desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice and bad conduct". The Sh[=u][d.]ra
servant is to be "regarded as a younger son"; a slave is to be looked
on "as one's shadow," and if a man is offended by him he "must bear it
without resentment"; yet the most ghastly punishments are ordered to be
inflicted on Sh[=u][d.]ras for intruding on certain sacred rites.

The net result is that ancient Revelations, being given for a certain
age and certain social conditions, often cannot and ought not to be
carried out in the present state of Society; that ancient documents are
difficult to verify--often impossible--as coming from those whose names
they bear; that there is no guarantee against forgeries, interpolations,
glosses, becoming part of the text, with a score of other imperfections;
that they contain contradictions, and often absurdities, to say nothing
of immoralities. Ultimately every Revelation must be brought to the bar
of reason, and as a matter of fact, is so brought in practice, even the
most "orthodox" Br[=a]hma[n.]a in Hin[d.][=u]ism, disregarding all the
Sh[=a]s[t.]raic injunctions which he finds to be impracticable or even
inconvenient, while he uses those which suit him to condemn his
"unorthodox" neighbours.

No Revelation is accepted as fully binding in any ancient religion, but
by common consent the inconvenient parts are quietly dropped, and the
evil parts repudiated. Revelation as a basis for morality is impossible.
But all sacred books contain much that is pure, lofty, inspiring,
belonging to the highest morality, the true utterances of the Sages and
Saints of mankind. These precepts will be regarded with reverence by the
wise, and should be used as authoritative teaching for the young and the
uninstructed as moral textbooks, like--textbooks in other sciences--and
as containing moral truths, some of which can be verified by all morally
advanced persons, and others verifiable only by those who reach the