Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/420

368 and thrown farther off from the time of final emancipation from contact with polluting matter. In extreme cases of demerit, he sinks to a temporary but fearful hell; in the opposite case of uncommon merit, he rises to some one of the heavens.

It may be mentioned as an incidental but lamentable result of this belief in the transmigration of souls, that it shuts up the fountains of mercy and compassion in the human heart. Does a man meet with any misfortune—it is the consequence of some sin in a former state of existence. Does he fall from a scaffolding and break his leg—why should I assist him? asks the Hindu—does he not deserve it? is it not the penalty of his own sins? Is a poor wretch crippled, maimed, diseased—why should he be pitied? is it not the consequence of his own deeds in a pre-existent state? Thus it happens that while Hindus of some sects strain their water, and even the air they breathe, so as not to take life, as a people they are greatly deficient in pity for the afflicted, and most backward to deeds of mercy to suffering fellowmen.

As was remarked of worship, so of works of merit; it is true that they are almost wholly