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The orthodox party is allowed to entertain the belief that old things are not disturbed, the advanced party is allowed to disturb the old state of things and to introduce new things as a fact, and all still join in fictitiously acknowledging that nothing now has happened, and it is this acknowledgment that constitutes. the fiction of the fact. In religion and social matters, as in law, Indians have progressed by the help of such fictions. The Hindu that adopts a son introduces & stranger into his family as a fact, and the fiction is that he persists in calling him his own son. The Brahman is enjoined to apply sacred ashes to his forehead on: certain occasions, and yet, if necessary, he may do without them and apply water to his forehead and call it ashes. He has to bathe with real water for some purposes, and yet, if necessary, he may bathe with the air and call it a water-bath. He may make a gift of cows by simply giving a pice to the Brabman. Animals were killed with the sword at certain sacrifices, and, since the days of the Jains, certain fruits are cut through with the sword and the animal is taken to have been killed. The Prayaschitta or Penance be- longs also to this category of fictions. Similarly, after the fall of Buddhism the whole country resounded with cries of the revival of the Vedic religlon, while, in fact, Buddhism was replaced by a system which was a new organism and reform in every respect except this,
