Such probably was the belief of the ordinary Hindu two thousand years ago, and such it remains to this day. In the light of facts such as these, who could venture to say what the future of Hinduism is likely to be? Is the regeneration of India to be brought about by the modern theistic movements, such as the Brahma-samaj and Arya-samaj, as so close and sympathetic an observer of Hindu life and thought as Sir A. Lyall seems to think? "The Hindu mind," he remarks, "is essentially speculative and transcendental; it will never consent to be shut up in the prison of sensual experience, for it has grasped and holds firmly the central idea that all things are manifestations of some power outside phenomena. And the tendency of contemporary religious discussion in India, so far as it can be followed from a distance, is towards an ethical reform on the old foundations, towards searching for some method of reconciling their Vedic theology with the practices of religion taken as a rule of conduct and a system of moral government. One can already discern a movement in various quarters towards a recognition of impersonal theism, and towards fixing the teaching of the philosophical schools upon some definitely authorized system of faith and morals, which may satisfy a rising ethical standard, and may thus permanently embody that tendency to substitute spiritual devotion for external forms and caste rules which is the characteristic of the sects that have from time to time dissented from orthodox Brahminism." AUTHORITIES.--_Census of India_ (1901), vol. i. part i.; _India_, by H. H. Risley and E. A. Gait; vol. i. _Ethnographical Appendices_, by H. H. Risley; _The Indian Empire_, vol. i. (new ed., Oxford, 1907); J. Muir, _Original Sanskrit Texts_ (2nd ed., 5 vols., London, 1873); Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_ (London, 1883); _Modern India and the Indians_ (London, 1878, 3rd ed. 1879); _Hinduism_ (London, 1877); Sir Alfred C. Lyall, _Asiatic Studies_ (2 series, London, 1899); "Hinduism" in _Religious Systems of the World_ (London, 1904); "Brahminism" in _Great Religions of the World_ (New York and London, 1902); W. J. Wilkins, _Modern Hinduism_ (London, 1887); J. C. Oman, _Indian Life, Religious and Social_ (London, 1879); _The Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India_ (London, 1903); _The Brahmans, Theists and Muslims of India_ (London, 1907); S. C. Bose, _The Hindus as they are_ (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1883); J. Robson, _Hinduism and Christianity_ (Edinburgh and London, 3rd ed., 1905); J. Murray Mitchell, _Hinduism Past and Present_ (2nd ed., London, 1897); Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, _Hindu Castes and Sects_ (Calcutta, 1896); A. Barth, _The Religions of India_ (London, 1882); E. W. Hopkins, _The Religions of India_ (London, 1896). (J. E.) FOOTNOTES: