doctrine of the brahmins was that God (the Eternal one) had created angelic beings but they rebelled and so were condemned to be punished, with the possibility of earning a return to grace by passing through a series of rebirths to regain paradise. He held the view that all animals and humans were fallen angels. Howell suggested that the Greeks and Egyptians took their belief in metempsychosis from the brahmins. Holwell stated that all religions have much in common but only the Hindu scriptures have all the truths fully articulated. He wrote that Moses's version of the creation and Fall of Man is "clogged with too many incomprehensible difficulties to gain our belief", and is only made intelligible with the Hindu doctrine that humankind are fallen angels. Holwell was a vegetarian and opposed the Cartesian view that animals are machines without souls. He argued that animals were not created for domination or use by man. He stated that meat and the killing of animals is a violation of man's original nature and is the cause of moral and physical evil. Holwell believed that metempsychosis accounted for the problem of Original sin as the Fall of Man had occurred in heaven long before the creation of Adam and Eve who were fallen angels. In regard to Christianity, Holwell identified as a Christian deist, which was consistent with his belief in transmigration of souls and his enthusiasm for Hinduism. Publications By Holwell: A Genuine Narrative of the Deplorable Deaths of the English Gentlemen and others who were suffocated in the Black Hole (London, 1758) Interesting Historical Events, Relative to the Provinces of Bengal, and the Empire of Indostan With a seasonable hint and perswasive to the honourable the court of directors of the East India Company. As also the mythology and cosmogony, fasts and festivals of the Gentoo's, followers of the Shastah. And a dissertation on the metempsychosis, commonly, though erroneously, called the Pythagorean doctrine, 3 vols. (London, 1765–1771) An Account of the Manner of Inoculating for the Small Pox in the East Indies with Some Observations on the Practice and Mode of Treating that Disease in those Parts (London, 1767). References See also Urs App (2010). The Birth of Orientalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (); contains a 66-page chapter (pp. 297–362) on Holwell. 1711 births 1798 deaths 18th-century British writers British animal rights scholars British deists British East India Company