sensible objects have an existence natural or real, distinct from their being perceived by the understanding!" These, however, were only the whimsies and the reveries of fallible men. It remained for the sages of Hindustan to announce to us, on the authority of a divine revelation, that all outward objective causes or antecedents of sensation and perception-the symphonies of sound, and the fragrancy of sweet odour, hill and dale, lake and river, waving forest and flowery mead,—that all, all are seeming and unreal, as the phantasmagoria of the wildest dream!

When all things have been thus pronounced unsubstantial and illusive, it might, as has been remarked, seem futile if not grossly irrational, to pretend to institute inquiries into their causes and origin ;-the causes and origin of what is believed to have no actual existence! To this, however, it has been replied, that having "once admitted that all which lies within the circuit of our experience is mere appearance, it then is both natural to, and compatible with, reason, to search after the ground and principles of this appearance; in order to know why this appearance displays itself to us at all times in such orderly succession, according to such laws and with such properties." Hence if, on the supposition that all appearances are illusory, it be no proof of insanity to inquire into the cause of such illusion; it has been contended that there is nothing incongruous on the part of the Hindu theologian, when he professes to announce to us what the cause really is;—and that too, on divine authority!

What, then, is the divinely revealed cause of the manifestation of this illusive universe?

According to the first system, or that of purely spiritual Pantheism, when Brahm, the sole existing essence or spirit, awoke, and the ideal form of the universe was conceived in his mind, and the volition for its manifestation was put forth in these words, "Let me become many," "Let me become many,"-then it was that his energy was exerted in causing himself to assume the apparent reality of all those multitudinous existences and

forms which constitute at once the souls of men, and the objects of materialism. All these seemingly separate entities are thus so many manifestations of the divine essence itself, so many illusive forms assumed in consequence of a peculiar illusory exertion of the divine energy. The soul of man, the subject of illusive sensations and perceptions, is thus not a part of the Supreme Spirit; but a positive manifestation of the Supreme Spirit itself— though when manifested as a human soul, it is under the influence of illusion, and conceives itself to be really distinct from God. Every outward object is in like manner only a different manifestation of the Divine essence. The multiplicity of subjective entities, and objective forms, militates not against the truth of revelation. What are called finite beings can only be present in one place, and assume but one character, at one and the same moment of time; still, even they could appear successively, under a prodigious variety of disguises. It is the prerogative of the infinite Brahm to assume at once and simultaneously a boundless variety of disguises, at one and the same moment of time, to manifest himself under a countless diversity of seeming, but unreal existences,-active and passive, sensitive and insensate, percipient and perceived.

Manifesting himself in so many shapes, the Supreme Brahm apparently assumes form; though he is absolutely amorphous, as sunshine or moonlight, blazing on a clear surface, may appear straight, crooked, or round, according to the object reflected. Presenting himself under so many modifications of being, he becomes apparently endued with quality; though absolutely without any,―as the clear crystal, seemingly coloured by the red blossom of a hibiscus, is not the less really pellucid. Multiplying himself so endlessly, he is apparently manifold; though wholly without any multiplicity,―as the sun or any other luminary may, by reflection from a thousand mirrors, be seemingly multiplied into a thousand suns or luminaries, though all the while single. Assuming so many disguises, his nature might appear to change, though in itself unchangeable,—as

the same liquid may, without mutation of essence, exist as colourless water, or white froth, or sparkling bubbles, or invisible vapour, or variegated clouds, or stony hail, or fleecy snow, or pearly hoar frost.

In this way, the infinitely varied and multiform universe is nothing more than an infinitely varied though illusory manifestation of the essence of the Supreme Brahm.—It is Brahm,-illusively assuming the disguise of all finite existences, and appearing to the human soul-which is itself but one of the peculiar manifestations of his own essence-diversified into a countless variety of fallacious individualities— spread out boundlessly through the immeasurable fields of space and rolling on endlessly through the interminable

mutations of time.

According to the second or psycho-ideal system,—when Brahm awoke, and willed the manifestation of the universe, it did not instantly appear, as when Jehovah said, “Let there be light and there was light." No; his own active volition, exerted will, or omnipotent energy (Shakti) first of all became separated from his essence. When thus, in some ineffable manner, disjoined,—it is conceived to be invested with a species of personality, and endowed with the capability of exerting an independent agency. But how to describe a personified energy, existing and acting altogether apart from that essence whose energy it is, seems to have exhausted the ingenuity of Hindu metaphysicians. It is, say they, neither true nor false; neither real nor unreal. It is not true or real; because it has no separate essence of its own ;-for there exists no essence dependent or independent except that of Brahm. It is not false or unreal; because it does exist and operate independently, as the power or energy of Brahm. Hence the remark of Sir G. Haughton, that it cannot be said "to be any thing essential, but it is something actual;" a something certainly, "that never before entered the head of any other than a Hindu philosopher; and which, for want of a better term, we must call an actu

ality; that is, something possessing potentiality, but destitute of essentiality."

The moment its energy is thus separated from the divine essence, it begins to act. Its first action is exerted in some mysterious and indescribable manner on undivided portions of the essence of Brahm. Each of these portions is subjected to such ignorance of its real nature, as to originate in it the conception and belief of its separate and distinct individuality. It would seem as if, from Brahm,-viewed as the universal spirit awakened into a consciousness of his own existence, his newly acquired consciousness had been transferred and concentrated on apparently isolated, yet really undivided parts of his own essence. Each of these apparently isolated yet undivided parts, on which such ignorance has been superinduced that it ceases to recognise itself as any longer identical with the Supreme Brahm, and is actually brought to believe in its own separate personality, is none other than some human or other soul. Now, this peculiar operation of the divine energy, is often styled "Avidya," ignorance, or rather the source or producent of ignorance. In this view of the subject, the soul is not a manifestation of the universal spirit, regarded as an undivided whole, but an undivided part of it; that is, a part not cut off, or discerpted from the divine substance. The part may be diffused or extended; still it is a diffusion or extension of the divine essence, without any separation or division. The second grand operation of the divine energy is, to excite in the human soul, now immersed in ignorance of its real nature and origin, all those instincts and motions which might be conceived to exist without a specific reference to aught external as their exciting cause; as well as to exhibit all the endless variety of phenomena connected with sensation or perception;-all the phenomena that are usually supposed to be extrinsic to the soul itself;-all the phenomena that constitute what has been termed the material, as contradistinguished from the spiritual universe.

These phenomena, however, are not real, but illusive. They are like apparitions, that is, appearances, and merely ap

pearances. Hence the divine power which has been separated from Brahm, and which, after he has lapsed into slumber, is continually employed in raising, exhibiting, and varying these appearances,—in all their composition and divisions,— their changes and successions, their relations and dependences; this divine power so employed, is emphatically styled MAYA, that is, ILLUSION; or rather the actuating principle or efficient cause of illusion ;-the illusory energy. In this respect, it has been remarked to bear some resemblance to the noumenon, that is, the cause of the phenomena, in the philosophy of Kant.

'Look,' may the expounders of Hindu theology say,''look at the glittering stream: what do you behold therein?' I behold, you reply, the sun pouring his rays of effulgent glory on a gladdened world. Turn your eyes to that desert of sand: what do you discern?' A shining expanse of living water. 'When shut up in a dark cave which admits light only through one narrow cleft or crevice: what do you witness on the opposite wall?" Shapes and forms of various creatures animate and inanimate. But is it really a luminary of material fire that you behold in the stream; or a reservoir of the aqueous element in the desert; or solid substantial figures in the cave?' No; they are all of them illusive appearances. They are all, and all alike, mere images or shadows! Well then,' say the Hindus, such and none other are all the phenomena of the supposed external universe. They are all illusive appearances-all unsubstantial images or shadows. To suppose them to be realities is the grossest possible mistake.'

Aye, you reply, but the image in the stream, the mirage in the desert, the symmetrical figure in the cave, though unreal themselves, do irresistibly suggest the existence of counterpart realities. They demand and claim the existence somewhere of material substances for their antitypes. Nay, responds the Hindu, what you call the corresponding reality or antitype, is itself a mere image, a shadow, an unsubstantial visionary form. If you will have it, that an acknowledged resemblance or likeness is the image or sha