kill whatever they wanted, such as fowls, kid, and venison. When they had advanced farther into the country, a private intimation was given to the ambassador, that there would be no crime if a servant of his should kill a fat bullock when he met one; that it would be ascribed to accident; and reparation might be made to the owner, who would think himself amply recompensed for his loss by two tackals, about six shillings; and the beast being dead, there could be no sin in eating it; but that a public sanction could not previously be given to slaughter one. The Birmans never quarrel with a stranger on account of his religion. Their principal sea-port, Rangoon, has long been the asylum of insolvent debtors from the different settlements in India. Malabars, Moguls, Persians, Parsees, Armenians, Portuguese, French, and English, all mingle here, and are engaged in various branches of commerce. The members of this discordant multitude are not only permitted to reside under the protection of government, but likewise enjoy the most liberal toleration in matters of religion. They celebrate their several rites and festivals totally disregarded by the Birmans, who have no inclination to make proselytes. In the same street may be heard the solemn voice of the muezzin, calling pious Islamites to early prayers, and the bell of the Portuguese chapel tinkling a summons to Romish Christians. Pro

cessions meet and pass each other without giving or receiving cause of offence. The Birmans never trouble themselves about the religious opinions of any sect, nor disturb their ritual ceremonies, provided they do not break the peace, or meddle with their own divinity, Gaudma; but if any person commit an outrage, which the Mussulmans in their zeal for the true faith will sometimes do, the offender is sure to be put into the stocks; and if that does not calm his turbulent enthusiasm, they bastinado him into tranquillity.

The rhahaans or priests are a kind of monks, who live in cloisters, profess celibacy, and abstain from every sensual indulgence. The prescribed punishment for a rhahaan detected in an act of incontinence is expulsion and public disgrace. They are dressed in a long loose cloak; and yellow is the only colour worn by them. The rhahaans never dress their own victuals, holding it an abuse of time to perform any of the common functions of life, which, so long as they occupy, must divert them from the abstract contemplation of the Divine Essence. They receive the contributions of the laity ready cooked, and prefer cold food to hot. Their monasteries are so built as to be open on all sides; and no private apartments are allowed. They are seminaries for the education of youth; and to these schools the neighbouring

villagers send their children, where they are gra tuitously educated; no distinction being made. between the son of the peasant and of him who wears the badge of nobility.-These monks never buy, sell, or accept of money. Formerly there were nunneries of virgin priestesses, who, like the rhahaans, wore yellow garments, cut off their hair, and devoted themselves to chastity and religion; but the Birman government has long since abolished these societies, and refuses to allow women, under pretence of religion, to be withdrawn from the performance of the important duty of contributing to support and increase the population of the state. The superstition of these people is chiefly displayed in erecting temples of singular magnificence, and setting up multitudes of idols in honour of their god. The chief mischief produced by their religion seems, upon the whole, to arise from its suffering the Supreme Intelligence to be likened to a visible object, and from its introducing an infallible and immutable law for the regulation of ordinary affairs, which must have a tendency to fix down human society in an imperfect

state.

The religion of Europe, during many centu ries, was encumbered with ceremonies, pilgri mages, and idolatry. Magnificent temples, attended by a numerous priesthood, together with splendid processions and costly musical esta

blishments, contributed to render Christianity a religion apparently intended to affect merely the imaginations of men, and, as far as possible, to restrain the activity of the human understanding. The Christians were no less intolerant than the Mahometans, while their idolatry was almost as gross as that of the Gentoos. By means of a visible head, also, who laid claim to infallible inspiration, every speculative novelty, that is, every improvement in science, was repressed.

Even in its worst state, however, Christianity had great advantages. It not only did not divide mankind into hereditary casts, but it rejected the law of polygamy ; and its sacred books regulated religious subjects merely, and imposed no fetters upon the activity of the human mind. The nations of Europe, therefore, having avoided the calamities which the law of polygamy produces in Asia, advanced to a certain degree of improvement; and the sacred books of their religion having been promulgated to the people at large, the whole fabric of Popish superstition was overturned in one-half of Europe, and reformed or undermined in a great part of the rest. In these books, men found a religion which possessed all the advantages of prohibiting idolatry, of imposing scarcely any external ceremonies, of forbidding persecution, of avoiding all interference with the government of the state, or with the or

dinary affairs of life, of establishing domestic society upon the best possible footing; and which contented itself with inculcating the unity of the Divine Nature, with teaching a pure morality, and with holding out to the hopes of men a state of future existence.-The nations of Europe are not sufficiently aware how much of their prosperity, their arts, civilization, and superiority of character, they owe to this simple religion, which gives so much aid to the progressive improvement of the human mind, and removes all the obstructions to intellectual excellence, which superstition has created in the less fortunate regions of the East.

CHAP. VII.

OF A FUTURE STATE OF EXISTENCE.

In every nation, whether polished or barbarous, IN it is a general and a favourite opinion, that the existence of man is not finally terminated by death. From the earliest ages, it has been almost universally believed that our powers of enjoyment and of thought are continued after that event in some new form: yet to a general observer,