12. The very birth of Bráhmins is a constant incarnation of Dherma, God of Justice; for the Bráhmin is born to promote justice, and to procure ultimate happiness.
13. When a Bráhmin springs to light, he is borne above the world, the chief of all creatures, assigned to guard the treasury of duties, religious and civil.
14. Whatever exists in the universe, is all in effect, though not in form, the wealth of the Bráhmin; since the Bráhmin is entitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence of birth.
15. The Bráhmin eats but his own food; wears but his own apparel; and bestows but his own in alms: through the benevolence of the Bráhmin, indeed, other mortals enjoy life.
16. To declare the sacerdotal duties, and those of the other classes in due order, the sage Menu, sprung from the self-existing, promulged this code of laws.
17. A code which must be studied with extreme care by every learned Bráhmin, and fully explained to his disciples, but must be taught by no other man of an inferior class.
18. The Bráhmin who studies this book, having performed sacred rites, is perpetually free from offence in thought, in word, and in deed.
19. He confers purity on his living family, on his ancestors,[162] and on his descendants, as far as the seventh person; and He alone deserves to possess this whole earth.
Subtract from the Brahminism of the Institutes, the importance assigned to caste; substitute for the Euhemerism of the Epics, an elemental religion, and we ascend to the religion of the Vedas; the nominal, but only the nominal basis, of all Hinduism. In the following Vedaic hymns, Agni is fire; Indra, the sky, firmament, or atmosphere; and Marut, the cloud.