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54
RELIGIOUS PRACTICES AND OPINIONS
of learning and respectability. The worship of images is declared to be an act of inferior merit even by later authorities, those perhaps with which it originated, and it is defended only upon the same plea which has been urged in other times and other countries that the vulgar cannot raise their conceptions to abstract deity, and require some perceptible object to which their senses may be addressed. "Corresponding to the natures of different powers and qualities," it is said, "numerous figures have been invented for the benefit of those who are not possessed of sufficient understanding." And again: "The vulgar look for their gods in water; men of more extended knowledge, in the celestial bodies; the ignorant, in wood, bricks, and stones." It is almost certain therefore, that the practice of worshipping idols in temples was not the religion of the Vedas.
The dwelling-house of the householder was his temple: if qualified, he was his own priest; but this practice even among the Brahmans probably soon fell into desuetude, as they more extensively engaged in secular avocations, and it became almost universally the practice to retain a family priest. This is still the custom. Instead of being however a Brahman of learning and character, he is very commonly illiterate, and not always respectable. The office has also undergone an important modification. The family priest was formerly also the Guru, or spiritual adviser of the family. The priest now rarely discharges that function, he merely conducts the domestic rites; and
