increase of virtue.
But, when ambition fires the mind of the man, who
concenters in himself such absolute and unrestrained
authority ; who would acquire glory at the expense
of humanity, and who desires only slaves and wor-
shipers ; then will his subjeets be made to drink the
bitterest cup of human misery. The viCtorious
progress of Mohummud, the exploits of Aurnng-
teen and Tiniour, furnish adequate examples of
the above assertion. The misery which pursued
their steps, and the havock which accompanied
their progress, are too notorious to need mention
here. _ _

Such, then, is the species of Government which
has generally prevailed among all Eastern nations ;
and we may trace its consequences, in that want of
all the sterner virtues, that total suppression of all
strength of sentiment, that abjea servitude, and
that decay of genius, which so eminently elm-
raderize the natives of the East. Their laws will
naturally be framed in such a manner, as to sup-
port their principles of rule ; they will (and we find
they anually do) inculcate a most servile obedi-
ence, and unqualified submission, to be their first
and greatest dutios. But when we turn to their re-
ligion, and find a compound of tyranny and priest-
craft, nicely interwoven by the dexterous hand of
fraud, injustice, and oppression ; when we find many
of its precepts subversive of society, and destruc-
tive to its happiness ; when we evidently see traces
of cruelty and blood, though coloured with some
specious appearances of virtue, and tinCturei with
some slight infusion of morality ; we cannot but
conclude, that such a people are destitute of most of
the qualities that adorn, and are in possession of
many of the vices that degrade humanity.
The indolence of Oriental nations, and the despo-
tism to which they have been usually subjected, are
generally ascribed to the heat of the climate, which
enervates the vigour both of mind and body : but
this does not hold universally. The character of
nations depends n,-,t merely on the climate ; but also
on the nature of their government and religion, their
progress in refinement, improvement in knowledge,
and various other circumstances. .1 he causes, says
an ingeni!-us writer, whick suspend the progress and
diffusion of truth, arise, not from climate, but front
the watchful and intolerant jealousy of despotic
sovereigns.
Regaril:ng the character of the natives of Hin-
, doottan, very erroneous opinions have almoa uni-
t versally prevailed. They have generally been re-
presented as a mild, harmless, inoffensive race :
whose religion breathed nothing but the most en-
larged benevolence to all mankind; whose breasts
never rankled with the fiercer passions of revenge
and cruelty ; who led their lives in innocence, and
all whose paths were peace. But stubborn fats
confute such flattering ideas. Thousands of human
viaims have been known, annually to smoke on the
polluted altars of their horrid deities ; whose crimes,
if upon earth, society could not endure ; and those
bosoms, which have been fondly imagined the asy-
lums of love, of meekness, and humanity, are found
to be the receptacles of every debasing crime, and
every malignant passion !
Of all the vices incident to human nature, cruelty
is the worst, and at the same time the most unac-

countable. All other passions rise in the mind
from objeas proper to excite them ; but of such ob.
cruelty alone seems destitute ; and from its be-
ing discernible even in children of the tenderest age,.
it furnishes one of the strongest arguments to the
natural depravity of our fallen charaacr. The
genei.d propensity of the Romans to this vice, so
visible in the savage cast of their recreations and
amusements, may be accounted fOr from the mime-
Tons foreign and domestic wars in which they were
so constantly engaged. But what shall we say to
the mild, gentle, the humane Hindoos ? who, with
careless levity or calm indiiTerence, can view a fel-
low-creature sacri:i.,:el by the murderous hand of
some perfidious Brahmin, and writhing under the
torture of a painful and protraaed death ! who can
see with unconcern, the widow burning on the pile
with her &rated husband, and hear, without re•
morse, the lielples infant's unavailing cries, left to
perish on a tree, a prey to ravenous birds, and to
devouring iusths! Such are the fruits of a religion,
which has been supposed to breathe a spirit of the
. purest love, the most enlarged benevolence, the most
enlightenei charity.
It we examine into the capacity peculiar to the
Asiatics, we shall find them to possess a larger por-
tion of ability than is generally supposed. Indeed,
we have every reason to suppose, that the Sun of
science, as well as of revelation, first arose upon the
Eastern world ; and that the polished nations of
Europe, who now excel antiquity in arts, and vie
oith it in arms, are iidebted to Asia for their cul-
tivation, and many of their best attainments. The
Asiatics, it is probable, had climbed the heights of
science before the Greeks had learned their alpha-
bet and while the forests of Europe were stocked
► with a feW wijd, ussculi.ivaud savages, these were
•

coneaei pArnienlS cities, the seats of art, of
luxury, and of despotism.' A3ia too has given birth
to seine of the greatest monarchirs of the world;
to that of the Assyrians, the Modes, and die Per-
sians. The foundations of astronomy are said to
hare been laid in Babyilon; and from the Magi of
Persia, Pythagoras is declared to have acquired
the pi inciples of that knowledge which procured
him the applause and veneration of the Greeks.
Hindnostan was infinitely more enlightened than it
is at this day, and its inhabitants, a civilized, com-
mercial, and even a warlike people; and at the time
the Greeks imagined themselves the only great peo-
ple upon earth, Confutsee had planted morality and
good government in China. Thus we see that lite-
rature, taste, and science originated in Asia, and by
a gradual difrusion, in the course of time, spread
themselves over Greece and Italy. Such then hav-
ing been once the state of the sciences and arts
among the Asiatics, it cannot be unreasonable to
suppose, that their ability still remains unhurt and
vigorous ; and that those sparks of genius, hitherto
smothered or enfeebled by the noxious climate of
oppression, might, under the congenial influence of
a milder government and mor; favourable laws,
again be fanned into a flame.
If," says Sir William Jones, " the numerous
writings of the Hindons on grammar, logic, rhe-
toric, and music, all which are extant and accessi-
ble, were explained into some language generally
understood, it would be found that they have the
highest pretensions to the praise of a fertile and
inventiv,! genius. Their lighter poems are lively
and elegant, their epic magnificent and sublime in
the highest degree ; and we cannot reasonably
doubt, how degenerate and debased soever the Hin-
doos may now appear, that in some early age, they
were splendid in arts and arms, happy in govern-
ment, wise in legislation, and eminent in various
knowledge; indeed, in spite of their many revolu-
tions and conquests, their sources of wealth are still
abundant, and in many of their manufactures they
still surpass all the world."
Such, then, are the people who now acknow-
ledge the comparati,uly mild effeds of Biitish go-
vernment. How animating the idea, how glorious
the opportunity which Providence has placed in
our hands, of diffusing over thirty millions of people,
a more enlightened knowledge, and a purer system
of morality ; of employing Christianity to knock off
the fetters of Brahminical hypocrisy and pride ; and
of seeuring to an ignorant and degraded multitude
the invaluable blessings of social felicity !