Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/355

350 scribe and explain the ritual of Hinduism. The first book invariably read is that on lunar days; and this is followed by others, without any fixed order of succession, such as those on marriage, on penance, on purification, on obsequies, on the intercalary month of the Hindu calendar,” &c. In most districts also, it appears, that the number of books read is “seldom more than ten, and never exceeds twelve, and is sometimes not more than four, three, and even two.” And, as if superstition were inherent in the soil of this land, and all-pervading as its atmosphere, it must, even in the department of legal scholastic discipline, cause its claims to be heard, and the feelings which it engenders to be systematically cherished. For, up to this hour, there is a rigorous observance of many of the puerile forms and meaningless ceremonies prescribed by the great Indian legislator, Manu; and, more particularly, of the injunctions which specially direct the study of law to be suspended during either of the twilights, at the conjunction, on the fourteenth day, at the opposition, and on the eighth day, of the moon; when the lightning flashes and the thunder roars, with or without rain; on the occasion of preternatural sounds from the sky, of an earthquake, or an obscuration of the heavenly bodies, or an ordinary eclipse caused by the dragon’s head; while dust falls like a shower; while the quarters of the firmament are inflamed; while jackals yell, while dogs bark or yelp, while asses or camels bray, or while men in company chatter, &c. &c.

In the department of logic (Nyaya), which, in general estimation, ranks higher than that of law, various works are read and explained, on the definitions of terms, qualities, and objects; the derivation and meaning of the radical portions, and of the suffixes and affixes of words, on the necessary or inherent qualities of objects; on the definition of classes or genera; on inferential propositions; on syllogisms and fallacies; on the proofs of the Divine existence, the attributes of the Divine nature, and the means of absorption into it, &c. Though eminently fitted to acuminate and subtilize the intellect, the system as a whole must be regarded as tending to waste its powers on hair-splitting distinctions, and to paralyze its energies by the expenditure of these on the pursuit of what is frivolous, or meaningless, or useless, or worse. The stupendous pile of subtleties—which, throughout the entire cycle of the dark ages, the European mind, for lack of more