India is no more prepared as a whole for the reception of the liberal views of the Sam[=a]j; than was the negro for the right to vote. Centuries of higher preliminary education are needed before the people at large renounce their ancestral, their natural faith. A few earnest men may preach deism; the people will remain polytheists and pantheists for many generations. Then, again, the Sam[=a]jas have to contend not only with the national predisposition, but with every heretical sect, and, besides these, with the orthodox church. But thus far their chief foe is, after all, their own heart as opposed to their head. As long as deistic leaders are deified by their followers, and regard themselves as peculiarly inspired, they will preach in vain. Nor can they with impunity favor the substitution of emotion for ideas in a land where religious emotion leads downwards as surely as falls a stone that is thrown.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: In the following we keep to the practice we have adopted in the early part of the work, giving anglicized words without distinction of vowel-length, and anglicizing as far as possible, writing thus S[=a]nkhya but Sankhyan, Ved[=a]nta but Vedantist. In modern proper names we have adopted in each case the most familiar form.]
[Footnote 2: Rig
Veda, II. 12. Compare X. 121. We omit some
of the verses.]
[Footnote 3: See note, p. 20, above.]
[Footnote 4: Metaphor
from earthly fire-making; cloud and
cliff (Ludwig); or,
perhaps, heaven and earth.]
[Footnote 5: ‘Made
low and put in concealment’ the D[=a]sa
color, i.e. the
black barbarians, the negroes. ‘Color’
might be translated
‘race’ (subsequently ’caste’).]
[Footnote 6: D[=i]ce, vijas, literally ‘hoppers’ (and so sometimes, interpreted as birds). The same figure occurs not infrequently. Compare AV. iv. 16. 5, ak[s.][=a]n iva. ‘Believe,’ cr[’a]d-dhatta, i.e., cred-(d)[=i]te, literally ‘put trust.’]
[Footnote 7: Sometimes
rendered, “a true (laudation) if any
is true.”]
[Footnote 8: viii.
100. 3-4. The penultimate verse is
literally ‘the
direction(s) of the order magnify me,’ the
order being that of
the seasons and of seasonable rites.]