Storia do Mogor 240: NOTICE [90].

240

I have thought it desirable, before beginning what I have to say on the Hindu religion, to give the reader a short notice on that subject, for he may be surprised that, so many books having appeared about it already, I should design to add my remarks. To this I reply that what ought to have made me refrain is the very thing that induces me to take up my pen. For, although I knew that several persons had written on this matter, I have been told that their accounts are defective ; and I believe this short account could not be otherwise than agreeable to the public. In those hitherto laid before it, some have wished to suggest that these poor idolaters had received some slight knowledge of Christian mysteries, upon which they had built their show of a religion. Others have concerned themselves with nothing beyond some of the principal customs and ceremonies.
My account has nothing in common with all that. I have set myself to know the foundations of their belief, of their politics and their government, on which I have drawn up the memoirs here presented. It will be seen that their religion is nothing but a confused mixture of absurdities and coarse imaginings, unworthy even of the rational man ; much less has it the least trace of Divinity as its author. I cannot refrain from admiring the goodness of our Creator in having illuminated us with the light of His Gospel ; for, from the example of these poor idolaters, it is possible to note the unruliness of the human mind when abandoned to its own devices.
As to their government, it will have been seen that there could be nothing more tyrannical, and that there are slaves in Turkey whose condition is preferable to that of the free people of this country. I have in addition gathered together their chief ceremonies and customs, as much regarding marriage as their disposal of the dead, their way of eating, et cetera. I am able to make the declaration that in all I say there is nothing but the truest things, to which absolute faith can be accorded, and of which I have myself been a witness during many years, and am so still.
However strange and extraordinary what I advance may appear to our Europe, it is none the less veritable. I will not dwell farther here on these things, beyond wishing that those who read these words may make the same reflections in reading as I have made in beholding them. Let us all unite in giving God the glory that He has called us from the kingdom of darkness into that of light. This ought to impose on us eternal gratitude, and make us pray that He will give light to so many miserable beings groaning in the [91] darkness of error and idolatry — a supplication to which, I doubt not, every Christian will assent with all his strength [92].