We may thus sum up the result of our enquiries:--among the great nations of primitive antiquity who stood the nearest, or at least very near, to the source of sacred tradition--the word of primitive revelation,--the Chinese hold a very distinguished place; and many passages in their primitive history, many remarkable vestiges of eternal truth--the heritage of old thoughts--to be found in their ancient classical works, prove the originally high eminence of this people. But at a very early period, their science had taken a course completely erroneous, and even their language partly followed this direction, or at least assumed a very stiff and artificial character. Descending from one degree of political idolatry to a grade still lower, they have at last openly embraced a foreign superstition--a diabolic mimicry of Christianity, which emanated from India, has made Thibet its principal seat, prevails in China, and, widely diffused over the whole middle Asia, reckons a greater number of followers than any other religion on the earth. END OF LECTURE III. LECTURE IV. Of the Institutions of the Indians--the Brahminical caste, and the hereditary priesthood.--Of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, considered as the basis of Indian life, and of Indian philosophy. When Alexander the Great had attained the object of his most ardent desires and, realizing the fabulous expedition of Bacchus and his train of followers, had at last reached India, the Greeks found this vast region, even on this side of the Ganges--(for that river, the peculiar object of Alexander's ambition, the conqueror in despite of all his efforts, was unable to reach)--the Greeks found this country extensive, fertile, highly cultivated, populous, and filled with flourishing cities, as it was, divided into a number of great and petty kingdoms. They found there an hereditary division of castes, such as still subsists; although they reckoned not four, but seven castes, a circumstance, however, which, as we shall see later, argues no essential difference in the division of Indian classes at that period. They remarked, also, that the country was divided into two religious parties or sects, the _Brachmans and the Samaneans_. By the first, the Greeks designated the followers of the religion of Brahma, as well as of Vishnoo and Siva, a religion which still subsists, and is more deeply rooted and more widely diffused and prevalent in India than any other religious system; distinguished as it is by its leading dogma of the transmigration of souls, which has exerted the mightiest influence on every department of thought, on the whole bearing of Indian philosophy, and on the whole arrangement of Indian life. But by the Greek denomination of _Samaneans_ we must certainly understand the Buddhists, as, among the rude nations of central Asia, and in other countries, the priests of the religion of Fo bear at this day the name of _Schamans_.