4. 'HE, whofe powers were measureless, being thus requested by the great Sages, whose thoughts were profound, faluted them all with reverence, and gave them a comprehensive answer, faying: Be it heard!

5. This universe existed only in the first di• vine idea yet unexpanded, as if involved in darknefs, imperceptible, undefinable, undiscoverable by reafon, and undiscovered by revelation, as if it "were wholly immersed in sleep:

6. Then the fole felf-exifting power, him' felf undiscerned, but making this world dif'cernible, with five elements and other princi

ples of nature, appeared with undiminished 'glory, expanding his idea, or difpelling the 'gloom.'

7. 'HE, whom the mind alone can perceive, 'whofe effence eludes the external organs, who has no visible parts, who exifts from eternity, even HE, the foul of all beings, whom no being can comprehend, shone forth in person.

8. HE, having willed to produce various 'beings from his own divine substance, first with a thought created the waters, and placed in them a productive feed:

9.

‹ That seed became an egg bright as gold, blazing like the luminary with a thousand beams; and in that egg he was born himself, in

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the form of BRAHMA', the great forefather of all fpirits.

10. The waters are called nárá, because they were the production of NARA, or the Spirit of GoD; and, fince they were his first ayana, or place of motion, he thence is named 'NA'RA'YANA, or moving on the waters.

II.

From THAT WHICH IS, the first caufe, not the object of sense, existing every where in fubftance, not exifting to our perception, without beginning or end, was produced the divine 'male, famed in all worlds under the appellation ' of BRAHMA'.

12. In that egg the great power fat inactive < a whole year of the Creator, at the close of which by his thought alone he caused the egg to di'vide itfelf;

13. And from its two divifions he framed the heaven above and the earth beneath in

the midft be placed the fubtil ether, the eight regions, and the permanent receptacle of 6 waters.

14. From the fupreme foul he drew forth Mind, existing fubftantially though unper'ceived by fenfe, immaterial, and, before mind, or the reafoning power, he produced consciouf" ness, the internal monitor, the ruler;

15. And, before them both, he produced the

great principle of the foul, or first expansion of the divine idea; and all vital forms endued with the three qualities of goodness, passion, and darkness; and the five perceptions of fenfe, ' and the five organs of fenfation.

16. Thus, having at once pervaded, with ⚫ emanations from the Supreme Spirit, the minuteft portions of fix principles immensely ope⚫rative, confcioufnefs and the five perceptions, He • framed all creatures;

17. And fince the minuteft particles of vifible nature have a dependence on those fix ⚫ emanations from GOD, the wife have accordingly given the name of s'arira, or depending on fix, that is, the ten organs on confcioufnefs, • and the five elements on as many perceptions, to His image or appearance in visible nature :

18. Thence proceed the great elements, en"dued with peculiar powers, the Mind with operations infinitely fubtil, the unperishable caufe ⚫ of all apparent forms.

19. This univerfe, therefore, is compacted 'from the minute portions of those seven divine and active principles, the great Soul, or first • emanation, consciousness, and five perceptions; a mutable univerfe from immutable ideas.

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20. Among them each fucceeding element

acquires the quality of the preceding; and, in

as many degrees as each of them is advanced, with fo many properties is it faid to be en'dued.

21. HE too first affigned to all creatures ‹ distinct names, distinct acts, and distinct occupations; as they had been revealed in the pre'exifting Véda:

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22. HE, the fupreme Ruler, created an affemblage of inferior Deities, with divine attributes and pure fouls; and a number of Genii exquifitely delicate; and he prefcribed the fa'crifice ordained from the beginning.`

23. 'From fire, from air, and from the fun he milked out, as it were, the three primordial Védas, named Rich, Yajufb, and Sáman, for 'the due performance of the facrifice.

24. 'He gave being to time and the divifions ' of time, to the ftars alfo, and to the planets, to ' rivers, oceans, and mountains, to level plains, • and uneven valleys,

25. To devotion, speech, complacency, defire, and wrath, and to the creation, which fhall presently be mentioned; for He willed the ' existence of all thofe created things.

26. For the fake of diftinguishing actions,

He made a total difference between right and wrong, and enured thefe fentient creatures to 'pleasure and pain, cold and heat, and other op'posite pairs.

very

minute transformable por

tions, called mátrás, of the five elements, all ⚫ this perceptible world was composed in fit • order;

28. And in whatever occupation the fupreme 'Lord first employed any vital foul, to that oc

cupation the fame foul attaches itself sponta

neously, when it receives a new body again and ' again :

29. "Whatever quality, noxious or innocent, • harsh or mild, unjust or just, false or true, "He conferred on any being at its creation, the • fame quality enters it of course on its future • births;

30. As the fix feasons of the year attain refpectively their peculiar marks in due time. and of their own accord, even fo the feveral ' acts of each embodied fpirit attend it natu• rally.

31. That the human race might be multiplied, He caufed the Bráhmen, the Chatriya, 'the Vaisya, and the Súdra (so named from the fcripture, protection, wealth, and labour) to pro'ceed from his mouth, his arm, his thigh, and • his foot.

32. Having divided his own substance, the mighty power became half male, half female, or nature active and paffive; and from that fe'male he produced VIRAJ: 1