• After the evils to which men in the rude state of society conceive themselves liable from the unknown and invisible authors of physical events, the evils to which they are liable from the incursions of hostile men, appear the next in magnitude. While the "Skulking of :society:me rimperfact, and Jarman mind is weak, theseavils.are very great, and present a terrific picture to an imagination perpetuallyhaunted with fear. 'In the rude ages of society, therefore, the soldier is always a character of great importance. He is the barrier against those evils which reek neat in order after the evils against which the, priest af fords relief. When classes. arefinst (formed, themi Mary age :therefore, always a separate class, and next in ;link and veneration to the .class of the priests. It is remarkable, that the rank and mom. quence of .both classes are founded upon fear. It is also remarkable, though a natural consequence, that, in all •ages, they are mast apt to be venerated ,by the most timid porous,—the most timid sex, for example ; over whose imagination thepriest and the soldier' have a proverbial sway. it is:farther ebeer e. able, and a necessary consequence, that as the fears respect to invisible powers, .and withrespect to the incursions•of hostile men, gradually decline as society advances, and have less and less effect upon the imagination': even orthoge who are mostapt to be governed the pension of fear, se the respect for the castes of priest and soldier are destined to sink in relative importance, as the institutions of society areimprooed,' and the human mind becomes strong, After provision is made, in that early .stoge "which which we are endeavouring to describe, against .to clews of friers aglow which 'the priest and the soldier hold up their respective shields, the care of subsistence is the object of greatest im portance. A -class of husbandman, therefore, is a necessaryead. sever failing instiestion, and, in the scale of swear 'end coesequence, • this .order follows immediately after the sacerdotal and the milieu)! Beside. the means of subsistence, other- datian•ara required. Btu, at firm, very few ,are ao much esimown, and, by cousequenoe, very few are demanded. Due cams of she .community are, there fore, supposedly* he sufficient for the supply of all other 'wants, mid the performance of all other or Itla obvious, that reflection upon the laws .of hug man nature would lead us to draw a picture, nearly the same with this, if we were called upon -to de. scribe she Mate of society, at the time when the di vision of labour is first introduced, even if we had no specific facts to direct our inquiries. In a remark able passage in Plato, in his second book De Re. publics, be ascribes the ossgm of poiitical association and lawsrte the benefits which were sought 'for by the division of labour. ripens ,roes, ac ay ;war, orearo, remicre Aeon izacog, are ccuratxu, atlas inulaba ham. As men cannot be supplied with accerosno datioas in any tolerable degree, but by the dividcm of labour •and employments, one man prodoedeg one thing, another another, and every man gong mime he wants,. by ancehange with. other man, an asseeis, tion of a certain_ number of men ismocessary foe well being ; and -hence mciety and laws. in exact co incidence with the deduction which we.have peaseas, rid above, he says, that the "implest fasm-of &society. would consist of four oir foie ardent of- men./ .A.M.si iota near/ zar Aires no I Wady h¢ etc. milt .r as' told a. Osatnoo41,1 WW1; larnwirame • 14"a r1 elxico volquelsov eh' mars. The coincidence is very nearly complete between the speculation and the practice; between what is in this manner infeared, and what is retard. rid .of ancient nations, and Whammed among the Ilia. dun.
Under all the diffigulties under which, especially 'in rude ages, human society, and the heron mid, make program, small are -the steps 'which can be taken at once. .When professions were aspirated, and the vast benefits derived from the sepantice gan to be felt, the human mind was not sufficientli *grog to perceive, that there was no danger alias°. ever that they should ever again be osedieed and confounded. No ; it to 'be soother
grand effort of the same wisdom which had made the separation,. to take sere of its and to make promise for. secusinq.ther of it through all ages. With this view at was thought necessny 'to ordain and :sanction, bydivine authority, that the follow the pear. ion of the father, mite subject to the severest punishment if he engagoi ea any other ocoupstion. To secure also, in each pr. fession, the due succession of anus to fathers, itms -necessary that • should belittled; regulated; and the method • obviously aweigh *weal ;fteelflor that was, -that the members of sed dais, male and female, should be compelled, miler the severest penalties, to marry only among than salves, and never, by intermarriage, to min and cas• fiend theseperate castes.
So far the aim, at any rate, wee good. 'De I. refit of the 'whole society was the object which all these eguletigos were accounted useful to two% and no degradation Of ony of the -ohms wss eider intended by any of these enactments, or noway for the ends which they were destined to save.
The degradation of one set of the oases, in em. perigee with another, was the remit of as ado. thought, and in the penult of ends of a awed de. ocription. When .one of the castes, as that of the pried., or the soldiers, found itself possessed of * influence over the minds efthe rest of the comegui ty, such, that it could establish certain points of lo be in its own favour, it was never long before it aul ed itself of that advantage, and pushed it to the et. most. If it could inspire the belief that it Ina out noble, worthy of higher privileges, and gnaw howler, than the •rest of the community, it Dever failed to get this point established a an incoota vertible right, not the result of the mere willed the community, but of an absolute law of nature, or Ms a revelation and command from God.
As ev elevation one clam implies a oar* /pendent • of another, and as there it no and to the elevation which one clam will aim it, *here is no god to the degradation which will be is'? rued, main sneaker, if the state of the hums alai assufficiently weak to give to one class an unbound ad lefinenee over the belief of another. Her tars* this extreme degradatiesis grafted upcir the institution, of castes, willimmediathely appear..
As, we derive our roost allude rand praetwal rptsintanc e. with the Amps into Larbicili -Incietf saoalded• by .thesestablidimen of desk, 1111411 pee. in terapurse with the Hindus, the particulerel .nhich are at this day exhibited in Hindustan, and. prided for by than laws, afford the most certain snalliall of sc. (miring precise and specific ideas concerning this remarkable institution.
According to the sacred law book, entitled the " Ordinexces ONIftess," the Creator,. " that the hit. man nun might be.multiplied, caused the Beahmen, the Cshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra (so named from the Scripture, protection, weakly and labour), to proceed from his month, his arm, his thigh, and his foot." " For tbs alke of preserving this universe.. the Being, supremely glorious, du. ties to those who sprung respectively fix,:tantoeuth, his arm, his thigh, and his foot. To Brahmens he assigned. the duties of reading the Veda, of teaching it,. of sacrificing, of assisting others to sacrifice, of ghningelms, if they be rich, and, if indigent, of re miring gift.: To defend the people, to give alms, to sacrifice, to.rend the Veda, to shun the allurement. of sensual. gratification, are, ilia. few words, the du ties of a Cahatriya.:. To keep heists. of cattle, to be. stow largess to saicsf ice, to read the scripture, .to carry on trade,.ta lend. at interest, and to cultivate land, are prescribed or permitted to a. Vaisya One paid* duty the Supreme Ruler assigns to a So, des, namely,. to. sane the beforeenetiemed clews, Without depreciatinr their worth." . Audi in Am employment of the castes; and moth the authority whence it is derived, The next• great peculiarity is, the degree. of elevation" which- one see of the castes. wpm enabled' to, usurp, asdn'the cons. 'pendent degradation, of the others.