Page:The Hindu Pantheon.djvu/12

vi themselves, necessarily have influenced me; but when I recollect that I dedicate the HINDU PANTHEON to the man whose name and character, of all men now in India, (and with the exception,. perhaps, of, of all men who have ever been there) are looked up to with the most respect and reverence by the extraordinary, race whose prejudices and superstitions on the subject of MYTHOLOGY I here endeavour to illustrate, and who in varied knowledge of that race is exceeded by few—when I recollect these facts, I persuade myself that I am guided by a propriety, independent of personal considerations, not often attainable on such occasions.

The language of adulation would ill become me to adopt, or you to approve; nor is it likely that I shall now use it, for the first time. In what I state, those who know me will give me credit for being sincere; those who know us both will see that I am no more than just.

The complimentary style in which dedicators of the last and preceding centuries indulged themselves, is happily now disused; and were it otherwise, I should be backward, not only in following their example, but, knowing who I address, in saying what I feel. But I may, passing over all other instances of public and private virtue, be permitted to state that to You, and ou solely, is humanity indebted for her triumph over unnatural enthusiasm, in the entire and voluntary abolition of that most