ABSTRACT
The laudatory terms, in which he was accustomed to speak of the doctrines of Mahomet, were calculated to produce an impression that he was a believer in the Koran. Rammohun Roy was essentially a Theist. He was, as we observed in the pages of this Review more than twenty years ago, a religious Benthamite, and estimated the different creeds existing in the world, not according to his notion of their truth, or falsehood, but by his notion of their utility; according to their tendency, in his view, to promote the maximization of human happiness, and the minimization of human misery. He had arrived at the conclusion that the Vedas inculcated pure monotheism, and the idolatry practised by his countrymen was a corruption of the ancient faith. He had publicly renounced that idolatry and declared it his mission to exterminate it, and to resuscitate the primitive and rational religion of the Vedas.
