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RELIGIOUS PRACTICES AND OPINIONS
orthodox, and attributed to authors of saintly reputation. There are other schools, as those of the Chárvákas, Buddhists, and Jains, which, although in some respects not more at variance with received opinions than the preceding, are stigmatized with the reproach of infidelity and atheism. The cause of this difference is sufficiently obvious, and is characteristic of a state of feeling which prevails as much in the present as in any former period. The orthodox schools of philosophy do not disparage the authority of the Vedas, they do not dissuade the celebration of the acts of formal devotion which the Vedas or Puranas enjoin, although they argue their utter inefficacy as means of final and permanent felicity. They recommend their performance, however, as conducive to that frame of mind in which abstract contemplation inay be safely substituted for devotional rites, and even admit of external observances after the mind is in pursuit of true knowledge, as long as such ceremonies are practised from no interested motive, as long as they are observed because they are enjoined, and not because any benefit is either to be expected or desired from their practice. Again, the writings of the orthodox philosophers ineddle not with existing institutions; and least of all do they urge or insinuate any consideration to detract from the veneration, or trespass upon the privileges, of the Brahmans. As long as these precautions were observed, the Brahmans did not, nor would they now, object to any form of doctrine having in view the establishment of
