ceasing.

Imposters have arisen on the earth who have called themselves the
confidants of God; and, erecting themselves into teachers of the people,
have opened the ways of falsehood and iniquity; they have ascribed merit
to practices indifferent or ridiculous; they have supposed a virtue,
in certain postures, in pronouncing certain words, articulating certain
names; they have transformed into a crime the eating of certain meats,
the drinking of certain liquors, on one day rather than another. The
Jew would rather die than labor on the sabbath; the Persian would endure
suffocation, before he would blow the fire with his breath; the Indian
places supreme perfection in besmearing himself with cow-dung, and
pronouncing mysteriously the word Aum;* the Mussulman believes he has
expiated everything in washing his head and arms; and disputes, sword
in hand, whether the ablution should commence at the elbow, or finger
ends;** the Christian would think himself damned, if he ate flesh
instead of milk or butter. Oh sublime doctrines! Doctrines truly from
heaven! Oh perfect morals, and worthy of martyrdom or the apostolate!
I will cross the seas to teach these admirable laws to the savage
people--to distant nations; I will say unto them:

* This word is, in the religion of the Hindoos, a sacred
emblem of the Divinity. It is only to be pronounced in
secret, without being heard by any one. It is formed of
three letters, of which the first, a, signifies the
principal of all, the creator, Brama; the second, u, the
conservator, Vichenou; and the last, m, the destroyer, who
puts an end to all, Chiven. It is pronounced like the
monosyllable om, and expresses the unity of those three
Gods. The idea is precisely that of the Alpha and Omega