DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9550#0216
SECOND DEFENCE OF THE
" of the prescribed forms in a church, a temple, or a
"mosque, God be worshipped, how can he be dis-
" honoured by being worshipped under the form of an
"image, however manufactured?" Those who con-
template God in a church or mosque, or elevate their
minds to a notion of the Almighty Power in any other
appropriated place, for the sake of good example,
never pay divine homage to those places; but
those that pretend to worship God under the form
of an image, consider it to be possessed of divine
nature, and at the same time, most inconsistently,
as imbued with immoral principles. Moreover, the
promoters of the worship of images, by promulgating
anecdotes illustrative of the supposed divine power
of particular idols, endeavour to excite the reverence
of the people, and specially of pilgrims, who, under
these superstitious ideas, are persuaded to propitiate
them with large sacrifices of money, and sometimes
even by that of their own lives. Having so far entered
into this subject, the learned Brahmun will, I hope,
be convinced of the impropriety of the analogy which
he has drawn between a worship within a certain
material object and a worship of a material object.
As to his question (p. 34, 1. 32), " Is the sight of
" the image unpleasing ?" My answer must be
affirmative. It is extremely natural that, to a mind
whose purity is not corrupted by a degrading supersti-
tion, the sight of images which are often of the most
hedious or indecent description, and which must
therefore excite disgust in the mind of the specta-
tor, should be unpleasing. A visit to Kalighat,* or
* The temple of Kali.
" of the prescribed forms in a church, a temple, or a
"mosque, God be worshipped, how can he be dis-
" honoured by being worshipped under the form of an
"image, however manufactured?" Those who con-
template God in a church or mosque, or elevate their
minds to a notion of the Almighty Power in any other
appropriated place, for the sake of good example,
never pay divine homage to those places; but
those that pretend to worship God under the form
of an image, consider it to be possessed of divine
nature, and at the same time, most inconsistently,
as imbued with immoral principles. Moreover, the
promoters of the worship of images, by promulgating
anecdotes illustrative of the supposed divine power
of particular idols, endeavour to excite the reverence
of the people, and specially of pilgrims, who, under
these superstitious ideas, are persuaded to propitiate
them with large sacrifices of money, and sometimes
even by that of their own lives. Having so far entered
into this subject, the learned Brahmun will, I hope,
be convinced of the impropriety of the analogy which
he has drawn between a worship within a certain
material object and a worship of a material object.
As to his question (p. 34, 1. 32), " Is the sight of
" the image unpleasing ?" My answer must be
affirmative. It is extremely natural that, to a mind
whose purity is not corrupted by a degrading supersti-
tion, the sight of images which are often of the most
hedious or indecent description, and which must
therefore excite disgust in the mind of the specta-
tor, should be unpleasing. A visit to Kalighat,* or
* The temple of Kali.