The mystics, ascetics, and saints of India : a study of Sadhuism, with an account of the Yogis, Sanyasis, Bairagis, and other strange Hindu sectarians / by John Campbell Oman ; with ill. by William Campbell Oman.

  • Oman, John Campbell, 1841-1911.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The mystics, ascetics, and saints of India : a study of Sadhuism, with an account of the Yogis, Sanyasis, Bairagis, and other strange Hindu sectarians / by John Campbell Oman ; with ill. by William Campbell Oman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Biologists teach that the body of every human being^is an aggregation of various and innumerable protoplasmic cells which are ever undergoing changes, constructive and destructive. And yet we can plainly see that each man, though perceptibly changing with the passing years, per- sistently retains to the end a marked individuality, together with corporeal and mental characteristics peculiarly his own. So, too, is it with each race of men and the comparatively short-lived units of which it is made up. Of the latter, some are, at every moment of time, passing away and giving place to newer and slightly modified ones; but the race as a whole, though thus steadily undergoing mutation—perhaps suffering decay—with the fleeting centuries, still holds fast certain physical and psychological traits, its special heritage and possession, which have in the past differentiated it from all other races, and will continue to do so as long as it enjoys a separate existence. Thus it happens that every distinct ethnic division of the world’s population has its own peculiar ideals and