Monotheism and the extreme of Polytheism are to be attributed to the Hindoos; that the utmost diversity of opinion prevails among them as to which of the various deities worshipped by them is to be regarded as supreme; and that they entertain the belief, that any man may, by a series of external mortifications, elevate himself to be a god, and even to be the supreme ruler of gods; or, as Ritter says, "that a man, freeing himself by holiness of conduct from the obstacles of nature, may deliver his fellowmen from the corruption of the times, and become a benefactor of his race, and also supreme god, a Buddha."

One proof of the correctness of the position here assumed is the strong affinity that exists among the sect of Transcendentalists for forms of Hindoo thought, which they dignify with the name of philosophy; an affinity which arises in the fact, that, while Transcendentalism is the realization of the internal-natural experiences of the soul which are governed by Naturalism and Individualism, the Hindoo is the representative of Naturalism and of an internal-natural order of thought, and thus becomes a legitimate representative of transcendentalism intellectually considered. A great similarity may therefore be seen in the intellectual manifestations referable to them; and so powerfully are transcendentalists attracted towards the forms of Hindoo thought, that many seem to have become identified with them, and even to believe with them in the final absorption of all individuals into one original Cause. The transcendentalists, looking exclusively from an internal-natural point of view, suppose the internal-natural to be a vital spiritual condition, when it is in fact completely opposite to this; and they are the more readily led into this mistake with regard to the Hindoos, because of that asceticism and great show of internal contemplation for which they are so remarkable. We may see, however, that this appearance of internalism is not a real self-conscious condition, but only represents that internal contemplation in the consciousness which is realized in transcendentalism; and that this sacrifice of external things, while it represents, has no relation, except one of opposition, to that sacrifice of the individual which is demanded by Christianity, and is legitimately represented by self-conscious natural experiences in the Church. The Naturalism of the Hindoo may be seen in the facts, that the sacrifice of animal life, even in the meanest of its forms, is by them scrupulously avoided; that a great proportion of their writings is materialistic or atheistic, while all include the grossest kind of pantheism and fatalism; and that their asceticism.

is combined with the grossest sensuality, or gratification of animal appetite, plainly showing that it is simply representative, and not real.

As the Hindoos are the legitimate representatives of an internal-intellectual sphere, many forms of philosophy are represented by them, but particularly that inverted metaphysical form which is governed by the destructive laws of the Reason, and is realized in transcendentalism. A form of religious mysticism is also realized by them, which appears to represent the religious ideas of the Christian Church, including the great doctrine of justification by faith without works; and even to represent the Sabbath, which is founded upon the prohibition of works. But we are not to mistake these appearances for real self-conscious experiences, or even for legitimate representations. What appears in them to be a state of internal contemplation is a perfectly inactive state of the body and of the mind: and even their highest state of religious ecstasy is produced by artificial means; and directions are given in their religious books for its production, one of these being to hold the breath. Although representing an internal-natural condition and principle from an intellectual point of view, this representation is not a legitimate natural, but an illegitimate artificial one, which represents an inversion of rationality, and is realized through emotion, and not through thought; or through a perfectly passive instead of an active mental state, by which the individual is brought into an abnormal condition corresponding with somnambulism. This passive state of the subject is always the first step to the realization of a receptive somnambulic or entranced condition; and we therefore find that the Hindoos and also the Gypsy tribes, which belong to the same race, have always extensively practised the arts of somnambulism and necromancy.

The following extract from Hegel's "Philosophy of History," which came to the writer's notice after he had made the foregoing statement, although pervaded by the fanciful and pantheistic theories of this writer, completely confirms the view that has here been taken:

"India, like China, is a phenomenon antique as well as modern; one which has remained stationary and fixed, and has received a most perfect home-sprung development. It has always been the land of imaginative aspiration, and appears to us still like a fairy region, an enchanted world. In contrast with the Chinese State, which presents only the most prosaic understand

ing, India is the region of phantasy and sensibility. The point of advance in principle which it exhibits to us may be generally stated as follows: In China, the patriarchal principle rules a people in the condition of nonage, the part of whose moral resolution is occupied by the regulating law, and the moral oversight of the Emperor. Now, it is the interest of Spirit, that external conditions should become internal ones; that the natural and the spiritual world should be recognized in the subjective aspect belonging to intelligence; by which process the unity of Subjectivity and positive Being generally, or the Idealism of Existence, is established. This Idealism, then, is found in India, but only as an idealism of imagination, without distinct conceptions, -one which does, indeed, free existence from Beginning and Matter (liberates it from temporal limitations and gross materiality), but changes every thing into the merely imaginative; for although the latter appears interwoven with definite conceptions, and thought presents itself as an occasional concomitant, this happens only through accidental combinations. Since, however, it is the abstract and absolute Thought itself that enters into these dreams as their material, we may say that Absolute Being is presented here as in the ecstatic state of a dreaming condition. For we have not the dreaming of an actual Individual, possessing distinct personality, and simply unfettering the latter from limitation; but we have the dreaming of the unlimited absolute spirit.

"There is a beauty of a peculiar kind in women during the magnetic somnambulic sleep, connecting them with a world of super-terrestrial beauty. A great artist (Schoreel) has given this tone to the dying Mary, whose spirit is already rising to the regions of the blessed, but once more, as it were, lights up her dying countenance for a farewell kiss. Such a beauty we find also in its loveliest form in the Indian world; a beauty of enervation, in which all that is rough, rigid, and contradictory, is dissolved, and we have only the soul in a state of emotion, - a soul, however, in which the death of free, self-reliant spirit is perceptible. For, should we approach the charm of this flower-life; should we look at it more closely, and examine it in the light of human dignity and freedom, -the more attractive the first sight of it had been, so much the more unworthy shall we ultimately find it in every respect.

"The dreaming Indian is all that we call finite and individual; and at the same time, as infinitely universal and unlimited, a something intrinsically divine. The Indian view of things is a

Universal Pantheism; a pantheism, however, of Imagination, not of Thought. One substance pervades the Whole of things, and all individualizations are directly vitalized and animated into particular powers. The sensuous matter and content is in each case simply and in the rough taken up, and carried over into the sphere of the Universal and Immeasurable. It is not liberated by the free power of Spirit into a beautiful form, and idealized in the spirit, so that the sensuous might be a merely subservient and compliant expression of the spiritual; but the sensuous object itself is expanded into the immeasurable and undefined, and the Divine is thereby made bizarre, confused, and ridiculous. These dreams are not mere fables, - — a play of the imagination, in which the soul only revels in fantastic gambols: it is lost in them; hurried to and fro by these reveries, as something that exists really and seriously for it. It is delivered over to these limited objects as to its lords and gods. Every thing, therefore, - sun, moon, stars, the Ganges, the Indus, beasts, flowers, -every thing is a God to it; and while, in this deification, the finite loses its consistency and substantiality, intelligent conception of it is impossible. Conversely, the Divine, regarded as essentially changeable and unfixed, is also, by the base from which it assumes, defiled and made absurd. In this universal deification of all finite existence, and consequent degradation of the Divine, the idea of Theanthropy, the incarnation of God, is not a particularly important conception. The parrot, the cow, the ape, &c., are likewise incarnations of God, yet are not therefore elevated above their nature. The Divine is not individualized to a subject, to concrete Spirit, but degraded to vulgarity and senselessness. This gives us a general idea of the Indian view of the Universe. Things are as much stripped of rationality, of finite consistent stability of cause and effect, as man is of steadfastness, of individuality, of personality and freedom.

"By the fact, that in India, as already observed, differences extend not only to the objectivity of the spirit, but also to its subjectivity, and thus exhaust all its relations, neither morality nor justice nor religiosity is to be found. Humanity generally, human duties, human feeling, do not manifest themselves: we find only duties assigned to the several castes. Every thing is petrified into these distinctions, and over this petrifaction a capricious destiny holds sway. Morality and human dignity are unknown; evil passions have their full swing; the spirit wanders. in the dream-world; and the highest state is Annihilation."

We see, then, that every characteristic suggested by our science, as belonging to the Malay race, and thus to the Hindoos, has been confirmed, and even intensified, by the reflections of Hegel. To regard such a people, therefore, as connected with the development of Philosophy, would be in the highest degree unreasonable.

We have now shown that the development of Philosophy must be confined to the Caucasian race, and have taken three positions: first, that Philosophy, to be real and spiritual, must have its foundation in a conception of the Universal Laws of Being, and appear in the form of Absolute Science, in which Ontology, Theology, and Psychology are included in one form, as spirit, soul, and body; next, that its natural development, which is only a discordant representation of Philosophy, is all that has yet been realized; and, finally, that, in each sphere of this development, it must take its departure from the Church. We will now proceed to show the forms in which Philosophy has really appeared, and to explain why it has been separated from theology; why its ontological and psychological forms have never been united; why each of these has been divided and antagonized, and each portion realized in a discord that has increased as Philosophy has become developed; and why it has never been realized as a universal science, or as a form of Absolute Truth. So confused and contradictory are the accounts which have come down to us of the Eastern and Grecian philosophical systems, that we could not possibly have accomplished this task, were it not that our science enables us not only to classify all philosophical phenomena under a universal scientific form, and thus to disclose the character of each system by showing the particular position that it occupies in the philosophical circle, but also to conceive the entire development of Philosophy from its commencement to the present time; that is, the general character of its prominent systems, and the order of their production. We are able to conceive this development from an abstract point of view, because every thing grows and becomes developed, exists and becomes manifested, to represent the three great ideas which are developed in the three principal divisions of this science, the existence of God as a tri-personal Creating Cause; the creation of the Material Universe, with Man as its head; and the salvation and regeneration of the soul through the Incarnation of God. It is by applying the conceptions which we have realized with regard to these subjects that we are able not only