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RELIGIOUS PRACTICES AND OPINIONS
the work of Dr. Rosen, a distinguished oriental scholar, who died in the prime of life and in the spring of his fame. A portion of the same Veda has also been translated by the Rev. Mr. Stevenson, and published at Bombay.
From these authorities a tolerably correct notion may be formed of the character of the Vedas. They are four in number, Rich, Yajush, Sáman, and Atharvan, or, as usually compounded, Rig-veda, Yajurveda, Sáma - veda, and Atharva - veda. The latter, however, differs, as far as it is known, materially in purport and even in style from the others; it is rarely met with, and is not uncommonly omitted from the specification of the Vedas even by early writers, who not unfrequently speak of the Vedas collectively as but three. It evidently enters in a less degree than the rest into the formation of the national religion as taught by the Vedas. Neither of the Vedas can be considered as a distinct work, composed upon a definite plan, having either a consistent method or a predominating subject. Each is an umarranged aggregate of promiscnous prayers, hymns, injunctions, and dogmas, put together in general, though not always, in similar succession, but not in any way connected one with the other. It is not at all unusual for even what is considered as the same hymn, to offer perfectly isolated and independent verses, so that they might be extruded without injury to the whole. In the belief of the Hindus, the Vedas were coeval with creation, and are uncreated, being simultaneous with
