Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/311

OTHER HINDU SECTS 259 tained, and this the less since the Bramines hold it as a mystery. The fourth sort, called Schaerwaecka (Sarvaka), are of the race of Epicureans and believe that life is the end of man, and that after this life no other f olloweth. All that others say of the future life, that they deny, and say that men must prove and show to them so that they may see with their own eyes; otherwise, they will not believe. The Bramin Padmanaba said that if in their dealings with men they conduct themselves well, they do it not to gain any good therefor in the future life, but to win them praise from men. These seem mostly to be of the humour of Pliny, who ridiculed all that men say of the abode of the soul after the death of the body, and who held such things for madness and a dream; and said that after the corpse is dead, there remaineth no more of the man than there was before he was conceived and born; and who laughed at those who believed that souls survived, and sought thereby to console themselves in the hour of death. The fifth sect are called Pasenda. They say that the law, that is, the teaching which is taught every- where amongst the heathen, is not true; nor do they regard it, but care alone for their belly and let all go its own gait; inasmuch as they hold with the former sort that man endeth with this life. How can it be, they say, that a man who is burnt to ashes and hath become dust should again be made alive? Yet herein they argue not nor speak against the Christian belief of the resurrection of the dead, whereof they have