from some knowledge which came from a system lying wholly apart from the Hindu creed, or from the working of his own mind, he rose here to a height of conception. far beyond the level of his age or his race. The unity of the divine nature was not wholly unknown to the Hindu mind, but practically this idea was buried under a mass of ritual, whose offices were assigned to many gods, of varying degrees of power and goodness. The One Supreme Spirit appears, indeed, incarnate as Krishna, and here our author's Brahmanic training appears; but in his proper spiritual nature he is "the supreme Brahmă, the supreme abode, the highest purification (the holiest of the holy, Telang), the Eternal Creative Power (Purusha), Divine, the Lord of Gods, Unborn, the mighty Lord (Vibhu)” (x. 12). He is the source of all things, whether spirit or matter, the efficient and material cause of the whole universe. Here our author comes very near the pure Pantheism of the common Hindu creed. All souls are a part of Brahma's spiritual nature, individuated by their connection with bodily forms; but yet, having issued from him, they return, at least in their highest state, to him, to be absorbed in his infinite being. The existence and the immortality of the soul are asserted as truths which could be denied only by narrow-minded worldlings, in whom the pleasures of the senses had dulled every nobler faculty. The soul never began to be; it can never die, nor can it ever grow old (ii. 12, 13). At the death of the body, which is only the soul's fleshly covering, it enters into a new body. Taking with it the subtle body (linga), a surrounding frame composed of the subtler forms of matter, with this it enters another womb, where only the coarser animal frame is developed. This latter utterly perishes when the soul

abandons it. The doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, is therefore distinctly taught. It is a doctrine which, more than any other, has gained a general acceptance in Eastern countries: it belongs equally to the system of Kapila and the most advanced Vedāntist school. The Supreme Being is also the source of all material existences (x. 2, xiv. 3). In his exposition of this doctrine our author differs widely from the Sankhya system, and from the Mīmānsā or Vedantist view. Kapila taught that Prakriti (Nature) was the material source of all beings or corporeal forms; soul being entirely distinct and eternal both as to the future and the past. In the Vedāntist school all bodily forms or material existences are mere illusion (māyā); a temporary appearance, like an image of the moon in water, with which it has pleased the One Sole Being to veil for a time his purely spiritual nature. The watchword of this school is adwaita, or "non-dualism." Its creed is simplicity itself. In the Chhandogya Upanishad (iii. 14) it is thus expressed: “All the universe is Brahmā; from him it proceeds; into him it is dissolved; in him it breathes." It is comprised in the simple formula, Ekam erādwitīyam, "One thing (essence) only, without a second." There is therefore properly neither cause nor effect. All that exists, or that seems to exist, is only Brahma. The difficult, or rather the impossible, problem of the origin of matter and of existing forms is set aside by a mere negation of matter, the only existence being the One Eternal Spirit. Here is a doctrine which lies in the absolutely opposite pole to that of many modern scientists, who can see in the varied forms of existence, and in the will, the intellect, and the affections of men, only different phases of matter. The system

of our author, however, did not accord with any of these. In his view, Prakriti, or material Nature, was a part of the Supreme Being, in whom there was a duality in this respect, Prakriti being his lower nature. The term which Kapila applied to primeval matter, the n of the Greeks -Avyakta, the Unmanifested or Undeveloped-is assigned to this element of the divine nature (ix. 4); hence all things are said to be from him (x. 8); all things are said to be in him, but he is not in them, i.e., as a spiritual being; in that which gives him his peculiar name he is not in them.

He is, however, in all as the Principle of Life (jīvabhūta), the living energy by which all beings are animated (vii. 5); the undivided spiritual force which corresponds to the anima mundi of Western philosophers. Hence there are said to be two spiritual existences (purusha) in the world, the Divided, or the individual soul in each body, and the Undivided, the universal, vital principle referred to. 'But," it is added, "there is another Spirit (purusha), the Highest, called the Supreme Soul" (paramātman); and Krishna, speaking as of this Supreme Being, continues: "Wherefore, since I surpass the Divided and am above the Undivided, I am called in the world and in the Vedas the Highest Spirit" (purushottama) (xv. 13, 17, 18). The Vedantist, who admits only one existence, affirms that the Jivabhūta, or Principle of Life, and the Paramātman, or Supreme Spirit, are absolutely one and the same; for the whole phenomenal world, and that which animates it, are only manifestations, and, with regard to phenomena, illusive manifestations, of the One Being. The Vedantist doctrine of illusion (māyā), which denies all true reality to the phenomenal world, is of late introduction. The

word appears in the Gītā, but not in the Vedāntist sense. The outer world is an illusion, not because it has no real existence, but because it veils the Spiritual Being who pervades all things; and men are thus deluded so far as to maintain that nothing exists except that which meets the senses. "I am not manifest to every one," Krishna says, "being enveloped by my mystic illusion. This deluded world does not recognise Me, the Unborn and Eternal" (vii. 25).

This Supreme Spirit is, then, the source of all existences, whether spiritual or material; they are portions of himself, but they are separate existences for the present, being divided by the limits of corporeal existence. All souls are from him, and their highest happiness is to be reabsorbed into his essence. How, then, can this great blessing, this highest of all blessings, be obtained? Here, in answering this question, the method of our author is, in the main, that of Patanjali; differing from Kapila, who taught that the soul gained an eternal deliverance from matter by gaining a knowledge of itself, in knowing both soul and matter; and from the common Vedāntist view, in giving an objective reality to material forms, and thus making the separation of the imprisoned soul more distinctly expressed. The Vedantist, however, is compelled to speak of bodily forms as if they were realities. In the Atmabodha (Knowledge of the Soul), attributed to Śankara, the soul is spoken of as being enveloped in five investing sheaths, and as being divested of them "by force of meditation."1 Here the writer seems to be influenced by the system of the Bhagavad Gītā, and a commentary on the book is ascribed to him; but the

1 Indian Wisdom, p. 120.

common Hindū idea of gaining any blessing is by sacrifice and ritual. Though Brahmans speak of deliverance (moksha), it is difficult to give a consistent meaning to the word, for the phenomenal world only exists in appearance, and every soul is even now absolutely one with, or part of, the One sole Existence. In the system of Patanjali, the union of the soul with the Supreme is the result of long-continued pious meditation. An elaborate system of rules is provided, by which the passions may be subdued, the soul may be kept in a state of complete indifference with regard to external things, and fixed in meditation on the Supreme. A very exalted idea, but too high for human nature to carry out to perfection. Yet it was supposed that a state might be attained even here. in which the soul would rise above the control or the limitations of the body, and become, in a certain sense, incorporeal (videha). Our author had evidently been trained in the school of Patanjali, or had studied his system with admiration. His own views of the nature and powers of the soul are very elevated, and are grandly expressed (c. ii.) The soul is immortal; it is capable of rising to communion with God; its highest state is to enjoy that communion; its proper destiny is to return to that eternal source from which it sprung and be lost in Him. The man who leaves even his wife and children and goes as a recluse (muni) to the recesses of a forest, that in silence and solitude he may meditate on the Supreme with unfailing devotion, has attained to the highest state of man. But it is evident that this overstrained ideality is not suited to the mass of mankind, and that it is incompatible with the duties that our several relationships bring upon us. It is an idea, an aspiration,