Whatever may hereafter befall, the four Vedas must live, for they are the primal fountains of religion and useful intelligence.

From them were derived the Upa-Vedas, which, delivered by Brahma, treat of medicine, archery, architecture, music, and the four-and-sixty mechanical arts; the Ved-Angas, revealed by inspired saints, and devoted to astronomy, grammar, prosody, pronunciation, charms and incantations, religious rites and ceremonies; the Up-Angas, written by the sage Vyasa, and given to cosmogony, chronology, and geography; therein also are the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, heroic poems, designed for the perpetuation of our gods and demi-gods.

Such, O brethren, are the Great Shastras, or books of sacred ordinances.

They are dead to me now; yet through all time they will serve to illustrate the budding genius of my race.

They were promises of quick perfection.